X-Men: Sinister
Genre: Action/Superhero/Sci-Fi
Director: Alex Garland
Writer: Dwight Gallo
Based on Marvel Comics characters
Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Jamie Dornan, Toby Stephens, Rebecca Ferguson, Millie Bobby Brown, Jessie Buckley, David Oyelowo, Andrew Scott, KiKi Layne, Brock Lesnar, Ally Ioannides, Laura Fraser, Zach McGowan, David Morrissey (cameo)
Plot: Nathaniel Essex (Andrew Scott) meets with Magneto (David Morrissey) to ask him to lead a new group of Marauders for him. Magneto asks Essex what his endgame is, and Essex explains that through his genetic experiments he wants to make mutants the dominant species - not just on Earth - but in the galaxy. Magneto then shifts into the blue-skinned Mystique (Rebecca Ferguson), revealing that Essex has been meeting with her all along. She asks if she has any help, and Essex introduces her to his old friend, the massive, metal-helmeted Juggernaut (Brock Lesnar). Essex assures Mystique though that if all of his plans come to fruition, she will have a powerful mutant army completely at her disposal. Mystique agrees to work for Essex and asks what he wants her to do first. Essex smiles. After Magneto leaves, Essex wipes away flesh tone makeup from his face, revealing his true pale blue skin.
North Salem, New York.
On the grounds of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Charles Xavier (Toby Stephens) and Scott Summers / Cyclops (Jamie Dornan) are trying to help Rogue (Diana Silvers) fine tune her power-absorbing abilities. Xavier wants her to focus on absorbing just enough of Cyclops’ ability to use herself but without harming him. Cyclops is clearly nervous about Xavier’s lesson. Rogue takes off her gloves and holds Cyclops’ hand for just a moment. It knocks the wind out of him. Rogue then proceeds to shoot red energy blasts from her eyes. Cyclops catches his breath and joins her, firing blasts of his own. Rogue continues shooting until the blasts get progressively weaker and finally go away. Xavier excitedly proclaims the lesson a success and encourages Rogue to keep practicing - with proper supervision, of course.
The seemingly lifeless body of Logan / Wolverine (Zach McGowan) is discovered, impaled with rebar and crushed by stone from the collapse and destruction of Fort Wadsworth. The body and connected debris are loaded onto a large container ship called the Demeter, which now serves as the base of operations for Nathaniel Essex. Onboard, Essex instructs workers to cut Wolverine’s body free. Very slowly, Wolverine’s heart beat returns and his body begins its healing process. Essex takes a sample of Wolverine’s genetic material and asks to be alerted when Wolverine regains consciousness. Essex then turns his attention to a large glass case containing a woman, Alice (Ally Ioannides), in suspended animation. Essex talks to the unconscious Alice, saying that now that he has Wolverine and Rogue in his possession, no more mutants have to die in order for her and other future Chimeras to acquire their powers. He then adds a sample of Wolverine’s X-gene into Alice’s system.
That night, Rogue retires to her room and goes to sleep. She is woken by a knock on her door in the middle of the night. Jean Grey (Jessie Buckley) is there with a syringe. She sticks the syringe in Rogue’s neck. The drug quickly knocks Rogue out. Jean quietly drags Rogue out of the building. In the morning, Kitty Pryde (Millie Bobby Brown) notices that Rogue is missing and alerts the others. Cyclops, Beast, Jean and Kitty all run through the campus looking for Rogue. Once they’ve checked everywhere, Hank McCoy / Beast (David Oyelowo) and Jean look at the security footage to see what happened. They watch on the screen as Jean injects Rogue with something and drags her off. Beast looks at Jean, who swears that she didn’t do anything to Rogue. Beast brings the footage to Xavier, who reads Jean’s mind to know for sure that she did not do it. Beast proposes that it must have been Mystique then. Xavier tries to use Cerebro to locate Rogue, but has some difficulty. He can sense her in a general area - out at sea - but cannot actually see her like he usually can. Jean asks why he can’t see her, and Xavier confesses that there are ways to block his ability but they would have to know ahead of time how he’d look for her. Beast comments that kidnapping isn’t Mystique’s usual mutant supremacy act so she must be working for someone even more powerful. Xavier orders the campus go into lockdown mode until they can be sure that Mystique is no longer among them and until they can find out who they are dealing with. Jean asks how they’re supposed to figure that out, and Xavier replies that they first must locate Mystique.
Xavier telepathically contacts Moira MacTaggert (Laura Fraser) in Scotland to ask her why she thinks someone would specifically target Rogue to take out of a mansion full of mutants with all kinds of abilities. Moira asks Xavier if he knows of Nathaniel Essex. She goes on to explain that Essex is or was a geneticist who specialized in mutant genetics and had done experiments in the past on boosting mutant abilities. She comments that someone with powers like Rogue could certainly be useful to someone like Essex. Xavier thanks Moira and encourages her to take a break from her research some time and visit him in New York. Xavier brings the name Essex to the X-Men and asks if they’re familiar. Beast says he knows of one mutant who survived Essex’s experiments and may have a vested interest in helping them locate Essex.
Somewhere Along the Mississippi River.
Remy LeBeau / Gambit (Garrett Hedlund) sits at the high rollers poker table of a riverboat casino churning down the Mississippi River with a set of beautiful blonde twins at his side. The X-Men’s Blackbird jet hovers over the boat, lowering Cyclops and Jean down. Cyclops and Jean ask him if they can talk to him for a few minutes. Gambit says that if he wanted to chat, he could talk to the twins that will be joining him in the high roller suite that evening. Jean tells Gambit that it is about Rogue - she’s been kidnapped by Nathaniel Essex. Gambit becomes angry. The cards in his hand begin glowing with pink energy. He throws them out a window just before they explode. Gambit then grabs Cyclops by the neck and yells that Rogue was supposed to be safe with them. Jean gets Gambit to calm down and asks him to help them recover her and stop whatever it is that Essex is planning.
Rogue wakes up in a lead-lined shipping container on the Demeter with an electric collar around her neck. The door to the container opens. Rogue steps outside to find Essex and Juggernaut smiling at her. Rogue asks what they want with her. Juggernaut shrugs and looks to Essex. Angry, Rogue tries to reach out for them, but is shocked by the collar. Essex then explains that he has had something of a dilemma in creating mutants from scratch as the abilities need to come from another mutant and requires a lot of genetic manipulation that is quite frankly slowly down his master plan. Rogue asks what that has to do with her, and Essex says that once he steals her unique ability, he will be able to use her X-gene to fast track the implanting of mutant powers into an army of mutant chimeras.
Beast and Xavier are able to track Rogue to a ship out to sea east of New Jersey.
With Rogue no longer in the container, Xavier is finally able to locate her using Cerebro. Beast then uses the information Xavier gives him to pull up satellite imagery of the Demeter, which appears to be anchored for the time being. Beast calls Cyclops and tells him to get back to the X-Mansion as soon as possible. Cyclops says that Gambit is insisting they make a stop along the way so he can see an old friend.
Essex is alerted that Wolverine has finally regained consciousness. As he questions Wolverine about how he is feeling, he discovers that Wolverine has forgotten the last decade or so of his life. Juggernaut watches on as Essex tries to convince Wolverine that they work together as part of Department H. Wolverine sniffs Essex and says that he doesn’t smell Canadian and attacks Essex, but Juggernaut gets in the way and blocks him. Essex then activates a set of magnetic restraints that lock Wolverine to the wall.
Manhattan, New York.
Gambit finds Ororo Munroe (KiKi Layne) working at a bodega in the very same neighborhood above the surface from the Morlock tunnels. He asks her if she still wants a chance to get back at Essex for what he did to her mother. Ororo announces to her boss that she quits and leaves the shop with Gambit. She asks where they’re going and how they’ll get there. Gambit points up to the Blackbird hovering above them.
Mystique does some snooping on the Demeter and finds refrigerated shipping containers filled with the bodies of mutants Essex has killed with his experiments. Mystique becomes angry at having fallen for Essex’s claim of wanting to help mutants when really he’s just trying to make his own army. Mystique steals a helicopter and flies away from the ship.
While planning the mission against Essex at the X-Mansion, Gambit and Cyclops repeatedly disagree about how to go about boarding the Demeter and stopping Essex. Jean and Kitty step in to separate the two. Gambit wants to go in “guns blazing” while Cyclops wants to infiltrate the ship and try to free any prisoners before Essex even knows what’s happening. Beast suggests that they can use both approaches - Gambit can lead a team to attack the labs while another team can start freeing any prisoners while using the commotion as cover. The group is suddenly alerted of a security breach. They check the cameras and find Mystique standing in a courtyard on the campus. Xavier insists he’ll handle this himself and goes out to meet her. She tells him what exactly Essex’s plan is. Xavier thanks her for the information. Before leaving, Mystique mentions that Essex also has Wolverine - who has recently recovered from his injuries/death - and Juggernaut will be serving as Essex’s bodyguard
Flying toward the Demeter on the Blackbird, the team finally decides that Gambit, Beast and Ororo (who asks for the codename Storm) will attack Essex’s lab and take on Essex and Juggernaut while Cyclops, Jean and Kitty will look for Rogue and Wolverine and free any other prisoners they might find. As they make their approach, Storm uses her weather-controlling abilities to surround the Demeter in a thick fog to hide their arrival. The Blackbird lands on top of the Demeter and the six X-Men split off into their groups to complete their mission. Cyclops, Jean and Kitty head to the container section. Kitty uses her phasing ability to physically walk through each of the containers until they find one storing Rogue. Kitty holds hands with Rogue, giving them both the ability to walk out of the container. Together they go deeper into the ship as they look for Wolverine. Essex realizes there is company on the ship and activates Alice from her suspended animation.
Cyclops, Jean and Kitty finally find Wolverine, who is still thrashing about in his restraints. They try to remind him that they are on the same side and fought Magneto together. Wolverine doesn’t remember them though. Jean uses her powers to implant her memories of Wolverine and everything else she knows about him into his own mind. Wolverine remembers enough to calm down, so they release him from his restraints.
Gambit, Beast and Storm arrive in the main labs to find Juggernaut and Alice waiting for them. Juggernaut charges at Beast. Gambit suggests he get out of the way because Juggernaut can’t be stopped once he gets going. Storm tries to stop or slow Juggernaut down with a giant gust of wind, but it has no effect and Juggernaut bowls over Beast and plows through the wall. With a giant, Juggernaut-sized hole in the wall the rooms are now connected. Essex himself then appears and says that with the barriers broken he can now share his creation, Alice, with all of them at the same time. He informs them that Alice is a Chimera, a mutant created from scratch that he has implanted with several different and interesting mutant abilities. Bone claws emerge from Alice’s hands, and insect-like wings grow from her back. She spits acid at the group, but Jean uses her telekinetic powers to divert the acid.
Wolverine, angry that his claw abilities have been stolen, tells the others that he’ll fight the Chimera. Beast brushes himself off and readies himself to fight Juggernaut, who starts running toward the blue furball. Jean, Rogue and Kitty head for Essex’s lab to destroy his research. Essex turns to stop them, but is hit by an energy blast from Cyclops and an explosive playing card from Gambit. Storm uses her powers at full force to blow wind at Juggernaut to slow him down even slightly. Beast jumps up onto Juggernaut’s back and rides him as he goes crashing through wall after wall. Beast tells Storm to stop the wind in five seconds. Beast then turns around Juggernaut’s helmet. The wind stops and Juggernaut’s speed picks back up as his vision is cut off. Unable to see where he is going, Juggernaut crashes right though the hull of the ship and goes sinking into the ocean.
As water begins to stream into the ship, slowly sinking it, Essex gets close enough to Cyclops to grab him by the neck. Cyclops starts to feel his powers fade away. Essex then throws Cyclops across the room. He then tells them that Alice isn’t the only chimera onboard the Demeter, mentioning that he saved some of Rogue’s X-gene for himself. He then fires a red energy blast from his eyes at Gambit, but it is deflected by Gambit’s staff. Gambit then charges up his staff before hitting Essex in the face with an explosive staff strike that sends Essex stumbling back. Jean, Rogue and Kitty destroy the X-gene samples in Essex’s lab. They then run toward the deck of the ship to get the Blackbird ready to leave. They are soon joined by Beast and Storm.
Alice manages to hit Wolverine with the acid, revealing his Adamantium skeleton. She then shoots her bone claws out of her hands and at Wolverine. He slashes at them with his metal claws before slicing her insect wings off. Alice hits the ground with a thud. She panics as she is not healing like Essex said she would. Wolverine says that it would appear that she didn’t manage to steal all of his abilities after all. She charges at him, but he stabs her in the chest with his claws, killing her. Wolverine picks up one of Alice’s bone claws and makes his way to where Essex is fighting Gambit and Cyclops. Wolverine throws the claw at Essex, hitting him right in the heart. Essex laughs though and reveals that he saved Wolverine’s healing X-gene for himself as well. Cyclops regains his powers and fires a blast at Essex, but it has little effect. Gambit uses it as a distraction though and holds the claw sticking out of Essex’s chest and begins charging it. Essex tries to shake him off, but Cyclops and Wolverine each grab an arm as Gambit continues to charge the claw with as much explosive energy as he can muster. Finally Gambit lets go and tells Cyclops and Wolverine to run as fast as they can. As they run toward the deck of the ship, a giant pink explosion engulfs Essex and much of the ship itself. The three make it back to the Blackbird just before the Demeter is fully submerged under water.
As the Blackbird flies away, Gambit jokingly asks Wolverine if his healing powers can heal from an explosion in the chest or drowning in the ocean. Wolverine admits that he doesn’t know. Gambit then goes over to check on Rogue. She is clearly shaken up by the entire ordeal. He gives her a kiss, causing her eyes to glow red for a moment.
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