Logan is a 2017 American superhero film starring Hugh Jackman as the titular character. Based on the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, the film was directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Green and Scott Frank from a story by Mangold. It is the tenth installment in the X-Men film series, and the third Wolverine solo film following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). A spin-off/sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). The film takes inspiration from the "Old Man Logan" comics storyline by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven and follows an aged Wolverine and an extremely ill Charles Xavier who must defend a young mutant named Laura from the Reavers led by Donald Pierce and Zander Rice. The film also stars Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, and Stephen Merchant, with Dafne Keen making her film debut as Laura.
Discussion for the film began following the release of The Wolverine in 2013, with Mangold in negotiations to write the treatment for the film and Lauren Shuler Donner returning to produce. After updates followed that December to May 2016, principal photography began that May, and ended that August, mainly in Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mississippi. The film was designed to look like it takes place in the near future, with slight updates to technology and the social environment, with heavy influences from the Western genre, akin to a Neo-Western.
Logan premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 3. It was praised by critics for its action scenes, emotional depth, performances, and Mangold's direction, becoming the best-reviewed film in the X-Men franchise. The National Board of Review named Logan one of the top-ten films of 2017, and the film was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards, becoming the first live-action superhero film to be nominated for screenwriting. Grossing $619.2 million worldwide, it became the third-highest-grossing R-rated film at its release. The Marvel Studios film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) continues some storylines from Logan, with Jackman appearing as an alternate Logan and Keen reprising her role as Laura.
Plot
In 2029, no mutants have been born in 25 years, and an aging Logan suffers as his healing ability is failing, slowly poisoned by his adamantium skeletal grafts. Working as a limousine driver in El Paso, Texas, he and the mutant tracker Caliban take care of the elderly Charles Xavier, in an abandoned smelting plant in northern Mexico. Xavier has dementia that causes him to have destructive telepathic seizures, one of which killed several of the X-Men years prior.
Logan reluctantly agrees to escort Gabriela López, a former nurse for biotechnology corporation Alkali-Transigen, and a young girl named Laura to Eden, a supposed refuge near the American-Canadian border, but finds Gabriela dead. Upon returning to the plant, Logan is confronted by Donald Pierce, Transigen's cyborg chief of security, who had killed Gabriela and was looking for Laura, who had stowed away in the back of Logan's limo and has powers similar to his. She, Logan, and Xavier escape from Pierce and his Reavers, but Caliban is captured. Pierce tortures Caliban into tracking Laura. Xavier and Logan watch a video on Gabriela's phone, revealing that Transigen created Laura and other children from mutant DNA to become weapons. The children proved challenging to control and were to be executed, but Gabriela and other nurses helped some escape. Xavier reveals to Logan that Laura was created from Logan's DNA and calls her Logan's daughter.
In Oklahoma City, Logan discovers that Eden appears in Laura's X-Men comic and tells her it is fictional. The Reavers arrive, but Xavier has a seizure that incapacitates everyone except Logan and Laura, who kill the mercenaries and injects Xavier with levetiracetam. As they flee, Dr. Zander Rice, the head of Transigen, arrives to help Pierce. Logan, Laura, and Xavier help farmer Will Munson and his family after a traffic incident, accepting an offer of dinner at their home, where Logan drives off enforcers from a corporate farm. Rice unleashes X-24, a violent, mindless feral clone of Logan in his prime created as Transigen's ultimate weapon. X-24 kills Xavier and Will's family before capturing Laura. Caliban sets off grenades, killing himself and several Reavers but only injuring Pierce. Logan is outmatched by X-24, but Will pins X-24 with his truck before dying from his injuries. Logan and Laura escape with Xavier's body. After burying Xavier, Logan passes out. Laura takes him to a doctor, where he partially recovers. Logan insists that the site in North Dakota is not Eden, but Laura does not relent and Logan accepts to take her there. They find Rictor and other Transigen children preparing to cross into Canada. Laura finds an adamantium bullet that Logan has kept since he escaped from the Weapon X facility, which he once considered using to commit suicide. Logan decides not to accompany them, to Laura's dismay.
When the Reavers ambush the children, Logan takes an overdose of a serum given to him by Rictor that temporarily enhances his healing abilities and boosts his strength. With Laura's help, he slaughters most of the Reavers before the serum wears off. As Pierce holds Rictor at gunpoint, Rice tells Logan, who killed Rice's father years ago at the Weapon X facility, that no new mutants have been born in the USA due to genetically engineered crops created by Transigen and distributed through the food supply. Logan, having found a gun, shoots Rice dead and injures Pierce. X-24 fights Logan as the children combine their powers to kill Pierce and the remaining Reavers. Rictor uses his powers to flip a truck onto X-24, but X-24 frees himself and impales Logan on a large tree branch, mortally wounding him. Laura loads Logan's revolver with the adamantium bullet and shoots X-24 in the head, killing him.
Near death, Logan tells Laura not to become the weapon she was made to be, and after she tearfully acknowledges him as her father, Logan dies peacefully in Laura's arms. She and the children bury Logan, with Laura reciting as his eulogy the closing speech from Shane, which Logan, Xavier, and she had watched in the Oklahoma City hotel. Before the children depart, Laura tilts the Cross on his grave marker to create an "X".
Cast
Hugh Jackman as James Howlett / Logan: A former member of the X-Men and a physically enhanced mutant with accelerated healing. Charles Xavier's former pupil and Laura's biological father, dealing with his age and ailment. He is one of Charles Xavier's caregivers, alongside Caliban. Mangold spoke of Logan's age influencing his regenerative capabilities, which he stated may no longer produce soft skin, "so we imagined he heals quickly, still, but it leaves a scar. The simple idea was that his body would start to get a little more ravaged with a kind of tattooing of past battles, lacerations that remain of previous conflicts." On the second page of the screenplay, Mangold spoke of Logan as "... he's older now and it's clear his abilities aren't what they once were. He's fading on the inside and his diminished healing factor keeps him in a constant state of chronic pain—hence booze as a painkiller." In 2015, Jackman requested fan input for the direction Wolverine's story should go in the next film while seeming to confirm that the project would serve as his farewell to Logan. To prepare for his role, Jackman ate a minimum of six meals per day when working with trainer Mike Ryan. Ryan stated that an average workout session for Jackman lasts up to three hours, beginning at 4:00 a.m. Jackman stated, "It's going to be very different. Very different in tone and hopefully different to anything we've done." Regarding the more personal tone, Jackman noted, "That's always been really his dilemma, coming to terms with who he is". Jackman has also explained that comedian Jerry Seinfeld was indirectly responsible for his decision to stop playing Logan after 17 years, with Jackman stating, "I was having a chat with [Seinfeld] about a year ago ... he was talking about why he finished Seinfeld ... He said he'd always had this feeling and belief that you never know when either your energy or the audience's energy is going to dip over into people [saying] 'Oh, please go.'" Jackman accepted a pay reduction to ensure that the film would be produced to receive an R-rating. Additionally, Jackman portrays Logan's clone, X-24. Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier: A mutant who is the world's most powerful telepath, the founder and former leader of the now-defunct X-Men and formerly known as Professor X. Charles's telepathic abilities have become unstable due to age (over 90 years) and an unknown brain disease, and at times, he does not recognize Logan. During the events of Logan, Xavier is cared for by Logan and Caliban. Regarding Xavier and the themes of aging and loneliness, Mangold said, "We've seen these characters in action, saving the universe. But what happens when you're in retirement and that career is over? ... The really interesting thing to me, or a place to dig that hadn't been dug, was the idea of mutants when they're no longer useful to the world, or even sure if they can do what they used to do. Their powers are diminished like all of ours are by age ... Our Charles is a very sweet character in this film. I think he's always been an incredibly sweet character. With the addition of his own physical fragility in this movie, he becomes an incredibly powerful paternal figure in the movie. Logan is more of a reluctant one, I think you can easily guess." Stewart remarked that "... this is probably the end of this franchise for me. But the thing about science fiction and fantasy is that you can never, ever say it's the end, it's over." Dafne Keen as Laura / X-23: A mysterious young girl who is "very much" like Logan as well as his biological daughter. On Keen's portrayal of Laura, Mangold mentioned, "If anyone could steal a movie from [Jackman], it would be Dafne. She carries, all the time, a slight strangeness." In an interview with Digital Spy, Mangold stated, "... [Keen] was 11 years old when we were shooting. She's a remarkable kid. Her parents are actors, and she's kind of a very modern kid. Very physically capable. Incredibly gifted as an actress. I mean, it was a huge risk for Fox to allow me to make a movie where the third point of the triangle was built upon someone so young." Mangold stated that the worldwide search for an actress to portray Laura was one in which he was seeking "someone who was bilingual because I wanted a Latina kid—one who was between 10 and 12, and was a credible child." He later stated of Laura that: "She's an 11-year-old girl equipped with all the volatility, instability, mood swings, shadows and potential violence of our hero." Co-writer Scott Frank pushed for the character to speak as little as possible when he joined the project to avoid making her into a typical kid sidekick, explaining, "I read a few other drafts of the script that Jim worked on, and in all those drafts she was talking from the beginning and had an attitude. I thought that was a giant mistake." 11-year-old Nayah Murphy served as Dafne's stunt double. Millie Bobby Brown auditioned for the role before Keen was cast. Logan was Keen's film debut.