Senator Kelly's kidnapping has caused an outrage. Now more people that ever want to get rid of the mutants. As the X-Men watch reports of TV Wolverine is annoyed as they saved Kelly's life and the thanks they are getting for it is anything but appreciative. The X-Men know Magneto was the one behind it but they don't know where he is -but the Professor says that he can use Cerebro to locate him.
Magneto has taken Kelly to the wreckage of an old ship. He tells the Senator that he agrees with him that mutants and humans cannot co-exist but he believes that mutants will be the ones who prevail. He also knew about the assassination and was there when it was going to happen but when he saw the X-Men save his life, he had to take action. Magneto somehow knows that Kelly's death will start the war between mutants and humans, a war he is determined to win. He uses his powers to place a generator over Kelly and drop it on him.
But before he can do that the ship is ripped apart as a couple of Sentinels arrive and save Kelly. Magneto uses his powers on them only to find out that they have no effect -one of the Sentinels reveals that they are special units made of tough plastic. Before Magneto can try and rip their electronics out of their insides, he gets blasted. The Sentinels get Kelly but before they can fly away, Magneto declares that the entire ship is his weapon...
...and proceeds to destroy one Sentinel by launching a generator through it. But more and more Sentinels arrive, to many for Magneto to deal with in such a small space. By using his powers, Cerebro picks up his signal and the X-Men head out in the Blackbird.
But when they reach the location they find the wrecked ship on fire and no signs of life. The X-Men put out the fire and start to search the ship. Rogue eventually finds an injured Magneto under a pile of rubble. Meanwhile the Sentinels don't take Kelly home but take him back to their base.
Master Mold lives! And he's busy making more Sentinels. Kelly thanks Trask for saving his life and asks if there is anything he can do for him. Trask wants the Sentinels project made official and backed by the government, so Kelly says that as soon as he is made President he'll grant him that request. Trask tells a Sentinel to take Kelly back to his campaign HQ...only for the Sentinel to refuse! Master Mold reveals that he is taking over now and tells the two humans about his great plan -he intends to replace all of the world's leaders with computers linked to him so he can rule over the planet!
Whilst Magneto is healing, the X-Men now know that they need to go and find the Sentinels. They need to strike first as Wolverine believes that the robots will be sent to destroy them soon. The problem is they have no idea to where they could be. But Storm remembers that Gambit once met one of the founders of the Sentinel project whilst he was on Genosha, so Gambit agrees to let the Professor read his mind.
When Gambit thinks about the man he met, Cerebro finds out who he is: Henry Gyrich. Gyrich is out and trying to call Trask, but he isn't getting an answer. Suddenly his driver crashes the car, there is snow all over the road!
Gyrich sees the X-Men and runs off into a building. He is tracked down and taken out, having failed to contact any of the authorities. But his cell-phone gets a call and Trask starts to speak, saying how Master Mold has gone insane and his plot to replace key leaders. But then another Sentinel finds him and ends his call.
Whilst Gyrich reveals the location of the Sentinel base, he says that they are all too late -thousands of Sentinels have now been produced. The X-Men head home and discuss what to do as the odds are against them if they want to try and rescue Kelly. Magneto then enters the room saying that Charles has failed; peace between mutants and humans will never be able to happen now.
The X-Men all eventually agree to go and try to save Kelly despite the odds and soon the Blackbird departs. Magneto is left behind and calls them all fools...but heroic fools at least. Meanwhile, Master Mold picks up the jet on radar and starts to activate his Sentinels.
The X-Men arrive first and split off into two teams: Cyclops, Jean, Gambit and Wolverine head underground whilst Rogue, Jubilee and Storm wait topside. Soon an army of Sentinels fly up to attack the smaller team.
The other team hide as lots of Sentinels fly past them. Rogue's team is just there to try and keep them busy for a while. Cyclops tells his team to split up to cover more ground as he knows that Rogue and the others won't be able to last long against the Sentinel army.
The Professor is helping out to by shooting down Sentinels with the Blackbird but the aircraft gets hit and nearly crashes...until Magneto prevents it from doing so. Meanwhile Wolverine comes across Sentinels in a dark room where the only light provided is that from Sentinel laser blasts.
Gambit destroys a door and finds Wolverine getting beaten up pretty badly so he helps him out. Meanwhile Trask realises that rather than create something to protect the world he's now got something that is going to destroy it. Cyclops and Jean arrive and see Kelly on an operating table, Master Mold wants Trask to remove the Senator's brain!
Jean uses her powers to move the Senator out of harms way but Master Mold notices and blasts Cyclops. The giant robot states that he hasn't killed Cyclops as he doesn't have to kill -he doesn't fear the mutants and under his rule, peace will be achieved. But Trask has other ideas for his creation and notices a dangerous canister on the other side of the room.
He sets up a laser machine to blast it and then runs off, as do Kelly, Jean and the recovered Cyclops. Master Mold goes to move the laser but is to late, the canister explodes and engulfs the entire room in a massive fireball. The entire underground base is in danger of collapsing so Cyclops tells Jean to take Kelly above ground whilst he goes to search for Wolverine and Gambit -this time he isn't going to leave anyone behind!
The split up as the Sentinels fighting outside realise that Master Mold is in danger. They all stop fighting Magneto and the X-Men to head down a shaft to go and help their leader. But this isn't a good idea as after they go down the shaft the entire thing explodes, taking all of them with it.
Magneto generates a shield to protect himself and the X-Men from the explosion, but they all have to wonder if any of their team-mates made it out. Cyclops finds Wolverine, Gambit and a lot of destroyed Sentinels. He blasts a hole in one of the walls to create an exit and leads his friends out. Trask, Kelly and Jean also make it out meaning that this time the entire team has survived.
It seems Rogue is really happy to see Gambit and kisses him in the best way she can without hurting him. But it isn't over yet as Master Mold emerges out of a mountain, declaring that he cannot be destroyed! Xavier suddenly arrives in the Blackbird with a plan.
The aircraft is now full to the brim with explosives and Magneto helps out by generating a shield around the jet to protect it from Master Mold's lasers. Xavier ejects as the plane heads on a collision course with the robot...
...and crashes right into it. The resulting explosion is so large it destroys the mountain. Xavier is safe and sees Magneto floating next to him, saying that his help was repayment for saving his life earlier. But now they are even, they will meet again -and Magneto makes it clear that next time they won't be on the same side.
The next day, Kelly makes a speech but has a different view on mutants -only the ones who abuse their powers need to be dealt with, the ones who try and help mankind mustn't be discriminated against. And his words seem to have an effect as Beast is set free! The other X-Men come to greet him in his cell, a place he no longer has to stay in.
Elsewhere, Scott and Jean are spending some times together when Scott asks the big question: will Jean marry her? Yes, she will! Even though she worries that if they have children, they will also be mutants and face the same problems that they have. But Scott says he wouldn't have it any other way. However, they don't know that they are being monitored by someone. Jean says there is nothing more beautiful that the beginning of a new day...you never know how it will turn out. That's what gives hope to the future.
"Hope for the future?! Hahahahahaha! Sinister knows what your future holds!"
NOTES
When Gambit is having his mind-read, he sees some other people before Gyrich. One of them is another Marvel character, Ghost Rider.