Things About Deadpool & Wolverine That Don't Make Any Sense

"Deadpool and Wolverine," like so many post-2019 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, is stuffed to the gills. This isn't just a buddy-cop movie; it also spans multiple universes dedicated to giving one last hurrah to a slew of Fox/Marvel characters. Some audiences will leave exhausted, others will exit the theater exhilarated. One thing's for sure, there's plenty of superhero spectacle bang for your buck. But with so much going on and the innately whip-fast aesthetic of a "Deadpool" movie intact, certain flawed aspects of the "Deadpool and Wolverine" script may fly right under your radar. It's only after the credits have rolled that some of the logical gaps in the proceedings become obvious.

As "Deadpool and Wolverine" ties together so many different comic book movie continuities with oodles of fan service, its screenplay inevitably strains to retain any internal logic. This struggle informs parts of the film that simply don't make sense, including the basic mechanics behind why certain familiar characters are suddenly alive and well. Further bamboozling highlights include inexplicably absent figures from prior "Deadpool" movies and plot threads that go nowhere. Read on to discover the most inexplicable aspects of "Deadpool and Wolverine," including Easter eggs destined to puzzle eagle-eyed Marvel Cinematic Universe fans rather than delight them.

During an opening job interview with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is confronted about his experience working with a team. Wade replies that one of his few forays into that field was leading the superhero group X-Force, while also noting that they're all dead. Wade also singles out Cable (Josh Brolin), the time-traveling mercenary who served as the main antagonist of "Deadpool 2" and survived the events of the film, which even ended with Cable walking with Deadpool's posse in slow-motion. 

The implication was that Cable and the Merc With a Mouth were now pals, and that Cable could carve out a new life formed from something beyond his gritty trauma rooted in his dead family members. That seems to have gone away, with Wade now considering the character deceased. However, given that even X-Force member Shatterstar (Lewis Tan) is shown alive and well in "Deadpool and Wolverine" after being brutally killed in "Deadpool 2," both Cable's absence and the nonchalant explanation for it are extra puzzling. Perhaps Marvel Studios just didn't want another Josh Brolin character in the MCU after the actor already portrayed Thanos. Maybe it's another sarcastic Deadpool quip. Whatever the reason, Deadpool's job interview comment about Cable raises more questions than answers.

As Wade's job interview nears its finish, Happy Hogan elucidates to his snarky visitor the qualities that make the Avengers such iconic superheroes. As he emphasizes their selflessness and virtues, the camera cuts to relics from the earliest Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures. These include the "proof Tony Stark has a heart" arc reactor from "Iron Man" and the Captain America shield prototype glimpsed in "Iron Man 2." The latter item's presence in Hogan's office is incredibly strange, since the last time audiences saw that shield was in Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) garage. 

In between "Iron Man 2" and "Deadpool and Wolverine," however, the garage this shield was housed in was destroyed along with the rest of Tony's mansion in "Iron Man 3." Though Tony returns at the end of that film to retrieve any surviving mementos from the mansion's wreckage, the prototype shield is not one of them. So how then did that memento get into Happy Hogan's office? Shouldn't it be at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Malibu? This tribute to an early Marvel Cinematic Universe outing distractingly seems to forget about one of Tony's most impactful adventures.

One fan-service-heavy "Deadpool and Wolverine" sequence comes when the titular Merc With a Mouth hops between dimensions searching for a new Wolverine to function as his timeline's new anchor being. As he leaps from one universe to the next, viewers see Hugh Jackman wearing a slew of different comics-accurate Wolverine costumes, including one paying tribute to his first comics appearance where he dukes it out with The Hulk. Even internet weirdos who couldn't stop envisioning Henry Cavill as Wolverine get to briefly see that startling casting come to fruition. 

What's puzzling about this sequence, though, is that Deadpool faces no challenges from Time Variance Authority forces along the way. Despite being decidedly on the bad side of this agency after slaughtering so many of its agents, Deadpool strolls across timelines like he's sauntering through rooms of an empty house. It's a strange detail diluting some of the menacing power of this movie's version of the TVA. After all, if they can't catch Deadpool using their tech to travel between timelines, how powerful can they be? Unfortunately, creating consistent antagonistic tension would undercut the movie's dedication to reminding moviegoers of countless comic book covers, vintage costumes, and fan-castings. 

The TVA isn't the only adversarial force in "Deadpool and Wolverine" that seems to have problems maintaining consistent power levels. Main villain Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) is established as the sinister twin sister of the X-Men's founder and leader, Charles Xavier. Her kinder sibling used his psychic abilities to seek out mutants and help the world, while Nova deploys her powers to rip the skin off foes or torment folks psychologically. She's a devastatingly powerful figure capable of sending Deadpool flying across the room with one flick of her finger. 

Like any uber-powerful comic book opponent, though, Nova's abilities fluctuate depending on what a scene requires. Even the strongest Marvel villains are a lot of fun to write until you need physical conflict in your story. One moment, she uses her brain to control every fiber of Wolverine's body. Later, however, she becomes so consumed with the Time Ripper that she never even tries to stop Wade and Logan's plan to defeat her. There are several other moments where it's baffling why she doesn't use her gifts to destroy people like Deadpool or Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfayeden) with as much ease as she slaughters more disposable side characters. Corrin's performance is enough fun to mitigate some of these quibbles, but Nova still functions as a cautionary tale of the problems with establishing a comically overpowered enemy. 

Unless stated otherwise, familiar Marvel characters in The Void — the wasteland at the end of time ruled by Cassandra Nova — are supposed to be previously established versions of those heroes or villains. Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Chris Evans) is back from the original "Fantastic Four" movies, ditto Blade (Wesley Snipes) and Elektra (Jennifer Garner) from their respective franchises. It doesn't seem far-fetched they'd be here, since all three were alive and well the last time audiences saw them. More confusing, though, is the army of minions that Cassandra Nova has assembled. That horde of adversaries is a grab-bag of evil mutants from previous "X-Men" movies, including folks like Toad (Ray Park), Lady Deathstrike, Azazel, and Sabretooth (Tyler Mane).

What's strange, though, is that most of those mutants died the last time they were on-screen. Toad was struck by lightning, Deathstrike was injected with heavy doses of adamantium, and Azazel was killed in between "First Class" and "Days of Future Past." Some members of Nova's team, like Psylocke or The Blob, don't raise any questions with their presence since they never canonically perished. However, it's not fully clear whether many of these villains are the originals or variants from other universes, making it all the more puzzling how many of them got there. The obsession with tickling people's nostalgia raises some thorny timeline questions when it comes to these background baddies. 

Revenge makes people do strange things, often based in emotion and not logic. Still, it's puzzling in hindsight what Pyro's (Aaron Stanford) plan is for betraying Cassandra Nova. Midway through "Deadpool and Wolverine," it's revealed that Pyro is in cahoots with Mr. Paradox. Serving as an undercover agent for the TVA agent, Pyro plans to betray Nova for his own benefit. The thought of Pyro believing he could overpower Nova under normal circumstances is already a bit of a stretch. What's extra confusing is how Pyro eventually bungles his one big shot at exacting his vengeance.

Once Deadpool and Wolverine have Nova's mental powers subdued, thanks to the Juggernaut's helmet, Pyro re-enters the picture brandishing a gun. He fires a couple of bullets into Nova's "belly" (as she later puts it), then monologues about his motivations for betraying Nova. Wolverine humorously cuts this spiel short by knocking the guy out and remarking, "Not everybody gets a speech." Even if Pyro wanted to wax poetic on his plight, though, it's bizarre that he doesn't just shoot Nova in the face (the source of her power) right when he has the chance. Instead, he opts for firing at her stomach and in the process ensuring his grisly demise at her hands. Revenge makes people do strange things, but every aspect of Pyro's retribution plan is especially peculiar.

X-23/Laura (Dafne Keen) makes her grand return to Marvel as one of a handful of superheroes surviving in The Void, seemingly holed up with Blade, Elektra, and Gambit (Channing Tatum) in this chaotic domain for ages. Meanwhile, Blade and Elektra specifically mention that they were brought to The Void once their timelines were snapped out of existence. This comment is a meta-reference to the abrupt conclusion of the original "Blade" and "Daredevil" franchises in the 2000s. However, this makes X-23's presence in The Void — seven years after we first met her in "Logan" — extra puzzling.

The opening sequence of "Deadpool and Wolverine" firmly establishes that "Logan" takes place in the same universe as this movie. This means that the "Logan" incarnation of X-23 also exists in Deadpool's universe, which is now on the chopping block. Why, then, would the TVA dump X-23 in The Void? Isn't her timeline about to get wiped out anyway in a matter of days? That event should do the work for them and leave no chance of X-23 coming back. Getting to see Jackman and Keen interact with one another again after "Logan" is a nice surprise. However, trying to break down how X-23 is present in The Void just hammers home the innately impenetrable nature of many multiversal stories. 

Mr. Paradox's big evil plan involving the Time Ripper machine is clear. He's tired of how long it takes to eradicate defunct timelines, so this machine will speed up the process. First to go is Earth-10005, the universe that Wade and other Fox/Marvel characters call home. What's more confusing is Mr. Paradox's launch plan for the Time Ripper. This machine is set up at a subway station across the street from Wade's apartment that doubles as a TVA base. However, it's utterly perplexing why Mr. Paradox and his TVA goons are all operating a Time Ripper machine within a timeline they plan to eradicate immediately.

If Mr. Paradox's plan is brought to fruition, he and those TVA employees will be wiped out along with all of Earth-10005's inhabitants. Why Paradox's crew can't just operate this instrument from the TVA's headquarters or another timeline is never clear. Of course, from a dramatic standpoint, it only makes sense to bring Wolverine and Deadpool's attempt to stop the Time Ripper to the home turf that Wade's been fighting for. However, within the established rules of "Deadpool and Wolverine," Mr. Paradox's Time Ripper strategy seems counterintuitive at best and downright suicidal at worst. 

At Wade's birthday party early on in "Deadpool & Wolverine," it's quietly revealed that he and Vanessa Carlyle (Morena Baccarin) have broken up. To further hammer this point home, Vanessa divulges that she's now seeing a man named Dalton. His life sounds quiet and dull, but Vanessa is happy. She inquires if Wade is seeing anybody and he responds in the negative, making it clear that he's still in love with Vanessa. It's just another way that he feels like his life is a bit on the insignificant side. That perception changes by the end of "Deadpool and Wolverine," with all those multiversal shenanigans reminding Wade how important his friends are.

In the film's closing scene, it's even implied that Wade and Vanessa will reunite as the two flirt with one another at the dinner table. That new lover in Vanessa's life is never mentioned in this sequence nor is he ever referenced again as the movie comes to a close. This suggestion of Vanessa having a concrete life beyond her ex vanishes as quickly as it was established. Initially lingering on this revelation before abandoning it is both inexplicable and deeply frustrating. A chance to show Wade's life evolving further dissipates in favor of returning to the status quo of the first "Deadpool."  Like her fridging in "Deadpool 2," "Deadpool and Wolverine" does Vanessa dirty.

The Wolverine we meet in "Deadpool and Wolverine" is not the version of Wolverine that audiences are familiar with from "Logan" and the "X-Men" movies. Instead, it's "the worst Wolverine" from an alternate timeline, a boozy hero in a yellow supersuit tormented by regret. Deadpool's whole reason for plucking that Wolverine out of his dimension is to supply Earth-10005 with a replacement "anchor being". Such a figure (who was previously that universe's Wolverine before he perished in "Logan") could, in Wade's mind, save his timeline. That plan, of course, doesn't really work, and an adventure that briefly threatens the entire multiverse ensues. Once everything is said and done, that "worst" Wolverine sticks around in Earth-10005 and even becomes a fixture of Wade's social circle.

However, Mr. Paradox previously made it clear that removing "anchor beings" is a risky endeavor. It's a task that dooms a timeline to destruction. The mind reels at the dark implications of this alternate Wolverine (presumably the "anchor being" of his timeline) sticking around in Earth-10005. As he chortles with Wade and pals over dinner, Wolverine's original timeline is undoubtedly being pruned by the TVA or otherwise crumbling out of existence. Keeping this Wolverine around in Earth-10005 offers audiences hope that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will reunite again in the MCU. However, the rules of the "Deadpool and Wolverine" multiverse paint a dark picture of this friendship's lasting consequences.