X-Men: Days Of Future Past - 25 Easter Eggs & References You Must See

24. Fritz Lang's Metropolis

The film opens on the dystopian future timeline, with mutantkind all but wiped out after a very James-Cameron-sounding war for the world that saw the Sentinels over-zealously mis-interpret their prime directive and round up everyone, whether human or mutant. The imagery in the scene is very much in fitting with the typical portrait of Earth After Humanity, and feels like a conglomerate of sci-fi dystopias, but there is something very specific in the internment imagery used. Not only do they call back to the very start of the X-Men franchise, and Erik Lensherr's captivity in the concentration camp (the Nazi imagery is not accidental, considering Singer's allusion that Bolivar Trask is basically Hitler) they also reference Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Whether intentionally or otherwise (and it seems intentional) the shot of mutants and humans being herded into the camps feels like a direct homage to dystopian classic, with a similarly stark soundtrack, and the later mention of the worst of humanity remaining in charge seems a nod to the same source.