Fox’s X-Men franchise is full of memorable Marvel action scenes, but some equally exciting moments tend to go under the radar. Spanning more than twenty years, the X-Men movie franchise introduced dozens of iconic characters and adapted several comic book storylines. From the 1960s Uncanny X- Men comics to the 1980s Dark Phoenix Saga and the 2000s Ultimate X-Men, 20th Century Fox drew inspiration from many different parts of the source material to deliver thirteen action-packed X-Men movies.

Some scenes from the X-Men films are especially popular due to their creative premise and brilliant execution. For instance, Nightcrawler’s infiltration of the White House at the beginning of X2: X-Men United, Angel’s attempt to cut off his wings in X-Men: The Last Stand, and the Sentinels’ massacre of the mutants in X-Men: Days of Future Past are highlights of the franchise. However, there are other sequences that have withstood the test of time, but usually aren’t brought up as often.

10. Magneto And Professor X Fight Without Moving A Finger

X-Men (2000)

In X-Men, Magneto abducts Rogue with the help of Sabretooth and Toad. Professor X arrives to intervene, and a unique battle ensues when the police try to stop Magneto. Magneto lifts two police cars up in the air and slams them against the other cars. Then, he turns the police officers’ guns against them and threatens to shoot. However, Professor X mind-controls Sabretooth, ordering him to grab Magneto’s neck. Magneto shoots a gun, but stops the bullet right before it hits an officer’s forehead. Professor X has no choice but to release Magneto’s henchmen, and Magneto escapes.

This battle of wits between Magneto and Professor X is a creative depiction not only of their mutant powers, but also of their personalities and personal philosophies. Neither mutant is a violent fighter, nor do they choose to land the first blow. Instead, Magneto relies on intimidation and Professor X on illusion. Both mutants think two steps ahead, as evidenced by Professor X’s strategy of neutralizing Sabretooth and Toad, as well as by Magneto’s argument that stopping him at that point is useless. In short, this X-Men battle is the perfect action-scene equivalent of a “Magneto vs Xavier” chess match.

9. Magneto Breaks Out Of Prison Using A Guard’s Blood Iron

X2: X-Men United (2003)

X2: X-Men United didn’t waste any time establishing Magneto’s true power. After Mystique injects a security guard with liquid iron in a bar, Magneto identifies the guard in his plastic-and-glass prison cell. Without breaking a sweat, Magneto removes all the iron from the guard’s blood through his pores and shapes it into three metal balls, which he uses to destroy the cell. Magneto melts one into a platform, steps on it, and transports himself to the entrance before shooting the other two metal balls toward the guards outside the cell.

Once again, Magneto barely moves his body in order to unleash chaos and get his way. His brilliant intellect is also on full display, as it’s evident that such a brutal way of turning a security guard into his key out of prison was his idea. Unlike Michael Fassbender’s version of the character, Ian McKellen’s Magneto showcases a visibly condescending joy when he kills or otherwise defeats his human opponents. Yet, X2: X-Men United also suggests that many of Magneto’s feats of power wouldn’t be possible without Mystique’s help.

8. Wolverine Kills Lady Deathstrike With Liquid Adamantium

X2: X-Men United (2003)

The X-Men movies featured several violent scenes where certain characters met horrific fates, but Lady Deathstrike may have been the victim of the worst overkill in the franchise. In X2: X-Men United, Wolverine visits the room where William Stryker injected him with Adamantium years earlier. Before he can exact revenge on Stryker, he needs to get rid of Stryker’s assassin Deathstrike, who possesses Wolverine’s same healing factor and five long adamantium fingernails on each hand. After he fails to drown her, Wolverine injects Lady Deathstrike with pure liquid Adamantium until it drips out of her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Seventeen years before Wolverine’s clone X-24 successfully killed Logan, Lady Deathstrike established herself as one of Wolverine’s most challenging opponents. Deathstrike had the upper hand throughout the entire fight, and if the liquid Adamantium wasn’t there, it’s possible that she could have stabbed Wolverine fatally with her fingernails. Wolverine’s last resort is horrifying, and the fact that he immediately seemed regretful about it makes his return to William Stryker’s facility more tragic.

7. Wolverine Kills Agent Zero In Revenge For An Elderly Couple’s Deaths

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the least popular installments in the X-Men movie franchise. However, there are a couple of moments that stand out over the rest of the movie. After escaping William Stryker’s facility with his new Adamantium skeleton, Wolverine finds refuge in an elderly couple’s barn. Suddenly, three bullets pierce a window and kill the innocent couple, and a helicopter blows up the barn. To Agent Zero’s surprise, Wolverine exits the barn unscathed and begins a berserker-rage rampage that leads him to destroy a convoy and a helicopter using only his claws.

The elderly couple’s wholesome attitude sets the stage for Wolverine’s justified revenge after their deaths, which are completely unexpected. During his rampage, Wolverine showcases superhuman reflexes, endurance, and an impressive aim, using his claws to turn his motorcycle around 180 degrees, send a military vehicle flying through the air, and crashing Agent Zero’s helicopter. Agent Zero’s satisfying death in the helicopter explosion as Wolverine walks away is only improved by the horrified look on William Stryker’s face when Wolverine confirms all of Stryker’s assassins are dead, saying “you wanted the animal, colonel? You got it.”

6. Wolverine Fights Gambit Outside The Casino

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

The X-Men franchise only featured Gambit in a single movie, and only as a minor character. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wolverine tries to locate William Stryker’s island to stop him from using several mutants’ abilities to create the ultimate weapon. Using information from John Wraith and Fred Dukes, Wolverine reaches out to Remy LeBeau, who knows the exact location of Stryker’s facility. However, LeBeau attacks Wolverine, forcing Wolverine into a fight with Sabretooth. Wolverine grows tired of Gambit, and knocks him down.

Gambit’s role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is small yet charming. Taylor Kitsch captures Gambit’s playful personality perfectly. Remy LeBeau uses his emblematic cards to throw Wolverine through a brick wall and his staff to climb up a wall. He attacks Wolverine just to spite him, and then tries to escape. However, Gambit is much weaker than Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine than he is in the comics. Wolverine uses a unique move on Gambit in these scene: he eats through the fire escape Gambit is standing on with his bare claws.

5. Wade Wilson Kills An Entire Room Full Of Enemies Before Becoming Deadpool

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Although X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn’t do Deadpool proper justice, Ryan Reynolds’ first-ever action scene as Wade Wilson is still a highlight of his performance. William Stryker’s spec ops team infiltrates a warlord’s headquarters in Lagos, and Wade Wilson is tasked with clearing out the room before the rest of the squad moves forward. As soon as the elevator doors open, Wade Wilson spins his swords like helicopter propellers, deflecting an incoming storm of bullets and sending them back towards the warlord’s henchmen.

Wade Wilson’s first action scene is visually impressive, especially when he splits a single bullet in two to kill two henchmen behind him. It also captures Deadpool’s pre-experimentation abilities quite well. Before Weapon XI, Wade Wilson was William Stryker’s most effective assassin. Stryker even acknowledges it at the end of the scene, saying “If you didn’t have that mouth of yours, Wade, you’d be the perfect soldier.” If only X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn’t fail at adapting Wade Wilson’s transformation into Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds’ anti-hero could have had a bigger role in the franchise.

4. Magneto Kills Three Nazis In Argentina

X-Men: First Class (2011)

One of Michael Fassbender’s earliest scenes as Magneto in X-Men: First Class takes place in a bar in Argentina, where he makes small talk with two German men. When Magneto drops a clue that his parents died because of people like them, the men go quiet. Magneto shows the two men the number on his arm and stabs one of them with his own knife. He then controls the bartender’s gun and shoots the other man before finishing off the first one. Magneto looks at a picture on the wall and decides to go after the person shown on it, Sebastian Shaw.

The bar scene might be one of the most grounded moments in the X-Men franchise. Only a bare minimum amount of information is explicitly provided, and it’s enough to understand why Magneto is taking joy in murdering the two men. Magneto’s dialog is also quite clever; he first tricks the men into thinking he’s one of them, only to hint at his real backstory. When the men realize the truth, all three take a slow and awkward sip of beer, but clearly know what’s about to happen.

3. Charles Xavier Is Paralyzed And Magneto Leaves The X-Men

X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class also features an emotional moment that’s key for the rest of the franchise. After killing Sebastian Shaw, Magneto prepares to depart Charles Xavier’s team and turn against humans. Meanwhile, the United States and the Soviet Union pause their attack against each other to shoot their nuclear weapons against the mutants, and Magneto stops the missiles in the air. Moira MacTaggert shoots at Magneto, forcing him to deflect the bullets. Unfortunately, one of the bullets hits Charles Xavier in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down.

X-Men: First Class could not find a more intimate explanation for Charles Xavier’s iconic wheelchair. Everyone involved is genuinely hurt over the circumstances of the event, and Xavier himself immediately forgives Magneto, telling him it wasn’t his fault. The accident finishes pushing Magneto over the edge and convinces him that true peace between mutants and humans is impossible, which also inspires Mystique to leave with him. Not to mention, the ease with which Magneto destroys the missiles is impressive, and at the same time contrasts with how easily a tiny mistake results in tragedy for everybody.

X-Men: First Class also features an emotional moment that’s key for the rest of the franchise. After killing Sebastian Shaw, Magneto prepares to depart Charles Xavier’s team and turn against humans. Meanwhile, the United States and the Soviet Union pause their attack against each other to shoot their nuclear weapons against the mutants, and Magneto stops the missiles in the air. Moira MacTaggert shoots at Magneto, forcing him to deflect the bullets. Unfortunately, one of the bullets hits Charles Xavier in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down.

X-Men: First Class could not find a more intimate explanation for Charles Xavier’s iconic wheelchair. Everyone involved is genuinely hurt over the circumstances of the event, and Xavier himself immediately forgives Magneto, telling him it wasn’t his fault. The accident finishes pushing Magneto over the edge and convinces him that true peace between mutants and humans is impossible, which also inspires Mystique to leave with him. Not to mention, the ease with which Magneto destroys the missiles is impressive, and at the same time contrasts with how easily a tiny mistake results in tragedy for everybody.

2.Wolverine Removes Viper’s Parasite From His Body

The Wolverine (2013)

Wolverine’s lowest point after X-Men: The Last Stand comes in The Wolverine, where Logan only wants to distance himself from the action, but ends up in the middle of a violent family conflict in Japan. After Viper infects him with a mutation-supressing parasite, Wolverine finds himself forced to remove it with his hands and his claws. While Wolverine digs into his own heart, the assassin Shingen arrives and tries to kill Wolverine and Mariko. Wolverine finally removes the parasite, dies briefly, and reawakens just in time to save Yukio and kill Shingen.

The Wolverine‘s parasite scene is incredibly intense. Wolverine is at his most vulnerable moment while losing his healing factor and poking his own insides with his claws. Shingen’s arrival only makes things worse, as Wolverine is unable to do anything but witness the assassin attack Yukio while he loses consciousness. The tides turn when Wolverine wakes up back at full power, making Shingen’s useless attempts to kill Wolverine feel cathartic. The battle ends on an epic note when Wolverine removes Shingen’s blade from his chest — a reverse seppuku.

1. Magneto Chases Mystique After She Tries To Kill Bolivar Trask

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

X-Men: Days of Future Past is filled with exciting, terrifying, and emotional moments that often overshadow Bolivar Trask’s botched assassination attempt. In the 1970s, Mystique infiltrates Bolivar Trask’s Sentinels presentation. To Trask’s surprise, one of the foreign government officials turns out to be Mystique, who intends to assassinate him. Unfortunately for her, Magneto and Xavier arrive to stop her. But then, to Xavier’s surprise, Magneto tries to shoot Mystique. Although Beast pushes Magneto, Magneto is able to bend the bullet and hit Mystique in the leg. The battle turns public, and Mystique is able to blend into the crowd.

This scene is chaotic in all the best ways, as every character fails at their respective goal and only makes everything worse. Mystique confirms Bolivar Trask’s fear of mutants, Magneto causes a public fight that allows the press to paint mutants in a bad light, and Wolverine slips in and out of the timeline, hurting Kitty Pryde in the process. The era-appropriate footage of the journalists’ old-school cameras makes Magneto seem like an unstoppable horror movie monster. Meanwhile, William Stryker’s brief glimpse at Wolverine’s claws is a clever nod to the X-Men movies’ impending Weapon X program.