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X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Director: Gavin Hood
Release Date: May 1, 2009
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Daniel Henney, Taylor Kitsch, Will.i.am, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Durand
Language: English
Country: United States
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Wolverine, due for release on April 30, 2009 in Australia, and May 1, 2009 in the United States. The film is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Hugh Jackman as the title character. It is a prequel to the X-Men film trilogy, focusing on the mutant Wolverine and his time with Team X, before Wolverine’s skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium. The film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand.
Set roughly twenty years before X-Men, the film will focus on Wolverine’s violent past, and his early encounters with William Stryker (Danny Huston). The Weapon X program and his interactions with other mutants will be explored, including his relationship with half-brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).
In 1845 Canada, young James Howlett sees his father killed by groundskeeper Thomas Logan. The trauma activates the boy’s mutation: bone claws protrude from James’ hands, and he kills Logan. With his dying breath, Logan tells James that he is James’ actual father. James flees with Victor Creed, the abused son of Thomas Logan who is thus James’ brother. They spend the next century as soldiers in the American army, fighting in the American Civil War, both World Wars and the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, James kills a superior officer after he tries to stop Victor from raping a local villager. Despite his objections to Victor’s actions, James defends his brother, and the two are sentenced to execution by a firing squad, which they survive. Major William Stryker approaches them, now in military custody, and offers them membership in Team X, a group of mutants including marksman Agent Zero, mercenary Wade Wilson, teleporter John Wraith, invincible Fred Dukes and electrokinetic Chris Bradley. They join the team, but the group’s questionable actions and disregard for human life cause James to leave.
Six years later, James — now going by the name Logan — lives in Canada with his girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox. Colonel Stryker locates Logan and warns him that someone is killing members of the team, as both Wilson and Bradley are dead. Shortly afterward, Victor murders Kayla and brutally beats Logan. Stryker offers Logan a way to beat Victor; Logan undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal. Before the procedure, Logan asks for new dog tags inscribed with “Wolverine”– based on a story that Kayla told him. Once the procedure is complete, Stryker orders Logan’s memory erased, but Logan overhears and fights his way out, pursued by Zero. Logan hides in the barn of an elderly couple who take him in for the night. The next day Zero murders the couple and attacks Logan with two humvees and a helicopter. In revenge, Logan fights back and kills Zero and his soldiers.
Logan locates Wraith and Dukes and asks them about the location of Stryker’s new laboratory, referred to as “The Island.” Dukes, now severely obese, explains that Stryker performs experiments on mutants, and that Victor is capturing new subjects for him. One of them, Remy LeBeau (“Gambit”), escaped and knows the location of The Island. Wraith and Logan locate Gambit in New Orleans, and ask for the Island’s location, but Gambit suspects Logan was sent to recapture him and attacks him. Meanwhile, Victor kills Wraith, and takes a sample of his blood for Stryker. Logan attacks Victor and, with his enhanced claws, almost kills him. However, Gambit interrupts the fight, allowing Victor to escape. Logan and Gambit continue their scuffle, in which Logan subdues Gambit. Convinced of Logan’s intentions, Gambit takes him to Stryker’s facility on Three Mile Island. Logan learns that Kayla is alive and conspired with Stryker in exchange for her abducted sister’s safety, not yet realizing that she genuinely loved Logan. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Logan leaves, enraging Victor at being denied the chance to fight Logan that he wanted. When Victor demands the adamantium bonding promised for his service, Stryker refuses on the basis that Victor would not survive the procedure. Victor attempts to kill Kayla when she tries to persuade him Stryker has betrayed them both, but Logan hears her screams and returns. Logan defeats Victor in a brutal fight, and nearly kills him but stops when Kayla reminds him of his humanity. Instead, Logan knocks Victor unconscious, then helps Kayla free the imprisoned mutants.
Stryker activates Weapon XI, a “mutant killer” super-soldier with the abilities of other mutants, which Stryker refers to as “The Deadpool.” Logan holds Weapon XI off while the escaped mutants flee. The mutants escape through the facility’s tunnels, guided by a young blinded Scott Summers who is following a voice in his head. The party is greeted by Professor Charles Xavier, who offers them shelter at his school. Kayla, shot in the stomach and mortally wounded from Stryker’s guards, decides to stay. Logan lures Weapon XI to fight on top of one of the plant’s cooling towers, where he is almost killed until Victor aids him. They battle Weapon XI and eventually Logan kills Weapon XI by kicking him into the pit. Victor departs, vowing to finish what they have started, and Logan is saved from the collapsing tower by Gambit. As Logan carries Kayla to safety, Stryker shoots Logan in the forehead with adamantium bullets, rendering him unconscious. He points the gun at Kayla but she uses her power of persuasion, telling him to walk until his feet bleed and then keep walking, before dying from her wounds. Gambit returns, but the damage to Logan’s brain causes him not to remember anything. As the police arrive, Gambit tries convincing Logan to come with him, but he declines, wanting to go his own way.
Cast:
- Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine: The mutant and future X-Man. Jackman, who played Wolverine in the previous films, has also become producer of the film via his company Seed Productions, and earned $20 million for the film. Jackman underwent a high intensity weight training regimen to bulk up for his role. He changed the program to shock the body into change and also performed cardiovascular workouts. He woke up each morning at 4 am to eat one of the small number of protein-based meals he was allowed each day. He wanted to portray Wolverine exactly as he did in the character’s cage match entrance in X-Men, stating his inspiration was Robert De Niro in Cape Fear. Jackman worked out in a Queenstown gym where he would arrive daily at 6 am. He stayed in character and made noises while exercising. Jackman noted no digital touches were applied to his physique in a shot of him rising from the tank within which Wolverine has his bones coated in adamantium.
- Troye Sivan as James Howlett: Casting directors cast Sivan as the young Wolverine after seeing him sing at the Channel Seven Perth Telethon, and he was accepted after sending in an audition tape. Kodi Smit-McPhee was originally cast in the role, when filming was originally beginning in December 2007, but he opted out to film The Road.
- Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed / Sabretooth: Logan’s half-brother and fellow soldier. Jackman and Hood compared Wolverine and Sabretooth’s relationship to the Borg-McEnroe rivalry in the world of tennis: Sabretooth hates him because he loved and needed his half-brother, but is too proud to admit he needs him back. Tyler Mane, who played him in X-Men, had hoped to reprise the role. Jackman worked with Schreiber before, and described him as having a competitive streak necessary to portray Sabretooth. They “egged” each other on set to perform more and more stunts. Schreiber put on 40 lb (18 kg) of muscle for the part, and described Sabretooth as the most monstrous role he ever played. As a child, he loved the Wolverine comics because of their unique “urban sensibility”. Schreiber had studied to be a fight choreographer and wanted to be a dancer like Jackman, so he enjoyed working out their fight scenes.
- Danny Huston as William Stryker: Schreiber was originally in negotiations for the part, while Brian Cox, who played the character in X2, wanted to reprise the role. He believed computer-generated imagery, similar to the program applied to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the opening flashback of X-Men: The Last Stand, would allow him to appear as the younger Stryker. Huston liked the complex Stryker, who “both loves and hates mutants because his son was a mutant and drove his wife to suicide. So he understands what they’re going through, but despises their destructive force.” He compared the character to a racehorse breeder, who rears his mutant experiments like children but abandons them when something goes wrong.
- Lynn Collins as Kayla Silver Fox: Wolverine’s love interest, who becomes a captive of Stryker. Michelle Monaghan turned down the role because of scheduling conflicts, despite her enthusiasm to work with Jackman.
- Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool: A wisecracking mercenary who can heal like Wolverine. Reynolds had been interested in playing the character in his own film since 2003. Computer-generated imagery is being used to create his scarred up visage, which will end up being a departure from the comic book appearance.
- Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau / Gambit: A Cajun thief who has the ability to charge any object he touches with kinetic energy, forcing it to explode. The size of the object determines the magnitude of the resulting explosion.
- Daniel Henney as David North / Agent Zero: A member of the Weapon X program and an expert tracker with lethal marksman skills.
- Will.i.am as John Wraith / Kestrel: A teleporting mutant who becomes a Weapon X test subject. It is Will.i.am’s film debut. Although he initially did not get on with the casting director, he got the role because he wanted to play a mutant with the same power as Nightcrawler. He enrolled in boot camp to get into shape for the part. When filming a fight, he scarred his knuckles after accidentally punching and breaking the camera.
- Dominic Monaghan as Barnell Bohusk: A mutant who can manipulate energy and electricity.”
- Scott Adkins as Weapon XI: Weapon XI will feature in the end sequence fight scene against Wolverine. Adkins was also Reynolds’ stunt double.
- Kevin Durand as Frederick J. Dukes / The Blob: An obese mutant with an indestructible layer of fat.
- Tahyna Tozzi as Emma Frost: A mutant with the powers of telepathy and turning her skin into diamond.
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