Summary
- Adamantium poisoning caused Wolverine's healing power to fail in Logan, leading to his tragic demise.
- The theme of government experimentation and toxic substances adds weight to Wolverine's struggles in the film.
- While Logan explores dark themes, Hugh Jackman's next role in Deadpool & Wolverine will showcase a fully intact Wolverine.
Why was Logan dying in Logan? Although Logan lays the groundwork for an explanation, the Fox X-Men movie never explicitly reveals why Wolverine lost his healing power. Set in 2029, Logan's hypothetical place in the X-Men movie timeline sees most X-Men dead, no new mutants being born in 25 years, and the Transigen corporation hunting survivors for their genetic material. When a young mutant girl, Laura (Dafne Keene), is given to Wolverine to care for, he, Professor Charles Xavier, and Laura flee in search of a fabled mutant sanctuary while being pursued by Transigen's cybernetic mercenaries.
Aside from his trademark claws, Logan's most notable ability is superhuman healing, as popularized by Wolverine in the Fox movies. This isn't the case in Logan, where Wolverine suffers considerably when injured, and his healing factor is so diminished that he's only nominally more durable than a regular human. Logan even hurts himself when popping his claws. While the movie is set in the future, age isn't a viable explanation, as Logan has lived for centuries. However, there is a good reason that Wolverine's healing ability is failing in Logan.
Adamantium Poisoning Is Why Wolverine Lost His Healing Power In Logan
In Logan, scars and bullet holes that once would have vanished remain permanently visible on Wolverine, who is in constant physical agony in the movie, and it all comes down to a single fatal affliction: Adamantium poisoning. With his healing factor in decline, even his claws don't come out as quickly or as reliably as they once did. After Wolverine is confronted with a mindless clone of himself who has killed Professor X, he is gravely wounded, and Laura takes him to a local doctor who finally confirms what Logan has known since even before the movie.
The physician tells Wolverine that something in his body was killing him, literally poisoning him from the inside out. Logan remained stoically unsurprised by this, as he had already assumed the Adamantium that the Weapon X program coated his bones with had long been the cause of his ailment. The government's experimentation on Wolverine made him a powerful weapon, but also led to his eventual demise, and it is unclear how long he might have survived if not for the operation.
Wolverine's Healing Factor Failure Explores Logan's Darkest Theme
Wolverine's inability to survive injury isn't just to spin a good narrative with higher stakes. It also has heavy thematic weight. The decision on the filmmakers' part also parallels real-world situations of governments experimenting with toxic substances on their own troops, which can make them more effective soldiers but can also be harmful or even fatal at the same time.
While Logan didn't elaborate on the grisly details of his Adamantium poisoning, it can be surmised that Wolverine's very long and brutal life taxed his healing factor to its limits. Meanwhile, the Adamantium was constantly poisoning his insides; Logan's healing factor initially kept the metal's toxicity in check but, as it gradually failed, the poison began overwhelming his system and killing him. Adamantium poisoning may also have turned into the cause of his healing factor's increasing failure.
In the Fox X-Men universe at the time of Logan, there is no viable major medical resource for mutants. Even if there were, it is previously noted that the bonding process for the Adamantium to be on Wolverine's bones cannot be undone.
By the end of Logan, the long-suffering mutant's depleted healing factor could no longer save him, and after a life of pain, he was ready for the end to come at last. With that, Logan died from his fatal injuries, and Hugh Jackman (supposedly) moved on from his role as Wolverine – but not before Logan performed one final, heroic act where he saved Laura and the future of the mutant race.
Logan's Lost Healing Factor Won't Matter In Deadpool & Wolverine
Why Logan was dying in Logan is interesting, but won't factor into Hugh Jackman's next outing as Wolverine. The fact is that this question doesn't matter all that much for Wolverine's MCU debut in the story of Deadpool & Wolverine, which takes place before Logan.
This means that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine will be introduced into the MCU not as the more lethargic, Old Man Logan-inspired mutant, but as the X-Men member whose healing factor and fighting prowess are fully intact. That said, as the plot of Deadpool & Wolverine is being kept under wraps, it's currently hard to predict what Logan and Deadpool will be facing when they join the MCU.
Deadpool & Wolverine is set to release on July 26, 2024.
Logan
*Availability in US
- stream
- rent
- buy
Logan sees the titular hero, AKA Wolverine, in his twilight years as his healing factor has begun to fail him, and he has begun to age more rapidly. Set several years in the future, Logan finds himself caring for an ailing Professor Xavier, whose mind has begun to succumb to dementia, making him an incredibly dangerous mutant that can cause widespread destruction accidentally. But when the preoccupied Logan is asked to meet with a woman that requests he transports a young girl to a mutant haven known as Eden, he learns that she may have his DNA and that the fate of mutant-kind may rest in her hands.
- Director
- James Mangold
- Release Date
- March 3, 2017
- Cast
- Hugh Jackman , Patrick Stewart , Dafne Keen , Elizabeth Rodriguez , Daniel Bernhardt , Richard E. Grant , Doris Morgado , Boyd Holbrook
