Logan's Run, the motion picture is the form in which I first encountered this fascinating story. In 1976 the novel had been around for around ten years and adapting that slim but complex piece to the big screen would have been a challenge given the technology of the time. In fact, I look at Logan's Run as the last of the classic science fiction movies which had dominated the screen for a long time, filled with handsome people in an even more handsome world. Sci-fi movies gleamed once upon a time and Logan's Run gleams. Then came a little bitty flicker titled Star Wars, and the lived-on space look was to dominate the form for many years to come.
Unlike the novel which sets the maximum age at twenty-one, the movie shifts it up to thirty, mostly because they felt finding enough extras who would look young enough was not really possible. Also given some of the inclination early on to portray sexual activity more provocatively, the younger age might have been problematic. (Getting a glimpse Jenny Agutter naked was about all the moviemakers were going to allow us the audience to enjoy.)Also the movie limits the world in which Logan 5 (changed from Logan 3 in the novel) lives to just one city, instead of a maze of interconnected regions and cities and such. Inside this domed city there are youthful people with few responsibilities save to entertain themselves until their death day arrives. If they select to run for their lives, they are pursued by a police force called "Sandmen" who not only find them but kill them on sight.
One sandman, Logan (Michael York), comes across information about Sancturary and is given the mission by the computers which govern the city to discover and destroy it. To that end, Logan's ultimate motivations remains murky until well into the movie. Not so Jessic 6 (Jenny Agutter) who wants to find safety in sanctuary and seems quite smitten with Logan. Also on hand is Francis 7 (Richard Jordan) who is Logan's ally then enemy. We follow our couple as they penetrate the city seals and discover long lost secrets about how the city operates. They also discover a tragic world ruled by a robot named "Box" (Roscoe Lee Browne). Surviving that, Logan and Jessica find themselves outside in the natural world for the first time. They eventually head toward a wasted city which was clearly Washington D.C. and find its one sole occupant, an old man played masterfully by Peter Ustinov.
The movie doesn't really have an ending, or at least one I find convincing. Unlike the novel which is content with the lives of Logan and Jessica, the movie makers felt the need to resolve the problems of the entire city and with little running time available do so in an exceedingly humdrum ham-fisted manner. The ending has always been the weakest part of the film. Logan's Run is a must see for any science fiction fan, but it's a must see with significant deficiencies.
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