"Whose side will you be on?"

The third movie in theX-Men series involves someone finding a "cure" for mutant genes, causing Magneto to start recruiting for a mutant uprising. Also, Jean Greygets better (guys,It Was His Sled!), but evidentlyCame Back Wrong, because now she can kill you with her brain. Rogue takes the cure voluntarily, on grounds that sheCan't Have Sex Ever. The X-Men move to defend the cure-making facility from Magneto's forces, and eventually "cure" him, which puts an end to his crusade. Unfortunately, Jean staysAx Crazy, so Wolverine has to kill her, after which he returns to the Xavier Mansion to help Storm lead the next generation of X-Men.

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Leech; in the comics, a side effect of mutation gave him green skin, yellow eyes with no pupils (or sometimes reptilian eyes) and odd lesions on his cranium. Here he looks like a fully humanLittlest Cancer Patient.
• Adaptational Villainy: Psylock, Spike, Quill, Multiple Man.
• Advertised Extra /Billing Displacement: Angel is featured heavily in all the promotional material. He only has two or three scenes: he refuses the cure andsaves his father's life during the final battle. He does nothing in between.
  • The same can be said of Colossus - he has one line (which is actually shorter than his one line inX-Men 2) and he's really only in the film for theFastball Special.
• All There in the Manual: To explain things that weren't explained in the movie itself (such as why Nightcrawler was absent), a video-game was made that took place between X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand that filled in the gaps.
• Ascended Meme: "I'm the Juggernaut,bitch!"
• Bar Code Tattoo: Magneto's katzetnik, used to show off his history of being mistreated.
• Beam-O-War: Between Iceman and Pyro.
• Beard of Sorrow: Cyclops displays a stubbly beard while in mourning.
• Both Sides Have a Point: When the heroes are discussing taking the cure.

Storm "I don't believe this. What sort of coward would take that just to fit in?" Beast "Is itcowardice to want to be free from persecution? Not everyone can blend in so easily,you don't shed on the furniture."

• Call Back: When Mystique is screwing with the guard on the prison truck, she briefly turns into Jason Stryker's "little girl" avatar from the second movie.
• Casting Gag: Former soccer player Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut, whoseAmerican football design is deliberately played up with his "unstoppable" mutant power.
  • Vinnie Jones is a violent musclebound psychopath. Ergo, Juggernaut.
• Came Back Wrong: Jean, of course.
• Continuity Cameo:The Sentinel.
• Couldn't Find a Lighter: In theDanger Room Cold Open, Wolverine uses holographic burning rubble left by an attacking Sentinel to light his cigar. Yes, Wolverine is soBadass he can light a cigar off flames that don't actually exist.
• Deadly Dodging: Kitty seems to be a master at this. Even without her powers.
• Deadly Hug: How Wolverine finishes off Phoenix.
• Demoted to Extra: Dr. Kavita Rao. Gets about thirty seconds of screen time, three lines in total, and then isKilled Off for Real. Most of her role from the comics (like holding the press conference) is taken over by Angel's dad.
  • Also, Cyclops (then again, James Marsden was busy withsomething else).
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Quite a lot:Cyclops, Xavier, Jean, plus Rogue and Magneto to the lesser degree (depowered rather than killed). Fans were particularly put off by Cyclops' death, coming as it does ten minutes into the film and his character already having gotten short shrift in the franchise.)
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Voiced byR. Lee Ermey, nevertheless.
• Evil Brit: The Juggernaut
• Fastball Special: They had to do it, given Wolverine and Colossus are in the movie!
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Juggernaut does this and this is his superpower.
  • Bonus, he was portrayed by Vinnie Jones, who started out in ye olde British football.
• Foiler Footage: They filmed the "Bobby discovers Rogue" scene both ways. That is, one where she took the "mutant cure" and one where she didn't.
• Genius Bruiser: Hank McCoy.
• Genre Savvy: When the army learns Magneto is on the warpath again, a sequence shows them trading in their metal equipment and weapons for plastic variants, so he can't exert his influence on them. A scene in the final battle has him discovering this and muttering "Plastic...they've learned."
• Go Out with a Smile: Xavierand Jean Grey.
• Head Desk: The Juggernaut has Shadowcat and Leech cornered and charges them. Unfortunately, Leech's power nullifies his, so the two duck under his rampage and Juggernaut smashes the wall, knocking him out cold. Possibly justified due to Juggernaut's predictability, and he probably wasn't aware that his powers would get shut off so abruptly by Leech.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Pyro mocks the protective headgear worn by Magneto and Juggernaut. How is he taken out? Iceman headbutts him.
• In Name Only: Quite a few, kicking off the tradition of "use character A with powers of character B, when simply using character B might've been a better idea" that the next movie sadly inherits.
  • Callisto. She's not scarred or one-eyed, she has a mix of Caliban's and Quicksilver's powers and not her own hypersensitivity (which would have had pretty much the samePlot Device effect).
  • Psylocke. She's somehow aMook now, already non-British (while the movie continuity avoids andRetCons all things magical and alien, meaning that there is no Siege Perilous in this world) and all that. At least her hair is purple... small consolation. The only power she uses in the movie is the shadow teleportation granted to her by the Red Dawn, but not her own (weak) telepathy or (highly advanced) telekinesis.
  • Kid Omega is Quill.
  • Leech. The movie ditches his defining trait of not passing for normal and not being able to do anything about it because most mutant powers don't work on him. Also, his powers no longer temporarily nullify whoever he touches, he has an area of effect that fully humanizes whoever enters it. Granted, it serves as a better justification forusing him as a source for The Cure, as using the original comic book plot would have left no screen time for the Phoenix plotline.
  • Phoenix. She uses her heightened powers approximately two times through the entire movie andalmost doesn't speak at all, leaving out all of theCharacter Development so integral to any version of the Phoenix Force in the comics,mostly just standing behind Magneto, looking ominous. Why waste the Phoenixon the role of Magneto'sPerson of Mass Destruction if The Scarlet Witch would've made far more sense in the role she fulfils in the plot?
• Internalized Categorism: The movie starts with a little angel who tries to cut off his own wings (and maybe he did that quite often) in his desperation to be normal. Later, his father tries to help him get "cured" of having white wings to fly with.Angel changes his mind at the last minute, however, and later uses hisFlight to save his father's life.
• Karma Houdini: Throughout the series, Mystique kills dozens of people and helps instigate near-Armageddon, but in the end she walks away scot-free whenshe dishes about Magneto to the feds.
  • She may have avoided prison due to her later cooperation, but before that she was ripped from her powers and turned into what she hated the most - a normal human. To add insult to injury, she was betrayed by the guy that she was passionately loyal to. It's doubtful it didn't leave any mark on her psyche.
    • The last scene she is in shows her telling all to the authorities. There's no reason to assume they just let her walk away afterwards.
  • Magneto is last seen, supposedly broken, sitting in Central Park playing chess. So, I guess the fact that he lost his powers means he doesn't have to go back to prison to pay for all the death and mayhem he caused beforehand?
    • It is heavily implied that during the confusion at the end of the battle of Alcatraz he managed to slip away. I doubt he would avoid prison if they could find him.
• Karmic Transformation:X-Men: Magneto tries turning humans into mutants.The Last Stand: Magneto is "cured" from his mutation.Subverted in that the cure seems to be temporary.
• Kick the Dog: Mystique shields Magneto from being shot with a cure-gun byTaking the Bullet herself. Magneto abandons her because she's "no longer one of us." He does at least seem sad while he does it...
• Magic Pants: Wolverine survives the telekinetic disintegration due to hishealing factor. How his pants also survive...
• Masquerade Maintenance: Angel cutting off his wings.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Magneto, upon seeing Phoenix killing everyone.
• Never Say "Die": An unusual in-universe example. When Wolverine is questioning Jean aboutwhat happened to Cyclops, she refuses to actually say he died. How much of this is guilt or foreshadowing is up to interpretation.
• Older Than They Look:Elliot Page as Kitty Pride falls under this.
• The Other Darrin: Hank McCoy/Beast had a small cameo inX2. Granted, he hadn't mutated yet, but the actor still looked and sounded nothing likeKelsey Grammer.
  • Shadowcat gets a new actressagain.
• Power Nullifier: Leech
• Prison Ship: The prison truck where Mystique is held.
• Proscenium Reveal: At the end of theDanger Room Cold Open.
• Sequel Non Entity: Nightcrawler.
• Shipped in Shackles: Mystique, Multiple Man, and the Juggernaut get this treatment.
• Strapped to An Operating Table: Angel
• The Stinger:Professor X transfers his mind into the man with the coma...
• Twist Ending:Magneto slightly moves a chess piece. Maybe his powers are returning.
  • An unused one would have had Mystique sitting next to him, revealing that the two had been in league the entire time. Unfortunately, the actress wasn't available.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Kid Omega/Quill has the ability to extend quills from his body. He seems to thinkHeart Is an Awesome Power, but he manages to use his power once... to kill a lone, crying doctor by giving her a hug.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Jean Grey as The Phoenix.
• Will They or Won't They?: Iceman and Rogue. Iceman seems disappointed that Rogue "cured" herself, even though she did it for both of them. Its unknown what their relationship is now, especially sincethe cure is temporary.
• Wronski Feint: How Kitty defeats the Juggernaut, with a little unintended help from Leech.

• Work
• Prime Focus
• Moving Picture Company
• Films of the 2000s
• X-Men: The Last Stand
• Film
• X-Men