It's been more than 50 years, but conspiracy theorists continue to argue about who really assassinated President Kennedy. But a new viral video for the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past presents a theory many may not have considered: What if a mutant supervillain did it?
The timely video presents an alternate history in which Erik Lehnsherr — better known as Magneto — has been implicated in a mutant plot to murder JFK on Nov. 22, 1963.
"Shortly after the events in Dealey Plaza, in a secret trial, Erik Lehnsherr was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States," says the narrator over actual footage of the assassination. "However, the evidence against the mutant called Magneto remains circumstantial: An amateur photograph of Lehnsherr on the grassy knoll, and the rounds fired from a rifle."
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The video presents the "Bent Bullet" theory — a winking corollary of the "Magic Bullet" theory presented so memorably in Oliver Stone's JFK. The theory argues that Lehnsherr, using his mutant ability to control metal, altered the trajectory of the second bullet that Oswald fired from the Texas Schoolbook Depository.
It's clear from this video that X-Men: Days of Future Past is doubling down on the mixture of fact and fiction that characterized X-Men: First Class, which wove the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis into its narrative. Is this the event that spurs Professor X to send Wolverine back into the past? Fans can pore over the evidence themselves at TheBentBullet.com — or just wait until X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters in May 2014.
