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Logan’s Run
(1976)
The Sandmen will get you if you run
Director George Pal of MonsterVision’s The Time Machine (1960) was replaced by Michael Anderson shortly after production on “Logan’s Run” started, and one wonders what he could have done with this minor sci-fi cult classic. It is the year 2274 and people live in a comfortable climate-controlled domed city run by a master computer. At age 30, everyone is required to enter the anti-gravity Carousel for “rejuvenation,” but they are actually vaporized in the computer’s zero-population growth formula. Michael York is one of the Sandmen, secret police who monitor everything by view-screens. It is their job to hunt down and kill anyone who figures out the Carousel’s deadly secret and run away. Logan-5 (York) is almost 29, and is assigned by the computer to find Sanctuary, the mythical place that over a thousand fugitives have escaped to. Logan-5 is stunned at this news, and becomes personally curious to find it. He befriends Jessica-6, who is wearing the symbol used by the underground to recognize each other. But she thinks it’s a trick, and her friends decide to kill Logan. But eventually they do make a run for it.
In the nuked remains of Washington D.C., they meet a depressed old hermit (Peter Ustinov) who claims to be the President, and then they have some additional forgettable adventures before returning to the domed city. They tell their story to the computer, which goes nuts and shuts down the city.
Additional cast:
Roscoe Lee Browne, Farrah Fawcett, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter. Based on a novel by William F. Nolan & George C. Johnson, remade one year later as a TV-movie starring Gregory Harrison and spun-off into a one-season TV-series. The 1977/78 series ran 13 episodes, with story editor D.C. Fontana, who also co-wrote 2 episodes. Harlan Ellison co-wrote another (about 6 people in cryo-units from the 20th century). The final episode, Stargate, was written by someone named O’Neill, about aliens stranded on Earth who steal Logan’s new robot friend REM (Donald Moffat) to use as spare parts so they can get back home thru their stargate (O’Neill? Stargate? Why does that sound familiar?)
TV guest stars included Mariette Hartley, Joey Fontana, Gerald McRaney, Nehemiah Persoff, Soon-Teck Oh, Linden Chiles, Angela Cartwright, Mel Ferrer, Kim Cattrall and Will Smith. The series was produced by Leonard Katzman, with Executive Producers Ivan Goff & Ben Roberts (who also did TV’s Charlie’s Angels starring Farrah Fawcett when she was in the original Logan’s Run movie). By the way, Michael York had been in movies since 1967, but this was his first sci-fi movie. He went on to do Island Of Dr. Moreau (1977), a seemingly-immortal King Arthur in an ep of Babylon 5, and even played the Antichrist in The Omega Code.
Now let’s see what Joe Bob Briggs had to say about it in MonsterVision host segments, already in progress:
Logan’s Run break one
[Jennifer-6 has just been summoned to Logan’s apartment. As a Sandman, she is expected to do anything he wants her to do]
“Hey, I’ve heard of phone-sex, but that was great! Where do you get one of those hooker-remote things? Michael York would be the guy though, who dials up a hooker, and she decides she doesn’t really want to be a hooker once she gets there. That’s what would happen to me. Not that I have any personal experience with that sort of thing. Anyhow, remember in the 60s, the slogan of the hippies was, “Don’t trust anybody over 30?” Well here it is. This movie came out in 1976, and it’s kind of inspired by that slogan – we have a country that believes so much in youth, that they don’t WANT any people over 30, and everybody LIKES it that way. Nobody’s really worried about it either, because nobody even considers death a possibility, until they turn 30. So I find this a very interesting sci-fi idea. But this next part is where it gets REALLY interesting.
[fading]
And I do not condone the use of hookers, I should say that.
Unless it’s necessary to the plot.
[rest of host segments on videotape but not yet transcribed. Email me if you want to see them.
"Logan’s Run" Break #1
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"Logan’s Run" Break #2
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"Logan’s Run" Break #3
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"Logan’s Run" Break #4
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"Logan’s Run" Break #5
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"Logan’s Run" Outro
"Logan’s Run" availability on video and on DVD from Amazon.com
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Trivia (courtesy the Internet Movie Database)
* The costuming was originally intended to be relatively scanty for all the actors in the film, but it was decided the resulting demands on makeup were prohibitive.
* The first choices for the roles of Logan and Jessica were Jon Voight and Lindsay Wagner. The role of Peter Ustinov's character, the Old Man, was offered to James Cagney.
* The character of Francis was originally to be played by William Devane, but he pulled out of the film.
* According to Michael Anderson, the old man's buttons are United States pennies. He made makeshift buttons out of them because he couldn't find any real buttons.
* An extra makes the Star Trek Vulcan salute when waving to the old man after everyone escapes the exploding city.
* The shots of the pistons that controlled the elevator leading to the scene in the ice cave were taken directly from director Michael Anderson's previous film, Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)
* The life clocks on everyone's hands all start out clear (at birth), turn yellow at age 8, green at 16, and red at 23. Everyone wears clothes the same color as their life clocks (except Sandmen, who wear black uniforms). As Lastday - age 30 - approaches, the life clocks flash red and black, then, at 30 turn totally black.
* During the encounter between the old man and the runners Logan and Jessica, the old man often quotes poems out of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" by T.S. Eliot
* The waterfalls and steps that Logan jumps into to get back into the dome are real. They are located in Ft. Worth, Texas
* Michael York, Richard Jordan and Michael Anderson Jr. were all over 30 when they made the film.
Do not use old MonsterVision email or websites. Joe Bob's new website is: www.joebobbriggs.com
Host segment transcript of / /97 broadcast
©1997 Turner Network Television. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved
Original “tnt.turner.com/monstervision” archives have been erased. Mis-spellings & mis-steaks in above restored transcription can be blamed on Bill Laidlaw
