Logan pays homage to all Hugh Jackman’s appearances as Wolverine. From our first introduction to Logan where he was a cagefighter, to the Statue of Liberty and Magneto from the first X-Men movie, to the samurai sword Yashida gave him in Japan during WWII in The Wolverine, to the adamantium bullet Stryker once erased his memories, to his real name – James Howlett – and original Weapon X dog tags. It’s a beautiful send off that had me weeping at multiple points. When Laura turned the cross to make an X. When the little boy walked away from Logan’s grave carrying a Wolverine action figure of his original yellow costume. When Laura screamed “Daddy!” as Logan died and the Wolverine torch was passed. Can I get some tissues?
We’ll update this list on second viewing. Some of the smaller references are mentioned above, but make sure to drop a comment if you notice anything we missed, big or small.
The Westchester Incident
In Old Man Logan, the comic Logan is loosely based on, it’s Wolverine who gets tricked by Mysterio into killing young mutants at Xavier’s School in Westchester. But in this movie, it’s Professor X and his siezures that are responsible for killing 7 X-Men and paralyzing 600 in what the world calls the Westchester Incident. It was briefly mentioned in a television broadcast after Charles had another incident at the casino when Pierce attacked him and X-23. Now, Charles has to take pills for his dementia and Logan, the only X-Man left, must care for him. We see Quicksilver's grave in Greenwood cemetery.
Mutant Extinction
So what happened to the mutants we saw in Cerebro? The Westchester incident seems to be the final blow to an already bad situation. Dr. Zander Rice’s agenda of controlling all the world’s mutants meant making sure no new mutants are born. To do so, he genetically modified the corn syrup we heard Will Munson talking about. This is why Logan tells Xavier no new mutants hasn’t been born in 25 years. Corn Syrup, used for soda and pretty much anything with sugar, suppresses the mutant gene. It appears Professor X, Logan, and Caliban are the only ones left, and they all aren’t in the best condition. Logan’s adamantium skeleton is literally poisoning him.
The Villains
There was a surprising amount of villains in Logan. Donald Pierce had the largest role. Like the comics, he has an enhanced hand, though this version of him claims to be a “fan” of Logan’s. He was a member of the Hellfire Club and is known for leading a team of cyborgs known as the Reavers, like we see in the film.
In the comics, Pierce created a cyborg copy of Wolverine named Albert – who is pretty similar to X-24, the Dr. Rice’s X clone who killed Wolverine in Logan. Though in this movie, all the villains – the Reavers, Donald Pierce, and X-24 – are working under Zander Rice, who is part of the team that made X-23.
Alkali Transigen , the company on the business card Pierce gives Logan, seems to be related to Essex Corp and the X-Men Apocalypse post-credits scene where Mr. Sinister collects leftover vials of Wolverine's blood. Transigen seems to be the successor to Weapon X – experimenting on mutants and make them into rageful animals. Dr. Rice is the son of the man who experimented on Logan in the Weapon X facility at Alkali Lake.
X-Force
There were a few references to a group of mutants we’ll see in an upcoming X-Men movie down the line: X-Force. First, we saw Caliban once again, even though he’s a different actor than in X-Men: Apocalypse. He has the power to track other mutants and Donald Pierce used him to sniff out Wolverine and X-23, though he ultimately sacrificed himself to help save them. It was his property where Logan and Professor X sought refuge after the Westchester Incident.
Another reference to X-Force, and New Mutants, was the introduction of Rictor, the teenager with earth bending powers we saw save Logan’s life on multiple accounts. He was the leader of the group of children mutants trying to cross the border to get to Eden, a safe haven for mutants inspired by the x-men comic X-23 carries around with her, written specifically for the film. Gideon, another mutant child in the movie, is also an X-force villain.
We will keep updating this list. Let us know what we missed in the comments below.
