What Does The Ending Of X-Men: Apocalypse Really Mean?

The School Is Open

The final scene of Apocalypse has Mystique and Beast teaching a class of students - including Jean Grey, Cyclops, Quicksilver, Storm and Nightcrawler - to be full-on X-Men in the Danger Room, pitting them against replica Sentinels, while Professor X observes. The set-up of the scene is an allusion to the comics (and the presence of the Sentinels works as a throwback to the opening of The Last Stand) and seems to point towards Xavier's School taking a step towards its full training purpose.

After Magneto's betrayal in First Class, Charles closed the school, but the public outing of mutants Days Of Future Past motivated him to reopen, albeit as a more standard educational institution; while the students were all mutants, the purpose of the school at the start of the film appears to be more about creating a sense of normality for the children and helping them adjust their powers for the real world, rather than fostering them for superheroics. Both Professor X and Hank express hesitance over forming the X-Men, likely in the face of the mutant fear.

However, after seeing the threats that could arise, there's a realisation they need to be prepared, and, with that, we finally (after three films of build up) get to the original X-Men set-up from the comics.