X-Men: Days of Future Past - Discussion Thread - SPOILERS

[Snaploud]

Fish survive by converting water to oxygen via gills composed of many tiny blood vessels. We really have no idea how Wolverine's healing process works. It's possible his healing powers allow him to process just enough oxygen out of the water to make him recoverable. Of course, that would imply he couldn't recover from being in pure vacuum for an equivalent period.

It's also possible that his powers allow him to go into a state of hibernation when near death. For instance, there's no reason why Wolverine couldn't be frozen and revived. All the problems of cryogenics should go away when a person has super-healing abilities. Perhaps his healing abilities also come with the ability to remove and keep out heat in order to create a temporary frozen state.

 

[Mister Fandango]

The easiest answer is that Wolverine is just afraid of drowning, and uses his fast healing as an excuse to try and avoid it.

If the dude can completely rebuild his body from just a few bits, being deprived of oxygen isn't going to friggin' stop him no matter how you try to rationalize it. If it did, he wouldn't survive being burnt, either.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If he can't drown, then can't sleep and he can't get drunk.

How likely is that?

 

[Skywalker]

If he can't drown, then can't sleep and he can't get drunk.

How likely is that?

Didn't he actually say in one of the comics that he couldn't get drunk, and he just drank beer because he liked the taste?

 

[Saul]

If he can't drown, then can't sleep and he can't get drunk.

How likely is that?

I don't know. How likely is it that someone can have metal claws inside their arms?

I never saw him drunk in the movies.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Depends on whether intoxication can be considered to be something from which the body heals, I suppose. A hangover or liver damage might be considered to be that but does the state of being drunk constitute harm to the body in the way that e.g. Lung damage caused by smoking might be?

I suppose if drinking causes you to lose brain cells, then, yeah, it's harm and his healing ability would kick in.

 

[Mister Fandango]

It's a foreign drug. His body catches it and rejects it. It's no different than poison or disease in that regard.

Wolverine's body is a temple even if he doesn't treat it like that.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Good point.

 

[JoeZhang]

What if he gets crabs?

 

[Tosk]

He gets itchy.

 

[Captaindemotion]

He better remember to retract the claws before scratching.

 

[Trekker4747]

Depends on whether intoxication can be considered to be something from which the body heals, I suppose. A hangover or liver damage might be considered to be that but does the state of being drunk constitute harm to the body in the way that e.g. Lung damage caused by smoking might be?

I suppose if drinking causes you to lose brain cells, then, yeah, it's harm and his healing ability would kick in.

It's a myth that alcohol causes you to lose brain cells. The intoxication from alcohol comes from the alcohol molecules getting between neurons in the brain making the transmissions "fuzzier." So not strictly "harm" so, not sure how/why Wolverine's body would prevent this. Remember, he's not impervious to harm, he gets harmed all the time. In fact he even REACTS to harm with pain. We see him take a bullet to his plated skull in X2 and it actually KNOCKS HIM OUT! His body just repairs that harm very, very quickly.

So, now we have to ponder if some molecules of alcohol between brain cells is "harm." Eventually the brain/body is able to remove this alcohol (or evaporates) or whatever but whatever the case I'm not entirely sure it's an "active" process on the part of the body. It's not attacking the alcohol as it would a foreign invader like a virus or bacteria.

I would suspect Wolverine can get drunk but it just doesn't last very long, perhaps whatever healing process he has is able to quickly remove alcohol from his system and, of course, it repairs any damage it really does very quickly.

 

[Star Wolf]

Yet in DOFP he reacts to point blank shots to the chest like Superman

 

[Trekker4747]

Yet in DOFP he reacts to point blank shots to the chest like Superman

Well, I suspect being knocked out in X2 came from some-kind-of concussive damage from the bullet striking his metal-plated skull. Striking him elsewhere in the body is going to cause harm, and maybe pain depending on his adrenaline levels, but probably not enough to really knock him out or stop him much.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ The bullet didn't hit his skull plating, it went into his brain through the hole left by a previous gunshot with an adamantium bullet.

 

[Trekker4747]

^ The bullet didn't hit his skull plating, it went into his brain through the hole left by a previous gunshot with an adamantium bullet.

That was in Origins. I'm talking about the gun shot he was given by an ordinary police officer while on Iceman's family porch in X2.

 

[Saul]

It's a myth that alcohol causes you lose brain cells.

Homer Simpson: "Woo Hoo!"

 

[Agent Richard07]

The bullet didn't hit his skull plating, it went into his brain through the hole left by a previous gunshot with an adamantium bullet.

That was in Origins. I'm talking about the gun shot he was given by an ordinary police officer while on Iceman's family porch in X2.

When he was shot in X2, the bullet went into his skull and into his brain. But since his skull is lined with adamantium, how was that possible? They used Origins to establish that he had been shot previously with an adamantium bullet which left a hole. In X2, the cop's bullet just happened to hit the spot where he had that hole.

 

[Trekker4747]

The bullet didn't hit his skull plating, it went into his brain through the hole left by a previous gunshot with an adamantium bullet.

That was in Origins. I'm talking about the gun shot he was given by an ordinary police officer while on Iceman's family porch in X2.

When he was shot in X2, the bullet went into his skull and into his brain. But since his skull is lined with adamantium, how was that possible? They used Origins to establish that he had been shot previously with an adamantium bullet which left a hole. In X2, the cop's bullet just happened to hit the spot where he had that hole.

Yeahhhhhh. I find that extremely unlikely. Besides, seems to be that were that the case it'd do the same memory damage that the adamantium bullet in Origins did.

 

[Captaindemotion]

It's been a long time since I've seen X2 but I'm not sure that Agent Richard's theory is right. IIRC the adamantium bullet first appeared in Origins. I don't think it was ever used to explain the amnesia before then. The amnesia was generally chalked up to psychiatric trauma prior to that movie.

Besides, what would the odds be of the cop just happening to hit that exact spot?