The opening scene of a movie is essential for obvious reasons. The first thing you see when you’re watching a movie is what sets the tone for the rest of the experience. It also usually introduces the core themes of the film. Or, at least the seeds that will become those themes. And of course, the most important thing about a movie’s opening scene is… It’s almost always something cool. One thing is clear: whether it’s the opening kill in Scream, the opening heist in The Dark Knight, or even the beginning of Fight Club, which starts at the end of the movie. Your opening scene needs to hook the audience in. And folks, come in close- because today we’re talking about the opening scene from X-Men 2 and my fanboy brain is buzzing right now. Most of you probably know this scene already, and if you’re like me, it lives rent-free in your brain and pops up at random times, and you can’t control it. But that’s how good it is. The scene introduces a fan-favorite character, it delivers on insane visuals and power-signatures, it sets up a massive conflict between mutants and humankind, and it even scares the shit of you. So let’s talk about it.
2003’s X2: X-Men United is the second installment in the Fox X-Men film series, and probably one of the most fondly remembered of the bunch. The movie finds a way to build on the first film’s events, while also providing some context and plot lines from the past, which would be paid off in the later prequel, which explored Wolverine’s origins. And man, I’m sure glad we’re not talking about that movie today.
So, this movie chooses to open with a stealthy assassination mission, which becomes un-stealthy pretty quickly. We start with a group of tourists taking a tour of the White House. The tour guide reads a quote from Abe Lincoln about equality, which (as we know) is well-suited for any X-Men story, as this is at the core of the super-team’s identity. While the tour continued, we noticed one of the group members wasn’t like the others. The way the scene builds up and teases us is perfectly paced to keep us guessing long enough to make the reveal worth it. The first minute of the scene is just a series of vague puffs of blue smoke and eerie compositions around this highly secured building. The scene’s tone is menacing and wants us to feel on edge. When a security guard stops a mysterious man in a long trench coat, we’re teased one last time when the man looks up to reveal pale, flesh-toned makeup caked on his face. Let’s take a second to talk about this because I think it’s more than an uncanny attempt to look human.
Starting with Nightcrawler, this scene is more than just fan service for X-Men fans who love the character. Instead, I think the choice to use this specific character is because it introduces a unique new idea to these movies in that this is the first time we see a mutant that doesn’t look human trying to disguise themselves. While the previous film had characters like Mystique, Sabertooth, and Toad who had clear physical mutations- Mystique can look human at will. Sabertooth and Toad never had to hide their appearances from humans. Seeing a character we all know is blue and would obviously stand out, having to wear make-up and sunglasses to blend in, introduces us to the idea that mutants can’t feel comfortable being in public if they look different. Something that gets paid off later in the film with one of my favorite lines.
So, before our security guard can fully register the disturbing look of the stranger before him, Nightcrawler’s tale creeps up from behind him, and the action begins. This is the moment that I’d say fully confirms that the mysterious mutant we’ve been following is Nightcrawler. And now that we know for sure it’s him, let’s see some of those powers!
In this scene, Nightcrawler teleports about 100 times, pulls off some slick parkour, engages in aerial combat, and uses his tail as an extra limb. You can’t really ask for a better introduction to this character. It feels epic. Like they knew the audience was going to go nuts for this. And they were right.
The character of Nightcrawler was first introduced in Giant-Sized X-Men No. 1 in 1975. His real name is Kurt Wagner, and he’s a German catholic circus performer who uses his unique gifts to entertain humans. The thing about the character is that his religion and faith are his grand motivator, despite being described in the comics as a demon. He’s different from the other X-Men in that he lives to serve his faith, not his kind. He even goes as far as to preach to the other X-Men in numerous stories to try to convert them. The guy is all about that life. So, why would he be bouncing around the White House, taking out guards and making such a terroristic ruckus? Well, he’s being mind-controlled, but we don’t know that yet. For this scene, they just want us to focus on how sick this shit is.
Alan Cumming was cast as Nightcrawler for this film and while I guess you’d look at him now and see a well-dressed Scotsman, he’s actually quite a chameleon when it comes to taking on other accents and characters. He’s very much a character actor to the fullest extent, and he RIPS it here. It’s perfect. The role calls for a very lean actor who can emulate the shy and fearful traits that Kurt is known for. Minus seeing Alan in a classic Nightcrawler uniform, this movie fully delivers on representing the character faithfully. It took from 4-6 hours in the makeup chair every day for Cumming to achieve the look, which included adding silicon scars to most of his body before airbrushing him blue and giving him false teeth and yellow contact lenses to complete the demonic look. And I did hear a quote from the actor recently stating that his return to the character for Avengers Doomsday was able to cut the make-up application to about 90 minutes – I just hope it looks as good this.
So, after knocking out all of the Secret Service outside of the Oval Office, it’s time for Kurt to get into a room with this movie’s president and complete the mission. This sequence is pure indulgent goodness with bullets flying, Nightcrawler teleporting around, throwing kicks and tail whips, and even some glorious slow motion. We NEED to look at the body count in this scene, let’s tally them up! It’s something like 23, but honestly, it’s hard to keep track. I also like the little things in this scene that add to the themes explored later in the movie and the series. When one of the Secret Service agents is talking on his earpiece, he says this line: “It’s outside the office.”
He referred to Nightcrawler as “it”. Now, for this specific character, I can’t say I blame the guy, and I also think it’s hard to tell what exactly you’re dealing with when they keep teleporting around like that- BUT it does also show us how humans (or at least the government) think of mutants. They aren’t people, they’re “it”. Of course, Magneto sees mutants as the next step in human evolution, making them superior to non-mutants. Personally, I think it would be cool to be able to teleport so…
So now it’s down to just Nightcrawler and the President. All of the ass kicking and gunplay we’ve endured in the last few minutes has led up to this shot- Kurt subduing the president and pulling out a very sharp dagger. Again, this isn’t subtle, but the dagger has a ribbon on it that says “Mutant Freedom Now,” which tells us why Nightcrawler was doing all of this to begin with. And with that, the scene fades to white and ends. Now, I probably don’t need to tell you that this is the first scene in the movie- there’s a full-on war brewing with humans and mutants as a direct result. And there are a few twists to make this all a riveting story.
This scene will forever go down as one of my favorite introductions to a character in all of cinema. It’s iconic for the reasons we discussed, I love it because it’s awesome, and I’ll be the first in line to get my tickets to Avengers: Doomsday to revisit this beloved character again. God, I hope it’s good. Like, please, please be good. The X-Men are my babies, and I just need this, okay, Feige? OKAY?!
