Magneto (X-Men Movies)

"No one ever talks about it. They just DO IT. As you go on with your lives, ignoring the signs all around you. And then one day when the air is still, and the night has fallen, they come. 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. "I will bring you hope, old friend. And in return I ask only one favor...don't get in my way."

- Magneto to Charles Xavier

Magneto, also Erik Lensherr, is a character from the X-Men film series who is portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen in the modern-day films and by Michael Fassbender in the prequel series. He is the main (and most recurring) antagonist of the film series in general. Specifically, he is the main antagonist of X-Men, an anti-hero turned antagonist in X2: X-Men United, the main, later secondary antagonist of X-Men: The Last Stand, the deuteragonist turned antagonist in X-Men: First Class, then an anti-hero turned true main antagonist in the past timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the tritagonist in the future timeline. Magneto is an extremely powerful mutant with the ability to manipulate all forms of metal.

Personality
Magneto is a man of conflicted morals. While he is indeed xenophobic and ruthless, he is in no way an evil person and could easily work as well with the X-Men as he did against them. Even after years of fighting he still considered Charles Xavier his closest friend and was left upset when he had supposedly died at the hands of Jean Grey. To this day the two can play a friendly game of chess with one another however their ideals of humanity will always put them on edge. Magneto is overly righteous, he believes that mutants and humans can never exist in peace and that they should have been wiped out which makes him genocidal. He values his fellow mutants as friends, specifically Mystique who is his partner and possible romance however this did not stop him from simply abandoning her after she was "cured." While Magneto was reluctant to wilfully kill or harm mutants he would still murder Rogue and Jamie who were both children only to help his just cause.

Behind this Magneto was a deeply troubled man, a surviving member of the Holocaust and then later witnessed his mother murdered before his eyes. As a young man Magneto was motivated by a sense of revenge against his mentor Sebastian Shaw, the man who killed his mother. He brutally tortured a banker and three Germans at a bar to get information on Shaw, he was somewhat suicidal as when after he failed to kill him and Shaw was escaping on his submarine, he desperately tried to use his magnetic powers to being it back and ignored the fact that he might have drowned. However after meeting with Charles Xavier, he began to work with his team to bring down Shaw and his team, soon the two began to value another as friends and Xavier was able to give him advice on how to control his powers and he actually helped a troubled Raven (later named Mystique) when she wanted to be a human like everybody else. Eventually his desire for revenge proved to great as when he forced a coin through Shaw's brain and then fired missiles on Russian and Americans submarines.

Magneto is an exceptionally powerful Level 5 mutant with the ability to control anything metal which ranged from a jet to the Golden Gate Bridge, even after being shot with four bullets that contain The Cure he was able to slowly regain his powers. He was charismatic and was easily able to rally people on his side, so much that they would fight or even die for him which was shown when he was able to get Raven on his side with flattery and charm, and had an entire Brotherhood of Mutants to follow his every whim with motivational speeches. Magneto also possessed a chess-like mindset in battle, when the Brotherhood and himself attacked Alcatraz, and then stopped the Juggernaut from charging into battle claiming "in chess the pawns go first."

Unlike his older self, the younger Magneto was quicker to anger as when Xavier, Beast, Wolverine and himself were in a plane he came close to actually crashing it as he was taking about deceased mutants.

X-Men: First Class (2011)
Magneto appears as his younger self and is the deuteragonist turned antagonist 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 to, and tries desperately to when the villain points a gun at his mother. After Schmidt kills his mother, Erik gets enraged and bursts into a rage thus enabling his powers; he turned a filing cabinet inside-out, squeezed two guard's helmets to crush their brains and send loads of metal equipment in the neighboring surgery room flying in a murderous frenzy. Schmidt says that he will unlock his power and gives him a German 5-cent coin that he was meant to move around moments before.

Years later, Erik searches for Schmidt and vows to kill him in his quest for revenge. First, he goes to a bank manager in Geneva, Switzerland and gets him to tell of Schmidt's location; Argentina. Next, Erik went to Argentina and killed three guys in a bar who knew where to find Schmidt. When he finds Schmidt (now calling himself Sebastian Shaw) aboard the ship Caspartina, 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.

Between X-Men: First Class and X-Men
Erik was falsely-charged with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and was placed in a plastic prison with glass and concrete. The prison was right underneath the Pentagon, and was placed inside despite that he had tried to bend the sniper-shot upwards and miss Kennedy. The reason he sought to save Kennedy was because he believed the President to be a mutant.

Sometime before or in 1986, Erik escaped or was let out and went with Xavier, treating each other as friends again, to meet the psychic mutant Jean Grey, who could actually lift up numerous cars in the neighborhood they were in to prove that she's a mutant. Later, Erik left Xavier again and launched forth his plan to arrange mutant prosperity.

X-Men (2000)
Magneto appears as the main antagonist of the first-made film in the series and so far the third chronologically. 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. 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 whereabouts 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.'

X2: X-Men United (2003)
Magneto returns as an anti-hero turned antagonist, no longer intent with changing humanity but destroying it. 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 (You're a god among insects).

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Magneto returns again as the main antagonist of the third film, this time with a massive army of mutants ready to take down the guys who created a supposed "cure" that erases the mutant X-gene "permanently". In the movie, after learning of a special cure for mutations made with the blood of a mutant, 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 (a mutant as it turns out), 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 end of the film, Magneto reluctantly moves a chess piece magnetically, thus getting his powers back.

End-credits
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 Professor X there as well.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Magneto appears as the tritagonist in the future (2023), but in the past (1973), he is the anti-hero turned true main antagonist.

1973 timeline
He is one of the characters necessary to help change the future from the dystopia filled with Sentinels created by Dr. Boliviar Trask. He first appears as a prisoner held in the 100th floor below the Pentagon in a specially made cell. However, he gets freed with the aid of Charles Xavier, Wolverine, Beast, and Quicksilver. Magneto later tries to kill Mystique in Paris by putting a bullet into her, specifically her ankle, to ensure the mutant's future and survival, but fails to do so. Afterwards, a public showcase of the Sentinels at the White House is made to make sure that people will be kept safe from mutants.

However, Magneto has commandeered the Sentinels by inserting metal into their polymorph bodies and also uses a lifted up stadium to keep other humans out of the way. Announcing mutant supremacy on live television, Magneto is attacked by Beast and Wolverine but keeps them at bay. However, when threatening the President, Mystique disguised as Nixon shoots him. After Mystique spares Trask at Xavier's urging, the Professor allows Mystique and Magneto to leave, believing that there is hope for both of them to change for the better.

2023 timeline
Meanwhile in the future timeline, Magneto helps the X-Men fend off the Sentinels but is injured badly during the war of the sentinels. Right before the Sentinels can finish him off along with Xavier, Wolverine, and Kitty Pryde, the future is changed. What became of Magneto in the revised timeline, and how much of the original still occurred beyond X-Men: First Class, is unclear at the moment.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Editing will begin after film's release.