Magneto (X-Men Movies)

"And when the air is still, and the night has fallen, there's only one question you must answer: who will you stand with?"

- Magneto attempting to convince the mutants in the church to join him in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Magneto is a character from the Marvel X-Men comics and is portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender in the movie series. He acts as the central antagonist of X-Men and X-Men The Last Stand, the anti-hero of X-Men 2, and the secondary protagonist of X-Men First Class. He will reappear played by both McKellen and Fassbender in X-Men: Days of Future Past as one of the main protagonists.

X-Men: First Class
Magneto appears as his younger self and is the deuteragonist in this film. He starts out as young Erik Lensherr who is a Holocaust survivor. When he is persuaded by Dr. Klaus Schmidt to use his power of controlling metal, he refuses. After Schmidt kills his mother, Erik gets enraged and bursts into a rage thus enabling his powers. Years later, Erik searches for Schmidt and vows to kill him in his quest for revenge. When he finds Schmidt (now calling himself Sebastian Shaw), he meets Charles Xavier, who assists him in the investigation of his plans of launching missiles onto Cuba thus triggering World War III. He starts a close friendship with Charles and a romantic relationship with his fostered sister Raven (Mystique).

When Erik (now dubbed Magneto) and Shaw finally come face to face in Shaw's submarine, Magneto destroys part of Shaw's telepathy shield, removes his helmet and allows Charles to paralyze him long enough to stop him. Unfortunately, Magneto dons the helmet to block Charles' mind. He reluctantly kills Shaw by placing a Nazi coin through his brain (while ignoring Charles' begging to stop). Later on, the USSR and the US launched missiles at the mutants threatening to kill them and stopping World War III. Magneto takes control of the missiles thus turning them on their launchers. CIA agent Moria McTaggert tries shooting at Magneto, but Magneto deflects the bullets accidentally paralyzing Charles' legs. He invites the rest of the mutants of the Hellfire Club and the other X-Men to join him in his quest to protect mutant-kind. The X-Men refuse but Mystique joins him and the rest of the Hellfire Club. At the climax of the film, Magneto and his newly formed Brotherhood of Mutants break Emma Frost out of her prison and asks her to join them.

X-Men (2000)
Magneto appears as the main antagonist of this film. He believes that a war between mutants and humanity is fast approaching and must prepare for it. His Brotherhood of Mutants in this film include Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad (Marvel). His first scene in the film is when he is leaving the Senate hall before he is stopped by Professor X and persuades him to stay out of his way and not to interfere with his plans for humanity.

He is next seen when Sabretooth informs him of the attack on Wolverine and Rogue and that Prof. X and the X-Men knew about their wherabouts in Alberta, Canada. Magneto sees a small dog tag around Sabretooth's neck and grabs it magnetically and examines a bit of what the Wolverine is capable of. He then informs that the time has come to put his plans into action by testing a machine that turns humans into mutants (unknown to Magneto that his machine kills them after their mutation). Magneto sends Mystique and Toad to kidnap Senator Robert Kelly and test his machine on him stating 'Let's just say that God works too slowly'. After Kelly falls to his apparent death, Magneto proceeds with kidnapping Rogue plans to use her as a pawn for his machine to mutate the World Leaders on Ellis Island.

On Liberty Island at the climax, Wolverine attempts to save Rogue, but Magneto holds him hostage just as the machine starts expanding towards Ellis Island as he holds the other X-Men hostage. Cyclops blasts him and Magneto is therefore sent to a plastic prison. He is visited by Professor X as the two play chess. Just before Prof. X departs, Magneto states 'The war's still coming Charles. And I intend to fight it.'

X-Men 2
Magneto returns as an anti-hero in this film.

He is visited by Col. William Stryker various times while he retrieves information on Prof. X's mansion and Cerebro, the machine that locates mutants around the world. While conversing with Prof. X, Magneto states that his war has already begun.

Later, with help from his associate Mystique, Magneto escapes prison by using the metal in the blood of one of his prison guards.

Magneto is seen afterwards and rendezvous with the X-Men and their allies, giving them information about Stryker's plan to annihilate all mutants. The X-Men and the Brotherhood form an uneasy alliance to stop Stryker for the freedom of mutation.

Once at Alkali Lake, Magneto along with Mystique, arrives at Cerebro and switches it around thus revealing his intentions to destroy all humans instead of mutants. Later on, he meets up with William Stryker and nearly chokes him to death. Just before a narrow escape, Magneto recruits young Pyro, who takes his advice 'Your a god among insects.' and is not seen at the time of the flood of Alkali Lake.

X-Men: The Last Stand
Magneto returns as the main antagonist of the third film.

In a flashback scene, Magneto and Prof. X recruit a young Jean Grey to join their School for the Gifted which she reluctantly accepts.

Several years later, after learning of a special cure for mutations, Magneto declares an all-out war and expands the Brotherhood of Mutants with new members such as Juggernaut, Multiple Man, The Omegas (Callisto, Arclight, Kid Omega, Psylocke) and various others in addition to his old members Mystique and Pyro.

After a rescue attempt and recruitment, Magneto was to be stunned by the cure, but Mystique sacrificed herself and was abandoned to live amongst the humans.

Just as Magneto starts to expand his new army, he learns that Jean Grey (now known as the Phoenix) has survived her death and attempts to recruit her with only Prof. X, Wolverine and Storm standing in his way. He sends for Juggernaut and the Omegas for back-up to distract Wolverine and Storm. Persuading Jean to think that Prof. X wants to control her power, Jean goes insane, destroys her house and kills Prof. X in her outrage. Feeling heartbroken, Magneto takes Jean with him back to his lair.

As Magneto sets out to destroy the source of the mutant Cure, he senses that Wolverine was in his midst and stops him from taking Jean away from the Brotherhood.

On their way to Alcatraz, Magneto and his Brotherhood army use the Golden Gate bridge to destroy everything on Alcatraz to reach their goal of destroying the cure.

After fighting the X-Men, he is cured by Beast from behind. In defeat, he says to Jean 'This is what they want for all of us'. Feeling regret on what he did to Jean, he flees the Dark Phoenix's final stand.

At the climax of the film, Magneto reluctantly moves a chess piece magnetically thus getting his power back.

The Wolverine (2013)
At the post-credit scene, Magneto appears before Wolverine in search of help to fight a new kind of war that could destroy every mutant in the world with a revived Prof. X.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Magneto will appear as one of the main protagonists in the upcoming 2014 film.

Trivia

 * Magneto shares a similarity to Loki (Marvel Cinematic Universe), who are villains in their first films but reduced to being anti-heroes in their second films (X-Men for Magneto and Thor for Loki)