Logan Director James Mangold Discusses The Film’s Emotional Final Moments

At this point, you’re probably sick of reading about how Logan‘s a “different” kind of superhero film, but that really is the case, and one of the reasons for this is the fact that it tells a self-contained story (for the most part, anyways) that’s unafraid to take risks with its characters in ways that we just don’t see enough in the big comic book movie franchises these days.

It’s been well documented that Logan would be Hugh Jackman’s final time in the claws for some time now and for that reason, many fans figured there was a good chance that Wolverine would finally meet his maker at the end, and sure enough, that’s exactly what happens after an intense battle with his younger clone, X-24.

The scene culminates with an emotional moment between Logan and his “daughter,” Laura (Dafne Keen), before the fallen warrior succumbs to his numerous injuries with a final line that’s had audiences reaching for the hankies in droves: “So that’s what it feels like.”

Logan’s last words can be interpreted a couple of different ways, and during a new interview with Collider, director James Mangold explained how co-writer Scott Frank came up with it, and why he knew it had to be the final words Jackman spoke in the film:

We were trading the script back and forth between NY and LA and he [Frank] wrote that line and sent it to me. Oh my God, I loved it, I knew those were the final words the second I read it, and to me it has two wonderful meanings and Hugh brilliantly plays both of them, one being for a man who has died 450 times in movies, let alone in his career, and yet never dies because of his healing factor, he has no idea, it’s like a tunnel he goes into and never comes out the other side, so there was that very literal meaning in relation to death. But there was also this moment of him holding his daughter’s hand and seeing utter emotion in her eyes and feeling the purest kind of love which is family love, and letting it in for the first time in his life.

Logan is now playing nationwide. Tell us, have you seen the final Wolverine movie yet? If not, do you plan to? Drop us a comment in the usual place and let us know.