X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

 

In a dystopian future, Sentinels have been programmed to identify and hunt down mutants and any humans who help them. In Moscow, they attack a small band of X-Men survivors consisting of Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Blink, Warpath, Bishop, Iceman and Sunspot, who sacrifice themselves to give Kitty moments to send Bishop's consciousness back in time a few days to warn the others as to ensure their survival.

The group retreats to a remote Chinese temple where they meet with Storm, Wolverine, Professor Charles Xavier, and Magneto. Xavier explains the history of the Sentinels, which were designed by Bolivar Trask, a military scientist whom Raven Darkhölme assassinated in 1973. In response, government forces captured Raven and experimented on her, using her DNA to advance the Sentinel program, allowing Sentinels to adapt to nearly every mutant power. Xavier plans to go back in time and prevent Trask's assassination in hopes of changing their future but since Xavier would not survive going back decades, Wolverine volunteers instead because his regenerative powers allow him to survive the process.

Awakening in his younger body in 1973, Wolverine goes to the X-Mansion, learning from Hank McCoy that the school has been closed for years due to many students and staff being drafted into the Vietnam War, and Lehnsherr (Magneto) being falsely arrested for assassinating fellow mutant John F. Kennedy. A young, broken Xavier turned to alcoholism and frequently uses a specialized serum that allows him to walk but suppresses his telepathic abilities. Hoping to reunite with Mystique, Xavier agrees to help Wolverine. The trio infiltrate The Pentagon and break Lehnsherr out of prison, aided by the newly recruited Peter Maximoff.

Raven discovers Trask has been experimenting on mutants, and in revenge, she plots to assassinate him at the Paris Peace Accords, but Xavier, McCoy, and Logan foil her attempt. Lehnsherr attempts to kill Raven, believing this could prevent the Sentinel takeover. An alarmed McCoy fights him, allowing Raven to escape but publicly exposing the three as mutants. Trask takes advantage of this and successfully convinces President Richard Nixon to initiate the Sentinel program.

Lehnsherr retrieves his helmet from military custody, using it to block Xavier's psychic powers, and secretly takes control of Trask's Sentinel prototypes by infusing them with metal. Returning to the X-Mansion, Xavier abandons the serum, regaining his mutant power, and communicates with his future self, who inspires him to protect the relationship between mutants and humans. After Xavier uses his mutant-tracking computer Cerebro to find Mystique, he, McCoy and Logan travel to Washington, D.C. to stop Raven's continuing plan to assassinate Trask.

At a ceremony where Nixon unveils the Sentinels, the three search for the disguised Raven. Magneto appears, controlling the Sentinels, and barricades the White House within the outer structure of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. During the battle, Magneto impales Logan with rebar and throws him into the Potomac River. Nixon, Trask, and a disguised Raven retreat to the White House Bunker, but Magneto rips reinforcing steel bars out of the building with the intention of killing Nixon.

In the future, the X-Men make their last stand as an onslaught of Sentinels attack them. Many mutants perish while attempting to buy more time, with Magneto being seriously injured. In 1973, Raven, openly showing herself as a mutant, subdues Magneto, saving Nixon and his cabinet. She goes to kill Trask but Xavier convinces Raven to spare him. As a mutant was publicly seen saving the president, the Sentinel program is decommissioned, altering history and erasing the future Sentinels from existence. The mutants in the past depart separately; Trask is later imprisoned for attempting to sell military secrets to Vietnamese military officials.

Wolverine awakens at the school to find Iceman, Colossus, Kitty, Hank, Storm, Rogue, Jean Grey, Cyclops and Xavier alive. Logan asks Xavier for information about modern history from 1973 to the present, and, realizing that the Wolverine from the original timeline has returned, the professor assents. Back in 1973, the younger Logan is rescued by Raven, who is disguised as Major William Stryker.

In a post-credits scene set in ancient Egypt, a crowd is seen chanting to En Sabah Nur, who telekinetically elevates building blocks to build pyramids, as four horsemen observe him from afar.