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In X-Men: Days of Future Past, how does Kitty Pryde suddenly get the power to send people's minds back in time? Initially she was only able to phase through objects and could extend this power to other people. The explanation of this cited molecular spaces.

How does she go from there to time travel all of a sudden??

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    Out of universe, it was the character of Kitty Pryde who travelled back in time in the original Days of Future Past story, sent back by a different mutant with the same "sending mnds back in time power". It is likely that they still wanted to have Kitty Pryde as part of the film, and so gave her this new power to pay homage to the original story.
    – Dr R Dizzle
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 11:28
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    I suspect they used the concept of a Secondary Mutation as the MacGuffin for Kitty's power here!
    – 22nd Century Fza
    Commented Jun 7, 2014 at 8:03
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    @DrRDizzle Just to add, it was Rachel Summers who sent Kitty back in time.
    – Moogle
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 13:15

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Within context of the X-Men movie universe, this is never fully explained.

In the comics, she has yet to ever exhibit this ability, but it is conceivable that she could in the future.

In the comics, some mutants have undergone secondary mutations, later in life. These secondary mutations bring additional abilities which are not necessarily just logical extensions of their original/primary powers.

Some notable examples:

  • Emma Frost - gains the ability to transform into an organic diamond form. This ability is demonstrated in X-Men: First Class, but is never stated as a secondary mutation.
  • Iceman - gains greater ability to manipulate ice and simultaneously switch back to human form
  • Gambit - gains the ability to gently influence people through a hypnotic charm
  • Beast - becomes more feline than simian

Sometime between the events of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past, it is possible that Kitty Pryde undergoes a secondary mutation which would enable this sort of time travel.

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    It can be noted that Quicksilver actually does have the ability to time-travel in a very limited fashion, and probably would have made a more accurate choice as a plot device.
    – phantom42
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 11:00
  • Quicksilver isn't the only one; Cable, for example, can time-travel.
    – Brian S
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 13:59
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    @BrianS, yes - but Quicksilver was in the movie already. No need to bring in an extra character.
    – phantom42
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 14:21
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    @pronto "the twins" show up on cap 2, not agents of shield.
    – phantom42
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 11:01
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    Quicksilver himself can time-travel, but can he send others back in time independent of himself? The whole frame structure of the DoFP film required someone to go back, while someone else was "holding the door open," leaving them vulnerable (adding tension to the narrative and setting up the final battle, etc). Not sure that could have worked for Quicksilver, unless he's time travelled in ways I haven't come across.
    – Nerrolken
    Commented Oct 30, 2014 at 21:16
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Aside of original Days of Future Past story (where she's the one sent back by the same power), and secondary evolutions, There might be possibility that she could do that herself with her primary power alone (just a speculation):

  • Later on in comics she learns to use her powers to phase out of sync with Earth's rotation, allowing her to instantly move any distance west/east.
  • One could say that this ability allows her to move at infinite speed (or at least faster than light).
  • There are many sci-fi tropes, as well as genuine physics theory implying that reaching FTL speed would allow time travel.
  • That FTL-related time travel is often described as receiving signal before it was send. That seems pretty similar to perceiving future before it happened.
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    If she's phasing out of sync with the Earth's movement, she's standing still. So her speed is 0, not infinite. She would be changing relative position no faster than the rotation of the Earth, which is appr. 1000 MPH. Hypothetically, if she phased out of sync with the movement of the Earth through space, she'd still only change relative position at appr. 1.34 million MPH, which is .2% the speed of light, which is obviously not close to FTL or infinite. See: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/4493/…
    – user31178
    Commented May 22, 2015 at 2:05

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