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X-Men ’97 – S01E04 – Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1 | Transcript

On her birthday, a nostalgic Jubilee is forced to relive the X-Men's greatest adventures when an entertainment system transports her into a 16-bit video game.
X-Men '97 - S01E04 - Motendo / Lifedeath - Part 1

Original release date: April 3, 2024

On the morning of her 18th birthday, Jubilee and Roberto are transported into a video game by Mojo. With the help of a digital copy of Jubilee from the game’s beta version, the pair fight their way through the game and defeat Mojo before Spiral sends them back to the real world. Afterward, Jubilee kisses Roberto. Meanwhile, Storm heads to Forge’s ranch to undergo a procedure meant to restore her powers, but it fails. After he admits to previously inventing power nullifying technology, an enraged Storm tries to leave, only to be brought back the Adversary.

* * *

[♪ theme music playing]

Gambit found a little extra.

Here, take some cream with it.

Aw, thanks, Remy. You’re sweet.

But our new boss beat you to the pot.

It’s three sugars.

I’ll take a cappuccino if you just takin’ orders.

No. Luckily, I am giving them.

After breakfast, the XMen will report to the Danger Room for drills.

We must be ready should Mister Sinister resurface.

Surely our youngest member deserves some jubilation

on her 18th birthday.

I second the blue Rogaine ad.

Kid deserves it.

Jubilee will see far more birthdays

should she learn to master her powers to face a world that despises her.

Yoho! Someone’s daddy didn’t get him a pony for his sweet 16th.

My parents perished when I was a child.

Who’s got two thumbs that blast fireworks and turns 18 today?

Me.

Aw, happy birthday, sweet pea.

Boy, do we got some surprises for you.

But first, how do you wanna celebrate the big 18th, huh?

We are all ears.

Big shocker, I know,

but let’s go to the arcade.

It’ll be just like old times.

What do we think?

[Magneto groans]

“You would have the master of magnetism

“seen in a bar of childish makebelieve?”

Ugh! This is bogus.

What’s wrong with just one day

where I don’t have to freak out about the Professor,

or Jean and her clone,

or Cyclops and his latest control issue?

They aren’t even here because they just had to go play mutant politics

at the United Nations.

Genosha entering the UN is a big deal.

[scoffs] Small fries. I’m the birthday Big Mac.

You actually do play video games?

Uh, this might be makeorbreak.

The only people who hate video games are bad at video games.

But actually, this one isn’t mine.

Never even heard of a “Motendo.”

Rogue said they had some surprises.

Day is looking up. Let’s play!

I’d rather minha mãe find out I’m a mutant

than be caught dead playing that.

[♪ start up music plays]

[Jubilee] Whoa! What’s it doing?

Hey!

Whoa!

[both grunt]

[yelps, grunts]

[Roberto grunts]

What time is it?

How long were we playing?

I assume I won?

[metal clanging]

Wait.

[screams]

Hey, let him go!

Whoa! Where’d the mansion go?

[Roberto grunting]

How did we get downtown so fast?

Oh, boy!

[robot chimes]

You know, it would be a lot easier if you just used your powers.

What if there’s cameras around?

My parents could see me on TV.

Die, mutie!

Die, mutie!

Do you really think everyone is focused on you?

[Roberto] Yes.

[phone rings]

[Jubilee] Wait a second. It could be a trap.

A phone booth trap? That’d be creative.

Hello?

[game beeps]

Whoa! Hold up. Genosha?

But, like, waybackwhen Genosha?

What the heck?

I was trapped here with Storm.

Gambit, too.

And a bunch of other mutants.

All enslaved to build by Bolivar Trask.

[Roberto] The dude who created the Sentinels?

[gun fires]

[gasps]

[man 1] Move in! Fire!

Halt!

[man 2] Take ’em down!

[man 1] Go! Go!

[men groaning]

I didn’t do that.

Maybe it was…

her.

Was that you, Hot Topic stalker,

calling us earlier on the phone?

[automated voice] System error.

System error.

[Jubilee gasps] Like a cyberpunk mirage.

Duh! We are totally in a video game.

We’re what?

Pay attention to the young lady.

You’re, like, “totally in a video game.”

Love the “totally.”

Just what I was hoping for. Classic Jubilee.

What in the name of all heaven is that?

Mojo here,

your primetime psycho interdimensional alien TV producer

who feeds off ratings.

My greatest hit?

Putting the XMen through overly complicated death traps

to entertain my slaves…

“Indentured audiences,” sorry.

Looks like you’ve been dieting?

You noticed!

Got some nip, some tuck.

Actually, it’s been a horrible third quarter

and it shows, let’s be real.

Ratings are down, down, down,

and I’m thirsty for the next big thing, dirty girl. [chuckles]

That’s why I made the pivot to video games.

The future of mindnumbery!

You’re not just in a video game, honey.

You’re the star!

Player numero uno of my first blockbuster release,

where every level is based off your own memories.

Really? Me? Please.

Big names are a fortune.

Dazzler had a gig, don’t ask.

So you’re my gamer girl in a gamer world.

You connect with the youth. You’re their point of view.

Picture this, the future of Motendo,

that’s “mo” for “Mojo,”

in every home, on every world, in every dimension! Hah!

Zapping up nomnomnom

energy from the brains of all who play!

I’ll dominate the galaxies and the 18to45 age demographic.

And what if we refuse to play your game?

What then? None of this is even real.

Well, I don’t want to say something scary,

like, “If you die in the game, you die in real life,” but…

[cackles] Stakes.

Turn those frowns upside down before I cut you like a onehit wonder.

This is the dream, Jubilee. Be young forever,

replay the golden hits, no growing up.

Think about it, Jubes.

The old XMen are totally oldschool.

Who’s the Boss? Magneto.

Storm, Different Worlds.

Divorce Court: Summers v. Grey.

That’s not XMen.

You…

You’re my XMen, Jubilee, so…

Game on!

[Magneto cackles]

[crowd cheers]

[Jubilee] It’s loading. Here we go.

[Jubilee] All right! [grunting]

[crowd cheering]

[grunts in frustration]

[Roberto] Savage Land?

[booing]

[exclaims]

[grunts]

[yelling]

[Spiral] She’s at it again.

Patch that bug, Spiral!

This is what you get when you kill tech support.

For failing to kill the bug!

Nothing lost.

Now, shush!

My favorite level.

[crowd cheering]

I remember seeing this place on the news with minha mãe.

Magneto’s old base from his megalomaniacal phase.

I acted like I hated mutants.

Minha mãe tried saying there were good ones,

but I could tell she was spooked.

So I said, “They’re all freaks, and normal people would win.”

Man, talk about simpler times.

Now, helmet head’s bossing us around

and telling me how to spend my birthday.

It’s unreal.

We should probably find a way out of here.

What’s the rush?

These levels are taking me back.

Jubes, listen to yourself.

None of this is real.

Sooner or later, you gotta grow up.

Otherwise, reality will smack you right in the face… Ahhh!

[Jubilee] Roberto.

This talkytalky scene is taking forever.

It’s boss battle time, babies.

I am Magneto.

[grunts]

Oh, no. Roberto’s health is almost gone.

He’s dying.

Okay, he’s got a pattern of attack.

Typical boss battle shenanigans.

I just need to wait for it to cycle.

[grunts]

One more.

[Magneto cackles]

[grunts]

[Magneto groans]

[cackles]

[yells]

Roberto!

No, no, no.

This can’t be happening.

Is that

an extra life?

How did that get in there?

Spiral, I thought I told you to get rid of her.

[scoffs]

[gasps] Did I die?

Was I dead?

Oh, thank goodness.

I thought I lost you.

I found an extra life.

Someone is definitely helping us.

[speaking Portuguese]

I don’t speak justifiably angry Portuguese, but I know.

I messed up, big time.

Still, this young lady did take down old Magneto.

Bow before the lord of magnetism.

[Roberto] Whoa!

Hey!

[Roberto screams]

Huh?

[woman] No need for thank you among friends.

And by friends, I mean you.

I hacked you out of the game server

and into Mojo’s broadcast servers to buy us some time.

She’s a plot twist.

She’s in league with Mojo.

[both] Zip it, Da Costa.

[chuckles] Like I said, we go way back.

Now, we need to move.

That blobby tyrant fraud could download in here any second

and then rip us back into his game of deception.

Gonna hit pause here for a second.

I got a few questions.

Explain everything.

You gotta test a game before launch.

Running endless trial loops with you two was too risky.

So Mojo needed beta testers,

digital replicas of me.

I’m the only one left.

I’ve played these levels inside and out.

Relived the glory days more than I care to count,

but note the hair and wrinkles.

Before Mojo killed the beta, I figured out a glitch

and hacked my way through here before deletion.

Figures my game has cheat codes.

Very me.

[sighs] Jubilee, I know a part of you wants to hang here.

It’s nice knowing how every stage ends.

No surprises, no twists.

It always stays the same.

But that’s not living.

Living doesn’t get cheat codes or extra lives.

But it has friends and family.

Love, loss and heapings of hope.

Life’s a total risk and it’s on you.

Take it.

So, Magneto was right?

A bit, but he’s totally wrong about one thing.

Video games rule.

Now, what do you say we destroy Mojo’s game

and get you two lovebirds out of here?

[game beeping]

Two Jubilees?

Cheaters!

[crowd shouting]

Guys, I think he fell off his diet.

Fine by me.

The bigger they are…

the harder they pop.

Wow! I can do that?

[Abscissa] That ain’t the half of it. Just you wait.

[groans]

Whoa! Ah!

What’s the testing on throwing to a commercial during a video game?

[Mojo screams]

I got him!

[Abscissa] Hold up, cowboy.

It ain’t over till the fat despot sings.

[Mojo] Time to end you nasty glitches.

You brats may have canceled me today,

but I swear, I’ll gut you in the reboot.

[screams]

[crowd cheers]

[electrical buzzing]

Roberto, you could’ve…

Yeah, talk about risk.

[Forge] Storm, dinner is ready.

My papa’s bison chili.

It’s a leaner cut.

Gives room for the spices to do their magic.

You’re very kind.

Well, a friend of Charles Xavier is a friend of mine.

I owe that fellow a great deal.

As do we all.

How does it work,

a mutant who can invent anything he can conceive?

I can get at parts of the brain that are normally dormant in humans.

Draw unique connections,

see how bits fit,

like a Rubik’s Cube on constant autopilot.

Or simply a genius.

Well, life and love, God help me.

But if you’re needing a neat toaster

or a thing that’ll store your mutant powers…

Or a bowl of this delicious chili.

[laughs] Yep, or chili.

Then I’m your man.

[Ororo] May I ask?

[Forge] I was a soldier,

and there was a war.

I miss soaring.

The wind in my hair, so powerful it’s hard to breathe,

but so fresh as to be worth it.

Your mutant gifts have allowed you to fix yourself.

What a blessing.

[Forge] Wasn’t anything to fix.

Just adapted and got a little creative.

Let’s go for a ride.

[hooves clopping]

[Forge] Looks like you got creative.

Keep up.

I’m not building you a faster horse.

What a rude little man.

[Forge laughs]

[gasps]

[whinnies]

[chuckles] The goddess lives.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

[owl hooting softly]

[Ororo] That owl. I’ve seen him before, circling.

Perhaps he is like the winds.

The moon affects tides and temperatures,

guiding the wind across our planet’s surface.

The winds here never shift.

They always blow east, stuck like this owl.

[Forge] You more than anyone know how fast the weather can change.

The real trick to reversing what the XCutioner did to you

wasn’t making an inverted version of its radiation.

[Ororo] It was creating a machine that could safely channel such power.

Ah! You’ve been listening.

Last power differential clicked in my head when we were out riding.

Like I said,

helps to get outside.

You ready?

[breathes deeply]

[Forge] Okay, Ororo, give it a try.

[Ororo] Winds,

heed my command.

I am Storm, mistress of the elements.

Rise, winds, and move the desert sands.

[crows cawing]

Please, winds,

hear me.

[tearfully] Please.

This isn’t happening, Forge.

It can’t be real.

[Forge] I know, Ororo.

I know.

Oh. You’re still working on the machine.

Why is fixing me so important to you?

Storm…

[grunts softly]

After the war,

I didn’t have the resources to build what I so easily saw in my mind.

The Defense Department offered to help me

as long as I helped them build some devices.

Devices that could be used to

neutralize dangerous mutants.

No.

No, no, no.

You made these?

No, a scientist in Scotland did.

Using my early designs, rough strokes at best.

I left the government by then.

You of all people should know the perils of trusting those in Washington.

[Forge] That’s not fair.

I was hurting, lost, bitter.

I gave up.

If I told you the truth in Dallas,

you wouldn’t have let me help you.

So you lied.

My weaver of lies.

It hasn’t all been lies.

This…

This is not a lie.

No, don’t you dare.

I could live forever.

And still, my endless imagination

would never conceive of a thing as perfect as you.

A perfect path to your redemption.

You are a goddess.

Powers be damned.

How do you not see that?

Ororo, look at me.

Look.

I’ll say it once, just once.

Then you can go or you can stay, but…

I love you.

You meant to make me a goddess.

Instead, you have fashioned a fool.

[thunder rumbling]

[horse whinnies]

Ororo!

I was just coming upstairs after you.

What? How did I return here?

[thudding]

[warbling]

[gasps] By all things in the heavens.

Get out of my home, you damn demon!

[Forge groans]

[Forge grunts]

[Ororo] Is this death?

[creature] No.

[thunderclap]

You live.

Disappointed.

Trapped here, haunted.

Suffering, despairing.

I feast on misery.

And I, The Adversary,

shall not waste my meal.

[♪ captivating instrumental music playing]

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