X-Men ’97 – S02E03 – Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1 – Transcript

X-Men ’97
Season 2 – Episode 3
Episode title: Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1
Original release date: July 1, 2026

Plot: Part 1 : In ancient Egypt, in 3000 BC, the young mutant En Sabah Nur (who would later become Apocalypse) leads the Sandstormers against Pharaoh Rama-Tut, a ruler who uses futuristic technology to enslave his people. Magneto attempts to impart Xavier’s philosophy to Nur, aiming to make him the first X-Man and enable him to rewrite history in favor of mutant coexistence; this goes against Xavier’s plans, who fears what Nur will become. Nur spares the life of Tut’s second-in-command General Logos much to the surprise of his followers. Beast, Rogue, and Nightcrawler attempt to build a time machine using the remains of Rama-Tut’s soldiers to return to their own time. Nur interrogates Logos, but Logos provokes him by revealing that he was Nur’s former master. Before Nur can kill Logos, Magneto intervenes. Xavier enters Logos’s mind seeking answers about the pharaoh, but what he sees shocks him: a weapon that will transform Tut into a god. Later, Nur and the Sandstormers discover the X-Men’s plans involving the technology. Feeling betrayed by Magneto, Nur decapitates Logos and champions the ideology of survival of the fittest. Bishop appears and together, the X-Men defeat the Sandstormers. Before they can travel back to the 1990s, Rama-Tut fires a shot toward the base where the X-Men and Nur are located.

* * *

Transcript

Note for Students & Writers: This transcript is archived here for educational purposes, critical analysis, and screenwriting study. All rights belong to the original creators.

[opening theme music playing]

[Wolverine] So much for “home sweet home.”

Bishop and I had a plan.

Collect you all and meet here at this exact point in time.

But they’re not back.

And the signals on their time bands are dead.

[somber music playing]

Then we go after them.

We have no way to pinpoint where they are.

And the longer they’re gone, the more chances there are for the entire time stream to be rewritten.

Mother Askani sent them to stop the rise of Apocalypse from ever coming to pass.

If we cannot reach them, we must hope they succeed.

[dramatic music playing]

It comes as a heavy burden to be the first of your kind.

I may have abilities, but they do not change the fact that people like me are only privileged to dream of survival.

That is a story told by oppressors who need for you to fear them.

When in truth, it is they who fear you and what you could become.

And what is that?

With my guidance, a god among insects.

You speak of power to a man born a slave.

A conquest of a cruel pharaoh from a foreign land.

Yes, but it is only through struggle that one comes to understand the true value of power.

[dramatic music swelling]

[Candra] Pharaoh, the Sandstormers.

They approach the city, led by the abomination they call En Sabah Nur.

En Sabah Nur.

I suppose it was only a matter of time.

General Logos. Yes, sire?

Redirect my forces to the front walls.

Nur cannot live to challenge me for the temple or the power I seek.

[slaves grunting]

[both grunting]

[slave grunting]

[elephant bellowing]

Halt the work and prepare for battle.

En Sabah Nur rides with his army of Sandstormers.

They will try to sway you with their cries of freedom but remember who holds your chains.

Your one true ruler, your pharaoh, Rama-Tut.

[horn blaring]

[Sandstomers grunting] [Sandstomer] Ya!

[dramatic music playing]

You were just a broken child when I found you in the desert.

Now look at you.

Not just a survivor but a leader.

[Nur] Soon our desert winds will sing the song of our people’s freedom.

I promise.

[Magneto] Quite the view, isn’t it, Charles?

We are trapped 5,000 years before our time.

And you risk our fates on a mutant who cannot be trusted.

Your students said the same of me when you left me your school.

The Pharaoh’s technology is clearly from the future, perhaps even from a time beyond ours.

It could help us return home.

If we trust En Sabah Nur.

His name is Apocalypse.

Bringer of Chaos.

Lord of Destruction.

The X-Men’s most diabolical foe.

An immortal madman known for crushing his enemies, not capturing them.

Not in this era.

Not today.

Here he is still the first mutant.

Magnus, Nur does not know who we really are or when we are from.

And yet he trusts me.

Can you not do the same, after everything we’ve been through?

We were born slaves.

Shackled before we could walk.

Beaten before we could fight.

But men like us shall kneel no longer.

We will survive.

For we belong to the future.

And the future belongs to the strong.

[yelling] Survival of the fittest!

Survival of the fittest! Survival of the fittest!

Survival of the fittest! Survival of the fittest!

Survival of the fittest! Survival of the fittest!

[horn blaring]

[Sandstomers yelling]

[grunting]

[horse whinnies] [Sandstomers screaming]

[grunting]

Baal!

[Sandstomers grunting]

[chuckles] Desert rat.

[dramatic music playing]

I suppose perseverance is the virtue of a slave.

[snaps fingers]

[elephant bellowing]

[Nur grunting]

[grimacing]

[dramatic music playing]

[panting]

[Sandstomers] Survival of the fittest! Survival of the fittest!

Come now. Seize his head.

[Sandstormers] Survival of the fittest! Survival of the fittest!

Survival of the fittest! Survival of the fittest!

Survival of the fittest…

We take him alive.

Send the team to recover the fallen Androids.

Then leave Nur to me.

I promise I will see our X-Men safely home, old friend.

Delivery for the good Dr. McCoy.

Fresh from En Sabah Nur’s battle.

[sighs] Had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at us the past few months.

What are the odds this bucket of spare junk will actually get us home?

Were you seen?

Oh, Professor, ye of little faith.

Not a soul saw me.

Although in an ancient Egypt of murderous robots, I would imagine a demon lurking among them would hardly come as a surprise.

Beast, I punched in the last of your coordinates.

She’s ready to go.

[Beast] Pray this time the machine works to take us home.

[electricity buzzing]

[gasps] Oh!

Ah!

Blast these machines!

May as well be a cat pawing at a ball of yarn.

Hank, self-flagellation helps no one.

You have done your best.

I just don’t have enough power.

How can the Pharaoh’s technology be so frightfully advanced yet also incredibly primeval?

Perhaps mere mortals were not meant to tame forces such as time.

[sighs] Then I fear praying to the gods may soon be our only option.

For the power to create a stable temporal displacement field can only be described as cosmic.

Magneto believes General Logos may be able to provide the insight we need to adapt the Pharaoh’s technology.

Assuming En Sabah Nur doesn’t kill him first.

Our fates now rest on an alliance between our oldest adversary, and our most merciless one.

Talk about faith, no?

[dramatic music playing]

[Nur] Before you came into my life, these men only saw me as a monster.

But with your counsel, they no longer fear me.

They follow me.

Though I must confess, every part of me still longs to crush this insect.

Only a coward feels mighty when stepping on ants.

[Nur] Baal would disagree vehemently.

With the sentiment or with me?

[Nur] Let us just say he has never been one to offer outsiders his trust.

Sparing Logos was the right decision.

As mutants, we must resist our darkest impulses if we’re ever to save humanity from itself.

[Charles] Apologies.

Your plan to extract vital intelligence from the Pharaoh’s general is to have Apocalypse ask him nicely?

I thought “nicely” was how the X-Men preferred to do things.

Professor, we’re wasting time.

Just pull the information out of his dang head.

Using my powers on him increases the risk of us altering the past here.

Perhaps we are already fate’s puppets.

Is it not more than a coincidence that the Professor’s extraordinary gifts are the perfect solution to our predicament?

In either case, removing us from this era as quickly as possible is in everyone’s best interest.

I fear to consider what disturbances we could unleash if someone were to learn the truth.

[Nur] Peaceful greetings, fellow mutants.

Greetings and congratulations, Nur.

You honor me, Charles. Today’s victory belongs to all around this table.

So many nights as a boy, an outcast amongst slaves.

Glaring up at the stars, cursing, praying. Why?

In whose image was I made?

Never in a million moons dared I dream of meeting others like me.

Dreams help us survive.

Perhaps even more than blades and arrows.

I have never seen an enemy quake before a dream.

Nor seen a dream lay siege to a fortress such as the Pharaoh’s capital.

Baal, be gentle. Gentle?

The men whisper, Soul Son.

We could have torn through every wall in that city today but you stopped after one.

Out of fear of facing the Pharaoh.

You do not yet understand his army enough to vanquish it.

How many of these same men would die at the hands of his machines?

How many are fit to survive?

Silence, both of you!

We all share in Egypt’s future.

Your new friends.

Their ambitions for you are so very small.

When I freed you from the camp, I promised you the world.

Magnus says I have a destiny.

I can do more than just conquer the world.

I can save it.

You have until tomorrow’s moon to get the answers you seek.

Then I take the head of Logos, your destiny or not.

[children laughing]

You told Nur we see a destiny for him?

[sighs] I can explain, Charles.

This is what your interest has been in him all along.

Not to help us find a way home but to coerce him into embracing my dream of mutant-human harmony.

What if a mutant with Apocalypse’s power had championed your dream 5,000 years before you did?

Not merely the first mutant.

The first X-Man.

A chance to rewrite all of history in our favor.

The risks of altering time on that scale without humanity’s consent…

Please. Mankind has long authored history.

The result?

Countless volumes of trite barbarism.

Every new chapter scrolled in blood.

Each generation plagiarizing the prior.

From these Sandstormers to the cowards who sponsored Bastion’s smiting of Genosha.

[Charles] Genosha was not your fault, Magnus.

No, it was ours.

I brought mutants there.

Helped make it a nation.

For you.

My intention was to inspire.

Yes, inspire me to be like you.

But I am not. No one is.

Help me, Charles, and your X-Men will return to a world far beyond our wildest dreams.

One where your dream has finally come true.

For our sake and the world’s, I do hope it’s possible for Nur’s rage to be contained.

I say again, tell us the secrets of the Pharaoh’s technology and your life will be spared.

[Logos chuckling]

Oh, you have grown.

You’re not the wailing gray pup with crooked lips any more, left by his mother to bake in the sand.

You truly don’t remember?

You were so young and the years so painful.

You will answer me!

Took a moment, but I’d never forget the disfigured face of Rama-Tut’s favorite slave.

You?

You are…

Your first master who put you in your pharaoh’s chains.

[Nur grunting]

You are not your past, En Sabah Nur.

You are our future.

You want me to let this dog live?

I do.

[groans] I leave him to you, then.

[Logos laughing]

You laugh at our mercy?

You and your desert vermin can continue your rebellion all you want.

The Pharaoh is on the precipice of a discovery that will make his current army look like playthings.

What?

A lost temple of divine beings from the stars.

Blessed with the means to turn our mortal Pharaoh into a god himself.

Magnus.

This could be the power we need to get home.

You will tell us about this temple.

I do not cower before the Sandstormers’ abomination.

You expect me to fear you?

You leave me no choice.

Do not resist me.

I will know it all in time.

[dramatic music playing]

[gasps]

Surrender your mind to me.

Show me the location of this temple of the star gods.

[grunting]

[yelling]

[gasps] Ah! Ah!

[grunts]

[yelling]

[Voice] I am the tide that carries all to the Rocks of the Eternal Shore.

Crash against them and be broken.

[Charles grunting]

Everything everywhere finds their way here, the end.

I can sense you.

Whoever you are, reveal yourself.

[Voice] In time, all will see.

He is where the end begins.

Begins. [Charles yelling]

It’s me. Charles, it’s me.

[gasps]

I searched Logos’s mind.

And he only knew but pieces of the lost temple’s location.

And I am not sure we should wish to know it either.

A presence called me from it.

Grand, offensive. Unlike any I’ve encountered.

It will not tolerate us finding this place.

Do not worry, old friend.

Whatever forces await, we shall face them together.

Your treasure hunt is over.

As is your treachery.

[dramatic music playing]

Magnus, what is the meaning of this?

Lift the wool from your eyes, Nur.

This so-called prophet has lied to you.

He hides their true intent.

They hoard the very machines we seek to destroy.

You are using them to build something.

A weapon for yourself?

Nur, give me a chance to explain.

[Nur] You have deceived me.

Your own.

I’m sorry, Nur.

[Logos panting] Lies are weapons of the weak.

Nur, please, no!

[blood splattering] [Nur chuckling]

He was not fit to survive.

[yelling] Destroy them!

[Sandstomers grunting]

It seems we are not alone.

[Sandstomer grunting]

[Sandstomer grunting] [Sandstomer yelling]

Ugh! Baal, no!

[growling, yelling]

[tracker beeping]

En Sabah Nur.

You thought you could hide.

But I found you.

Time to deplete the reserves.

[Nur grunting]

Well, I’ll be! Bishop!

Gratitude later.

We got to get you back home now before he comes to.

What of the others? Have they returned to our time?

Long story.

But Forge is on top of it.

[Pharaoh] Let us see who is more fit to survive.

The slave or the conqueror?

Magnus, I fear that the time to redeem Nur has passed.

Save it for the history books.

Time to get the hell out of this place.

We need you back in the 1990s.

[citizens screaming]

[Nur] Our fight is not done! [yelling]

[explosion]

[laughing maniacally]