In X-Men: First Class, which 1962 crisis forms the film’s historical backdrop?

The Cuban Missile Crisis forms the historical backdrop of X-Men: First Class.

The 2011 film places its climax in October 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union confronted each other over Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba. In the movie’s fictional version of events, the mutant Sebastian Shaw attempts to manipulate the crisis into a nuclear war.

The film connects real Cold War leaders and events with its superhero story. Shaw wants the conflict to trigger mutant dominance, while Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr work with CIA agent Moira MacTaggert to stop him. Their intervention is presented as a hidden explanation for the crisis ending without nuclear war.

The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted roughly thirteen days. X-Men: First Class uses that tense period to explain the formation of the first team and the eventual ideological split between Xavier and Magneto.