# Logan's Run (1976)



## Lacedaemonian (Aug 20, 2004)

*Logan's Run*

I do not usually like SF, but make the exception for the odd film.  For some reason this includes Logan's Run, which i watch every time it is showing on TV.  This is usually the brand of Sf I detest, so why does it appeal to me so much?


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## Esioul (Aug 20, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

I like Logan's run too- Iv'e got it on video. It's interesting.. more of an interesting idea than the more typical sci-fi type thing, perhaps, which can be irritating.


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## Infested (Aug 20, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

bought the dvd the first time is was available. Its a classic, It probably appeals to you because our world might one day end up like that.  With all the war and over population who knows.


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## Lacedaemonian (Aug 20, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

You have only posted 5 times and we are already having a conversation of sorts.  I feel like I have reached across a galaxy of space.....

The female lead is also quite attractive, something I noticed as a child.


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## Esioul (Aug 20, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

You would. I remember seeing the end half of it when I was about ten and enjoying it, but I didn't know what the film was called for years until it was repeated on tv so I couldn't find out about it.


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## dwndrgn (Aug 21, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

At the time it was extremely unique.  Plus it had a very 'Star Trek' type feel.  I think it took a compelling story and made it cool.


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## dwndrgn (Aug 21, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

I'm sure I've mentioned it here on the forums before but they are doing a remake now.  Supposedly it will be a little different than the original movie, but more closely aligned to the book or actually the author's vision.  Should be interesting in the least.  It is a shame that Michael York is too old to play the lead again.  I've always had a strange liking of him.


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 21, 2004)

*Re: Logan's Run*

The interesting thing to me about "Logan's Run" is that it seemed to be two different films - in the city, and after they left the city. That bothered me when I first saw the film, for reasons I can't quite figure out. But it's been years since I saw it; I wonder if it would bother me now.


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## Foxbat (Nov 30, 2005)

Please put your thoughts on December's movie here


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## weaveworld (Dec 6, 2005)

How cool was Logan's run!  I have lost count how many times I have watched the movie now but it never gets old


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## Lacedaemonian (Dec 7, 2005)

My favourite classic Science Fiction film.  You must understand I hate Science Fiction generally speaking (there is the odd exceptions) but for some unknown reason I love this film.  I don't know why.  I would watch it now if it was on TV.


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## Foxbat (Dec 7, 2005)

I was never really particularly taken with this film. Sure, it looked great with some nice sets, but it didn't seem to have much depth about it. Maybe I've overlooked something but there was never a really good explanation as to why all these people lived as they did - and why they didn't just all go outside.....


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## Dean (Jan 12, 2006)

Good theater generally transports the viewer into a world that is completely seperate from that of reality. Logans Run was a self contained world that was completly different from the real world, we like the shows that make us forget what pictures are on the wall in the room, Logans did this and more. It had just enough anti-utopian warning about it that made it possible for one to walk away when it was over as well. You cant make your audience so enthralled that they are not willing to take leave from that futuristic world full of possibility. I have watched the feature times uncounted, always wishing that somehow there was a way that the future could evolve into something really Utopian and Logans like. I loved the opening scenes of the city shrouded in futuria, what a fantastic model(!), compelling enough on its own, and the story was classic sf. A compelling world full of the future, and keeping perspective, the film was made, when? about thirty years ago? So I would have to say that for its age it definately travelled well.


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## littlemissattitude (Jan 12, 2006)

Foxbat said:
			
		

> I was never really particularly taken with this film. Sure, it looked great with some nice sets, but it didn't seem to have much depth about it. Maybe I've overlooked something but there was never a really good explanation as to why all these people lived as they did - and why they didn't just all go outside.....


 
It was a cult, Foxbat.  There were all sorts of religious overtones to the society depicted in _Logan's Run_.  When you can get people to believe, and I mean truly believe, you can get them to swallow just about anything.  I've seen it in action, in real life, and there are groups much more extreme than the one I have personal experience of - but we won't go there, because I'd have to talk about religion too much, and because I'd rather not offend anyone.  So, I'll just leave it at that for now.  Just remember what Bruce Springsteen said once (and he might have borrowed the quote): "Blind faith in anything will get you killed."  And in the society in _Logan's Run_, it did, regularly.


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## Foxbat (Jan 12, 2006)

I take your point littlemiss. But cults tend to be driven a charismatic individual(I'm no expert and admit that I may be completely wrong in this assumption) - and this seemed to be missing in Logans Run. The fact that people died so young (I felt) contradicted the idea that such an individual could come into being. Still, I suppose you could say 'the cult of the machine'. 

I still think it was a bit of a half-story but I will certainly ponder your words some more


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## littlemissattitude (Jan 12, 2006)

While it is true that cults generally founded by a charismatic individual and often do not manage to continue when the founder dies or is otherwise removed from leadership, given the right circumstances and enough time they "grow up" and can survive the founder's demise.  Again, because I don't want to offend anyone and because we traditionally don't discuss religion around here, I won't give explicit examples, but I have personal knowledge of a group that fits such a description.  It survived its founder's demise and continues to flourish under subsequent leadership.


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## creslin_black (Jul 3, 2006)

Logan's Run is and was a good movie, but I think it's generally looked upon as more of a cult sci-fi flick than anything else.  Part of this comes from the poor Spec. Effects, but then all films of that time weren't exactly T2 or Jurassic Park.  However, that's certainly not to say that Logan's Run is a low grade film.  Rather, it does offer another unique glance at what might await us in a post-apocalyptic future.  I think perhaps that I might have liked the book more.


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## j d worthington (Jul 3, 2006)

creslin_black said:
			
		

> I think perhaps that I might have liked the book more


 
Perhaps, but I rather doubt it. The two had very little in common, other than the general premise and the odyssey sort of storyline. The novel was also extremely brief (I recall reading the entire thing in about an hour or so). I like it, but it has very little in connection with the film.

I will say that I find *Logan's Run* to be a rather underrated film, that had some rather subtle performances in some parts (including a certain blonde that was rather big at the time; I thought she did rather well in depicting the effects of such a society on a person, how easily their mind is molded, but how, when jogged, the sparks of intelligence can still sometimes flare into life again). I personally have some trouble with the model work at the beginning, but I know quite a few people like it. I do remember the use of the holographic photography made it an impressive visual experience at the theater: 3-D effects without glasses, and used in just the proper places in the film to enhance the strangeness. And I like Box very much, I must admit. I think that the "Ice Sculpture" music used for that sequence is among Jerry Goldsmith's better short pieces.

As for why these people didn't go outside, I felt that was briefly explained in the film itself. It was a post-war world, where the population had overrun resources, were confined in these dome cities, but eventually (reflecting the culture division of the 60s when the book was written), the distrust of those who were over 30 and had brought the war into being caused the development of a society that abolished aging, thinking to thus eliminate the tyranny of the military mind. Unfortunately, they themselves became totalitarian through this very rigidity, as any such movement will tend to do. And, of course, as they became ever more involved in the youth aspect, and the frivolity of an ultimately pointless, hedonistic existence, the practical aspects of life began to fail over time (hence the beginning of the breakdown of the reclamation plants, parts of the city becoming abandoned due to increasing technological failures, because no one could be troubled to learn how to repair the machines, etc.) They became children in a nursery without any guidance other than a very primitive code given to a machine, one that would not allow mental or emotional growth or questioning, because that would upset the balance and bring back the world that had brought about the war in the first place. All this is given in bits and pieces in the film, as I recall (having seen it again about two years ago); and they didn't go outside because they were programmed not to -- beyond the biosphere of the city, the "renewal" gems didn't work -- that is, the machine couldn't keep track of them, so they were made to believe that the outside was contaminated and deadly, nothing could live out there.


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## creslin_black (Jul 3, 2006)

It seems to me that there were many of these type of films around during the 60's-70's.  Among the ones I can think of are Soylent Green (biggie), The Omega Man (opposite of Soylent Green and not so much this "type" of film), Silent Running (very deep and touching I thought), maybe the Andromeda Strain, The Postman, and maybe you could count the recent Aeon Flux.


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## j d worthington (Jul 3, 2006)

creslin_black said:
			
		

> It seems to me that there were many of these type of films around during the 60's-70's.  Among the ones I can think of are Soylent Green (biggie), The Omega Man (opposite of Soylent Green and not so much this "type" of film), Silent Running (very deep and touching I thought), maybe the Andromeda Strain, The Postman, and maybe you could count the recent Aeon Flux.


Oddly, I never got around to seeing *The Postman*; I remember reading the book, but it was around the time I had a newborn in the house, so my memory is rather patchy on things at that point -- taking care of an incredibly lively munchkin and a sick wife = darn near no sleep, not good for memory. I've never seen *Aeon Flux* because of the mixed feedback I've heard; perhaps I should check it out.

*Silent Running* -- interesting film. Full of holes you could drive a fleet of trucks through, but darned if it doesn't work. Gets me every time. Shows what good performances and direction, and a lot of heart, can do for overcoming serious logical flaws -- but I wouldn't advise anyone to try this at home....


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## dustinzgirl (Jul 3, 2006)

I'm going to watch The Warrior and the Sorcoress sometime this week. And then I am going to watch Q...becuase David Carradine is awesome.  Much better movies than the postman if you ask me...plus, I watched Conan the other night and that made me want to watch the former movie, which made me want to watch the latter......Yeah, i know, the twists and turns of my brain will drive a man insane. 

That green smilie is so darn cute!


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## Jim Colyer (Nov 2, 2006)

Logan's Run is one of my favorite movies.  I still dream of Jenny Agutter in that green outfit.


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## Barristan (Nov 21, 2006)

Jim Colyer said:


> Logan's Run is one of my favorite movies. I still dream of Jenny Agutter in that green outfit.


 
Hubba hubba, I wore out the 6 seconds of her "naughty" bit on my Dad's VHS. Not happy, lol!


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## Paige Turner (Nov 21, 2006)

I have always liked Logan's Run. For me, it was the first "sociological" science fiction film. I always found it very compelling that the society was so _contained_—in the psychological sense—that they couldn't conceive of an "outside" at all.

Love Peter Ustinov. I think he had a great turn in that movie. And Roscoe Lee Brown was brilliant. What a voice.


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## Whitestar (Jan 13, 2007)

*Looking for 70's movie*

I'm looking for a 70's movie that focuses on the aftermath of a nuclear war. There is a group of people living in a fall-out shelter, where a boy and girl residing there get kicked out and go through a jungle seeking shelter at the Lincoln monument. Does anyone know the name of this flick?


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## red_temple (Jan 15, 2007)

*Re: Looking for 70's movie*

Part of your description sounds like Logan's Run.  Could it be possible that you are merging a couple of stories together in your head?


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## TheDeeMan (Jan 27, 2007)

*Re: Looking for 70's movie*

Yup, sounds like Logan's Run alrighty.

Dee


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## j d worthington (Jan 27, 2007)

*Re: Looking for 70's movie*

Certainly the domed city, a male and female (though adults, not youngsters, which is how I interpreted the original post) and the Lincoln Memorial all show up in *Logan's Run*, but other elements don't sound like it at all. I'd say there's a blending here, myself, but perhaps I'm wrong...


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## Quanders (Apr 23, 2008)

*Logan's Run - dvd versions*

Wanting to get this for some time, an early favorite.  But I have noticed there are a number of versions  to choose from:

2000, 2004, 'new 2007' 

Anyone aware of the differences in these as I haven't been able to stumble across. 
Is one high def? One a remaster?


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## Purdy Bear (May 1, 2008)

*Re: Logan's Run - dvd versions*

Is this the films or the series?


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## Quanders (May 1, 2008)

*Re: Logan's Run - dvd versions*

The Film.


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## Joe Meils (Dec 8, 2008)

Logan's run was one of the first films I actually went to a theatre to see, so it's impact on me as a kid was pretty intense. Being about 12, I was utterly amazed by the society that treated sex and sexuality in such an open, easy going manner. By the time they got to the run through the "Love Shop" I was totally hooked. I wanted to live in this city! LOL

But, I always had problems with this story... why age 30? Why not 60? Or 75? So long as they kept to their one born, one dies, the age thing becomes arbitrary.


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## j d worthington (Dec 9, 2008)

Given the time the novel was first published (1967), it was a satire on the "never trust anyone over 30"/Generation Gap idea that was so prominent in popular culture. Both the novel and film satirized various aspects of both the predominant culture and the counterculture -- the novel especially critiquing various aspects of the youth culture and the inspissated thinking of much of it.


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## Grimward (Dec 9, 2008)

I remember thinking as a kid that it was the coolest thing I'd seen.  Then some guy named Lucas came along a year later and, well, you know what happened next....


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## Scifimaster (Jan 15, 2009)

Hello all,

I also believe this movie is somehow underrated. I have always enjoyed Social Science fiction plots likewise Bradbury's Farenheit 451 and Orwell's 1984. Although Logan's Run cannot be compared with the above, the movie really appealed to me. 
Like it or not, I think that these movies are giving us  hints and glimpses of what our society will be in the future. Chances of governments imposing laws on what you can and cannot do are increasing and maybe in 15 or 20 years we could be living in a society that will impose how many years one can live.

Marcos


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## Rodders (May 19, 2009)

Wow, Logans Run. I have a rather more simplistic view.

I first saw this film when i was about 9 or 10. (I think that BBC2 where having a Sci-Fi film week.) I thought it was a great film. 

I liked the concept. 30 Year life span, the city, the carousel of the Sandmen. Richard Jorden was superb as the bad guy. I liked the blasters that they used as well. I thought it was a good design. Also, who didn't fancy Jenny Agutter?


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