From Bodies to Borders and Beyond: Mutating Boundaries in Logan

With its focus on genetics, the mutant body, and social discrimination, the X-Men franchise explores themes pertinent to the health humanities. The 2017 film Logan sharpens this focus and presents a world that echoes many current social, political, and bioethical anxieties. In the film, as a result of widescale eugenics, natural-born mutants are on the verge of extinction while genetically engineered mutants are secretly manufactured as weapons. In this paper, we explore the theme of boundaries in order to examine various intersections in Logan, including the corporeal boundlessness of dying mutants, the transgressive exploits of biotechnology, the permeability of national borders, and the unbounded potential embodied by the remnants of mutantkind. The multi-vocal nature of our approach reflects the respective perspectives of our authors as well as the rich array of topical interpretive lenses which Logan invites, offering a powerful pedagogical tool to the health humanities, bioethics, and other disciplines.