Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past really kicked off the week right with the release of its second epic theatrical trailer, but we’re not quite done talking about mutants just yet. This morning was the 20th Century Fox presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and the studio not only used the event to put the new trailer on the big screen in the Colosseum of Caesar’s Palace, but also show a reel of brand new footage.
Rather than showing us just random clips or scenes from the movie, the presentation delivered the entire first sequence of the film. (This footage description contains spoilers, so beware!) Beginning in the future timeline, the first shot opens on a desolate wasteland that looks like the grey, destroyed remains of a city, and in the sky we see two ships flying. Slowly the bottoms of the ships open up and we see that they are holding rows and rows of futuristic Sentinels, who are then released and deployed to the ground below.
The scene then moves to a stronghold underground where Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Warpath (Booboo Stewart), Blink (Fan Bing-Bing), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Bishop (Omar Sy), and Sunspot (Adan Canto) are hiding out underground. Sensing that the Sentinels are coming, the group springs into action. Sunspot uses his powers of solar energy absorption to power Bishop’s gun before turning himself into pure energy and Colossus uses his mutation to turn his body into pure metal. Warpath, Blink, and Colossus circle up in a defensive pattern, while Kitty and Bishop sprint off in another direction, using Kitty’s powers to phase through anything that gets in their way. From there the battle begins.
The Sentinels blast their way in through the walls and the mutants begin to fight back. Sunspot hits one of them with a fire blast, temporarily stunning it, but Colossus has less luck in his match-up, getting slammed by the robot into the ground. Warpath is able to hold his own with his blades, cutting up one of the baddies with his knives, while Blink opens up a wormhole and reveals that Ice Man (Shawn Ashmore) is with the mutants in the bunker too. Sharing a quick look with Kitty as she runs by with Bishop, Ice Man goes from his human form into ice and travels through Blink’s wormhole to join the battle against the Sentinels.
Unfortunately, that’s when things start to very wrong. In their battles against the various mutants, the Sentinels begin to adapt. The Sentinel fighting against Colossus is able to become the same kind of metal, the one fighting Sunspot is able to cool itself to counteract the heat blasts, and Ice Man’s is able to get super hot and avoid being frozen. Away from the action, Bishop lies down on a table and Kitty puts her hands on either side of his head, using her powers in a way we have never seen her use them before.
Back in the battle, things are coming to an end… and in the worst way possible. Ice Man is decapitated and gets his Ice skull crushed under foot. Blink tries to teleport one of the Sentinels away and winds up getting stabbed through the chest. Colossus is destroyed. Warpath, who is standing against the wall of the room where Kitty and Bishop are, faces off against three Sentinels, but is killed off-screen by a face blast from one of the Sentinels that is used to melt the wall behind him. As the Sentinels get close to Kitty and Bishop, Kitty says, "Too late assholes," and suddenly everything slows down. Kitty, Bishop, the Sentinels, and even all of the various objects in the room disappear and silence takes over. Kitty and Bishop have managed to change the past and, presumably, save their friends.
After that they showed the aforementioned theatrical trailer, which you can watch (or rewatch) below:
Obviously there is a lot of mystery set up by the sequence – where or when did Kitty send Bishop back to? How did she gain that power? – but everything we’ve seen from the movie thus has just intrigued me more and more and raised my excitement level. May 23rd cannot get here soon enough.
