X-Men ’97
Season 1 – Episode 8
Episode title: Tolerance Is Extinction – Part 1
Original release date: May 1, 2024
Plot: The UN reveals to the world that Xavier is alive, inciting an anti-mutant protest outside the school. Cable explains to the X-Men that the Genosha massacre is an “absolute point” in time that cannot be changed, and Bastion will use it to start a 300-year war that will lead to the enslavement of mutants in a human utopia. Cyclops, Jean, and Cable travel to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where they learn that Bastion is a human-machine hybrid who was conceived after his father was infected with part of the advanced, time-traveling Sentinel Nimrod. Members of “Operation: Zero Tolerance” (OZT) express concern over the massacre and ask Dr. Cooper to monitor Bastion, who explains to her how he is turning humans into Prime Sentinels like Trask using Sinister’s techno-organic virus. Prime Sentinels activate around the world, attack mutants, capture Jubilee and Roberto, and burn down Xavier’s school. A horrified Cooper releases Magneto, who creates a world-wide EMP that shuts down all of the Prime Sentinels. Wolverine fears that Magneto has declared war as Xavier returns and summons the X-Men.
* * *
[theme music playing]
Have you two had a chance to speak?
Apparently, his mutant power includes vanishing from any room I enter.
He’s stubborn.
Wonder where he got it.
Any word why Bishop’s not with him?
He told Beast they were separated in the time stream.
Nathan…
Cable, landed in the future alone.
I sent Nathan away to give him the best possible future.
And it was so horrible, he’s come back to stop it.
Think of it another way.
Your son came back because he needs his father.
I’m doing a bang-up job.
Never thought to ask the Professor to show me how he did what he did so well.
Be a father.
[Jean] Some lessons are taught, Scott.
Others are learned.
[Cable] His name is Bastion.
In my timeline, he used the fallout from Genosha to get backing for his Prime Sentinel program.
But that ain’t the worst part.
The Prime Sentinels are created using the same TechnoOrganic Virus Sinister infected me with as a baby, rewriting their DNA.
[Hank] If true, his Prime Sentinels would be living weapons capable of reproducing, literally giving birth to a new apex species designed to replace mutants like humans did Neanderthals.
[Cable] Exactly.
Bastion’s evolutionary war lasted 300 years.
So another dystopia where Logan’s the last to die.
[Logan scoffs]
[Cable] No. A utopia.
Like old pieces of tech, Bastion saved humanity by upgrading them.
Any mutant who survived was put to work.
Xavier’s dream came true.
Mutants ushered in a bright and peaceful future as its backbone.
Why the heck didn’t you stop Genosha?
Take a seat, Logan.
Aw, Daddy’s home.
I’ve tried it all, over and over.
[automated voice] Each time we attempt to stop the attack on Genosha, we are temporally pulled away from the event.
Strange.
The mystics of KamarTaj speak of absolute points.
Events that occur across all timelines.
Cable could travel to the very moment Genosha fell, but time would stop him.
It was you.
You’re why Madelyne was happy when she…
She saw you.
How many times?
Enough to give up.
But a rebel in my future got a lead on one of Bastion’s facilities in your time.
But at least now, here, today, I can avenge her.
[Cyclops] There are too many question marks here.
Like who exactly is Bastion?
Details are sketchy, but best guess, he’s some type of backup android that Master Mold uploaded into after you took him down.
We need to do reconnaissance.
Figure out exactly what we’re facing.
I know all I need to know.
That machine killed my mother.
[Cyclops] We need to make sure he doesn’t do the same to anyone else.
A couple centuries late on the overprotective dad bit, huh?
Both of you, stop it! Look.
[Lilandra] And our empire shall welcome a new emperor.
Professor Charles Xavier.
To the might and glory of the Imperium.
[crowd cheers]
This shocking off-world transmission was released by the UN, who now fear the X-Men faked their mentor’s death to garner support for mutants.
Even more alarming are the reports that Xavier’s assassin,
Henry Gyrich, was found murdered in Mexico City today.
[grunts] It’s Bastion.
It’s starting.
Bastion’s been playing us from the get-go.
It’s time to turn the tables and end his twisted plans for the future.
[man] This lying Professor Xavier may bring an alien army to Earth’s doorstep.
And who’s going to suffer?
All of us.
And it’s a shame, because it gives all…
[Ford] Will 10 cases of wine be adequate for tonight’s charity gala, ma’am?
Make it 15.
Checks with sloppy signatures still cash.
I’m hosting a fundraiser here for Genosha.
Somebody needs to help those poor souls.
The X-Men certainly aren’t.
We were trying to keep you people from coming after the Professor again.
“You people”?
Well, thankfully, my guests and I don’t believe
that a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.
[Jubilee] You know what?
This party sounds super lame anyway.
Come on, Roberto.
You have a trust fund, and I have good taste.
I think we both could use some retail therapy.
[Nightcrawler] You can help her, Miss Grey?
[Jean] Yes.
And please, call me Jean, Kurt.
[Nightcrawler] Hmm. Madelyne preferred her first name, too.
It was hard for her,
a telepath who could not trust her own memories, who fears the past as much as the future.
I should’ve reached out to her.
With the psychic connection we shared, it’s as if Madelyne’s memories are my own.
It’s odd. I see her son and I remember him kicking inside me.
And Scott listening, and those cravings for oranges with cottage cheese.
Just like I remember telling my friend Storm that I wanted him to be born human.
And then, I remember holding him for the first time.
Knowing, human or mutant, he’s perfect.
But it’s all a lie.
Memories are merely dim images echoing with emotion.
Does it matter if you heard his first cries, if you remember how it felt to hear them?
But he’s Madelyne’s blood.
I was abandoned by my mother, Mystique, as an infant.
Despite our shared blood, I was too blue for her.
Then I met Rogue years later.
We could’ve been enemies or strangers.
Instead, unlike our mother, we chose not to abandon each other.
To let go of the past and simply be family.
Blood is blood.
Family is a choice.
[Hank] Cable’s lead points to a town called Harmony, outside Pittsburgh.
I’m uploading the coordinates for you now.
That’s where you’ll find Bastion.
Make it fast, McCoy.
The villagers got their hands on pitchforks and torches.
[Dr. Cooper] Huh. Bastion’s very own Dr. Mengele.
[Mister Sinister chuckles]
What’s so funny?
I knew Mengele.
He could’ve been so much more.
But he settled on being a Nazi pup.
I’m using Bastion.
Pig pens brimming with mutant test subjects.
That’s my dream.
[reporter on TV] Officials are discussing how to take action…
Henry Gyrich’s murder in a secure location at the time of his death.
[reporter 2] And, while no government has claimed responsibility, some speculate the attack on Genosha to be…
Bastion says you haven’t spoken a word since Genosha.
[reporter 2] Nations refusing to allow mutants displaced by the brutal attack on Genosha to return to their home country…
I didn’t know, I swear.
[reporter 2] This, as rumors swirl that everything…
I’m sorry,
[sighs] for everything.
Forgive me, curse me.
Just please, talk to me.
You must have something to say.
Too late for cocoa and apologies?
Didn’t recognize you without your camera and microphone, Miss Tilby.
No more yellow journalism for me.
Though the X-Men locking up the lead suspect behind Genosha in their basement is a pretty big headline.
Good doctor’s been hoisted by his own petard.
Now a cyborg variant of the very machines he invented.
How many like him are out there?
[Hank] We shall know momentarily.
[Cable] This address doesn’t look like any Sentinel facility I’ve seen.
[Cyclops] Jean?
This is no Sentinel facility.
This is Bastion’s childhood home.
He grew up here.
I sense another mind.
Oh. My son said you’d come get me tomorrow.
You there, the big one.
Help an old woman up.
[chuckles]
Please, make yourselves at home while I pack.
Well, guess we play along.
[Jean] He drew these.
Just who is this guy?
Neanderthals were brutish creatures…
[Jean] I see a child who could hear things.
Not thoughts. Machines.
[young Bastion] Stop. No.
[Master Mold] You shall be the most powerful mutant alive.
[whimpers]
[Jean] And the boy’s father, a school janitor, being infected by something from the future.
Sentinel technology.
Nimrod.
Creating something new, parts, past, present and future.
Sebastion?
Mom, will I ever be normal?
You are normal.
You’re my son.
He’s descended of every Sentinel, from Master Mold to Nimrod.
Mutated, evolved, born.
You should’ve warned us about Genosha.
Well, I did.
But I also said, “Bully an underdog too long, and people start feeling sorry for them.”
Like when our village idiot, Gyrich, made a martyr of Xavier and…
…tolerance, but really, guilt.
So I hand humanity Genosha.
Overload their bandwidth, too much to compute.
Because when your skin’s not in the game, apathy is your answer.
[Dr. Doom] Do not mistake Doom’s collusion as indifference to flagrant war crimes.
Next time, I’ll send memos.
But right now, we press on with the rollout.
[Zemo] Your Sentinel program can’t go wide so long as leaders like President Kelly see the X-Men as allies.
Noted.
And already handled.
We also request Dr. Cooper stay with you to ensure those memos go out.
Nifty. I’ll even throw in a tour.
Alliterative allure aside, Genosha’s not genocide.
It’s time management.
In a hundred years, mutants outnumber humans ten-to-one.
And generations later, human extinction.
It’s like the scary ozone stuff in the news.
“Act today to save tomorrow.”
Enter Operation Zero Tolerance.
Trask Sentinels.
Well, they’re too blunt.
Mutants spot ’em a mile away.
We need something deadly, but discreet.
Before today, this fellow was your average Joe.
With all this mutant-loving, people like Joe turned to dialup chat rooms to speak freely, to connect.
Builders lay off a dozen workers and hire one mutant with the strength of 10 men.
What’s a taxi driver supposed to do when a teleporter gets you there in a blink?
The human community is scared.
Of course, they are.
They’ve been told over and over that the future is leaving them behind.
But I invite them to be relevant again.
Do these people even know what you’re doing to them?
[Bastion] I omit the more technical details, but they know they’re joining something far greater than themselves.
After this, they wake up in their daily lives, with no memory of ever being here.
Then, who knows?
Maybe a mutant flirts with one of them at a local dive bar and…
[Dr. Cooper] You said you were building a new Sentinel, not weaponizing civilians.
You sound like a dinosaur fretting the fate of an asteroid before impact.
[Dr. Cooper] I’m more concerned you’re the asteroid, Bastion.
Do you have children?
He was a hard pregnancy, Sebastion.
Nearly lost him.
It’s important to cherish every second with your child.
They grow up so fast.
Here, let me show you his best one.
Painted it when he was 16.
The Final Dream, he called it.
Like all good art…
[digital beeping]
[grunts]
…it imitates life.
Jubes, we gotta give my mom time.
This is all new to her.
[Jubilee] While you give her time, you’re giving me this new outfit.
Thoughts?
Actually, save ’em. Love it.
Yo, Ford. A little privacy.
Surrender, mutants.
[Hank] I’ve recalibrated Cerebro to scan for cyborg brain frequencies like Trask’s.
Would they know they’re Sentinels?
Trask didn’t. Not at first.
[alarm beeping]
Oh, my stars and garters.
We must warn the team.
[Prime Trish] Don’t.
[groans]
You’ll spoil his surprise.
He’s artistic, my creator.
But you see it, too.
It takes a mutation to beat one.
Heartbreaking, realizing you’re no longer Mother Nature’s favorite.
All those years telling us to face the future, your future.
But now…
Surrender, mutants.
I gotta talk to Hank about his taste in women.
[Cyclops] Cable, any of those nifty grenades of yours?
Yeah, I might need a few more.
[Jean] He’s turned his entire hometown into…
[Cyclops] Nathan, Jean, run!
Did your butler just turn into a Sentinel zombie?
I am totally done with malls.
Meet outside.
[growls] Fancy a trip to the junkyard, Tin Woman?
Filthy Neanderthal.
[growls]
Why resist the inevitable?
Lady, I got six reasons why.
[Nightcrawler] No, mein Freund.
Nine!
[Nightcrawler] We must get them away from Rogue.
[straining]
[both panting]
Oh, man! Everyone can fly but me.
[screaming]
Ugh. You, too?
I know.
I’ve been practicing in the Danger Room.
I wanted to surprise you.
Still figuring out steering!
Come on, use a seat belt.
[sighs] Screw it. I’m not doing this again.
[Jean] Nathan, get in the back.
[Cable] Quit bossing me around.
Hank’s gonna kill you.
This is the third Blackbird in as many months.
You have a Porsche?
Watch out!
They’re boxing us in.
Time’s taught me anything, when you can’t go back, plow forward.
Okay, let’s show these toasters why you don’t screw with the Summers.
[people chattering indistinctly]
[people exclaiming]
[woman] What?
Roberto.
Mom, these killer robots are trying to kill me.
We do not kill mutants.
We save them.
Stand down.
[man gasps] Oh, my God, her son’s a mutant.
Meu filho, do what the men say.
[Daria] You did it.
You saved the world.
[digital beeping]
That human wretch let Magneto out.
She’s lost her mind!
[Bastion grunts] Of course she did.
Still, too little, too late.
[Bastion] You just had to let the dog out.
Do you understand the futility of your bleeding heart, of fighting the future?
You’re a monster.
I was born this way.
[groans and struggles]
[Dr. Cooper] You know, in Genosha, I felt a lot of things.
Pain, grief, admiration for those who fought, despite the odds.
But you know what the oddest thing was?
No one seemed shocked or surprised.
Not even me.
Yes, I was scared,
but really, I just had the most profound sense of déjà vu.
As if past, present and future didn’t matter and never had.
Because we always end up in the same ugly place.
Thing is, Magneto knows us better than Charles ever did.
Knows we know better.
That most of us experience tragedies like Genosha as a bit of déjà vu before getting on with our day.
But the scariest thing about Genosha wasn’t the death or the chaos.
It was a thought.
The only sane thought you can have when being chased by giant robots that were built to crush you.
Magneto was right.
Enough.
Magneto actually did it.
What? Saved our hides?
No. Declared war.
Where’s the Professor when you need him?
[engine whooshing]
[Professor X] I hope that I’m not too late.
To me, my X-Men.
