Logan (2017)
d. James Mangold, 137 minutes

Film Plot Summary

Under the opening title credits, the film began late at night during a car-theft - in an area near El Paso, Texas where a violent, profanity-spewing group of Mexicans were in the process of stealing a 2024 Chrysler limousine's tires. In the back seat, Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was awakened and stumbled out to calmly confront the men. He was blasted with a shotgun and left for dead. However, he revived, painfully extended most of his adamantium claws from his knuckles, and again interrupted the gang. Especially angered after they had shot-gunned the side of the car, he brutally slaughtered three of the men (before the others fled away in a van).

The bearded and aching Logan slowly recovered, healed and cleaned up after ejecting bullet shells from his bloody wounds - his powers of regeneration and healing had significantly slowed as he aged. He was revealed to be limo driver James Howlett (Logan's birth name) with a chauffeur's permit, in the year 2029. On a job, he listened to a talk radio show and conversation between hosts Burt and Clyde - Burt asked: "Hey, Clyde. It's 2029. Why are we still talking about mutants?", as his four passengers, tuxedoed teenaged male prom-goers, chanted from the open moon-roof: "USA! USA!"

During a rainy dark day at a funeral at Greenwood Cemetery, while Logan was waiting for his clients at a graveside service, a desperate Gabriela Lopez (Elizabeth Rodriguez) recognized him, approached and asked for his help. After he ignored her, refused her pleas, and called her a "crazy lady," she drove away - with a young girl in the back of the car looking at him. In the next scene, Logan (coughing and drinking) was watched by an unidentified man sitting in a nearby vehicle, as he surreptitiously purchased a white paper bag (of prescribed medication or drugs) from a hospital employee. The figure entered the back of the limo, and introduced himself as Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). He knew Logan as "Wolverine," called him a "junkie", and claimed he was aware of Wolverine's involvement in the murder of the "three dead cholos in a pull-out on 54" - all savagely killed: ("It was either an escaped tiger or Freddy Krueger"). [Note: The "Freddy" reference connected the main similarity between the two - claws!] And then he suddenly asked: "She found you yet? Gabriela" - referring to the Mexican lady at the cemetery. He added:

I'm not lookin' for you, Wolvie. Well, not really, I'm lookin' for someone who's lookin' for you. She took something of mine when I wasn't lookin'. Something for which I am responsible.

Logan angrily denied knowing Gabriela and ordered Pierce out of the car, who then hinted that he knew Logan's side occupation was the care of bald Charles Xavier, former leader of the X-Men: "I know what you're hidin', amigo. The old cue ball south of the border." Pierce asked for cooperation in locating Gabriela, and then tossed Logan his business card before exiting - he was Chief of Security (or head enforcer) at Alkali-Transigen, a biotechnology corporation.

Logan drove across the border in the limo into Mexico to a secured but remote, abandoned Chinese smelting factory area, where he and clairvoyant (or psychic) albino mutant tracker Caliban (Stephen Merchant) were caring for telepathic Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Now in his 90s, he was crippled (in a wheelchair), semi-senile and confused, and suffering from a degenerative brain disorder. Logan brought the bag of medication he had purchased that contained a special serum to keep Charles' random and deadly brain seizures at bay. Caliban warned that Xavier (kept in a metal-enclosed area) seemed to be babbling away to others, and was "asking questions again about why we're here." As Logan prepared to administer an injection of the medication, Charles experienced one of his destructive seizures (a psionic blast that could paralyze and eventually kill anyone closeby). The injected shot mellowed the seizure, and pills were also used to "keep them from happening."

Through telepathic knowledge, Charles spoke about how there were "forces" trying to kill new young mutants, who were on the brink of extinction. He claimed they needed "help" from Logan - "They don't want me, they want you." Logan scoffed, stating that no new mutants had been born for 25 years. Logan discredited their mutant qualities: "You always thought we were part of God's plan. But maybe, maybe we were God's mistake." Xavier expressed his disappointment at Logan after having saved him from an animalistic existence as a drug-addicted cage fighter. Logan replied that his mutant family had all but disappeared: "They're gone now." Xavier was depressed that his life had become so broken, confined and disassociated: "You're waiting for me to die." Logan's own life was also approaching its end - his whole body was wracked with pain, and he had resorted to boozing.

Logan also was reluctant to speak to Caliban about the very low and insufficient dosage of anti-seizure drugs for Xavier, Logan's secret stash of money to buy his way out with a "Sunseeker" yacht (albino Caliban with sensitive skin was adverse to sunlight), and the adamantium bullet he carried with him (as a death pill). Caliban also noticed Logan's sleepless nights, slow-healing fresh wounds, coughing-up of blood, vision-loss, and increased alcoholism. Caliban explained he couldn't help Logan if he wouldn't communicate or talk to him about his own concerns: (Caliban: "Something's happening to you, Logan. On the inside, you're sick. I can smell it").

Logan's next job was to transport a group of females during a bachelorette party for a soon-to-be-married bridesmaid (Lauren Gros), who flashed her boobs at him while shouting out: "Hey, driver!" - [Note: This was the first X-Men film to show bare breasts.]

Some time later, Logan received a phone message to pick up two passengers at the Liberty Motel in town. He was approached again by Gabriela Lopez (with her daughter playing outside), who begged: "There are men after us. We need to get out of here. Go north, cross to Canada." Logan refused, until she offered him $50,000. (She had heard rumored sightings that the famed mutant Wolverine was in El Paso and had tracked him there.) In her room, she explained her background - she had been a nurse in Mexico City at the Transigen Corporation, where Pediatric Cancer Studies were taking place.

She had a newspaper clipping, reading: "LACK OF MUTANT BIRTHS STUMP RESEARCHERS - Is Something In the Water?" There was a brief glimpse of the cover of The Uncanny X-Men comic book (Issue # 149, for 40 cents, custom-made for the film) with Wolverine and his trademark yellow costume on its cover. She gave him an envelope packet (with written GPS map coordinates to a location in North Dakota) with $20,000 in it, and promised the remainder of $30,000 after being safely delivered to the destination. She claimed her 'boyfriend' wanted to kill her, and take away her 11 year-old daughter Laura (Dafne Keen). They would have to arrive at a refuge known as "Eden" in North Dakota by Friday, to enable them to cross safely into Canada.

Back with Charles that evening, Logan informed Xavier that he would be gone for a few days on a paid job that would help make their dream of escaping a reality: "When I get back, we're gonna get out of here. We're gonna drive down to Yelapa. We're gonna get ourselves a boat. And we're gonna live on the ocean." When he returned to the Liberty Motel early the next morning, he found Gabriela's room door broken open and her battered corpse - and her daughter missing. Her cell phone showed an incomplete distress message to him after they had been located. When he returned to his hideout, he told Caliban: "The job was wrong to begin with." They found a ball and backpack that Laura had hidden in his limo's trunk. Suddenly, Donald Pierce (presumably Gabriela's killer) drove onto the property and began to persistently question Logan, revealing he had an cybernetically-enhanced right hand. From behind, Laura knocked him out with a pipe thrown at his head. Xavier followed excitedly behind, exclaiming that he had been awaiting her arrival, and believed she was a mutant. He invited her to remain: "You can stay here."

Logan instructed Caliban to take Pierce's body out into the desert wash and dump him there. Logan was also worried about everyone's safety and told Xavier that they needed to leave: "We have to get out of here. It's not safe here anymore. And you can't have an attack out there, do you understand?" Caliban's errand to dump Pierce was interrupted when the corpse revived, retrieved his gun, and was joined by a fleet of black cars carrying a squad of elite killers from Transigen. They were a lethal security force known as The Reavers. As the vehicles drove back to the factory and broke through the front gate to locate Laura, Logan was attempting to drive off with Xavier, but found himself surrounded. Logan fought back with his adamantium claws, but was overwhelmed. Calmly eating a bowl of Corn Flakes inside the factory, Laura was approached by the Reavers. From the outside, sounds of screams and gunfire were heard before Laura emerged and tossed the decapitated, bloody head of one of the Reavers toward Pierce's feet. She walked toward Pierce, produced two retractable adamantium claws from her hands, and viciously attacked some of the agents before scampering off.

When Laura was impaled by an arrow shot by Pierce, Logan came to her defense. Laura also continued to brutally defend herself by revealing a sharp claw from one of her feet (Xavier: "She's a mutant like you. Very much like you"). Afterwards, the mutant threesome was able to escape in the limo in a thrilling action sequence, by crossing railroad tracks ahead of a long freight train that blocked the attackers behind them. Pierce's plan was to torture Caliban to use his powers to track them, by subjecting him to torturous bright sunlight. As Caliban screamed and his face blistered and sizzled in the light, Pierce explained about mutant Laura:

The girl is not worth it, trust me. She's not a natural f--k up like you. She's a business mistake, a R & D gone bad. There's liability. They can't have things with patents runnin' around hurtin' people, can they? We need to get her off the board before she hurts anybody else. Someone you care about, maybe.

Meanwhile, outside the Route 70 Mart where they had stopped for supplies, Logan and Xavier viewed an unauthorized video recording on Gabriela's cellphone that documented and revealed her knowledge of Transigen's genetic engineering program where she had worked for a decade as a nurse, under the leadership of Dr. Zander Rice. The program involved breeding new mutant children (known as X-23), conceived in test-tubes (using DNA from known mutants) and born to anonymous mothers. The children were denied simple pleasures such as pets or outdoor activities, and even birthday celebrations. They would be trained - as a money-making business - to be super-soldiers or weaponized killers:

My name is Gabriela Lopez. I am a nurse. And for 10 years, I worked for Transigen Research in Mexico City. Transigen is owned by an American company. What I am about to show you is illegal in the US and Canada. They told us we were part of a pharmaceutical study. But, of course, that was a lie. These children were born in Transigen. They were born here and have never left. They have never seen the sun or the ocean, rain or snow, or any of God's creatures. They have no birth certificates, no names, besides the ones we have given them. They were raised in the bellies of Mexican girls. Girls no one can find anymore. Their fathers are semillas geneticas - special seeds in bottles...They thought we were too poor and stupid to understand. We're poor, yes, but we are not stupid...This is business. They are making soldiers. Killers. These are babies of mutantes... (video suddenly stopped due to low battery charge)

Xavier reminded Logan of his responsibility to transport Laura and then said: "She's your daughter, Logan. Alkali has your genetic code." Inside the mart, Laura was about to shoplift a can of Pringles chips, a 16-ounce can of Monster energy drink, and pink rimmed sunglasses, to the tune of Jim Croce's "I Got A Name." When confronted by the store clerk (Dave Davis), Logan had to intervene to prevent Laura from hurting him and clawing him to death. He scolded: "Not OK," but then hypocritically grabbed a cell phone charger and a cigar without paying, and pulled Laura after him.

That night after the phone was charged enough to resume the video, Logan watched the remainder of the recording by himself, with Gabriela's narration. When the Transigen program was deemed a failure, because the children became uncontrollable and would not follow orders to fight, a new program (known as X-24) was developed to take its place. The children would be terminated. Gabriela and others were determined to help the children escape to a safe area known as Eden before crossing over into Canada:

As the children became older...they became more difficult. They could not be controlled. The company made their bodies into weapons. Tried to teach them to kill. But they did not want to fight. A soldier who will not fight is useless. Inside this building, they are working on something new. Something they think is better than the children. Something they say is without a soul. They must have been successful. About a week ago, they told us to shut our program down. They started putting the children to sleep. We are going to save as many children as we can. I read about a place, up North. A place for mutants. They call it Eden. If you are watching this, it means that I am dead. I am not sure if any other children survived. We were separated.

In the recording's final few sentences, Gabriela admitted that she had told Wolverine two lies - she lied about the promised money to him, and lied by telling him that she was Laura's mother. Instead, he was her biological father, and she hoped that he would keep her safe - and take her to Eden to other mutant friends:

There is no more money. That was a lie. She's not my child, but I love her. You may not love her. But she is your child. Please. I beg you. Take her to safety.

As they drove into Oklahoma City, the plan was to book a room at Harrah's Hotel and Casino, get some sleep, clean up and acquire new clothes and car, and then flee. In their room, they watched part of the classic western Shane (1953) - the scene of hired gun Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) shooting tenderfoot challenger "Stonewall" Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.) to death in the mud, and Torrey's subsequent outdoor funeral service. Charles recollected his first memory of the movie to Laura: "This is a very famous picture, Laura. It's almost a 100 years old... I first saw this picture in the Essoldo Cinema in my hometown when I was at your age."

At the same time, Logan perused items in Laura's backpack - incriminating Transigen research files on some of the young mutants during the Pediatric Cancer Studies, including their SOURCE DNA. Laura's file specified that she was known as Mutant X-23, had an "adamantium implant," was "132 months old" (11 years), Blood Type "O Neg," and her Source DNA was from "James Howlett." He also discovered that she was carrying two Wolverine-related comic book issues of "THE UNCANNY X-MEN" - Issues # 117 and # 132, priced at 40 cents. [Note: Both issues were custom made for the film.]

Logan confronted Laura about the two issues and insisted they were fanciful BS:

"You do know they're all bullshit, right? Maybe a quarter of it happened, and not like this. In the real world, people die. And no self-promoting asshole in a f--king leotard can stop it. This is ice cream for bed-wetters."

On the TV screen being watched by Xavier and Laura, wounded and weary gunfighter Shane (Alan Ladd) told young Joey Starrett (Brandon de Wilde) that he was moving on:

"A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the mold. I tried it and it didn't work for me...Joey, there's no living with a killing. There's no going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks. Now you run on home to your mother, and tell her everything's all right. And there aren't any more guns in the valley."

With the help of Caliban's mutant tracking ability, the Reavers arrived at the convenience mart to question the clerk, who was heard screaming as he was brutalized (off-screen) inside the locked store. Meanwhile, Logan drove the bullet-ridden limo to a junk yard, then offered to purchase a different used Dodge Ram open bed pickup truck (with cab) for $10,000 if the dealer (Lara Grice) would "forget the paperwork." It would take an hour to install new tires before the pickup was ready. Logan waited across the street in Gennaro's - a country music joint. At the bar, he looked at another of the comic books, with a balloon caption on the cover asking: "Is This Eden...Or The End?!?" Inside was the actual story: "EDEN Or The End...?" Another illustrated frame showed Xavier looking at a piece of paper with Eden's map GPS coordinates. Logan compared the comic book version with the packet coordinates given to him by Elizabeth - they were exactly the same, and he began to doubt that Eden was even real: "You gotta be f--kin' kidding me."

Cover Story: EDEN Or The End...?	Coordinates of Eden 48.970333, -102.155491

With the truck, he raced back to Harrah's to pick up Xavier and Laura, and noticed that the Reavers had already traced them to the hotel. Suddenly, rumblings and vibrations were felt - and Logan realized that Charles was starting to experience a seizure with psychic blasts that would incapacitate and paralyze everyone within range (except for Logan). As everyone gasped, strained and groaned around him and became immobile, Logan struggled back to the room where he found a group of Reavers frozen with machine guns pointed at Charles. He stabbed all of the men in position, then injected Charles with a dose of serum to end his paralyzing attack. The three fled the hotel and escaped in the truck parked in front of the hotel.

Driving down the interstate the next day, Logan listened to a radio news report that claimed the Oklahoma City incident was similar to a cataclysmic event that occurred in Westchester, NY over a year earlier that left over 600 injured "and took the lives of seven mutants, including several of the X-Men." It was implied that Xavier was the cause of the tragic incident that resulted in the deaths of most of the X-Men. They continued to be tracked (through Caliban) and pursued by Pierce, who met with Dr. Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant), head of Transigen, arriving via helicopter.

Their truck avoided a serious collision with one of the many robotic freight auto-trucks on the road, by swerving abruptly. Their defensive reaction caused another pickup hauling a trailer of horses to veer off the highway. They watched helplessly as four horses escaped from the trailer and were running wild on the freeway, until Xavier shut his eyes and used his telepathic powers to steer them back.

Grateful for their assistance, the driver Will Munson (Eriq La Salle) and his wife Kathryn (Elise Neal) and son Nate (Quincy Fouse) invited them to have dinner with them at their nearby farm - and then encouraged them to spend the night. Logan reluctantly complied after Xavier insisted. When the water pressure appeared to weaken, Will (with Logan) walked out to a water pump station to investigate another case of tampering and harrassment - it was related to a long-running land feud with the Munsons' corporate landlord (representing Canewood Beverage). After discovering and repairing massive leaks at the pump, Will and Logan were confronted and intimidated by hired enforcers led by Jackson (Lennie Loftin) who was wielding a rifle, but Logan grabbed the weapon and broke it over his knee and caused the scared men to flee.

In the farmhouse, "Logan" entered the upstairs bedroom where Xavier told him about "the most perfect night" with the family, but didn't feel deserving. He was regretful and apologetic about the "unspeakable" Westchester incident when he had hurt so many people. Suddenly, "Logan" extended his hand's claws directly into Xavier's chest. Sleeping nearby, Laura defended Xavier against the attacker - it was not Logan but X-24, a Transigen mutant clone of Logan. The deadly feral clone slaughtered Nate and Kathryn while abducting the shackled, screaming Laura. When Will returned to the house, he was also stabbed. Logan stood face-to-face with his own clone, then rushed up the stairs to find Xavier barely alive in bed. He kept trying to assure Charles: "It wasn't me."

Laura was dragged to one of the Reavers' surveillance vans outside, where Caliban was confined in a cage, and Pierce and Dr. Rice awaited their prized abductee. Pickups holding vengeful rednecks seeking retaliation with Will Munson for their earlier humiliation at the water pump pulled up in the yard. After Jackson offered Logan look-alike (X-24) 5 G's a week, the clone swiftly dispatched with all of them (after decapitating Jackson with one swipe). Dr. Rice exited the van and attempted to intervene and control X-24, but was too late. Meanwhile, Logan had carried the barely-alive Xavier to the open bed of his pickup. Xavier's last words before dying were: "Our boat. The Sunseeker." In the van, Caliban was able to reach from his cage and grab two grenades, then warned: "Beware the light," and pulled the pins. The grenades exploded, destroyed the van and killed Caliban and a few of the Reavers, but Pierce (although injured) safely jumped away.

Bereaved and angered, Logan confronted X-24 and furiously fought against him. A seriously-wounded Will came to Logan's aid against the mutant clone by ramming into X-24 with his truck and pinning him against a fence and some farm equipment, and blasting him with his shotgun. Will then cocked the gun on Logan, but it clicked empty - and he collapsed dead of his injuries. Logan escaped after retrieving Laura, with Xavier's corpse in the back of the pickup, and while they sped away, he released her from her shackles. Back at the farm the next morning as the murder scene was cleaned up, Dr. Rice injected X-24's neck with a substance to help his "newborn" clone heal and become stronger.

In a wooded area, Logan dug a grave for Charles and buried him in an unmarked plot, as Laura observed. She tentatively approached and touched Logan's arm. Afterwards, in frustration and furious anger, Logan began swearing obscenities at his truck when it wouldn't start. He screamed at it while pounding it with a shovel before falling unconscious onto the pavement.

Coughing and disoriented, Logan awoke from unconsciousness in an Urgent Care Walk-In Clinic where an IV drip had been administered. A kindly old doctor (James Handy) admitted that he knew Logan's mutant background but would still help him ("There's so few of you left"). The doctor advised: "Something inside you is poisoning you. You got to check yourself into a hospital." Logan ignored the advice (he knew about the adamantium in his body that was killing him) and hurriedly departed with Laura. He realized that she had helped him by acquiring a Ford Bronco and driving him to the clinic, so he begrudgingly thanked her. She spoke her first words, in Spanish: "De Nada" ("It's nothing" or "You're welcome") - Logan was very surprised and perplexed that she wasn't mute ("You can talk?"). She began spouting off (also in Spanish) the names of her mutant friends from Transigen, located off Route 5 in North Dakota: "Jonah, Gideon, Rebecca, Delilah, Rictor." Totally skeptical, Logan was reluctant to take her to Eden - a place he thought was non-existent and a fabrication in the comics:

"Your nurse, she read too many stories, you understand?...This all here, none of this, no existo, okay?...This Eden does not exist...It's a fantasy, kid...They made this whole thing up."

He admitted his inability to endure a two-day drive ("I am f--ked up, and I cannot get you there"), but her persistence swayed him and he reluctantly conceded to her demands to go to Eden - to prove that she was wrong ("Let's go to f--king fantasy-land").

In a local school gymnasium littered with corpses after the farmhouse massacre, scientist Dr. Rice told the authorities and his Reavers about his relentless and almost reckless pursuit to capture mutants Logan and Laura ("dead or alive") - "These are all little killing machines, machines who would've happily disemboweled your family." During their drive, Logan was exhausted, weakening and according to Laura, he was dying ("You want to die"), although she vowed she wouldn't let him. When he passed out, she drove the rest of the way to the safe haven of Eden. He awoke in the Bronco parked at a rocky cliffside, where Laura was gesturing to him from above. He was brought up on a rope lift, to meet with Eden's young leader Rictor (Jason Genao) and other former Transigen test subjects. A green serum from a bottle was given to Logan (acquired from Transigen) to help him re-energize and heal, but he was told to use it only in small doses. Laura showed Logan what she had found - his adamantium bullet (a method to commit suicide) from the Weapon X program. Meanwhile, one Reaver drone searched for them.

As a prank, the youngsters clipped Logan's beard and mustache hair - he awoke to their amused giggles and didn't share in their enjoyment ("That is not funny!"). After two days, during which time Logan had been healing, he learned that the mutants' journey across the border to Canada was imminent (the next day before dawn), and that they had been given permission to cross between noon and 5 pm to attain safe asylum. They faced an 8-mile hike through dense forested woods before reaching the Canadian border.

During the last night before departure, Logan told Laura that he had completed his task: "I got you here. That's all I signed up for. I even gave back the money." He noted, with great emotion, that all his friends were dead ("Bad s--t happens to people I care about") including Charles and Caliban. He insisted it would be better if he left her (since he was no good at 'fatherhood'), and although dismayed, she bitterly agreed: "Then, I'll be fine."

The next morning after the children had departed, through a telescope, Logan viewed a squadron of drones and fleet of vehicles tracking the children through the woods. He grabbed Rictor's bottle of healing serum and raced down the trail to intercept the youngsters, who were outnumbered and already being chased on foot in the forested area by the Reavers. In order to give himself rapid regenerative healing when he found himself breathless, panting, and wheezing, Logan injected the entire bottle of healing agent into his neck - he instantly felt restored and in prime physical condition - temporarily.

Meanwhile, many of the mutants were captured and rounded up, while others tried to defend themselves with their special abilities (i.e., freezing breath, electrocution and powerful plant manipulation). Logan caught up to the children and mercilessly killed many of the Reavers. When he saw Laura surrounded, he came to her defense, and the two clawed and slaughtered dozens of attackers. She noted his unusual stamina that was starting to diminish: "You took all the medicine. It's wearing off."

Eventually, all of the other mutant children (except Laura) were captured and Pierce held Rictor at gunpoint. Dr. Rice threatened to have the Reavers fire on the children, if Logan didn't back off. Dr. Rice introduced himself as the vengeful son of one of the workers on the Weapon X Project who was killed when Wolverine escaped. Rice admitted that he was ultimately responsible for the extinction of the mutant race. He claimed that Transigen had wiped out the mutants due to a Transigen virus that he had created, that was also distributed through gene therapy to the entire human race through the food supply:

Rice: "The goal was not to end mutant kind, but to control it. I've realized we needn't stop perfecting what we eat and drink. That we could use those products to perfect ourselves. To distribute gene therapy discreetly through everything, from sweet drinks to breakfast cereals. And it worked. Random mutancy went the way of polio. We embarked on our next endeavor - "
Logan (finishing his sentence): "Growing mutants of your own."

As he delivered his monologue, Laura circled around behind everyone. Suddenly Logan drew his pistol and lethally shot Dr. Rice in the head, and also shot Pierce in the hand. Pierce ran off to his vehicle, yelled "Showtime, boy" and unleashed X-24. Upset that Logan was being outmatched as the serum weakened and that Pierce had shot an arrow into Logan's leg, Laura threw herself at X-24 with all her might and began pummeling him. To prevent Pierce from interfering, some of the young mutants used their collective powers to surround and kill him, including plant growth, freezing breath, and electric shock. Rictor levitated a heavy truck onto X-24 to crush him, while Logan encouraged the mutants to run, but Laura stayed behind and watched in horror as X-24 extracted himself from under the truck and impaled Logan's abdomen on a spiky dead tree limb. Laura loaded a gun with Logan's adamantium bullet and from behind, she blew X-24's head off. Then with one of her claws, she chopped off part of the tree limb to rescue Logan. She sobbed over his body when it was obvious that he would not heal.

Logan again advised her: "Take your friends, and run. Run, they'll keep coming and coming. Listen, you don't have to fight anymore," but she insisted on remaining with him. He whispered that she shouldn't become the weapon that Transigen had wanted: "Don't be what they made you." When she acknowledged him for the first time as "Daddy," he replied: "So, this is what it feels like," and expired.

In the final scene, the mutant children buried Logan, and raised a small wooden cross of two sticks at the head of the grave. With heartfelt emotion, Laura recited the final dialogue from the western Shane (1953) that she had watched with Xavier:

"A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the mold. There's no living with a killing. There's no going back. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand that sticks. Now you run on home to your mother. You tell her everything's all right. There are no more guns in the valley."

Rictor spoke the film's final lines: "Let's go. We gotta move." The children left for an uncertain but free future, as they continued their journey to cross the border. Before joining the departing group, Laura tilted the cross on Logan's grave and placed it on its side, to create a makeshift X (Logan was the last of the X-Men).

---- No Post-Credits Sequence ----

Instead of a post-credits sequence as in the first two Wolverine films, a teaser for a Deadpool sequel played before the film.

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

Logan (2017) was the third and last film in the Wolverine trilogy (see links above) and the 10th installment in the X-Men film series. The R-rated film (the first in the Wolverine series) was set within a new timeline established after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). It served as a reboot rather than as a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013).

In this installment of the trilogy set in a dark future (in the year 2029) where mutants were basically extinct, Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) (aka James Howlett) was hiding out (near the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas) with seriously-ill and telepathic Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) suffering from degenerative brain disease at over 90 years of age, and serving as one of his caregivers. Their lives were soon to be affected by young and mysterious 11 year-old mutant Laura Kinney / X-23 (Dafne Keen), created by the corrupt Alkali-Transigen Corporation. The main revelation was that she had been created from Logan's mutant DNA.

Director James Mangold had also directed the previous film in the sub-series, The Wolverine (2013).

After having played the role of Logan/Wolverine for 17 years, Hugh Jackman declared that this would probably be his final film. The film also marked Stewart's last significant portrayal of his character.

There were many similarities in this film to the themes in Shane (1953), other classic westerns (The Cowboys (1972) and Unforgiven (1992)), Paper Moon (1973), The Gauntlet (1977), Children of Men (2006), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and some other road-trip films. It also followed the main plot line of Shakespeare's play The Tempest, as did Forbidden Planet (1956).

Logan (2017) was extremely well-received by critics and fans alike, and was one of the most successful films in the franchise. With a production budget of $97 million, its revenue was $226.3 million (domestic) and $616.8 million (worldwide). It was the highest-grossing (domestic) film of the trilogy, besting X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) at $180 million and The Wolverine (2013) at $132.6 million. As of the end of 2017, it was the fourth highest-grossing (domestic) film of the 10-film X-Men franchise. At the time of its opening, it was the widest opening R-rated release in cinematic history.

Logan (2017) became the first superhero film to be nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Set-pieces: the opening fight between Wolverine and a gang of Mexicans during a car theft, the scene of Donald Pierce leading the Reavers' attack on Logan's hideout in Mexico while searching for Laura, and the mutants' thrilling escape in Logan's limo, Xavier's psychic blast seizure at the Oklahoma City Harrah's Hotel and Casino, and after the death of Xavier - Logan's battle against his own mutant clone X-24 in the Munson farmhouse yard, the final pursuit of the young mutants near the Canadian border by Reavers as Wolverine came to their rescue, and the climactic one-on-one fight between Logan and his clone X-24 ending with Logan's death.