Logan's Run (1976)

An idyllic sci-fi future has one major drawback: life must end at 30.

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

David Zelag Goodman (screenplay), William F. Nolan (novel),

Stars:

Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael York	...	Logan
Richard Jordan	...	Francis
Jenny Agutter	...	Jessica
Roscoe Lee Browne	...	Box
Farrah Fawcett	...	Holly (as Farrah Fawcett-Majors)
Michael Anderson Jr.	...	Doc
Peter Ustinov	...	Old Man
Randolph Roberts	...	2nd Sanctuary Man
Lara Lindsay	...	The Woman Runner
Gary Morgan	...	Billy
Michelle Stacy	...	Mary 2
Laura Hippe	...	Woman Customer
David Westberg	...	Sandman
Camilla Carr	...	Sanctuary Woman
Greg Lewis	...	Cub (as Gregg Lewis)

Storyline

It's 2274 and on the surface, it all seems to be an idyllic society. Living in a city within an enclosed dome, there is little or no work for humans to perform and inhabitants are free to pursue all of the pleasures of life. There is one catch however: your life is limited and when you reach 30, it is terminated in a quasi-religious ceremony known as Carousel. Some, known as runners, do try to escape their fate when the time comes and it's the job of Sandmen to track them down and kill them. Logan is such a man and with several years before his own termination date, thinks nothing of the job he does. Soon after meeting a young woman, Jessica-6, he is ordered to become a runner himself and infiltrate a community outside the dome known as Sanctuary and to destroy it. Pursued by his friend Francis, also a Sandman, Logan and Jessica find their way to the outside. There they discover a beautiful, virtually uninhabited world. Logan realizes that he must return to the dome to tell them what ...

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Plot Keywords:

runner | sanctuary | domed city | computer | escape | 

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Taglines:

Welcome to the 23rd Century: A perfect world of total pleasure, With just one catch...

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 June 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fuga en el siglo 23

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$25,000,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints) (as Dolby System Noise Reduction-High Fidelity)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The "Carrousel" sequence is one of the most complex flying wire stunts ever done for a motion picture. A circular rig was constructed above the set, designed to rotate in sync with the revolving floor plate below. Initially, the performers were all supported by a single winch driving the mechanism for their thin support cables. Unfortunately this resulted in the cables becoming tangled during rehearsal; each stuntman had to be untangled and brought down from the rig in a maintenance lift. The rig then had to be redesigned so that each stuntman was on their own separate winch, with all of the winches connected to a "panic" switch that cut the power in the event of an emergency. For reversal shots, the white crystal on the arena ceiling was built on the floor of the stage, and the performers were lowered down towards it. These shots were then filmed upside-down so as to make it appear that the performers were moving upward.

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Goofs

When Logan and Jessica are descending the stairs at the terraced water complex, the top of a tree is visible in the distance; yet in the previous wider shot, only terraced structures (a matte drawing) and the ocean (superimposed video) were visible from that angle.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Logan: [tapping on a glass window of maternity room] Wake up.
Francis 7: Logan, you are here. I couldn't believe it when they told me. What are you doing?
Logan: [indicates baby] Logan 6. Well it's not everyday that they authorize a new sandman. I tell you Francis,
[indicating baby]
Logan: that's him.
Francis 7: Well maybe, maybe not. What does it matter? Anyway, he isn't yours anymore.
Logan: [continues tapping lightly on the glass]
Francis 7: All right, you want me to wake him?
[bangs loudly on the glass with his baton]
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Screenwipe: Episode #2.4 (2006)

User Reviews

Whether you're Green, Red,or Over 30 This is Great Sci-Fi!!!

Logan's Run is an excellent stylish sci-fi film from 1975 starring the great Michael York and the beautiful Jenny Agutter. It blew my mind seeing it as an 11-year-old and was so obsessed with it my mother used to say, "He thinks everything's the 23rd century". Logan 5 (York) is a Sandman who kills runners, people who reach the age of 30, but reject the chance to Renew on Carousel. As the film begins we see the cool domed city with Jerry Goldsmith's futuristic trippy soundtrack. In this world mainly filmed in a Fort Worth mall everyone has a life-clock and when they reach 30 it starts to blink red. Those who believe in renewal attend the Last Day ritual when the 30-year-olds come out with hoods and masks, then "Identify...be strong and you will be renewed" says the female computer voice. They disrobe to reveal tights with Evel Knievel designs and start to spin around and float up and blow up to the cheers of the crowd.

Logan and his friend Francis (Richard Jordan) go on a hunt for runners killing them with fire spewing guns. Then Logan finds an Anck key and the master computer makes him search for Sanctuary by posing as a runner (some reviews of this film say Logan is 30, but he's "4-years-away", i.e. 26--York was really 32 though).

The best thing about this is the stylish futuristic designs, the great believable acting of the stars, and the off-the-wall nonsensical speech of the senile old man (Peter Ustinov). And there's some great adventure as Logan and Jessica are chased out of the city by Francis through the labyrinthine subsystems, Box the crazy robot, and a beautiful ice cave scene. And for us guys our favorite line is "we better take our clothes off before they freeze", kind of weird that they put them back on, but our wish throughout the film comes true with a quick glimpse of Jenny Agutter disrobed. Actually there is a fully nude scene here with them in each others' arms while Box sculpts them as per the book, alas it was cut from the film for a PG rating. I never did quite get what Box was supposed to be.

The plot itself has some serious inconsistencies. In the book the age for Renewal was 21, and the author got the idea from '60s youth culture (it was written in 1967). The idea was that youth would take over and get rid of all adults. The reason for the change to age 30 is the stars would be unbelievable as 20 year olds. You have to make many leaps over logic to suspend your disbelief here. You could say the city used this as population control. The idea of Renewal, well you can believe in reincarnation, but in this world it's implied Renewal means some scientific process controlled by the computer. When the computer tells Logan there are 1056 unaccounted for runners he says "no one's ever been renewed?!" However his conclusion cannot be logically drawn from information on unaccounted for runners.

In the cool "surrogation" scene with Logan in multiple hologram images saying "There is Noooooo Sanctuary", his answer does not compute so the city blows up....or was it his shooting the computer with his gun...or both. Here's a way to rationalize it though: the computer has a secret program to destroy the city when someone prefers life outside the dome...the purpose of shelter for what's left of humanity is fulfilled and it's time for them to go "outside". And how they get outside the city to meet the old man so quickly and without a scratch on them is beyond me. But I felt at the end, what happens now? That cool city of sex, drugs, and cool carousel ritual is gone. As Francis said, "Is this good, is this what you want?!" Now they are free to scrounge for survival and grow old and decrepid. I believe in the book it wasn't an enclosed city, it was the whole world. I wonder what the world outside the DC area was like in the film's backstory.

Bottom line is the film is great not because of the plot, but because of the creativity and style. It won a special academy award for special effects and it's a true classic. Michael York still gets people who come up to him telling him Logan's Run was their favorite film of his (even with all the other great roles he's had). And the rumors are flying about a remake! I'm working on a screenplay now to submit.