Logan’s Run was released one year before Star Wars and it falls into the hard sci fi genre. It is based on William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s 1967 novel. Nolan produced further books in the Logan Trilogy; Logan’s World (1977) and Logan’s Search (1980). The director is Michael Anderson who also directed The Dam Busters (1955), a war film that has sequences influential to Star Wars, and also the Academy Award winning adaptation, Around the World in 80 Days (1956). The screenplay adaptation was by David Zelag Goodman who also wrote and won the Academy Award for Lovers and Others Strangers (1970) and also the thriller Straw Dogs (1971). The film won a Special Academy Award for its effects, by L.B. Abbott, and later was turned into a 1977 television series.
The movie opens with a title card explaining the future of the 23rd century. Humans take refuge in a giant domed city and now live only for pleasure with work handled by “servo-mechanisms.” It also notes that life ends at thirty, it is 21 in the book, this is the sci-fi expression of youth culture. There is an electronic score that is masterfully done by Jerry Goldsmith. We hear it as we pan down from a stormy sky to the domed city which looks like fluorescent blobs, jellyfish, lit by pinkish colors. As we move from brush on the hills, the pebbled texture of the domes are visible, it moves to the central dome. It looks like a miniature, but the design is so cool, plus the shot looks like Superman (1978). Inside the dome is the city, a giant lake with pyramid-like and colorful structures. Tubes that are used for transport crisscross the area.
Then, we get a close-up of the diamond-like palm crystal on a baby’s hand. Outside of the Nursery, tapping on the glass, is Logan 5 (3 in the book) played by Michael York. The actor played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1968) and more recently was Basil Exposition in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). He has a ruby-colored palm crystal called a Life-Clock. Logan 5 is joined by Francis 7, Richard Jordan, he replaced another actor. Jordan was in the Western Rooster Cogburn (1975) and I recognize him from Dune (1984). They are wearing the uniform of Sandmen, the law enforcement of the dome, black uniforms with silver bars on their chests. Logan 5 is looking at Logan 6 whom he thinks will become a Sandman and Francis 7 strikes the window which activates an alarm. They take a small vehicle through the tubes to reach the Arcade.
Here we get the toga-like outfits of the citizens that are colored according to their age; the youth up to age 8-16 (yellow), teens 16-24 (blue), and red is 24-30. The incredible costumes are by Bill Thomas who also worked on Spartacus (1960) and the 1974 Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman tv movie. They discuss how Carousel works and Francis 7 says it’s “one for one”, one dies, one is born. There is a gong sound as people are walking about the Arcade. The arena is circular with several rows of seats. The computer (voiced by Virginia Ann Ford) calmly says that Capricorn-15s are about to undergo renewal. The large ruby crystal in the center glows as white robed figures enter to cheers. They take off their hoods in what look like death masks, black openings for their eyes and mouths, they hold up their hands showing their blinking palm crystals.
The computer says, “Rise”, then a large white crystal sends down a circular tube of light. The Capricorns throw off their robes, it is a red spandex outfit that turns white at the top. They start to lift into the air, the crowd shouts, “Renewal!”, and explosions end the lives of the Capricorns. Logan 5 gets a message that there is a Runner in the Great Hall.
He leaves and Francis 7 follows. Logan 5 is listening to his device called the Follower that beeps as the Runner gets closer. A Runner in red robes is shot at by Logan 5, his gun pulses and causes a green-flared explosion. They are having a game of it, Logan 5 smiles saying, “Run Runner!” The Runner lifts himself to another level, the Sandmen fire around him like target practice, and then Francis 7 shoots the Runner so he falls to his death. This is contrasted with the gruesome deaths of the Carousel.
Logan 5 checks the face of the Runner, his Follower shows a picture of a balding man, he finds out that the Runner had a Face Change at New You. Logan 5 collects the Runner’s belongings including an ankh necklace. A clean-up crew descends on hover vehicles and spray the body disintegrating it. Later, Logan is relaxing in his apartment. Logan 5 activates a wall called the Circuit, it brings a man in red, and he sends him away.
The other figure in this Teleporting Dating Wall is Jessica-6 played by Jenny Agutter. She may be otherwise best known for Nurse Alex Price in An American Werewolf in London (1981), but she was also Councilwoman Hawley in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Jessica 6 wears a very revealing, thin, green robe and also an ankh necklace. It is amazing that the film’s costumes and some incidents got a PG rating. Logan 5 is ready to take her to his bedroom, but Jessica 6 refuses. Jessica 6 says she is sad since someone she knew was killed in Carousel.
Logan 5 says he doesn’t kill Runners, he terminates them, so he would be a Terminator? He shows Jessica 6 his red palm-crystal. Francis 7 interrupts them walking in with two women. Jessica 6 slips away. He throws up a globe that drops down pink gas, but we don't see what happens from that point. The computer asks Logan if knows the word “Sanctuary”, he says no, and the computer explains it is a “Pre-Catastrophe” term for a “place of unity.” The ankh and Sanctuary are connected to Runners. The “unaccounted Runners” number 1,056.
Logan 5 is given a mission by the computer to find Sanctuary outside of the Dome and destroy it. He places his hand on the chair undergoing Retrogram and this makes his Life-Clock blink. So Logan 5 now has to be a Runner himself. He has Jessica 6 as an ally and goes to New You for a different face encountering assistant Holly 13 played by Farrah Fawcett-Majors before her star making turn in Charlie’s Angels. Their quest also includes the menace of the mirror-like robot, Box, voiced by Roscoe Lee Browne. They eventually encounter an older character played by Peter Ustinov. The HBO Max streaming has more of the adult content than the PG version. Logan’s Run is a fascinating, dystopian future world with two engaging leads!
Four Life-Clocks out of Five!
#LogansRun, #MichaelAnderson, #MichaelYork, #JennyAgutter, #RichardJordan
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