X2: X-MEN UNITED - Complete VINTAGE Base Set (72 Cards) - Topps 2003


X2 (sometimes promoted as X2: X-Men United, or internationally as X-Men 2) is a 2003 American superhero film, based on the X-Men superhero team appearing in Marvel Comics, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the sequel to 2000's X-Men and the second installment in the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Bryan Singer, written by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, and David Hayter, and features an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, and Anna Paquin. The plot, inspired by the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, pits the X-Men and their enemies, the Brotherhood, against the genocidal Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox). He leads an assault on Professor Xavier's school to build his own version of Xavier's mutant-tracking computer Cerebro, in order to destroy every mutant on Earth and to save the human race from them.

Development began shortly after X-Men (2000). David Hayter and Zak Penn wrote separate scripts, combining what they felt to be the best elements of both scripts into one screenplay. Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris were eventually hired to rewrite the work, and changed the characterizations of Beast, Angel, and Lady Deathstrike. Sentinels and the Danger Room were set to appear before being deleted because of budget concerns. The film's premise was influenced by the Marvel Comics storylines Return to Weapon X and God Loves, Man Kills. Filming began in June 2002 and ended that November. Most of the filming took place at Vancouver Film Studios, the largest North American production facility outside of Los Angeles. Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas adapted similar designs by John Myhre from the previous film.

X2 was released in the United States on May 2, 2003. It received positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised the storyline, action sequences and acting of the film, and it is considered to be one of the best superhero films ever made. With its critical success, it grossed over approximately $407 million and received eight Saturn Awards nominations.

At the White House, brainwashed teleporting mutant Nightcrawler attempts to assassinate the President of the United States but fails and escapes. Meanwhile, Wolverine explores an abandoned military installation at Alkali Lake in Alberta for clues to his past, but finds nothing. He returns to Professor Xavier's school for mutants, and Xavier tracks Nightcrawler using Cerebro. Xavier and Cyclops go to question the imprisoned Magneto about the attack, while X-Men Storm and Jean Grey retrieve Nightcrawler. Meanwhile, military scientist Colonel William Stryker approaches the president and receives approval to investigate Xavier's mansion for their ties to mutants. Stryker's forces invade the school and abduct some of the students. Colossus leads the remaining students to safety while Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro escape, and Stryker's assistant Yuriko Oyama captures Cyclops and Xavier. During the attack Wolverine confronts Stryker, who knows him by name.

The shape-shifting Mystique gains information about Magneto's prison and helps him escape while also discovering schematics for a second Cerebro. Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro visit Iceman's parents in Boston and meet up with Storm, Jean, and Nightcrawler. The X-Jet is attacked by fighter jets en route back to the mansion and is shot down, but Magneto saves them from crashing. Magneto explains to the group that Stryker has built the second Cerebro to use it, and Xavier, to telepathically kill every mutant on the planet. Stryker's son, Jason, is a mutant with mind-controlling powers, which Stryker will use to force Xavier to do this. Stryker had also previously used Jason's powers to orchestrate Nightcrawler's attack as a pretense to gain approval to invade Xavier's mansion. Magneto also tells Wolverine that Stryker was the man who grafted his adamantium skeleton onto his bones. Jean reads Nightcrawler's mind and determines that Stryker's base is underground in a dam at Alkali Lake.

The mutants infiltrate Stryker's base and Magneto and Mystique go to disable Cerebro before the brainwashed Xavier can activate it. Storm and Nightcrawler rescue the captured students, and Jean fights a mind-controlled Cyclops; their battle frees Cyclops but damages the dam, which begins to rupture. Wolverine finds Stryker in an adamantium smelting lab and remembers it as where he received his adamantium skeleton. Wolverine fights and kills Yuriko, then chases Stryker to a helicopter pad and chains him to the helicopter's wheel. Magneto stops Cerebro and, using Mystique impersonating Stryker to command Jason, has Xavier redirect its powers on normal humans. The two subsequently use Stryker's helicopter to escape, accompanied by Pyro who has been swayed to Magneto's views. Nightcrawler teleports Storm inside Cerebro, where she creates a snowstorm to break Jason's concentration and free Xavier from his control.

The X-Men flee the dam as water engulfs it, but the damaged X-Jet struggles to take flight. Stryker is killed in the deluge and Jean sacrifices herself to hold back the flood of water while getting the jet into the air, and is then consumed by the flood and presumed dead. The X-Men give the president Stryker's files, and Xavier warns him that humans and mutants must work together to build peace. Back at the school, Xavier, Cyclops, and Wolverine remember Jean, and Xavier begins to hold a class.

The film ends with a voice-over narration from Jean accompanied by the flooded Akali Lake, a fiery Phoenix-like shape rising from the water.

Cast

A Canadian mutant who has no memory of his life before he was grafted with an indestructible adamantium skeleton. A gruff loner, Wolverine is also a father-figure to Rogue and feels love toward Jean. He wields three blades that come out of each of his fists, has keen animal-like senses and the ability to heal rapidly, and is a ruthless and aggressive fighter.
A powerful, telepathic and paralyzed mutant who uses a wheelchair. He founded a School for "gifted youngsters"; Xavier is a pacifist who believes humans and mutants can live together in harmony. He uses the Cerebro device, built by Magneto and himself, to track and locate mutants across the world. Xavier is regarded as an expert on genetic mutation.
A Mutant who was once Xavier's ally and close-friend, Magneto now believes mutants are superior to humans. Magneto wields the ability to manipulate metal magnetically, as well as the ability to create magnetic fields. He wears a helmet that renders him immune to Xavier's and all telepathic-based abilities. Imprisoned after his scheme in the first film, he is drugged by William Stryker for information on Cerebro, before making his escape and forming an alliance with the X-Men to stop Stryker. He has demonstrated sophisticated knowledge in matters of genetic manipulation and engineering.
A mutant teacher at Xavier's school who can control the weather. Storm befriends Nightcrawler.
A mutant teacher at Xavier's school and the X-Mansion's doctor, Jean has begun to experience vast and at times uncontrollable growth in her telepathic and telekinetic abilities since Magneto's machine was destroyed in the first film. She is Cyclops' fiancée. The final scene of the film initiates her transformation into Phoenix.
A mutant who is the field leader of the X-Men and a teacher at Xavier's Institute, he shoots uncontrollable beams of concussive force from his eyes and wears a visor to control them. Cyclops is captured and brainwashed by Stryker. He is engaged to Jean.
A mutant girl who can absorb any person's memories and abilities by touching them. As she cannot control this absorbing ability, Rogue can easily kill anyone and thus is unable to be close to people. Her love interest is Iceman.
A German mutant with a strong Catholic faith and the appearance of a blue demon. Nightcrawler was used by Stryker in an assassination attempt on the President of the United States and gives help to the X-Men. He is capable of teleporting himself (and others) instantly from one location to another. Nightcrawler can teleport through walls, but prefers to only teleport when he can see his landing site. On his body are many scarification marks, one for every sin. Cumming had always been Singer's choice for the role, but at first he was not available due to scheduling conflicts. At some point, Ethan Embry had been reported to be in contention for the role. Ultimately, the film remained in development long enough for Cumming to accept the part. Singer also felt comfortable in casting him since he speaks German fluently. The drawings of Adam Kubert were used as inspiration for Nightcrawler's makeup design, which took four hours to apply. For the scene where Nightcrawler has his shirt off, Cumming went through nine hours of makeup. To best pose as Nightcrawler, Cumming studied comic books and illustrations of the character.
A human military scientist who plans a worldwide genocide of mutants using Xavier and Cerebro. Stryker has experimented on mutants in the past, including Wolverine, and uses a serum to control them. Brad Loree plays a younger William Stryker in flashback scenes. Singer opted to cast Cox in the role as he was a fan of his performance as Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter.
A mutant who can freeze objects and create ice. His family is unaware that he is a mutant and simply believes he is at a boarding school. After returning home, Bobby reveals to them what he actually is, much to his brother's derision. He is also Rogue's boyfriend.
A mutant who is friends with Bobby and Rogue, Pyro has anti-social tendencies because he is very angry at the general public for how they treat the mutant community. He has the ability to control (although not create) fire. He later joins Magneto and Mystique. The filmmakers cast Stanford in the role after they were impressed with his performance in Tadpole.
A mutant who has a healing ability like Wolverine's, and is controlled by Stryker. She wields long retractable adamantium fingernails. Only her first name is mentioned in dialogue.
An anti-mutant politician who supports a Mutant Registration Act and wishes to ban mutant children from schools. Although his character was killed in the first film, Davison reprised the role for scenes where Mystique uses his persona to infiltrate the government.
Magneto's mutant henchwoman, who is a shapeshifter. Mystique is blue, naked and covered in scales, and she acts as a spy. She injects a prison guard with metal, with which Magneto makes his escape, and also sexually tempts Wolverine. Romijn's full-body makeup previously took nine hours to apply; however, the make-up department was able to bring it down to six hours for X2.

Also, Katie Stuart appeared as Kitty Pryde, a mutant girl who can walk through walls; Kea Wong as Jubilee, Bryce Hodgson as Artie, a mutant boy with a blue tongue; Shauna Kain as Siryn, a mutant who is able to emit loud screams that alert the students to Stryker's attack; and Michael Reid McKay as Jason Stryker / Mutant 143, William Stryker's mutant son who has the ability to cast illusions. Also in the final scene with Xavier, a girl is seen dressed in a Native American style jacket, as well as a blond haired boy dressed in blue, played by Layke Anderson. These were later confirmed to be Danielle Moonstar and Douglas Ramsey / Cypher. Daniel Cudmore appeared as Piotr "Peter" Rasputin / Colossus, introduced in this film as a young mutant with the ability to turn his body into organic steel, and possesses superhuman strength while in that form. Cudmore was set to use a Russian accent, but Singer dropped the idea of accents despite characters of different nationalities.

Jubilee, Psylocke and Multiple Man were to have cameos in the scene where Stryker and his troops storm the X-Mansion. Beast, Gambit and Marrow were to have appearances during a sequence with Cerebro. Gambit's cameo was actually shot, but the footage was not used in the final cut. Beast's scene was to show him in his human form as Dr. Hank McCoy, while his skin morphed into blue fur, and Marrow was to be seen lying on a ground in New York City. Hank McCoy appears on a television during the scene where Mystique drugs Magneto's prison guard. Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, the film's writers, cameo in scenes of Wolverine's Weapon X flashbacks as surgeons. Bryan Singer, the film's director, cameos as a security guard in a scene where Professor X and Cyclops go to see Magneto. Shaquille O'Neal wanted a role in the film but was ignored by the filmmakers.

One scene depicts Mystique going through files on Stryker's computer. Singer purposely included various names of characters and hints of storylines from X-Men lore on several computer screens. Singer "[found] great difficulty in adapting all this stuff into a two and a half hour long movie."