n the 23rd century, a thriving city lies within protective domes, its people so insulated that they know and care nothing about Outside. The citizens enjoy many comforts, secure in the knowledge that at age 30 they can be "renewed" in a spectacular ceremony called Carousel. Some, however, fear they won't be renewed and decide to run, hoping to find Sanctuary--a place that will give them freedom from the controlling life-clock crystals that are embedded in their hands.
Logan 5 (York) is a Sandman: He hunts runners and terminates them. He and his partner, Francis 6 (Jordan), have always believed implicitly in renewal; but lately Logan has had doubts, which are horrifyingly confirmed when the computer than runs the city, while assigning him to find and destroy Sanctuary, confirms that no one has ever been renewed.
At first Logan remains loyal, using Jessica 7 (Agutter) to infiltrate an underground group that helps runners leave the city. During a series of adventures that lead to the group's hide-out, Jessica--assigned to kill Logan--realizes she loves him. Logan must choose between protecting Jessica and turning her over to the other Sandmen. His doubts tip the scale; they run together, with Francis in hot pursuit.
Logan and Jessica expect to find a community of escaped runners Outside, but they learn that everyone who's ever escaped the city was killed by an insane robot whose original task was to freeze seafood. Fortunately Logan is armed and defeats the robot. When they make it Outside, they are alone.
They journey to a great lost city (a moss-covered Washington, D.C.) that they think must be Sanctuary until they meet its sole human resident, the Old Man (Ustinov), the first old person they've ever seen. Crushed that Sanctuary is a myth, they contemplate staying, but Logan realizes they must go back, bringing the Old Man as proof that their beliefs are all lies. In the end, Logan must confront the computer in a battle for the souls of his entire society.
Death takes a holiday
Like 2001 and Star Wars, the attention-grabber for Logan's Run when it was first released was its visual effects (for which it won an Academy Award). Visual effects have advanced exponentially since 1976; so the question becomes, what does Logan's Run offer today as dramatic science fiction?
The young society posited by Logan's Run is surprisingly textured and believable. This is crucial because what's at issue in Logan's Run is this society's belief system, which Logan has difficulty discarding even after he learns the truth. It is not until they encounter the Old Man--something outside their experience--that Logan and Jessica reconsider what they've always believed. In other words, they grow as characters.
Some of the things Logan's Run is known for are very peripheral. For example, Farrah Fawcett-Majors costarred, but her role is both minor and jarringly campy. (Her hysterics nearly convince the underground to kill Logan as a spy until Jessica reminds her that Logan was being hunted, to which she replies, "Oh, yeah..."). Likewise, some viewers might have trouble getting past the fact that certain scenes look as though they were filmed in a shopping mall (which they were). In fact, apart from some mediocre miniature work, the creators did a good job of simulating a bustling futuristic city, including good use of a large number of diaphanously clad extras.
David Goodman's screenplay substantially departs from the novels by William Nolan and George Clayton Johnson; most notably, the original renewal age was 21. These alterations, and the extensive editing required to reduce the film to two hours, introduced some hiccups into the film. In the final battle with the computer, for example, Logan's denials of Sanctuary unbelievably cause a systems failure that eventually causes the entire city to blow up. (In the book, the computer was already malfunctioning.)
Despite its Oscar, this is not a special effects movie; it is a philosophy and character movie that adroitly uses effects (and action and sex). Though at times campy and problematic, in some ways Logan's Run exemplifies how a science fiction film should be made.
