Logan (film)

Life is the ultimate adventure, and Death, the prize that awaits us all.

She is not my child, but I love her. You may not love her, but she is your child.

—Gabriella

Logan is a 2017 superhero drama film that is the third and final Wolverine film.

It is considered one of the best superhero films of all time due to the deep and dark themes, stylized tone and character development. The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2018 Oscars, making the first live-action superhero film to get a screenplay nomination. It is also the last time Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart played Wolverine and Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series. Mind you, what is being adapted here is complicated: Laura's character is of X-Men: Evolution, but Old Man Logan inspired the storyline.

A middle-aged man wakes up on the back of his car and realizes someone is trying to steal his tyres. He tells the robbers to go away, only to be nonchalantly shot fatally. Except, of course, said is man is James Logan Howlett, and he has both healing powers and six claws on his hands. Despite visibly not being as young and healthy as the last time we saw him, Logan still makes short work of most of the thieves and sends the few survivors running.

Unhappily for him, soon after Logan meets a woman seeking his help and a man called Donald Pierce seeking for her, which had apparently stolen something from him. That something turns out to be Laura, a female clone of Wolverine.

The woman, called Gabriella, is soon killed, but Laura sneaks in on Logan's car, and prompted by his remaining sense of super-heroic altruism, Logan decides to take her to Canada, where she will be safe from Pierce and his men.

Directed by James Mangold. Distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Tropes used in Logan (film) include:

Adapted Out: Justified. Thanks to Fox not owning the rights, all non-X-men elements were excised from this adaptation and replaced, most notable Old Man Hawkeye, Sarah Kinney and Nick Fury, whose roles in the plots of the works mentioned above were replaced by Gabriella (telling Logan about Laura and motivating his journey across America).
Adaptational Heroism: Laura is only seen killing by self-defense here and worships Logan for the hero he was, only acting harshly in response to her idol's own harshness towards her. Evolution X-23 was a Tyke Bomb that attacked Logan and X-Men because she blamed Logan for her bad childhood without not even asking for the truth.
Anticlimax Boss: Played for Laughs with Donald Pierce. Just as he shows his cyborg arm to Logan and it seems a very tense fight is off to start, Laura throws a pipe off-screen which instantly knocks him out. Turns out, his augmentations didn't extend to his cranium.
Anyone Can Die: In some ways this is the whole point of the film.
Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite the level of odd events he experienced, Logan is still shocked and skeptic when a female clone of him appears on his doorstep. To make it even worse, he shows no signal of being suspicious of how mutants have existed for thousands of years and suddenly went extinct after the high level of danger they represented became extremely public thanks to Apocalypse and the Phoenix.
Artificial Limbs: Donald Pierce has a cybernetic arm.
Atomic F-Bomb: Logan yells one upon learning that Donald Pierce is from Transigen.
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Considering the Eden's location is accurate and was written on a comic book as a clue, Marvel Comics on this world was connected to mutant sympathizers.
Berserk Button: Logan doesn't like it when Laura wants to go to Eden.
Big "Shut Up!": Logan yells "Shut the fuck up!" to Laura as she first started talking.
Bittersweet Ending: Logan, Xavier and Caliban are dead, but Laura and other mutant kids survived, they will escape to Canada and likely spill out the truth about Transigen for the entire world to hear, likely saving the mutant race before it's too late for them, and if not they will be progenitors of their future.
Bloodier and Gorier: It is the most violent film of the series. Wolverine cuts graphically a guy's limb in the opening scene and it escalates from there.
Boss in Mook Clothing: Inverted. The very threatening-looking soldier on a mohawk which first tries to apprehend Laura gets easily and quickly killed.
Cain and Abel: Being his clone, X-24 is genetically Logan's brother, and evil. To make parallels even more strong, he does end up killing Logan.
Cluster F-Bomb: To benefit from the R-rating, Logan and Charles Xavier regularly swear.
Darker and Edgier: To the point it's far more bleak than other superhero films.
Deconstruction: Of most X-Men fiction. Mutants are shown to be dangerous towards even themselves with old age and faced with that challenge mankind chooses not outright war like in the previous movie in the timeline, but more subtle methods because a direct conflict would end in disaster.
Distant Finale: The film takes place in the year 2029 and is the last Wolverine film.
Driven to Suicide: Logan has tried to kill himself multiple times.
Dying Race: There hasn't been a mutant born since 2004 and they're almost extinct. With the mutant children escaping to Canada and very likely to spill out the cruel eugenic program of Transigen that killed likely hundreds of millions of unborn children, this will be likely averted).
Establishing Character Moment: Pierce torturing Caliban using his weakness to sunlight shows how extremely cruel he is, but not killing him despite Caliban's refusal to help shows some degree of humanity.
Evil Knockoff: X-24 is a clone of Logan
Fanboy: Laura and Pierce both are big fans of the X-Men, if at least of the comics. That is the probable reason why Pierce doesn't outright kill Xavier despite knowing what he could do to him by accident.
Famous Last Words:
- "Beware the light." - Caliban.
- "Our boat, the Sunseeker." - Charles Xavier.
- "So, this is what it feels like." - Wolverine.
Fanservice Extra: The bride flashing her breasts at Logan in what seems to be a dare.
Fatal Flaw: Logan used the healing serum too early while fighting X-24.
Foreshadowing: Laura is seen eating Corn Flakes minutes before the Reavers arrive. It turns out Transigen, which is behind the Reavers, has modified the corn so any baby with an active X-factor would be rejected by the mother's body.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Pierce wears red-tinted glasses and orders the killing of several people without showing a shed of remorse during this movie.
Gratuitous Spanish: Laura's speech switches between this and English.
Heel Face Turn: Between Apocalypse and this movie, Caliban has grown regretful of exploiting and then helping in the extinction of his own race and proceeded to help Logan in taking care of the elder Xavier.
Hotter and Sexier: If only by one thumb compared to other Wolverine movies. In a montage of Logan working as a driver, a young bride flashes her nipple at him.
Luke, You Are My Father: Logan is more than shocked at Laura being his child. It don't helps she is a lab experiment created without his consent and without a mother, so the naturally aloof Canadian feels even more detached from her than he would be usually.
Mood Whiplash: Pierce threatening Logan around the 28 minutes mark is interrupted by him being comically hit by a pipe.
Mugging the Monster: Mutants have reduced to just a few numbers that people simply don't expect to find one, and Logan gets confronted at least two times by criminals who doesn't even consider the possibility of fighting a mutant and thinks he is a Fearless Fool.
No Sense of Personal Space: Not surprisingly, Laura behaves around people like a animal smelling prey. She gets so close to to Nate that you think she would have a crush without context.
Not His Sled:
- Anyone which has read the original Old Man Logan (spoilers for it ahead) would think that Xavier's words about Logan killing the rest of the X-Men are absolutely true. As it turns out however, Xavier himself killed them with a psychic wave similar to the one in X2: X-Men United.
- The mutants being a temporary genetic anomaly was the truth in the comic too, but in here it was a drug causing miscarriages to humans with an active X-factor.
Not So Different: Pierce tries to compare his cybernetic arm to Logan's skeleton, but it turns out to be an empty threat. The danger he offers come in other ways.
Power Incontinence: Charles can no longer control his psychic powers thanks to his brain degenerating.
Product Placement: Laura is seen getting Pringles at a convenience store.
R-Rated Opening: The very beginning where Logan uses his claws to tear up thugs with strong language is enough to earn this film its "R" rating.
Shout-Out:
- Charles and Laura watch Shane on the television. By the end, Laura quotes the film for Logan's funeral.
- Donald Pierce mentions that the claw marks on Logan's car are either from an escaped tiger or Freddy Krueger, one of them being fictional and the other extinct.
Slapstick: Pierce is hit by a pipe thrown by a little girl and instantly goes unconscious.
The Speechless: X-24 initially only communicates by growling.
Suddenly Voiced: After Charles Xavier dies, Laura finally starts speaking to Logan.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: X-24's haircut, function on the story and behaviour resembles Sabertooth. And just like Sabertooth, he is genetically Logan's brother.
Take That: And not in a humorous way. Wolverine's rants to Laura about the in-universe comics resemble complaints about the actual comics, about characters coming back from the dead and no consequences to drastic events ever lasting. It takes an extra sting knowing what cover triggers it: that of Uncanny X-Men #132, showing the X-Men mourning over Jean's death during the Phoenix Saga; Jean was a character known for repeatedly resurrecting and who was established to be the love of this Wolverine's life.
The Western: This is the second superhero film to be considered a Western. (The first was 2010's Jonah Hex.)
This Is Reality: The bleak reality Logan lives in drives him to become annoyed at the in-universe X-Men comics for being just as fantastical as the original. He goes specifically on a rant towards Laura to not think of the world as a comic book.
Thou Shall Not Kill:
- Logan and Caliban do not kill Pierce despite the fact his continued survival is going to screw them over.
- For all intents and purposes, James should have killed Charles a long time ago, with his powers posing danger to everyone around him. The only possible reason for him not doing it it's this trope. It does not stop him of killing people in self-defence.
Timeshifted Actor: Merchant is only three years older than DeMarquis, but his Caliban shows visible signals of aging a few decades have passed.
Wham! Line: "De nada." From that point, Logan now knows Laura can speak.