X-Men: First Class: Difference between revisions

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A prequel to the [[X-Men (film)|X-Men]] series set in [[The Sixties|1962]] [[Alternate History|during the]] [[Cold War|Cuban Missile Crisis]].

* [[Agent Mulder]]: Oliver Platt's character, who becomes the [[Reasonable Authority Figure]].

* [[All the Other Reindeer]]: Angel's motivation for joining Shaw.

** Implied with Hank, and subverted with his relationship with Alex, who acts this way toward him despite both being super powered. Hank has a visible mutation, while Alex doesn't.

* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]: The secret CIA base, rarely noticed even within the company, gets successfully invaded. {{spoiler|''Twice''.}}

* [[California Doubling]]: Cuba is actually Georgia's Jekyll Island with some palm trees.

* [[Call Forward]]:

'''Charles:''' No, Agent Stryker, although I could ask you about your son, [[X2: X-Men United|William]], who you were thinking about, which is very nice. }}

** And this gem:

*** Before that, there's the scene where Xavier uses the Cerebro prototype for the first time, and Hank struggles with fitting the electrodes on his head.

'''Charles (annoyed)''': Don't touch my hair. }}

** Magneto rejects Mystique's human disguises and tells her she looks perfect in her mutant form. In ''X3'', when she is hit with the cure and reverts to her human form, Magneto abandons her - saying "She used to be so beautiful."

** Turns into a Logo Gimmick when a young Erik Lensherr twirls the coin between his fingers, and the movie's logo appears on said coin.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Almost doubles as [[Fridge Brilliance]]:

'''Erik:''' You know I can deflect it! }}

* [[Chess Motifs]]: It's subtle, but when Erik and Charles are playing chess the evening before the big battle, the one move we see is his king capturing Charles' queen, foreshadowing Raven joining him at the end of the film. And the chess game is almost directly followed by scenes showing that Erik is able to understand Raven, while Charles is...not.

* [[Chest Blaster]]: Havok's "training wheels" are designed as one.

* [[Coming Out Story]]: Charles accidentally outs Hank as a mutant.

'''Hank:''' [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|You didn't ask, so I didn't tell.]] }}

* [[Compliment Backfire]]: Erik tries to compliment Hank's Beast form, but Hank takes it as sarcasm. Erik is remarkably understanding about the mistake.

** Charles uses "mutant and proud" as part of his pick-up lines, which are basically a very erudite variation on "you have pretty (insert trait here)", in the presence of his adopted sister, who has been actively discouraged by Charles from taking any pride in her mutation.

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Hank's and initially Mystique's reaction to their mutant forms.

* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Platonic version - {{spoiler|Charles sends Mystique off with Erik at the end, knowing it's what she really wants.}}

* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]/[[You Kill It, You Bought It]]: {{spoiler|Erik kills Shaw and becomes the new face of the mutant revolution.}}

* [[Jerk Jock]]: Havok seems to be this to Beast.

* [[Just Following Orders]]: The Nazis that Erik confronts trot out this line as an excuse for their actions. Charles later makes the mistake of echoing it while trying to calm Erik down. Definitely an [[Oh Crap]] moment for the audience when he says it.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: About half of the Hellfire Club get off scot-free in the end. William Stryker Sr. also faces no consequences for unlawful actions (keeping Emma Frost in a secret prison - in the '60s that wasn't accepted practice...how times change) and the unethical and horribly unwise decision to have both the Soviets and the Americans bombard the Cuban shore to get rid of mutants despite one of their own human agents being located there (both actions are things that even John McCone, who was a certified jerk, called him out on). However, this may change if there are sequels to First Class.

* [[Karmic Death]]: {{spoiler|Erik kills Shaw by telemagnetically pushing a coin through his brain. It was the very same coin that Erik was commanded to move as a child to prevent Schmidt from killing his mother; Erik failed and Shaw shot his mother. Erik even gives an [[Ironic Echo]] of what Schmidt said to motivate him at the time.}}

* [[Karmic Transformation]]: Hank's transformation into Beast is tragic, but he brought it on himself. He makes it a little more karmic by being a complete asshole to Raven just before using it - she tells him he's perfect just the way he is and doesn't need the "cure" and he responds with:

'''Hank''': You look beautiful ''now.'' }}

* [[The Lancer]]: Erik to Charles for much of the film. Havok to Beast somewhat.

* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: All of the mutants to a degree, but explicitly emphasized as [[Big Bad|Sebastian Shaw's]] primary power--he can absorb energy... ''all kinds'' of energy. This makes him effectively bullet-proof, [[More Dakka|rocket and grenade-proof,]] [[Implacable Man|and can even absorb the energy of your punches, no matter how strong you are.]] [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|He also states that he is effectively immortal.]] {{spoiler|Finally, he can absorb enough energy to simulate a nuclear bomb blast... and presumably come out the other side unharmed.}}

** Havok considers himself to be this trope, only, unlike Shaw, he's not too thrilled about it so much so that he's a complete shut-in by the time Xavier discovers him.

* [[Pieta Plagiarism]]: {{spoiler|Erik cradling a wounded Charles on the beach.}}

* [[Piggybacking on Hitler]]: Played with. Sebastian Shaw, alias Klaus Schmidt, jumped on the Nazi bandwagon mainly because it would further his research of mutation; however, he holds one of Nazism's tenets ([[Master Race]] and all that stuff) in very high esteem, and later [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|adapts the ideology for mutant use]].