X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Everyone has a past, but some are carved deeper than others. Gavin Hood's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" tells the story of Logan (Hugh Jackman) before he became Wolverine, from his violent, romantic past to his complicated bond with his brother, Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), a savage fellow mutant. The opening credits follow the nearly indestructible brothers as they fight side by side through the Civil War, both World Wars and Vietnam, while Victor grows ever more bloodthirsty. When Colonel William Stryker (Danny Huston) recruits them for an elite team of mutant mercenaries, Logan eventually walks away in disgust and settles down in the Canadian Rockies with a schoolteacher, Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). But when tragedy strikes, he agrees to join Stryker's sinister Weapon X program, and Logan ends up with an unbreakable adamantium skeleton and a burning thirst for revenge. Along the way, he crosses paths with mutants old and new, including teleporting soldier John Wraith (will.i.am) and the long-awaited fan favorites Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), whose wisecracking mercenary Wade Wilson appears in a very different form than fans expected. Despite an unfinished version leaking online a month before release, the film was a box-office hit, launching a spinoff series of Wolverine films.