6) The Opening Mutants Vs. Sentinels Battle (X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2014)
Bryan Singer is at his best when he’s directing X-Men movies, and has a knack for bringing several mutants together for a good ol’ fight scene. He made his triumphant return to the franchise with this year’s Days of Future Past, and kicked things off with a bang by showing a group of young mutants in a heated battle with the Sentinels, futuristic killing machines literally designed to hunt down and eradicate anyone with the Mutant X-Gene.
By opening the film with this sequence, Singer is accomplishing three things. He’s establishing what the future holds for our characters should they fail in their time-travelling mission, he’s introducing us to a few mutants we’ve never seen before by teaming them up with franchise alumni Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore, and he’s showing us just how brutal the Sentinels – which adapt to mutant powers instantaneously – really are.
Story benefits and filmmaking expertise aside, the fight itself is pretty cool. We finally get to see Iceman (Ashmore) create and ride around on an ice slide, newcomer Blink (Fan Bingbing) creates portals to help the mutants get around and fight against the Sentinels, and Kitty Pride (Page) shows off her abilities and sends fan-favorite mutant Bishop (Omar Sy) back in time just in time to keep the fight from ever happening in the first place.
Welcome back to the X-verse, Singer! Please don’t go away again.
7) Bruce Banner Vs. David Banner (Hulk, 2003)
If you wouldn’t like Bruce Banner when he’s angry, you’re certainly not going to like his Dad – Dr. David Banner – as portrayed by Nick Nolte in Ang Lee’s Hulk of 2003. Essentially an origin story, the film explores how Banner the younger came to be prone to transforming into a green-skinned, monosyllabic giant when irritated. His new status as a dangerous abomination of nature sees him relentlessly pursued by the United States military.
The story as a whole plays out like a Greek tragedy, with Bruce having no recollection of his scientist father, who was imprisoned for a time following the death of Bruce’s mother. When Bruce is hospitalised following exposure to dangerous levels of radiation in a terrible laboratory accident, he begins to notice the change in his response to anger, which coincides with the reappearance of his estranged father. It transpires that his father also worked with gamma radiation, but with more nefarious purposes in mind – he wanted to use it to create an army of super soldiers, but was prevented after using himself as a test subject. The birth of his son leads David Banner to suspect that the infant may have experienced some after-effects of that previous exposure.
As father and son learn more about each other, the US military closes in and perceives them both to be a threat. The pair are essentially set to be executed, and a dramatic showdown between the two takes place in a warehouse on a vast machine intended to wipe them out. The machine, however, serves a stage – featuring just two chairs facing each other, and a spotlight illuminating the men. It is here that this tragic play begins to hurtle toward its final conclusion, as the two Doctors Banner engage in an ill-fated attempt at conflict resolution. Banner the younger – broken by all that has happened, and all he has discovered about his nature and his past – sits bereft – hardly acknowledging the arrival of his biological father, who shambles onto the stage.
“I should have killed you,” Bruce mumbles.
“Maybe I should have killed you,” replies David.
And thus this dysfunctional familial relationship is summarized in a dark and disturbing opening gambit. David reveals his true intent – demanding that Bruce allow him to absorb his power. From the very first moment, it is clear that only one man will survive this showdown but, while we know that David wants it to be him, and Bruce does not, we are not entirely sure if either one is pulling for Bruce to make it out alive.
After an exchange packed with emotional punch and brutal honesty, David Banner draws the conversation to a close by biting through an electrical cable and absorbing all of the electricity for the surrounding area. David’s hunger for power is ultimately his undoing, however, and the son finds closure in aiding the unpleasant demise of the father.
