Trailer
Plot summary
In 1944, in Nazi-occupied Poland, the boy Erik Lehnsherr enters the Auschwitz concentration camp and is separated from his parents; when he tries to reach them, metal gates bend toward him. Decades later, Senator Robert Kelly works to pass a Mutant Registration Act requiring mutants to disclose who they are and what they can do. Charles Xavier, who runs a school for mutants in New York state, is concerned about how Lehnsherr, now called Magneto, will respond. In Meridian, Mississippi, seventeen-year-old Marie puts her boyfriend into a coma with a kiss, because her mutant ability absorbs the life force and powers of others. Rogue, as she calls herself, leaves for Alberta and meets Logan, a mutant with metal claws and a healing body. Sabretooth attacks them on the road, and Cyclops and Storm bring the pair to Xavier's school.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about X-Men (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dougray Scott had been cast as Wolverine in a multi-film deal, but backed out because of scheduling conflicts with Mission: Impossible 2 and injuries from a motorbike accident; Hugh Jackman was then cast three weeks into filming.
- Russell Crowe was Singer's first choice to play Wolverine, but he turned the part down in favour of Gladiator and recommended his friend Hugh Jackman instead.
- Michael Jackson actively campaigned to play Professor Xavier, but the studio never seriously considered him for the role.
- Fox rejected the treatment over its cost, so Beast, Nightcrawler, Pyro and the Danger Room all had to be cut before the studio would greenlight the film.
- Singer banned the X-Men comics on set during filming, so Feige had to sneak them in for the actors to understand their roles.
- Rebecca Romijn wore 110 silicone prosthetics to play Mystique; when Singer insisted at the last minute that her skin be painted opaque as in the comic, her makeup took six hours longer.
- Wolverine's claws were injection-moulded plaster rather than real metal: designer Gordon Smith refused production's demand for metal blades, and hundreds of pairs were made for Hugh Jackman and his stunt doubles.
SPOILER
For Senator Kelly's liquid mutation, Digital Domain's Sean C. Cunningham and Claas Henke morphed Bruce Davison into a liquid figure, with digital layers that took 39 hours per frame to render.
