X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics fictional character Wolverine. It is the fourth instalment of the X-Men film series and the first spin-off of its standalone Wolverine trilogy. The film was directed by Gavin Hood, written by David Benioff and Skip Woods, and produced by and starring Hugh Jackman. It co-stars Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, will.i.am and Ryan Reynolds. The film is a prequel / spin-off focusing on the violent past of the mutant Wolverine and his relationship with his half-brother Victor Creed. The plot details Wolverine's childhood as James Howlett (Troye Sivan), his early encounters with Major William Stryker, his time with Team X and the bonding of Wolverine's skeleton with the indestructible metal adamantium during the Weapon X program.
Plot[]
In 1845, James Howlett, a boy living in Canada, witnesses his father being killed by groundskeeper Thomas Logan. The anxiety activates the boy's mutation: bone claws protrude from his knuckles and he impales Thomas, who reveals that he is James' birth father before dying. James flees along with Thomas' other son Victor Creed, who is thus James' half-brother and has a healing factor mutation like James. They spend the next century as soldiers, fighting in the American Civil War, both World Wars and the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, the increasingly violent Victor attempts to rape a Vietnamese woman and kills a senior officer who tries to stop him. James happens upon the fight and defends Victor, resulting in the pair being sentenced to execution by firing squad, which they survive due to their mutant healing abilities. Major William Stryker approaches them in military custody and offers them membership in Team X, a group of mutants including Agent Zero, Wade Wilson, John Wraith, Fred Dukes and Chris Bradley. They join the team for a few years, with James now using the alias Logan, but Victor and the group's lack of empathy for human life causes Logan to leave.
Six years later, Logan is working as a logger in Canada, where he lives with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Stryker and Zero approach Logan at work. Stryker reports that Wade and Bradley have been killed and he thinks someone is targeting the team's members. Logan refuses to rejoin Stryker but after finding Kayla's bloodied body in the woods, he realizes that Victor is responsible. He finds him at a local bar, but Logan loses the subsequent fight. Afterward, Stryker explains that Victor has gone rogue and offers Logan a way to become strong enough to get his revenge. Logan undergoes a painful operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal. Once the procedure is complete, Stryker attempts to betray Logan by ordering that his memory be erased so he can be used as Stryker's personal weapon, but Logan overhears this and escapes to a nearby farm, where an elderly couple take him in. Zero kills them the following morning and tries to kill Logan, but Logan takes down Zero's helicopter and swears to kill both Stryker and Victor.
Logan locates John and Fred at a boxing club. Fred explains that Victor is still working for Stryker, hunting down mutants for Stryker to experiment on at his new laboratory, located at a place called "The Island". Fred mentions Remy "Gambit" LeBeau, the only one who escaped from the island and therefore knows its location. John and Logan find LeBeau in New Orleans, then both fight Victor, who kills John and extracts his DNA. Agreeing to help release mutants that Stryker has captured, Gambit takes Logan to Stryker's facility on Three Mile Island. Logan learns that Kayla is alive, having been forced by Stryker into surveilling him in exchange for her sister's safety. However, Stryker refuses to release her sister and denies Victor the adamantium bonding promised for his service, claiming that test results revealed Victor would not survive the operation. Stryker activates Wade, now known as Weapon XI, a "mutant killer" with the powers of multiple mutants.
While Logan and Victor join forces to fight off Weapon XI, Kayla is mortally wounded leading the captive mutants to Professor Charles Xavier and safety. After Logan kills Weapon XI, Stryker arrives and shoots Logan in the head with adamantium bullets, rendering Logan unconscious. Before Stryker can shoot Kayla, she grabs him and uses her mutant power to persuade him to turn around and walk away until his feet bleed. Logan regains consciousness but has lost his memory. He notices his dog tags read "Logan" on one side and "Wolverine" on the other. He pauses upon noticing Kayla's body, but does not recognize her and leaves the island.
In a mid-credits scene, Stryker is detained for questioning by some MPs in connection with the death of his superior, General Munson, whom Stryker had murdered to protect his experiment. In a post-credits scene, following the defeat of Deadpool, a hand of crawls out of the rocks and reaches to touch his head. Deadpool’s head awakens and shushes the screen, revealing that he seems to have survived his decapitation.
Cast[]
- Hugh Jackman as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
- Troye Sivan as young Wolverine
- Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed
- Michael James Olsen as young Victor Creed
- Danny Huston as William Stryker
- Will.i.am as John Wraith
- Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox
- Kevin Durand as Fred Dukes/Blob
- Dominic Monaghan as Chris Bradley
- Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau/Gambit
- Daniel Henney as David North/Agent Zero
- Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool
- Scott Adkins as Weapon XI
- Tim Pocock as Scott Summers/Cyclops
- Unknown actor as Elizabeth Braddock/Psylocke
- Julia Blake as Heather Hudson
- Max Cullen as Travis Hudson
- Peter O'Brien as John Howlett
- Aaron Jeffrey as Thomas Logan
- Alice Parkinson as Elizabeth Howlett
- Myles Pollard as Phelan
- Stephen Anderton as Marcuse
- Chris Sadrinna as Van Mier
- David Ritchie as Dr. Abraham Cornelius
- Asher Keddie as Dr. Carol Frost
- Stephen Leeder as General Munson
- Henry Browne as Curtis
- Tahyna Tozzi as Emma Silverfox
- Patrick Stewart as Professor X
- Beatrice King as Japanese Bartender
Sequels[]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was followed by two sequels: The Wolverine (2013) and Logan (2017)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
| Wolverine |
|---|
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), The Wolverine (2013), Logan (2017) |
| X-Men |
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| X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants (2019), Deadpool 3 (2024) |