This Scene Made Me Cry: Hank McCoy’s Grief- Dark Phoenix’s Human Moments
When a man is in grief don’t ever tell him he is wrong, don’t let him feel weak about it and just let them cry. This emotional human moment between Hank and Charles is stunning and made me cry as both are present not as “Professor X and Beast” but as just two human beings who are on the verge of disaster. Even when Hank is in grief. Charles always makes it about himself not caring about what Hank is going through because his ego won’t let him admit defeat.
CHARLES: D'you know, this is where I first met Raven. She was just this little girl. And she broke in, looking for food. I said she could stay and that she'd never have to go hungry again. And then I think I promised her a better life.
HANK: And then you took it from her.
CHARLES: I beg your pardon?
HANK: This is your fault, Charles. It's your fault that she's dead.
CHARLES: Come on, that's not fair.
HANK: Fair? Oh, now, talk about fair. You messed with the mind of an eight-year-old girl. You pushed out all that pain and anger. Where do you think it's gonna go?
CHARLES: I did that to help her. What I do, I do to help her.
HANK: Oh, please, come on, please! You still can't see what you did wrong?
HANK: No, you need to face this, Charles! You need to face it! Come on, admit it to me right now! Come on! Admit it! Charles, just admit you were wrong, please. You still can't.
CHARLES: I really hope you feel better, Hank. I hope that raving on me five minutes after I put my foster sister in the grave is making you feel a damn...
HANK: This isn't about me. You know what, I know what I did wrong, okay Charles?! She was gonna leave. Raven was gonna leave. And I talked her out of it! She saw what the rest of us didn't.
CHARLES: And what was that?
HANK: This whole time, we've been trying to protect these kids from the world, when really, we should've been protecting them from you.
As this whole conversation goes, the frustration that is inside Hank explodes as he tries to beg Charles to just listen to him. If I was Hank I would do the same thing... with such human emotions as Hank admits to Charles about his own mistakes he had changed for, not evil but a man who once had hope is now a man in griefing. and is now lost in his own loss.
Also, can we appreciate Nicolas Hoult’s stunning and painful and emotional facial expressions as he reflects a realistic view of a man in grief because this is the face of a man who is done with Charles's ego:
