X-Men: Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men. It is the ninth installment in the X-Men film series and sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). The film was directed by Bryan Singer, and written by Simon Kinberg, and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, and Lucas Till. In the film, the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse is inadvertently revived in 1983 and plans to recreate the world in his own image, leading the X-Men to try to stop him and defeat his team of mutants.

The film was announced by Singer in December 2013, with Kinberg, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris attached to develop the story. Casting began in October 2014, while principal photography commenced in April 2015 in Montreal and ended in August.

X-Men: Apocalypse premiered in London on May 9, 2016, and was released in the United States on May 27 by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $544 million. A sequel, Dark Phoenix, was released in 2019.

Plot

In 3600 BC, the aged but powerful mutant En Sabah Nur rules ancient Egypt. Following a ceremony in which his consciousness is transferred into another man's body in order to gain his healing factor, he and his four followers, the Horsemen of Apocalypse, are betrayed by conspirators. In the process, his followers are killed and he is entombed alive.

In 1983, Scott Summers manifests his mutant powers to shoot concussive kinetic energy blasts from his eyes, so his older brother Alex takes him to Professor Charles Xavier's educational institute, hoping that Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him to control his mutation. Scott meets and befriends Jean Grey upon arriving. In Egypt, En Sabah Nur is awakened by Moira MacTaggert while following a group of worshippers. He meets a mutant who can control weather, Ororo Munroe, and learns about humanity. Determined that humanity has lost its way, he plans to remake the world. Ororo becomes his follower after he enhances her power.

Meanwhile, in Communist Poland, Erik Lehnsherr lives happily with his wife Magda and daughter Nina. During the worldwide disturbances caused by En Sabah Nur's reawakening, Lehnsherr uses his powers to save a coworker during an earthquake, alerting the Milicja Obywatelska. They hold his daughter hostage in the forest to lure him into turning himself in. As tensions rise, Nina heartbrokenly demonstrates her animal communication mutant powers, and the police accidentally kill her and her mother in the ensuing confusion. In despair, Lehnsherr kills the police. In East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven, revered as a mutant hero following the attack on Washington, D.C., rescues Kurt Wagner from a cage fight and requests black marketeer Caliban to transport Kurt to America. He reveals Lehnsherr's situation to her, leading Raven to take Kurt and request Xavier to find and rescue Lehnsherr. En Sabah Nur recruits Caliban's assistant Psylocke and another cage fighter Angel, and enhances both of their powers.

En Sabah Nur finds Lehnsherr and takes him back to Auschwitz, showing him the true extent of his powers; Lehnsherr destroys the camp and joins En Sabah Nur. When Xavier contacts Lehnsherr, En Sabah Nur remotely accesses Cerebro and forces Xavier to make countries launch their nuclear arsenals into space to prevent interference. He and his Four Horsemen arrive at the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Alex attempts to stop them but causes an explosion that destroys the mansion. Peter Maximoff, having learned he is Lehnsherr's biological son, arrives and uses his super-speed to evacuate everyone except Alex, who Hank states was closest to the blast. Colonel William Stryker's forces, believing Xavier to be responsible, capture McCoy, Raven, Peter, and MacTaggert, and take them for interrogation. Scott, Jean, and Kurt secretly follow them and liberate their comrades using Stryker's experiment Weapon X, whose memories Jean partially restores.

Lehnsherr uses his powers to alter the Earth's magnetic field, causing destruction across the planet. En Sabah Nur plans to transfer his consciousness into Xavier's body to gain his psychic powers. Xavier sends a telepathic distress call to Jean and the others, who travel to Cairo to battle En Sabah Nur and his Four Horsemen. They rescue Xavier and flee in a plane. When Angel and Psylocke attack the plane, Kurt teleports his friends away. Psylocke manages to jump safely and escape, but Angel is killed in the plane crash.

Lehnsherr and Ororo turn on En Sabah Nur and keep him occupied physically with Scott's help while Xavier fights him telepathically in the astral plane. Xavier begs Jean to unleash the full strength of her abilities, and she incinerates En Sabah Nur. Xavier restores MacTaggert's memory and they reconcile. Lehnsherr and Jean help reconstruct the school, but Lehnsherr turns down Xavier's offer to stay and help teach; Peter decides not to tell Lehnsherr yet about their relationship. Using confiscated Sentinels, McCoy and Raven train the new X-Men recruits: Scott, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, and Peter.

In a post-credits scene, vials of Weapon X's blood are placed in a briefcase belonging to the Essex Corporation.