X-Men '97 (TV Series)

Mutant Liberation Begins (2024)

Matthew Waterson: Magneto, Security Guard

Photos 

Quotes 

• [after Storm is shot by X-Cutioner while protecting Magneto, she realizes that she cannot summon her weather powers while Magneto restrains X-Cutioner] 

  Storm : The breeze is gone. I cannot feel it, nor the moisture, nor the air. What has he done to me?

  [Magneto approaches Cooper and the Tribunal] 

  Val Cooper : Magneto, this was not what we wanted.

  Magneto : Lies. This is your dream. My kind splayed before you, powerless and afraid. All the X-Men have done is use their awesome power to protect a world that hates and fears them. Behold, their reward.

  [Magneto points at a weakened Storm] 

  Magneto : What must we do to be good enough? Is this the high road's destination? If so, I say, as I have too many times before, never again.

  [Magneto raises the stage] 

  American Judge : Let us go! No!

  [Magneto brings X-Cutioner, Cooper, and the Tribunal towards the sky until they have an aerial view of the East Coast. He then hovers over X-Cutioner's helpless body] 

  Magneto : Bigot, ingrate, sycophant, worm. So small, I could smite you with a step. There was a time I would smite you all for what was done to Storm.

  [Magneto hovers away from X-Cutioner] 

  Magneto : But today, I have saved you from your own, for an old friend has challenged me to remember this view of Earth. How vast it is versus how small we make it. Charles Xavier entrusted me with his dream, and it does not ask you to love or embrace my kind as your own, but merely to accept that this is a shared world with a common future, and that my kind, like yours, have the right to live in it. I am trying to be better.

  [Magneto places X-Cutioner facing downward] 

  Carl Denti : Please...

  Magneto : Do not make me let you down.

• [Rogue enters Professor Xavier's office, where Magneto stares at his old helmet] 

  Rogue : Well, your little pep talk went about as smooth as a dozen cats in a yarn store.

  Magneto : I wish to be alone, Rogue.

  Rogue : Ugh! Giving me the heebie-jeebies, pouting with that old bucket of yours.

  [Magneto hands his helmet to Rogue] 

  Magneto : Back when we were friends, I would always sense Charles in my mind. Not invading, more a presence. I was in his thoughts and he in mine. When we parted ways, I told myself I needed this to protect myself from his psychic powers.

  Rogue : But you were worried if you still felt how much he loved you, you wouldn't be able to go through with your crusade. And yet, here you are, dragged in like a kitty cat's prize.

  Magneto : Xavier's sacrifice brought about a world more tolerant towards mutants. I am indebted to honor his last wish, even if his X-Men won't trust me. Perhaps they are right not to. My past is too littered with error.

  Rogue : Mine was, too, remember? But the X-Men still took me in. The thing is, I didn't go about demanding their trust. I earned it.

  [Rogue hands back Magneto's helmet] 

  Magneto : I feared you would do your best to avoid being alone with me, Rogue.

  [Magneto slowly attempts to remove Rogue's glove, but she pulls her hand away. he then places his helmet on a bookshelf] 

  Magneto : Do you think your team would still trust you if they knew?

  Rogue : That was a long time ago, Erik. And that cat's got to stay in its bag, you hear me?

• [Magneto is put on trial at the UN Headquarters] 

  Magneto : As a boy, my people's homes were burned to ash because we dared to call God by another name. Then, my people hunted me with those who had once hunted them. I was a freak, born a mutant. An abomination to their misnamed gods. In history's sad song, there is a refrain. Believe differently, love differently, be of different sex or skin, and be punished. We sing this song to one another. The oppressed become oppressors. Xavier knew this and dreamed we could change, find harmony. A future where human and mutant could relinquish the past and finally...

  [Magneto sighs] 

  Magneto : You claim justice is overdue. Indeed. But so is healing.

  American Judge : Your words, while kind, do nothing to heal those hurt by your crimes.

  Magneto : And your sound-bite indignation will not heal mutant wounds. You build robots to hunt us, collars to chain our power.

  Male Judge : Humanity must protect itself.

  Magneto : Protection? That is extermination. I have only acted to avenge crimes against my people, as you act to avenge those against yours today.

  Chinese Judge : If that were the case, are we truly to believe, then, that in the face of what you consider to be extermination, you would walk Charles Xavier's path?

  Gambit : Not the worst thing that don't go Magneto's way, don't you think?

• [Cyclops offers Magneto a cup of coffee] 

  Magneto : Poison?

  Cyclops : Dark roast.

• [the Friends of Humanity raid the Morlocks' hideout and shackle them up] 

  Callisto : This is our home, you pig. It's all we have left. All you dogs left us.

  Female FOH Goon : You think regular folks can sleep knowing you demons are down here, lurking?

  Leech : Please, don't hurt Leech.

  [an explosion occurs in the sewers as metal pipes grab the FoH soldiers and pin them to the wall] 

  Magneto : The depths you humans go. Even denying these outcasts the indignity of your waste.

  [the FoH leader shoots at Magneto, which has no effect on him] 

  Magneto : Electricity and magnetism are intimately acquainted. How unfortunate of you, that I am a master of magnetism.

  [Magneto disarms the FoH leader before pinning her to the wall with a steel plate] 

  Female FOH Goon : Dirty mutant! You'll get what's coming...

  [Magneto slaps a steel plate on the FoH leader's mouth as he approaches the Morlocks and frees them of their shackles] 

  Leech : You're him. You're...

  Magneto : Magneto. And I promise you, child, you shall never be afraid again.

• Wolverine : What was the Professor thinking?

  Beast : 'The only safe and sure way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.' Mark Twain.

  Storm : Beast isn't wrong. The Professor had a plan.

  Bishop : Seen a lot of futures, but Magneto leading the X-Men? That's a new one.

  Gambit : Maybe we go change it back, huh?

  Rogue : Look, plenty of us at this table have paths so dirty they don't squeak no matter how much spit you got. Maybe we should take a page from the Professor's playbook and give Erik a second shot.

  [Magneto enters the room] 

  Magneto : I have arranged for the Morlocks to travel to the mutant nation of Genosha. It saddens me that none of you, nor Xavier himself, thought to use his considerable finances to do the same. But this is one of many mutant matters on which we can and will improve, my X-Men.

  Cyclops : Guess we can assume those jerks in the sewer are...

  Magneto : Alive, but not unharmed. The tragic fact that I did not consign those sapiens to the waste bin of history is proof of my desire to honor Charles Xavier's dream of mutant-human...

  [sighs] 

  Magneto : coexistence.

  Cyclops : Okay, prove it. Let Jean scan your mind, see your real plans.

  Jean Grey : Scott, no.

  Cyclops : What? You did it with Gyrich.

  Jean Grey : I accessed Gyrich's mind for information. Using my powers to assess honesty is another matter. Even if I sensed Magneto's intentions were sincere, that's today, this hour, this minute.

  Cyclops : Then we check every minute of every day.

  Magneto : I was under the welcome impression that you and Mrs. Summers were leaving us.

  Cyclops : Not a chance. I'm keeping an eye on you.

  Jean Grey : Scott, read the will again. Like it or not, this is what the Professor wanted.

  Magneto : Please, my intentions here were not to cause drama or discord.

  Storm : You must understand. You have been our fiercest foe for years. A desire for you to prove yourself is only natural.

  Magneto : And Storm, you are the closest thing to a goddess as we will ever see. So, I do not lightly deny your request and demand your trust instead. Xavier wanted this.

  Cyclops : Maybe he was wrong.

  Magneto : After all our tête-à-têtes, you have finally realized what I did ages ago. Even Charles Xavier can make a mistake.

• [the X-Men rush outside the mansion as UN helicopters arrive] 

  Magneto : Ready yourselves, my X-Men.

  Cyclops : We don't lose our cool when the good guys show up.

  [UN soldiers exit the helicopters and point their energy rifles at the X-Men] 

  Magneto : You were saying?

  [Val Cooper walks in front of the soldiers] 

  Val Cooper : We're here for Magneto. Think twice. Our rifles are resistant to your electromagnetic powers.

  [Magneto turns on the helicopters and has them surround Cooper and the soldiers with their blades] 

  Magneto : I should have thought twice?

  [Cooper signals for the soldiers to stand down] 

  Val Cooper : Magneto, by order of the UN Commission of Superhuman Activities, I hereby place you under arrest for crimes against humanity. You will stand trial at the UN Headquarters.

  Magneto : Should I successfully vindicate myself in what I will generously assume is a fair trial, will I earn your trust?

  Val Cooper : That is how due process works.

  Magneto : Then...

  [Magneto safely lands the helicopters] 

  Magneto : I yield.

  [Magneto approaches Cooper, offering his hands to be cuffed while an inhibitor is placed around his neck] 

• Cyclops : Genosha, a UN nation. Never thought I'd see the day.

  Magneto : I hear you and Jean have begun to make arrangements to leave. Does this mean you trust me to carry on Xavier's dream?

  Cyclops : The Professor trusted you, and I trust him. I guess that'll have to be enough.

  Magneto : If I may offer advice, Scott. Be wary. Be vigilant. Tragedy lures with fortune first. This was a good week for our people. Yet it was not without cost.

• [last lines] 

  Cyclops : If only I hadn't left the UN, I could have...

  Bishop : You did what you had to. Storm did the same.

  Magneto : And we will respect her decision.

  Gambit : That so? The blast had your name on it. Should be you leaving, mon ami.

  Morph : I don't buy it. Not one minute. Storm will spend a day schlepping it with the basic folk and come right home, happy as a...

  [doorbell rings] 

  Morph : Ha! What did I say? She's back!

  [answers the door and sees to his surprise] 

  Morph : Jean?

  Jean Grey : I need the X-Men.

  [Jean faints. Everyone is shocked] 

  Cyclops : What? Jean?