“What have you been doing for the past 50 years? Do you feel safer? More secure? Because we’ve spent the last 50 years ensuring your peace of mind.”
So go the opening lines of the new viral video for “X-Men Days of Future Past,” a faux-commercial celebrating 50 years of Trask Industries, the corporation behind the mutant-hunting Sentinel robots first featured in the comics and soon to be seen in Bryan Singer’s upcoming sequel.
With its soothing voiceover narration and idyllic images of children sleeping and families running on the beach, the video is pure propaganda of the sort we’ve seen in real-life ads for oil companies and pharmaceutical giants. It also offers a look at the Sentinels as they’ll appear in the film: large and sleek, with orange glowing eyes and a more muted color scheme than the pink-and-purple-hued automatons seen in the comic books.
The clip, as it happens, is featured on the new “Trask Industries” website launched as part of the film’s early marketing blitz, and it’s a real treat for hardcore “X-Men” fans, with a brief history of the company, photos and video of founder Bolivar Trask (a.ka. “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage) and more Sentinel imagery among the offerings to be found. After watching the video above, you can explore the rest for yourself here.
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is slated for release on May 23, 2014.