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.
Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine
Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X
Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm
Famke Janssen as Jean Grey
James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops
Anna Paquin as Marie D'Ancanto / Rogue
Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
Brian Cox as Col. William Stryker
Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake / Iceman
Aaron Stanford as John Allerdyce / Pyro
Kelly Hu as Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike
Bruce Davison as Sen. Robert Kelly
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique
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."