X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 movie. It is the third movie based on the Marvel Comics' X-Men superhero comic books. The story takes place after X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003). Brett Ratner directed the movie. He took over when Bryan Singer decided to direct Superman Returns. The movie is about a "mutant cure" and the resurrection of Jean Grey, who seemed to have died in X2. The movie is partially based on two X-Men comic book stories: writer Chris Claremont's and artist John Byrne's "Dark Phoenix Saga" in The Uncanny X-Men (1980) and writer Joss Whedon's and artist John Cassaday's six-issue "Gifted" story in Astonishing X-Men (2004).

X-Men: The Last Stand
Directed by	Brett Ratner
Produced by	Lauren Shuler Donner Ralph Winter Avi Arad
Written by	Simon Kinberg Zak Penn
Starring	Hugh Jackman Halle Berry Ian McKellen Famke Janssen Anna Paquin Kelsey Grammer James Marsden Rebecca Romijn Shawn Ashmore Aaron Stanford Vinnie Jones Patrick Stewart
Music by	John Powell
Cinematography	Dante Spinotti
Edited by	Mark Helfrich Mark Goldblatt Julia Wong
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	May 26, 2006
Running time	104 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$210,000,000
Box office	$459,256,008

The movie was released May 26, 2006 in the United States and Canada. It was released one or two days earlier in more than 20 other countries. The movie did well at theaters. It earned $45.1 million on its first day. This is the fourth-highest opening day gross. Its opening weekend gross of $103 million is the eighth highest ever.

The movie is sometimes called X3, XIII, X-Men 3, or X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

Plot

The movie begins with a very sad Cyclops. He is still very sad because he lost his girlfriend Jean Grey at the end of the last movie. He goes out to the lake, where he sees Jean Grey, who is somehow not dead. She has a lot more powers now. She kills Cyclops and then leaves. Wolverine and Storm find Cyclops' visor in the water when they go looking for him. They also find Jean Grey and put her inside the Xavier Institute.

Meanwhile, a large company working at Alcatraz Island has found a way to erase the gene that is the cause for mutation. This discovery splits the mutants apart. Some believe that their mutation helps society and do not want a cure for it and start protesting. Other mutants do not like their mutation and begin lining up at Alcatraz Island to get the cure. At the Xavier Institute, Rogue, who longs to touch people but cannot, is interested in the cure.

Professor Xavier tracks down Jean Grey. He and Wolverine and Storm go Jean's old house to try to talk to her. Early on, he found that Jean Grey had a very powerful side called the Phoenix. To make sure that side never came out, he put up a mind barrier. During the talk, the Phoenix comes out and he and Jean Grey have a mind battle. It ends when the Phoenix overpowers the Professor and the Professor dies.

The villain Magneto has started to put his Brotherhood of Mutants together. While freeing his right-hand man Mystique from jail, a guard fires a "cure dart" at him to try to remove his mutation. Mystique jumps in the way and is cured of her mutation. Magneto leaves her. As a result, she tells the government where Magneto will be. The Brotherhood meets in a forest. Wolverine, who has gone out there, sees that the Phoenix has teamed up with the Brotherhood and will not leave when Wolverine asks her to. The government then raids the forest, but Magneto has already left and all the agents find is many copies of the mutant Multiple Man.

At the Xavier Institute, Bobby Drake (Iceman) has begun to like another girl named Kitty Pryde. One night, the two of them go out skating in the fountain. Iceman's girlfriend, Rogue, becomes very jealous when she sees him with Kitty and leaves the next day to go to Alcatraz Island. Bobby goes out there but cannot find her.

In the final battle, Magneto walks out onto the San Francisco Bridge, moving cars out of the way. He then lifts the bridge up and rips it apart and makes a bridge to Alcatraz Island. The X-Men drop down from their plane and defend the mutant cure building against attack. The X-Men's plot to stop Magneto. To do this, Wolverine runs at Magneto. Magneto easily stops Wolverine. Another mutant named Beast comes from behind him and sticks a bunch of cure darts into Magneto, curing him of the mutation.

The U.S Army comes over the top at this point and starts to fire darts. This causes Phoenix to very angry and she starts to use her powers to begin destroying everything. With great effort, Wolverine reaches Phoenix and sticks his claws into her to stop her, killing her but saving the soldiers. Back at the Xavier Institute, they mourn the Jean Grey's death. Rogue, who has been cured, touchs Bobby's hand for the first time.

Cast

X-Men

The X-Men are a team of superheroes from the "Xavier Institute", a school for mutants. They protect both humans and mutants and try to prevent a war between the two.

• Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier: The founder of the Xavier Institute. He has great telepathic powers. Xavier's legs are damaged and he must use a wheelchair. He has great knowledge on genetic mutation. Xavier want peace between humans and mutants.
• Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine: Logan can heal very quickly. This allowed a very strong metal coating to be placed on his bones. He also has metal claws that come out from each of his hands.
• Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm: She can control the weather with her mind.
• James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops: The X-Men's leader when they fight. He shoots energy from his eyes.
• Anna Paquin as Marie D'Ancanto / Rogue: When she touches someone she absorbs their life force. If they are a mutant, she absorbs their powers. She can kill someone if she touches them for too long.
• Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast: A former student of Xavier's School. He is now the Secretary of Mutant Affairs in the U.S. government. The Beast's body is covered in blue fur. He is very smart and has great strength and agility. He is a scientist and researcher with great intelligence and understanding about mutant genetics.
• Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake / Iceman: He can control the temperature of the moisture in the air. He can create items of ice or blasts of cold. His body can change into ice.
• Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde: She can "phase" through objects, which allows her to walk through solid objects.
• Daniel Cudmore as Piotr "Peter" Rasputin / Colossus: He can change his skin into an organic metal. This gives him superhuman strength. It also makes it hard to hurt him.

Brotherhood of Mutants

The Brotherhood is a group of mutants who think mutants should be in charge of the world.

• Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto: An very powerful mutant who can control any form of metal. He is a Holocaust victim who thinks that mutants are better than humans. This often cause problems between him and his old friend Charles Xavier. He does not care about non-mutant human life.
• Famke Janssen as Jean Grey / Phoenix: A former member of the X-Men died saving her friends. She is one of the most powerful mutants. She has limitless telepathic and telekinetic. powers that can be used at a sub-atomic level. Following the end of X2, the dark side of Jean's persona took control. This caused her to become more powerful. Her lack of control over her powers means she can destroy people by just thinking about doing it.
• Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkholme / Mystique: Magneto's blue-skinned right-hand woman can shapeshift to look like anyone. She can fight with great agility and strength.
• Aaron Stanford as John Allerdyce / Pyro: Former Xavier Institute student Pyro can control fire. He can not create fire so he carries a lighterwith him at all times. He holds a grudge against his former friend Bobby Drake.
• Vinnie Jones as Cain Marko / Juggernaut: The Juggernaut is incredibly strong and fast. Once he starts moving, nothing can stop him.
• Eric Dane as Jamie Madrox / Multiple Man: Multiple Man can split himself into multiple copies. He is a criminal who joins the Brotherhood after they release him.

The Omegas

A group of mutant which are part of an underground network across the nation.

• Dania Ramirez as Callisto: Callisto is the leader of The Omegas, a group of mutant outcasts. She has superhuman speed, reflexes, and agility. She can also sense other mutants.
• Omahyra Mota as Arclight: Arclight can create seismic energies that cause shockwaves.
• Ken Leung as Kid Omega: Has porcupine-like spines he can extend or retract at will. This character looks like the comic books' character Quill; however, the official cast credits say "Kid Omega".
• Mei Melançon as Psylocke: Psylocke has the ability to teleport herself through shadows.

Other characters

• Ben Foster as Warren Worthington III / Angel: He has bird-like wings which allow him to fly. Cayden Boyd plays Warren as a child.
• Michael Murphy as Warren Worthington II: The head of Worthington Labs, the corporation creating the "cure". He is Angel's father. He wants to take his son's mutant abilities away.
• Cameron Bright as Jimmy / Leech: A mutant boy whose power stops the powers of nearby mutants. His DNA is the basis for the "cure".
• Shohreh Aghdashloo as Dr. Kavita Rao: Rao is a scientist working at Worthington Labs on the mutant cure.

Production

Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men movies left early in the production of the movie to direct the movie Superman Returns. Screenwriters Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty and composer John Ottman left with him. Singer has said that, at the time he left, they had partially written a story for the movie which would have been only about Jean Grey's resurrection. The story would also have a new villain Emma Frost, played by Sigourney Weaver.

Simon Kinberg was hired as writer soon after Singer left. There were rumors about Joss Whedon directing the movie. Rob Bowman and Alex Proyas were also rumoured. Zack Snyder was also asked to be the director, but he turned it down because he was directing 300. Even with Singer leaving, the cast and producers wante to return to make the third movie. Matthew Vaughn was hired as the new director for the project. He cast Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Family problems were said to cause him to withdraw before shooting began. Vaughn was replaced by Singer's friend Brett Ratner, who was among the people considered to direct the first movie. He was also considered by Warner Brothers to direct the 2006 Superman project before it changed into Superman Returns.

X-Men: The Last Stand began shooting in August 2005 and ended in January 2006. Much of X-Men: The Last Stand was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Associate producer Dave Gordon said, "This is the biggest production ever filmed in Canada. It used to be X2, now it's X3."

Other websites

• X-Men: The Last Stand on IMDb
• X-Men: Profile at MySpace
• X-Men: The Last Stand Official site and theatrical trailers
• X-Men on Marvel.com
• XMenFilms.net Popular Fan-Site with News, Photos, etc.
• X-Men: The Last Stand at Rotten Tomatoes