X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand (also known as X-Men 3: The Last Stand) is a 2006 British-American superhero film, based on the X-Men superhero team introduced in Marvel Comics. The film, distributed by 20th Century Fox, is the third installment in the X-Men film series. It was directed by Brett Ratner, written by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, and features an ensemble cast, including Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, and Famke Janssen. The film's script is loosely based on two X-Men comic book story arcs: "The Dark Phoenix Saga" by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, and "Gifted" by writer Joss Whedon and artist John Cassaday, with a plot that revolves around a "mutant cure" that causes serious repercussions among mutants and humans, and on the resurrection of Jean Grey.

Bryan Singer, who had directed the two previous films, X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), decided to leave to work on Superman Returns, as he had not even defined the storyline for a third film. Matthew Vaughn, who was initially hired as the new director, left due to personal and professional issues, and was replaced with Ratner. Filming began in August 2005 with a budget of $210 million, and was consequently the most expensive film at the time of its release. It had extensive visual effects created by 11 different companies.

X-Men: The Last Stand was released on May 26, 2006, to commercial success. It grossed approximately $459 million worldwide, and became the seventh-highest grossing film of 2006, and the most financially successful of the series. Although commercially successful, the film received mixed reviews, with the acting and the action scenes receiving favorable notice, and criticism directed at the screenplay and style.

Plot
Twenty years ago, Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr meet young Jean Grey at her parents' house to make her aware of her powers. Ten years later, the industrialist father of Warren Worthington III discovers his son is a mutant as the boy tries to cut off his wings.

In the present, Worthington Labs announces it has developed an inoculation to suppress the X-gene that gives mutants their abilities and makes them different from other humans, offering the "cure" to any mutant who wants it. The cure is created from the genome of a young mutant named Jimmy, who lives at the Worthington facility on Alcatraz Island.

Horrified by the announcement of what he considers a way to forcefully use the inoculation to exterminate the mutant race, Lensherr, now known as the X-Men's adversary Magneto, reforms his Brotherhood of Mutants with mutants who oppose the cure. Meanwhile, Cyclops, still emotionally distraught over the loss of girlfriend Jean Grey, drives to her resting location at Alkali Lake. Jean appears to Cyclops but, as the two romantically kiss, Jean starts disintegrating her lover. Psychically sensing trouble, Professor X sends Wolverine and Storm to investigate. When they arrive, the two X-Men encounter telekinetically floating rocks, Cyclops' glasses, and an unconscious Jean. Cyclops himself is nowhere to be found.

When they return to the X-Mansion, Xavier explains to Wolverine that, when Jean sacrificed herself, she unleashed the powerful alternate personality she calls "Phoenix", which Xavier had previously telepathically repressed, fearing the Phoenix's destructive potential. Wolverine is disgusted to learn of this psychic tampering with Jean's mind but, once she awakens, Wolverine realizes she had killed Cyclops and is not the Jean Grey he knew. The Phoenix awakens, knocks out Wolverine, and escapes to her childhood home.

Magneto learns of the resurgence of Jean through his cohort Callisto, and the X-Men arrive at the Grey home at the same time as the Brotherhood. Magneto and Xavier vie for Jean's loyalty until the Phoenix resurfaces. She destroys the house and disintegrates Xavier before leaving with Magneto. The Brotherhood decides to strike Worthington Labs, with Magneto using his powers to dislocate the Golden Gate Bridge and connect Alcatraz to the San Francisco mainland to facilitate the attack. The X-Men regroup and confront the Brotherhood, despite being significantly outnumbered, and arrive just as the military troops, who thus far had been neutralizing the attacking mutants, are being overwhelmed by the Brotherhood.

During the fight, Beast injects Magneto with the cure, nullifying his powers, and Kitty Pryde saves Jimmy from the murderous Juggernaut. Army reinforcements arrive and attack Jean, awakening the Phoenix, who uses her powers to obliterate the troops. As the Phoenix's attacks begin to destroy the facilities and mutants at Alcatraz, Wolverine realizes that, due to his healing factor, he is the only one who can approach the Phoenix. Wolverine approaches her, and Jean momentarily gains control and begs him to save her. Wolverine stabs Jean, stopping the devastating force, but mourns the death of the woman he loved.

Sometime later, Xavier's school is still operating with Storm as headmistress, and the president of the United States appoints Beast as ambassador to the United Nations. Meanwhile, in a San Francisco park, Magneto sits alone at a chessboard. As he gestures toward a metal chess piece, it wobbles slightly, suggesting that his powers are returning.

In a post-credits scene, Dr. Moira MacTaggert checks on a comatose patient who greets her with Xavier's voice. Startled, she replies, "Charles?"

The X-Men
The X-Men are a special ops team from The Xavier Institute, charged with protecting both humans and mutants, and trying to prevent a war between the two.


 * Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine
 * A gruff, scrappy Canadian mutant born with hyper-acute senses, claws on his hands, and an accelerated healing factor that made possible to implant a coating of the indestructible metal alloy adamantium on his skeleton. Jackman was pleased to see that the script allowed Wolverine to expand his character choices, as instead of questioning whether he would remain a loner or join the X-Men, Logan now is asked if he will play a leadership role in the X-Men.


 * Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm
 * One of Xavier's earlier students and the leader of the X-Men in Cyclops' absence, Storm is a woman with the ability to manipulate the weather. Berry had stated during interviews for X2 that she would not return unless the character had a significant presence comparable to the comic book version, leading to a larger role in The Last Stand's script. Berry declared that her ethnicity made the actress identify with the cure plot: "When I was a child, I felt that if only I could change myself, my life would be better. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to terms with what utter nonsense that is." The character was given a more modern haircut, and costume designer Judianna Makovsky opted to give Storm more black clothes, a color she only wore in the leather costume for previous films, to make her "tougher and sexier".


 * Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X
 * The founder of the Xavier's Institute for Gifted Mutants and a mutant with uncharted telepathic powers, Xavier is an authority on genetic mutation and an advocate of peaceful relations between human and mutant kind. Stewart signed to the film without knowing Xavier would die, and not meeting original director Matthew Vaughn - both would meet in Manchester, where Stewart was filming Eleventh Hour, but eventually Brett Ratner called to introduce himself as the new director.


 * Anna Paquin as Marie / Rogue
 * A young mutant woman from the Deep South whose power causes her to temporarily take on the powers of anyone she touches, leaving her victims (mutant or human) unconscious, Rogue's lack of control over her power causes a great deal of strain on her relationship with Iceman. Paquin declared that while Rogue did not have "a large physical component in this movie", the "adult decisions" the character was forced to do made for more intensity on the emotional side.


 * Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast
 * A former student of Xavier's Institute for Gifted Mutants who is now a member of the U.S. Cabinet as the Secretary of Mutant Affairs, Beast is a brilliant scientist and statesman. He is covered in blue fur and has heightened strength and agility, as well as pointed fangs and a lion-like roar. Grammer's make-up took up two hours to apply, painting his face blue before applying prostethics, and a muscle suit covered with a hand·punched fur suit.


 * James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops
 * The X-Men's field leader, Cyclops emits powerful energy blasts from his eyes, and must wear specially made glasses to prevent the destruction of anything he looks at. Although he is in a committed relationship with Jean Grey, her Phoenix persona kills him early in the film.


 * Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake / Iceman
 * A young mutant, Iceman can create constructs of ice or blasts of cold. Ashmore's commitments to X-Men made him decline Bryan Singer's invitation to play Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns. The actor was content with his bigger role after Bobby joined the X-Men main team in X2, as during the predecessor's production he wondered "'When do I get to freeze something or get into a fight?'"


 * Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde / Shadowcat
 * A mutant with the ability to phase through matter and walk through solid objects, her clear affection for Iceman further adds to the tension already present between Iceman and Rogue. Maggie Grace was considered for the role, before Ratner cast Page, who impressed the director with her performance in Hard Candy.


 * Daniel Cudmore as Peter Rasputin / Colossus
 * A mutant with the ability to transform his skin into an organic steel, Colossus' powers grant him superhuman strength and a resistance to physical damage and extreme temperatures. Cudmore wore a foam latex muscle suit covered with a chrome·plated plastic plus a hard plastic head to have the metal skin on the set, with some digital augmentation being used to enhance the facial expressions. A digital double was used only for stunts that could not be achieve practically, such as the Fastball Special where Colossus throws Wolverine.


 * Ben Foster as Warren Worthington III / Angel
 * The mutant son of an industrialist, who has feathered wings which allow him to fly. He is played as a child by Cayden Boyd. The static wings were models with a 15 ft wingspan and 5 ft height glued to Foster's back, replaced with computer-generated ones when movement was required.

The Brotherhood
The Brotherhood is Magneto's personal strike force, whose goal is to ensure mutant supremacy over the human race.
 * Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
 * Leader and founder of the Brotherhood, Magneto is a Holocaust survivor who wages war against humanity in the name of mutant superiority. He has the ability to control and manipulate metal, making him one of the most powerful mutants. Well-known for his homosexuality, McKellen found a parallel of the cure with many prejudices: "It’s abhorrent to me, as it would be if a person said I need curing of my sexuality, or if someone said that black people could take a pill that would ‘cure’ them of being black.”


 * Famke Janssen as Jean Grey / Phoenix
 * A former member of the X-Men, upon being resurrected, Grey gives in to her alternate personality, the Phoenix, an aggressive Class 5 mutant who possesses potentially limitless telepathic and telekinetic powers. Her mutant powers rival those of Professor X. Haley Ramm plays Jean as a child. To mark the change from Jean Grey to Phoenix, her wardrobe focused on red colors, and everyday fabric in contrast to the leather costumes of the X-Men. Digital make-up also made Jean's face darken her skin, show some veins and have her eyes go black.


 * Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkholme / Mystique
 * Magneto's blue-skinned right-hand woman possesses the ability to shape-shift to mimic anyone's appearance, as well as fight with incredible agility and strength. She jumps in front of cure darts intended for Magneto and, after she loses her mutant abilities as a result, Magneto abandons her. Romijn described this story as "a traumatic experience" for Mystique, given that the previous movies implied that she and Magneto had "a deep-seated bond", and becoming "a frail mortal would be her worst nightmare".


 * Aaron Stanford as John Allerdyce / Pyro
 * A former student of Xavier's School for Gifted Mutants with a grudge against his former friend Bobby Drake, Pyro has the ability to manipulate fire, generated through wrist-mounted lighters. Stanford stated that with the Brotherhood, Pyro "is allowed to fully explore his power". The actor was comfortable with returning to the role, only finding strange going from shooting The Hills Have Eyes in the Sahara desert to the cold and rainy X-Men set in Vancouver.


 * Vinnie Jones as Cain Marko / Juggernaut
 * A criminal recruited by the Brotherhood in a prison truck, Juggernaut is incredibly strong, fast and, once he gains momentum, he is nearly unstoppable. Jones had to go through a four-hour make-up process to portray Juggernaut, which included a muscle suit and a prostethic chin. The costume tried to retain the bullet-shaped helmet of the comics without going excessively over the top.


 * Eric Dane as Jamie Madrox / Multiple Man
 * A mutant and thief recruited by the Brotherhood in a prison truck, Madrox has the ability to create a very large number of copies of himself.

The Omegas
The Omegas are a group of mutant outcasts existing as part of an underground network that stretches across the nation.
 * Dania Ramirez as Callisto
 * The leader of The Omegas, Callisto is a mutant with enhanced superhumanly acute senses, who senses mutants and their powers, and possesses superhuman speed. The character combined the powers of the comics' Callisto with another of the Morlocks, Caliban, and was written as someone who could be "beautiful, but with a tough persona". Ramirez had originally auditioned to play the mutant prostitute Stacy X, and impressed Brett Ratner so much the director decided to bring her to play Callisto.


 * Meiling Melançon as Psylocke
 * A mutant with the ability to teleport herself through areas of shadow, instead of the powers of the Psylocke from the comics. The character's trademark psionic dagger was considered for inclusion, but eventually discarded. Melançon decided to audition after the hiring of Brett Ratner, with whom she had worked in Rush Hour 2, and had originally read for the role of Callisto.


 * Omahyra Mota as Arclight
 * A mutant with the ability to generate shock waves of concussive force. The Dominican model was originally rumored to play Stacy X before being confirmed as Arclight, and even took a break from filming in Vancouver to model for L.A.M.B. in New York.


 * Ken Leung as Kid Omega
 * A mutant with the ability to eject spikes from his body, most notably his face, Kid Omega resembles the comic books' character Quill; however, the official cast credits read "Kid Omega". Leung, a frequent collaborator of Brett Ratner, asked to be in the film and thus a character was written for him. As the prostethic spines did not provide the same flexibility as digital ones, Leung had digital dots painted on his face to assist the quills' tracking in post-production.


 * Phat, a very large man who slims down in order to sit down between two people, is played by two actors, Via Saleaumua ("large mode") and Richard Yee ("small mode"). He was included after editor Mark Helfrich brought Marvel's X-Men Encyclopedia searching for mutants that could make appearances.
 * Spike, a mutant who battles Wolverine in the forest by extruding bony spikes from his flesh, was portrayed by Lance Gibson.  The character was added at the editors' suggestion, as they felt in the original cut of the scene Logan was portrayed as a cold-blooded killer, which could be changed if another mutant attacked Wolverine before he struck upon the Brotherhood.
 * Glob Herman, a mutant with transparent skin, makes a brief appearance played by Clayton Dean Watmough.

Other characters

 * Michael Murphy as Warren Worthington II
 * The head of Worthington Labs, the corporation developing the "cure", Worthington expects to rid his son of his mutant abilities.


 * Shohreh Aghdashloo as Dr. Kavita Rao
 * A scientist who works at Worthington Labs on the mutant cure, she is killed by Kid Omega.


 * Josef Sommer as the president of the United States
 * The president of the United States is tolerant of mutants.


 * Bill Duke as Secretary Trask
 * The head of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Trask aids the president of the United States during the war against the mutants. The character name alluded to Bolivar Trask, creator of the mutant-hunting Sentinels in the comics, as a way to introduce a possible villain for future films.


 * Cameron Bright as Jimmy / Leech
 * A mutant with the ability to neutralize the powers of nearby mutants, Leach's DNA is used as the basis for the mutant cure.


 * X-Men co-creator Stan Lee and writer Chris Claremont have cameos in the film's opening scene as the neighbors of young Jean Grey.
 * The sergeant directing defensive preparations before the Brotherhood assaults Alcatraz Island is played by R. Lee Ermey.
 * Various other mutants make cameos at the X-Mansion. Shauna Kain and Kea Wong reprised their cameo roles as Siryn and Jubilee respectively, and three identical girls in the background in one scene are a reference to the Stepford Cuckoos.

Development
Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films, left the project in July 2004 in favor of developing Superman Returns. Singer stated that he "didn’t fully have X-Men 3 in my mind" in contrast to a fully formed idea for a Superman film and interest in joining that franchise. By the time of his departure, Singer had only produced a partial story treatment with X2 screenwriters Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty, who accompanied him to Superman Returns. The treatment focused on Jean Grey's resurrection, which would also introduce the villainness Emma Frost, a role intended for Sigourney Weaver. Frost was an empath manipulating Jean's emotions in the treatment and, like the finished film, Magneto desires to control her. Overwhelmed by her powers, Jean kills herself, but Jean's spirit survives and becomes a god-like creature, which Dougherty compared to the star child in A Space Odyssey.

New contracts for returning cast members were made, as the actors and actresses had signed for only two films. Hugh Jackman's contract included the approval of director, initially offering the position to Darren Aronofsky, with whom he had just finished filming on The Fountain. Joss Whedon, whose comic book "Gifted" was integrated into the script's plot, turned down the offer because he was working on a Wonder Woman film. Rob Bowman and Alex Proyas were also rumored to be up for consideration, though Proyas personally turned it down, citing feuds with 20th Century Fox president Thomas Rothman while producing I, Robot. Zack Snyder was also approached, but he was already committed to 300. In February 2005, with still no director hired, Fox announced a May 5, 2006, release date, with filming to start in July 2005 in Vancouver. One month later, the studio signed Matthew Vaughn to direct, and pushed the release date three weeks to May 26, Memorial Day weekend. Vaughn cast Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Dania Ramirez as Callisto, and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut, but family issues led him to withdraw before filming began. Vaughn was also cautious of the tight deadlines imposed by Fox, stating that he "didn't have the time to make the movie that I wanted to make".

Brett Ratner, who was previously considered to direct X-Men in 1996, replaced Vaughn during pre-production. Ratner said he was surprised to get an invitation, as he thought he would have no chances on doing a comic book film after the cancelled Superman: Flyby. With a limited knowledge of the X-Men mythos, Ratner trusted his writers on doing something faithful to the comics, having the script drawing all of its scenes from the original Marvel publications.

Writing
Simon Kinberg, who had worked in other two Marvel adaptations for Fox, Fantastic Four and Elektra, was hired as writer for X-Men 3 in August 2004. X2 co-writer Zak Penn was doing his own draft separatedly, and the two joined forces for a combined screenplay in January 2005. Kinberg wanted "The Dark Phoenix Saga" to be the emotional plot of the film, while "Gifted" would serve as the political focus. The duo had seven months to complete The Last Stand's script, and during the first week of work completed the first eighty pages, consisting of the first two-thirds of the plot. This incomplete draft was leaked to Ain't It Cool News, who proceeded to do a negative review.

The writers had to fight Fox's executives to retain the Phoenix plot, as the studio only wanted the cure story as it provided a reason for Magneto's conflict with the X-Men. Still the disputes made them not add much for Jean Grey to do in most of the film's second half, as the executives considered the tone of the Phoenix story too dark for a mainstream summer movie, and that its appeal would be limited to hardcore fans rather than a general audience. Penn defended the divergences from the original Dark Phoenix stories, stating that the Phoenix was not a firebird-shaped cosmic force "because it doesn’t fit into the world," and that Cyclops did not have as much screentime as Wolverine because the latter was more popular and "with Cyclops, you can’t see his eyes. It’s a harder character to relate to for the audience." Killing Cyclops was Fox's decision, based on the availability of actor James Marsden, who was cast in Singer's Superman Returns. The studio considered killing him off-screen with a dialogue reference, but Kinberg and Penn insisted that Jean kill him, emphasizing their relationship. Xavier's death was intended to match the impact of Spock's demise in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as Fox felt the script called for a dramatic turning point. Kinberg and Penn were originally cautious, but grew to like the idea of killing off Xavier. They decided to write a post-credits scene suggesting the character's return for a sequel.

As the studio was simultaneously developing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, limitations were set on which mutants could be used for cameo appearances in X-Men 3 in an attempt to avoid risking character development for Wolverine. Gambit was considered for both the convoy scene being freed by Magneto and the Battle of Alcatraz along with the X-Men, but the writers did not want to introduce a fan favorite character and "not be able to do him justice." Kinberg reasoned, "there just wasn't enough space", and considered Gambit would only work with as much screentime as Beast. Alan Cumming had been uncomfortable with the long hours he had to take with the prosthetic makeup as Nightcrawler in X2, but still planned to return for the sequel. The part of Nightcrawler was so minimal, however, that the studio felt it was not worthwhile to go through the long and costly makeup process, and the character was cut. Kinberg felt that "there wasn't much left to do with the character. It also felt like he might tread a little bit on the terrain of Beast, in terms of similarities in the characters and their political standpoints in terms of dealing with their mutancy." Nightcrawler's absence was later explained in the tie-in video game. The introdutory scenes tried to emulate the Auschwitz opener for the first film, going with different scenes that resonated later in the plot instead of an action scene like in most blockbusters. Afterwards came a scene in the Danger Room, which was considered for the previous X-Men films but never included for budget and writing concerns. The writers tried to make the simulation not feel extraneous by showcasing some of the character conflicts and abilities in a "Days of Future Past"-inspired battle with a Sentinel. Another repurposed scene was Magneto attacking the convoy to free Mystique, Madrox and Juggernaut, which Penn had previously envisioned for X2.

Ratner collaborated with Penn and Kinberg in rearranging the plot structure of the film. Originally, the Golden Gate Bridge sequence was in the middle of the film, where the moved bridge was used by Magneto to free mutants being held prisoners on Alcatraz, and the climax was set in Washington, D.C.. Ratner felt too many recent action films, such as Planet of the Apes and X2 itself, had their ending in Washington, and the Golden Gate sequence "would be the biggest sequence in my entire career", and suggested to instead put the Worthington laboratory in Alcatraz, along with "creating a face for the cure", which became the character of Jimmy/Leech. Kinberg agreed, as he previously argued with Penn about "blowing so many things early in the movie".

Filming
X-Men: The Last Stand began shooting in August 2005 and wrapped in January 2006. Much of the film was shot at Vancouver Film Studios, the same location of X2. Locations included the Hatley Park National Historic Site and Royal Roads University, which doubled for the X-Mansion. According to associate producer Dave Gordon, "This is the biggest production ever filmed in Canada. It used to be X2, now it's X3." The $210 million budget also made The Last Stand the most expensive film to be made at the time. The film's record would be first broken by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest’s $225 million budget. The original cinematographer was Philippe Rousselot, who eventually opted to depart production. Dante Spinotti, a frequent collaborator of Ratner, replaced him, with assistance of J. Michael Muro. Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairmen Thomas Rothman and Jim Gianopulos debated whether Rogue should give Iceman a passionate kiss at the film's end or simply hold his hand. The two executives screened The Last Stand for their daughters, as well as the studio's female marketing executives, and the hand holding prevailed. Gianopulos stated that the kissing "was all about sex, and we didn't want that." A strong campaign of secrecy about the script was enforced by Ratner and the writers. Even the actors had problems with getting full screenplays, and many scenes were shot in varied ways. Both of the ending scenes were not included on the shooting script, with Ratner taking a small crew during one day's lunch time to film the post-credits scene with Xavier, and later going to London to film Magneto in the park.

Visual effects
To make sure the visual effects were made in just one year and without exceeding the budget, special effects supervisor John Bruno shopped the 900 effects shots to eleven companies in four countries - United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Canada - and did extensive previsualization. Their work begun in April 2005, before the director Brett Ratner had even been announced, and Bruno made sure to emphasize practical effects, "shoot as many practical elements as possible, and only use CG when we had to." For instance, complex wirework rigs were employed which cnabled the actors to do some stunts without resorting to digital doubles, including a computer controlled flying rig from Cirque Du Soleil for Angel's flight, and one for Halle Berry's flying spins that caused the actress to become sick and vomit. Bruno estimates one-sixth of the effects budget was spent on the Golden Gate Bridge scene, which employed both a miniature of the bridge and computer graphics. Another miniature was for the Grey home, which had a destructable equivalent matched the Canadian location and also had a digital equivalent. A notable effect was the "digital skin-grafting", which rejuvenated the faces of senior actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, made by the Brothers Strause's Lola Visual Effects. Bruno made sure to ask the atomization made by Phoenix was not too vivid and gruesome, instead resembling oatmeal.

Music
Ratner, a fan of John Powell's work in The Bourne Identity, invited Powell to write the music for X3. Powell included references to the score from the previous two films. "It all had to be in the same family, and the same language," he said. He used lyrics from Benjamin Britten's Requiem Mass for the choir parts. A soundtrack album was released on May 23, 2006.

Marketing
The marketing for The Last Stand was darker and more ambiguous compared to the two predecessors. Fox president Tom Rothman declared that the decision were made so the film would "be different from all of the other movies in the summer,” with a campaign that "wanted people to stop and not have it be so immediately apparent that we’re selling a movie. We’re interested in selling an emotion and an idea.” The film's official website was launched in October 2005. The teaser trailer release with King Kong the following December was done in conjunction with the studio releasing the film's first official screen shots of the film to USA Today. Diamond Select Toys created a toy line, scanning the actors from the film with likenesses for the first time in the trilogy. Additional product tie-ins came with Harley-Davidson and 7-Eleven. A seven-minute sneak peek aired on Fox Broadcasting two weeks before the film's theatrical release. Del Rey Books published a novelization of the film, written by comic book writer Chris Claremont, while Newmarket Press published The Art of X-Men: The Last Stand: From Concept to Feature Film.

Video game
Activision released a tie-in video game, X-Men: The Official Game, co-written by screenwriter Zak Penn and Claremont, bridging the events between X2 and The Last Stand. Actor Hugh Jackman showed clips at the ShoWest tradeshow exhibition in March 2006, after accepting the Award for Male Star of the Year.

Release and reception


X-Men: The Last Stand premiered at an out-of-competition event of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2006. Two days later, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Kelsey Grammer attended an advance screening at USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), as the ship was en route to New York City for Fleet Week. X-Men: The Last Stand was released in the United States on May 26, 2006, in 3,690 theaters, while also opening in 95 international markets that same weekend.

Critical response
X-Men: The Last Stand received a mixed reception. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 57% based on reviews from 228 critics, with an average score of 5.9/10. Metacritic calculated an average score of 58/100, based on 38 reviews.

Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating, with Roger Ebert saying, "I liked the action, I liked the absurdity, I liked the incongruous use and misuse of mutant powers, and I especially liked the way it introduces all of those political issues and lets them fight it out with the special effects." Salon.com gave it a mixed review, noting that it was "only half a mess", and that Ratner "could have stuck a bit more closely to the 'Dark Phoenix' narrative than he did." However, Salon did note that that third act captured some of the original story's "majesty". Famke Janssen's performance was praised by critics and audiences. Also impressed with Janssen's performance was Total Film, who said, "Playing the super-freaky mind-control goddess like GoldenEye’s Xenia Onatopp’s all-powerful psycho sister, her scenes – particularly that one with the house – crackle with energy and tragedy. If only the rest of X3 had followed suit."

Justin Chang of Variety said the film was "a wham-bam sequel noticeably lacking in the pop gravitas, moody atmospherics, and emotional weight that made the first two Marvel comicbook adaptations so rousingly successful." Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said, "A risk-taking script with genuine consequences elevates this ... above the lackluster direction of Brett Ratner, whose competent mechanics move the story efficiently but with very little soul." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called it a ""diminished sequel, a brute-force enterprise" and said it was an example of "what happens when movies are confused with sandwich shops as franchise opportunities". The Minneapolis Star Tribune characterized Ratner's approach as "Forget subtlety! Let's blow things up!" David Edelstein of New York magazine called it "just another big-budget B-movie. It’s a fast and enjoyable B-movie, though." Foreshadowing X-Men: First Class, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Last stand? My ass. Billed as the climax of a trilogy, the third and weakest chapter in the X-Men series is a blatant attempt to prove there is still life in the franchise. And there is: just enough to pull a Star Trek and spawn a Next Generation saga."

Matthew Vaughn, who was attached as director before dropping out, criticized Ratner's direction: "I could have done something with far more emotion and heart. I'm probably going to be told off for saying that, but I genuinely believe it." Vaughn would later say that, “I storyboarded the whole bloody film, did the script. My X3 would have been 40 minutes longer. They didn't let the emotions and the drama play in that film. It became wall-to-wall noise and drama. I would have let it breathe and given far more dramatic elements to it."

Box office
X-Men: The Last Stand broke the Memorial Day weekend record with $102,750,665 in its four-day opening weekend. The film's release was also a new single-day record for Friday openings. The opening weekend gross was surpassed six weeks later by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, making The Last Stand ' s opening the second-highest of 2006. Internationally, The Last Stand topped the box office in 26 countries with a total gross of $76.1 million overall, but suffered competition from The Da Vinci Code, which retained the top spot in most markets, and beat The Last Stand in international gross that weekend with $91 million. The film's second weekend dropped 67 percent to $34 million, which was the steepest post-Memorial Day opening drop on record. X-Men: The Last Stand eventually grossed $234,362,462 in the domestic box office and $224,997,093 internationally, for a worldwide total of $459,359,555, the fourth-highest in domestic grosses and seventh-highest worldwide for 2006. X-Men: The Last Stand was also the highest-grossing film in the franchise.

Home media
X-Men: The Last Stand was released on October 3, 2006, on DVD. It was available in three editions: single-disc, two-disc, and a trilogy box set with the previous two films. Extras included three alternative endings, each with optional commentary by director Brett Ratner; 10 deleted scenes; audio commentaries from Ratner, the writers and the producers; and two hidden Easter eggs. The two-disc edition came with a 100-page commemorative comic book with a new story written by X-Men co-creator Stan Lee, his first original Marvel comic book in five years. The DVD sold 2.6 million units in its first day, exceeding Fox's expectations, and sold a total 5 million in its first week. A Blu-ray edition of the film was issued in November 2006.

Sequels
In January 2006, Rothman announced that The Last Stand is the end of a trilogy, but not necessarily the end of the X-Men film series. He added that "these three movies work as a trilogy. These characters in this relationship, it's the culmination of that saga. It's the culmination and the resolution of those relationships laid out in the first two movies".

A stand-alone sequel to the film, The Wolverine, was released on July 26, 2013. The film's plot shows Logan heading for Japan to escape the memories of what occurred during X-Men: The Last Stand. Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen reprised their roles, while Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart appear in a mid-credits scene.

A direct sequel to the film, X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is also a direct sequel to X-Men: First Class, is set to be released on May 23, 2014, with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, and Daniel Cudmore returning in their respective roles.