10 Dumbest Decisions In Action Movie History
4. Trying To Justify Acts Of War To A Holocaust Survivor - X-Men: First Class
X-Men: First Class went beyond simple themes of 'Us vs. Them', exploring the abuse of power and how those on the receiving end of the abuse never truly escape it.
Over the course of First Class, Charles Xavier realizes, with growing horror, that his long-time friend Erik Lehnsherr is growing more and more militant as to how he is willing to fight for the rights of mutants. This culminates with a three-way standoff between Charles and his X-Men, Magneto and his Brotherhood, and the combined might of the US and Soviet navies. After the Master of Magnetism refuses to surrender, the fleet of battleships opens fire, raining missiles and shells onto the mutants.
Erik stops the entire barrage in the air, turning them back onto the ships. Charles implores Erik to stop, reminding him, in what is a colossally poorly-worded argument to a Holocaust survivor, that the men who fired those weapons were simply following orders.
Having suffered at the hands of others who claimed to just be following orders as they killed thousands, Erik rejects the argument. Subsequent events lead to Charles being crippled by a bullet deflected by Magneto, and the two part ways on opposing sides.
Their differences would then lead to decades of conflict, and, in some realities, the extinction of both humans and mutants.