William Stryker is a villainous character from Marvel Comics. A mutant-hating bigot, he is a recurring enemy of the X-Men. In the comics, Stryker was a religious fanatic who organized numerous hate crimes against mutants. In his film appearances, however, he is a military scientist who devotes his expertise into ridding the world of mutants.
History[]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine[]
In 1975, William Stryker (portrayed in this film by Danny Huston) approached James "Logan" Crowlett and Victor Creed to recruit them into his team of mutant commandos - Team X. He then led the team over the next couple of years on various covert missions to find the metallic compound known as adamantium. Stryker finally found the adamantium he sought while on a mission in Nigeria. Team X later disbanded, after a disagreement between Logan and the team and only Agent Zero and Victor stayed on with him.
Over the next six years following Team X's disbandment, Stryker made Agent Zero and Victor his henchmen in order to abduct mutants for his upcoming Weapon X project - Weapon XI. Stryker recruited Logan into becoming Weapon X (the tenth project of the Weapon X program), making him virtually indestructible by grafting adamantium onto his entire skeletal structure. After the process was successful, he ordered Logan's memory to be wiped to protect the location of the Alkali Lake facility. This prompted Logan to escape, and Stryker ordered Zero on a failed mission to kill Logan.
While on his Three Mile Island facility, Stryker killed General Munson, his major military and financial sponsor, because the latter had threatened to end the Weapon X program due to Stryker's extreme personal vendetta against mutants, caused by his experiences with his son.
After Weapon XI failed to kill off Wolverine, and after his mutant prisoners had escaped, Stryker shot Wolverine twice in the head with adamantium bullets, causing the latter lose his memory. Before he could shoot Kayla, she used her tactile hypnosis to make him drop the gun and walk until his feet bled. He was later approached by military police, who wanted to question him about General Munson's death.
X-Men 2[]
Years later, Stryker (this time portrayed by Brian Cox, pictured) wanted mutants to appear as a threat to humans. By this time, his assistant and bodyguard is Yuriko. He brainwashes Kurt Wagner into assassinating the President. Using the recent assassination attempt as leverage, he convinces the President to authorize an infiltration of the Xavier Institute, lying about his intentions. Just before the infiltration, he learns more about Cerebro from Magneto - who was being held as a federal criminal in a plastic prison (designed by Stryker). Magneto did not give the information willingly; he had to be brainwashed like Wagner.
During the evening, Stryker and his forces invade the Mansion. While there, he captures several students (though most flee), and briefly meets up with Wolverine - the man he had worked with, experimented on, and severely injured years earlier. He then orders Yuriko to infiltrate the prison and capture Charles Xavier, also capturing Cyclops in the process. He would brainwash Cyclops in the same manner he had Yuriko, Wagner, and Magneto. Before leaving, Stryker and his troops infiltrate the Mansion's subbasement in order to extract more information about Cerebro.
At the Alkali Lake facility (the underground portion of which he still used following the abandonment and destruction of the main level), he reveals to Xavier that he was able to brainwash the mutants by extracting fluid from his son Jason's brain and injecting it into the back of their necks. He then puts his plan into action, having Jason control Xavier to use the Cerebro-II he built and use his powers to concentrate intensely on all the world's mutants - which would kill them. Magneto and Mystique later foil these plans and "reprogram" Jason to manipulate Xavier to find and kill all of the world's humans instead.
While trying to flee the area, Stryker is confronted by Wolverine, with the former briefly tempting the latter to come with him so that the he could learn more about his forgotten past. However, Wolverine refuses and decides to return to the dam to save his teammates, but before he does, he chains Stryker to the leg of a helicopter.
After Cerebro-II is reprogrammed, Stryker is shown to be in the same pain as every other human.
Later on, Magneto ties Styker to a concrete wall with the metal chain, using the helicopter as an escape vehicle and leaving Stryker there to die. As the Alkali Lake dam ruptures, Stryker is killed by the immense water pressure released by the dam.
Alternate timeline[]
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, the timeline is altered after Wolverine succeeds in preventing Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask. The events of the original timeline do not occur, and so Stryker's death is undone. His younger self (portrayed by Josh Helman) appears during X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. He is still responsible for experimenting on Wolverine and grafting adamantium to his skeleton, but beyond that his activities are unknown.