Logan Did Luke's Story Better Than The Last Jedi

Warning: SPOILERS Below For The Last Jedi and Logan.

When the story of Luke Skywalker came to its conclusion in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there was both a disturbance in the Force and a familiar echo for fans of the Wolverine. If you felt a nagging sense of deja vu by the time Luke expended all of his Force powers in his final confrontation with Kylo Ren, it's because we have already seen an older incarnation of a beloved hero called back to action to make his greatest sacrifice just this past year in Logan.

Not only did the titular clawed mutant hero played by Hugh Jackman go through a similar arc as Mark Hamill's Skywalker, he did it with more gravitas and resonance in Logan. This isn't to diminish the impact of how director Rian Johnson chose to depict Luke's ultimate act of heroism in The Last Jedi, nor to suggest any type of theft of ideas from Logan director James Mangold, but there are some unavoidable similarities between the films and how they each deal with their aging legends. In the final analysis, Logan's last stand edges out Luke's.

Besides being final chapters of two cinematic heroes that feature awesome displays of psychic powers and characters who have metal hands, let's take a look at all of the story beats the twilight adventures of Luke Skywalker and the Wolverine have in common. Which hero went out in a grander style?

Logan and Luke Skywalker's Exiles and "Daughters" (This Page)

AGING HEROES IN EXILE

Star Wars The Last Jedi teaser trailer - Luke on Ahch-To

Remorse and regret are what drive Luke and Logan into the choices they make, though in the case of the Wolverine, the remorse also comes from the 90-year-old Charles Xavier. The most powerful mutant mind in the world suffers from Alzheimer's and his psychic powers caused a tragic incident that led to the deaths of the X-Men. Logan exiled himself and Charles for their own safety in Mexico, where Charles is isolated and kept as medicated as possible. However, Logan wholly accepts responsibility for his mentor, making ends meet as a limo driver and squirreling away money to make good on his plan for even further exile: buying a boat so he and Charles and live on the sea.

Luke Skywalker isolated himself in remorse for his own greatest regret: he was frightened by Ben Solo's potential to succumb to the dark side of the Force and in a moment of weakness, tried to kill his nephew and apprentice. After Ben responded by burning the Jedi training temple, killing many of his other students, casting his lot with Supreme Leader Snoke, and becoming Kylo Ren, Luke ran away from everyone and everything. The last Jedi took refuge in the isolated world of Ahch-To, cut himself off from the Force, blamed the Jedi for its centuries of failures, and planned to die and take the Jedi religion with him.

Logan is made of sterner stuff than Luke, and that's not just meaning his failing healing factor and the adamantium coating his bones. Luke's story is of a hero wallowing in self-blame and defeat. Logan, who has lived much longer and faced far more horrors in his life, at least continued to struggle to do right by someone he cares for. It was much more difficult to rouse Luke to do the right thing than it was to get Logan to act like the hero he truly is.

YOUNG WOMEN IN NEED WHO ARE JUST LIKE THEM

Unwelcome strangers come calling for both Luke and Logan in the form of young girls with similar powers. In Logan's case, it's Laura, a female clone of the Wolverine, who is desperate for help in finding a haven for mutants in Canada where she can reunite with the other mutant children who escaped from the Transigen Project. Initially refusing the call to help because he didn't want his plan for himself and Xavier disrupted, circumstances forced Logan to go on the run with Laura and Xavier and ultimately commit to seeing her mission through. In the course of their road trip, Logan gradually accepted responsibility for Laura and found that last heroic fire of his best self.

Luke was even more reluctant to help when Rey came to Ahch-To hoping to bring the Jedi back to the fight against the First Order. His subsequent mentoring of Rey was brief, as he was concealing the truth about what happened the night he had his falling out with Kylo Ren. Rey found Luke to be a disappointment and she left Ahch-To with the ancient Jedi texts, planning to complete her training herself after she tried, misguidedly, to turn Ben Solo back to the light side of the Force. It was only after Luke made his final sacrifice that Rey saw the spark of the hero she believed in as a little girl.

Both Laura and Rey spent very short amounts of time with the aging heroes whose help they required. Laura got much more effort and sacrifice out of Logan, who gave everything he had to travel with her and keep her safe. Logan literally died trying to protect Laura. It's hard to see how Rey could regard the time she personally spent with Luke as anything more than a letdown despite the handful of lessons in the Force Luke offered her. That's not to undermine his sacrifice, but the enduring message is a more complex one.

Logan Final Trailer - Logan reading X-Men comic

COPING WITH THEIR LEGENDS

To their chagrin, both Luke Skywalker and Logan had to deal with the specter of their past exploits and how their legends obfuscate the disappointing realities of both men. Luke's heyday was over 30 years in the past, as the optimistic young Jedi who destroyed a Death Star and then redeemed his father Darth Vader while helping to bring down the Empire. While we know little else of Luke's life between Return of the Jedi and when Rey meets him on Ahch-To, the sad, old Jedi Master Luke had grown into was dismissive of his own legend and rejected Rey calling upon him to live up to her and the galaxy's idea of who Luke Skywalker is.

Logan's extraordinarily long life was spent fighting in numerous wars, enduring as both a victim and a killer, but ultimately, his greatest claim to fame is as one of the X-Men, a world-saving hero. His past came back to haunt him in the four-color pages of X-Men comics, which are sanitized and mostly fictional accounts of what really happened that he openly expressed disgust at. Logan was uncomfortable with any kind of hero worship, including the regard shown to him by the villainous Donald Pierce, who idolized Logan in his own way. Logan was much more comfortable with diminished expectations of him, like the kind Xavier and Caliban showed him.

In both cases, the younger generation, especially Laura and Rey, believed in the legends. When called upon to live up to their own idealized heroic versions of themselves, Luke and Logan both rose to the occasion in their own ways. Logan was a personal inspiration to a small handful of mutants who must now survive in a world that hate, fears, and hunts them. The legend of Luke Skywalker, however, has incalculable power in the galaxy, and Luke's final stand on Crait gave a new hope to the Rebellion. Luke gifted the Rebels the spark they needed to light the fire that will burn the First Order down. No matter the failings of the flesh and blood man, Skywalker's legend endures across the galaxy and continues to inspire the young to fight against tyranny.

THE FINAL SACRIFICES

As we've established, these two arcs share a lot of similarities and each does some elements better. But what really defines both stories is the ending - the death. Luke Skywalker's final sacrifice on Crait was a powerful moment, but was it as resonant as Logan's? No.

While Luke ultimately chose to own up to his past mistakes and face Kylo Ren, he did it through the Force instead of in the flesh. More importantly, though, Luke didn't face Kylo for a noble goal of saving his nephew from the Dark Side as he once redeemed his father. Luke never believed he could bring Ben Solo back to the light, nor did he try. Luke's last stand was merely to buy the Rebels time to escape capture on Crait. Luke tricking Kylo by making it seem like he survived a barrage of AT-M6 cannon fire and being struck down by Kylo's own lightsaber was an entertaining feint, but it loses impact by being an illusion, despite the effort of projecting himself across the galaxy via the Force literally killing Luke. His sacrifice, while still a noble and powerful gesture, loses luster as Luke didn't physically appear to right his wrong.

By contrast, Logan gave up all he had, body, heart and soul, to save Laura. Logan withstood inhuman amounts of pain and abuse on the road to finally seeing Laura and her young mutant friends through to Canada. Along the way, Logan lost Charles Xavier, and faced a more powerful and deadly clone of himself in X-24. Despite his healing factor unable to withstand the punishment Logan was accumulating, he nevertheless pushed himself beyond his physical limits one last time to kill his evil mirror and save Laura and her friends from the Transigen soldiers. Logan's reward was the love of his daughter; the final noble act of the Wolverine saved her life.

While no one shed tears for Luke on screen despite both Leia and Rey sensing through the Force that Luke was gone, Logan's death and all that it meant was an emotionally devastating denouement that brought tears to both the characters on screen and to the audience watching in theaters. Mark Hamill got to portray Luke's death - fittingly watching twin suns - after 40 years of playing the last Jedi, but Luke also has the luxury of being able to reappear as a Force Ghost in Star Wars: Episode IX. Logan was the definitive end of Hugh Jackman's 17 year run as the Wolverine and it is a high water mark for the superhero movie genre.

Ultimately, Luke's conclusion in The Last Jedi has proven to be divisive among fans, while Logan's acclaimed sendoff for the Wolverine has already become legendary. Though the two heroes walked remarkably similar paths in their final stories, both The Last Jedi and Logan are worthy final chapters in their own right. But in the end, Logan's last stand simply X's out Luke Skywalker's in impact, grandeur, and emotional resonance.

NEXT: STAR WARS 9 SHOULD END THE SAGA