The X-Men are falling; the jet is destroyed in a huge explosion above them. Colossus turns into his metal form and safely crashes to the ground, Nightcrawler teleports down, and Storm catches Wolverine and Cyclops, lowering them to the ground easily. All of them are questioning why Phoenix has suddenly turned against them. But she only refers to herself as Dark Phoenix, saying she has no friends, that their paths will cross no more, and that her destiny lies in the stars. Dark Phoenix quickly beats the X-Men. They’re all lying on the ground, unconscious.
Flashback to five minutes earlier -
Shaw and Senator Kelly are outside the Hellfire Club directing the police to find the X-Men. The police say they are not equipped to fight the X-Men, and that Shaw and Kelly should contact the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, or SHIELD for help. Shaw suggests an alternative way to fight the X-Men and Kelly is intrigued, asking what this alternative is. “Sentinels,” says Shaw. Just then, a huge flame in the shape of a bird (a phoenix, actually) appears in the sky.
Heroes from all over detect Dark Phoenix - Mr. Fantastic says he is registering energy that could rival the power of Galactus, Spider-Man’s spider sense goes crazy, Dr. Strange senses great evil, and the Silver Surfer says he senses a child of the stars.
Dark Phoenix flies into outer space, passing an Avengers jet on the way. Inside is Hank McCoy aka Beast. He recognizes the object flying past him as Phoenix and he fears the X-Men are in trouble. He lands in the park where the X-Men lay in a pile of defeated, unconscious mutants. Beast helps them all to their feet.
Back at Angel’s home in New Mexico, Professor Xavier is talking with Moira about a tremendous burst of psionic energy that he felt. Moira confirms Xavier’s suspicions that it was Phoenix. And Phoenix is out of control.
Charles tells Angel they must head back to New York immediately.
Back in space, Dark Phoenix flies past the sun and a United Nations spaceship with none other than Dr. Corbeau on board, see issues #108 and before. Dark Phoenix flies past Jupiter, creates a star-gate, and enters a galaxy far, far away. Here she begins to feel hungry and she consumes a nearby star, called D’Bari, killing the inhabitants of eleven planets in the star’s solar system.
Nearby is a Shi’ar Imperial Battle Cruiser. They realize that the entity that destroyed the sun was a lifeforms, and that when the sun was destroyed, so were the lives of 5 billion people. The Shi’ar want revenge as D’Bari was allied with their Empire. They begin to fire at Dark Phoenix - big mistake! Dark Phoenix attacks the Cruiser. The Cruiser’s captain makes contact with Empress Lilandra, but it’s too late and the Cruiser explodes. Lilandra recognizes the Phoenix, saying her fears have come to pass.
Back at Xavier’s mansion, through his psychic rapport with Jean, Cyclops senses that Dark Phoenix is returning to Earth - and she’s hungry!
I got to see Dark Phoenix today so I decided to give you all a summary of the movie! Overall it was a very grounded and focused film that follows the struggle that Jean goes through after coming into contact with a powerful force and the ensuing conflict between the members of the X-Men on how to handle the situation. Keep on reading for my in depth spoiler filled movie summary!
Summary:
Dark Phoenix opens with Jean as a young girl traveling with her parents as her powers begin to manifest, an accident occurs because of this and Jean’s mother is killed. We are led to believe that Jean’s father also died but we later find out that he is in fact alive and no longer wanted anything to do with Jean after the death of her mother so he gave her over to Charles Xavier who then raised her in the X-Mansion. After all the trauma caused by the accident and the fact that her father gave her away, Charles decides to put up walls in Jean’s mind to “protect” her from the truth and instead tells her that her father also died.
We then flash forward into the 90′s where NASA sends a group of astronauts into space but their mission is quickly ended when they encounter what they believe to be a solar flare that damages their ship. The President himself contacts Charles Xavier, as the X-Men are now viewed as Heroes, and asks him personally if they can help. Jean at first is a bit apprehensive of this mission and notices that Mystique is as well, she asks Mystique if she is comfortable with this mission and Mystique promises that if anything goes wrong she will turn the ship around. The team boards the X-Jet and heads off to space. After saving the crew the “solar flare” begins to intensify and Mystique demands that they leave, but Charles tells them they have to stay as one more members of the NASA crew is on board. Jean and Kurt go back onto the ship to save him but when the “solar flare” hits the ship Kurt is only able to save himself and the crew member. The force enters Jean and causes the NASA ship to explode, but surprisingly Jean is saved by the force and is brought back on board via Kurt and they go home.
Back on Earth the X-Men are praised for their heroism and Charles attends a ceremony to honor himself and the X-Men. Mystique questions Charles motives as she believes he is putting the X-Men’s lives at risk for his shot at fame and glory and isn’t considering anyone else. Hank checks up on Jean and notices that her powers are beginning to grow off the charts but Jean assures him and everyone else that she feels better then okay. Jean, Scott, Kurt, Quicksilver and Storm attend a mutant party with Dazzler as the entertainment as Mystique and Hank watch from the mansion. Mystique tells Hank she doesn’t believe Charles is leading the team for the right reasons and never actually puts himself on the line but is reckless with everyone else. She tells Hank she wants to leave the X-Men and live a normal life now that mutants aren’t hated as much as they were before. Hank convinces her to stay right before they notice Jean’s power levels rising. At the party Scott tells Jean that the kids are calling her Phoenix after the mythological bird that rises from the ashes after her near death experience. Jean continuously drinks more and more and begins to lose control of the entity within herself as she notices the raging fire at the party. The noises around her begin to intensify and she lets out a shock wave of energy that throws everyone to the ground and she passes out. Charles leaves the ceremony after sensing the trouble Jean is in and returns to the mansion to try and enter Jean’s mind to see what is happening with her. With the entity now inside of Jean her powers have grown far stronger and Charles is no longer able to read her mind so he, Hank and Mystique enter Cerebro to enhance his powers. They enter Jean’s mind where Raven notices that her mind appears damaged and closed off. Charles reveals that he put up walls in Jean’s mind to protect her but with the force inside of her and her growing power the walls are beginning to break. Jean awakens and realizes her father is still alive and forcefully throws Charles out of her head upon discovering he lied to her. Jean decides to leave the mansion and find her father. Scott runs into the room after her forcing Charles out of her head to see if she is ok and Jean realizes that she hurt him at the party which only makes her want to leave more. Scott tells her that he will always stay by her side and asks her to stay. Jean puts him to sleep and leaves the mansion. After awakening, Scott informs the others that she left to find her father whom he thought was dead. Everyone begins to realize what Charles did and they quickly board the jet to find Jean.
Several alien ships arrive on Earth and split off in different directions. A get together at the home of a woman named Margaret is interrupted as her dog barks outside due to the alien ships outside. She leaves the party briefly to go investigate the reason of her dog’s barking and encounters the aliens themselves who kill her and and one impersonates her before they murder the rest of the party to impersonate them as well.
Jean arrives at her father and childhood home and knocks on the door, shocking him. He lets her inside and they awkwardly hold small talk with Jean being excited and emotional to see him after believing he was dead and her father being closed off and not very interested. He goes to get her a glass of water leaving Jean by herself to examine the pictures on the wall. As he returns the entity begins to awaken once more as Jean realizes there are no pictures of her on the wall. Her father tells her that after Jean killed her mother his life died with her and so did his love for Jean. This causes her to grow angry but the X-Men arrive catching her attention instead. Charles asks Jean to come back but she refuses now knowing that Charles lied to her. Scott attempts to convince her as well but she sticks to her decision. A squad of police cars arrive and Jean finally snaps using her power to stop the cars. The X-Men go into action but are all quickly thrown aside, with Quicksilver being badly hurt in the process. Hank attempts to take a shot at Jean with what can be presumed as a power dampening gun but Charles stops him so that Raven can attempt to calm her. Jean tells Raven to leave as the entity grows angry and she is losing control and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Raven continues to try and calm her and tells her that she will always be by her side. Jean loses control of her rage and lets out another shock wave of energy impaling Raven into a splintered piece of wood, shocked by her own actions Jean quickly flees and Hank runs to Raven’s aid. Before dying she attempts to tell Hank that she loves him. The X-Men hold a funeral for Raven and their struggle on how to handle Jean begins. Scott and Charles want to save her, but Hank wants to stop her with any means necessary. Storm is apprehensive and believes that Jean is gone.
Jessica Chastain’s character named Vuk, impersonating Margaret, regroups with the other aliens and we discover they are what remains of the alien race D'Bari who have come to Earth in search of the cosmic entity to use it in hopes of saving their race and taking over residence on the Earth. Another member reveals to her that they have tracked the entity and that it is now located inside of a mutant girl.
Jean arrives on Genosha in hopes that Magneto can help her control her urge to kill and cause destruction. He attempts to learn who’s blood is on her shirt but she avoids the question and continues to explain that her powers are growing and she can’t control them. Magneto attempts to make Jean angry to see what happens when she is filled with rage but his attempts are put on hold when a group of military soldiers arrive in search of Jean. Eric tries to get them to leave and hide Jean from them but she makes her presence known as the entity takes over again and she attempts to kill all the soldiers and destroy their helicopters. Eric is able to hold the chopper back long enough for the soldiers to board and escape. Eric then demands Jean leave and tells her while Genosha is a safe haven for mutants he doesn’t want someone like Jean there to bring harm to anyone. After Jean leaves Hank arrives and tells Eric about the death of Raven and they both agree that they have to kill Jean.
Vuk locates Jean and after convincing Jean to trust her she takes her back to the D’Bari safe house where she shows Jean the true nature of the cosmic entity within her telling her that it was the spark that created the universe and that it destroyed her home planet. The D’Bari followed the entity and witnessed it entering Jean and now want to help Jean control the power so that she can evolve beyond her human life and become something more, something that can create life itself. Jean agrees to help Vuk and to finally let go of trying to control the entity. Charles, Storm, Kurt and Scott arrive at the safe house at the same time as Magneto, Hank, Selene and Red Lotus. A fight ensues over how to handle Jean and they wreck havoc in the streets of New York. Eric raises a subway car in the street to wall himself off from the X-Men and enters the building to kill Jean. Jean holds his power off and uses his helmet to injure him before throwing him through the building. Charles and Kurt manage to get inside the building and try to calm Jean down, but she is unwilling to back down. Jean then forces Charles to walk upstairs so she can confront him face to face. A scene slightly reminiscent of the scene from The Last Stand occurs where Jean holds Charles in the air and begins to suck the life out of him. Jean enters Charles mind and slowly gains back control as she realizes that Charles truly does care about her and wants to help her. Now back in control Jean tells Vuk to take the entity out of her if she wants it so bad. They embrace and Vuk begins to suck the entity out of Jean and in the process she reveals her plans to Charles of wanting to destroy humanity and rebuild hero own race on Earth. Charles then attempts to get Jean to break contact with Vuk but she is unable until Scott blasts Vuk off of her. Before they are able to escape the military arrive and capture the X-Men and Magneto and his forces.
Now on a train heading to a mutant detainment camp Charles apologizes to Hank for how he treated Jean and the rest of the X-Men and says that he was the villain in all of this, but that he stands by his beliefs that Jean is being controlled and that they have to save her before Vuk consumes the entity within her. Magneto, Hank and the others agree to help save Jean and stop the D’Bari from gaining the entity. The train is then attack by the D’Bari and most of the soldiers are killed before one of them sets the mutants free to aid in the fight. An epic train battle ensues as Charles and Scott attempt to wake Jean. Inside Charles head he converses with Jean who forgives him for hurting and lying to her and she realizes that she has to protect her family. Vuk arrives now wielding a small portion of the entity and quickly stops the mutants in her way before reaching Jean. Jean awakens and throws Vuk out of the train derailing the train the process in an attempt to stop the D’Bari and save the X-Men and Magneto.
Now on the ground Jean and the entity work together to disintegrate the remaining members of the D’Bari, though one of them gains the upper hand and impales Jean with a weapon injuring and stopping her briefly before the entity heals her and kills the alien. Vuk makes her grand entrance and enters and showdown with Jean as the two are surrounded by the cosmic force as Jean makes an attempt to overwhelm her with the force. Jean begins to gain the upper hand but realizes that she can’t fully control the cosmic entity and is hurting Scott in the process with the power. Vuk tells Jean that her emotions make her weak, but Jean disagrees and believes they make her strong. Jean silently bids farewell and she takes herself and Vuk into space as her and the entity finally converge into one transforming Jean into a flaming cosmic presence and exploding into a force with the appearance of a bird and killing Vuk.
In the end Charles leaves the X-Men and gives over leadership to Hank. The school is renamed the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and we learn that Jean is now one with the cosmic entity and is still alive out in space, having evolved beyond her former self.
