X-Men: Fear The Beast - 8 Biggest Takeaways From The Abandoned Movie Script

8. There Are Multiple Deaths In The Opening Scene

After a prologue set in a small snowy village, Fear The Beast cuts to the X-Men - Hank, Raven, Scott, Storm, Jubilee, Jean, and some other unnamed students - riding through Times Square in a school bus. The group is then attacked by The Friends of Humanity and four metal Attack-Bots, and an explosive battle soon breaks out.

Raven takes a bullet to the thigh, and takes cover behind a nearby van. But she isn't safe - an Attack-Bot takes aim at the van and blows it up, which kills her. The other X-Men then enter the fray, with Scott, Storm and Jubilee attempting to protect the bus and fight off the Attack-Bots.

Jubilee is the next to fall, after a laser blast "eviscerates" her and the surrounding area. Furious, Beast goes crazy on the other Bots and soldiers, failing to realise that Storm is in danger. Storm is then surrounded by soldiers and has multiple guns pointed at her, and just as they’re about to fire... everything freezes.

Because, of course, the X-Men haven’t actually been killed off - they’re just in the Danger Room, and this is all a simulation.

Big superhero blockbusters rarely kill off their biggest characters permanently, so when it comes to deaths, the best we can hope for is a fakeout, or a "they'll be back later!" situation, like we got at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.

These deaths are still shocking in the moment though, and Fear The Beast’s opening action sequence is certainly that. Watching the X-Men get absolutely battered would’ve been an intense, fitting way to open this movie, perfectly setting the stage for the darker story to come.