“ | Excellent, Erik! We can bring your gift around with anger. Anger and pain. You and me...we'll have a lot of fun together. | „ |
~ Dr. Schmidt to Erik, after killing his mother and his lab is wrecked. |
Sebastian Shaw, also known as Klaus Schmidt, is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Apocalypse) of the X-Men film series, serving as the main antagonist of the 2011 superhero movie X-Men: First Class and its tie-in comic book The High Hand.
He is a mutant scientist who can absorb and redirect kinetic energy. Shaw worked for the Nazis during World War II, and in the following years after the war, founds the Hellfire Club to assist him in his plans to provoke World War III between the USA and Russia in order to destroy the military superpower countries and because he actually enjoys those days when the world is at war.
He was portrayed by Kevin Bacon, who also played Sean Nokes in Sleepers, Sebastian Caine in Hollow Man, Bobby Hayes in R.I.P.D. and Owen Whistler in They/Them.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- During the Holocaust, he shot and killed Edie Lehnsherr before performing torturous experiments on her son Erik Lehnsherr. As an adult, Erik was convinced that Shaw was right all along in that mutants and humans can never co-exist, making him directly responsible for turning Erik into becoming the tyrannical and xenophobic mutant supremacist Magneto.
- He was also uncaring when Erik used his powers to kill two of his guards in a fit of rage, instead smiling and laughing upon witnessing his potential.
- He kills Col. Bob Hendry after his usefulness expires.
- He leads a massacre of an entire facility full of military soldiers and CIA agents.
- He kills Darwin after he stands up to him in an attempt to save Angel, thus hypocritically negating his "we don't harm our own kind" speech earlier in the film.
- His ultimate goal is to provoke nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union by goading them into placing nuclear warheads in Turkey and Cuba in order to destroy all humans so that mutants can destroy the world in their place, ultimately resulting in World War III. He also remarks how he actually misses those days when the whole world was in an all-out war.
- While he apologizes to Erik for what he did to him as a child, it's clearly just him trying to gaslight and manipulate his past victim into joining his genocidal crusade against mankind rather than genuine remorse, since Shaw is all too willing to beat Erik to death on the spot otherwise, this also proves his hypocrisy when he tells Erik he never wanted to hurt him, even though in reality he does want to hurt Erik as much as possible.
- Despite seemingly loving Emma Frost, he has no problem abandoning her to the CIA after she gets defeated by Charles and Erik, even replacing her with Angel Salvadore when she joins him.
- His demise is played for satisfaction, not for sympathy.
Trivia[]
- Sebastian Shaw was the first X-Men film series villain to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Sebastian Shaw on the Villains Wiki
- Sebastian Shaw on the X-Men Movies Wiki
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Movies Pure Evils | ||
Films See Also |