Phase Zero
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X2

2003Film133 minX-MenEarth-10005

A military scientist raids the school for mutant children, and the two sides who spend every film arguing have to work together.

The first film had to explain what a mutant was. This one does not, and it uses the room that buys to do something the genre rarely tries: it puts the heroes and the villains on the same side without pretending the argument between them has been settled.

William Stryker is a soldier who wants every mutant on Earth dead and has the machinery to do it. Against that, the school and the Brotherhood are the same minority with two strategies, and the film is honest that only one of them was ever going to be proved right by the ending.

Show detailsTwo titles, one film

It was marketed with the subtitle X-Men United and released internationally as X-Men 2, which is also how the Italian release names it. The film’s own titles say only X2.

Who is in it

How it connects

Watching these first makes this one land.

  1. X-Men2000

This one sets these up.

  1. X-Men: The Last Stand2006

Sources

Facts last checked on Sep 7, 2026

Released: May 2, 2003