Film / Logan

Logan is the third Spin-Off film in the X-Men Film Series to be centered on the mutant superhero James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine after X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, with the latter's director James Mangold returning. It allegedly marks the final appearance of both Hugh Jackman in the eponymous role and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X. The film also stars Richard E. Grant as Doctor Zander Rice, Boyd Holbrook as Donald Pierce, Stephen Merchant as Caliban, Dafne Keen as X-23, Eriq LaSalle, and Elise Neal. The first volume of Old Man Logan has been cited as one of its story's primary influences.

In 2029, the majority of mutantkind is dead. With the age of Superheroes now long gone, a Dented Iron James "Logan" Howlett attempts to live quietly on the Mexican border and care for an Alzheimer's Syndrome-afflicted Charles Xavier, even as his own Healing Factor decays. But when a young girl with powers identical to Logan's named Laura Kinney comes looking for the aging mutant, Logan soon finds himself caught up in one last battle with mutant-hunting mercenaries and a Mega Corp. called Transigen, who want Laura for themselves.

The movie will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2017, before being released on March 3rd.

Previews: Trailer 1, International Trailer 1, Trailer 2, International Trailer 2.

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This film provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Invoked by Mangold, who wanted to keep the film much more grounded, thus the lack of futuristic amenities like Xavier's hoverchair from Days of Future Past. Therefore though the film is set in 2029, the technology doesn't differ all that much from the contemporary late-2010s.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • This seems to the case for Donald Pierce and his Reavers, who in the comics were mutant-hating cyborgs and one of the deadliest threats to the X-Men, whereas in the movie they appear to be normal human Private Military Contractors with a few cybernetic limbs instead of full body conversions.
  • This also extends towards Logan; in the original comic, he wasn't losing his Healing Factor, though it was slowing down.
• Age Lift: Slightly inverted with Laura who was between 13-15 during Target X which chronicles the aftermath of her escape from the facility that created her. She was 15 when she met Wolverine. Here she is 11.
• The Alcoholic: While never a teetotaler to begin with, Logan has turned to booze to manage the constant pain he's under as his Healing Factor fails.
• Badass and Child Duo: The film will see Logan taking care of and protecting a young mutant girl, whose hand can be seen holding his hand in the poster. Though since the child is X-23, she's about as deadly as Logan herself.
• Badass Grandpa: Logan is one by default naturally, being born in the early 19th century. By 2029, his Healing Factor doesn't work as well as it used to, but he's still capable of kicking ass.
• Bald of Awesome: Charles Xavier per usual, although it seems that he's managed to grow some of his hair back.
• Beard of Sorrow: Logan sports his thickest beard ever movie-wise here; the Crapsack World he lives in, the constant pain that accompanies his decaying Healing Factor, and Charles Xavier's poor health don't give him much reason to smile. Xavier meanwhile has lost everything and stopped shaving as well.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The film is aiming for an R-rating for its theatrical release, meaning that the film will be more visceral than previous installments, to the point where Logan's and X-23's claws extend from their arms covered in blood. One of the first promotional images for the film featured a bloodied, severed hand that presumably belonged to someone who wronged Wolverine, and the Red Band version of the first trailer has him impaling a man's head vertically and bloodily with his claws.
• Brought Down to Badass: Logan can still kick ass and take names, but his significantly weakened healing factor means the stakes are raised much higher against him in a fight than in the past.
• Colossus Climb: A subdued variation with X-23, who because of her small size is as much as two feet shorter than many of her opponents. As a result she can be seen doing this throughout both trailers by using people as springboards to leap up and attack other people. It's most memorably done at the end of trailer 2 by running up Logan's back to vault over him and tackle a mook from above.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: The title of the film, like The Dark Knight, does not feature the title superhero's codename, but an alias the character goes by. It remains to be seen if the alias "Wolverine" will actually be used in this film.
• Composite Character: Xavier seems to partially take on the role of Hawkeye from the original comic of being an older ally of Wolverine.
• Continuity Nod: Logan's dog tags from previous films make a re-appearance.
• Cosy Catastrophe: Sure, a bunch of mutants died, but the world itself looks like it's semi-functional if a bit decrepit after whatever incident killed them all. And it's still better than the Sentinel-run future.
• Darker and Edgier: Being the second film in the film series to be rated R after DeadpoolThe screenplay page revealed by James Mangold starts like this: "Now might be a good time to talk about the 'fights' described in the 100 next or so pages. Basically, if you're on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying, CGI fuckathon, this ain't your movie."
• Deliberately Monochrome: The teaser images of the film released by the official Instagram account are all in black and white.
• Dented Iron: Logan is covered in scars due to his healing factor slowing down and is now in chronic pain due to all the damage he's taken over the years. His claws no longer extend all the way on their own and he has to pull them out to their full length, which causes him great pain.
• Distant Finale: Jackman's last portrayal of Wolverine occurs in 2029.
• The Dragon: Donald Pierce to Zander Rice.
• Feeling Their Age: The screenplay page describes Wolverine like this: "As for our hero, well, he's older now and it's clear his abilities aren't what they once were. He's fading on the inside and his diminished healing factor keeps him in a constant state of chronic pain."
• Grand Finale: To Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine. And possibly to Stewart's Charles Xavier as well.
• Happy Ending Override: The film takes place after the "good future" shown in X-Men: Days of Future Past... with just about all mutants having died. Still, fairly better than the alternate Sentinel-dominated 2020s, which were a Terminator-esque hellscape.
• Heal It with Booze: As revealed by the first screenplay page, Wolverine is in a "constant state of chronic pain" and uses "booze as a painkiller."
• Homage Shot: The international poster, which depicts Logan carrying X-23, references a variant cover for the Old Man Logan-Secret Wars tie-in drawn by Gabriele Dell Otto.
• In Spite of a Nail: No matter what Logan did to change the timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past, things have still gone to hell for mutants. You gotta wonder if what Hank said about the current correcting itself is correct.
• Internal Homage:
  • Logan is Xavier's full-time caregiver, just like Hank McCoy was in the 1973 scenes of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
  • When Laura raids the gas station in the second trailer, "I Got A Name" by Jim Croce is played. Another of Croce's songs, "Time In A Bottle", was listened to by Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
• It Always Rains at Funerals: The funeral in the trailer has everyone carrying umbrellas.
• Lighter and Softer: A downplayed example, but the film's future setting is this to the Sentinel-Dominated future depicted in Days of Future Past. Mutants may be near-extinct in this timeline and life seems to be pretty miserable for Logan and Xavier, but civilization and the environment appear to still be intact for the most part.
• Little Miss Badass: X-23 appears here as a little girl, though given her abilities she can still take on squads of enemy Mooks without a hitch.
• Mythology Gag:
  • A conversation between Logan and Caliban ends with an almost-Title Drop to the film's main influence, Old Man Logan.
    Caliban: Something's happening to you, Logan. You're not healing.
    Logan: That's right. I'm an old man.
• Not Wearing Tights: The Wolverine shown in the comic books as wearing his classic costume. Not so much in real life, as he notes that the people making the comics were taking an Artistic License with his life.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: One of the influences cited is Old Man Logan. However, as the film rights for many of the characters are tied to Marvel Studios, it means that a number of characters including the Red Skull, Hulk and Hawkeye are going to be Adapted Out and the movie will be made to fit within the existing X-Men film continuity.
• Precision F-Strike: Charles Xavier drops one, for perhaps the first time in Patrick Stewart's history of playing him. It's one for the character, but perhaps not the film itself:
  Professor X: Two days on the road, only one meal, hardly any sleep, she's 11 and I'm fucking 90.
• Production Throwback:
  • A subtle one: The first teaser trailer is scored with Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt." The cover page of Kyle and Yost's script for Innocence Lost, X-23's origin book, included a quote from the original Nine Inch Nails version of the song.
  • Somewhat connected, but due to the trailer's usage of said song, it's also one for director James Mangold, who had previously directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. Noted by him in this interview by Empire.
• Product Placement: The opening of the second trailer prominently features X-23 eating a tube of Pringles potato chips with a Snickers logo in the background, after which she shoplifts a pair or Shopkins sunglasses. She wears the shades several times throughout both trailers. There's also Logan's Cadillac limousine.
• Recursive Fiction: X-Men comic books exist in the universe of the film, though Logan is sure to note they are only Very Loosely Based on a True Story.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Xavier apparently suffers from Alzheimer's Syndrome in his old age.
• Shout-Out: The movie's plot, where a lonely, older bearded man travels the country helping a dark-haired girl learn to survive in a Bad Future, is heavily inspired by the contemporary post-apocalyptic road trip game The Last of Us.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the Old Man Logan comic Xavier and X-23 were already dead when the main story started.
• This Is Reality: According to Logan, things didn't happen the way they were supposedly told in Laura's X-Men comics, when they even did happen at all (which he claims is only about a quarter of the material).
  Logan: In the real world, people die.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: For mutantkind as a whole, as they have yet again been subjected to near extinction after the whole rigamarole with Days Of Future Past to prevent exactly that.

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