Top 5: Wolverine Movie Moments

Heaven help the next person who dons a trio of claws. While the quality of the X-Men movies has fluctuated greatly, there's no denying that Hugh Jackman will be Wolverine in the minds of movie-goers for years to come. And to think there was a time when people were actively complaining that he wasn't short enough. Now content to wrap up the role on gritty terms, Jackman is playing our favorite cranky superhealer in Logan. So in honor of Jackman and his commitment to the role, I've picked five of his best movie moments as Wolverine.

Honorable Mention: Jackman's two word in cameo in X-Men: First Class remains one of my favorite things and his intro view cage fight and slicing through a shotgun barrel is pretty awesome as well.

#5 War Through The Years from X-Men: Origins Wolverine

Arguably the only good moment from Wolvie's solo outing is the opening credits montage as he and Sabretooth fight for Union in the Civil War, charge trenches in WWI, and storm the beaches during D-Day. It's a great series of moments that seem deserving of their own movie, but also give the audience the impression that Wolverine was always prone to fighting for righteous causes.

#4 Self-Sacrifice from X-Men

In a lot of ways, Wolverine is the comic book movie of an old-fashioned John Wayne action hero. He smokes cigars, he's kinda a dick to everyone, and he rebuffs the idea of becoming a team member until Rogue's life is in danger. However, one of the more endearing qualities from that archetype is self-sacrifice. Case in point, just before the film's end Wolverine finds a near lifeless Rogue in Magneto's mutant machine and decides to touch her skin to heal her...to the point where his skin begins to begin splitting. While it doesn't kill him, the idea that he'd be willing to sacrifice himself for a girl he barely knows is telling enough.

#3 Funeral Fight from The Wolverine

If I had my druthers, I'd pick this movie's deleted scene which involved throwing ninjas into a wood-chipper but this will have to do. Tasked with protecting an old ally's daughter, a pack of assassins descends upon said ally's funeral with kidnapping on their mind. What follows is an interesting combination of martial arts, gunplay, and Wolvie's signature slice and dice fighting style, but what's most interesting is that Wovelrine gets shot....and feels it. Though the explanation for this is is a bit silly, seeing Wolverine genuinely worried about injuries, possibly for the first time, is noteworthy.

#2 Mansion Rampage from X2: X-Men United

As good as Jackman was in his first stint as Wolverine there was a certain lack of....stabbing involved. Thankfully this scene picked up the slack as Wolverine defends Xavier's school from a team of government agents. Acting almost feral, screaming as he attacks, and using nothing but kill shots this is the most unhinged audiences had ever seen Wolverine on screen and it was glorious.

#1 The Finale from X2: X-Men United

Wolverine has had far cooler movie moments, but nothing truly sums up his character like his series of choices at the end of X-2. Having defeated Lady Deathstrike, Logan tracks down one of the Xavier students before running into William Stryker. When confronted with the possibility of learning about his past, Logan rejects Strykers offer saying he'll take his chances with the split tongue boy in his arms. Almost immediately after, the team is shattered as Jean sacrifices herself to save the team. Despite his obvious personal pain, Logan actually reaches out to Scott and lets him know "she chose you." Defiant, but moral to the core.