The X-Men‘s resident weather witch has many iconic interpretations from animation to live-action. Who can forget her dramatic overtures proclaiming her power over the elements in the iconic X-Men: The Animated Series?
But when it comes to live-action, one actor was the definitive portrayal of the character. In 2000, 20th Century Fox’s X-Men film featured the film debut of Ororo Munroe. Called Storm by her fellow mutants, she wields the power over all weather, particularly the most destructive. Only a few years away from earning her Academy Award for Monster’s Ball, Halle Berry played the part in all the X-Men movies with grace. This yielded many inspiring and intense moments for the character, some of which we can never forget.
8. Storm challenges Wolverine
Storm may not have much screen time in the original X-Men film, but what she has, she shines. Mostly a supplemental character to support Scott (James Marsden) and Jean (Famke Janssen), Storm makes her opinions known when it counts. After Logan (Hugh Jackman) discovers that Rogue (Anna Paquin) has abandoned the school, he intends to look for her. Storm tries to appeal to his better nature by urging him to fight Magento (Ian McKellen) along with the rest of the X-Men.
Logan is not yet ready to make such a commitment. For his entire life (that he can remember) he has been met with fear and hatred. He can’t believe that anyone would want to side with humanity after everything he has seen. Maybe Magneto has a point in making humans the enemy. But Storm won’t be dissuaded. She doesn’t back down from Logan and insists that she has chosen a side unlike him, who has remained neutral throughout this entire conflict. This is an integral moment that shines a light on what Logan could be doing to help his mutant brethren.
7. Xavier gives Storm the school
X-Men: The Last Stand won’t be remembered as one of the best of the trilogy, but it does have moments that redeem characters from earlier films. For most of the trilogy, Storm has been put on the back burner, but she finally gets her due in the third film.
After Jean’s apparent death in X2: X-Men United, Scott has become a shell of his former self. Once slated to take over for Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), he is no longer the correct choice. Xavier instead chooses Storm to take over for him when he’s gone. Storm never thought of herself for the position, but after remaining strong throughout the tragedies of the previous films, there is no one better.
6. Storm saves Xavier
Every family needs a head of house, and X2 explores exactly what happens when that head is gone. For most of the film, Xavier is held captive by the nefarious William Stryker (Brian Cox), with no one to lead the X-Men. But in the climax of the film, it isn’t Scott or Logan who saves the team from ruin. It’s Storm.
While Xavier is trapped in an illusion, Storm encourages Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) to teleport her into the room with Cerebro. All Nightcrawler sees is a little girl, but Storm knows different. Xavier is in there under some terrible spell. Without her wisdom in seeing behind the illusion and enlisting Nightcrawler’s help, Xavier would have been trapped in his visions forever.
5. Storm speaks to Senator Kelly
It is rare to see Storm having solitary moments where viewers can better understand her character, but one of these moments appears in the first X-Men film. After Magneto turns Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) into a mutant, he seeks refuge at Xavier’s mansion. There he slowly begins to deteriorate with only Storm to comfort him.
In this exchange, Storm admits that sometimes she hates humans because she is afraid of them. That is the exact reason Kelly and his band of anti-mutant politicians started the Registration Act. The two have a moment of understanding, which highlights what X-Men is all about.
4. Tornado Storm
Storm has demonstrated impressive feats of power in her time with the X-Men, but none so all-consuming as her power over tornados in X2. As the team flies away from the destruction of Bobby Drake’s (Shawn Ashmore) house in their jet, a group of military pilots quickly pursue them. Quick to fight them off, Storm immediately goes into self-defense mode. With her mutation, she produces a multitude of tornados that do their work in whipping their foes out of the sky. With so many characters, it is easy to forget that some of them have control over immeasurable power.
3. Storm has differences with Nightcrawler
At the heart of X-Men is the conflict about prejudice. The Marvel comic was always about how society fears what it doesn’t understand and Storm’s conversation with Nightcrawler explores the intricacies of this. Nightcrawler, who was raised in the Christian faith, finds that even though he has been hated in his life, he doesn’t hold it against humanity. He decides to pity them because they are so closed-minded.
Storm offers a different perspective. All that she has ever had to worry about is survival, as have many mutants. Her anger has helped her survive all this time, and she hasn’t had a reason to stop. While Storm opens herself up to taking leaps of faith later in the film, this perspective isn’t necessarily wrong. She understands that in matters of life or death, sometimes all you can do is survive.
2. Xavier’s eulogy
There are many ways that Marvel characters have come back from the dead, but that doesn’t make Xavier’s X-Men: The Last Stand funeral any less moving. As the leader of a mutant school, Professor X died as he lived. He believed in his students, even Jean, who had let her power consume her.
Jean destroys Xavier with her telekinesis, which leads to Storm taking control of the X-Men and giving a eulogy to her late teacher. Her speech distills what Xavier always believed in, which was humankind. No matter what losses they endure, they always keep fighting, and with Storm in charge, that is exactly what she will continue to do.
1. There’s nothing wrong with mutants
The conflict of X-Men: The Last Stand comes to a head when an alleged cure for the X-Gene comes about. There are many mutants, such as Beast (Kelsey Grammer) and Rogue, who are astounded by this development. Finally, they could blend in with real society. But Storm puts it best when she says there can be no cure because there is nothing wrong with being a mutant. This may be a hard pill to swallow for the likes of Rogue, who literally can’t touch anyone, but at its core, Storm is right. The X-Men’s fight to protect humanity has always been about equilibrium. They want equality not by changing themselves but by accepting each other’s differences. If there is one quote that exemplifies the thesis of X-Men, it’s that.