The final X-Men: Apocalypse trailer has arrived, and while it didn’t lack for action, this one also told us a lot more about the relationships and backstories that will make up the emotional bits of this movie. We combed through the whole thing to break it all down for you!
This trailer begins with what I honestly believe is the only shot of this sign in existence.
Professor X is teaching a class and, in the voiceover, says, “Things are better. The world is better.” This is because irony has decided to make Professor X its bitch.
He finishes the line not in class, but in this single shot, which makes it look like it’s part of his conversation with Mystique, who has arrived to warn Professor X about someone. Probably Apocalypse. (Also note his lilac V-neck. Professor X wears nothing else in this trailer.)
“Just because there’s not a war doesn’t mean there’s peace. He’s coming.” This is ambiguous enough that it could be Apocalypse or just a general warning about Magneto.
We see the ancient pyramid again, with an ankh inside a triangle — a very Apocalypse-ish symbol.
The biggest tragedy in this movie is definitely turning Oscar Isaac from his normal Oscar Isaac self into an Ivan Ooze-themed Oscar Isaac. Meanwhile, Moira MacTaggert is telling Professor X things we’ve heard her say before. “Some call him Apocalypse,” and so on. She and Mystique seem to be hellbent on getting Professor X to do something about dangers.
Moira continues, “He’s been amassing mutants to take their powers.”
We’ve seen this sand destruction effect in previous trailers, but on a massive scale, and in a modern setting. This little vignette tells us that it’s how Apocalypse’s powers are going to manifest in this movie, and that he can also use it on individual people, not just cities.
This is Angel in what we’re calling “Mutant Fight Club”. This movie had better explain how rich kid Warren Worthington III ended up here.
Every shot of Psylocke with her weapons is glorious, but they all seem to come from this one fight.
Professor X, once again in his lilac V-neck, this time on a rocky outcropping. This is the first time in one of these trailers we’ve seen him anywhere but the mansion or in the office with Moira. He’s saying “Erik, don’t join them.”
First of all, this scene implies that Magneto’s not an unwilling participant in whatever Apocalypse is doing. Second of all, this probably takes place after Magneto (with Apocalypse) levitates Professor X’s wheelchair in the mansion and, presumably, hightails it out of the mansion with him. Which does explain why Mystique has to step up, but doesn’t explain why he’s begging Magneto not to join the people it appears he’s already joined.
This shot is both epic and appears to be the same rocky terrain as Professor X’s conversation with Magneto.
Angst-neto: “Whatever it is you think you saw in me, I buried it with my family.”
And we flashback to Sad-neto cradling a… child? And there’s a head with a ponytail on the ground? Is this flashback proof we’re going to finally see Magneto with Magda (Quicksilver’s comic book mum) in the movies?
This hand shot is of Apocalypse — it matches how his hand looks in the sand scene earlier in the trailer. But wow does it also look like it could be Nightcrawler’s or even Mystique’s. Lots of blue people with textured skin in this movie.
Blah blah blah destructioncakes. (Welcome to the landmark party, Australia!)
The theory about Professor X being kidnapped is semi-confirmed by Beast saying “They took him, Raven. The world needs the X-Men.” She responds, “I’m not a hero.”
“The students look up to you,” he responds. When would that have happened? In between Days of Future Past and now, has she stopped by to visit a bunch of times? Her strolling in to talk to Professor X earlier in the trailer does seem to back that assumption up.
“If I’m going to teach your kids something, I’m going to teach them to fight,” she voice-overs. This image isn’t just because this outfit is absurd, but to show that Mystique visits Mutant Fight Club a couple of times.
We’ve seen versions of this fight between Angel and Nightcrawler before, but now we have a better understanding of the context. Also, note Nightcrawler’s outfit: the sequinned lapels and the frilly shirt seem to be a shout-out to his circus past.
“Follow me,” says Mystique, as she and Nightcrawler teleport out of what looks like a riot in the Mutant Fight Club. Note that she’s wearing the black leather and T-shirt outfit from the rest of the film. So either she visits twice or she mutates into a new outfit for some reason.
It’s kind of hard to tell through the accent, but Nightcrawler says, “You’re her!” to Mystique. Hints of their comics relationship, maybe?
And the hits just keep on coming for Mystique, for whom green lighting indicates big revelations — this time, that Magneto is Quicksilver’s father. Shocker, I know.
Her reaction is appropriate.
Quicksilver’s “He and my mum, they did it” is less appropriate.
In addition to being cool, the trailers have set up certain X-Men to Horseman match-ups; Angel and Nightcrawler earlier, and now Storm and Cyclops.
And Psylocke and Beast. We haven’t seen a one-to-one match for Magneto yet, unless you count Professor X’s emotional appeal. Interestingly, it’s Mystique who goes up against Apocalypse.
Psylocke’s pleased look during her fight with Beast is everything, by the way.
Here we have Stryker arriving at the school and a shot of a helicopter flying over a landscape that, to me at least, looks like the Alkali Lake facility from X-2. We’ve kind of got the vibe that Stryker’s going to do the “invade the school, kidnap the students” thing for a second time. Before he did it before. Time travel.
Among the students ducking a mansion explosion (I’m guessing) is Jubilee.
“Forget everything you think you know. None of it matters,” says Mystique in what looks like Cerebro, which is a weird place to go full drill sergeant mode. Also, this scene must take place before the mansion goes boom.
More destruction as Mystique intones “You’re not students any more.”
Mystique is knocking someone out, back in the outfit from the first time we see her in the Mutant Fight Club Crowd. She looks like she’s near some sort of control system? Again, she either changed after this — if whatever she’s doing here caused the stampede and that’s when she grabbed Nightcrawler — or she went back again in different clothes.
“I’ll take everything from them,” says Magneto. Betting on “them” being less the X-Men and more humans.
And Cerebro explodes.
The big circle behind Mystique as she says “You’re X-Men” proves this is more likely to be Cerebro and not the Danger Room, but man is Cerebro getting a workout in this movie. Charles sees Apocalypse’s mind and power there, Mystique gives a speech, it explodes. This happens:
Psylocke gets knocked off the Blackbird.
We’ve seen these shots before, but now we can compare them to Ancient Egyptian Apocalypse’s sand trick on the three unlucky men earlier. And we can connect Plaid-neto to it.
As Mystique and her crew come to get the students captured by Stryker, we see that they’re less trapped than one might have guessed. “Well, you’ve been busy,” Mystique says.
Cyclops: “We had a little help.”
Of course it’s Wolverine. I swear, the whole Stryker subplot is jammed in here for the sole purpose of putting Wolverine in this movie.