The X-Men: Apocalypse trailer hit today. Along with unveiling James McAvoy in the classic Professor X look, we got a pretty decent amount of info about Apocalypse, his goals, his agents, and who will fight him and where. We’ve broken it all down. Spoilers in the form of rumor and speculation follow.


The trailer starts with a blurry look at Apocalypse taking a stroll through Cerebro.


And then devastation.

Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is prognosticating the end of the world, where she can “feel all this death.”


Even if Professor X (James McAvoy) assures her it’s all a dream. Which seems like a mistake, given that he’s dealing with mutant powers here.


Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) says he has many names as he enters this dark space with what looks like Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Caliban (Tómas Lemarquis). In the comics, Caliban’s power is to sense other mutants within a certain radius and absorb fear energy.


Also, Apocalypse does the creepy uncle “hand under chin” maneuver.


We switch to Charles visiting Moira MacTaggert at the CIA, where she plays exposition fairy, telling him and Alex Summers (Lucas Till) that there have been secret societies around mutants for millennia. They believe that Apocalypse is a god/sign of god/world’s first mutant.


As Apocalypse says, “You are all my children,” we see Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) in his Beast form—he looks pretty defeated here.


We also see Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).


And Jubilee (Lana Condor), who’s at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and rocking her trademark yellow jacket.


In the voiceover, Apocalypse says, “You’re lost because you follow blind leaders.” The shots of Professor X and Magneto make it fairly obvious who he’s referring to.


Moira exposits that Apocalypse always had four followers, and we see Storm, Angel (Ben Hardy), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), and Magneto. They’ll be the four horsemen this time around. In the comics, both Archangel and Psylocke have had their turns as the Horseman of Death. On imdb, the stuntwoman for Storm is listed as Plague, so that could be her role. That leaves War and Famine up for grabs. Although War seems a good match for Magneto.


Apocalypse and his Horsemen get to the door of Cerebro, where Magneto grabs Charles. Interestingly, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) has returned to the X-Men fold.


This scene is cut interestingly. Hank says, “The world needs the X-Men” and the next thing we hear is Mystique saying “That’s why I’m here. To fight.” The backgrounds are clearly different, so these lines are actually from different scenes.


New suits for the X-Men, and the Blackbird has Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean, Moira, and Beast. Missing? Alex Summers—who’s standing with Moira, Mystique, and Beast when Magneto grabs Professor X in the Cerebro scene.


Something’s gone wrong here—four people are knocked out at the bottom of this thing. I think I spy Quicksilver and Moira. They’re not in the suits, though.


Mystique is taking charge here in the ruins of a battle—likely New York, since we see a lot of that city’s destruction in the trailer. She answers Cyclops’ statement that not all of them can control their powers with a “Then don’t.”


Given that this looks like a bathroom stall and Cyclops is in a very stylish-for-the-80s jacket, this is probably a flashback to his powers manifesting.


Tortured Magneto in a ditch.


Apocalypse crushes Charles. Charles is both standing and alone in a darkened mansion. Fighting in the mind, maybe? Vision? Nightmare?


Quicksilver races through the mansion, trying to stop the forces of Apocalypse from getting in? Trying to warn people.




Angel’s got some very metallic wings. All of these cloudy scenes seem to be part of the same New York fight.


Storm hits the Earth.


And Magneto, helmet and all, launches debris.


Explosion at the school from an earlier scene.


“Everything they’ve built will fall, and from the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one,” yells Apocalypse. And, my, doesn’t that last bit look a lot like he’s experiencing Cerebro.


All sorts of devastation wreaked on New York City. Again. And, since this takes place in the 80s, you can see the Twin Towers featured prominently.


With the Cerebro helmet on, Charles says, “I’ve never felt power like this before” and his eyes go black. Coupled with his line earlier in the trailer—”He can control us all”—none of this bodes well for him. He probably gets captured right after.

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