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"Why is the moon so lonely?"
"I'm coming for blood; no law, no code of conduct. You put me in the right direction, you get the hell out of my way."
James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a prequel to all prior entries in the X-Men Film Series; it focuses on Logan's Mysterious, Dark and Troubled Past from his childhood up until several years before he hooked up with Professor Xavier's gifted students.

On a cold Canadian night in 1845, James "Jimmy" Howlett sprouts claws made of bone and kills a man; he and his half-brother, Victor Creed, escape into the night together. Over the next century, Jimmy and Victor tear a bloody swathe through the American Civil War, both World Wars, and Vietnam—and during Vietnam, the Army has them both executed (Victor for killing a superior officer, Jimmy for defending Victor).

And that execution would have stuck if the half-brothers hadn't possessed the Healing Factor that gives them near-immortality. Since the execution merely "tickled" the duo, Colonel William Stryker exonerates them of their war crimes and recruits them into a squadron of mutant soldiers who perform morally reprehensible tasks for the American government. Jimmy leaves in disgust after one massacre of innocents too many, while Victor—who enjoys his job way too much—stays with Stryker.

Several years later, Jimmy—now calling himself Logan—is forced to deal with his past when Stryker tries to recruit him back into the team... and an enraged Victor later kills Logan's lover. Stryker reapproaches Logan and offers a deal: if he undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, he'll have a chance for his revenge against Victor. Logan survives the operation due to his healing factor, then escapes from Stryker's clutches before a planned memory wipe—and vows to kill both Stryker and Victor.

A follow-up to this film, The Wolverine, was released in 2013. Originally envisioned a sequel to this movie, it evolved into a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand instead. This film was also the first of a planned Origins Spin-Off series that would've been followed by X-Men Origins: Magneto, which was scrapped and remade heavily into X-Men: First Class.


X-Men Origins: Wolverine contains examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    Tropes A-B 
  • Aborted Arc: The film ended with the reveal that Deadpool had survived being decapitated, setting the character up for future appearances. The poor portrayal, coupled with the movie's mediocre earnings, led to the studio abandoning any plans for a sequel for several years, and releasing the unrelated The Wolverine instead. A solo Deadpool (2016) movie was released in 2016, but it's completely unconnected to this film (aside from the many fourth wall-breaking shots taken at this film by the lead character).
  • Abnormal Ammo: The adamantium bullets. In addition to their composition, they're shaped something like sabot flechettes, i.e. pointed instead of the usual shape for pistol bullets.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade:
    • Shortly after Logan receives his adamantium infusion, he slices up several items in a farmhouse bathroom (including a porcelain sink) with his now impossibly sharp claws, despite applying what appears to be no more than the force required to move an unrestrained arm.
    • Wade's katanas are sharp enough to split a bullet in half.
  • Action Insurance Gag: When Victor hears Logan coming after him for killing Kayla, he asks the bartender if he has insurance. When the bartender says he doesn't, Victor says, "Too bad."
  • Action Prologue: The pre-credits prologue is a flashback of the main character's childhood, while the credits sequence is a montage of Wolverine and Sabretooth taking part in battles through the ages.
  • Adaptation Explanation Extrication: It's all there in the source material, presented with Broad Strokes.
    • Wolverine: Origin by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada and Paul Jenkins, is loosely adapted into the introduction showing Wolverine's childhood. The story and movie both reveal Logan's name is James Howlett. In the comic story, James shares a childhood with his half-brother Dog Logan, who was rumored to be Sabretooth; Sabretooth and Wolverine being brothers and sharing a childhood together was a persistent rumor in the comics. The film keeps the interpretation that James' brother is Sabretooth, and that they grew up together. The comics no longer follow this plot, as Dog Logan was revealed to be a completely different character than Sabretooth.
    • Barry Windsor-Smith's run on Marvel Comics Presents #72–84, "Weapon X", is loosely adapted into the Weapon X scene, as far as Wolverine receiving adamantium from an organization, Wolverine being known as Weapon X during the procedure, and Wolverine escaping from the facility.
    • Wolverine vol. 2 #1-65 introduces pivotal aspects of Wolverine's past including Silverfox, Team X, and Sabretooth's recurring rivalry and torment of Wolverine. This was also where Sabretooth's familial connection to Wolverine was hinted at before the publication of Wolverine: Origin.
    • Agent Zero's history with Weapon X and Team X is scattered throughout X-Men #5-7, #10-11, Maverick #1-12, Wolverine #60-64, and Wolverine Annual September 1995. He is not known as Agent Zero until the revived Weapon X program under Malcolm Colcord, from Wolverine #166 onward.
    • Sabretooth dares Logan to pop his claws into Sabretooth's face, like a scene in Wolverine #90.
    • Mastadon appears as a member of Team X in Wolverine #48, and #61-62. In the film, his role is replaced by The Blob, who was not part of Team X in the comic.
    • The comic book version of Deadpool was formerly part of the Weapon X program which gave him his healing factor. The film plays with this by turning Deadpool into a member of Team X, and later, Weapon XI.
    • The aftermath of Fatal Attractions (Marvel Comics) establishes that Wolverine's mutation originally included bone claws and the adamantuim only merely coated the claws. This is confirmed when Rogue uses Wolverine's powers, and she grows bone claws of her own.
    • New X-Men is the initial appearance of Emma Frost's diamond form, but this has nothing to do with Wolverine's origin. What is relevant is the series introducing the concept of Weapon X being the tenth Weapon project, one project of a larger program, with other weapon numbers being assigned to other Weapon projects. The film takes this as far as introducing Weapon XI, but doesn't go into more detail on the other projects.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: In the comics, pre-X-Men Logan was a legitimate asshole and cold blooded killer who would have been very much ideologically aligned with the films' version of Stryker (something Stryker alludes to in X2: X-Men United). In this film he's shown to be generally decent and a reluctant participant in the X Team's more morally dubious actions, and abandoning the team when he finally listens to his conscience.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Agent Zero was a lot closer to being an Anti-Hero in the comics. He's a straight-up villain here and completely loyal to Colonel Stryker.
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • Silverfox is given the first name "Kayla". (The Marvel Wiki isn't entirely sure if "Silver Fox" is even the comic book character's real name, rather than a codename.)
    • The character very loosely based on James Hudson is named Travis Hudson in this film.
  • Adapted Out: Logan's childhood friend Rose and half-brother Dog were omitted from his backstory, and much of their roles in the plot was given to Sabretooth.
  • Advertised Extra: Gambit qualifies. He has limited screentime, but manages to do a few things (sets up and then stops a fight between Logan and Sabretooth, takes Logan to the enemy base, saves Logan in a Big Damn Heroes moment).
  • All Your Powers Combined: The film turns Weapon XI, aka Deadpool, so named because he's a "pool" of mutants' powers created to kill other mutants, into one of these, combining mutant abilities from Logan, Wraith, and Cyclops, among others.
  • Anachronism Stew: Hoo boy. Even though the film is set in the mid 1970s, the film doesn't seem to stick with that.
    • John Wraith uses a massively anachronistic H&K G36K rifle with AG36 underbarrel grenade launcher, some 20 odd years before the rifle or grenade launcher were ever developed.
    • Humvees are shown pursuing Wolverine on his motorcycle. The Humvee wasn't introduced until 1984.
    • Agent Zero uses a PT92 and a PT92 Inox as his pistols of choice. The PT92 wasn't introduced until the 1980s, and the Inox came around in the 1990s.
    • Multiple times video monitors and screens are shown displaying footage at levels not possible with 1970s-era technology.
  • Artifact Title: The title seems a bit ridiculous now, since the planned X-Men Origins series (of which it was meant to be the first installment) never actually came to be.
  • Artistic License – History: The movie claims to start in the Northwest Territories, Canada, in 1845—except that the Northwest Territories would not become a part of Canada until 1870 (and the borders of the vast area were gradually changed until 1905, which resulted in the creation of 4 provinces and 2 territories). Canada itself did not gain dominion status until 1867. It would have been more accurate to caption the scene as "North-Western Territory, British North America".
  • Artistic License – Medicine: Hydrochlorothiazide would not allow someone to fake death by slowing their heart down. They would instead lose control of their bowels. Cue medical majors laughing uncontrollably at the movie.
  • Aside Glance: Wade Wilson is constantly sneaking in looks to the camera.
  • Attempted Rape: In the Vietnam War sequence, Victor drags a young Vietnamese woman into a hut and throws her onto a bed. He starts killing his fellow soldiers when they try to stop him.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Victor Creed, a clawed and beastlike creature with abilities similar to Wolverine, faces John Wraith, a man who can instantly teleport. Creed uses his brain, not his mutant power, to predict the exact location of John Wraith's next teleport destination. Creed catches Wraith's spine mid-teleport, and comments on how Wraith's weakness was his predictability.
  • Ax-Crazy: Victor Creed has a bloodlust that only mindless battle seems to satisfy.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Jimmy and Victor. Several times, and lampshaded the firstnote  and lastnote  times, providing Book Ends to the film.
  • Badass Longcoat:
  • Bash Brothers: Logan and his brother do this for the first fifteen minutes of the movie. The opening sequence is a badass Montage through The American Civil War, WW1, WW2 and The Vietnam War! They also come back together briefly at the end, albeit for a mutual gain.
  • Bastard Bastard: Victor was presumably born out of wedlock because his surname Creed is different from his father's (Logan), and Victor happens to be The Sociopath.
  • Becoming the Mask: Kayla Silverfox is blackmailed by Stryker into posing as Wolverine's lover. However, near the end, the mask has become real.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Logan and Victor's duel with Weapon XI supposedly caused the Three Mile Island Accident, but in reality none of the cooling towers were destroyed.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Fred J. Dukes has a weight disorder. Try not to say anything about it.
      Logan: C'mon, bub. For old times' sake!
      Dukes: ...Did you just call me... BLOB??
    • Wolverine himself has a berserk button, which is when Kayla is in danger at any point.
  • Big Bad: William Stryker.
  • Big Badass Battle Sequence: The opening credits show the titular character participating in many of these.
  • Big Brother Instinct:
    • For all his (many) flaws, Victor Creed really loves his little brother Jimmy. It's best illustrated in the Civil War part of the opening montage, when Logan is shot and they are (at the time) unaware of their healing factors. Victor's expression says it all.
    • Kayla appears to be willing to do anything to keep her sister safe.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Gambit and Sabretooth both save Wolverine at different points in the movie.
  • The Big Easy: Largely averted when Wolverine heads to New Orleans to find Gambit, who, surprisingly, is toned down a lot from his comic persona.
  • The Big Guy: Fred Dukes, even before his weight gain, is the largest member of Team X, and can blow up a tank by sticking his fist in the barrel.
  • Big "NO!": Used along with Skyward Scream twice, both times by Logan; the first time after he kills his father and the second time when he finds the dead body of his girlfriend.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: Young Wolverine finds his father still dying to the bullet fired by his still living actual father next to his best friend slash actual brother and probably (?) his mother only to go full mutant and murder probably (?) one of his fathers. In Canada, because that's where he was always from, eh. (?) Hockey.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Weapon XI has full-length retractable katana blades in each arm. At least Wolverine's claws might slide into his forearm, allowing him to bend his wrist. This guy has no excuse. The blades are in fact so long that he shouldn't even be able to bend his elbow.
  • Blade Brake: Logan sticks his claws into a gravel road to make a hard turn on a motorcycle. Interestingly, it's one of the rare times his claws don't just slice clean through whatever they hit.
  • Blood Knight: Victor joins many wars for over a century only to keep his killer instincts satisfied. He enjoys being a warrior far too much to start a life of peace with James.
  • Blown Across the Room: Gambit's powers do this along with other effects. So does Cyclops' optic blasts.
  • Body Horror: Weapon XI, especially his mouthless face with perpetually open eyes.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of the film, Deadpool fishes his severed head out of the rubble, looks straight at the audience, and says "Shhh".
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Less than a minute into his first appearance, Wade Wilson clearly establishes himself as obnoxious and immature, and almost incapable of ever shutting up, no matter how much he annoys everyone around him (a lot, all the time). He's an excellent soldier/assassin, however, and this, more than anything, is probably the main reason anyone puts up with him.

    Tropes C-D 
  • Cain and Abel: Victor is significantly more unhinged and murderous than his brother Logan.
  • Call-Back: Col. Stryker says that Wade Wilson would be the perfect mercenary if it weren't for his mouth; towards the end of the movie, Wade has his Mouth Stitched Shut. Lampshaded by Wolverine (especially relevant since Logan, in the beginning of the film, was the first one to speak up about how Wade never stops talking):
    Wolverine: I guess Stryker finally figured out how to shut you up.
  • The Cameo:
    • A younger version of Cyclops, as one of the mutants targeted by Stryker. His power is copied and put into Weapon XI, and ends up destroying most of Three Mile Island as a result.
    • An uncredited and digitally rejuvenated Patrick Stewart as Professor X.
    • Several characters from the comic book can also be seen in the Weapon X scenes: Quicksilver, Banshee, and Toad, specifically. Others are harder to distinguish on sight.
    • When Stryker and General Munsen are discussing Stryker's preparations for the upcoming human/mutant war, a young Jason Stryker can be seen frozen in one of the People Jarsnote .
  • Canon Discontinuity: A very well known example of this trope. After the film came out, no one was really happy with the result (from the fans to the production team—even Hugh Jackman has stated it didn't feel like a Wolverine movie), and the various contradictions it has with the original trilogy. The prequel franchise was then rejiggered with X-Men: First Class (containing a completely different Emma Frost) and this film is ignored almost entirely in Days of Future Past, where even The Last Stand is taken into account. Minor references to Origins in other films include an audio clip of Wolverine yelling, "Kayla!" that plays when Wolverine is unconscious during The Wolverine, and footage of Sabertooth stepping on his bone claws appearing when Xavier looks into his mind in Days of Future Past. Logan features his old dog tags and the adamantium bullet, which becomes a Chekhov's Gun.
  • Captain Ersatz: A kindly old couple on a farm who take in a super-powered individual? That sounds kinda familiar. The first shot of them smiling while driving their pickup seems like a deliberate homage to Superman: The Movie. Richard Donner is a producer on this film.
  • A Chat with Satan: Victor tries repeatedly to persuade Logan to embrace his bestial nature.
  • Cold Sniper: Zero. He even cracks a smile after murdering two innocent people and watching their barn blow up.
  • Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Invoked a few times:
    • The name "Blob" is only mentioned once, as an insulting nickname that Fred Dukes hates. Even then, it only comes up when Freddie mishears Logan calling him "Bub."
    • "Gambit" is only briefly mentioned as Remy LeBeau's nickname that the prison guards gave him because he always beat them at poker.
    • "Deadpool" isn't spoken until the end of the movie, when it's used as a callsign for Weapon XI. Other than that, he's either "Wade" or "Weapon XI".
    • Victor's nickname Sabretooth is never mentioned. This is possibly to skirt the fact that he's so radically different from the Sabretooth we met in the first X-Men film in looks and personality that it's almost impossible to believe they're the same character.
    • Of course, averted by the main character. Although he's more frequently called "James" or "Logan", he fully embraces the codename "Wolverine" by requesting to add it to his military tags, replacing his actual name.
  • Compelling Voice: Kayla's power, though it only works with an added touch. At the end of the film she commands Stryker first to put a gun to his chin, but stops short of making him shoot himself, instead saying "Turn around. Now walk until your feet bleed. And then keep walking."
  • Composite Character:
    • The film went along with the comic book's then implication of Dog Logan and Victor Creed/Sabretooth being the same individual; years later, however, the comics show Dog and Sabretooth as not being the same person. Movie Victor also takes on Rose's role from the Origin comic as the person who helped Logan run away.
    • Kayla, despite sharing the name of Silver Fox, largely fills the same role as Itsu, Logan's Japanese wife in the comics who is killed by the Winter Soldier.
  • Continuity Drift: When Sabretooth first meets Wolverine in X-Men, he never gives any indication that he knows who Wolverine is, even though he spends more time with him than with any of the X-Men. This film later reveals that, not only do the two have an extensive history together (going back to the mid-1800's), they're actually half-brothers.
  • Continuity Snarl: Quite a few, really.
    • Cyclops is portrayed as a teenager in 1979 during the movie, but is portrayed as a man in his mid- to late twenties in the original X-Men trilogy, which takes place 20 or so years later. James Marsden was 27 when he portrayed Cyclops in X-Men, about ten years too young.
    • Admittedly, Cyclops was blindfolded whilst being rescued from the Island by Wolverine, but it still seems unlikely that in X-Men, he would have no idea whatsoever that he has met the man who once saved his life.
    • Cyke's Eye Beams carry heat in this film, when in all of his other appearances, they are purely kinetic.
    • X2: X-Men United hints that the adamantium was injected and shaped by doctors, while military officers and scientists celebrate with champagne over their success, and (in a flashback) Logan is seen fighting off several doctors who've been working on him before escaping the Alkali Lake facility covered in blood and has many markings drawn on him during the operation, scratching up the area near the tank in the process and fleeing out a door outside. In this movie, the adamantium bonding process is hands-free, no doctors ever work on Logan, and the adamantium is grafted to his bone claws, something he wasn't mentioned as having in the earlier films. Furthermore he is not covered in blood, has fewer lines drawn on him for the procedure and claws himself a doorway through a metal wall instead of fleeing through an existing exit. Additionally, the X-rays don't show the two giant holes he should have in his skull, and there are no claw marks around the tank as there were when he inspected it in the second movie, nor are there any celebrating officers and scientists.
    • Sabretooth never has his memory erased and should know his own brother. In X-Men, which was released first, it seems that Sabretooth does not know Logan, looks completely different, and is near-mute (though none of the Brotherhood is terribly talkative in X1.) That surprised people; Tyler Mane is contracted for two movies, and would not have changed much due to age. You'd have expected Sabretooth to be largely the same but with more lines instead of the totally different character we're given here.
  • Cool Bike: The Harley-Davidson Logan acquires at the Hudsons' farm.
  • Cumbersome Claws: Shortly after escaping from William Stryker's facility and taking refuge in an old couple's farmhouse, Logan decides to extend and retract his claws to test out the new adamantium plating on them. He then attempts to test his new abilities in the farm's bathroom only to accidentally slice a sink and a radiator into half.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Wolverine and Sabretooth fight three times, with Sabretooth getting the upper hand the first time. The second ends indecisively, while in the third, Wolverine beats ten shades of sunshine out of Sabretooth in around ten seconds.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • Wade Wilson. Too bad they take away Deadpool's mouth.
    • Victor, to a lesser degree.
      Victor: [after Wolverine pops his new claws in front of him for the first time] Ooh. Shiny.
  • Death by Adaptation: Kestrel, working with Wolverine, and Agent Zero, working against him.
  • Death by Origin Story:
    • The film has Love Interest Kayla. Being Logan, a character who in the comics collects dead lovers and was unattached in the first three movies, it seemed she is doomed to die, and the film doesn't disappoint... at first. But when it's revealed he death was faked and their affair false, the trope seems averted. But then it turns out she really loved him... so she's dead as a doornail by the end, and the now amnesiac Wolverine doesn't even know to cry over her corpse. Tragic in all the wrong ways.
    • Then there's John Howlett, Wolverine's father, who is killed by the groundskeeper Thomas Logan in a drunken rage. The trauma of witnessing this activates young James' mutation: bone claws, which he uses to kill Thomas Logan, supposedly avenging his father's death. With his dying breath, Thomas Logan reveals that he, not John Howlett, is his real father.
  • Delicate and Sickly: Both James and Victor were sickly children before their mutation manifested.
    Victor: You're always sick.
    James: You were sick when you were my age.
  • Dénouement: The film not only has this trope, but two Sequel Hook segments as well, one of which was eventually greenlit by Hollywood. That's right, folks: the Merc with the Mouth got his own movie.
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Stryker manages to bypass both Wolverine's adamantium bones and healing factor by shooting him in the head with adamantium bullets. The bullets pierce his skull, and while Logan's brain can heal, his memories can't.
  • Doomed by Canon: Wolverine has to lose his memories and rename himself "Logan", Sabretooth has to distance himself from Wolverine to the point of giving him the silent treatment, William Stryker has to survive and so does Cyclops. Silver Fox has to either die or board a bus (since Wolverine doesn't have a girlfriend in the original movie).
  • Downer Beginning: Jimmy's father dies, leading the boy to kill the assassin, Logan... and discover he is his real father. So Jimmy is forced to run away along with Logan's other son, Victor.
  • The Dragon: Agent Zero is Stryker's Dragon at first, then Sabretooth and Weapon XI later on.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Subverted during one of the post-credits scenes; we see Wolverine in a Japanese bar. The bartendress asks him if he's drinking to forget, to which Wolverine replies he's drinking to remember.
  • Dumb Muscle: Fred Dukes, who Stryker employs to do the heavy stuff like stopping a tank from firing at them, is not the smartest of Stryker's team, even getting a tattoo of a woman he only met the night before.

    Tropes E-F 
  • Edge Gravity: A weird non-videogame example occurs during the climactic battle on the top of the cooling tower. Punched, kicked, tripped, backdropped and blown up, characters always land on the top of the wall, which is less than a meter wide—though considering that the characters all have Healing Factors and are pretty much immune to falls, it wouldn't really matter.
  • Empty Elevator: Very much averted—they're in the elevator, right in the firing line of two dozen mooks with automatic weapons. So they send in the Merc with the Mouth to "clean up" first.
  • Enemy Mine: Wolverine and Sabretooth against Weapon XI.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • The generals allow for Stryker to carry out his Weapon XI project. However, one of them calls Stryker out when telling him that he suspects that Stryker's motivations are basically out of Fantastic Racism. This gets him killed by Stryker.
    • Dukes clearly is disturbed by what Stryker does on Three Mile Island.
  • Exposition of Immortality: The film starts with Wolverine and Sabertooth as young children in 1845, then starts a montage of them fighting in every American war from the Civil War to Vietnam.
  • Expy: In the comics, adamantium is a man-made metal, while the film reveals that adamantium ore is apparently naturally existing and comes from meteorites. A nearly indestructible metal found inside a meteorite somewhere in Africa? Sounds an awful lot like vibranium...
  • Extranormal Prison: Briefly features a series of holding cells that combine this trope and Tailor-Made Prison. Each cell has been made capable of holding its individual mutant occupant.
  • Face Death with Dignity:
    • Once Victor arrives, Chris Bradley doesn't even flinch.
    • John Wraith upon being confronted by Sabertooth, refuses to be scared and attempts to fight him.
      Wraith: I'm not Bradley, Victor. And your creepy black coat don't scare me.
      Creed: Really? Worked on Dukes.
  • Fake Shemp: Scott Adkins doubled for Deadpool at the climax, because Ryan Reynolds was busy working on another movie at the time. The close-ups of Reynolds were filmed several months later, when he was in between projects.
  • Fanservice: Other than Logan's shirtless scenes, Kayla looks pretty good in her lingerie.
  • False Reassurance: Wolverine nearly throttles Colonel Stryker when he thinks he's lying. Styker swears that he's telling the truth "on the life of my son!" Of course, as we saw in X2, Stryker doesn't value his son's life very highly.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Stryker acts very polite and charming, often calling Wolverine "Old friend". This doesn't change the fact that he's unrepentantly homicidal and manipulative.
  • Finger in a Barrel: Dukes does this with a tank cannon, causing the tank to explode from the inside. It's a good thing Duke is super tough.
  • Flashback Nightmare: Implied in one scene with Wolverine where he is screaming in bed and apparently accidentally injured Kayla with his (regular) claws, where he explained that he had nightmares on every single war he fought in.
  • Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: Fred falls in love after one night with someone; when asked why, he says, "She's a gymnast".
  • Flipping the Bird: Wolverine does it to Gambit, by retracting his outer two claws and leaving the middle.
  • Foregone Conclusion: It's a given that Logan, Sabretooth, and Stryker will all survive the film. Logan will receive his adamantium skeleton from the Weapon X program. Finally, Logan's memories of everything in his life up to, and including, the events of the film will somehow be erased by the end of the film.
  • The Foreign Subtitle: The film became Wolverine: X-Men Zero in Japan.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Stryker says to Wade Wilson that he'd be the perfect soldier if he didn't have such a mouth. Stryker later turns Wade into a mutated super-soldier who literally has no mouth.
    • Kayla gets a man to back off from a confrontation with Logan, attributing it to "female powers of persuasion." She earlier fails to convince Logan not to confront the man in the first place. She's using her mutant power, which doesn't work on Sabretooth either—also hinting that her feelings for Logan are genuine since she can't just make him fall for her.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: When John Wraith teleports, going frame-by-frame reveals that, unlike fellow X-Men characters Nightcrawler and Azazel, Wraith teleports in at least two phases—first his skeleton materializes, and then his body, clothes and all. When Weapon XI copies the power, freeze-framing his teleports shows that his entire skeleton, like Wolverine's, is coated in adamantium.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Wolverine's first rampage post-surgery, of course, though immediately prior to that he was wearing a pair of briefs.

    Tropes G-J 
  • Gone Horribly Right: Stryker and his team try to create an indestructible warrior. That works pretty well. Then they piss him off. That doesn't.
  • Guns Akimbo: Agent Zero, while attacking the Nigerian compound.
  • The Gunslinger: Agent Zero. Pistols, rifles, anything!
  • Healing Factor: Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Weapon XI (copying Wolverine's powers) all heal up just fine from myriad gunshots, stab wounds, and falls from great heights. Wolverine also (barely) survives having red-hot adamantium bonded to his skeleton, and every time he pops his claws he's effectively tearing his hands open, only for them to seal right back up when the claws are retracted. If Stryker is to be believed, Sabretooth's healing factor is not as effective as Logan's, which is why he can't undergo adamantium augmentation. It does allow him to live an unnaturally long life alongside his brother, however.
  • Heroic Rematch: For all that he was betrayed and lied to in order to do it, Wolverine's consent to the adamantium experiment does achieve his goal—the next time he faces Sabretooth, he fares much better.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Victor Creed with his half-brother Logan for their childhood and most of their adult lives, up until Logan leaves Team X.
  • Hired by the Oppressor: Colonel William Stryker's murderous hatred of Mutants hasn't stopped him from employing their services by promising them something they want.
  • Historical In-Joke: Wolverine and Sabretooth fight Weapon XI atop the cooling tower at Three Mile Island, destroying it in the process.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: Logan has some trouble initially with his adamantium claws, when he seemingly can't work out how to retract them and accidentally tears up a farmhouse bathroom.
  • I Am a Monster: In one of the TV spots, Sabretooth utters this chilling line, which is either a Shout-Out or a ripoff of Seth Brundle's "insect politics" speech from The Fly (1986), which itself is an homage to the Japanese poem, "I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?"
    Sabretooth: I'm not your friend... I'm an animal who dreamed he was a man. But the dream is over... and the beast is awake. And I will come for you, because it's my nature.
  • If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!:
    • Played dead straight, by Logan's squeeze Kayla, in regards to him killing off Sabretooth and/or Stryker. Two men, who have been rounding up mutants like cattle, are effectively above the law, and will most likely continue to hunt Logan down as long as he lives. All of which could be solved by a little extra stabbing...
    • Kayla at least holds herself to the same standards—when she has Stryker at the mercy of her hypnosis power and could force him to commit Psychic-Assisted Suicide, she instead only commands him to throw his gun away and walk until his feet are bleeding. While she lies dying, no less, and after Styker shoots Wolverine twice in the head, erasing his memory of her.
  • Ignore the Disability: Used with a twist. Wraith warns Logan not to mention Dukes' extreme weight gain, as he is sensitive about it. The very first thing that Logan says is "Hey, Fat— uh, Fred!" It's clearly accidental, but as Dukes doesn't seem to care, Logan continues doing it on purpose, calling him "Slim" and the like. Logan doesn't hit the Berserk Button until he uses the word Bub, which Dukes mishears as Blob. The joke here is that Fred Dukes is a long-standing Marvel Comics villain, who uses the identity "The Blob".
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: Some of Kayla's parting words.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Agent Zero's main power.
  • In a Single Bound: Zero does some leaps that would require superhumanly strong legs. Sabretooth and Weapon XI does too, but the former does canonically have Super-Strength and the latter may have gained it along with other powers.
  • In Name Only: This film is fairly notorious for it, with many of the featured mutants having little (or nothing) to do with its comic book counterparts:
    • Emma Frost. The only attributes that she has in common with her comics counterpart is that she's blonde and can turn her skin into a diamond-like form. X-Men: First Class would ignore her appearance in this story and present its own version of Emma as much closer to her comics counterpart. Then again, she's called "Emma", but the surname is never said, and her sister is "Kayla Silverfox". However, in one of the character TV spots, they clearly use Frost as her surname.
    • Agent Zero. Not only do they use his New Weapon X callsign instead of his Weapon X one (Maverick), he somehow has Agent X's Gun Fu powers as well. Neither his powers as Maverick (kinetic energy absorption and redirection), nor his powers as Agent Zero (corrosive skin secretions designed to defeat Healing Factor abilities) make an actual appearance. Oh, and he's no longer East German but East Asian like Agent X.
    • Bolt. Or Bradley, for those who missed him because he's long-dead in the comics. He's not only not called by his callsign, he's also no longer the kid Maverick teaches in the use of his powers after retiring—he's now Maverick's comrade-in-arms. Who, instead of lightning-flinging powers, has electric-appliance-powering-and-controlling powers.
    • Deadpool retains his sarcastic sense of humor, Motor Mouth & katanas... and even those fall by the wayside by the time of the main events of the movie. While he does undergo a procedure to give him a copy of Wolverine's Healing Factor that leaves his body horrifically scarred just like in the comics, he's also saddled with Cyclops' optic blasts, Wraith's teleportation (he uses a device in the comics) and a pair of Blades Below the Shoulders, and just to add insult to injury, his mouth is sewn shut.
    • In the comics, Blob's fat body was a part of his mutation, with the super strength more of a Required Secondary Power. In fact it's the fat that made him virtually resistant to any weapons.
    • John Wraith in the comics typically relied on More Dakka and if necessary rocket launchers in a fight, not Teleport Spam and fists. Instead his rather long-ranged teleportation was used to make quick and clean getaways.
    • Even regular humans weren't spared from becoming In-Name-Only characters. About the only thing in common between the Hudsons in the comics and the Hudsons in this film is that both couples find Wolverine stumbling about after he'd gotten his adamantium skeleton and escaped from the program. In the comics, James and Heather Hudson find Wolverine in the middle of a blizzard by the cabin at which they are honeymooning, and at this point they'd just recently started Department H, the government organization that would create Alpha Flight. In the movie, Travis and Heather Hudson are an elderly couple who find Wolverine stumbling onto their farm (and not in a blizzard), and they have no known government connections. And unlike their comic counterparts, Travis and Heather get killed off.
  • Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: Gambit does this with his cane.
  • It's Personal:
    • The only thing in the world Victor cares about is his baby brother. When said brother walks out on him, he doesn't take it well.
    • This is also how Stryker gets Jimmy involved in the Weapon X program.
    • When Logan gets bashed through a wall by Gambit, he sees Victor. When Gambit appears right behind him, intent on continuing their fight, Logan doesn't even spare him so much as a glance before elbowing him in the face and fighting Victor.
  • It Meant Something to Me: Wolverine furiously tells this to Silver Fox when she ashamedly reveals to him that their relationship was all a lie, as she was actually an undercover agent for Stryker who was sent to secretly keep an eye on him after he quit Team X. Turns out she felt the same way, despite her denials to the contrary.
  • I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Stryker forces Kayla Silverfox to conspire with him this way by threatening to kill her sister, Emma Frost.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: For all its faults, the film's opening montage of the many wars the US has been in did show Victor's decline from a soldier doing his job to a ruthless killer quite nicely without being really obvious about it.

    Tropes K-N 
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Wade Wilson jokes with his mutant comrades that his katanas are far more "memorable" than guns. He is shown to be capable of parrying fully automatic fire from multiple opponents with them, occasionally deflecting bullets at enemies. The blades, of course, are completely undamaged.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The film features quite possibly one of the most painful instances of this trope. An antagonist loads a gun with adamantium bullets, knowing he can't kill Wolverine with them, but intends to give him Laser-Guided Amnesia by shooting him in the head. He succeeds, wiping Wolverine's memory with no other side-effects. Wolverine's memories don't "grow back", but his ability to speak, read, walk, recognize police cars, hide from police cars, etc, do.
  • Left Hanging: The film ends with two Sequel Hooks in The Stinger. One reveals that Deadpool is still alive, and the other has an ominous scene showing Logan in Japan. The next movie, The Wolverine, takes place decades later and ignores both of those bits, and while a Deadpool movie was eventually made, it treats this movie as completely non-canon (outside of taking potshots at it).
  • Like Cannot Cut Like:
    • Wolverine faces Weapon XI, which has adamantium katanas.
    • William Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with adamantium bullets (which is kinda justified, as a bullet, which is really fast, could have more impact than a blade). Doesn't kill him, but it does give him amnesia—presumably the shock of the impact gave him severe brain damage and his Healing Factor couldn't piece all his memories back together. Though why this doesn't result in a pair of .44 caliber holes in Logan's adamantium skull is unclear, since his healing factor can't grow back the implanted metal.
  • Lockdown: When Wolverine is escaping the Weapon X facility.
  • "London, England" Syndrome:
    • A variation with territory and country listed occurs in the case of "Northwest Territories, Canada." The American writers clearly didn't do their research because a portion of this region didn't enter the Canadian Confederation until 1870 (and the other sections were later divided up into separate provinces and territories over the next few decades), so in 1845, it should've been referred to as "North-Western Territory, British North America." James Howlett and Victor Creed were therefore born as British citizens (although presumably it would've been easy for them to obtain Canadian citizenship after the Dominion of Canada was founded in 1867).
    • "Lagos, Nigeria."
  • Losing Your Head: In one of The Stingers, Deadpool's severed head wakes up before shushing to the audience and fading to black.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Victor did not take his brother James leaving him for a life of peace well... not in the least.
  • Made of Explodium: Wolverine takes down a helicopter, the tail end of which explodes upon hitting the ground. Not so bad. But then Wolverine exchanges dialog with a crash survivor and walks away, lights a trail of gasoline coming from the same helicopter, and makes it explode again in the background.
  • Market-Based Title: The film became known as X-Men Zero in Japan.
  • Mega Manning: Weapon XI, formerly Wade Wilson, is somehow infused with powers from several mutants, including Logan (allowing him to also undergo the adamantium bonding process), Scott Summers, and John Wraith.
  • Menacing Hand Shot: During Victor and Logan's fight scene in a Canadian frontier bar, as they prepare to brawl and share some banter, there are waist-level shots focusing on their hands with claws growing out of them.
  • Mighty Lumberjack: Logan takes up lumberjacking in his Retired Badass phase.
  • A Minor Kidroduction: The film starts with Wolverine and Sabretooth as children.
  • Mondegreen Gag: When Logan addresses the very overweight Fred J. Dukes as "bub", Fred gets mad because he mishears it as "Blob". (Fred J. Dukes would actually become the mutant known as the Blob).
  • More Dakka: Agent Zero chases Logan in a gatling-equipped helicopter. True to form, it tears up everything around Logan while missing him completely.
  • Mundane Utility: Bradley, who can power electrics, has a job as a carney after the war. "Turn the light off, get a prize. Three tries for a buck."
  • My Hero, Zero: Subverted with Agent Zero, a rather two-dimensional throwaway villain. (He dies painfully.) To be fair, he's actually pretty dangerous—if you don't have a skeleton made of adamantium and the original Healing Factor.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In the comics, Deadpool's nickname is "The Merc with the Mouth". Here, he's the Merc with No Mouth.
    • Stryker's ultimate mutant weapon being called "Weapon XI", in reference to the revelation in the comics that "Weapon X" actually meant "Weapon Ten". Which means that if Weapon XI is Wade Wilson, and Weapon X is Wolverine, there were nine previous attempts.
    • Stryker can be seen wearing a silver cross necklace in the scene where he goes to meet Logan in the hospital, likely as a nod to the fact that he was a priest (not a military officer) in the comics.
    • Deadpool never dons his trademark costume, but Wade wears a red T-shirt as a nod to his comic outfit.
    • Also, during the final fight, there's a brief close-up of Deadpool charging up his Eye Beams, which causes his face to resemble his comic counterpart's mask.
  • Naked People Are Funny: After Wolverine's initial Full-Frontal Assault, which is naturally done seriously, he ends up running to the nearest barn, to the surprise of the old couple who own it.
    Heather: Travis! I think there's a naked man in the barn.
    Travis: Yep.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • Minor example: TV commercials would feature some of the other mutants in the movie, with one of them noting Emma Frost. Her role in the movie is to turn into diamond at one point, making her more of a cameo than the semi-major character the commercial played her up to be.
    • This has happened with other characters like Deadpool as well. Some comments have been made about how ridiculous it is that a whole 30 seconds said more about the characters than their screen time throughout the entire film.
  • No Endor Holocaust: If the film is to be believed, Wolverine is at least partially responsible for the Three Mile Island leak, aka one of the things that helped kill nuclear power, and the first major leak in American history. Granted, Weapon XI could have stopped firing, but you've got to wonder what Wolvie was thinking causing his head to fall into the cooling tower.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Hudsons find Logan in their barn and provide him with clothes, food and lodging. Naturally, they get murdered by Agent Zero for their trouble.
  • Not Afraid to Die: Subverted when Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth, comes to assassinate his ex-team member Bolt. This little exchange takes place:
    Bolt: I'm not afraid of you, Victor. I'm not afraid of dying.
    Creed: How do you know? You've never tried it before.
  • Nothing Personal: Victor doesn't give a damn about causes, contrasting with his It's Personal attitude toward Jimmy.
  • Not Wearing Tights: The film takes the black leather from previous films away, leaving everyone in Civvie Spandex.
  • Not What I Signed on For: Wolverine is not too enthusiastic about massacring a village full of civilians.

    Tropes O-R 
  • Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Due to being intended to start a spinoff "X-Men Origins" franchise which never materialised.
  • Offhand Backhand: Wolverine elbows Gambit in the face as he's coming up behind him to deliver an angry speech.
  • Offing the Offspring: Thomas Logan nearly shoots his son James Howlett when the kid is charging at him with newly sprouted bone claws, but Elizabeth Howlett manages to grab the hunting rifle before Thomas can do so.
  • Off with His Head!: The title character talks about wanting to decapitate his big brother, but only end up beheading Weapon XI, in this version an experimented-up Wade Wilson.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Wolverine has one during his climatic fight against Deadpool when it's revealed that Deadpool has teleporting powers.
    • Zero sports an epic one when he tries to shoot a bullet into Logan's head to (temporarily) take him out, which would have worked if he had normal human bones. Instead, it just bounces off his now indestructible skull and Logan just growls.
  • Old Money: Judging by the refined manners of John Howlett and the grandeur of the mansion, James Howlett was born into wealth. However, he learns when he was around 13 years old that his mother Elizabeth had an affair with Thomas Logan, his family's groundskeeper, and is their illegitimate child. After the death of both his stepfather and biological father, James runs away from home, and he has been scratching a living ever since.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: As Weapon XI is about to decapitate Logan, he is tackled away by Victor Creed. "Nobody kills you but me!"
  • Origins Episode: For Wolverine. Unfortunately, due to being a general mess of Continuity Snarls and a very unenthusiastic reception, it's not canon.
  • Padded Sumo Gameplay: Logan's boxing match against the Blob. Between the former's Healing Factor and the latter's Kevlard, there was no way either of them could land a meaningful hit on one another... until the Blob stuns himself headbutting Logan's adamantium skull.
  • Paranormal Gambling Advantage: Chris Bradley hosts a carnival game in which participants have three chances to make a lightbulb go off. A woman tries turning off the switch, disconnecting the wires and removing the lightbulb from its socket, but fails and storms away furiously after losing her money. As it's revealed later, Chris is a technopath and can mentally generate electricity to ensure the lightbulb never goes out.
  • Parrying Bullets: Wade Wilson is good enough with his twin katanas to deflect fully automatic fire from widely-spaced sources mostly by spinning them really fast. At one point he splits a bullet in half, which goes on to take out two mooks behind him.
  • People Jars: Colonel Stryker collects mutants in glass tanks, where they stay naked in freezing-based suspended animation. Stryker's own son is one of these.
  • Playing with Syringes: Weapon XI is exactly that—the eleventh of a series of Living Weapon experiments by Stryker, with Wolverine as Weapon X, intended to create the perfect mutant killer by way of Mega Manning mutant powers into one being.
  • Poorly Disguised Pilot: The film has been stated to be a testing bed for films based on Gambit and Deadpool. The fact that the two were the most common points of criticism (Gambit for Advertised Extra, Deadpool for They Changed It, Now It Sucks!) would tell you it didn't work. However, Ryan Reynolds's Wade Wilson from before his disfigurement (plus in The Stinger) is still considered quite awesome, and Reynolds would later star as Deadpool in his own feature film. That said, since X-Men Origins: Wolverine is no longer canon, the Deadpool movie completely disregards its events (outside of taking potshots at them). And while a Gambit movie is in the works, it will also treat Origins as non-canon.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: In the comics, Fred Dukes, a.k.a. the Blob, is a mutant whose specific abilities seem to revolve around being morbidly obese. In the film however, Dukes is physically fit until he develops an eating disorder, but his super strength is what allows him to carry his own weight.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Creed kills John Wraith.
    Creed: I can feel your spine, Johnny Boy. Never knew you had one.
  • Present-Day Past: The movie doesn't look like it takes place 20-30 years before the original trilogy.
  • Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Threatened but not gone through with, or maybe genuinely considered. Silverfox makes Colonel Stryker put the muzzle of his revolver with One Bullet Left under his chin, but doesn't make him pull the trigger, instead telling him to walk away until his feet bleed and then keep walking. As the film is a prequel to X2, she couldn't have killed him anyway.
  • Psycho for Hire:
    • Victor Creed, once he leaves Team X.
    • Agent Zero, once Team X closes.
  • Pulling Themselves Together: The end of the film shows Wade Wilson's hand looking around for his decapitated head before he shushes the audience.
  • Punched Across the Room: Dukes does this the poor schmuck he's training with,and then repeats it to Logan with a bodyslam. Logan and Victor does it to each other, and then Weapon XI does it to Logan.
  • Punch-Clock Villains:
    • Wraith and Bradley of Weapon X. They do their job and try not to think too hard about it. Then later repent. After all, "I was Just Following Orders" is only an excuse for so long.
    • Kayla Silverfox as well, since Stryker has her sister hostage.
  • Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: The film has Logan go mano-a-mano against Fred Dukes a.k.a. The Blob—without using his claws—to get information from him. Logan's glove-clad punches prove rather ineffective.
  • Race Lift: Agent Zero is a white guy of East German descent in the X-Men comics, but is played by Korean actor Daniel Henney.
  • Real Event, Fictional Cause: The film has a fictionalised version of the Three Mile Island incident, in which the nuclear plant is actually a secret laboratory for mutant experimentation, and a fight between Wolverine, Sabretooth and Weapon XI caused one of the plant's cooling towers to collapse.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Wolverine gives one to Kayla Silverfox when she's revealed to be allied with Stryker.
    Wolverine: That story you told me about the man who gets flowers for the moon. I had it backwards. I thought you were the Moon and I was your Wolverine, but you're the Trickster, aren't you? I'm just the fool who got played. Worst part of it is I should have known and I ignored my instincts. I ignored what I really am. That won't ever happen again...
  • Related in the Adaptation:
    • The film makes Sabretooth Wolverine's half-brother (as opposed to simply being another Weapon X experiment). Though it seemed to be Fanon before the movie was filmed, due to Dog (Wolverine's half-brother in the comic) having a resemblance to Sabretooth, this was later contraindicated. This also makes him a Composite Character.
    • Silverfox is the sister of, well, a character with diamond skin named "Emma", but whom Continuity Snarl means can't really be Emma Frost, although that was clearly the intention.
  • Retcon: Origins introduced a few to what was established in the first three films.
  • Retired Badass:
    • Fred Dukes and John Wraith become a boxer and his manager respectively, after Team X disbands.
    • Logan himself returns to the Canadian wilderness to become a Mighty Lumberjack.
  • Riding into the Sunset: Included near the end—before a subversion. Logan/Wolverine is carrying Kayla off into the sunset—then a pistol rises into the shot and a gunshot rings out as Stryker arrives with his adamantium bullets...
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Pretty much the whole point of the movie. Victor kills Kayla, so Logan makes a deal with Styker to get revenge on him, but then Stryker betrays him, so Logan is gunning for both of them, and then it turns out they're working together anyway...
  • Rule of Cool: The movie is generally considered at its best when it remembers that it's about Hugh Jackman running around stabbing people in the face.
  • The Runaway: In the beginning of the film, young James Howlett and Victor Creed ran away from home together after James stabs and kills Thomas Logan for murdering his father, then finds out that Thomas was his real father.

    Tropes S-T 
  • Saved by Canon:
    • It look like Wolverine is about slam his claws right in Sabretooth's throat. Granted, he just knock him unconscious but you already know that he wouldn't kill Sabretooth anyway since he appeared in X-Men, that takes many years after this movie.
    • Likewise, Wolverine himself, Stryker, and Cyclops are all guaranteed to survive.
  • Sequel Hook: The Stinger at the end shows Logan drinking away his sorrows in a Japanese pub. The Wolverine was intended to follow up on this, and does take place in Japan, but ended up as a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand instead of this film.
  • Sexy Surfacing Shot: The shot of Logan bursting out of the water tank while naked (shot from the waist up) is very much played for Fanservice complete with slow-mo, despite being a serious moment.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Exaggerated in a bedroom exchange between a traumatized Logan (whose healing powers make him well over a hundred years old) and his lover Kayla Silverfox.
    Kayla: Was it the war?
    Logan: Yes.
    Kayla: Which one?
    Logan: All of them.
  • Shirtless Scene: The film took this to an extreme, which was much to the delight of Hugh Jackman fangirls. During a dramatic escape scene, not only does he erupt from a tank of water completely shirtless (and indeed naked) (muscles + dripping water...) but he then proceeds to escape, running and fighting his way out of the building. Viewers get a lovable full-body shot (in which censorship is barely provided by his leg from a mostly-side-shot) when he jumps off a waterfall.
  • Shooting Superman: The military scientists who made Wolverine immune to bullets decide to stop him by sending an assassin, armed with bullets, to kill the man who is immune to bullets. As they watch their plan fail, they comment on the fact that the assassin never stood a chance because he wasn't using the special adamantium bullets they had right there next to them!
  • Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Wolverine destroys a helicopter by using his claws, a motorcycle, and a military Humvee as an impromptu catapult, allowing him to slice the rotors off of the helicopter mid-flight.
  • Sinister Scraping Sound: Sabretooth uses his nails to scratch Kayla's car before killing her.
  • Skyward Scream: This is done three times in the movie—when young James Howlett first grows his claws and when Logan finds Kayla's body being two.
  • Soft Water: Averted. Before jumping into the ocean to reach the island, Logan tells Gambit to his enjoyment that it will hurt very badly falling out of his plane. He actually skips across the water once or twice before falling in.
  • The Stinger: The film has, depending on your screening, either a now-amnesiac Logan in a bar, "drinking to remember" or the living disembodied head of Deadpool, having gained his mouth back and his Medium Awareness as well. DVD releases have both. There's also Colonel Stryker getting arrested, but everyone got that one.
  • Stout Strength: Blob, post-eating disorder.
  • Stumbling in the New Form: Wolverine has to get used to being much heavier and his claws much longer and sharper after the adamantium is fused to his skeleton. He wrecks a nice old couple's bathroom as a result.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Sabretooth taunts a young Cyclops by telling him that it's a little too dark to be wearing sunglasses. Of course, Cyclops kind of needs to wear them.
  • Super Team: Colonel William Stryker assembles Team X which features James Howlett, Victor Creed, John Wraith, Agent Zero, Christopher Bradley, Wade Wilson and Fred Dukes. Some of them don't get along very well.
  • Sword Sparks: Logan's claws have always done it some of the time, but in this movie, it's taken to unprecedented heights. When he's examining his new claws in a bathroom mirror, simply tapping them against each other is enough to strike sparks.
  • Taking the Fight Outside: When Wolverine finds his brother in a bar, the bartender nervously says, "Guys, whatever this is, take it outside." The brothers don't listen and a Bar Brawl ensues. They wreck the place, which is exactly what the bartender was trying to prevent.
  • Tears of Remorse: The film has Kayla pulling this when Wolverine muses about the folktale and that he is just a fool who got played due to the fact that she is blackmailed into working for Stryker.
  • Tele-Frag: John Wraith uses his ability to dodge Victor Creed's claw attacks, until Creed uses his knowledge of Wraith's fighting style to lead him, sticking his hand right where he knew John would end up, and aiming so well he's able to grab hold of his spinal column, and rip it out when Wraith tries to 'port again.
  • Teleport Spam:
    • Weapon XI effectively fights Victor and Wolverine at the same time by porting back and forth atop the ledge they're all standing on.
    • John Wraith. Weapon XI did borrow it from him, after all. Which doesn't help much when Victor figures out that he teleports in a predictable pattern, and gets him to teleport into roughly the same area as Victor's claws, with predictable results.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Logan brings down a helicopter and its mutant operator, who is then incapacitated and trapped. He could use his adamantium claws to stab his helpless victim, but decides instead to blow up the entire helicopter in a massive display of pyrotechnics.
  • They Were Holding You Back: This is apparently why Victor kills Kayla. Only it turns out, it was Stryker's plan, not Victor's, and Kayla is not actually dead.
  • Thunderbolt Iron: Adamantium is a rare mineral ore only found in meteorites. Stryker and his team decimated an African village just to obtain more.
  • Title Confusion: This film has the unnecessarily lengthy title X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and is referred to simply as Wolverine by most sane people. X-Men Origins is a bit of an Artifact Title; it was originally intended to be the first of a series of prequels focusing on the backgrounds of various characters (X-Men Origins: Magneto was in the works but got lost in Development Hell). Had this happened, the title, while still long, would have at least made sense because "X-Men Origins" would be the series name and "Wolverine" would be the movie name.
    • Not helped by the addition of The Wolverine to the franchise, so simply trying to talk about the film "Wolverine" will lead to confusion between this film and that one. Or, if the person you're talking to is particularly cheeky, confusion between all the X-Men films pre-X-Men: First Class, thanks to Wolverine's Spotlight-Stealing Squad status.
  • Token Good Teammate: Subverted. Wolverine was the most vocal and adamant about his disapproval of Team X's actions, but it turns out after his departure most of the rest left not long after, with only Zero and Victor staying behind. Logan simply set the example, as they realised what they had become.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • The military needs to stop Wolverine, who they've made immune to almost all weapons. To stop him they have at their disposal: An incredibly skilled marksman, and adamantium bullets capable of penetrating the adamantium shell around his skull and incapacitating him. Somehow the idea that they should combine these two things doesn't seem to occur to them.
    • Said marksman also thinks it's a good idea to take a jab at Wolverine when he has decided to let him live. After seeing the guy take down a helicopter.
    • John Wraith, whose only power is teleportation and who thinks the best way to take down a big angry guy with claws and a huge healing factor is to punch him out.
    • Kayla Silverfox has a Compelling Voice (which does require physical contact, but isn't shown to be blocked by clothing), yet still winds up being blackmailed by Stryker holding her sister hostage, despite several instances where she's within range to reach out, grab him, and order him to release her sister (and anything else she likes). The Stryker portrayed in X2: X-Men United ("Kill anyone who comes near, even if it's me!") probably would have had something in place to stop this from working, but the Stryker in this film (who's at least partially responsible for the first Too Dumb to Live example) probably wouldn't. She doesn't even attempt to use her power on him until she's literally dying.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer inadvertently revealed Weapon XI, whom Wolverine fights at the end of the film. And the toy packaging spoiled that he is Deadpool.

    Tropes U-Z 
  • Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: The film has this at the very beginning when a black ops group of mutants cram into an elevator. And then the bad guys cut the power. Deadpan Snarker Wade Wilson makes a comment about it, of course.
  • Understatement:
    • Logan's response when asked how his execution by firing squad went.
      Logan: It tickled.
    • Also this exchange, after a naked and traumatized Logan takes refuge in a barn just after gaining his adamantium skeleton.
      Travis Hudson: Had a rough night?
      Logan: You could say that.
  • Unflinching Walk: Wolverine lights a Vapor Trail from a downed helicopter and paces calmly away from the resulting Impressive Pyrotechnics.
  • Unobtanium: Adamantium comes from meteors. Specifically, sacred African meteors, making it this continuity's answer to Vibranium. Thus completing the transformation begun in the Ultimate Avengers films.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Logan goes into this state as he's escaping the Weapon X facility.
  • Unwitting Pawn:
    • The look on Wolverine's face when Blob tells him that Stryker was performing experiments on mutants and when he realizes what led him to willingly get his brand spankin' new adamantium skeleton... priceless.
    • Emma Silverfox becomes Stryker's hostage -> Kayla is forced to work for Stryker -> Kayla fakes her death as a part of their plan -> Wolverine accepts Stryker's offer to transform his bones into adamantium to avenge Kayla.
  • Vapor Trail: Wolvie ignites a spark with his claws. The fire travels up the trail of fuel leaking from Agent Zero's downed helicopter. Kerflooey.
  • Vehicular Assault: Wolverine takes down a helicopter (and previously a jeep).
  • Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Victor and Jimmy's first fight is Curb-Stomp Battle in Victor's favor. Then Jimmy gets his adamantium and wipes the floor with Victor.
  • Villainous Rescue: The film has Sabretooth saving Logan, because "Nobody gets to kill you but me!"
  • Was It All a Lie?: Wolverine mournfully asks this of Silver Fox after learning from Stryker that her death was all faked in order to trick him into voluntarily submitting to the admantium-bonding process in order to be able to beat Sabretooth, who he thought murdered her in cold blood, and who beat him senseless when he first tried to get revenge for her murder.
  • We Used to Be Friends:
    • The film details the relationship between James Howlett (Wolverine) and Victor Creed (Sabretooth), who are half-brothers. They were Bash Brothers to the very end until Victor's sociopathy goes off the deep end and causes James to lose his connection with Victor.
    • Victor also kills his old teammates.
  • What Are You: A shocked and disgusted Elizabeth Howlett directs this question to her son James, who has just sprouted bone claws.
  • Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: Stryker finally finds a way to shut Wade up by first sewing, and in the finished version, plastering his mouth shut. The Stinger shows the decapitation/fall of the head somehow opened it again.
  • Wolverine Claws:
    • Wolverine grows three retractable claws of bone in each hand in childhood, and has them upgraded to unbreakable, razor-sharp adamantium along with the rest of his skeleton later in the film.
    • Sabretooth has Wolverine Claws, what with him being Wolverine's brother. They grow out of his fingernails and are shorter than Wolverine's, but clearly operate on the same principle.
  • Wolverine Publicity: He's so popular that he gets his own movie. Also features fan-favorites Wade Wilson and Gambit.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Invoked by a young Victor Creed after James Howlett kills his family's groundskeeper. The boys are being pursued by lawmen and search dogs.
    Jimmy: I want to go home.
    Victor: We can't.
  • You Said You Would Let Them Go: Kayla Silverfox pleads with Stryker to honor their bargain and release her sister. When Stryker equivocates and says he needs more time, she quickly realizes that she and Victor was just as much Unwitting Pawns as Logan.

[shoots Weapon XI in the head]
Deadpool: Hey, it's me! Don't scratch! Just cleaning up the timelines. Love you!

 
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Wolverine is indestructible, thanks to his adamantium skeleton and healing factor, so why would a mere helicopter blowing up make him move a little faster?

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