When the very first trailer for Fox’s Logan dropped last year, it was the ad’s careful use of Johnny Cash’s haunting “Hurt” that suggested the movie would have an emotional weight and depth to it unlike any other X-Men flick. The song was always perfect crystallization of the older Wolverine’s painful struggle, but in this new trailer for the movie’s black-and-white version, footage from the film becomes the emotionally-devastating visual aspect to what’s basically the most badass Johnny Cash music video ever.
We’ve commented on the connection before, but with this trailer Logan has finally gone full Cash. See for yourself:
In the months since Logan’s release, that early read of the film’s energy has proven correct and the use of Cash’s music has only become more brilliant in retrospect. Not only do Cash’s vocals map perfectly onto the look and feel of the film, but the trailer itself strongly echoes the haunting original music video for “Hurt” from 2002:
Both feature men looking back on their legacies, and seeing only the pain they’ve inflicted on others—especially the people they love. And how, even now, they don’t feel themselves capable of doing anything else.
Hugh Jackman and Logan director James Mangold are hosting a screening of Logan’s black and white cut at the Alamo Drafthouse today to be followed by a streaming Q&A. The rest of us can see the remastered movie on DVD May 23.