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 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.
It's also worth noting that Logan mentions that the "mutant cure" has also been placed in food, in the future timeline's efforts to get rid of mutantkind altogether. While this is left less explicitly clear, this may have served to weaken Wolverine's healing factor even further, meaning it would be even less effective at dealing with the Adamantium poisoning, thus potentially speeding up his decline. Either way, though, it seems the decision to bind Logan's skeleton with Adamantium was always set to spell his downfall, even if it took some time for this consequence to become clear.
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.
When X-Men Origins: Wolverine reveals the Adamantium bonding process and how it's carried out on Logan, it's evident that this is done to make him into a mindless weapon without any thought for his personhood. Stryker - who organizes the operation and is the movie's overarching antagonist - even tries to have Logan's mind wiped after the process is carried out, to ensure he can use Wolverine and his unique abilities for his own purposes. Logan underlines the brutality of this by showing that this disregard for Wolverine as anything but a soldier is effectively what leads to his death.
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, which ultimately ensures that any possible avenue that could help Logan would only be a temporary solution, since the very thing that is killing him is inextricably attached to him.
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. While a sad ending, it's one that offers some hope, too, as Logan is able to use his years of brutal fighting experience to help protect the next generation of mutants, allowing them the chance to build a better world.
How Deadpool & Wolverine Uses Logan's Lost Healing Factor Story
Prior to the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, it was believed that the story would take place before Logan, meaning that Wolverine's failing healing factor wouldn't play a part in the plot. However, the release of the movie revealed that Logan and the titular hero's death actually play a major part in the narrative, as the X-Men member was in fact the Fox universe's "anchor being", meaning his death had caused the universe to start to unravel.
This leads Deadpool on a journey to find another Wolverine to take the place of the now-dead one, sending him down a road that sees him eventually become allies with the new variant of Wolverine audiences first saw in the trailers. However, this is only after Wade Wilson goes to check whether Wolverine's healing factor may have brought him back from the events of Logan.
As a result of this, Deadpool & Wolverine is able to emphatically confirm that this version of Wolverine's healing factor permanently failed, as Deadpool actively unveils the skeleton of the hero, and uses fragments of it in a comedic but decidedly grim fight sequence. While the main Wolverine focused on in the movie has his healing factor working at full force - as confirmed by his bloodthirsty fight scenes with Deadpool, which are on a level that is only possible because of the healing factors of both characters - this certainly cements what happens to Wolverine and his healing factor in Logan.
Deadpool & Wolverine released on July 26, 2024, 7 years after Logan debuted.
Logan
- Release Date
- March 3, 2017
- Runtime
- 137 Minutes
- Director
- James Mangold
Cast
Logan / Wolverine / X-24
Laura Kinney / X-23
WHERE TO WATCH
Logan is set in a near future where an aging Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, takes care of a frail Professor Xavier, portrayed by Patrick Stewart, at a secluded location near the Mexican border. Their secluded existence is disrupted by the arrival of a young mutant, pursued by malevolent forces.
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