Wolverine goes on one last adventure in Logan. It is the year 2029 and mutants have become all but extinct. Due to poisoning caused by his adamantium skeleton, Logan (Hugh Jackman) has become greatly aged and is unable to heal as well anymore. He lives in Mexico with albino mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant) to care for Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who is suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and prone to seizures with devastating effects. One day, a nurse named Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez) asks Logan for help to bring a young female mutant named Laura (Dafne Keen) to a place in North Dakota named Eden. Logan quickly realizes that Laura is his genetically engineered daughter, complete with adamantium claws and healing factor. With the Reavers lead by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) on their tail, Logan, Charles, and Laura hit the road to try and make it to Eden.
Back in 2000, a 31 year old Hugh Jackman has his breakthrough performance in the original X-Men. Seventeen years later, 48 year old Jackson prepare to say goodbye to the character in the third Wolverine solo film Logan. Director James Mangold (The Wolverine) returns for this final adventure, which places Wolverine in a much more gritty and realistic world, loosely inspired by the 2008 graphic novel Old Man Logan.
The story of Logan takes place in 2029, at which point new mutants haven’t been born for 25 years. With most of the mutant population killed off and the X-Men a distant memory, Logan is left to live in hiding, as he struggles to care for a rapidly deteriorating 90 year old Charles Xavier. However, there is a glimmer of hope for mutants, when Logan finds Laura, aka X-23, a clone created with his DNA by scientist Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant). Even though Logan remains pessimistic that Eden really exists, he begrudgingly follows Charles wishes to bring Laura to the location, all while avoiding capture by Donald Pierce and the Reavers.
One thing that is immediately apparently by Logan is that it is not your usual PG-13 rated X-Men film. Logan now liberally drops F-bombs and his violent outbursts are now shown in full, gory detail. While it was apparently always the intent to have Logan as a hard R rated film, it has to be surmised that last year’s success of Deadpool likely played party in this dark and gritty Wolverine adventure getting greenlit.
While Logan essentially takes place in a universe similar to the one we were introduced to in X-Men, completely with Charles Xavier referencing Logan’s life at the time, this is also a world that is much more grounded in realism. This is thanks partially to the fact that there are very few actual mutants left, which makes this a film that is much less reliant on special effects. There is also a very emotional sideplot, as Logan begins to bond with Laura, who is essentially his daughter, despite being born out of genetic engineering.
When it is all said an done, Logan is a quite fitting swan song to Hugh Jackman’s run as Wolverine. You might even end up shedding a tear or two, as you say goodbye to the most famous of the X-Men.
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