X-Men Powers: Every Mutant Ability Explained and Ranked

Wolverine's main powers are a healing factor and a metal skeleton, and the films keep changing the rules for both. In x men origins wolverine (2009), directed by Gavin Hood, James Howlett and his half-brother Victor Creed learn as boys that they cannot easily be killed, then spend roughly a century fighting in every major American war. Major William Stryker later has adamantium bonded to Logan's skeleton, and in x2 x men united (2003) Magneto explains that Stryker gave Wolverine that metal.

The healing has limits. In x men the last stand, his healing makes him resistant to Jean Grey's power, which is why he is the only one who can get close to her. In the wolverine 2013, directed by James Mangold, a robotic parasite on his heart suppresses the healing until he cuts it out, and a giant Silver Samurai suit slices off his adamantium claws. By logan 2017 the healing is fading, and he relies on a drug that briefly restores his strength. Hugh Jackman plays him in all three solo films, and the wolverine movies in order guide follows that run. For his full profile, see wolverine x men.

Storm commands the weather, and the clearest showcase comes in X2 (2003), when she creates a snowstorm inside the Cerebro chamber to break Stryker's hold on Professor Xavier. Halle Berry introduces her in X-Men (2000), where she and Cyclops rescue Logan and Rogue from Sabretooth and bring them to Xavier's mansion.

Her role grows as the original cast thins out. In The Last Stand the X-Men are led by Storm after the losses in the struggle, and she takes over the school by the end. In X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), directed by Singer, a younger Ororo Munroe, played by Alexandra Shipp, is recruited by Apocalypse, who makes her stronger, and she later turns on him alongside Magneto. Her full story, as both a villain's recruit and a team leader, is on the storm x men page.

Magneto controls magnetism, which in the films means he can bend, move and turn metal against his enemies. The first sign is a boy bending a gate at a camp in 1944, shown in both X-Men (2000) and x men first class (2011), directed by Matthew Vaughn. In First Class, Erik kills Sebastian Shaw with a coin and later turns navy missiles back on the ships that fired them.

The scale climbs in later films. In x men days of future past (2014) he takes control of the prototype Sentinels and attacks Washington, D.C., and in Apocalypse he tears the world's metal apart. His prison cell in X-Men (2000) is plastic, and the Pentagon holds him in a deep cell in 1973. Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender play the two eras, and the cure in The Last Stand strips his power, though a chess piece twitching at the end hints that some may remain. See magneto for his full story.

Beast is Hank McCoy, and the films use him mainly as a recurring member of Xavier's circle across both the original and First Class eras. Kelsey Grammer plays Dr. Henry McCoy in The Last Stand, and Nicholas Hoult plays the younger Hank from First Class onward.

In First Class, Hank is one of the young mutants Charles and Erik recruit to fight Shaw. In Days of Future Past he helps the 1973 Xavier, and in Apocalypse he and Raven train a new team made up of Scott, Jean, Ororo, Kurt and Peter. By Dark Phoenix (2019), directed by Simon Kinberg, he blames Jean for Raven's death and joins Magneto, who wants to hunt her down. The films show Hank through his choices more than through one signature power scene. For more on him, see beast x men.

Rogue cannot touch anyone because her skin drains the powers and the life force of whoever she touches. In X-Men (2000), Marie runs away from home after a kiss puts her boyfriend into a coma, and she meets Logan in Canada.

Magneto later takes her because he plans to use her absorbing power to run his machine, a plan that would kill her. Logan saves her by giving her some of his healing power, which leaves him in a coma. In X2 she escapes Stryker's raid with Wolverine, Iceman and Pyro, and in The Last Stand she chooses to stay on as a student. Anna Paquin plays her throughout the original trilogy. The touch is both her curse and, for Magneto, her value, and the full profile is at rogue x men.

Professor X is a telepath, and the films pair his mind with Cerebro, the machine that amplifies it. In X-Men (2000), Mystique sabotages Cerebro and leaves Xavier in a coma. In X2, Stryker plans to use a second Cerebro, powered by his mutant son, to kill mutants. In Apocalypse, the villain uses Cerebro to reach minds across the planet and tries to take over Xavier's body, but Xavier fights him on the mental plane long enough for Magneto and Storm to turn on him.

The powers carry costs too. In First Class a stray bullet leaves Charles paralyzed, in Days of Future Past a drug that lets him walk costs him his telepathy, and in Logan his failing mind makes his abilities dangerous. Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy share the role, and professor x has the full character profile.

Jean Grey is a telekinetic whose power grows into the Phoenix, and the films tell that story three times. In X2, she holds back the flood from the dam so the X-Jet can take off, and she is lost. In The Last Stand, directed by Brett Ratner, she returns with the dark Phoenix side in control, kills Cyclops, wrecks the Grey family home and sides with Magneto before Wolverine is forced to stop her.

The younger version arrives in Apocalypse, where Sophie Turner's Jean lets her full Phoenix power loose and destroys the villain. Dark Phoenix then retells the origin: in 1975 a child Jean causes a car crash with her telekinesis, and in 1992 she absorbs a cosmic force during a space shuttle rescue, which makes her far stronger and less stable. Famke Janssen played the original; see jean gray for both.

Apocalypse is En Sabah Nur, the first mutant, and his signature ability is making other mutants stronger while preparing to move his mind into a new body. Oscar Isaac plays him in Apocalypse, where he is awakened in 1983 and recruits Storm, Psylocke and Angel, then boosts each of their abilities. Erik Lehnsherr becomes a fourth Horseman after a terrible loss in Poland.

His plan is to take over Xavier's body, which would give him the telepath's reach through Cerebro. A post credit scene in Days of Future Past shows him in ancient Egypt, worshipped as he uses his powers to raise stones for the pyramids. He is stopped only when Jean Grey unleashes the Phoenix, which tells you where the film places him in the pecking order.

Magik is Illyana Rasputin, and her power is sorcery. In The New Mutants she fetches her Soulsword and armor from her own magical realm to hold the line against the Demon Bear, and Anya Taylor-Joy plays her as hostile and mistrustful toward the newcomer Dani.

The rest of the team shows a spread of abilities. Dani Moonstar's powers pull the worst fears and memories out of people, and the Demon Bear is the creature born from her own fear. Sam can fly and is hard to injure, Roberto can burn with sun like heat, and Rahne turns into a wolf. Dr. Reyes holds them in a hospital while claiming to train them as X-Men. Find the film at the new mutants.

Iceman is Bobby Drake, played by Shawn Ashmore, and as the codename suggests, his abilities center on ice. He appears in X2, where he escapes Stryker's raid with Wolverine, Rogue and Pyro, and the group visits his family in Boston, where police turn on them before Storm and Jean rescue the team in the X-Jet.

He returns in The Last Stand and in Days of Future Past, where Ashmore is credited as Bobby / Iceman. The Boston scene shows what a mutant's family has to face.

The supporting mutants cover the rest of the powers the films use. Mystique shifts shape, and her disguises drive plots: she poses as Bobby in X-Men (2000), as Wolverine in X2 to get the team into Stryker's dam, and as Senator Kelly to escape at the end of the first film. Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence share the role.

Nightcrawler is a teleporting mutant who attacks the President in X2, played by Alan Cumming and later Kodi Smit-McPhee. In Days of Future Past, Kitty Pryde, played by Elliot Page, sends a person's mind back a short time, and the survivors use that to send Wolverine's mind to 1973. Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, is the fast moving mutant they recruit to break Magneto out. In the spin-offs, Deadpool's latent mutation heals his cancer but scars his skin, and Cable is a soldier from the future who travels in time. See deadpool 2016 and deadpool 2.

In the Fox films, nearly every major power comes with a price, and in my opinion that is the series' best habit. Rogue's touch hurts the people she loves, Jean's Phoenix force costs her control, Wolverine's healing fades in Logan, and Xavier loses his telepathy to a drug that lets him walk in Days of Future Past. Even Deadpool's healing leaves him scarred. The Last Stand turns the idea into a plot: Worthington Labs offers a cure, and the public argues over whether it is a treatment or a threat.

Perhaps that is why the most memorable set pieces tend to be about limits rather than scale. The X2 flood works because Jean has to choose, and the Alcatraz battle works because Magneto can lose his powers. If the next film wants to match them, it should keep the cost visible. Marvel Studios' next X-Men film is dated May 5, 2028 in US theaters and is to be directed by Jake Schreier, according to TheWrap, and you can follow it at new x men movie.

My ranking of the strongest mutants in the Fox films puts Jean Grey first, because the one character who ends Apocalypse is the one with the biggest power. It is opinion, built on what each film actually shows, and I left Beast and Iceman out of the ten because the films give them fewer decisive moments.

1. Jean Grey: she holds back a flood in X2, absorbs a cosmic force in Dark Phoenix and destroys Apocalypse.
2. Apocalypse: the first mutant boosts his followers and nearly takes Xavier's body, and only the Phoenix beats him.
3. Magneto: he tears the world's metal apart in Apocalypse and takes over Sentinels in Days of Future Past.
4. Professor X: his mind holds Apocalypse on the mental plane while the others turn the fight.
5. Storm: a snowstorm in the Cerebro chamber breaks the hold on Xavier in X2.
6. Magik: her Soulsword and armor come from a realm of her own.
7. Wolverine: the healing and the adamantium are formidable, though the films keep taking them away.
8. Rogue: she can absorb powers and life force, which is exactly what Magneto wants her for.
9. Kitty Pryde: sending a mind back in time makes the whole Days of Future Past plan possible.
10. Quicksilver: his speed breaks Magneto out of the Pentagon.

If you want to see these abilities in sequence, follow the x men movies in order guide.