This big-budget (for 1976) film was one of the last big-studio (MGM) science fiction films released before Star Wars swept across movie screens and changed the face of sf films. Based upon the William F. Nolan novel of the same name, the film is quite a bit different than the novel, but in my opinion is quite entertaining.
Sometime in the future, global castastrophes (war, famine, pollution) have forced the construction of an enormous domed city to protect the remains of humanity. Controlled by a central computer, humanity slowly forgot about its origins and struggles, every need provided for by the computer's machines; no longer needing to work or struggle, people explored and embraced a pleasurable hedonistic lifestyle. Sports, sex, hallucinogens were all available. People bored with their appearance could even change it at a New You shop, from a new face to a new body via laser surgery.
The only catch was that no one could live past 30.
At birth, everyone is fitted with a 'lifeclock,' a color-coded crystal in the palm of their left hand. At various stages throughout life, the crystal changes color to indicate the person's age. (People also wear color-coded clothing that matches their crystal color.) I forget the exact breakdown, but it's roughly as follows: Silver for newborn through seven, yellow for eight through fourteen, green for fifteen through twenty-one and red for twenty-two through twenty-nine. On the thirtieth birthday, called Lastday, the red crystal flashes on and off, indicating that the person is ready for Renewal, a ritual whereby he or she can try to attain reincarnation (?) on an anti-gravity device called Carrousel. As the participants rise up from a large red crystal on the rotating floor toward the silver Renewal crystal in the ceiling of the colliseum-inspired arena, many are zapped by unseen force-fields. Actually, they all are, but few question this.
Those that do question Renewal try to escape the Lastday ritual, and are known as Runners. They, along with other citizens who help them, believe they can escape from the City and find a place called Sanctuary, free from the controls that dominate them every day.
The City has a team of policemen called Sandmen that hunt down and terminate Runners, often toying with them for sport before making the kill.
The film introduces us to Logan 5, a Sandman who gets a special assignment from the Computer; four years are removed from his Lifeclock so that he can infiltrate a sect of Runners and their supporters so that Sanctuary can be found and destroyed by the Sandmen. While trying to fulfill his role, he meets and begins to fall in love with Jessica 6, eventually questioning all he has believed and ultimately betraying all he has thought was right, including his best friend Francis 7.
There's a lot more to this film than what I've just summarized, but I don't want to give away any of the surprises that occur. I will add that Jerry Goldsmith's score is excellent, ranging from traditional orchestrations to experimental electronics to convey the mood of each scene. Oh, and Jenny Agutter (as Jessica 6) was one of my first movie crushes.
Cast
Logan 5: Michael York
Jessica 6: Jenny Agutter
Francis 7: Richard Jordan
Holly 13: Farah Fawcett-Majors (yeah, the Farrah Fawcett-Majors, who no longer has the Majors on her name)
Box: Roscoe Lee Browne
I can't say his character name without blowning a major plot point: Peter Ustinov

On to some nits:
OK, the incredibly huge model of the City looks like a model, mainly because of some large reflecting pools that use real water. Water just doesn't scale down realistically in miniature settings. Still, it's a cool looking city, and it's fairly hard to tell where the model ends and the background painting begins.

NANJAO... A scene involving Logan and Francis hunting down a Runner has the two playing "cat and mouse" with the doomed man. At one point, they're both firing their weapons at the man, catching him in a crossfire. What isn't readily apparent is that Francis is actually across a courtyard a hundred or so feet away from Logan; onscreen, it almost seems as though the two Sandmen are nearly next to each other.

There's a scene where Jessica meets with some of her pro-Sanctuary friends in an attempt to convince them that Logan is running; they understandably don't trust the Sandman, and convince Jess to lure Logan to an area to be killed. The woman who tells her to do so is wearing a green dress, but (judging by her looks) hasn't been green for many years and is probably close to Lastday. Time for a trip to the New You shop! (Anti-nit: maybe she thought wearing green would convince people she wasn't so old.)

SPOILER WARNING
At a New You shop, Logan's weapon is frozen and dropped, yet he has it again, intact and thawed, just a couple shots later.
END SPOILER WARNING

That's it from me for now. Comments?

I enjoyed the film. I also really enjoyed the TV series, but I can't imagine rewatching it now. From what I remember, it wouldn't age well...

My biggest gripe with the film is the way Logan talks the computer to death at the end. That was old way before this film, and Star Trek did it far more convincingly.

Several things in the film sound like references to the book, and don't seem adequately explained of introduced.

Reading your summary, Craig, I was struck by the contradiction of a hedonistic society where you don't get to decide what colour your dress is...

I've not read the book, but I have read the sequel, Logan's World, which was set in an anarchic time when the cities had fallen.

A major difference: in the film, the city was one of a kind, while in the books there were many such cities all over the world.

George Clayton Johnson co-wrote the novel, Logan's Run, btw. Johnson was the author of TOS ep, "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

I remember the comic book series published by Marvel Comics in the 70s. It was written by Dave Anthony Kraft and illustrated by George Perez. The series had a run of only 7 issues. The first three issues, IIRC, adapted the movie. Issue #7 ended with the words "Plus the return of... But that would be telling!" Well, the series was cancelled after that. Dammit! I wish they'd've told us who was returning. Now I'll never know! I think one of these days, I may get those comics again. It'd be interesting to read 'em again.

Much of the footage of the film, btw, was shot in Ft. Worth, Texas. A mall and the FW water gardens were used as scenery for the flick.

Logan's Run cost $6 million in 1976, a huge sum at the time for MGM, which had such a cash crunch that they sold the distribution rights to their films to United Artists. (MGM and UA merged in 1981, after the colossal failure of the $40 million Heaven's Gate sent UA into a tailspin.)
In college, I used to read Variety, which the school library subscribed to. The paper has a section abut films in production. William Devane was listed in the cast for this pic. Apparently, his scenes were left on the cutting room floor.

I've still got those seven Marvel comics... issues 1-5 adapted the movie, while the next two started a new story where the film ended. "The return of... but that would be telling!" That's the problem with any comic series that gets cancelled. If you're lucky enough to meet the writer and/or artist, sometimes you can find out where they intended to take the story, but I had no such luck with this series.

Regarding the Logan's Run tv series, I also watched that as a child, but I didn't care for how the series took place almost exclusively outside the domed City after episode one. Oh, well.

Adam Bomb: William Devane, huh? I wonder what part he had. Must not have been too big.

SPOILER WARNING
The Region 1 dvd I have of this movie has audio commentary by Michael York, director Michael Anderson and costume designer Bill Thomas. I believe it was here that I found out the Old Man's tattered costume had buttons made from old pennies; they're too small to show up on screen, but it's a neat touch.
END SPOILER WARNING

one of my all time favorite movies....Where can I get a dress like the one Jenny Aggutter wore? (and a boyfriend like Micheal York, for that matter)

Five issues? It took them five issues to adapt the movie? It really has been too long since I've read that series. I definitely need to rebuy it all. (Normally when a movie is adapted into comic book form, it takes three issues.)

Which dress, allegra? The one where Jess is cruising the Circuit (the transporter-like thingy), in which case there's very little dress there, or the other one seen throughout most of the film?

By the way, Michael York kept the black robe-like outfit from the film. (He wore it in the Circuit scene I just mentioned.)

The original Marvel adaptation of Star Wars took six issues, Benn! IIRC, TESB and RotJ each had four issues. What does that have to do w/ Logan's Run? Not a thing!
SPOILER WARNING
Back to the LR comics, my favorite cover was for issue 5, featuring Logan and Francis (with the tattered American flag) battling it out in front of the exploding City domes. Not accurate as far as the story goes, of course, but nicely composed and very dramatic. I traced the cover at least once, and made my own drawings side-by-side for hours, I liked it so much.
END SPOILER WARNING

Sorry about all the spoiler warnings, by the way, but I figure if someone reading these posts has never seen the film, some of what I say in the posts could ruin several surprises. It's hard to discuss the film without blowing it.

Oh that's it Craig, prove my memory's bad by reminding me how many issues those adaptations took. I did own the Star Wars adaption when they came out. Archie Goodwin did a decent job writing it, but, was it Howard Chaykin who did the artwork? I remember it being horrible. I know Carmine Infantino took over after the adaptation. I never thought much of Infantino's artwork, though.

IIRC, the Star Wars was reprinted in an issue of Marvel Treasury Edition (one of those huge, monstrous oversized magazines.) The Empire Strikes Back was originally printed in an issue of Marvel Super Special. I forget which issue though. I think The Return of the Jedi was also originally published in an issue of Marvel Super Special. (The Super Specials were regular magazine sized comics.)

It just seems to me the average number of issues it takes (or took) Marvel to adapt a movie was three issues. Having said that, I'm sure I'll be proven completely and totally wrong. Oh well. C'est la vie.

BTW, Craig, I agree with you about the cover to Logan's Run #5. That, too, is the one cover that sticks out in my mind after all these years.

Didn't William F. Nolan pen a sequel novel to Logan's Run? I believe it was called Logan's World.

I know of (because I own copies) two sequels: Logan's World and Logan's Search. I've not read any of the three, though I've skimmed Logan's Run and have read enough about the plot from other sources to know the film was quite a bit different--better in some ways, not so in others. There's word of a LR remake in the works that follows the novel more closely and will probably have alot of CGI effects.

Hey, I'm not the only one that didn't like Infantino's Star Wars artwork! Somewhere, I've got those Marvel Treasury Editions of {SW} (there were two, each one taking three issues of the 6-issue adaptation).
I don't believe there were any editions of the Marvel Logan's Run comic other than the 5-issue adaptation. (A Super Special would have been cool.)

There are a few Logan's Run websites on the web. One of the most exhaustive is Vikki's City of the Domes, and it includes everything: novels, film, tv sereies, comics, etc. Here's the link:
Vikki's City of the Domes

A couple others I've not had a chance to explore in great detail:
LogansRun.com
Tour the City of Domes

Sorry, the "Vikki's" one doesn't seem to work. The other two do, though. LogansRun.com has music, though not from the film, and sound fx.
Let's see if this works:
Vikki's City of Domes

Ah, that should do it.

BTW, Sophie already mentioned Logan's World, Benn.

God, I've been making a fool of myself. It's really embarrassing when one considers that I'm pretty much a life long comics fan. Honestly, I tend to know this stuff better than this. Trouble is I haven't see any of the issues in about a quarter of a century. (Yeah, I'm that old. What of it?) I also admit to losing interest in both the Star Wars and Logan's Run comic books very quickly. I had sold them all by the end of the Seventies as a matter of fact. My memories of them is vague from not having seen them in so long.

And my apologies to Sophie. I forgot that you had already mentioned Logan's World.

Now, I'm gonna go stand in the corner here and put the dunce cap on. Just be sure to let me know when my punishment is over.

Hey, anytime we want music info, we'll ask Encyclopedia Benn! (Let's see, it's been almost twelve hours now... I think you can take off the cap.)
Speaking of music, I just ordered the remastered Logan's Run soundtrack, which features more tracks than any previously released edition, pretty much in the order they appeared in the film. I can't wait for it to arrive... years ago, I'd passed up a cd that I thought was pretty complete, and years later had to settle for a pared-down version, which was basically highlights, coupled with highlilghts from Coma. But, OOOO, the pared-down Logan's Run soundtrack included a "lounge singer" styled piano rendition of the end theme. I'm so glad they left off the 'Logan and Francis chasing the Runner' music in favor of lounge piano, yessiree!

Oh, to carry a Benn tradition over here from the Music boards, I'm currently listening to music while I type this... n.p. (now playing) is another Jerry Goldsmith score, the expanded/complete edition of Poltergeist.

"Hey, anytime we want music info, we'll ask Encyclopedia Benn!" - Craig Rohloff

You know, I kinda regret Blue Berry saying I had an encyclopedian knowledge of music. I mean, I know there's a lot of deficiencies in my knowledge. I'm not as up on new artists as I used to be. Heck, as I should be. I oughtta find out when American Top 40 or some such program plays around here so I can start filling in the gaps. Then there are musical genres I know practical nothing about - Broadway musicals, bluegrass, world music, modern country, classical, etc. Except for Broadway musicals, I tend to regret not knowing enough.

"(Let's see, it's been almost twelve hours now... I think you can take off the cap.)" - CR

Actually, It's been almost 22 hours at the time of my writing this. It's about time my punishment is over, too. I gotta go to the bathroom.

"Oh, to carry a Benn tradition over here from the Music boards..." - CR

Yeah, but I generally reserve it for the Music Boards. And I got the idea from someone else on those boards. Blitz or Snickerdoodle or Miko Iko. I can't, at this point in time, remember from whom I got it. Otherwise I'd give them the proper credit due them.

n.p. - Shadow Warrior - Blue Oyster Cult (Yes, it's a bootleg. A good one, too.)

The sadly late Richard Jordan would later play Duncan Idaho in the David Lynch version of Dune and Hunt for Red October.

This film and George Lucas's THX-1138 seems to bear some resemblances to each other. It might have just been the 'style' of the time.

Richard Jordan played Duncan Idaho in The Hunt for Red October? I thought he played a senator in that film. For that matter, I didn't know David Lynch did both Dune and The Hunt for Red October!

Sorry about all that, Douglas! Guess I should try to restrain myself a little until the guys in the white coats come to take me away.

In all seriousness, didn't Jordan play a bad guy in the forgettable... hmm, so forgettable I forgot the title. It was some sci-fi film set in a post-apocolyptic desert where the teenage (you know, twenty-something year olds) heroes rollerskated everywhere. No, I'm not kidding.

Craig, SolarBabies.

IMDB is your friend.

Aahhh... Not as in "Aahhh, a revelation," but more like "AAHHH! What a terrible film!" Thanks, Scott. (I think I'll stick to my memories of Richard Jordan's good movies.)

Just got my Logan's Run cd in the mail today! The liner notes are pretty informative, and have a lot of nice color pics from the film and a couple behind the scenes/pre-production shots.
By the way, William Devane was originally slated to play Francis 7. (Boy was I wrong about the extent of his part!) According to the cd liner notes, he "had to bow out due to a prior commitment," and was replaced by Richard Jordan.

The cd is limited to 3000 pressings, so if you want it, order soon! (No, I'm not a salesperson & I'm not getting any money in return for the endorsement! )

n.p. Logan's Run of course!

Finished listening to the soundtrack a while ago. If you collect film soudtracks/scores, and/or are a Jerry Goldsmith fan, this is an intriguing one to add to your collection.

An interesting note about the track "Fatal Games," which occurs in the film while Logan and Francis are hunting the Runner: A wild synthesized cacophany occurs at the track's end, but was not present in the film. The interesting part is that it sounds remarkably similar to the opening synth on Wall of Voodoo's 1983 hit "Mexican Radio." (Maybe I should mention this on the Borrowed Riffs part of the Music board!)

NANJAO... When Logan and Jessica confront the Cubs in Cathedral, there are a lot of weird sounding vocalizations made by the Cubs as they "crawl out of the woodwork" and corner the pair of adults. It almost sounds like parts of the dialogue track were looped backward.

Oh, regarding those "beyond the film" Logan's Run comics from Marvel which Benn and I were discussing, he and I had an off-the-board discussion about them since then, and he figured out who was going to return... (scroll up to his January 12 2003 post for background) Box!
It only makes sense, since human characters who'd died certainly couldn't be brought back to life, and the Cubs in Cathedral were already back in the storyline.
Now, I wonder what the writer(s) would have done with him...

Here's a nit I forgot to mention, and ever since I saw it, I can't not see it... Oh, by the way SPOILER WARNING! When Francis first follows Logan and Jess through the ruined ice palace and gets his first glimps of Outside, he shields his eyes from a spectacular sunrise. The good part is that the sun is a bit higher in the sky than when Logan and Jess first saw it. The bad part is that you can see (fairly clearly) a nice-looking (as in well-maintained) ranch-style fence running along the hill to the left of the screen! END SPOILER WARNING.

I loved this one as a kid. The scenes in the ruined Washington have an incredible poetic beauty.

One nit about the outside scenes. Washington is depicted almost as an island in a vast natural wilderness. Washington, as with any city, is ringed by vast suburbs. Logan and Jessica should have encountered ruins of those suburbs long before getting to downtown Washington. Apparently, the stately monumental buildings (in remarkably good shape for long abandoned buildings) are just about the only surviving buildings. Then again, it wouldn't be very 'poetic' if Logan and Jessica encountered the ruins of Pizza Huts, K-Marts, etc before they got to the Lincoln Memorial and the Capital.

This movie won an Academy Award for special effects. I presume it was awarded more for the magnificent scenes in Washington than the depiction of the domed city. The domed city looks unimpressive today. It's too obviously a miniature.

Some shots of the domed city look pretty effective, especially considering when they were made. I'm mainly thinking of the views from balconies, passing shots from inside the maze car (when Logan & Jess are going to Cathedral) and the ones where crowds of people are matted in along the sidewalks.
The shots showing water were the least effective for me (as I mentioned way back in my earliest post). I wonder if they could clean those up with some CGI to make the water look more in scale to the buildings. (I almost said "... to make the water look more like real water...", but it is real water!)
I agree that the matte work in the Washington scenes was very impressive, and still is to this day. I remember an old Starlog article about special effects that cited some of those scenes to show how matte painting was done.

The most convincing shots of the domed city do involve those where crowds of people are matted in. Those shots remind me of similar ones in 1936's "Things to Come". The domed city looks very 70's: it looks rather like a large model of EPCOT Center.

One thing that was done effectively in this film was the 'Carrousel' sequence. The later 1977 CBS series of "Logan's Run" (seen on TNT in the late 80s) featured a rather cheesy recreation of it. The wires supporting the 'flying' runners were very visible, ruining the believability. The series did introduce some fun 'hovercraft ': a large boxy one for Logan and Jessica and a sleeker one for the pursuing Sandman (it was reused in 1985s' "Otherworld").

I thought the scene in the James Bond flick "Die Another Day" where the laser cutting machine went 'berserk' was basically a ripoff of the 'berserk' laser cutting machine in "Logan's Run".

Last night's evening news had a story about two children accidently drowning in Fort Worth's Water Garden. That looked exactly like the location for the end of Logan's Run ( where the young of the domed city encounter Peter Ustinov). One city official said the Water Garden was never designed to be walked in (it's just for "ambience")... funny, with all those steps how could it not be designed for walking!

It looks like it, NGen, because it was the location used for the end of Logan's Run. I remember a big deal being made out of the fact that several scenes were shot over in Cowtown back when the film was being shot and then released.

I've been there, and the surrounding area is totally designed for walking around and in. Perhaps they were talking about not walking in the water. It would certainly be appealing on a hot summer day, but you can't tell how deep it is, and there are (or were) no signs posted as far as I know. But it looked like the water churned with such force that even I wouldn't want to jump in.

CFQ regards The Logan's Run DVD as being one of the fifty best sci-fi film DVDs. I don't think the film has aged well, but it is still enjoyble.

Bought the DVD and watched it last weekend. The DVD commentary from the director, costume designer, and York help helped give me a greater appreciation for the film. Critics love to diss this film, but it is one of the more ambitious sf films of the seventies. Web reviews almost uniformly mock the effects (typical slams being that the city looks like a miniture train set) and story (that it's naive, or the like). A common comparison is made to the effects in Star Wars. Supposedly, the effects are so much more sophisticated in Lucas's epic. That's a bit unfair. The films emphasised different visuals. Logan focused on the City of Domes and Washington D.C. Star Wars never featured any ambitious visuals of a city - a matte of Mos Eisley from the distance is hardly impressive. If the effects were so great in Star Wars, why did Lucas go back and redo the Mos Eisley sequences. The director of Logan's Run was never afforded the opportunity to go back and spruce up his film. Is the comparison really all that fair.

That said, the City of Domes could benefit from some digital improvements. From the results on film, it really is hard to believe that the city was actually a huge model. It looks dinky on film. Vikki's City of Domes site contains a large number of behind the scenes photos of the city. The set filled up an entire soundstage. One thing missing from the audio commentary for the DVD is any criticism of the model effects. Couldn't the director have mentioned, at least once, that some shots weren't entirely convincing. Indeed (as mentioned by other posts) the water pools destroy any illusion of size. Almost as bad are the miniture trees. They're hideously fake looking, as if they came from the cheapest model railway kit. The Gerry Anderson shows always used real miniture trees on their scaled down sets, and the results were more convincing. Some of the opticals combing the model city with real life crowd scenes were poorly done. One especially bad shot comes near the end during the scenes of buildings exploding- a crowd of people is shown running out of a building. It looks like a simple multiple exposure as the people are transparent. An earlier shot of the building showed heavy black figures (they almost looked animated, though the director said they were actual people filmed walling alonside a freeway).

There are many other small nits to be found in the film. In the beginning Carrousel sequence, a distant shot of a flying person (in front of the glowing orb on the ceiling) is superimposed over a shot of a person near to the camera. On the DVD commentary the costume designer praised the cinematograhpher for the sequence not having the wires supporting the flying people visible. Unfortunately, this comment comes right as we can see on film the wires of a foreground flying figure being very visible! The blue screen process work is also rather shoddy in scenes where the city is shown behing Logan and Jessica in a maze car.

At the opposite end of the quality scale are the matte shots of D.C. They're superb even if one can look carefully and tell where the matte lines were. For contrast to the model work, comes a matte shot of the City while Logan, Jessica, and the old man walk on the beach. It's beautifully done. It has an almost dream-loke quality to it.
Further enhancing the scene on the beach is music by Jerry Goldsmith. It's a beautiful bit of music, and in fact, Goldsmith provides a magnificent score for the whole film. One thing that is undeniably great, is the film's score. Favoritie bits include the synthasiser theme for the chase of the runner in the Great Hall. The theme for the ice caverns is quite lovely too. And of course, when Logan and Jessica encounter sunlight for the first time, a triumphant theme is played which was also grand enough to serve as the theme in the trailor. Speaking of the trailor, it was nice to have a new copy of it. I recorded it back when the Sci-Fi channel ran it on their Trailor Park show back in the nineties. The featurette on the making of the film on the DVD is also hugely entertaining. One regrettable omission, the director mentions numerous scenes which were trimmed from the final film. These scenes are apparently lost forever. Vikki's City of Domes site does contain some photos of deleted scenes such as the Logan and Jessica embracing in the ice caverns and scenes in a "Hallicinate-room" in the city where drugs are taken. The "Love Room" scenes were trimmed for the censors by two thirds. Even in the more relaxed 70's, drug-use and nudity were taboo in PG films. Still, it would have been nice to see the scenes. Who could possibly be offended by boobies!

I would recommend the DVD for all sci-fi fans. The film is hugely entertaining as was noted by a 1976 review by Roger Ebert.

This aired on TCM last night, so I thought I would comment on it. Truth be told, I much prefer the TV Series (which was based on, but NOT a continuation, of this movie), but this movie was okay too.

When the computer sends Logan to find and destroy Sanctuary, why doesn't it tell Francis and the other Sandmen this little fact. Maybe then they won't be shooting at him.

Just what was the catastrophe that forced Humanity into the domed city anyway (the TV Series clears that up, a nuclear war, but the movie leaves it a mystery). D.C., while covered in vines, looks very intact here.

They made a big deal that Farrah Fawcett was in this movie. Yeah, she was, for about FIVE MINUTES, before her character was killed off.

Notice that the population of the City Of Domes seems to be all white (the TV Series at least included other ethnic groups as well, a black woman was part of the resistance group that Jessica belonged to).

Did Logan really have to kill poor Francis. He was beaten, Logan, you didn't have to kill the guy!

Logan tells the computer something it didn't want to hear and it blows up. James Kirk would be proud.

Okay, the computer blows up, the city is destroyed, and thousands of people are liberated from having to die at 30. However, NONE of these people have a clue how to survive without the City looking after them. None of them worked, made their own food or clothes, the City did all that for them. THEY ARE GOING TO DIE!! Nice going, Logan!

When the computer sends Logan to find and destroy Sanctuary, why doesn't it tell Francis and the other Sandmen this little fact. Maybe then they won't be shooting at him.

It didn't want the other Sandmen to learn about Sanctuary. Logan's cover also had to look real, so the runners would trust him enough to send him to Sanctuary. Worst case scenario, Logan fails and the computer gives the mission to another Sandman.

Logan tells the computer something it didn't want to hear and it blows up. James Kirk would be proud.

I don't understand that one. The computer had information telling it that something called Sanctuary exists. Logan brought back better information that Sanctuary is actually not real, it's just a myth. The computer simply should have accepted that updated information and considered the problem solved, not blown a fuse like it did.

None of them worked, made their own food or clothes, the City did all that for them. THEY ARE GOING TO DIE!! Nice going, Logan!

The old man knows how to live outside the city, he can teach them. And in the meantime, they can live by scavenging whatever food and other useful stuff remains in the city's ruins. However, you're right. A lot of those people are going to die.

It didn't want the other Sandmen to learn about Sanctuary. Logan's cover also had to look real, so the runners would trust him enough to send him to Sanctuary. Worst case scenario, Logan fails and the computer gives the mission to another Sandman.

Yes, but Logan blasted and killed several Sandman during this mission. What's he gonna say afterword: "Hey, guys, the computer made me do it."

Besides, did the computer think that one guy was enough to destroy an entire community (which the computer thought Sanctuary was)?


I don't understand that one. The computer had information telling it that something called Sanctuary exists. Logan brought back better information that Sanctuary is actually not real, it's just a myth. The computer simply should have accepted that updated information and considered the problem solved, not blown a fuse like it did.

The only reason I can come up with is that the computer was beginning to malfunction (which may explain its actions throughout the movie), and no one remembered how to fix it (going with the theme that no one does anything in the City). Logan's revelations at the end pushed it over the edge and KER-BLOOEY!


The old man knows how to live outside the city, he can teach them. And in the meantime, they can live by scavenging whatever food and other useful stuff remains in the city's ruins. However, you're right. A lot of those people are going to die.

Looks like the old guy has his work cut out for him. I wonder how the people of the City will handle it when winter comes (they are in the Northeastern U.S. after all).

Another difference between the movie and the TV Series is that the movie made it clear that Logan and Jessica were the first to leave the City in centuries (the rest having been turned into frozen dinner by Box).

The TV Series makes it clear that many runners escaped from the City. Logan and Jessica even met one (played by Lance LeGault) in the episode The Judas Goat.

Yes, but Logan blasted and killed several Sandman during this mission. What's he gonna say afterword: "Hey, guys, the computer made me do it."

I don't think the computer ever intended Logan to go on living after completing his mission.

Besides, did the computer think that one guy was enough to destroy an entire community (which the computer thought Sanctuary was)?

Logan's mission was not to destroy Sanctuary, it was to find out and report its location, so the Sandmen could destroy it. He mistakenly thinks that the place the Runners interrogate him is Sanctuary, he does send a signal to the computer and the Sandmen attack soon after. By this time, he has learned of his mistake and Jessica (who is still unaware of his deception) takes him through the door that supposedly leads to Sanctuary.

\I[I don't think the computer ever intended Logan to go on living after completing his mission.}

This computer makes HAL 9000 seem sane by comparison. As I said, I think it was seriously in need of repairs, but no one was left who remembered how to do it.



Logan's mission was not to destroy Sanctuary, it was to find out and report its location, so the Sandmen could destroy it. He mistakenly thinks that the place the Runners interrogate him is Sanctuary, he does send a signal to the computer and the Sandmen attack soon after. By this time, he has learned of his mistake and Jessica (who is still unaware of his deception) takes him through the door that supposedly leads to Sanctuary.

Man, Logan does not come off well in this movie. It's only much later that he realizes he was wrong. He never tells Jessica this though (that he got all her friends killed).


I like the TV version better, in which Logan was already having doubts. It was hinted in several episodes that he deliberately missed a few Runners and they got away (unless Francis got them instead).

I just love how they played up that Farah Fawcett was in this movie. They made it sound like she was playing a major character, when in fact she was playing an Ensign Deadmeat character.

Of course, she was a big star at the time this movie came out (1976). No doubt they hoped to draw in her fans by advertising that she was in this movie. What they didn't say was her role was very minimal and could have been played by an unknown extra for all the impact it had on the plot.

She (Farrah Fawcett Majors) was a big star at the time this movie came out (1976).

Not really. The premiere of Charlie's Angels, which would make her a "major"(s) (sorry) star, was three months away when Logan's Run opened (June of '76). She was a known quantity, but had yet to break out.
TCM ran this movie with a "TV-MA" rating, for (I assume) violence, adult situations and brief nudity. Yet, the movie was released to theaters with a "PG" rating.

I should have been more specific. I first saw this movie on TV. When they were promoting it, they said "Starring Michael York and Farrah Fawcett Majors." As I said, they made it sound like Farrah was a major character, instead of an Ensign Deadmeat (Jenny Agutter was not even mentioned in said promo).

I'm not sure if it was the book the film was based on, or a novelisation of the movie, but the book ended with the revelation that Sanctuary was an old space station!

The third book, which I never read, took place on a space station I believe.

Oddly enough, I'm currently re-reading the first book, which I've not read since the 70s. Not sure if I'll progress to the second one or not.

I know there are a lot of 'Hollywood is bankrupt in creativity and can't come up with any new ideas!' people, but honestly, this is a franchise that I think could very successfully be rebooted today.

It's similar to Galactica and Westworld in that everybody was aware of it at the time but it wasn't terribly successful, so it's not like remaking an all-time classic. It was never really done justice on either screen. There are lot of potential storylines, minus the cheese of the tv series.

I'm not sure if it was the book the film was based on, or a novelisation of the movie, but the book ended with the revelation that Sanctuary was an old space station!

The movie ended with Logan, borrowing from the James Kirk Manual On Handling Rogue Computers, by talking the computer to death. It blows up, taking the City Of Domes with it, and leaving the population, who have no idea how to think for themselves, exposed to the elements.

Wonder how many made it through the first winter as the COD was located in the northeastern U.S., since it was within walking distance of Washington D.C. (placing it somewhere in either presebt day Maryland or Virginia).


There are lot of potential storylines, minus the cheese of the tv series.

Hey, I LIKED that show. It still holds up pretty well today, nearly forty-five years later.

I haven't seen it since it aired, but I remember it being pretty tv-friendly, as it would have to have been then.

I'd watch it over some of the rubbish on today.

Tim - When the computer sends Logan to find and destroy Sanctuary, why doesn't it tell Francis and the other Sandmen this little fact. Maybe then they won't be shooting at him."
Francois - "It didn't want the other Sandmen to learn about Sanctuary. Logan's cover also had to look real."

I never thought about that as I watched it yesterday, my first time in about 35 years or more. The computer sends someone out on a mission, neglects to tell the other Sandman about said mission, and risks having its pawn being killed for no good reason. Yikes! At least tell the Sandmen to miss Logan when they shoot, to make it realistic. Of course, without telling the Sandman, we wouldn't have Francis 7 chase Logan and feel betrayed.

Tim - "They made a big deal that Farrah Fawcett was in this movie. Yeah, she was, for about FIVE MINUTES," and "I just love how they played up that Farah Fawcett was in this movie. They made it sound like she was playing a major character."

And she's fifth in stars billed in the credits, before Peter Ustinov, who gets last billing to have viewers remember his name. Seems this movie is actually low on 'major' characters.
But, Tim, didn't Farrah look GORGEOUS in this movie, with her 'classic' and iconic golden locks?

And speaking of beautiful, I really liked the retro-disco skimpy outfits worn by the women. Who wouldn't want to live there (for 29 years and 364 days, though)?

Shouldn't Francis 7 have known that Logan wasn't 30 and shouldn't be a target? They seem to be close friends, and should know each other's real age.

Logan and Jessica have to swim underwater and arrive in some cold, snow-covered tunnels, so they pull off their wet clothes and snuggle within some furs they find lying around. (You actually see Jenny Agutter's naked body for a couple seconds). Logan fights Box the robot and they get rid of their furs-- only they're both wearing their clothes under the furs now!

Logan is not a nice person at the beginning of this movie, taking pleasure in taunting Runners. Nice to see a movie where the main character goes through a journey that changes them for the better.

In less than 300 years, humanity forgot all of its history and many social concepts (marriage, terminating Runners is not 'killing', don't question authority, etc.). Makes me think of the old saying; "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." Those happy, carefree, hedonistic survivors might be on a road to civil war, at the very least a chaotic, undisciplined society.

By the way, when this movie was released in 1976 here are the stars ages;
Michael York - age 34
Richard Jordan - age 39
Jenny Agutter - age 24
Farrah Fawcett-Majors - age 29
Peter Ustinov - age 55

So Logan and Francis 7 should have gone to Carousel by now, and Old Man looked ALOT older than fifty-five!

I'm with the general opinion on this board-- this was a pretty good movie, which I liked (and could appreciate more with my second viewing).

The computer sends someone out on a mission, neglects to tell the other Sandman about said mission, and risks having its pawn being killed for no good reason. Yikes! At least tell the Sandmen to miss Logan when they shoot, to make it realistic.

It's possible that the computer was already starting to malfunction at this point (because there was no one left who knew how to fix it). Perhaps this is why Logan's James Kirk Gambit (talking the computer to death) actually worked.


I really liked the retro-disco skimpy outfits worn by the women.

Yeah, one can tell this was made in the 70's.


In less than 300 years, humanity forgot all of its history and many social concepts (marriage, terminating Runners is not 'killing', don't question authority, etc.).

And the movie never says what caused all this. Yes, the TV series said it was a nuclear war, but that takes place in a separate continuity.


Those happy, carefree, hedonistic survivors might be on a road to civil war, at the very least a chaotic, undisciplined society.

It may not even get that far, Steve. These people have been pampered by the City for generations. They never had to produce or work for themselves. Now that papered life is gone. These people are exposed to the elements of the outside world. They have no water, no food, no provisions of any kind. Just wait until winter comes (since the City was in walking distance of D.C., that would place it in either present day Maryland or Virginia). No doubt many will die because they will not know how to protect themselves from the cold.

And, being shut in the City for centuries, they may no longer be immune to viruses that we take for granted (such as the common cold). The flu still kills people today, and we know what it is and how to handle it. These people don't, and the flu would go through them faster than the German Army went through France in 1940.

These people are SO screwed!


this was a pretty good movie, which I liked

Me too. However, truth be told, I like the TV series better.

I know that all this was based on a series of novels, but, since I've never read any of them, I cannot offer an opinion on them.

I'm surprised nobody noticed this on this thread at the top, but in 2003 Benn wrote, "George Clayton Johnson co-wrote the novel, Logan's Run, btw. Johnson was the author of TOS ep, "Where No Man Has Gone Before"."
Obviously, this is incorrect. Johnson wrote 'The man Trap' and Samuel A Peeples wrote 'Where No man Has Gone before'.

Up until the event of this movie, no one made it past Box.

Gotta feel for those poor runners. They manage to elude the Sandmen, only to wind up as frozen dinner.

The reason I've been able to comment on this movie is because I rented the DVD from a library, and today before I returned it I had a chance to see the single special feature, a 'featurette' that details the making of the movie, as it was being made in 1976.
The director and Michael York offer some comments, you see the film crew filming various scenes, the tunnel-car under construction, and the narrator mentions that the effects being used are the latest technology from today-- from 1976!
My question is why this 'featurette' was even produced in 1976? There were no VHS movies back then, and even then they very rarely possessed the 'special features' of today's DVDs. Nor did shows like 'Entertainment Tonight' exist back then, so who was this featurette made for and why? It's a nice glimpse into the making, but I can't figure out it's purpose in 1976.
And by the way, Tim, the DVD cover has tiny postage stamp-sized photos of the movie's stars, and yes, Farrah is there with York and Agutter.

The mid seventies were the time when they started filming "making of" documentaries for movies, like Star Wars, Jaws, Apocalypse Now, and many others. Those documentaries would be aired on network television as part of the movie's marketing campaign. The Logan's Run featurette probably comes from such making of footage.

They also began airing on cable channels like HBO and Showtime as between movie filler.

And by the way, Tim, the DVD cover has tiny postage stamp-sized photos of the movie's stars, and yes, Farrah is there with York and Agutter.

Yeah, when this movie first aired on TV, back in the late 70's, the promotions made it seem that Farrah had a major role. Imagine my surprise when she was in the movie for all of five minutes or so.