Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.
Movies

Watch Jean Grey Battle Magneto in Dark Phoenix Scene Breakdown

June 10, 2019
By The Credits

In the world of the X-Men, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X (James McAvoy) serve as mutant whisperers, only they do so to very different ends. For the good Professor, he teaches and counsels mutants, young and old, in an attempt to both nurture their gifts and make them respectable members of the community. For the often very bad Magneto, he takes in wayward mutants and nurtures their talents for chaos-making, enlisting them in his longstanding war with humanity. Now, Magneto has, from time to time, attempted to play nice. In Dark Phoenix, longtime X-Men writer and producer Simon Kinberg took the reigns and gave us a Magneto trying to make peace with the world. He’s even living in a bucolic setting, provided by the U.S. Government, in which he just wants to live and let live. It’s there that he takes in a mutant who is struggling with her enhanced powers—Jean Grey (Sophie Turner).

Photo Credit: Doane Gregory.
Director Simon Kinberg and Michael Fassbender on the set of Twentieth Century Fox’s DARK PHOENIX. Photo Credit: Doane Gregory.

While Magneto who really is trying to be good, it seems it is forever his fate to end up tossing people and metal around with his mind. This time he’s tempted back to the dark side, so to speak, by the suddenly out-of-control Jean Grey. In the New York Times’ fantastic series “Anatomy of a Scene,” Kinberg breaks down a scene between these two powerful mutants. Jean’s been camping out with Magneto after an insane accident in space gave her already potent powers a major upgrade. Then some army guys show up looking for her. Magneto wants to protect her and doesn’t want a fight, but once again it’ll be out of his control. In this scene, Jean Grey and Magneto go toe-to-matter-manipulating-toe, with a couple of helicopters thrown in for good measure.

Kinberg breaks down the scene, which involved using actual helicopters. It’s also worth mentioning he devised a big fight scene in which the central combatants don’t ever touch each other. Pretty cool.

Featured image: Sophie Turner stars as Jean Grey in Twentieth Century Fox’s DARK PHOENIX. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

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The Credits

The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.