For years we here so obsessed with the cold war and the threat of an atomic cataclysm that we overlooked the greatest menace of all. Hidden. Unknown. Yet it was staring us right in the face. Even as we speak, they are out there-- scheming, plotting, planning! Thinking we don't suspect... Waiting for the moment to strike! They are mankind's deadliest enemy!Mutants walk amongst us--placing all of us normal homo sapiens in mortal danger!
„
~ Bolivar Trask about Mutants and Mankind.
“
No! Never! I cannot betray the entire human race! I'd rather die!
„
~ Dr. Bolivar Trask
Dr. Bolivar Trask is the creator of the Sentinels and by default an enemy of mutant-kind, putting him into conflict with the X-Men and Charles Xavier - however unlike his creations Trask was not an inherently evil man and ultimately sacrificed himself to stop his mad creations. Bolivar Trask is also the founder and president of his namesake corporation known as Trask Industries.
When his own son Larry developed mutant powers, Trask set out to learn everything he could about mutation. He hired a team of scientists to develop a device that would inhibit his son's powers. He finally came to the conclusion that mutants would inevitably use their superhuman abilities to supplant Homo sapiens. Another team of scientists developed and built the Sentinels in a secret laboratory. Trask wrote several articles on the "mutant question," but when he made an appearance on television, Professor Xavier realized that such propaganda must be rebutted. During the resulting debate, Trask demonstrated his robots, which unexpectedly left for their lab and took Trask with them.
Back at the lab, Master Mold, the prototype Sentinel, confronted Trask. It had come to the conclusion that Sentinels were superior to both races: thus, robots could and should supplant humans and mutants. Taking orders from a mere human ran counter to this new imperative, so Trask would thenceforth serve the Sentinels and help build more of them.
Meanwhile, the Sentinels had also taken prisoner an X-Man, the Beast. Master Mold ordered Trask to use a psycho-probe to read the Beast's mind and learn their plans. Trask learned, however, that the X-Men were protecting humanity and that his theory was wrong. This revelation, coupled with Master Mold's betrayal and the threat to humanity, told Trask what he must do: destroy the laboratory and the Sentinels. He died in the resulting explosion.
Unfortunately, Trask's propaganda, as well as several new and improved Sentinels, persists to this day.
Human Council
The Purifiers, under the orders of Bastion, and using Technarch technology later resurrected Trask. After his resurrection, he learns that he has inspired humanity to genocidal anti-mutant efforts, he takes the opportunity to end of the assault on X-Factor, before committing suicide.
In Other Media
X-Men: The Last Stand
Bill Duke portrays as Secretary Bolivar Trask in X-Men: The Last Stand. Trask was a Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States of America.
Bolivar Trask appears as the main antagonist of X-Men: Days of Future Past and is portrayed by Peter Dinklage
He is portrayed as a ruthless scientist and successful businessman, industrialist and weapons maker whose the head and founder of Trask Industries and creates and army of Sentinels to destroy mutants in order to cleanse the world from them for the good of the humanity itself.
In the film X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bolivar Trask said he named the Sentinels after the guardians of the citadel. It was thought that he meant The Citadel, the real-life military academy in SC, and that its guards were dubbed "Sentinels", but in truth, he meant the ancient site called the Arx ("citadel" in Latin) and the guards there were referred to as "sentries".
