The X-Men movies for the most part are great, but their stories are all over the place,
and what with prequels and spin offs, it can get a bit confusing.
Even more so than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
So today I’m here to show you what happens in the X-Men films in chronological order.
Let’s begin.
Oh, and in case it wasn’t obvious, SPOILER ALERT for basically every X-Men movie.
So, let’s start off...with ca.
3,000 BC, when the mutant Apocalypse builds the pyramids of Egypt with his powers.
Then, nearly 5,000 years later, a boy called Logan aka soon to be Wolverine is born in
1832.
He runs away when he’s around 11 years old with his half-brother Victor from his...uh...family.
He then goes on to fight in every major American War in history, from the Civil War to the
Vietnam War.
Also, in 1932, Charles Xavier aka Professor X is born.
Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto and Raven aka Mystique are born somewhere around that time as well.
At the age of about 10 or so, Charles meets Raven and she becomes his adopted sister.
Around this time Erik, who was a Jew, also escapes Auschwitz.
Meanwhile, in 1945, Wolverine saves a Japanese man called Yashida from the Nagasaki nuclear
bomb.
Then in 1962, the events of X-Men: First Class take place, which basically means that Charles
and Erik meet and start training mutants.
The X-Men are then formed.
Then during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Erik murders a man called Sebastian Shaw and formally
becomes Magneto, then forms his Brotherhood of Mutants.
Also, Magneto inadvertently hits Charles in the spine with a bullet, paralyzing him from
the waist down.
Whoopsedaisies.
Meanwhile, an experimental project starts that involves experimenting, torturing, and
killing different mutants.
Magneto kills John F. Kennedy by accident, which, all I can say to is, Magneto must have
a thing for accidently hitting people with bullets.
He is thrown in the Pentagon for a life-sentence.
After all these things happening, Charles Xavier closes his school for young mutants,
and, with the help of the mutant Hank McCoy, he takes a medicine that allows him to walk,
but takes away his telepathic powers.
Meanwhile, after serving in Vietnam, Wolverine and Victor meet William Stryker and join Team
X , which is a team of mutants.
However, a few years later in 1973, Wolverine quits Team X and goes on his way.
That same year, Mystique finds the man responsible for the horrible experiments performed on
mutants, a gentleman Bolivar Trask.
She kills him in Paris, but she is captured, and Trask Industries unveils the Sentinel
Project, giant robots that are specifically designed to target and kill mutants.
They aren’t used that much but are given a bunch of upgrades.
A bit later, in 1979, Wolverine is sought out again by Stryker and Victor and becomes
part of the Weapon X program, which bonds adamantium to his skeleton.
He uses his new indestructibleness to destroy an even more advanced version of the Weapon
X program known as Deadpool.
Even though he isn’t really Deadpool.
Whatever.
Wolverine is shot with Amnesia Bullets and loses all memory of these events.
Sometime in the mid-80s, Charles and Erik meet with Jean Grey.
Ok, pause for a minute.
There are a ton of continuity errors in the X-Men universe, because so many different
directors have done different films, and also time-travel and prequels and so on.
So let’s just suspend our disbelief for a minute and assume Erik somehow got out of
the Pentagon and out of his life sentence and for some reason met up with Charles just
to go find Jean Grey.
Anyway, it is what it is.
In 2004, a mutant called Rogue hitches a ride with a travelling Wolverine, but they are
brought to the X-Men Mansion by Professor X, aka now super old Charles and are recruited
for the X-Men.
Magneto, who is now evil again, has a plan to make all major government officials mutants,
which will stop the government from passing an anti-mutant law.
Once again, pause.
What is the point of having an anti-mutant law if you have mutant killing Terminators
waiting to kill them?
Sigh whatever.
However, he is thwarted, and the government doesn’t pass the law just yet.
Magneto is locked up in a plastic prison, but escapes because a guard had “too much
iron in his blood.”
Meanwhile, a mutant called Nightcrawler tries to kill the President, leading to a ton of
anti-mutant related government projects.
William Stryker, yeah, remember him?
He discovers Professor X’s mutant school and captures most of the mutants including
Professor X.
He plans to use Professor X to kill every mutant in the world.
However, the mutants that escaped team up with Magneto, stop and kill Stryker, and save
Charles.
However, X-Men member Jean Grey is killed saving them.
Well, sort of.
Jean Grey’s boyfriend, Cyclops, is distraught at his girlfriend’s death, but about a year
later, she comes back to life as the Dark Phoenix.
Her powers are so strong she can’t control them.
So she kills Cyclops.
Around this time, the humans finally find a cure to mutation, which shocks all the mutants.
Magneto forms an army to fight against the humans.
Jean Grey then kills Professor X.
Well, sort of.
The X-Men fight against Magneto’s forces on Alcatraz Island, and Wolverine ends up
having to kill Jean once and for all.
Well, sort of.
Magneto is depowered by the cure and taken away.
The Sentinels are starting to kill more and more mutants at this point, and have gotten
a lot more high-tech.
Anyway, after quite a few years, Wolverine is in Japan and asked by Yashida (remember,
the guy he saved in World War II) if he wants to be mortal.
After all, an eternal life can be a curse.
Wolverine turns him down, which whisks him into an adventure.
By the end of it, Wolverine has had the adamantium removed from his skeleton, but he does survive
and kills the actually evil Yashida, who ends up being Silver Samurai.
A bit later, Wolverine is confronted by Professor X and Magneto in an airport.
Yep, Professor X is back to life, which isn’t explained at all, and Magento has his powers
back, which is equally unexplained.
Apparently, Professor X had an identical twin who he put his mind into, but that’s stupid,
and it still doesn’t explain Magneto having his powers.
Anyway, they come to get him to tell him about the rising Sentinel problem.
By year 2023, the Sentinels are killing off mutants by the dozen.
The X-Man Kitty Pryde is able to send a mutant back in time a few days to warn the mutants
of a Sentinel attack before it happens.
However, they figure out what really set the Sentinel Project in motion was Mystique killing
Trask in 1973.
So, Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine back in time to that year to stop Mystique from doing it.
Wolverine recruits the young Charles Xavier and Hank McCoy, as well as the superfast superawesome
mutant Quicksilver who helps them break Magento out of the Pentagon.
Ultimately, they stop Mystique from killing Trask and she actually saves President Nixon,
which stops the Sentinel Project and insures that mutants and humans live together in peace.
Which basically means the events of every one of the X-Men movies is erased except for
First Class.
Wolverine is fished out of the ocean and taken away by Mystique disguised as William Stryker,
which means we don’t know if he got the adamantium or not.
Magneto flies away, and Wolverine is sent back to 2023 where he finds everyone living
happily, and Jean Grey and Cyclops still alive.
And ultimately, everything is awesome.
Besides that guy I mentioned at the beginning.
Oh yeah, you better believe he’s trouble.
Anyway, I hope that could catch you up on the whole X-Men story.
Ultimately, this video will be useless by the 2016 when the X-Men: Apocalypse comes
out, and that will be a whole new thing, what with it taking place in the 80s.
I think I’m seeing a bit of a pattern here.
Anyway, what is your favorite X-Men movie.
Be sure to tell me in the comments below.
Thank you for watching, and be sure to subscribe.