Logan’s Run

• Directed by Michael Anderson
• June 23, 1976
• Based on the 1967 novel Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

In a society with only the young, a man whose job is to kill those that do not wish to die at the age of 30 is now faced with termination himself.

While more than a bit dated in appearance, Logan’s Run is a film with more substance than something like Teenage Caveman. There is more to this than one gets looking at the surface though it can be enjoyed superficially as well. It touches on the dangers of hedonism, youth worship, and government-sponsored euthanasia here in the form of Carousel that all must participate in when they reach thirty in an attempt to get ‘renewal’ which is a chance to live beyond 30.

Sex can be obtained with all the passion of a vending machine. Though the population is all under thirty, they go get facelifts as they approach Last Day (their death). And the government promotes euthanasia with Carousal as a festive and positive community event that everyone must participate in-or else. There is a whole police force dedicated to stopping those that do not want to float up into the air and explode.

You can even look at it as having themes of reclaiming individuality and rebelling against unjust authority. The remnants of humanity blindly go along with this good life they have and never question anything. They all just assume someone MUST have succeeded in Carousel but they just never met them.

Logan 5 (Michael York) is what is referred to as a Sandman who along with Francis 7 (Richard Jordan) and others track and kill runners. It is almost a sport and something they seem to look forward to doing. They toy with their prey before they kill. Life is clearly cheap here. The runners are treated as fools by the people who know no different and believe as they are told. While goofy looking this has some deeper elements to it.

Logan learns of Sanctuary and is tasked by his computerized government to find its location. Each human is issued a life clock which is a crystal implanted in the palm of their hands which changes color as they age before blinking on Last Day. Logan’s clock is advanced to blinking in order to pass as a legitimate runner and he quickly realizes that those years he thought he temporarily gave up are permanently gone. Oops!

Just the concept of Sanctuary is a big threat to this government as it provides an alternative to the status quo. If its existence is discovered by the population they could lose control. They fear the missing 1,056 runners (this too is unknown to the remaining humans) are just waiting. They have built a world on falsehoods and lies and this mythical place could bring it all down. Their system is designed to give false hope in order to control the people.

Accompanying Logan on his trip is Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) who he meets when flipping through options for an evening’s boinking. He rightly assumes she is connected to an underground railroad that helps get people to Sanctuary as she wears an ankh which he found on a retired (executed) runner earlier in the film. Unlike Logan or others in her society, she is not blindly pleasure seeking and even refuses sex when Logan asks for it.

Beyond that Jessica is a bit of a blank slate and does more to get Logan on the road than develop as an individual character. It is necessary but her motivations and feelings change to help him on his experience rather than her go through some growth of her own. Despite that, Jenny Agutter gives it her all which makes Jessica 6 something a little more than a plot device.

Francis 7 is hot on the trail of Jessica and Logan as he is completely unaware of the secret mission. He thinks Logan has gone rogue since Logan has been expressing thoughts and curiosities like wondering about the next generation that are foreign to people in this world.

I just do not know how Francis gets as crazy as he does over Logan. I understand getting upset over an officer turning but Francis goes crazy and follows him out into a completely unfamiliar reality. I am not seeing the connection to Francis at the beginning and Francis at his end. It is necessary for the story to give Jessica and Logan a reason to push forward at points. It makes him a bit of a plot device.

The character of Box (Roscoe Lee Browne) is pure nightmare fuel. Through only the voice, Browne’s vocal performance coupled with the character design made something disturbing. And though a machine that it had essentially gone crazy only added to it. He lived in an ice cave and captured everything that could be a food source and that included the missing runners. He thinks people are food! That realization still is creepy.

Beyond the themes, they also put some general thought into the world they created. Aside from crystals the citizens of this unnamed city wear clothing the same color as their age group. Be they green, yellow, or red they each wear color coordinated clothes with the only people really dressed different being the Sandmen.

The music of Logan’s Run is great. There is music for the city. And there is for when they get outside and go searching for Sanctuary. And each sets the tone for the area. Music for the city is very cold and sterile and electronic. Very artificial much like the world in which they live. The music for the outside is a lot more beautiful and more natural.

Logan’s Run is one of those oddball bits of science fiction that shouldn’t work when you look at it on paper but works when on film. It keeps an appropriate level of weirdness and excitement from start to finish. With great performances and an unusual story this is something certainly worth watching!