The only thing killing Wolverine is the fact the Hugh Jackman doesn't wanna play him anymore. Its the only theory that works

I thought it was implied that the food and drink had been tampered with to suppress mutations. That's why there are no new mutants. And his healing power is trying to work against the supressant, but is slowly losing

If you think about it his body is 140 but because of days of future past his mind is 195!

In the comics they dealt with this in 2 separate occasions. When magneto stripped Logan of his adamantium, his healing factor was boosted significantly, alluding and sometimes stating that his healing factor was hindered by his coated skeleton. In Old Man Logan, his age finally caught up to him to a degree where his healing factor was diminished and took longer to heal. All in all, his healing factor was simply overtaxed by constantly working to make sure he stayed alive.

To sum up the whole video in short - 'Logan is getting old'

i love how everyone misses the fact in this movie that the food they eat contains stuff that disables mutant genes, so no new mutants can be born.......

For my boi Wade, this means that somehow, when he got the healing ability, a the mutation that caused it to ramp up for him, also caused his chromosomes to gain the ability to repair their endings, otherwise he’d pretty much be suffering the same problem. This is actually a thing that scientists have been trying to figure out, because if we could learn how to repair those dna bits, people could probably live to be at least 200 years old

The whole theory is built under the assumption that Logan has lost his healing powers, but the movie seems to suggest rather, that Logan's healing has hit its limit with the adamantium. As mentioned, the metal in his body has begun to corrode over time, this would increase geometrically/exponentially over time, until his natural healing cannot keep up with it anymore. This is seen in movies like "The Wolverine" where the robotic parasites in his body kept his healing surpressed.

It is explained in the Movie itself, when the Villain Doctor tells him that they stopped People from having random Mutations by using gene therapy over the food. The farmer tells him too, that all the fields are full of genetically engineered Corn. So basically, Logan by eating stuff with this gene food ingredient day by day, is slowing his own healing factor down. He is aging faster and he even has scars left after healing up. His mutation is trying to fight the gene therapy that tries to block his mutation an is slowly losing the fight, because he is constantly eating more of that stuff.

The REAL Reason Wolverine is dead is because Hugh Jackman left the role.....

0:12, “he fought in WW1!” Casually shows a landing boat of D-Day WW2

This is the most sensible. Basically, Logan does age, but his healing factor masked his aging and extended his natural life. Eventually, he breaks down just as everyone does.

When you call Hugh Jackman, "Wolverine" in every movie he casted

In the Movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Yukio Tells Wolverine that he will die with his 'Heart in his Hands' Wolverine doesn't die then. Despite this, Yukio was still right. In the Movie Logan, Wolverine dies holding his DAUGHTER'S Hand. His Daughter was 'His Heart'

Actually, my theory is that some of his healing ability was extracted by Yashida in The Wolverine 2013. So he lost most of his healing factor.

This is my theory....when Logan had his healing ability stolen, that was the moment he lost his immortality. It sort of was like it was cut in half or reduced. So when he got his power back he only got about half of what was taken or should we call it "shared". So instead of never aging now he will age.

Nobody can replace Hugh in wolverine... Rather kill the character off then offend him with cheap actors.

"Get this man a Vibranium Skeleton" -T'Challa in some timeline

The food was implied to be altered to suppressed mutant genes. As stated by a comment from Lupo it caused there to be no more mutants. That why in order to get mutants they had to make them in a lab and use a serum on the clone wolverine to make him heal up properly. So I agree with the theory but I believe the healing factor being so advance kept the loss of DNA because remember he served practically in every war, possibly a Samurai, and that’s Hundreds of years. Which means the cell theory could of and probably should of happen sooner

I love this show so much. I can't afford to go back to school and it was really boring anyway and this is one thing that really scratches that academic itch. Thanks for waking up my brain!

it's not because he is getting old, in the Logan wiki, from the movie "When the Reavers capture the children, Logan takes an overdose of a serum given to him by Rictor that temporarily enhances his healing abilities and boosts his strength. With Laura's help, he slaughters most of the Reavers, but the serum wears off. As Pierce holds Rictor at gunpoint, Rice tells Logan, who killed Rice's father years ago at the Weapon X facility, that "no new mutants have been born due to a virus created by Transigen and distributed through the world's food supply", also causing the decay of Logan's healing factor. "A Virus, which is causing the decay of Logan's healing factor."

They put the anti mutant stuff in all the food and drinks. Meaning it eventually turn of his powers

it is explained in the comics that his adamantuim is poisining but it cant his healing gene is too strong for it to battle and in logan they explain that the food is poisined to suppress mutations so the food is supressing his healing ability making it so his adamantuim can poisin him

A lot of research goes into every one of your videoes, I can appreciate that, you just earned yourself a subscriber.

Not only was logan in ww2. He also fought in ww1 and the civil war. He is 196 years old. And if you count the years with the days of future past age he is around 250 years old

Logan is not 140 he is 190 he was in the civil war jeez come on matpat

As a person who underwent scoliosis surgery almost a decade ago, I now have a new fear. Thanks, Matt!

What mat thinks:it’s his cells ripping apart What it is:T R E E

That was the smoothest sponsorship I have ever seen .

Wolverine will never die, as long as they don't replace the iconic Hugh Jackman as Logan in future films.

I really like this theory, it sounds very interesting to me, and it sounds somewhat realistic. And if mutants like the X-Men were truly real; In real life then I can imagine this theorized explanation might be used.

who’s here after we find out he’s coming back

I learned more science than I did in school.

What About When He Literally Stabbed Himself And Stuck his hand into his rib cage to get the heart parasite out??

It was Charles. Every time he had an episode, Logan was the only one to get close to him so I contend that professor X was unconsciously switching his healing factor off so Logan couldn't stop him dying. As soon as he dies, the mental and physical blocks (he crippled the world physically as well as mentally when he had a fit) would be literally healed over time. Logan is what 300 years old. He loses his power over a few years. It wouldn't fade that quickly. Just saying

I really enjoy these. Subscribed good sir

Logan:My skeleton is poisoning me Iron Man 2: Tony: **AHEM**

My theory is that Adamantium has always been poisonous but due to his healing factor that didnt matter in his Prime. But in Logan when it was confirmed that Wolverine was weaker due to anti mutant drugs mixed by government in the movie..That results in his aging and death from adamantium.

hey if you paid closer attention it was that there was a mutant cure in the alcohol which weakens his healing factor and that's why he's dying to his adamantium

You have to give it up for the writers that they were fully aware of what was killing him and despite saying it was adamantium it fits perfectly with his healing factor diminishing. It was either on purpose or a brilliant mistake that was somehow perfectly correct.

Strange. I thought adamantium was supposedly immune all forms of damage. Would that not include corrosion?

Biologist here to provide a critique of your science, MatPat. I like the foundation of your theory. You made a few misleading and not entirely accurate statements, but I will overlook those out of the desire to not be overly critical. Telomeres have been implicated in certain aging diseases and Logan's advanced age made my thoughts go to progressive telomere shortening as well. However, telomeres can be quite long and variable. In humans, the six base repeat TTAGGG repeats up to 2500 times. But even this is not long enough for us normal humans. After about 30 divisions telomeres can be lost. This is why cultured cells will typically not last forever; the "Hayflick Limit," as you mentioned. This telomere shortening presents a problem which Eukaryotes have presented an elegant solution: the enzyme telomerase. The enzyme telomerase works to extend the length of telomeres at the end of chromosomes. While this may seem to punch a hole in your theory, there is still a saving grace: Telomerase is not active in every cell in your body. Telomerase will primarily function in cells your gametes, cells responsible for creating sperm. With how frequently they divide, you wouldn't want your kids to get faulty telomeres, right? Telomerase is also functional in adult stem cells present in your bone marrow brain, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, liver. These cells divide and differentiate to produce new, fresh cells for your body. Cell lines with active telomerase have high longevity, like cancer cells. Some cell lines are even immortal (HeLa Cells). Personally, I think that Logan's healing factor comes from his ability to protect and induce these pluripotent stem cells to rapidly divide to restore his body. Since they have functional telomerase, I believe that telomere shortening would not hugely affect him. Granted, that is just conjecture. Even if some of his older living cells began to have shortened telomeres, you must remember to consider each cell individually. Some cells will lose their telomeres faster than others. Those with no telomeres on a chromosome may no longer undergo cell division and will instead trigger apoptosis due to the cell's DNA damage response for those that still divide despite the lack of telomeres. The death of these cells leaves only those with remaining telomeres to remain. Despite everything that I have mentioned, I do think that your theory does have some validity. Keep up the good work MatPat! Some info for the curious: (Sorry for the lack of any good primary literature) archive.org/stream/LifeTheScienceOfBiology9thEd./Life,%20The%20Science%20of%20Biology%20(9th%20Ed.)_djvu.txt I changed my mind about ignoring the little things: 7:43 The packing of chromatin into the familiar X structure of chromosomes during cell division was accurate, but it is the structure called the centromere and kinetocore, not telomeres, that allow it to be pulled into separate cells by microtubules. 7:51 You got that detail right! There is indeed a known looping structure at the end of telomeres! Good research matpat! But they aren't just attached to chromosomes. They are literally a part of your DNA sequence. 9:50 The loss of dna per replication is anywhere between 50 and 200 base pairs. Depending on the location of his mutant gene (could be found through chromosome mapping experiments), it is unlikely to reach anything important.

The intro- *Its beautiful*

in the movie, he was supposed to be 197 years old.

heres whats really killing Wolverine. Fox Studios.

Logan's healing factor is going away because of age. He's not immortal, he just ages very slowly thanks to his natural healing factor. If it weren't for the adamantium, it's difficult to say for how many years he would have lived before his healing factor wore out and he died of natural causes. However, when he got his adamantium implants in the 70s by Weapon X, it was an experimental procedure and they hadn't perfected neither the process, nor purified the adamantium. That's why the particular adamantium implants he has is poisoning him. At first, it wasn't a problem since he was at the peak of his adulthood and his healing factor was potent enough to make up for it. Think of it like Deadpool and his cancer; it's constantly killing him, but his healing factor is constantly battling it. So we know that Logan (aka James Howlett) was born in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada between 1882-1885 (source:marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Origin_Vol_1_2; marvel.wikia.com/wiki/X-Men:_Prelude_to_Schism_Vol_1_4). We also know that his bones were bonded with adamantium by the Weapon X Program somewhere in the early 70's (probably 72 or 73)(Source:marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel_Comics_Presents_Vol_1_73). Therefore, if we say Logan was born in 1882, and he received the adamantium in 1972, he would have been 90 years old. Judging by his appearance, he looked like a normal adult around his 30s at the time, so for the sake of simplicity, let's assume 90 years for wolverine = 30 years for a normal person. This would mean that Logan ages 1 year for every 3 normal human years. In the movie Logan, we're told they're in the year 2029. That would make Wolverine (aka Logan, aka James) 147 years old or 49 for a normal person. He's old, but he's not THAT old. So the theory that he's dying or losing his healing abilities solely because of his telomeres is a stretch. It's a coupling of his healing factor slowing down with age AND the adamantium that has been poisoning him over the last 57 years. Also, to those who didn't understand the GMOs in the movie, they're not killing off existing mutants, they're just preventing new ones from being born. It's somehow suppressing the x-gene from appearing in newborns, that's why mutants have almost all but died out. However, existing mutants aren't affected. They are most likely either being hunted down by anti-mutant groups (which are popular in the x-men universe) or they've gone into hiding, like Logan, Xavier and Caliban. It is also implied that due to his old age and deterioration of his mutant powers, professor X is losing control and having powerful seizures as seen in the movie. It is mentioned in the movie that he had one such instance in Chesterfield (the X-Men Mansion) and it is implied that because of it, he killed most if not all of the mutants at the school. This would have probably tarnished the x-men's reputation and labeled mutants as dangerous ticking time bombs (like they also allude to in the movie) thus building more anti-mutant sentiment and propaganda.

Would his "healing factor" not prevent this from happening? Like would the dna not heal too?

well, officially logan is in its own independent timeline from all the other movies. and think about it, the happy endind of days of future past was in 2023, logan is in 2029. in logan no new mutants have been born in 25 years, so if they were in the same timeline, no new mutants would have been born in 19 years in the end of DOFP, yet we see Xaviers school happy and thriving, it doesnt add up

I thought the reason his Healing Factor was poisoned was because of what Zander Rice described. The contaminated food that kills the mutant genes might have weakened every mutant slowly, taking away Logan's healing factor and possibly poisoning Xavier's powers as well, leading up to his Alzheimer's and mortal seizures.

1.adamantium don't rust. 2. Logan's healing factor heals faster than adamantium poisoning. 3. Logan's healing factor was suppressed with the gmo corn used to suppress the mutant x gene. 4. Logan died by corn

All of that research and all of those facts made this video awesome! To bad that in the movie itself it gave the real reason why wolverine lost his healing ability. They had developed a cure and it was distributed in food and drink by placing it in corn syrup. So with all of the liquor and junk food he had been placing in his body it finally overcame his ability to heal from it. There for he had been getting the cure for years before the movie took place. Love your channel though! Take care and stay awesome 🙂

Coming back all this time later to say thanks for the lesson on telomeres. This video is the only reason I know what they are and that knowledge is finally helping in college!!

Logan is immortal He's been born long before the civil war, also he was fighting androids in the future as shown on the xmen origins wolverine game. If it was oxidation his body would have just purged the rust since his body spits out bullets, not to mention that his chromosomes regenerate and he seemingly never stops healing. If humans dna deteriorates in 80 years then wolverine would be dead already. He's like almost 400 years old They only killed him because Hugh is sick of being in xmen movies.

One of the more popular theories that is hinted at during the film is that the main villain of the film, Dr. Zander Rice has been growing corn with a chemical that weakens the mutant gene in both babies and existing mutants. Since corn syrup is used in many things, the chemical has gotten to almost all the mutants. This is why there have been no mutant born for 20 years. The chemical is also what makes Logan's mutant powers weaker, making his healing factor weaker as well, letting the adamantium poison him since his body can't heal that fast anymore. The farmer in the middle of the movie even tells logan that the government took control of his crops, and Dr.Rice revealed it briefly at the end of the movie

Won't the Healing Factor mutations just heal the cell itself and this those protective parts you talked about heal too?

Its a good theory for old man logan. But other versions of wolverine lived much longer and still had the same healing factor. It depends on what the writers want it to be. Old man Logan is interesting because of the threat of his death it added a wrinkle to a character that seemed unstoppable which can become tired. An immortal is only so interesting, making him mortal leaves you on the edge of your seat.

I gotta say, that was the smoothest Segway into an ad ever

I think I may have an idea for a theory. The theory should be How did Indiana Jones survive an atomic blast in a refrigerator

You know what's funny we can solve this problem with CRISPER and the funny thing is you don't need a big lab to do it you just need to be able to follow directions with basic equipment. This is explained in great detail in a Netflix show I watched called Unnatural selection.

I always thought that in Origins when he cut the thing out of his chest that stopped his mutation from working, that when the time line changed in days of future past it was never removed so in Logan he got old and couldnt heal as good. I dunno prolly easy to refute but just my thoughts.

ok, I thought the answer this was actually explained in the movie. as long as you had the right background info. background info- Logan has healing factor and adamantium on his bones. Logan has always had adamantium poisoning, he just healed through it. it's also important to note that logan has also always healed the aging process. (He is even much much older than the professor.) new info given in movie: Logan has aged somehow, something is poisoning logan, and they have been putting something in public foods to deter mutant powers (they described this as why the mutants are not being born and dying out) obvious conclusion: this stuff in the food is not just preventing kids from developing powers, but lowering all current mutant powers too. (it otherwise doesn't make sense that the mutants are "dying off" when the professor is still alive. they obviously aren't dying of old age. they are just losing their powers). And since Logan is also losing his healing factor, he started aging again and started to be affected by the adamantium poisoning. Easy answer given by the movie itself.

Logan was actually 247 years old since he got sent back and lived another 50 years till 2023

0:21 this hit me in the feels R.I.P Ronnie

This Is Like LUST From FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Anime. LUST Is A Villain From FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST And She Is A Homunculus. Homunculus Is A Immortal Human With Amazing HEALING FACTOR Just Like LOGAN And LUST Got Killed By Fire.She Got Burned,Burned, And Burned Until She's Loss The HEALING FACTOR And Then Die. Almost Like LOGAN:(): R.I.P. LOGAN R.I.P. LUST And Thanks For Reading.

It's not adamantium poisoning, it's the Legacy virus, which is mentioned heavily in comics leading up to and surrounding the Old Man Logan comic story.. The movie left out a ton of details about this, but they make subtle references to it. It's the reason most of the other mutants are dead, why a mutant hasnt been born in like almost 30yrs and why Wolverine, is losing his ability to heal.. It essentially is like Mutant Cancer/AIDS/Ebola

This whole video can be summed up in one sentence: *Wolverine isn’t immortal, he’s just getting old*

I love that Matt gives Steph credit for her contribution! :)

Intro was awesome bro so much nostalgia

The chromosomes dont get pulled by the Telomeres, they get pulled by the centromeres. Telomere shortening is a DNA replication issue, not a cell division issue.

Honestly this video made me learn more than four years of science in high school. TEACH ME DNA THROUGH THE XMEN.

Hey matpat I have a question for you, how could Logan's healing DNA mutation not heal his telomeres?

there’s only one thing i wonder, near the end of the movie he takes the serum thing which restores his healing factor, so that means every cell has his healing factor once again, resulting in this breakdown process having to happen all over again meaning he should’ve been fine, just a thought

okay, SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you watch the movie closely, you'll notice you are actually wrong about telomer damage causing this. The story makes it quite clear actually that mutants are losing their powers because the food supply has been deliberately tainted with gene therapy aimed at wiping out mutant x-genes, causing mutants to lose their powers and preventing new mutants to be born. This has caused Logan's healing factor to deteriorate, making him vulnerable to adamantium poisoning. So what is killing him isn't old age, it is genetic poisoning by Doctor Rice.

That advertisement at the end was so smooth matpat... almost as smooth as the shave you'll get with the dollar shave club

If there was damage to the telomers wouldn't his healing factor just add some new ones? I dont know much about this so, sorry if this is wrong

Here's why I think adamantium poisoning could be a factor- in the original xmen timeline, Logan gets his magical metallic grafts in the 90s. After DOFP timeline reset, he gets them in the 70s. Depending on the exact year, he could now be a metallic mutant maniac for an additional 20-30 years. Just saying that IF the metal was going to affect his healing factor, it has more time to do so now.

I'm sure a few people already brought it up, but I always felt that the reason his healing factor was slowing down had something to do with the mutagen or whatever it was that they put in the food to keep mutants from occurring naturally. He probably ate his fair share of it and if it started to break down the x gene in his body then yes the Adamantium would be responsible for his symptoms. Not necessarily because Adamantium oxidizes I'm pretty sure that its magic metal properties would keep it from rusting, but I'm sure that encasing your bones in anything would lead to some crazy body functions such as bone marrow issues etc.

In the comics that Logan is based on, it's explained that his healing factor is essentially "worn down" from the metal poisoning from the adamantium. Just like how Deadpool is essentially a walking shit-talking clump of cancer cells being constantly healed, Logan's healing factor is at all times being taxed by the adamantium poisoning. In the original trilogy films, Days of Future Past, etc. he's obviously fine because he isn't suffering from the adamantium poisoning yet, or it hasn't begun to affect his healing. But by the time of "Old Man Logan", he's had the adamntium long enough that it is both poisoning him and constantly taxing his healing factor. It's not entirely gone either, but he can't tank a spray of bullets and keep trucking like he used to be able to. He's still able to heal faster than the average human, but slower than he could previously. So, you're not entirely wrong, but you are a little late. :P

Well...the thing with the telomeres is not wrong, but at Logans age and after that many wounds, it seems to me that his cells have the ability to recover those lost ends of the chromosomes just like some animals are actually able to. But that's just my point of view.

You know, there was this one guy who claimed to have put anti-mutant serum in corn syrup. But, all the alcohol that Logan consumes, contains that corn syrup. So, he has been consuming the anti-mutant serum this whole time. That's why his healing factor has been deteriorating.

Wouldnt the healing factor heal the telomeres

In the comics (where the movie is based of) its implyed that the adamantium in Logas has been messing with the healing factor from the start. The healing used to be instant before the project x.

This is one of my favorite openings to a theory vid!!

These is one of the few ones Mat has done that makes so much sense to me.

If he went to wakanda Evacuate the city Engage all defensive And get this man a vibrainuim skeleton

Wouldn't a theoretical healing factor like logan has, heal the telomeres of his dna. Considering it can rapidly and extensively heal any part of his body, why would it limit itself in the size of repairs?

They actually said in the movie that they had the mutant cure in the corn starch and Logan’s powers are slowly fading away because of his alcoholism, which has corn starch in it

Old people understanding science after many, many years : Me, understanding time travel and genetics after watching a few 10 minute videos: Smert

Because of the spoiler, it took me almost a month to watch this video

Biggest problem with this theory: Logan's cells replicate more often than the average person, therefore if his telomeres are not protected by his mutation, then he would have aged faster than normal people rather than not at all for almost 200 years.

Seems like a good case. We don't really have enough mutants in the universe that has lived as long as Logan to see the effects of long term aging in their DNA. The actor couldn't be Logan forever since he will age out, so its a fitting that the character also has the same issue. Though kind of opens the door to future past episodes and comic where is still alive though slightly older, though we don't know how well he was healing at those times. It would have been nice to have seem that in the movie having both professor X and Logan facing old age. Anyway a great swan song for both. If only Luke could have gotten the same care.

But isn’t it also possible that because he had to heal all the adamantium damage it also shortened his telomeres, which means adamtium could have been a factor, also it fused with him so who’s to say it didn’t do something wonky to his dna

Remember in Toby's "spiderman2"? Peter Parker chose not to be spiderman and thus, his powers are gone(until later in the movie). In this movie, Logan seriously wants to die and he declines his healing powers, so I guess it's his choice to die ?

Hey just think that Logan’s healing factor is like T-Mobiles unlimited data you think you have all of the data you want but then it slows down and is nothing

It makes a lot of sense and I love this theory and channel, but would those healing genes just repair the other healing genes?

Do an episode theorizing what happens in between days of the future past and Logan

Well he would have survived if he was brought to Wakanda. Just saying.

Matpat. I love you. But this was explained during the film itself. Do you remember the doctor that Wolverine killed near the end? He had modified food and water to inhibit the "x-gene" in people, which inhibited Wolverine's healing factor which allowed his adamantium poisoning to overtake his body. This is why Wolverine was so skeptical of new mutants, such as Laura, existing.

I’m in AP biology and sometimes I come back to this video when I forget some DNA/RNA stuff

Thanks. Great video! My burning questions about Logan has been put to rest. 🙂👍