8

In the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past, it looks like Quicksilver runs so fast that everything is almost at a standstill. Just how fast can he run? Speed of light?

There is a scene where he takes care of the security at the Pentagon. He threw a plate at the security officer and the plate flies a bit then stops (or he speeds up even more). At whatever speed he runs and throwing an object at that speed, I would imagine that plate will go right through the security officer. This also ties into how fast he is going IF he sped up after throwing the plate, then he must have increased his speed by a lot since the plate he threw should be traveling at a high velocity to begin with.

Also I read in the wiki that he is the son of Magneto... I guess that's not the case in the movie?

4
  • 3
    In the movie, it is not explicitly stated whether or not Pietro is the son of Erik, but there is a quick line from Pietro along the lines of, "Oh, you can control magnetism, my mother knew someone like that." There is also a shot at the end of Pietro and his younger sister. In the comics, he is the brother of both Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) and Polaris (Lorna Dane).
    – phantom42
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 13:14
  • Now that you mentioned it, I do remember he said that. I guess in the movie they both do not know about their relationship
    – Huangism
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 13:18
  • It'll probably come up in future films (that Magneto is Quicksilver's father).
    – evilsoup
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 13:29
  • 1
    This is in no way canon, more of an observation on the film, but the films looked more like Quicksilver can either slow down time to everyone but him or increase the speed of his own timestream so everyone else appears to going slower to him. In his scene in DOFP, he stands still or walks several times - if he had been running at roughly the speed of sound, there would have been a higher stopping distance. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 15:07

2 Answers 2

9

In the comics

Marvel's site states:

Quicksilver possessed superhuman speed, and could travel on foot at speeds exceeding the speed of sound for hundreds of miles before tiring; he could "fly" for short distances by flapping his arms or "vibrating" his legs; he could also use his speed to create cyclones, dodge machine gun and laser fire, and run up walls and across water.

However, his powers are amplified later on.

Following the loss of his mutant nature, Quicksilver exposed himself to the Terrigen Mists, resulting in him now possessing the power to vibrate his atoms so quickly he travels forward in time. His molecular speed that he generates displaces him out of the mainstream time/space so that he is able to propel himself into the future. He can leap from thirty seconds to up to twelve days, and remain for several minutes to several hours before being recalled to his present time once his body tires, or he can return at will before his time is up. As he returns from his trip, he returns the exact moment he left so as to appear that he has been gone for half a nano-second. He is able to bring inorganic objects from the future back to his correct time, although it has yet been shown what would happen if he attempted to bring organic objects with him.


In the X-Men movies by Fox

The movie's official website simply lists his maximum speed as "faster than the speed of sound".

x-men movie site screencap


In the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Unfortunately, no concrete information regarding Quicksilver's maximum speed has been made public as of yet. During the course of the movie, we see Quicksilver outrunning Mjolnir and arrows, as well as altering the trajectory of arrow in mid-flight. This is not necessarily indicative of the limits of his abilities. Even the junior novelization only describes his speed as "faster than a bullet train" and "faster than a jet".

11
  • Interesting, to dodge laser, doesn't that mean he has to run faster than the speed of light?
    – Huangism
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 13:57
  • @Huangism Assuming you're talking about laser beams of light, yes (and not necessarily laser-type weapons which often aren't actually lasers). But I don't recall him dodging lasers in the movie.
    – phantom42
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 14:02
  • 5
    @Huangism, Dodging a laser fired from a weapon doesn't necessarily require moving faster-than-light. It requires moving faster than your attacker's reflexes can aim and pull the trigger.
    – Brian S
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 14:21
  • The films looked more like Quicksilver can either slow down time to everyone but him or increase the speed of his own timestream so everyone else appears to going slower to him. In his scene in DOFP, he stands still or walks several times - if he had been running at roughly the speed of sound, there would have been a higher stopping distance. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 15:06
  • 1
    I don't think he slows down time, he just moves so fast so everyone around him seems to be standing still or moving very very slow
    – Huangism
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 15:39
-2

Yes we all know that Quicksilver can run super fast. Some would say he runs faster than the speed of sound. But if you think further back into the comics he actually can run at the speed of time. Thus making everything come to a stand still. However in Days of Future Past, he is portrayed as having his powers at full level, when in the comics he only got around to his full flex of powers during his time with the Avengers 80 years later give or take.

But the thing that really gets me thinking his if he can run at the speed of sound or whatever. In the scene of the end credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier he is trying to get out of his captivity from Hydra. Hello, if you can run almost as fast as time you could just vibrate your body to a certain speed and walk straight out. And the Scarlet Witch for crying out loud. Her powers have devastating effects. She's known to be one of the most badass super heroines (don't let me forget when she goes bat shit crazy she also wipes out half of the friggin Marvel universe heroes included) but Quicksilver can definitely put time in a bottle.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.