X-Men villain Mystique made a stunning entrance in the original X-Men. Played by supermodel Rebecca Romijn, this shapeshifting mutant functioned as Magneto’s chief spy and assassin. No task seemed too cruel or underhanded for Mystique – even sabotaging the X-Men’s Cerebro unit and putting Professor Charles Xavier into a coma. And while her human disguises were convincing, Mystique herself came off as a silent, calculating predator, utterly devoid of remorse, compassion, or humanity.
So it came as a huge surprise to audiences when the X-Men prequel X-Men: First Class decided to reimagine Mystique as Charles Xavier’s foster sister. Now played by Jennifer Lawrence (and Morgan Lily as a child), Mystique was a kind, sweet young woman more interested in hiding her true nature than being a mutant terrorist. By the end of the film, she fell in with Magneto who brought out her more aggressive traits – but she was still a far cry from the inhuman assassin of the original movies.
This was still true at the beginning of X-Men: Days of Future Past, which was set ten years after the events of X-Men: First Class. The Mystique in this movie is a skilled fighter and expert spy, yet she still has great compassion and love for her family. The events of the film alter the timeline and Mystique ends up becoming a hero to the mutant community instead of a villain, but many fans were left wondering – how could this Mystique have transformed into the cold-blooded killer of the original X-Men trilogy?
Interestingly enough, X-Men: Days of Future Past offers several hints as to how Mystique’s personality changed so completely. In the opening scenes, the older Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) explains that in the original timeline, Mystique killed Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) but was taken captive by Trask’s people. These people tortured Mystique and experimented on her, eventually extracting certain elements in her DNA that allowed them to create mutant-hunting Sentinel machines that could replicate mutant powers simply by battling other mutants, making them unstoppable. Of course, in the new timeline Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine, and Beast stopped the assassination from happening and helped Mystique escape capture – but how did events play out in the original history? We know that Xavier and Beast would still have been hiding at the closed school and stay inactive for years. Magneto would still be imprisoned deep beneath the Pentagon and Wolverine would be off on his own adventures.
This means Mystique would have been captured with no hope of rescue. Moreover, we know what kind of torture she went through based on a few lines from Trask in Days of Future Past. While examining Mystique’s blood, Trask mentioned he needed to harvest several organs from Mystique, including her brain tissue, spinal fluid, and bone marrow. As Trask’s people would likely follow the same protocols in the original timeline, they would have cut open Mystique for these items, leaving her lobotomized and horribly maimed.
As a shapeshifter, Mystique would survive this procedure as her mutant powers could probably compensate for the stolen organs and give her the appearance of health. Nevertheless, the trauma of such experiments would leave her with severe brain damage that would probably affect her memory and personality. Not wanting to lose such a valuable specimen, Trask’s people would keep Mystique alive, albeit imprisoned and sedated.
Eventually – possibly years or even decades after Mystique’s capture – Magneto would manage to engineer his own escape from the Pentagon. Although he no longer had Mystique or any members of his original Brotherhood, someone like Magneto would have or eventually develop other contacts he could use to free himself from his prison. Furious over the years he spent in captivity, Magneto would go looking for new recruits – and discover that Mystique was still alive. In what would undoubtedly be a spectacular scene that would end with multiple broken bodies, he would take her from Trask’s people but discover that she was now completely amnesiac and a virtual blank slate.
Ever the opportunist, Magneto would nurse Mystique back to health – but as she regained her strength, he would ensure that she developed into his idea of the perfect Mystique. This meant re-teaching her all of her fighting and espionage skills along with his brutal philosophy of mutant domination. Meanwhile, any lingering memories of her relationship to Xavier would be stamped out, the better to guarantee her loyalty to him. By this point, Xavier would have probably recovered somewhat from his depression and re-open his school with Hank’s help. As he recruited a new class of students in Storm, Cyclops, and Jean (his “first students” according to his lines from the original X-Men movie) he would hear news reports of Magneto’s terrorist attacks – and see that Mystique was now his subservient enforcer.
Realizing that he’d basically abandoned his foster sister to years of brainwashing, experimentation, and torture, Xavier would be sick with shame and regret – so much so that he refused to reveal his relationship with Mystique to anyone. He’d also see the need to create a team to oppose Magneto, and would begin training his new students in combat tactics to form a new team of X-Men. By the time of the original X-Men movie, the team was battle ready – but Mystique, now unable to remember her foster brother at all, had no problem putting Xavier into a coma when Magneto ordered her to.
Of course, thanks to Wolverine’s time travel manipulation, history was altered and Mystique was spared her grotesque brainwashing – although her life was still cut short due to the events of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Even so, one has to admit her new life was definitely kinder to her than her original one and let her go out the way she probably would have preferred.