James Mangold and Hugh Jackman have cited many movies that carried a large influence over the creation of their 2017 X-Men feature
Logan and it's no surprise to hear that
Unforgiven was one particular movie Jackman saw as a guiding light for that final Wolverine movie (
The Wrestler was another, similar unsurprising, point of inspiration for Jackman). Both
Unforgiven and
Logan star actors who play older weary versions of iconic stock characters they became famous for playing inhabiting a more realistic world low on hope and high on danger. Because
Logan is dealing with an ex-superhero, the movie is able to end, after an entire film of bleak nastiness, on a note of hopefulness that the heroics
Logan once committed will inspire a new generation to rise up and become beacons of hope in their own right.
