Lone survivor, doctor Robert Neville, struggles to create a cure for the plague that wiped out most of the human race while fighting The Family, a savage luddite death cult formed by the zombie-like infected to erase the past.
Director:
Boris Sagal
Stars:
Charlton Heston,
Anthony Zerbe,
Rosalind Cash
A team of top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what has killed the citizens of a small town and learn how this deadly contagion can be stopped.
In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.
In the twenty-fifth century, a time when people have designations instead of names, a man, THX 1138, and a woman, LUH 3417, rebel against their rigidly controlled society.
Director:
George Lucas
Stars:
Robert Duvall,
Donald Pleasence,
Don Pedro Colley
An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved.
Director:
Franklin J. Schaffner
Stars:
Charlton Heston,
Roddy McDowall,
Kim Hunter
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 thirty, it is terminated in a quasi-religious ceremony known as "carrousel". Some, known as "runners", try to escape their fate when the time comes, and it's the job of Sandmen to track them down and kill them. Logan (Michael York) 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 (Jenny Agutter), he is ordered to become a runner and infiltrate a community outside the dome known as "Sanctuary" and to destroy it. Pursued by his friend Francis (Richard Jordan), also a Sandman, Logan and Jessica find their way to the outside. There, they discover a beautiful, virtually uninhabited world. Logan ...Written by
garykmcd
Marvel Comics published a "Logan's Run" comic book series lasting seven issues in 1977. The first five issues were an adaptation of this movie, with two more continuing after the events of this movie. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled before the storyline could be resolved. See more »
Goofs
The face of the robot Box is obviously made of shaped metal foil that Roscoe Lee Brown is wearing. You can see his lips and teeth as he talks. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Logan:
[tapping on a glass window of maternity room]
Wake up.
Francis:
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:
Well maybe, maybe not. What does it matter? Anyway, he isn't yours anymore.
Logan:
[continues tapping lightly on the glass]
Francis:
All right, you want me to wake him?
[bangs loudly on the glass with his baton]
[...] See more »
Alternate Versions
A bootleg audio recording exists of the May 1976 sneak preview in San Diego, suggesting that the preview cut ran approximately 130 minutes. In addition to the inclusion of the scene after the titles where Francis kills a runner who falls into a pool to applause from onlookers, it includes:
A longer exchange in the Nursery.
A longer Carousel sequence, with no overdubbed computer voice announcing Last Day.
Slightly longer scenes between Logan and Jessica, including one where Jessica asks if Logan thinks "flame-out" is the ultimate kill. Another cut bit includes Logan explaining the danger of cubs "flying on Muscle," an unauthorized drug that "speeds up the reflexes" but is "no good for anyone over 13; shake you and me to pieces."
A brief snip where Francis hears Logan's page to Cathedral and announces he will go to help him.
A longer introduction to Holly, who announces that she is "Holly 13" and that "in ancient times, my number was unlucky."
A longer Sex Shop sequence.
There is a reference in Box's dialogue to the ice sculpture existing in the preview print because he says "What a pair! I'd like to sculpt you...Let me sculpt you and I'll show you where the others have gone...over there, arms 'round each other...nude, of course..." The dialogue between Logan and Jessica as they pose also sheds light on the plot hole of why Logan signaled the Sandmen to the Runners' hideout. Logan admits that he tried to send her back because he was going to return to the city all along. "That was the plan. I'd been ordered to find out where the Runners had gone and destroy it. That's why I brought in the Sandmen that killed them." He expresses remorse and confusion at his change of heart.
Agree with the other reviewer who cites Outland, Zardoz, Silent Running etc as good recommendations that are set in similar dystopias. I haven't seen many of these, but hopefully might check them all out eventually. However, from my own limited film experience, I can say I believe with some certainty that two more modern films of the same genre that were both influenced quite a bit by this one are 'In Time' (2011) starring Justin Timberlake and 'The Island' (2005) starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson; all three are dystopian; but I preferred the latter two films. Which isn't to say Logan's Run isn't good for its day; in many ways it's the precursor for those other two films, and I feel they both borrowed quite heavily off this original in their own ways. To sum the whole premise up very quickly; they live in an amoral and arbitrary world where no-one lives beyond 30 years of age and life is devoid of meaning. There is no innovation, no competitive spirit, no will to succeed, no work ethic. In many ways then, a living hell for people like myself and I imagine many others. What ostensibly can be the purpose of life, if not to make a contribution to the world, by whatever means possible, be that progeny, gainful employment, productive labour, the willingness and desire to learn and relay that information to others? I.e. knowledge and wisdom. More than anything though a world in which the value of hard work goes not just unrewarded, but unrealised and unrecognised, for the concept of 'hard work' itself is an alien one. It is a world cut off from nature, whose inhabitants are profoundly ignorant and childish, availing of a strange mixture of a simultaneously archaic and frighteningly advanced technology, who in this universe are completely uneducated and lacking in the knowledge of how to build or understand the machines and technology they use on a daily basis (Apart from the 'plastic surgeon' who doesn't seem to fit the rule of general ignorance and who says he built the surgery machine). There are moments of cheer in the film however; when they thwart the preposterous 'tin man' figure who wishes to freeze them and then encase them in ice for his grotesque and macabre grotto of horrors, as well as more significantly the moment when they breach the ice cave and enter into the glorious and magnificent late afternoon sunshine. This is very reminiscent of a tale told about young Buddhist monks training to be lamas in the Himalayas, (whether it is just apocryphal or actually real, I have no idea), but it goes like this; they are separated from their parents (at least they have them, unlike Logan's dystopia world - again, itself reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - brilliant book by the way, must read it if you haven't done so already) when they are just a few weeks or months old, or perhaps once they are fully weaned; then they are kept away from ever observing the Sun directly, apparently until they are seven years old, at which point they are awoken early one morning, to go outside and see the sun rising on a fine day, which must be an incredible experience, even the more powerful given that they've never experienced it before. So yes, there is a scene that echoes that in the film; obviously this fool's paradise chamber of a world they live in is situated somewhere near Washington DC in modern day America, and I believe the eccentric but likable cat-man is in the Library of Congress or somewhere akin, and they pass the Abraham Lincoln Memorial on their way to meeting him. If nothing else, this film is thought provoking and so I believe 7/10 is justified, given that the film starts off by engendering a very great level of despair for society, but redeems itself later on, when the two escapees are able to experience true nature for the first time, and eventually ends triumphantly with the overthrow and downfall of the established but pointless order.
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Agree with the other reviewer who cites Outland, Zardoz, Silent Running etc as good recommendations that are set in similar dystopias. I haven't seen many of these, but hopefully might check them all out eventually. However, from my own limited film experience, I can say I believe with some certainty that two more modern films of the same genre that were both influenced quite a bit by this one are 'In Time' (2011) starring Justin Timberlake and 'The Island' (2005) starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson; all three are dystopian; but I preferred the latter two films. Which isn't to say Logan's Run isn't good for its day; in many ways it's the precursor for those other two films, and I feel they both borrowed quite heavily off this original in their own ways. To sum the whole premise up very quickly; they live in an amoral and arbitrary world where no-one lives beyond 30 years of age and life is devoid of meaning. There is no innovation, no competitive spirit, no will to succeed, no work ethic. In many ways then, a living hell for people like myself and I imagine many others. What ostensibly can be the purpose of life, if not to make a contribution to the world, by whatever means possible, be that progeny, gainful employment, productive labour, the willingness and desire to learn and relay that information to others? I.e. knowledge and wisdom. More than anything though a world in which the value of hard work goes not just unrewarded, but unrealised and unrecognised, for the concept of 'hard work' itself is an alien one. It is a world cut off from nature, whose inhabitants are profoundly ignorant and childish, availing of a strange mixture of a simultaneously archaic and frighteningly advanced technology, who in this universe are completely uneducated and lacking in the knowledge of how to build or understand the machines and technology they use on a daily basis (Apart from the 'plastic surgeon' who doesn't seem to fit the rule of general ignorance and who says he built the surgery machine). There are moments of cheer in the film however; when they thwart the preposterous 'tin man' figure who wishes to freeze them and then encase them in ice for his grotesque and macabre grotto of horrors, as well as more significantly the moment when they breach the ice cave and enter into the glorious and magnificent late afternoon sunshine. This is very reminiscent of a tale told about young Buddhist monks training to be lamas in the Himalayas, (whether it is just apocryphal or actually real, I have no idea), but it goes like this; they are separated from their parents (at least they have them, unlike Logan's dystopia world - again, itself reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - brilliant book by the way, must read it if you haven't done so already) when they are just a few weeks or months old, or perhaps once they are fully weaned; then they are kept away from ever observing the Sun directly, apparently until they are seven years old, at which point they are awoken early one morning, to go outside and see the sun rising on a fine day, which must be an incredible experience, even the more powerful given that they've never experienced it before. So yes, there is a scene that echoes that in the film; obviously this fool's paradise chamber of a world they live in is situated somewhere near Washington DC in modern day America, and I believe the eccentric but likable cat-man is in the Library of Congress or somewhere akin, and they pass the Abraham Lincoln Memorial on their way to meeting him. If nothing else, this film is thought provoking and so I believe 7/10 is justified, given that the film starts off by engendering a very great level of despair for society, but redeems itself later on, when the two escapees are able to experience true nature for the first time, and eventually ends triumphantly with the overthrow and downfall of the established but pointless order.