Before starting, let's look back for a moment to the year 2000 where, with only a kiss, an apprehensive young girl named Marie steals the life-force of her boyfriend; this is the traumatic awakening of her mutant powers, at a time traditionally meant for joy and tenderness. The experience leads her to run away from home. She befriends a mysterious stranger named Logan and eventually the X-men, other mutants like her who are fighting for peace between man and mutankind. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, under the misguided mutant champion Magneto, want to use Marie to artificially induce the mutation of all human beings on the planet--effectively ending the race-war between the two species in a more...direct manner. However, at the last minute, the X-Men foil their plans and Logan saves Marie.
It's not a bad plot, as far as first outings go. More importantly, it's a fine foundation to build a trilogy on. So, for your thrilling enjoyment, I will here see if I can end the FoX-men trilogy on a more satisfying note:
After Charles Xavier is killed by the Phoenix, Hank heads off alone, saying that he needs to find Marie AKA Rogue; she may end up being the solution to all their problems. He and Logan start arguing, Logan tells him that "Rogue's made her decision...let her take the damn cure if she wants to!" Bobby is watching them yell at each other for a while until finally, he just says to Hank: "I'll go with you." Logan starts to argue with him as well until Bobby interrupts that he has to talk to her, that Marie may be making this decision because of him (referencing when Rogue stumbled upon his tryst with Kitty Pryde earlier). Hank and Beast then take off together, leaving Logan to help regroup the remaining X-men.
At this point, Rogue is waiting in line to receive the cure. She looks around bleakly. Right before she goes in, Hank and Bobby arrive and plead with her to reconsider. Hank tells her that only she might be able to stop the Phoenix from burning everything to ashes. Bobby is suddenly shy but when she moves to go in, he tells her that he chooses her and accepts her, just the way she is. Overwhelmed by responsibility and love, Rogue finally agrees to go with them. Pyro shows up before they leave, though, with a couple of other mutants. The three X-men fight bravely but they are clearly overwhelmed. Backed into an an alleyway, Iceman creates a big wall of ice, giving them time to escape.
Cut to Magneto destroying the Golden Gate bridge, and the ensuing battle of Alcatraz. After a while, Magneto is knocked out with the cure bullets, and it looks like Jean has lost control completely. As she plans to end them all, Logan is slowly walking up to her, despite her shredding his skin and flesh again and
again.
Wolverine unsheathes his claws, ready to kill Jean and the Phoenix with her. However, he sees something over the waters behind her: it's Iceman, who is creating a bridge of ice across the river right where the Golden Gate bridge used to be--with Beast and Rogue in tow behind him! Iceman and Wolverine distract Jean by fighting with her, while Beast maneuvers to get Rogue close to Jean from the rear. Beast gets knocked out by Jean, but Rogue manages to sneak up and grab Jean's head from behind. She starts sucking the Dark Phoenix out of Jean Grey...
Rogue absorbs enough of the Phoenix's life-force that she is
almost a formidable opponent for her. With similar powers, they throw vehicles and rubble at each other in a telekinetic battle royale! The force of their minds is enough to make the earth itself shake. The other X-men jump in whenever it looks like Rogue is on the ropes, while she focuses on absorbing as much of the Phoenix's essence as she can. At last, it looks like Jean is calming down...
Suddenly, the air is alive with energy! The Phoenix rises out of Jean Grey's body like a fiery bird now, cornered and fighting for its life! It hisses at Marie and blows up into the sky like a cannonshot! There is a rushing sound, like a star being born, or a witch-king collapsing in on itself. Jean falls unconscious into the base of the rubble. Marie is blasted off the island by the concussive force of the Phoenix's departure! Iceman calls out her name and at breakneck speed, he swoops in on an ice-bridge to grab Marie before she falls into the rocky waves. Iceman is trying to keep Marie talking as he rushes her to medical aid but it's no use: Rogue loses consciousnes as the camera fades to black, his forlorn voice carrying into the darkness...
Cut to an infirmary with several hospital beds. Marie is in one of them, comatose. Bobby is sitting in a chair beside her, reading a comic book. As we watch Bobby, Marie starts to slowly float up off the bed, like a magician's assistant. When she gets a couple of feet off the mattress, Bobby looks up in surprise. He freaks--and finally, begins to run to the door, shouting for Hank to come see! It's then that we hear a small, scared voice from the bed:
"...Bobby?"
Bobby turns around and sees that Marie has awoken; she is confused and still groggy. He runs back to the bedside, grabs her and brings her down from the air. "It's OK Marie--I got you", says Bobby as he holds her close, a flood of emotions swirling across his face.
The other mutants come in and surround the bed! In time, Hank and Moira shoo out the well-wishers and explain to Marie what has happened. Even before the Phoenix began to fear for its life and flew away, Marie's body had absorbed much of its power. It was enough to catalyze a secondary mutation in her cellular structure. Over time, Rogue begins to develop the superhuman strength, flight and invulnerability that her comics counterpart is known for. She can also better control her powers now, and has the ability to
choose whether or not to drain the life-force of other beings!
After a montage showing off her new powers, there is a shot of Rogue flying over Xavier's in a beautiful black dress. She runs into Angel flying towards her somewhere over the oak trees; he is also dressed nicely. They talk a little bit about both of their journeys to self-acceptance. Both have suffered greatly from their otherness over the years. Still, this shared view from on-high, where eagles dare, is a symbol of the joy and beauty that their gifts offer as well. After a while, it becomes apparent that they are both avoiding something.
"Well..shall we go?". Rogue follows Angel down to the ground: It is the day of Charles Xavier and Scott Summers' funeral. Rogue floats down and finds Bobby. In this crazy world, he is a glacier of stability. As she enjoys just being able to hold his hand, Logan comes up and greets them. Behind him, we see a familar face: Jean is sitting alone where Logan came from, despondent. Logan explains to Marie that Jean doesn't remember all the things she did...that she can't believe her actions led to this. Rogue empathizes with Jean and tries to talk to her but Jean is inconsolable: she cannot forgive herelf for destroying these two beloved men in her life.
The school continues on with Storm as Headmistress. Also included is the scene where Beast is appointed by the President as UN ambassador...as well as the great scene with the chessboards where you see Magneto use his powers again!
THANKS FOR READING! QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? SOUND OFF BELOW! Next:
X4: Regeneration