Hello, everyone.
A couple days late but -- as promised -- here is the complete cutlist for the entire edit, in case anybody wants to revisit this idea in the future. Some of it is copy/paste the same as the first one I posted, in parts where the cuts are the same, and some have been expanded where there have been additional changes. Again, I'm sorry it turned out this way, as it is a bit of a disappointing conclusion. Thank you to everyone who supported me, all the same.
This will allow you to recreate the cuts of this edit fairly closely; but understand that, if one were to use it as a reference, it would be a reference for THEIR edit. Not mine. If someone chooses to use this as a jumping off point in the future, I fully respect that it won't be MY edit anymore. It'll be yours, so make it your own. Don't feel like you must restrict yourself to this cutlist, if your gut tells you certain ideas could work better than by all means go with them:
(unless otherwise stated, this edit doesn't use any deleted scenes added back in the extended cut, as that was never Mangold's intentions. I also did not add back the two other f-bombs earlier in the film, as Mangold was only ever going to use one and to use MORE than one diminishes its impact. It does, however, use the unrated versions of scenes with additional gore that was cut. Timestamps refer to the extended cut running time, NOT the theatrical cut running time)
* * *
OLD YASHIDA INTRODUCTION
Per Mangold’s wishes, Viper has basically been removed from this film. Not completely, but all close-ups and prominent character moments have been removed unless absolutely necessary (like in the scene with Yashida and his son, implying the son payed her to kill his father). In this scene, her close-ups were replaced with the insert of the heart monitor, turning it into a visual motif of Yashida’s mortality:
(00:24:11:15)
- Removed closeup of Wolverine and Viper exchanging glances, because it foreshadows a more prominent role in the film than she'll have in this version. Bridged with gap with the insert of the heart monitor.
(00:28:33:00)
- Removed another closeup of Viper, by cutting away to a custom insert (no difference in length, just a different cutaway)
- To actually build off the motif/bookends structure, I created a sped-up version of the heartbeat monitor insert. I like this idea because then it visually shows a change from Yashida’s calmness, at the beginning of the scene, to his anxiety at the end of the scene (slow-fast heartbeat); which, as a side effect, also hides/cuts the inserts on Viper. In general, that’s how I like to work; meaningful reason for a decision first, addressing an editing/continuity problem second.
* * *
POISONING SEQUENCE
By basically reducing Viper to a featured extra, this obviously created an obstacle trying to make the poisoning scene work; since, in this version, she’s not the culprit. Now the film becomes more of a whodunnit, since we now don’t know who actually poisoned him until the (new) final act (It’s not the same culprit as the theatrical cut, as you’ll see later on):
(00:33:58:20)
- I essentially just turned into Wolverine waking up from a PTSD nightmare about the war; so now dreaming about Yashida and the bunker triggers him waking up in stress, perfectly leading into Yashida’s death.
(00:35:08:07)
- Removed the closeup of Yukio saying she “didn’t foresee” Yashida’s; partially because it foreshadows him coming back as a Samurai robot (groans), which has been removed in this cut, but also because it hurts the film’s suspense; if she can be wrong, the prophecy of Wolverine’s death has no stakes.
* * *
FUNERAL SEQUENCE
Removed various closeups of, and cutaways to, Viper; since she’s not really in this version in any prominent capacity. This included entering the temple, as well as cutaways to her during the shootout. The sequence now only establishes ONE main villain, and it’s Harada (LIKE THE COMICSs!!!); I might experiment with also removing a lot of his kills from the sequence, so more ambiguous whether or not he’s protecting Mariko. Said cuts are detailed below:
(00:35:52:17)
- Removed closeup of Viper, thus eliminating foreshadowing for the now removed robot battle (groans). So now we jump straight to the wide shot of Harada, since he’s the main villain in this cut (YOU KNOW, LIKE THE COMICS!!)
(00:36:19:03)
- Removed prominent shot emphasizing Viper, jumping from the same wide shot of Harada to a wide of Logan and Yukio entering the temple.
(00:38:03:08)
- Removed a rack-focus and cutaway to Viper, by cutting to the wide shot of Yashida’s coffin.
- Also removed Harada’s monologue, vowing to protect Mariko; since it makes his motives more ambiguous, and in turn him more believable as a villain.
(00:40:26:20)
- Removed Viper recording the fight on her phone, since who does that during a fight anyway? (plus it never comes back, it’s just a really bad Checkov’s gun).
(00:40:39:02)
- Removed Viper spitting venom in a man’s face, since she won’t be using that power later. Instead, I just use the weird wonky psychological visual and editing style of Wolverine getting shot to motivate the cut.
* * *
LOVE HOTEL SECTION
Mainly wanted to remove the various references to Viper in this section; since she’s not the one responsible for poisoning Wolverine in this cut, and essentially been removed from this cut of the film:
(00:59:09:10)
- Trimmed the scene of Wolverine being stitched, to remove the conversation discussing Viper poisoning him; since she’s not the one who did it in this version, and it just repeats exposition we already know.
- Completely removed the scene where Viper and Harada discuss their plan in the rain, since it foreshadows a finale that won’t be in this cut.
* * *
THE VILLAGE SECTION
Only made one minor change here, to adhere to this cut’s continuity:
(01:02:49:17)
- Removed the backstory on Harada and Mariko being lovers, since it makes his motives too sympathetic to make a believable villain.
- Bridged this with a time cut, jumping ahead in the scene; now instead of one scene of them making dinner and eating, it’s two separate scenes.
* * *
THE KIDNAPPING SECTION
Mainly I wanted to completely remove Viper from this section, since she’s not in cahoots with the Ninjas in this version, and set up a better transition into the Ninja fight in the snow later. This also actually involved removing Harada from this section, since he seemed too genuinely concerned to work as a villain. So now we don’t know who kidnapped her until Wolverine knows.
(01:28:50:14)
- Ended the kidnapping scene slightly earlier, on that shot of Ninja yanking Mariko out the door by her arms.
- This eliminates Harada and Viper from the scene, and also leaves it ambiguous as to what happened to Shingen; we assume, via the Kushlov effect, that the Ninjas killed him offscreen, since we now don’t actually see it… making it a more surprising reveal when he shows up in the cardiac arrest sequence.
(1:31:41:17)
- Moved the cutaway to “mystery figure” (Shingen) to later, to be explained momentarily; thus rendering Wolverine turning on the medical bed and actually getting in it as one continuous scene, rather than two broken up.
(1:32:38:03)
- Deleted the dialogue exchange where Wolverine says Yukio was “wrong” about Yashida’s death; since he actually is (in fact) dead in this version.
- Also, it totally deflates the tension to suggest she might be wrong about Logan’s death RIGHT AS HE’S ABOUT TO (POTENTIALLY) DIE.
- Bridged this cut by moving the cutaway to “mystery figure” (Shingen) here, instead of earlier.
(1:35:41:05)
- Removed the line “that Viper bitch took her,” since she’s not in this version.
* * *
TRANSITION TO FINAL ACT
The new final act, in this version, is the Ninja fight. Whether or not this was ever meant to be the climax of the film is totally up for debate, but it’s clear it was always supposed to be in the film (and the fortress duel following it was not). But the thing, by completely removing Viper from this cut, the transition from Wolverine’s duel with Shingen to the finale is rendered a bit rocky. This necessitated the creation of a new transition between acts, which follows thusly:
(1:37:43:22)
- Completely removed the post-duel scene with Yukio, since it’s there solely to foreshadow the robot fight (which isn’t in this cut).
- The silhouetted shot of Wolverine, in the rain, now cuts to the establishing of him grabbing a cigar.
- Completely removed the dialogue scene in the fortress, between Viper and Mariko; once again, it foreshadows a finale we won’t be seeing (and also, in case I haven’t mentioned it, Viper isn’t this cut).
- The establishing shot of Wolverine, grabbing a cigar, now cuts to the exterior wide shot of the fortress (from deleted the dialogue scene).
- The wide shot, of the fortress, now cuts to the wide shot of Logan on a motorcycle.
- Completely removed the dialogue scene between Viper and Harada; since he’s not a hero in this version, and also VIPER ISN’T IN THIS CUT OF THE FILM.
- The wide shot of Logan, on a motorcycle, now cuts to the ninja fight
* * *
THE NINJA FIGHT
This sequence was radically reworked, in terms of continuity as well as transitioning smoothly to the final airport scene; albeit as minimally as possible, in order to preserve James Mangold’s incredible blocking and fight choreography. In this version, the finale of the fight where Wolverine is captured has been cut. However, via manipulation of inserts from that cut sequence, it's now revealed that HARADA poisoned him in this version. The fight now concludes at the explosion of the snowblower, using the flames as a thematic bookend to the atomic explosion at the beginning of the film before transitioning back to the airport at the film's conclusion.
Firstly, I created a series of cutaways to the insert of Harada's poisoned arrow. An important thing about this cutaway montage is that the length of the scene is the same as before, however -- since there's no dialogue during this part -- the footage is briefly (intentionally) out of sync with the audio, in order to increase the length of the scene. Once the montage ends, however, it's in sync again (don't worry, that'll make sence below). Importantly, though, there are NO changes/cuts to the audio; hence the length of the scene should be unchanged once the montage ends.
The cutaways play out as follows:
1st = (1:45:36:07)
- Inserted a slow-motion cutaway (created using frames 1:47:19:00 to 1:47:19:12). I did this by doubling each frame, thus the slowed-down 12 fps method where each frame is played twice. No increase of time to the scene, as the insert plays out over the existing audio track. We cut back to the wide angle at 1:45:36:10. Since this version of the insert is so out of focus and brief, it's unclear at first what you're looking at... essentially intriguing the viewer to go "wait, what is that?"
2nd = (1:45:37:21)
- Inserted the same insert at normal speed (1:47:19:00 to 1:47:20:07). Again, no increase to the length of the scene as it just plays out over the unaltered audio track. We cut to the arc-master shot of Wolverine 1:45:37:21. This time, the insert now plays long enough for the audience to realize what they're looking at and go "oh shit, that's Harada with a poisoned arrow!"
3rd = (1:45:40:10)
- Inserted the same insert (1:47:19:00 to 1:47:20:07). To engineer a "third" cutaway to it -- since this angle is shown only once for less than 2 seconds in the actual film, creating limited coverage -- I played the clip in reverse this time to give the illusion of a seperate take, rather than the same one reused. You honestly can't tell, and the illusion works great. Again, no increase to the length of the scene as it plays over the unaltered audio track. We cut back to the arc-master at 1:45:40:10 (essentially, what you've done is insert the cutaway between two frames of this angle, being 1:45:40:09 and 1:45:40:10).
(1:45:43:02)
- At this point in the arc-master, cut to the ninja master (1:45:46:18). This now returns the footage to being in sync with the audio, by cutting the previous arc-master slightly short.
Remaining cuts to scene:
(1:46:02:04)
- Insert the same poisoned-arrow insert here, now using the point where Harada actually fires it (1:47:20:07 to 1:47:20:12). It's so fast a quick-cut, ala George Miller esque fast-editing, that the audience can't quite tell whether or not Wolverine managed to duck in time to avoid it... meaning, for the next couple seconds, the audience could conceivably think he was poisoned and died in the explosion. No change to length of scene.
(1:46:08:07)
- Cut ahead to the shot of Yukio getting up (1:48:16:13), with an audio fade to bridge the two shots. You may need to add fire/splintering ambience underneath, to bridge the continuity. This cuts out the minutes in-between, since Wolverine's not captured in this cut.
(1:48:26:04)
- Inserted the wide shot of the tower (1:48:07:06 to 1:48:10:11, played in reverse) here, thus bridging establishing where Yukio is running to. No change in length of scene.
(1:48:33:00)
- Inserted the master of Mariko running out to the balcony (1:46:52:05 to 1:46:55:20) here, thus connecting the idea that Yukio is running to her; it also helps sell it, because in this extreme wide shot Wolverine is originally the one running, so the audience can kushlov/assume that the figure running is Yukio. We cut from this to Wolverine standing on the snowblower (1:46:08:08)
Engineered romantic reverse-angles, using shots from seperate points in the scene:
- (1:46:08:08 to 1:46:12:19) = Zooming wide of Wolverine on the snowblower
- (1:46:55:21 to 1:46:59:13) = Mariko looking down at him, from the balcony
- at 1:46:57:22, you'll want to insert audio from the previous shot
- (audio of 1:46:07:22 to 1:46:18:06)
- this creates a brief gap with no audio before, solving that is on you
- (1:46:14:18 to 1:46:18:15) = Cut back to Wolverine, looking back at her
- (1:48:04:15 to 1:48:07:05) = Mariko in awe of him
Created a fast-cutting "flames" bookend, which also transitions into the next scene
- (0:04:05:04 to 0:04:05:14) = quick cut to flaming bunker, from prologue
- (1:46:21:01 to 1:46:24:00) = Wolverine gets off the snowblower, to walk to the tower
- (0:04:08:09 to 0:04:08:18) = quick cut to explosive flames, from prologue
- (1:46:24:11 to 1:46:25:11) = cut back to Wolverine, picking up pace
- (0:04:08:19 to 0:04:09:01) = quick cut to explosion, same angle
- (1:46:25:12 to 1:46:26:05) = cut back to Wolverine, who grabs his cigar
- (0:04:09:02 to 0:04:09:08) = quick cut to explosion, same angle
- (1:46:26:06 to 1:46:27:00) = Wolverine, who tosses his cigar to the ground
- (0:04:05:08 to 0:04:05:17) = quick cut to bunker in flames
- this transitions into the establishing shot of the airport (scene starts at 2:04:57:17)
- the fade transition starts at 0:04:05:13 of the first shot, ends at 2:04:57:22 of the next shot
- At 1:46:22:17 in the first shot of Wolverine (1:46:21:01 to 1:46:24:00), is when to start the audio of the next scene
- (audio lead-in starts at 2:04:52:09 in the audio)
- created an audio fade between the two scenes
- (audio fade starts at 1:48:06:17 of previous scene's audio, ends at 1:46:25:09 of next scene's audio)
From there? Just let the film play normally to the end.
That's it. That's the full, timestamped cut-list.
* * *
And that about concludes my work on this project. I'm really sorry that complications in my own life prevented me from being able to complete it, since it was so close to the finish line. With this cutlist tool now in place, hopefully it'll be able to see the light of day one day... however, it will be in the hands of a different editor.
That's all folks. I re-iterate all the fond farewells and goodbyes I said in my previous post (see above for context about why I'm cancelling this edit, this wasn't a random decision). I hope to be back here again someday, to poke my head in to say hello. It won't, however, be as an editor.
See ya round, folks.
Signing off, for probably the last time...
~~The Silver Screen Samurai
)
