Flaw in X-men Days of Future Past

I found a philosophical flaw in X-men: Days of Future Past.

The world is caught up in an all-out war of Sentinels vs mutants. Wolverine and company decide that the historical event that triggered this timeline was Mystique’s killing Trask. To avert this all-out war, Wolverine and company send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to take over the mind of the younger Wolverine, so he can persuade the younger Professor X and the younger Magneto to help him prevent Mystique killing Trask. Events then unfold. When the critical killing moment comes, Professor X has control of Mystique’s mind, and is in a position to force her body to walk away from the opportunity to kill Trask. Instead of doing that, Professor X releases Mystique’s mind, saying she must make that decision for herself. He gives her free will.

There are of course the philosophical questions of (1) whether consciousness exists apart from body, (2) whether consciousness can travel through time, and (3) whether consciousness can be transplanted into another body. But let’s allow all these as literary licence. There is still a philosophical flaw, and it’s a logical flaw – which is very much harder to “literary licence” away.

To say that one specific historical event triggers a given timeline, and further to say that changing that one specific historical event will change the eventual outcome many years hence presumes the philosophical doctrine known as determinism – which says that every event is caused, and that, given complete information, every event can be predicted. There is no freedom in the causal chain. Let me be specific: there is no free will in the causal chain.

Giving Mystique the free will to decide whether to kill Trask contradicts this philosophical presumption. If Mystique has free will, then so does everyone else along that timeline. There is then no guarantee that the war will be averted.

This is the philosophical flaw in the movie. But it is, nonetheless, a wonderfully entertaining movie.

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