X2
X-Men United
1. X-Men United
2. Mutant Registration Act
3. X1: Global Domination
4. Beam Me Up, Wheels
5. Deathstrike
6. Staying In Character
7. Dukefest
8. More To Come
9. Mutant Hide And Seek
10. Fantastic Four
11. Danger, Hugh Jackman, Danger
1. X-Men United
Mutants united. The mega-hit sequel of the famed Marvel comic adaptation has the X-Men unite with their fellow mutant adversaries to overcome their greatest common foe, humans.
2. Mutant Registration Act
Once again the greatest adversary the world has is the sum of all fears. No one fears anything more than the things they cannot understand. This leaves the genetically different mutants diabolically opposed by the humans in power. A new war against the mutants is instigated by former Army commander and scientist, William Stryker. His unique knowledge of mutants makes him the mutant world's greatest foe.
3. X1: Global Domination
In North America, the film earned $85.6 million dollars in its opening weekend, making it the fourth biggest debut in history, right behind Spider-Man and the two Harry Potter films. Adding a one-two punch, the film opened simultaneously all over the world, earning an additional $69.3 million dollars right out of the gate. The global total of $154.8 million dollars is the most money taken in on a single date for any movie ever.
4. Beam Me Up, Wheels
In X2, a sequence where one of the characters is channel surfing on a TV, you can get a glimpse of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
5. Deathstrike
Actress Kelly Hu plays Wolverine's evil counterpart, Deathstrike. Like him she can withstand extreme bodily harm by way of regeneration and is also equipped with metal talons, growing from her fingertips rather than her knuckles. When asked if her character would be returning in later films, she replied, "I certainly hope so. I've already signed a contract. Whether or not they have me come back is another story, but I'd love to." Until then, she is set to star in another comic adaptation called, "Jade". In this story she plays a 4000-year old vampire who is the head of an extended crime family in China.
6. Staying In Character
Actor Alan Cummings had to endure 8 hours of make-up to be transformed into his character of the Nightcrawler, while Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' make-up took five hours to apply. Hugh Jackman had to work with a nutritionist to get in shape for his role of Wolverine and ended up gaining 20 pounds of muscle to beef up for the part.
7. Dukefest
The one-on-one fight scene between Wolverine and Deathstrike took a grueling 3 weeks to shoot, while another impressive fight scene between Nightcrawler and Toad never made it into the film.
8. More To Come
After nearly folding in recent years, Marvel Comics has become a driving force behind blockbuster superhero films with Spider-Man, X-Men, Daredevil and the Hulk all making big waves. The Spider-Man sequel, the Amazing Spider-Man recently wrapped production in New York. The Hulk blasts into theatres on June 20th. Other Marvel superheroes, the Punisher and Ghost Rider have films in the works. X3 is currently in the early stages of pre-production. So all the questions posed by X2 will have to wait until next year to be unraveled.
9. Mutant Hide And Seek
Sprinkled throughout the film are many references to other mutants we have yet to officially meet, for instance in the bar scene, a TV is showing a debate on the mutant situation and one of the debaters is named Dr. Hank McCoy, which is the real name of the blue-furred behemoth known as Beast.
10. Fantastic Four
Another mutant superhero team, the Fantastic Four will eventually make it to the big screen perhaps eventually bridging the gap between the Spider-Man and X-Men films. In X2, you get a glimpse of a computer screen full of files and on that list is Franklin Richards, the son of Fantastic Four leaders, Reed Richards and Sue Storm. How does this connect with Spider-Man? Well, for a very brief time, Spider-Man was the fifth member of the Fantastic Four.
11. Danger, Hugh Jackman, Danger
One of the most anticipated additions to the film, the infamous Danger Room, never made it into the film. The crew spent several weeks constructing the set, just to see it go unused in this sequel. Production Designer, Guy Dyas explains, "The designs for the Sentinels and the Danger Room have been carefully archived for the next film. The Sentinels were almost fully conceptualized and taken in 3D while the Danger Room was half built on a stage up in Vancouver. We tried to incorporate these things into X2, but there was just too much going on in the film already and had we added all of the scenes that we wanted to add, the film would have ended up being 4 hours long. So look out for the Danger Room sometime down the line...I kept some photos because it looked really impressive, even at that stage. I was sad to see that scene go because I collaborated with Adam Kubert, the genius comic book artist who draws Wolverine on a regular basis, on staging that scene inside of the set. Adam did some original boards for us and they clearly showed how amazing the whole scene was going to be. Wolverine is one of my favorite characters and this would have been his big moment, his time to kick ass on the big screen like no one else before".
