Wolverine's DoFP selective amnesia?

Wolverine's DoFP selective amnesia? - Close-Up Photo of Sleeping Dog

Wolverine seems to have selective amnesia during Days of Future Past, where he alternates between having little to no memory of his pre-Weapon X life, and being able to recall minor details about his lifestyle during the 1970's.

A perfect example of this is the scene where Wolverine's consciousness is first sent back to his 1973 body, and he awakes in a bed next to the girl he is supposed to be protecting.

When the thugs confront him, he admits that he slept with her 'many times', exhibiting a memory of the past/present events. However, as soon as his claws are extended and are revealed to be Bone (instead of Adamantium), he looks shocked and surprised.

Is this a momentary memory lapse, or (as established by the Original trilogy), has Logan suppressed his memories due to the trauma of the Weapon-X program?

How do we reconcile these two positions?



Best Answer

As mentioned in comments by @NapoleonWilson he already remembered his WWII experiences with Yashida in The Wolverine. Which is even raised in a different question:

Why does Logan remember Yashida?

So we can assume that he got all of his memories back by DoFP, that's why he remembers that girl.

But as you mentioned he got shocked seeing bone claws. Which seems more like a moment for the audience to know that this is pre-weapon X era. Or from a character point of view, it's not that weird to forget this little detail. He had bone claws which got transformed into metal claws (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), then he lost them (The Wolverine) and then he got them back (DoFP pre time travel) and then he lost it again during time travel in DoFP. Seems reasonable enough to forget the dates when he has them and when he doesn't.




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Does Wolverine still have adamantium After Days of Future Past?

Yes, Wolverine still ends up getting his adamantium claws. They can be seen in one of the recent trailers for X-Men: Apocalypse, which takes place 10 years after the past-events of Days of Future Past.



Wolverine Fight Scenes And All Best Scenes.




More answers regarding wolverine's DoFP selective amnesia?

Answer 2

TLDR: He might or might not remember the details about that girl, the scene works either way, and either way it isn't a contradiction to briefly "forgetting" the bone claws.

Answering that he slept with the girl can well be an educated guess based on the current situation and what he knows about his general character traits. He might not remember details but that he naturally was/is a womaniser. In addition, it seems like a snarky remark and he probably just wants to get the thugs who already are looking aggressive out of the way - as is his nature, he goes the direct confrontational way in provoking them.

The claws on the other hand are natural to him and even though he might have been consciously aware before the time travel that he would travel to a time where he didn't have Adamantium claws, he might not consciously be aware of this fact in that moment, just following his instinctive memory how to "get into fighting mode" and then run into that brief "Ah, right!" moment. People who consciously decide to stop wearing a wrist-watch often still look at the empty spot on their wrist and realize that they actually decided the smart phone would be sufficient to tell the time.

Out of universe, the claw scene serves two functions. For one it reminds the audience that the claws are not Adamantium in this time. And second it is a comedy characterisation moment, that (re-) establishes some character traits for novices and provides some fun for the "experienced" audience. It shows that Logan quickly goes for the aggressive direct problem resolution route and that he is quite (over-)confident. Then in this moment, where the experienced audience expects his cool signature move, he has a tiny moment of self-embarassment we can grin about while he competently does his action thing.

So, he might remember all the details about the girl or he doesn't, the movie isn't totally clear about that, but the scene works either way. Forgetting that the claws aren't made of Adamantium, yet, isn't a contradiction in either case, as this is more a case of "conscious" vs. "sub-conscious" memory.

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