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Logan’s Run

Thoughtful/Ludicrous 70s Sci-Fi THRILLER!

1976

Director: Michael Anderson

Starring: Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan

YES!

THE SETUP:

In a dystopian future where people are killed at the age of 30, a sandman, sort of a policeman ordered to kill those trying to escape their fate, ends up trying to flee himself.

DISCUSSION:

I saw this movie MANY times when I was younger, and for a while, about a year ago, became obsessed with watching it again. Unfortunately, upon review, the quality and interest of the film declines over its running time--the end being much less interesting than the beginning--but even this time a lot of things about it stayed with me. You should definitely watch it if you're into thoughtful/ludicrous sci-fi and have never seen it. And it is OBVIOUSLY screaming out for a remake!

What the film really has going for it are some good ideas that are somewhat well developed, such as this culture of youth, with mandatory death at the age of 30, which is good enough, but the added layer of a culture-wide lie that the 30-year-olds aren’t dying, but being reborn, adds a great, thoughtful element. Whole parts of the future society don’t really come through in the film, however, such as the prohibition against long-term relationships and toward casual encounters. The movie also has the advantage of a great, compelling story. Logan, a special policemen whose job it is to kill “runners” [those trying to escape and live past 30], is assigned to find out where the runners are trying to get. In order to gain the trust of the other runners, he is aged to almost 30—never sure he is going to get those years back again. Which of course sets up for him to switch sides and try to escape himself.

Unfortunately in the second half it just loses a lot of steam, and the ending is fairly ludicrous and doesn’t really wrap anything up in a very satisfying way. This is another example of my first 2/3rds theory… that only the first 2/3rds of a movie are interesting, and that the climax is just a fairly empty wrap-up.

Now, let us consider certain curious issues with the movie, containing numerous SPOILERS!

• The whole concept is clearly a pale rip-off of "Brave New World," especially the whole aspect of a perfect society of promiscuity where no ones gets attached to another person. Listening to the DVD commentary (which is in many ways more interesting than the film) I found that a lot of the ideas they were trying to convey about the society and what was happening with the characters simply didn't come through!
• I love when Logan shoots ONE shot in the ice cave and suddenly the whole thing is collapsing and exploding around them as though two tons of dynamite had gone off! [I TOTALLY remember the cheesy collapsing ice cave overlays from watching the film as a child!]
• I also love how they're supposed to be in Washington DC, but when they first come into the outside they are SO OBVIOUSLY in Southern California! There is NO landscape like that anywhere on the East Coast!
• They are also shown walking by a huge waterfall, then a few seconds later they find a lake and say "At last, water!"
• If it's such a paradise outside, why were people herded into and kept in the domed cities anyway? Apparently there was some environmental accident in the past, but you couldn’t tell from looking at the outside world, and I don’t think it is alluded to in the script.
• The very end is another classic of the "shoot once/entire city explodes" convention. Logan shoots the main computer, and before you know it, the entire city is blowing up. Why? The most that would happen is the power would go or something!
• At the very end, WHAT exactly are all these people supposed to DO once they get outside? What are they going to eat? It's just SO ridiculous.

This movie could be a very taut suspense story and has good ideas, it just needs to be reconceived and thought about some more. Why didn't John Woo do this instead of that lame and forgettable Paycheck? But definitely a classic that it is easy to have a lot of affection for.

Oh, and by the way, apparently Bryan Singer is going to remake this, once he’s done with the new Superman.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?

Without a doubt!