FAQ for
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for X-Men Origins: Wolverine can be found here.

Wolverine is a Marvel Comics superhero, super-soldier, spy, and assassin named James Howlett. He made his first appearance in issue #180 (October 1974) of Incredible Hulk and was added to the X-Men roster in issue #1 of Giant-Size X-Men (May 1975). The first Wolverine was designed by Marvel art director John Romita Sr, and has been since updated by comics artists John Byrne and Frank Miller. Wolverine has previously appeared in three other X-men movies: X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) along with a cameo in First Class. In all five movies, Wolverine has been played by Hugh Jackman. A photo of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine can be seen here.

Howlett/Wolverine was born a mutant possessing superhuman senses, retractable "bone claws" and a "healing factor" which allows his body to recover from any physical damage (trauma, disease, poisoning etc) more rapidly than a normal human. This same healing factor has also drastically slowed down the aging process within his body. In addition to his mutant abilities, Wolverine is also a peerless martial artist skilled in virtually all known forms of armed and unarmed combat. He is also trained in the art of espionage, military tactics and speaks several different languages fluently. He is generally depicted as a loner and considered to be an anti-hero because of his willingness to use violence (and occasionally murder) as adjuncts to his tradecraft. His long running catchphrase best sums up his personal philosophy; "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice." Despite his penchant for violence, Wolverine abhors killing and adheres to a strict personal code of ethics and honor. He is loyal to a fault and an unwavering supporter of his friends and allies. Due to a combination of several traumatic events in his past and systematic memory alteration, Wolverine has functioned as an amnesiac for the better part of his career. Wolverine also has a highly volatile, beast-like nature and is often times prone to "berserker rampages." These rampages can prove fatal to his opponents. Throughout his long life, Wolverine has been a member of, or affiliated with, several organizations including, S.H.I.E.L.D., Alpha Flight, Weapon X, Weapon Plus, Department H, HYDRA, and The Hand to name a few. His longest affiliation has undoubtedly been with the superhero team known as the X-Men. Through his relationships with his fellow teammates, Wolverine has recovered some measure of his lost humanity.

Weapon X (Weapon Ten) is both the codename for a clandestine government project and the designation given to James Howlett (aka Wolverine, aka Logan) after his successful participation in the Weapon X program. The Weapon X program is an offshoot of a much larger program known as "Weapon Plus." Conceived during the earlier days of World War II, the Weapon Plus program's sole purpose was to create super-soldiers capable of fighting the wars of the future. Each experiment/test subject was given a number designation starting with Weapon 0 (zero). Up until recently in the comic books, it was believed that Wolverine was Weapon X (as in the letter X). It was later revealed that the X actually represented the number ten, making Wolverine the tenth agent/test subject within the Weapon Plus program. To date, Weapon X is the most successful weapon to emerge from either program. Weapon X was so successful in fact that it became its own project with a specific concentration on employing mutants exclusively as agents/test subjects. Other notable agents of the Weapon Plus program include the original Captain America (Weapon I), Fantomex, (Weapon XIII) and Daken (Weapon XI). Notable agents of the Weapon X offshoot program include Sabertooth, Agent Zero, and Deadpool. Originally in the comics Weapon X (not ten) was the code name for the Adamantium infusion project developt by the Canadian Military Department H. Wolverine was called Weapon X because he was the only sucessful test subject (and the only one to survive)

This movie is not a tie-in to the Avengers movie. Film rights for Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men characters are owned by 20th Century Fox, while The Avengers is being produced by Marvel Studios. Also, the Avengers movie will focus on the traditional roster of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Trailer, Clips and TV Spots for X-Men Origins: Wolverine can all be viewed in Apple QuickTime format here

There are several scenes from X-Men Origins: Wolverine available plus interviews with Actor/Producer Hugh Jackman and Director Gavin Hood at YourGeekNews.com in the form of a 12-minute preview.

The main song is called "Come and Get Them" from the 300 soundtrack, composed by Tyler Bates. The opening music (playing for about a minute) is an excerpt of "Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)" by John Murphy, from Sunshine's soundtrack. Music written for this film was probably unfinished when the trailer appeared.

The film takes place 17 years prior to the first X-Men, placing Summers in his teens; as such, it would appear awkward to have the 36 year old Marsden playing the role. (Wolverine is played by the same actor, but no longer ages due to his 'mutant healing factor'.)

Scott Summers/Cyclops (Pocock) is introduced as a captured mutant, held by Colonel Stryker and does not have the protective glasses he sports in the chronologically later X-Men (2000), effectively rendering him blind (although whilst in school he wears red glasses which enable him to see) while in captivity. He meets Logan during the film very briefly when Logan helps the captured mutants escape but doesn't actually see him. He is hunted down at school by Sabretooth and William Stryker, who tranquilizes him and takes him to the island. The writer wanted to add a few mutant cameos, and chose cyclops as one, in the comics, cyclops was never abducted by weapon X, but by Mr. Sinister. Having Scott Summers in this movie was to give fans of the films someone they might recognize.

Tyler Mane, who played Sabretooth in the first X-Men film, was cast because of his imposing physical presence and for his background in professional wrestling, which allowed him to do some of the film's stunt work himself. The character had little dialogue, and was simply meant to be a henchman. In this film, not only is Sabretooth is one of the primary antagonists, but he has much more dialogue and fewer action scenes. As such, the producers/director wanted someone with more acting experience to take on the role, hence, Liev Schreiber plays the part.

There might be two explanations for the change in Sabretooth's look: 1) After Sabretooth accepts his animalistic mutant abilities, he begins to evolve into a more animalistc creature, increasing his mass, height, and strength. This is what occurred in the mainstream comic continuity. The first X-Men film emphasizes this point by having him wear tattered coats and long hair, with an overall unkempt look. It is hinted that Wolverine too would become more animalistic, but instead Logan fights to remain stable, rather than become a beast. 2) Artistic license changed between the first X-Men film and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. A new actor for the role of Sabretooth caused the new director to change his overall appearance and demeanor.

Traditionally, it was believed that Wolverine gained his claws from Weapon X. However, at one point in the comics, Magneto pulls the adamantium off of his bones and out of his body. After this, it is revealed that Wolverine has bone claws and had them all along as part of his mutant ability. When Weapon X coated his bones in the unbreakable metal, they also covered the claws. However, a line of dialogue spoken by Stryker in X2 originally suggested that Wolverine's claws were a direct result of the procedure ('you were an animal then, you're an animal now. I just gave you claws'), rather than him already having claws made of bone. This makes it somewhat confusing when put into context against Origins. Though he may have been referring to the fact that Wolverine's original claws were only pointy bones, making them more like spikes, only good for stabbing and not slashing. Therefore the sharp blades were more claw-like.

Obviously Logan doesn't remember Sabretooth because he lost his memory. It is now known that Victor Creed/Sabretooth's mind was not blanked in this film. But given the drastic change in Sabretooth's appearance (he's much more animalistic and less human in ) It's possible he "mutates" more so than he already had, becoming much more feral and leaving the personality of Victor Creed behind therefore his memories of Logan are vague at best. This would explain why Sabretooth had an obsessive fixation on Wolverine that he can't fully understand or explain in X-Men. However, it is also possible to assume that Sabretooth does recognize Wolverine in X-Men (his retaining Logan's dog-tags as a souvenir would make more sense if he did), yet merely doesn't say anything or act on it. Since he was still well within earshot when Stryker shot Logan in the head, he should very well know that acknowledging their relationship would be pointless anyway. Whether Magneto and Prof. Xavier are aware of Sabretooth's being Wolverine's half-brother is also unknown, for similar reasons. In the producer's DVD commentary, Lauren Shuler Donner says that as Sabretooth got older in X1 he became more animal-like and as a result lost some of his humanity and memory although there are hints that he might remember Wolverine in small parts.

The child in the trailer has confused a lot of people unfamiliar with Wolverine's backstory. This child is Wolverine. Many people think Wolverine's claws were obtained after his experience at Weapon X. This is not true. If you look closely, you can see that the young Wolverine's claws are made of bone instead of adamantium. This is because Wolverine's claws were originally sharp, retractable bones. Because they were bones, they are part of his skeleton. When his skeleton was laced with adamantium, so were the claws. That is why the adult Wolverine has metal claws, while young Wolverine does not. This was discovered in the comic continuity when Magneto ripped the adamantium off of Wolverine's skeleton, and he still had claws made from bone.

The opening of the film is subtitled "Northwest Territories, Canada, 1845", and the young James Howlett looks to be around ten or twelve. Since the climax of the film seems to be the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, this places Wolverine's age at this time at around 144-146 years old (Sabretooth would be a few years older, 150-153). Assuming that the X-Men Trilogy takes place when it was made (they take place in the not too distant future as stated in the first and 3rd films, we can assume 10-15 years) Wolverine would be 171-173 years during X-Men: The Last Stand. In the original comic on which the movie is based it is said that wolverine is a child in the late 19th century, making him about 40 years younger in the comics then in the movie, also making it impossible for him to have fought in the civil war due to his birth being about 15-20 years after the war ended

Wolverine has claws made out of his bones in the beginning of the movie, which is why they are shorter and duller than his metal claws.

Yes. After the Three Mile Island incident he arrives in a helicopter and takes the young mutants that were imprisoned by Stryker with him. Patrick Stewart reprises his role in this cameo. Due to the fact that Xavier loses his ability to walk in X-Men First Class, this is probably a mental apparition or Xavier regains his ability to walk after he meets Jean Gray but before X men 1.

Yes. There is one scene during the credits and two separate scenes after the credits depending on which movie print you see in theatres. The scene during the credits has the military find Stryker and prepare to bring him in for questioning. The first scene after the credits has Logan drinking in a bar in Japan. The bar girl asks him where he comes from and he answers: "I'm Canadian - I think". She then asks him if he is drinking to forget and he answers: "No, I'm drinking to remember". The second scene after the credits shows Deadpool reaching for his severed head. The head's eyes open and with his sewn mouth reopened, he looks directly at the camera, and whispers "shhhhh" to the audience. The home video version features the Stryker scene, and features the Deadpool scene after the credits. However, the Japanese bar scene is available on the disc as a deleted scene.

The scene where Stryker is seen to be walking after told to do so by Kayla, then being stopped in order to be brought in for questioning by the Military may be a set up for a possible sequel, also it might simply have been meant to show how Stryker was saved from his fate of walking until he died. He is still head of an elite military unit in X2, so it's likely he managed to pass his interrogation.

Many fans of Deadpool are complaining that the character was turned more into Baraka from Mortal Kombat than the Wade Wilson/Deadpool we've all come to enjoy. His head is shaved, he is given a mixture of many mutant's powers, including an adamantium skeleton with a katana blade coming from each arm, wolverine/sabretooth's healing ablilities, teleporting, optic blasts, etc. We know that in this film, he got the name Deadpool, because all the mutant's powers were pooled into one body. Many fans were upset by Deadpool's mouth being sealed up so he couldn't give any wise cracks as well, and being remote controlled by Stryker to attack Logan, making him little more than a robot.

The reason Wade Wilson volunteered for the Weapon XI program is left a mystery in the film. This film basically sets up the likelihood of a Deadpool movie. Stryker orders the Weapon XI be activated prematurely, even though the other mutant abilities hadn't been completely installed, which suggests he will lose their powers and keep only the healing. His mouth was sealed to make him more of a drone, he was under Stryker's control so it wouldn't make sense for him to have his famous personality or talk at all. Logan decapitates Deadpool, but there is an extra scene at the end credits which shows Deadpool crawling towards his severed head and whispering "shh" to the audience. So we know he was not killed off. Given that Stryker activated him before the process was complete, and then abandoned him when it was assumed he was killed. (also note that Deadpool being decapitated means he doesn't have an entire skeleton made of adamantium, therefore it is just in his forearms). This will cause Deadpool to become free and go his own way, not to mention he'll probably be able to open his lips up easy enough (which he does in the scene after the credits).

A Deadpool film has been greenlit with Ryan Reynolds to star. It's possible that it will coincide with this film and explain why Wade Wilson joined the Weapon XI program. It's likely he was duped like Wolverine promised power but made into a drone. There was a rumoured reason, not stated in the film, that Wade Wilson volunteered for the procedure due to him being diagnosed with cancer. However it is very likely that Stryker still tricked him no matter the reason. The Cancer angle is actually from the comics, a side effect of the gene therapy giving him the healing factor, it is also what causes his insanity and the scarring on his body.

The American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War.

There are some substantial differences between the scenes in this movie and Wolverine's recollection of the event as seen in X-men and X2. For instance, in X2, Wolverine remembers blood gushing from his hands when the blades slide out for the first time, and pushing a door open on his way out. In X-men Origins: Wolverine, there is no blood coming from his hands, and he cuts through a wall on the way out. Also, in X-men, Wolverine remembers being cut open with a scalple, while no such device is used in X-MO:W. The real reason for these continuity breaks is, of course, that a different team of director/writers was responsible for the latter film, who gave their own interpretation of the events. Even the room itself (which consists of two levels instead of one) and the basin in which the procedure is done, is quite different. On the dvd, the production team explains that they were not satisfied with the design as it appeared in X-Men and X2, and deliberately changed it. Maybe the room itself has seen some redecorating over the years, following Wolverine's rampage, but this seems somewhat doubtful, as Stryker and his team prepare to permanently abandon the facility after the procedure. So there is no real narrative explanation to the room discrepancy, and it should therefore be considered a retcon.

The same can be said from Wolverine's different recollection of the course of events, the screenwriters simply made up their version of this event. However, there is a somewhat plausible narrative explanation for this. As any psychologist can relate, eye witness reports from memory can be very unreliable. This is because events are not remembered as a single unit in one region of the brain, but as fragments stored in separate parts. E.g. hair colours are stored in a different part than sounds and faces. Discrepancies can occur when people try to retrieve the memory; details get mixed up easily, and elements of different stories are inadvertently combined into one memory. Another complicating factor is that Wolverine's memory has been violently 'altered', leaving him with only fragments and images of the procedure, so it is in fact very easy for him to have a flawed recollection of the real event. Not to mention, when he remembers he is in fact, having nightmares. So his bleeding, being in pain, being sliced open could all just be part of the dream, muddling with what really happened.

It was a small cameo role, and it is common practice in film for cameo roles to remain uncredited.

Presumably 1963 Harley Davidson DuoGlide FLH

It's possible that Lady Deathstrike wasn't created until shortly before the events of X2. One reason for this is that, as we see near the conclusion of X2, Stryker has an Adamantium bonding unit similar to that which was used on Wolverine. Therefore, once Stryker returned to Alkali lake, he may have created Lady Deathstrike then. Stryker says to Wolverine in X2 "I always thought you were one of a kind, Wolverine...I was wrong." That line suggests that Lady Deathstrike was created sometime after Wolverine. Also, these movies are about introducing character to the audience, regardless of them having anything to do with the event in the comics. In the comics Team X consisted of Wolverine, Sabertooth, John Wraith, Deadpool, Silver Fox, Mastodon, and Maverick (Agent Zero). Agent Zero was German, not Korean. The Blob, Bolt, Lady Deathstrike, and Stryker have absolutely nothing to do with weapon x. In the comics it is Dr. Cornelius who is in charge of the weapon X program, and Stryker is a mutant hating Reverend who leads the purifiers, a group of ultra-religous zealots who believe that for humans to survive, mutants must all be killed. Lady Deathstrike's father was the one who created the adamantium bonding process that weapon X stole and used on Wolverine, Lady Deathstrike feels she has to kill wolverine and take back his adamantium skeleton to regain her father's lost honor. That all being said, one should not expect any sort of continuity between this movie and the previous ones due to different writers, and the fact that very few comic book based movies stick to the events in the comics, in the movies one writer might like a character while another might not.

In the comics and the previous three films Cyclop's eyes shot out a red optic-blast that produced concussive force instead of heat. In this film, Cyclops shoots out a heat laser. This could be explained in the continuity of the films, that the experiments Stryker did on Cyclops either altered or significantly weakened the intensity of his power changing it from a heat blast to a concussion blast. As the power was put into Deadpool, he is seen concentrating it on Sabretooth for quite a while and it barely affected him. A second theory is that Stryker added a heat element from another mutant to Weapon XI eyes that Scott Summers does not have. A third theory is that Wolverine's claws could have been heated due to the mass amount of blast force concentrated on them by Weapon XI. This is supported by the fact that the blasts didn't burn Sabretooth.

The person frozen with different-colored eyes is William Stryker's son, Jason Stryker. He has the ability of mind control and is featured prominently in X2 .

Stryker shot Wolverine in the head, causing him to lose his memories. However, firing squads aim for the heart, not the head. The most commonly stated reason for this practice is that the body just looks better for the funeral with the head still fully intact. However, it is common practice in the military to shoot center mass, which means the body. This is mostly for the reason that the body is a bigger target but also because there are more organs in the trunk than in the head. Contrary to popular belief, a shot to the head is survivable even by mere non-mutant humans. Another reason may be that when Wolverine lost his memories, he had been shot in the head with adamantium bullets, as opposed to any standard bullet the firing squad may have been using. While this isn't necessarily a foolproof reason, it is possible that the clashing of the high speed projectile with his skeletal structure, which was coated in the same material, created an affect similar to running a magnet over a hard drive. But in X-men 3 Wolverine gets shot in the head by a police officer and wakes up with his memory.

Sabretooth killed him. There is a deleted scene where Victor is seen standing over a wounded Dukes who is tied up in the boxing ring. However in the movie when John Wraith is confronting Sabretooth he says "I'm not scared of you. Your claws and long black coat don't work on me." To which Sabretooth replies "It worked for Dukes." Implying that he killed him.

It follows the basic storyline meaning it shows Wolverine's origin, however the story is significantly altered from what is in the comics. Wolverine/Logan was born James Howlett, but in the late 1800s not early 1800s, Creed and Logan have no blood relation. Wolverine did fight in WWII as a member of the Canadian special forces not in the US Army. Wolverine was recruited for the Weapon X program along with Silverfox, Creed/Sabertooth, and Maverick. Wolverine did not willingly volunteer for the Adamantium Infusion, the couple that found Wolverine after his escape was the Leader of Alpha Fight and his wife, and he convinced Wolverine to join Alpha Flight. Wolverine did not serve in Vietnam as he was a member of Alpha Flight and then the X-Men in the 70s. Also Wolverine's memory loss was caused by the doctors that were involved in the Adamantium infusion project, it was black ops brain washing trying to turn Logan into an assassin, the memory loss was exaborated due to the trauma of the Adamantiuim bonding. It should be noted that all comic book films significantly alter their origins to create their own continuities, very few movies based on long-running comic book series stay very true to their roots with the exception of certain graphic novels such as Sin City, 300 and Watchmen. The films themselves are just their own interpretations of material inspired by the original comics.

Yes, she died in the final minutes of the film, and is likely picked up by the approaching military ambulance that Gambit warns Logan about.

He can't control his optic blasts when his eyes are open. The original history of the character according to Marvel canon has always maintained that Summers lost the ability to control the beams when he & his brother survived a fall - the impact somehow permanently disrupted the control Summers would have had. When he was young, a doctor/scientist developed "ruby quartz" lenses that contain the beams & Scott was required to wear them continuously. When Sabretooth finds him in school and chases him, the red sunglasses fall off his face & the un-contained blast cuts right through the structure of the building. Remember the scene in the train station from the 1st X-Men film? Toad, using his tongue, snatches Summers' combat visor & the blast that escapes destroys the roof of the station.