X-Men

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In the near future, when children are being born with a special X-Factor in their genes giving them special powers and making them "mutants", the seeds of a new Holocaust are being sown by Senator Robert Kelly. The situation brings fellow mutants and former friends Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Magneto, and Professor Charles Xavier into opposition. While Xavier seeks to stop the hatred toward mutants peacefully, Magneto seeks to even things out with a machine that would speed up the mutation process in all humans, making everyone equal. To stop Magneto, Xavier brings together a special group of mutants called "X-Men" to stop him. In the meantime, 2 mysterious mutants, one named Logan, a powerful and agressive mutant with no past, no memories, and a young girl named Rogue emerge. Their quests for identities eventually land them in the sights of Xavier and Magneto, but for what purpose?

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Dougray Scott was cast to play Wolverine. He had to leave the project because of his work on Mission: Impossible II (2000).

Hugh Jackman took cold showers to help him create the character Wolverine's trademark "berserk rage."

There were three types of Wolverine claw - plastic, wood, and steel and more than 700 individual claw blades were used by Hugh Jackman and his four stunt doubles.

Mystique's "costume" consisted of blue dye and a handful of small, strategically placed plastic scales. It took seven hours to apply the finished look.

When in full Mystique makeup, about 60 percent of Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' body was covered in prostheses.

Most of the eye effects were done by using special contact lenses that the actors found very uncomfortable to wear. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Mystique) could only wear her lenses for an hour at a time and had only 10% vision. Halle Berry (Storm) was supposed to wear opaque white lenses for the scenes where she uses her weather-control powers. However, she found the lenses unbearable, so her eye effects had to be done entirely through CGI.

Ten Wolverine costumes were built out of thick leather and PVC, and were designed to take a beating. All of them were destroyed to some extent during filming.

Hugh Jackman had to undergo training from a hand-to-hand combat specialist to learn how to handle the Wolverine claws.

The control stick that Cyclops uses to pilot the X-Men jet is a CH brand "Flightstick Pro" computer joystick.

Bryan Singer had an actor dressed in a Spiderman suit confront the actors on set one day as a joke. Realizing that he's in the wrong movie, Spidey backs off (this can be seen as an "Easter Egg" on the DVD edition of the movie).

Despite being 6'1", James Marsden had to wear platform shoes so that he would appear taller than Hugh Jackman (6'2").

After knocking Storm down an elevator shaft, Toad (Ray Park) kicks away the bar that was holding the elevator doors open, grabs the bar, spins it over his head and then holds it in an attack posture in the same way he does with the double-ended lightsaber as Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).

When Wolverine first explores the school he's wearing black pants, no shirt or shoes, and is confronted by mirrors. This echoes Bruce Lee's appearance in Enter the Dragon (1973).

Many of the X-Men from the comics who don't have major roles in the film appear as minor characters in the school. Among them are: Jubilee, the Asian-American girl wearing a yellow jacket, hoop earrings with sunglasses above her forehead; Shadowcat, also known as Kitty Pryde; Colossus; Iceman, aka Bobby Drake, and Pyro.

George Buza, the trucker, portrayed the voice of Beast in the "X-Men" (1992) animated series.

Ian McKellen's character, Magneto, is a Jew who survived the Holocaust. In Apt Pupil (1998), also directed by Bryan Singer McKellen portrays a Nazi who committed Holocaust atrocities.

When Wolverine complains about their outfits, Cyclops asks him if he'd prefer yellow spandex. This in-joke refers to the fact that the X-Men's costumes in the comics are predominantly yellow spandex. Incidentally, after the sucess of this movie, the costume designs of the comics were changed to a "black leather" design similar to the one's worn in the film.

After a defeated Storm re-enters the fight, Toad complains, "Don't you people ever die?" This is an in-joke since, in the comics, almost all of the characters featured have "died" at least once, then come back.

The character Kitty Pryde (the girl who walks through the wall) was originally named after a real-life girl X-Men artist John Byrne knew in Calgary, Canada. When the movie was released there, local media managed to track down the "real" Kitty Pryde.

Toad was originally a hunchback, but that was changed so as not to interfere with Ray Park's martial arts abilities.

The sunglasses Cyclops wears are Oakley "X-Metals", more specifically, the "Juliet" style with Ruby lenses. In keeping with the mythos of the comic book character, Cyclops must wear lenses with some form of ruby protection to contain his optic blasts which are uncontrollable without them.

Cameo: Stan Lee the X-Men creator and executive producer is a man near a hot dog stand on the beach when Senator Kelly comes out of the water.

Cameo: David Hayter the writer of X Men appears as one of the cops near the end.

The police officer stabbed by Sabertooth in front of the Statue of Liberty was played by D.B. Sweeney, who is a fan of the X-Men and had tried out for the part of Cyclops.

Michael Chabon was approached to write the script.

Senator Kelly's line at the beginning of the movie about having a list of known mutants living in the United States is based on Senator Joseph McCarthy's famous speech about having a list of known communists working in the State Department.

While the WGA credits approbation, several writers involved in writing the screenplay decided to not be credited, and David Hayter received sole credit. The writers who contributed uncredited are: Ed Solomon, Christopher McQuarrie, Joss Whedon, James Schamus & John Logan.

WWE wrestler Kevin Nash was offered the role of Sabretooth, but he turned it down due to schedule conflicts.

After the film was completed, the wheelchair that the character Professor Xavier used was sold in an auction to Patrick Stewart's attorney, and then rented back by the production company for X2 (2003).

Wolverine's line, "What do they call you, 'Wheels?'" was an ad-lib by Hugh Jackman (the scripted line was, "What do they call you, Baldie?").

James Marsden turned down a role in Soul Survivors (2001), in order to take part in this movie.

The bar scenes were shot in the same brewery as the concentration camp scenes.

The last scene shot in Canada as part of principal photography was the first scene in the movie - that of rain falling on mud in the concentration camp.

Neither Patrick Stewart nor Sir Ian McKellen know how to play chess.

Angela Bassett turned down the role of Storm, while Aaron Eckhart and Viggo Mortensen were both considered for the role of Wolverine

Sarah Michelle Gellar was considered for the role of Rogue

Bryan Singer wrote the dialogue between Wolverine and Cyclops when Cyclops refers to 'yellow spandex' specifically to have a dig at fans on the internet who complained about the X-Men's costumes.

In the Hamilton location (the train station scenes), the director, Bryan Singer, was mistaken for an onlooker, and has harassed by a policeman, not letting him join the production team for some moments.

In the bar scene, after the fight where Wolverine gains some money, the guy behind the man that accuses Wolverine of cheating is Malcolm Nefsky, the film's best boy grip. Because of the way the scene was filmed, someone was needed to deliver the line, and he was called because no certified "extra" was nearby.

The last scenes to be shot were the ones where Senator Kelly (Bruce Davidson) emerges from water (in Santa Monica, California). They were shot in early May, and the film was released on the last days of July.

Hugh Jackman got his testicles caught in his harness after a 6 foot jump off the set's Statue of Liberty.

The Mansion used as the Xavier school, is the same one Billy and his family lived in in Billy Madison (1995)

Joss Whedon wrote a draft version of the script, but the suggestions he made to fix what he felt were fundamental problems with the film were not incorporated. Only two pieces of dialogue from his rewrite appeared in the final film. One is the exchange when Cyclops doesn't know if Wolverine is an impostor ("Prove it!" "You're a dick"); the other is Storm's "Do you know what happens when a toad gets hit by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else." which he imagined as a lighthearted, offhand line.

Numerous actors were considered for the role of Wolverine. Bryan Singer talked to Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and Edward Norton, while Fox were interested in Keanu Reeves.

During a scene with Rogue, it is possible to see Bobby "Iceman" Drake's breath even though it seems to be midsummer (an after effect of his ice-powers?). Fans noticed this detail and credited to director Bryan Singer's dedication to the story and the particulars of each character's powers. However, it was a mistake and never noticed nor intended for the film (in fact, the Iceman character is being impersonated by Mystique at the time). The effect was intentionally added to the story of the movie's sequel X2 (2003), however, when Iceman and Rogue share a kiss.

Senator Kelly calls his aide "Henry" several times and when he asks Magneto what he's done with Henry Magneto replies "Mr. Gyrich has been dead for some time." In the cartoon and in the comics Henry Gyrich was a member of several United States national security agencies, and was responsible for quite a bit of misery in the X-Men's lives, including causing Storm to lose her powers and ordering the creation of one of the many models of Sentinels.

The very first scene shot for the movie was the World Summit scene on Liberty Island where representatives from each country are greeted. Two of the guests (identified by Bryan Singer as king and queen of Sweden) are played by Bryan Singer's father and stepmother.

Hugh Jackman's physique looks slightly different in different scenes because he was cast 1.5 months after principal photography had started and kept working out extensively while shooting continued.

Patrick Stewart was the very first mutant to be cast.

Although he's 6' 1", James Marsden, who plays Cyclops, had to stand on an apple box to appear taller next to one of the boys in the train station. As a prank, Tyler Mane, who plays Sabretooth, went into Marsden's trailer and set an apple box in his bathroom with a note - "This is so you can reach your sink."

Similar to Magneto's and Rogue's background segments, segments explaining Storm's and Cyclops' backgrounds (where Storm's background segment involved her changing the weather drastically in her home country in Africa and causing vast damage) were scripted and storyboarded but never shot. There was a brief talk to shoot these scenes while shooting X-Men 2 in order to insert them into the X-Men Special Edition DVD, but the idea was later scrapped.

Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' make-up process involved putting on more than 60 self-adhesive prosthetics developed specifically for the movie, followed by air-brushing the blue paint. The make-up team was reluctant in using food coloring for her make-up because of its difficulty to remove, but used it after discovering a new chemical that could very quickly and easily remove food coloring.

Tyler Mane kept the large black contact lenses in for too long one day and was blinded for a day and had to wear bandages.

The film was in development at Carolco Pictures in early-'90s, with James Cameron attached to produce. After James Cameron moved on to Spider-Man and Carolco went bankrupt, the rights became available and were purchased by Fox.

Natalie Portman turned down the offer to play Rogue.

Bruce Davison was the first actor to be cast.

Look for James Marsden's platform shoes as he scales the wall at Liberty Island, after leaving the X-Jet.

The song used for the teaser trailer is "Chinese Burn" by Curve.

In the first X-Men movie, Halle Berry had the African Accent that Storm had in the comic books; but in part 2, she decided not to use the accent.

James Caviezel was originally going to play Cyclops but backed out in the end.

Musician Glenn Danzig, whose muscular physique and height (5'4") almost perfectly matched the Wolverine character portrayed in the comic books, was interviewed for the role of Wolverine. A common myth has it that he was offered a part in the movie, but this confusion occurs largely because Danzig was actually offered the role some ten years earlier - when Carolco held the rights to an X-Men film and was considering a low-budget production. However, due to the high-budget and status of the 2000 production, as well as Danzig's age and relative lack of acting experience, and the requirement that the Wolverine actor be signed to a multi-picture deal spanning several years, it is highly unlikely that Danzig could have won the role in Singer's film. Regardless, a scheduling conflict prevented him from any subsequent pursuit of the role.

28 drafts of the script were written, and halfway through those drafts, the writers were still rewriting the whole story every time.

Jeri Ryan was in the running for Mystique.

Maria Bello was considered for the role of Jean Grey at one point.

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The DVD version contains 10 minutes of extra or re-edited scenes. Several of these are without music or effects. These include:

* A longer sequence with Storm (Halle Berry) teaching class. There is more dialogue between Rogue (Anna Paguin) and Bobby as well as lines from Jubilee and Kitty Pryde. Storm also talks to Rogue about the school.
* Logan (Hugh Jackman) spies on Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) while Cyclops instructs the younger mutants.
* Bobby is shown asking Rogue out to lunch and walking her to her dorm room.
* A longer version of Logan and Jean's talk in his bedroom. Note: Jean's telepathic vision of Logan's past is removed from the full version of the scene.
* A brief talk between Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Jean Grey about telepathic powers.
* "Ready Room" scene contains Cyclops testing Logan to see if he will follow orders.

A film shot but not included in theatrical release or DVD release is a scene during the Senate hearing in the begining of the movie where Jean Grey asks to see the file the Senator has on "Known Muntants" when he refuses Jean, out of impulse, uses her telekenetic powers and draws the folder to her with her arm outstreched. Upon realizing what she did she lets the folder drop and that's when the Senator finishes his speech. This scene is in some versions of the "movie book" and would explain the dialog between Jean and the Professor in the DVD outtake footage where he tells her to remember the "scene in the senate room".

A scene appears in the trailers for the movie but is not included in the theatrical release or in the DVD deleated scenes shows Cyclops and Professer X arguing over Wolverine's joining the team. Cyclops says "He doesn't belong. He doesn't know how to take orders." Professer X retorts "Give him an order worth following and he'll do it."

The initial length for the final cut of the film was approximately 135 minutes. Only 105 minutes were edited. The other footage, whcih includes the flashback sequences were not included due to time constrains or insufficient of time for the finishing of the post-production stage.

The trailers on the DVD are different from the trailers originally released during the first half of 2000. One of the more notable differences is the sequence where Sabertooth tries to throw Wolverine off the Statue of Liberty: the original trailer had Wolverine swinging around the crown spire live-action (with the obvious aid of wires). In the final cut of the movie, this sequence is replaced with CGI.

In the original teaser trailer (not the DVD version) there is a clip of Cyclops pressing the button on his visor with no result, only red background lighting. (The first trailer includes the exact same clip with the CG red blast inserted.)

In February 2003 a special 2 disc version of X-Men will be released with the title changed to X-Men 1.5, and will include 24 deleted scenes in the supplemental features section.

The trailers have a quick shot of Mystique inside the elevator at Xavier's school. This wasn't included in the final release.

For the cable network FX, Wolverine's response "You're a dick" is replaced with "You're a dork."