THE WOLVERINE
Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler
Starring
Luke Bracey (
Hacksaw Ridge) as Logan/Wolverine
Brad Pitt (
Fight Club) as Victor
Kiernan Shipka (
Mad Men) as Kitty Pryde
Al Pacino (
The Godfather) as Andre Thorton
Gaspard Ulliel (
Paris Je T'aime) as Remy LeBeau
Laura Dern (
Jurassic Park) as Carol Hines
Jeff Daniels (
The Newsroom) as Carmen Pryde
Buddy Duress (
Good Time) as David North/Agent Zero
Q'orianka Kilcher (
The New World) as Kayla
Faysal Ahmed (
Captain Phillips) as John Wraith/Kestrel
Rory McCann (
Game of Thrones) as Mastodon
Bill Burr (
F is for Family) as Rouler Marceaux
Dylan Minnette (
13 Reasons Why) as Scott Summers/Cyclops
John Hawkes (
The Sessions) as Professor Charles Xavier (cameo)
Edward James Olmos (
Blade Runner) as Vargas (cameo)
Lucy Boynton (
Sing Street) as Jean Grey/Marvel Girl (cameo)
Cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo (
A Ghost Story)
Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (
Hell or High Water)
Edited by Greg D'Auria (
Brawl in Cell Block 99)
Act One - The Past Hasn't Passed
A man, Logan, is in a snowy native reservation. A native girl in a white dress is face-to-face with a saber-toothed tiger, surrounded by a circle of bodies. The girl shouts, but her voice isn't heard. Suddenly, Logan awakens in his bed, revealing it all to be a dream.
Logan is going about his daily routine of eating breakfast, chopping wood, starting a fire, hunting for food, and eating dinner. As he eats supper by the TV, he gets a knock on the door. He opens it to find a police officer, asking him what he knows of the killing of livestock in the area. Logan says he knows nothing and shuts the door. The policeman goes back to his car, where Agent Zero and Kestrel wait. He takes off his fake uniform and is revealed to be a man named Victor through conversation. They drive off, coming to the conclusion that Logan is the person they're looking for.
After midnight, Logan goes to a lowly bar for a drink. Kitty Pryde, a runaway teenager, sits in the corner by herself. The men from the car walk into the bar as well, and Victor takes a seat next to Logan. Logan and Victor exchange small talk, but eventually, Victor leads the conversation to where he intended it to go: Logan was the Wolverine, a soldier for a government agency's spec ops crew. Not believing him, Logan attempts to leave, but Victor goes to stop him. Before he can, Kitty runs out of the bar and sets off the alarm of their truck. With their attention diverted, Kitty grabs Logan and runs through the walls with him. They get into her car and she drives away. Logan thanks her, asking why she helped. She reveals she overheard his talk with Victor about his alleged mutant abilities, and being a fellow mutant herself, wanted to do the right thing.
The team return to their headquarters: Weapon X of Alkali Lake. Inside, Professor Andre Thorton is conducting experiments on a man we know only by the codename Mastodon. Thorton wishes to replicate the success of Project Wolverine, but since the Wolverine destroyed all evidence of his past with Weapon X before going rogue, it has been nearly impossible to recreate the serum. Victor discloses their rediscovery of Logan to Thorton, and after being dismissed, pulls Thorton to the side, where they discuss Thorton's promise to Victor: once they catch him, he can kill him. But before Victor can leave, he tells him to relay to the others their next objective: kill the recently-located Carol Hines, an ex-scientist on Project Wolverine and Thorton's ex-wife, who he orders killed in fear of potential whistleblowing.
Logan and Kitty arrive at a United States motel, and decide to stay the night before heading to the safe house run by a family friend of Kitty's the next morning. Once in their room, Kitty explains to him why she was in Canada. She was in school when she discovered her powers. Afraid for herself and worried her father might shame her for her mutation the way society has shamed mutants prior, she ran away, falsely believing Canada to be more tolerant. When she realized the contrary, she made arrangements to go to her family friend's place in New Orleans. She asks Logan about his past, and he simply states he can't remember.
Later that night, Logan has a very similar dream to the first one we saw. Only now, the native girl is crying audibly. She is panicked, shouting "James!" as the snowfall gets heavier and louder. The saber-toothed tiger roars, and goes to bite the girl's neck. Before it's seen, Logan awakens, shouting in anger and panic. After calming down, he looks down at his hands: each has three claws coming from between his knuckles, and he's nearly stabbed Kitty. Not knowing how to retract them, Kitty helps to force them in.
Act Two - The Long Road Home
Carmen Pryde stands in his bedroom. He looks grief-stricken, and is getting into a suit-and-tie getup. He drives to a news station. Once inside, he is led to the studio, where he is seated. An audience gives him a welcoming applause. The reporter asks him about his daughter Kitty, who ran away from home. After a bit of reminiscing, Carmen gets emotional, begging the audience and the people watching on their TV's to contact him if she's spotted. As he gets back into his car, he receives a call from an unknown man, promising to bring his daughter back, as he knows where she's heading.
In the morning, Logan and Kitty grab breakfast in the lobby. The motel manager approaches the two, asking if they're satisfied with their meal. They begin to exchange small talk, seemingly getting along fine. Logan tells her that they're planning to leave after their meal. The manager notices that Logan and Kitty get into their car without luggage. Realizing they have no clothes, the manager brings them a few outfits, and sends them on their way.
Kitty pulls up to the house, and awakens Logan. After she wakes him up, she gets out and knocks on the house's front door. Remy LeBeau is in the confines of the large home, watching TV. He hears the knock, and greets Kitty familiarly. Kitty introduces him to Logan, who seems a bit put off by LeBeau's swagger.
That night, Logan dreams a similar image again. The native girl in the white dress, the saber-toothed tiger, and the circle of dead bodies. The girl's shouts grow louder, and she begins pointing to Logan. Logan looks to the floor below him and sees articles of his old Weapon X uniform scattered about the snowy ground. Onto the armored mask drips blood coming from the claws on his hand. Logan awakens, though this time, his claws haven't unsheathed.
Logan goes to the kitchen to get a drink, where he sees Remy sit in the living room on the phone. Remy offers Logan a glass of wine, which is declined. In an attempt to reach out, Remy reveals he was on the phone with Kitty's father, and that without her knowledge, he plans to bring Kitty back home. He tells Logan he can stay as long as he'd like, but that Kitty is too young to be as far from home as she is. Logan agrees, and when on the way back to his room, eyes Kitty before heading to bed.
The hotel manager sits at the front desk in the morning, smoking a cigarette. Weapon X's black van drives into the parking lot. Seemingly familiar with it, dread sweeps across her face, and she runs to lock the door, switch the sign from "open" to "closed", and draw the blinds. She reaches underneath her desk for a gun. However, Kestrel suddenly appears from behind her and holds a gun to her head. Mastodon kicks the door down, letting himself, Victor, and Agent Zero in. Victor begins interrogating the woman, referring to her as "Carol", the scientist from Project Wolverine. After trying to deny it but succumbing to Agent Zero's tactiful torture, she breaks down and confesses she is indeed Carol Hines. She says she ran away from Thorton and the facility due to its unethical nature, especially in the case of Logan, who she calls "James". When he asks if she knows where they're headed, she denies it. Victor apologizes to Carol, but concludes that her being alive and free of their control is too big a risk. On Victor's command, Agent Zero shoots her point blank in the forehead.
Later that day, Remy is seen prepping for what's to be a massive party at his place. His old friend Rouler Marceaux arrives and introduces himself to Logan and Kitty. He appears to already be drunk, however. Even still, he begins helping to set up for the party. Logan pulls Kitty aside and thanks her for her help, which Kitty awkwardly says she appreciates. She leaves the room, and the party begins.
Rouler opens the door to a few hundred people. The party stretches from outside to in, everyone drunk and dancing. During the liveliness, Weapon X's black van pulls up to the end of the block, eyeing the mansion. Victor asks why they're here, and Agent Zero tells him Thorton has hired moles to follow Logan after their first confrontation with him. Inside, Remy and Rouler are playing poker with a man named Vargas. After the game ends, Vargas leaves the table and begins following Logan. Vargas, grabbing a sword from the wall, pins Logan and gives Weapon X the go. They get out of the van and run into the house. Once in, however, they find Vargas dead, three deep gashes spread across his torso.
Logan is running out of the mansion as Agent Zero spots him, shooting him behind his knee, which causes his leg to buckle and him to fall. Before Kitty gets outside to help, Remy grabs her and hurries her into his car, where he admits he was planning to bring her home. Victor confronts Logan with the intention to kill him. Kestrel and Mastodon join in the fight, and Logan takes the three on alone. He overpowers all but Victor. The two get into a violent, bloody fight, and before Victor can land the killing blow, Agent Zero tranquilizes both, ties them up, and throws them into a Weapon X jet which has just landed. Thorton sits inside, gun in hand, just in case either wakes up.
Logan dreams again while unconscious. The native girl stands within the same circle of dead bodies, but Logan now sees the saber-toothed tiger as Victor. Victor bites her neck, killing her. The blood of the girl trails from her body to the corpses. The dead are reanimated by her blood, and begin attacking Logan. He tries to fend them off with his claws, but one of the zombies, resembling Kitty, breaks them in half.
VICTOR AND LOGAN
Act Three - The Wolverine
Remy and Kitty drive into Boston, Kitty's hometown. Reporters and the press wait on their house's lawn. Carmen opens his front door, and Kitty gets out of the car, followed closely by Remy. The two reunite with a long embrace. Remy rushes them inside in an effort to get them away from the intrusive paparazzi. Once inside, after Carmen gives her an emotional welcome home, she confesses the truth about her mutation, and her fears of his reaction to that fact. Carmen laughs through his tears of joy, and asks Remy over. He hands Remy a deck of cards from the living room, and tells him to "do his thing". Remy, with his secret mutant ability, throws a card out the window, which flies coated in pink psycic energy and creates a small explosive spark once hitting the law, scaring off the paparazzi. Carmen tells her he's always been pro-mutant, and that knowing what he knows now, will fight even harder for the race's justice.
That night, Kitty awakens Remy, confessing that while she's more than happy to be home, she can't help but worry about Logan. She asks for his help with breaking him out of Weapon X, and while he says he can't help on his own, he knows people who can. He leaves a note and some money under Carmen's door, and they take off to the location he put in the car's GPS: Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.
Kitty and Remy pull up to the mansion, and knock on the front door. After a few seconds, the door opens on its own, and a disembodied psychic voice guides Kitty to the office of Charles Xavier, who informs them he already knows their plight, having read their minds when they arrived on campus. He offers to send a student to help them rescue Logan. He calls for Scott Summers, who enters the room. Xavier discloses the situation to Scott and orders him to pilot the Blackbird to Alkali Lake. Remy asks Xavier how he knew where Logan was. He slyly smirks, but remains silent.
Logan wakes up tied down to a table. Thorton is standing over him, with a needle in his hand. He formerly "reintroduces" himself to Logan, though he refers to him as "James". Logan remembers the girl from his dreams calling out for a James, and asks about her.
He tells Logan that he was, as Victor said, once a soldier for Weapon X named James Howlett, codenamed the Wolverine. One a mission one day, he fell in love with a native girl named Kayla, who he routinely snuck out to visit. After a particularly-gruesome mission, Logan, still living as James, realized he no longer wanted any part of it, and ran off to start a normal life with Kayla, creating fake identification for his new alias, "Logan". Weapon X tracked him down, and Victor killed Kayla. James could only bring himself to beat Victor to near-death for undisclosed reasons. Thorton put a bullet in James' head, thinking he killed him. But James survived, though the bullet damaged his memory. Only seeing the name Logan on his ID, he carried on life presuming that to be his name. However, he was eventually identified by the facility's intelligence team. Thorton reveals to Logan his ultimate plan of brainwashing him to serve as his weapon once more.
Victor awakens in a holding cell guarded by Agent Zero. Confused and angry, he tries to question Agent Zero about the situation. Agent Zero confesses to him that from the beginning, Thorton falsely promised Victor he could kill Logan himself, knowing that his passionate hatred would goad him into continuing the hunt and eventually finding Logan. Thorton has plans for Logan, and Victor was only a means to an end. Victor swears to kill him once he breaks out, and Agent Zero shrugs it off and laughs cockily.
Scott, Kitty, and Remy arrive to Alkali Lake on the Blackbird, and begin their breaking-in, dispatching many guards in the process. One guard manages to get away long enough to sound an alarm, which Kestrel and Mastodon answer. The duo confronts the heroes, with Remy taking on Kestrel and Mastodon going for Scott. Kitty flees the scene in search of Logan. As this is going on, Agent Zero continues tormenting Victor. With Agent Zero distracted by his own arrogance, Victor manages to set himself free, killing Agent Zero during his escape.
Back in the lab, Thorton has begun to inject Logan with the serum. Victor storms into the room and confronts Thorton about their broken deal. As Thorton smugly answers to the ruse, Victor discreetly unties Logan's restraints, who after being freed, kills Thorton. Victor approaches Logan and engages him in hostile back-and-forth. Their heated talk eventually turns into an all-out brawl, during which Victor angrily vents to Logan about their comradery while serving on the Weapon X unit together, even revealing they grew up in the same adoptive family as brothers. With this information triggering memories of his past, Logan spares the badly-beaten Victor. Logan makes his way outside the lab and falls, unconscious. However, Kitty spots him and pulls him back into the Blackbird.
Scott flies the Blackbird to the X-Mansion, where Jean Grey tends to Logan's wounds. Once he's awake, Logan seemingly begins flirting with Jean, which Scott doesn't take kindly to, considering he had a hand in saving his life. Xavier, Remy, and Kitty talk off to the side about their potential enrollment into his program, which Kitty says she'll need to speak to her dad about. After he's cleaned up, Xavier shows Logan to his room, welcoming him to the family.
That night, Logan dreams of himself at Kayla's grave. Though he isn't entirely sure he remembers her, he thanks her for the life he now knows she tried to give him, and vows never to let another suffer her fate. He wishes her a goodbye, and turns to find his Weapon X uniform. He puts it on, signifying that he no longer wishes to run away from his past, but to embrace it.
After-Credits Scenes
In a mid-credits scene, we see Tony Stark in a conference room filled with financers of the Avengers Program. He discusses their recent successes as an organization and thanks them for their support of the fiscally-exhausting initiative. As he continues his monologue, the camera pans to the end of the table, where Danny Rand sits, representing Rand Enterprises.
In a post-credits scene, Logan, Kitty, Gambit, and the rest of the X-Men are in the cafeteria eating lunch. As they all carry on with discussion, Logan eyes Jean flirtatiously, who acknowledges it, and turns away quickly, attempting to hide a flustered smile. Scott, seeing this, pulls Jean closer to him, and when Logan isn't looking, hurls a chicken nugget at his head. The cafeteria grows awkwardly silent, and both Logan and Scott look to each other angered. However, Bobby and Kitty both laugh loudly, breaking the tension.
So, what did we think? Is this the best way to reincorporate the Wolverine character into the MCU? Do you have your own ideas or suggestions? As always, leave your comments below, and don't forget to upvote and share the article.
I'll see you next time! Gotta run! Movie sign! Cheers!