X-Men Origins
Wolverine
Film · 2009 · 107 minutes · X-Men Original Film Series
Beginning in 1845, young James Howlett discovers his mutant claws and healing factor after a violent family tragedy reveals that the man who raised him is not his real father, and he flees with his half-brother Victor Creed (the future Sabretooth). The two immortal brothers fight side by side through the Civil War, both World Wars, and Vietnam, growing steadily more estranged as Victor's brutality spirals out of control. Decades later, both are recruited into William Stryker's black-ops Team X, but Logan quits after refusing to execute unarmed civilians, while Victor stays on and grows more feral. Years afterward, when Victor begins killing Logan's old Team X comrades, Stryker lures a grieving Logan into the Weapon X program, bonding his skeleton and claws with unbreakable adamantium. Logan escapes the facility with his memory partially wiped and uncovers Stryker's plan to build the composite mutant-power supersoldier "Weapon XI" (Wade Wilson/Deadpool), leading to a climactic confrontation atop the cooling towers of Three Mile Island. The film ends with Logan's memories further erased by an adamantium bullet, explaining his amnesia when he is later found by Professor Xavier in X-Men (2000).
Leads to
- Deadpoolcameo-only · optional — Deadpool repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to mock X-Men Origins: Wolverine's version of the character (jokes about his mouth being sewn shut, an action-figure gag, and the 'Pulverine' line), directly referencing that film's portrayal rather than merely sharing a character.
- Deadpool 2cameo-only · optional — In the time-travel epilogue, Deadpool jumps back to the set/scene of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and kills the mouth-sewn-shut 'Weapon XI' version of himself from that film as a meta joke fixing its widely-mocked take on the character; it's a gag reference, not a plot dependency.