Phase Zero
Home

The Wolverine

2013Film126 minX-MenEarth-10005

A man who cannot die goes to Japan to say goodbye to someone who is dying, and has his healing taken away from him.

It picks up directly after X-Men: The Last Stand, with Logan in the worst state the series has shown him: living rough, refusing to be anyone, and haunted by Jean Grey. An old acquaintance in Japan calls in a debt, and the film turns into something the series had not attempted, which is a smaller story with one location and a mortal protagonist.

Stripping the healing factor is the whole idea. Every fight after that point costs him something that will not grow back by the next scene, and the film is better whenever it remembers that.

Show detailsA running time worth arguing about

An unrated extended edition exists. The article this entry is drawn from says in one sentence that it contains twelve extra minutes, and in the next that the British Board of Film Classification timed it at 132 minutes and 22 seconds, “only six minutes longer” than the theatrical cut.

Both cannot be true against a 126 minute theatrical running time. This catalogue records the theatrical figure, which is the one the infobox gives, and leaves the contradiction visible rather than quietly picking a side.

Who is in it

How it connects

Watching these first makes this one land.

  1. X-Men: The Last Stand2006

This one sets these up.

  1. X-Men: Days of Future Past2014

Sources

Facts last checked on Sep 7, 2026

Released: July 26, 2013