Those of you who were paying attention watching X-Men: Apocalypse probably noticed the special cameo early in the film, with Ally Sheedy playing Scott Summers' teacher in the classroom scene right before the young kid's mutation kicks in. The quick appearance makes sense given that the blockbuster is set during the same decade when Sheedy rose to popularity on the big screen -- but director Bryan Singer's reasoning actually goes beyond that. In giving the actress the role of the teacher, the director was making a very specific reference to the 1983 film WarGames.
This little bit of trivia is revealed in the commentary track attached to the digital release of X-Men: Apocalypse. As the aforementioned classroom scene plays out, Bryan Singer and writer/producer Simon Kinberg discuss Ally Sheedy's role in the movie, and Singer explains why it was that he chose to have her play the teacher. Said the director,
Simon and I are both fans of this period of filmmaking -- both Breakfast Club and Wargames. And in Wargames, Ally Sheedy plays a very feisty girl who disrupts class. So the fun of this scene was to have Tye Sheridan, who is now young Scott Summers or Cyclops discovering his power for the first time disrupting class, because he's a bit of a miscreant who doesn't like school, and actually have Ally Sheedy play the teacher. And it was the first time I saw Simon Kinberg star-struck on set.
Thanks to the wonderfulness that is the internet, you can watch the Wargames scene in question below:
I will say that it doesn't quite get across in the scene that Scott Summers isn't big on the educational system, as he seems a bit preoccupied by the fact that his eyes are burning and about to unleash a powerful concussive blast, but we can take Bryan Singer's word for it that Cyclops isn't a big fan of school prior to attending Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.
As both a Wargames reference and a shout-out to the year 1983, the Ally Sheedy cameo is fun -- but not the only interesting one in the movie. For example, Stan Lee makes his regular Marvel movie appearance, but as is pointed out in the X-Men: Apocalypse commentary, it's the first one that also features his wife, and it was actually shot outside of his home.
To learn more about X-Men: Apocalypse, you can now pick up your own digital copy of the movie, or wait until its scheduled release on Blu-ray and DVD September 24th.
