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Back in 2013, when promoting the then-upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past movie, the commercial team released a trailer for a "mutant conspiracy" around JFK's assassination.

They followed up with a full-fledged article entitled "The Bent Bullet Report", which narrated how Magneto supposedly altered a bullet's trajectory, effectively killing JFK.

It was a truly astounding piece of marketing which provided quite the immersion into the movie's setting.

I wanted to read it again, but unfortunately, the website it could be read on now redirects to 20th Century Fox's website. Is there any transcript of the whole article somewhere, in a companion book perhaps?

Bonus question: if the site being taken down was voluntary, was it explained why? (Given that other promotional material is still up, see below.)


Research done:

  • the Wayback Machine, obviously. Unfortunately, out of all 212 snapshots, the 30ish I've tried at random either redirect to Fox's website or bring up a HTTP 302 response at crawl time error;
  • Ignition Creative, the company which wrote the article, still features it on their X-Men: Days of Future Past page, but the link is the same dead one as above. Which is too bad, given that the two other promotional materials they released (Trask Industries' website and 25 moments) are still up;
  • Chris Eyerman, the creative director, also featured it on his website, however while these are indeed screenshots from the site, a lot of the article is missing;
  • Googling "the bent bullet report" yields only two pages of results but unless I'm really blind I didn't spot any relevant one;
  • searching for bent bullet on Fox's website yields nothing;
  • the Wikia page for it does what wikias do, they take info and rephrase it to a point, but it's not the original content;
  • the closest I could find is this article but the pictures given are still not the whole article - for instance, there is no mention of Azazel in those, while he was definitely featured in the full-fledged article.
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2 Answers 2

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+500

Here are all the images I could find, along with:

An image of people holding newspapers about the assassination of JFK with text reading "The Bent Bullet: JFK AND THE MUTANT CONSPIRACY – Half a century ago, Magneto was implicated in the mutant plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. The events of that fateful day in November have been a point of contention between humans and the mutants ever since.

A black-and-white image of two bullets, one used, next to a ruler with the date of Kennedy's assassination typed on it.

A diagram showing the path of the bullets shot at JFK.

An instant-film photo of Lee Harvey Oswald crossing his arms.

A drawing of a courtroom.

A photo of protestors with a sign reading "Free Magneto" in front of the Supreme Court.

An image of JFK talking while gesturing with his left hand.

A block of text reading "A tyranny that clanks his chains upon the South."

An image of Magneto.

Police by an old-fashioned car in front of Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Tow images of JFK in a book with the caption "Wanted for treason."

A block of text reading "I saw the actual bullet. It just kind of hung there in mid-air for a second, and then it zipped away toward the limousine. – Mary Ellen Dodge."

Anti-mutant protestors being dragged away from JFK's motorcade by police.

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  • @Valorum I got the photos (not sure about videos, though...) Commented Jan 15, 2019 at 14:59
  • 1
    I'm accepting this answer as this is the most complete one and provides videos I do remember being from the article. Good job! :) (for both answers)
    – Jenayah
    Commented Jan 20, 2019 at 15:03
  • @Jenayah - Agreed. Both provide a good level of info not readily available on the original site (and its archive) but this seems the obvious superior
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 20, 2019 at 15:05
  • 2
    @Valorum Thank you so much for the bounty!! Commented Jan 20, 2019 at 15:57
  • 2
    @Stormblessed - You're welcome. Good effort should be rewarded.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 20, 2019 at 16:18
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+500

Unless I'm mistaken, the full text of the Bent Bullet Report appears to be archived on the Marvel Movies Fandom site.

Excerpt:

The Bent Bullet BY HARPER SIMMONS The eyes of John F. Kennedy’s killer are not unkind. It’s a peculiar, if quiet, revelation to make here, in his company. The killer resides in a federal correctional facility — a classified location that’s at least a quarter-mile underground, and presumably miles from anywhere important. The facility is constructed from concrete amalgams and transparent materials so secret and durable, they don’t even have a name. In the event of a global nuclear holocaust, a government contractor once said, only two things will survive: “the cockroaches and that guy.”

He was called “The most dangerous man in the world” by President Lyndon B. Johnson, five decades ago.

His eyes are blue. His face is slender, deeply lined, made longer still by a natural frown. Still, he appears younger than most men his age. He’s presumed to be 80 years old.

According to the correctional officers here, Kennedy’s killer is a voracious reader. This seems true. More than a dozen books pepper the prisoner’s spartan cell. Most are nonfiction books about social issues, such as Trish Tilby’s recent exposé, District X. But a few novels are present, including a dogeared copy of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.

You won’t find a tablet computer or e-reader here, of course. There’s nothing with a conventional circuit board or metal enclosure within a half-mile radius of this place.

More than 1,000 books — and very likely a thousand essays — have been written about the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. Nearly all have investigated the lives of people like Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. Most have criticized the findings of the Warren Commission, the task force appointed by President Johnson to investigate the Kennedy assassination.

These critics insist the Warren Commission’s final report was a rushed, inadequately researched frame-up. Nearly all proudly provide their own conspiracy theories about the events on that dreadful day in Dallas. And most insist that the man here — the man convicted of killing the president fifty years ago — is innocent.

Erik Lehnsherr. The man who calls himself Magneto.

Before the X-Gene To understand Lehnsherr’s motives — or, rather, the motives the Warren Report alleged he had — one must understand the era in which the Kennedy assassination occurred.

When Kennedy took office in 1961, the civil rights movement had captured national attention and political allies ... and powerful enemies, especially in the South. The X-Gene and mutants were not yet a part of the public consciousness, though they would soon become so, due in large part to Lehnsherr’s activities.

The world was 15 years into the Cold War. Tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were at a breaking point. By October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis was unfolding, and the world faced imminent nuclear war. Last year, the CIA and the Homeland Mutant Response Division released previously-classified documents stating the crisis was in fact orchestrated by a mutant and former Nazi named Sebastian Shaw. His goal was the extermination of homo sapiens worldwide.

Also declassified was the revelation that the Cuban Missile Crisis was thwarted by a clandestine CIA team called “Division X.” Division X was comprised of several mutants led by Charles Xavier. Lehnsherr was also a member. His mastery of magnetism proved invaluable during the operation.

After the confrontation, Lehnsherr immediately left the team. He and other Division X members founded the Brotherhood of Mutants, an organization the FBI would quickly classify as “a pro-mutant terrorist group.” Division X disbanded days later. All evidence of its existence was sealed by the CIA.

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  • The videos and photographic evidence seem to be missing.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:20
  • This is coincidence, but my Great Grandfather's name is actually Harper Simmons. I have a Great-Uncle Harper Simmons too, he would have been in his 40's at the time of this fictional article. We can pretend it's the same person and that I'm answering on behalf of be deceased relative.
    – ShemSeger
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:21
  • 1
    Well, sh*t. I'm guessing this didn't come up in my searches because it doesn't include the sequence bullet report. That does indeed seem to be the full text - any chance you could dig up the images as well? :)
    – Jenayah
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:22
  • @Valorum, Yes, the OP asked specifically for the transcript though.
    – ShemSeger
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:22
  • @Jenayah I don't know enough about the bent bullet to know if or when I would have found all the images. Does this look right to you?
    – ShemSeger
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:27

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