Film Theory: The REAL Reason Wolverine is DYING! (LOGAN)

In Logan™, our titular hero has lost a step or two. He is gray, he is hardened and, at 140 years old, he now faces his most formidable challenge yet... Discovering a smartphone. Oh

real

ly! This guy fought in World War I™. You KNOW that every selfie he took has his thumb in it and that he sent Cyclops™ like 3000 notifications from Farmville™ * Dope X-Men™ intro theme * HELLO INTERNET™. Welcome to FILM THEORY™ The show that mixes science with superheroes and only gets better with age. You know what else improves with age? Wolverine™, apparently. Because Logan™ is EXCELLENT. It wasn't just a good superhero movie.

It was a good movie that features superheroes. You should ABSOLUTELY go see it. Both for that

reason

and because this episode is full of minor spoilers. You have been warned. Enter at your own risk. OKAY, now let's talk about what

real

ly caught my attention about Logan™. He is older, weaker, and his healing factor is slower and less powerful than it has been historically. The explanation Logan™ gives us in the movie is that his Adamantium™ skeleton is poisoning him. And while I really liked the movie, something about that explanation of his sudden manification didn't add up to me.

I mean, why now? Why would the almighty Wolverine™ have seen no side effects from his Adamantium™ skeleton for decades, only to find out now that he is so deadly? So I rolled up my sleeves, did some research, and most importantly, asked my partner Stephanie™. that she has a background in medical science to explain all the big scientific words to me. And I have come to a conclusion. Simply put, Logan is wrong. I mean, yes, he is aging and his body is decomposing, but it is not because of Adamantium™. And we can prove it with Batman's voice: WITH SCIENCE First, it's important to make a few things clear for those of you who aren't fans of the MCU or who just always liked that Charles thought Logan was too conventional, I mean, seriously, every X-Men movie just shoehorns it in somehow even if it doesn't make sense.

I'm looking at you X-Men: Apocalypse It's important to distinguish Logan's mutation from Logan's fancy adamantium implants. Mutants have many superpowers that allow them to transform parts of their body, but Logan's genetic mutations only involve part of what you've seen on screen Genetically, his real X-Men powers are his feral senses, his ultra-healing ability, and six claws. of bone found in their hands. The adamantium that he is so famous for and that is supposedly poisoning him in this movie is just an add-on. about him receiving a traumatic event in a lab in the 1970s that we see in his backstory in other

film

s.

That's important to remember because with Logan we're dealing with both natural DNA mutations and man-made modifications that make it look like a heart transplant. It's like a walk in the park and you can see why you would think adamantium is the problem with him, right? I mean, it would kill most people and he probably went on WebMD and said *imitates Logan's voice* "Adamantium poisoning. Yeah, it has to be that, dude. By the way, have you ever been on WebMD and seen tried to diagnose your own stomach pain or something? Nobody comes out with a simple solution like "Hey, that corndog gave me gas" No, you come out of there diagnosing yourself with parasitic worms AND cancer AND irritable bowel syndrome, right? ?...Yes?

Okay. And since Logan is so sure he has adamantium poisoning, he won't even let a doctor diagnose it, so let's go ahead and see if that's the short answer. , many studies have shown that in normal human anatomy metal implants can cause big problems for people, especially over time, as people begin to age Hip implants, cranial plates in people's heads. and even dental implants slowly corrode over time. Although we don't think of this particular matter in our bodies as being reactive on a molecular level, our own body's water and oxygen slowly oxidize the surface of the metal and if you've ever looked at a bicycle left in the rain or the Statue of Liberty, You will know that metal does not like water or oxygen because it produces things like rust.

Now imagine that in your body, where those rusty metal molecules break down and do all kinds of weird things, like prevent your bones from absorbing calcium. or mess up the electrical currents in your heart, although modern medicine makes implants as stable as possible, there is metallic corrosion in all types of metal: stainless steel, cobalt and even titanium implants, so it is definitely possible that the adamantium may have the same effects, especially on someone who has had implants for as long as Logan and has all the worth of a skeleton. I mean, seriously, he's putting grandpa's knee replacement to shame.

So, it's adamantium poisoning then, right? What are we doing here? Because adamantium poisoning is not even CLOSE to the whole story! First of all, we would have no explanation for the moment of Logan's decline. Why now, after more than 100 years? If Adamantium had been slowly poisoning him over time, you'd think you'd have seen something about it somewhere in the movies before this, even if there's a gap in the timeline between this one and the last one. But I already heard you. making a very plausible argument: "No, we wouldn't have seen adamantium poisoning before this because of Logan's healing factor." Logan's healing factor would have covered it up and we would have never known... and you know what?

You're right. Until this movie, Logan's healing factor would have been running at full power to ensure that the negative effects of metal poisoning were cured immediately. That's why Logan is the only character to have an adamantium skeleton. Other test subjects died, but the healing factor kept Logan alive, but in this movie, that no longer happens. We see everything that hurts Logan, from gunshots to broken glass and even the adamantium in his own body. But that means it's not the adamantium poisoning that's killing him, it's the loss of his healing factor. His genetically given superpower is fading and he's just figuring out all the other problems he's had all this time and this is where Logan goes wrong. about what's killing him, so Logan's healing power is gone, but how does a member of the X-Men lose his abilities?

He is genetic. It is literally in every cell of his body. Most of them can't even choose to turn it off if they want, like Rouge and Cyclops. Well, if we want to understand why Logan's healing factor no longer works, we first need to understand how your own genes can change over time. It's easy to think that you have the same genes from the day you are born to the day you die, but that's just a clever trick our biology teachers have been telling us to give us more time to eat. in the staff room Take the wool out of your eyes, internet!

You will find that as you age, your genes change all the time. Mutations in your genes occur randomly. About 1x10^-10 per base pair in real terms, that means your entire genome (all the genes in a cell) has about 0.32 mutations every time your cell divides or About one change in the genome for every three divisions. And if that doesn't seem like a lot, consider this: in adults, about 50 million cells die every day and all of them need to be replaced. You can imagine that for Logan that number will be much higher every time he catches bullets from a machine gun with your face and how big your genome is, honestly, that number of errors isn't bad at all, the good news is that most of these mutations are silent and don't seem to have an effect on anything.

At least not by themselves. Every once in a while you get a mutation that does something really cool. If you're in a Marvel movie that gives you icy breath, or sloths that shoot your eyes out, hence the

reason

why the entire X-MEN universe exists, but those kinds of genetic changes even in the X-universe MEN, it's really rare genetic changes that are more common and what's really happening in Logan includes something called "cellular senescence." You know, when they say someone becomes senile, it means that they go a little crazy when they get older Well, senescence is like that for your geniuses, it's the same root of the word, so you can say HA, this is a secret grammatical episode for nerdy booyah.

When you get older, your tempers start to go a little crazy. And develop a bit of a short fuse *BOOM* Watch every time your cells divide, your chromosomes clump together, and get pulled into your new little cells by things called "TELOMERES." Telomeres look like little loops or strands of DNA, but they're actually just more DNA attached to the end of your chromosomes. If your chromosomes are like bumper cars, telomeres are like bumpers, they're big extra chunks of foreign DNA at the ether end of the chromosome. chromosome that cushions it in case something bad happens What happens if your cell accidentally fails to copy the entire DNA strand?

Okay, you just cut a piece of the telomere and that DNA sequence didn't really matter anyway. These buffers also prevent two chromosomes from sticking together so your body doesn't do really weird things and you don't grow that awkward third nipple in the middle of puberty. You won't experience that in gym class, my friends. However, the only problem is that telomeres become shorter and shorter as you age. ...remember those telomeres are taking all the hits for you, so over time those buffers are depleted after a certain number of replications called the 'HAYFLICK FLICK LIMIT'. And once those babies are gone, you start to have real problems now that the bumper car no longer has a bumper, it starts to take damage, every hit causes a dent, and eventually the chromosomes can no longer replicate at all.

That's when you start to see things like replication errors, larger genetic mutations really starting. ruin the way your body works on a larger scale, this is why even super marathon runners can't live forever. Because no one's telomeres can stay strong for hundreds of years, and it turns out the same is true for Logan, while Logan is clearly capable of doing some amazing things like super-fast replicating his cell to heal the bullets in his own heart, and literally defying gravity with your hair. His healing factor is a DNA mutation. His X-Men mutation means he can only last.

As long as his DNA remains intact, but what happens when he divides many times and his telomeres shorten to protect that DNA? Over time, those telomeres take a lot of hits. They slow down or are poorly copied and eventually I won't be able to protect the real DNA that matters. Now every time he splits, let's face it, there's A LOT going on in Logan because of all the healing he has to do. Any mistakes that are made are being made in the real DNA, the DNA that is maintained. For most people, when telomeres shorten we start to see things like gray hair and arthrodesis, but for Logan, the DNA damage from the sequence that gives him his mutant cure means he literally can't stop.

There are no more bullets. The damage to his X-Men genius is giving him a death sentence. Suddenly, fewer and fewer of his cells have the healing factor he needs to maintain his ability. It doesn't happen all at once, which is why we see the power of it. Slowly instead of stopping completely in the movie, his old functional cells are being replaced by new ones, new cells with a new mutation, a slightly altered DNA sequence that nullifies his super healing abilities and also makes him susceptible. to things like diseases. or other things that might be going around in his body like, for example, 50 years of corroded adamantium that his healing factor has been covering up all this time.

So in the end, the most important thing here is that it's not actually the adamantium that's killing Logan. He had been dealing with adamantium in his skeleton for literally decades and it had never bothered him before. He's really

dying

because his own genius is crumbling and his X-Men mutation is being damaged. One or two base pairs in that X-Men DNA sequence have been mutated. so that he can no longer save him. In short, a DNA mutation gave Logan his powers, and now a mutation due to old age is taking them away, which means that in the end what's really killing Logan is irony.

Oh well. that's just a

theory

A MOVIE THEORY And... cut, but you know what superpowers Logan had that didn't go away with age, awesome facial hair, I mean, old Logan looks a little disheveled throughout the entire movie first because there is no knife in that abandoned water tower where he had Charles *SPOILER* and then there is the scene at theending where all the children cut their beards with scissors WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? Superhero sideburns need the best treatment, they need the DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB treatment First, you order Dollar Shave Club online and Boom they deliver it right to your door, even if that door is an abandoned water tower in the desert.

IT'S SO quick and easy, which is especially helpless when you're on the run and the quality of these razors is top-notch. They are amazing, seriously, it's like the best razor I've ever had, sturdy and for a fraction of what I pay for the cheap flimsy ones from the store. So no more pairs of old, rusty scissors, Logan is simply the smarter choice. Fast and with great quality at an excellent price. Honestly, that's why I made the change, to give my superhero the treatment he deserves and so you can give yourself the superhero treatment by following the special link provided only to us theorists, you see it on the screen .

Right now it is https://dollarshaveclub.com/

film

theory

.link in the description that you can click on. For just $1, a dollar, you get your first month and that's any razor ANY razor in their entire line. So a pro tip orders the executive, like I said, it's the nicest razor I've ever owned. I bought it myself AND it's only $1 more, it comes with 4 files. I used to think shaving was just one of those daily choruses you have to do. But Dollar Shave Club really makes a difference, making shaving fun and hard work. Razor like the executive I really feel like a superhero.

And you know you deserve to feel that way, so click the link in the description or visit our special URL dollarhaveclub.com/filmtheory and get your first month for $1. There is no special rate, you are not committed to anything, you can cancel any time you want, just give it a try, you will be glad you did. Hey, if you shave your face Wolverine style, send me that photo on Twitter, I'd love to use it. in a future episode SO ANYWAY, that's all I have to say for today, so now if I may, there's a tale as old as time with my name on it, see you next week *whispers and screams * click the link, click itttt