Quick Links

Whenever a movie plays with the rules of the universe, such as time-travel or by giving people special powers, they run the risk of creating unexplainable or nonsensical plot holes. For the most part, fans accept these little mistakes and move on. This is, after all, fiction. We can suspend our disbelief for a couple of hours. Matters get much more complicated, however, when you play with these elements within a franchise films, turning a solo venture into sequels and prequels. In doing this, some of the minor plot holes are expanded into large and unavoidable holes. Still, the best of us turn a blind-eye to these errors. We laugh nervously and think, "It's only a movie". But some things are so bad that we can't ignore them. Some films and film franchises at least warrant discussion. When you take all of these elements, time travel, special powers, and sequels and prequels and add them all up, such as what the X-Men ­film franchise has done, you open the door for discussion. We're simply walking through.

With every new entry to the X-Men franchise, once-small plot holes widen. There are plenty of articles and discussions dedicated to the most egregious of offenses in these films. Ages and actors changing, the convenient ignoring of previous plot points, so many holes that acknowledging them all would take months. Well, we don't care about quantity here. We care about quality. The plot holes on this list are the ones that don't get enough attention. These are the questions that we have and we think more people should be being asking. Here are 15 Plot Holes in The X-Men Movies That No One Is Talking About.

15. Logan and Stryker's Weird Relationship

In X-Men: Days of Future Past, the year is 1973 and the young Stryker (Josh Helman) and Logan (Hugh Jackman) have no knowledge of each other. That's all fine and dandy until you remember the fart bomb of a film that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that film, Stryker (Danny Huston) and Logan first met during a scene that probably takes place during the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War, 1968, five years before the events of Days of Future Past. So, what happened? How did they both forget that they knew each other? Also, why is Stryker like 30 years younger in 1973 than he is in X-2 and Wolverine? We get that actors need to be replaced but come one. This is worse than James McAvoy aging into Patrick Stewart in a few short years.

14. Wolverine Senses

Poor X-Men Origins, so many plot holes in such a short period of time. Ok, so Wolverine has the healing factor as his major mutant power, but he's also got increased senses, like an animal. He's got an enhanced sense of smell and hearing. These senses, however, flicker in and out in the various films. Many of the writers seem to have forgotten about them all together. Take, for example, the death of Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine's girlfriend when he's pretending to be a lumberjack in Origins. When she fakes her own death, they spill animal blood on her to make her seem dead. You would think with Wolverine's wolf-like sense of smell, he would be able to smell the difference in the blood. In other sections of the films, people can even sneak up on Wolverine, which doesn’t seem right.

13. Silverfox

Kayla Silverfox in X-Men Origins: Wolverine has some pretty incredible powers. Simply by touching someone, she can persuade them to do anything she wants. That's what makes her such a great foe. But, as it turns out, Silverfox is not a foe at all. She's only helping Stryker and only faked her death because Stryker has her sister. So it's up to Wolverine to save the day and take down Stryker himself, rescuing everyone in the process. But wait. Why doesn't Silverfox just touch Stryker during one of the several times she's standing next to him. Touch him and tell him to stop what he's doing, stop killing all these mutants. Touch him and tell him to go home. That would have saved Wolverine a lot of trouble.

12. Quicksilver's Powers

Obviously, Quicksilver (Evan Peters) is a character whose powers bring up a lot of questions. How does he effect the environment around him at super speed but some things work as normal? For instance, when he is flying around the room at super speed and changing all the positions of people in the room, you would expect that their bodies would move at the same speed as he was travelling when time goes back to normal. Think about this for a second. He's travelling much faster than bullets, so when he moves those bullets, they should begin to travel at the speed in which they were moved. Same goes for the body parts. If he makes a guy's arm start a punching motion in super speed, it wouldn't punch in normal punch speed when things go back to normal time, it would be a super punch. The arm would be travelling so fast that the fist would tear through the guy's own face when it connected. Then there's the music he listens to. Wouldn't that be in slow motion in his own ears? Just so many questions!

11. Wolverine's Hazy Memory

What Wolverine can and cannot remember is one of the weirdest things in the X-Men films. Even if you argue that all of the experiences in X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened, that still doesn’t explain why in The Wolverine, the film starts off with Logan remembering, in startling detail, WWII and saving a Japanese soldier from the nuclear attack. This brings up a lot of questions as to why he can't remember anything else. We know there's an adamantium bullet in his head that restricts his memories, but c'mon, that's a pretty substantial memory to have from pre-adamantium skeleton days. You can argue that these are uncontrollable flashbacks sure, but, at the end of The Wolverine, his adamantium claws are cut off and he regrows his bone claws. Later, in Days of Future Past, he is sent back in time and he is surprised to see bone claws. Did you forget you had those? That brings up another question. How and when did you get your adamantium claws back?

10. Kitty Pryde's Accuracy

To allow for X-Men: Days of Future Past to exist as a film, and to ensure that one of the stars, Ellen Page, had a substantial role to play in the film, the character of Kitty Pryde is given a new ability that allows her to send a consciousness back in time. Normal people/mutants would die from the process, but Wolverine's healing powers allow him to make the trip. Now Kitty is still working out the process, so we can expect her to struggle to hold Wolverine in the past for as long as she does. The most amazing part of this entire thing and something not addressed, is how the hell she aims at the specific date 50 years in the past in the first place. It's not like she's an expert at this, but somehow she manages to nail down a date almost exactly at the time they wanted. Something smells a little too convenient to us.

9. If Logan Never Met Stryker

When Wolverine is sent back in time in Days of Future Past, it is to a time that he had never met Stryker. Well, if Wolverine never met Stryker—we know this because he doesn't have adamantium on his claws—then how did he get out of the prison he was sent to in Origins in the first place? He should still be locked up for protecting that little Vietnamese girl. Add to that the fact that by going back in time, Wolverine's adamantium skeleton is erased from time. So how the hell does he still have his adamantium claws in the future? Even if they were pretending that Origins never happened in the first place, Wolverine stabbing Kitty (Ellen Page) in the future makes zero sense.

8. Wolverine Can't Swim

In the comics, Wolverine says that he can't swim or that he really struggles at swimming a couple of times, but in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Logan escapes from the Weapon X facility by jumping into the ocean. The guy's weight density is way too intense for him to be able to swim effectively, so the fact that he doesn't drown is remarkable. Then, when he and Gambit return to the facility later in the movie, Wolverine jumps out of the plane into the ocean with plans on swimming like 30 miles to the island. We can buy him swimming small distances with difficulty, but don't you dare try to feed us this nonsense.

7. Cross-Country Motorcycle Ride

In X-Men: The Last Stand, Jean Grey and Magneto have decided to be pals and are hanging out in the forest. Wolverine decides to try and interrupt this love fest, so he rides his motorcycle out there and confronts Jean. Magneto steps up and throws Wolverine away. Wolverine decides that he needs help, so he leaves. Not long after, he is seen in New York recruiting some friends before they attack Magneto and the Brotherhood. Here's the catch. The forest was in California, an entire country away from New York. How the hell did Wolverine get to New York so quickly? That's roughly a 40-hour drive, so even if we cut normal driving time in half, he still gets there about 18 hours too fast for reason.

6. Mystiques Mysterious Age

 

In X-Men: First Class, we are introduced to a teenager Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). We also know that the year is 1962. Now, if you think back to X-Men: The Last Stand, when Mystique is "cured" of her mutantness, she reverts to her human form, which is Rebecca Romijn, maybe mid-30s. But this doesn't make sense because the year is sometime in the early 2000s. That would mean that Mystique should be about 70 years old. Even if you accept that Mystique ages slower than most because of her mutant powers, the "cure" should have eliminated that effect on her aging. Still, seeing a semi-nude Rebecca Romijn is something we shouldn’t be complaining about, especially when the accurate alternative would be a 70-year old naked woman.

5. Magic Bullets

When Wolverine is shot in the head by adamantium bullets at the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it brings into existence a couple of huge plot holes. For one, how do adamantium bullets break through the adamantium skull? The skull is indestructible, so, even if another indestructible thing hit it, it wouldn't break. The gun used to shoot the bullets would have to be a magical gun to make this happen, but it isn't. It's a normal gun. Next, in all the previous X-Men films, how come no one ever saw the bullets lodged in his head? They even took full body X-rays of Wolverine and wondered what was wrong with his memories. Maybe it's those damn metal objects stuck in his brain. C'mon people.

4. Trask, the Martyr

OK, so Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) in X-Men: Days of Future Past is working on the Sentinel program. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) decides to kill him because of his desire to kill mutants. However, once assassinated, Trask becomes a martyr and his Sentinel program that was, at first, turned down gains new life, especially since it was a mutant who killed him. This is why Wolverine has to go back in time to stop the assassination from happening. There's a question though. Instead of sending Wolverine back 50 years to stop the assassination from happening the way it did, why not send Wolverine back further in time to kill Trask before he even starts the Sentinel program, before it officially gets off the ground? Or, if it’s a matter of how far back Wolverine can be sent, then why not have Wolverine kill Trask in his sleep, or make it look like an accident? Just don’t do it the way Mystique did it and things should be okay. That would solve the problem and it would be a lot easier too.

3. Mystique's Powers In Sentinels

In what can only be explained by the filmmakers of Days of Future Past wanting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) to have a bigger role, the sentinels in this film acquire a strange power of adaptation from Mystique's blood. Since Mystique is a shapeshifter, this adapting ability pulled from her blood doesn't really make sense. Even if you accept the possibility that Trask was able to manipulate the blood, it seems odd that they would use Mystique. The real reason this plot hole exists is because it was intended to be Rogue's blood, a mutant with the power to adapt, but Rogue wasn't a major character in these films, so they switched it to Mystique.

2. Magneto's Powers

Like many of the X-Men characters, powers come and go and increase and decrease in strength when it's convenient for the story. One of the most frustrating elements of X-Men: Apocalypse was Magneto's (Michael Fassbender) crazed powers. When Apocalypse augmented Magento's abilities, the guy was tearing the world apart, breaking down the fundamental elements of the Earth. He was epic. But then he decides that maybe he shouldn't destroy the entire planet and he switches teams. But, for whatever reason, Magneto becomes normal Magneto again when his allegiance switches. Now, instead of smashing Apocalypse with every bit of metal between the Earth and Pluto, Magneto is forced to use a few scraps lying around within 10 feet of him.

1. Deadpool's Arms

Maybe we don't want to call him Deadpool since that's not who he is at all, but Weapon XI (Ryan Reynolds) in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an anomaly. We don’t care about all the problems with Weapon XI in comparison with the character of Deadpool, we care about a very simple matter: his sword arms. Look how long his swords are. They're close to the length of Wade's entire arm, both forearm and upper-arm. So, when these things are retracted, the poor guy shouldn't even be able to bend his arms. There is a problem with Wolverine's claws too, but the wrist doesn't bend nearly as much as the arm does, so we'll let it slide. If you ever watch this movie again, when Weapon XI bends his arms, prepare to cringe as you imagine those swords busting out at the seams.

Sources: Wikipedia; IMDB; Movie Clips; Marvel Wikia; Reddit