20. Wolverine
The Wolverine seen in this film is the bridge between both timelines and he plays his part well, avoiding stealing the limelight as he did in earlier X-Men sequels but being no less important as a result. In the original comics, he dies pretty quickly to show how much of a threat the Sentinels are, but since he's used as the time travel device here, he gets a reprieve, and comes with a couple of his own Easter Eggs. First, though most of the future X-Men wear sombre, functional outfits, Wolverine's costume integrates yellow and blue elements as a second obvious call-back to his classic comic book outfit after Cyclop's jibing in the first film. The second is more obscure, but when Wolverine wakes in the past and immediately finds himself in an uncompromising situation with three mobsters, he is riddled with 7 bullets, which form an pattern like the Big Dipper; a reference to classic manga Fist Of The North Star (1984). That anime is set in a post-nuclear apocalypse world, where a lone saviour rises to stop the oppression of others by a powerful minority, so the similarities are well-placed.