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Why does Logan remember WWII and Yashida?

posted 8 years ago by leosgr8
5 replies | jump to latest

So why does he suddenly remember everything from WWII when he had his memory taken from him in 1979? This takes place before Days of Future Past (late timeline) and after X-Men III, so WTF? A major damn goof, or did I miss something. I don't read the comics (too many "universes" and ret-conned story lines), so the movies are all I know. Can somebody please clear this up?

[–] Xaeden 8 years ago

You missed a major plot point in "X2" where Wolverine started recovering his memories after Xavier set him on the path to do so before sending him to Alkali Lake at the end of the first movie. It's even explicitly stated that Xavier set him on that path so you might want to rewatch that movie. I will, however, quote a couple key points for you. The first is Wolverine and Xavier's conversation in Cerebro:

LOGAN: I need you to read my mind again.
XAVIER: I'm afraid the results will be the same as before.
LOGAN: We had a deal.
XAVIER: Logan, the mind is not a box to be simply unlocked and opened---it's a beehive with a million separate compartments. I don't doubt that your amnesia and...skeletal enhancements are connected, but...
LOGAN: Spare me the lecture. I'm not one of your students.
XAVIER: Logan, sometimes there are things the mind needs to discover for itself.

Here now is Xavier and Magneto's conversation in the plastic cell:

MAGNETO: And now you think that taking in the Wolverine will make up for your failure with Stryker's son... you haven't told him about his past, have you?
XAVIER: I've put him on the path, but Logan's mind is still fragile.
MAGNETO: Is it? Or are you afraid you'll lose one of your precious X-Men?

Combine that information with the observation of how he remembers things over the course of the movie (through dreams and visual/auditory stimuli). Then note that you also seem to have missed the dialogue in this movie after his WWII flashback. Wolverine wakes up from a dream and Jean asks him where he was. He tells her and she responds with, "That far back," indicating that we're watching him recover yet another a new memory.

The movie later has him remembering things from "X-men Origins: Wolverine," which they indicate by playing audio from that movie when he is waking up in Yashida's facility. "X-men: Days of Future Past" further references this by having him tell Xavier that he remembers fighting in a lot of wars.

And, again, this goes all the way back to the first movie and Xavier's promise to Wolverine:

XAVIER: I'll make a deal with you, Logan. Give me 48 hours to find what Magneto wants with you, and I swear I'll do all I can to help you piece together what you've lost... and what you're looking for.

It's also worth noting that "X-men" showed that he had recovered some flashes of memories in his dreams even before Xavier's help.

[–] leosgr8 8 years ago

Plausible, if not definitive. Thank you for your time and effort!

[–] Xaeden 8 years ago

I fail to see how it's not definitive when Xavier flat out said that he set Wolverine on the path to remembering more of his past at the same time as when we saw Wolverine having a series of recovered memories, including in dreams. Then "The Wolverine" opens with him having him going back to another part of his past in a dream, but okay.

[–] tmm_8705 8 years ago

Him recovering his memories was a continuing thread throughout the movies that by DOFP he's mostly regained them.

[–] The_paranoid_android 8 years ago

He still doesn't "fully remember" his life after losing his memory. In his dreams, he's remembering a part of his memory where he was a POW during World War II where Shingen saved his life and vice-versa. It's a nice bit of set-up for the movie, and might even be a bit of providence to start remembering his memory in order to be prepared for the journey ahead.

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