Logan's Run (1976)

That was an excellent one.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Here's a sci-fi film that I have been meaning to catch for a long time. Luckily TCM is doing the 31 days of Oscar films marathon so I can catch up on good stuff I've never seen. Sci-fi's of the past decades are usually great because they are creative and high concept. I know this is based on a novel but I think the film was still pretty great regardless even though some of it was flawed. Logan's Run is a sci fi film that takes place in a dystopian future and I'd have to say this film must have influenced many modern day films.The film is set in a world where people only live until 30. Once they hit 30 they are exterminated. A man known as Logan 5 goes on the run who becomes 30 after a medical procedure goes wrong. He goes on his run with a beautiful compatriot named Jessica 6. The film has futuristic gadgets and concepts and really felt slightly ahead of its time. I say slightly because we started getting a lot of the original sci-fi films around this time. Logan's Run had a few themes I noticed and also a few similarities to some other sci-fi films of the time.The film really reminded me of Soylent Green in the fact that it has a theme of population control through killing off human beings in a ritualistic/efficient way. The film also shared similarities with Planet of the Apes, mostly through the viewing of the desolate ruins of Washington DC. The effects are at times quite dated, which is understandable considering the time. The film does have a few memorable moments and enough romance going for it to keep you interesting.I'd say the first half of the film has a lot going on but its quite interesting but its important to stay focused or get lost. The second half where Logan and Jessica go on the run doesn't always engage but its mostly nice to see the connection between the two. Overall, its quite a fun film with some interesting viewpoints and issues addressed for its time. While effects are dated and the focus isn't always perfect it's a good experience.7.5/10

I've always found Michael York a little spooky. I remember him from "Cabaret" and Zefferelli's "Romeo and Juliet," among other things. He is handsome but has an odd quality to him. In this film, he grows up in a society where people are living in a bubble. To sustain themselves, it was decided long ago that at thirty it was time for folks to die. It was also decided that there was no life outside the bubble. Logan (York) and Jenny Agutter come to realize that what appears to some to be a transition is actually an execution. They make their way to the other side, but things are not over yet. It becomes important to them to get the message back to their city to make people realize that there is a world where all could survive to old age if they were fortunate enough. What's a little hard to swallow is that a couple of renegades could wield so much power.

A 70s USA grandiose Sci-Fi picture directed by Oscar-nominated UK director Michael Anderson from AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) fame. Loosely adapted from its titular novel, LOGAN'S RUN depicts an Utopian future in the year of 2274, where the residue of human beings are living in a sealed dome city, everything is under the reign of a super-computer, designed to cater to all aspects of human's needs, only with one proviso, whoever reaches 30-year-old, must volunteer to a ritual called "Carrousel", to start their life anew, those who refuse to abide this rule, which are termed as"runners", will be hunted and terminated by a team of armed police forces called"Sandmen", and our protagonist Logan 5 (York) is one of them, a fairly good one too. In its opening wheeze, audience witnesses this ostensible Carrousel rebirth, a surprisingly commendable feat involving a magnificent flying-wire stunt, still can feasibly grab our attention 40 years after its birth, where those 30-year-old birthday men/women are gathered together in their monotonous garbs, then start to defy gravity and float upwards under the propulsion of an energy field, hailed by frenetic onlookers, until being individually shot down by laser beams, which consummates their so-called ritual renewal, but an unsettling frisson penetrates our mind, what is really happening? Other than the occasional disruptions caused by Runners, this mega-computer organized dome city is a hedonistic paradise, it is retro-futuristically antiseptic and every youngster is uniformly dressed with a specific color scheme according to ages, there is no concept of family, one can choose his or her ideal sex partner through a unique transportation booth, and there is a neon-lit love shop in the arcade, solely to gratify one's sexual desire. Face-lifting and body-modification technology is also super-advanced. Soon Logan is assigned by the computer to operate an under-handed mission, his age being adjusted from 26 to reaching 30, Logan must infiltrate the group of Runners, so as to locate a secret place named Sanctuary, where people can live without age limitation, and destroy it. So in a befuddling flurry, Logan begins his run, along with a young rebel Jessica 6 (Agutter), whilst tailed by his task-unwitting Sandman best-friend Francis 7 (Jordan). In a valiant fashion, Logan and Jessica wreak havoc in a posh beautification center, get in touch with Runners and encounter a proto-robot Box (Lee Browne, one year prior the emergence of STAR WARS), who timely corroborates that the renewal is a hoax, those being dispatched by laser beams are frozen in his storage room with a frightening subtext hinting cannibalism. Eventually, after escaping the city and ascending onto the surface through an elevator, they (and viewers too) realize the city is entirely built underground, whereas the terra firma is totally derelict and abandoned, until they chance upon the last man alive in a ruined Washington DC, the old man (Ustinov), who will give scattershot information of a past world which is more aligned with today's notion, followed by a final showdown between Logan and Francis. But what about the Sanctuary? Where is it? Maybe there has never been one, it is simply a myth to elicit hope and strength to disillusioned Runners. In an overtly rash third act, Logan and Jessica take the old man with them, as a living proof that life doesn't need to being ended at 30, to unveil the inconvenient truth of their Utopian world and exact the final liberation, which comes off as suspiciously handy in a palpably sagging finale. Shot in wide-angle splendor, the film simultaneously embodies the cutting-edge Special Effect technology and betrays the outdated modus operandi of its days, however the concept of its escapist future-world, bolstered by an intrusively retro-futuristic score from Jerry Goldsmith, presciently precedes the more insidious, and virtual-reality blurring milieu of THE MATRIX trilogy, a congenial cast also helps to keep the movie entertaining, York is motivated enough to represent Logan less a cipher than he is designed, and Agutter is predictably pigeonholed an under- developed but eye-pleasing foil, plus a muttering impromptu Ustinov is just too much a jewel in the fray. A reboot of this picture has been in the pipeline for years but to no avail, then if one can spike the archetype story with some more topical elements such as clones and advanced A.I., taking a leaf from the book of the with-it TV series WESTWORLD, perhaps television is a more liberal and benign alternative presently, albeit the studio had already made a TV-spin off in 1977 after the movie's success, which only lasted for one season.

In the 23rd century, people live a hedonistic lifestyle in a domed utopia run by a super computer. When people reach the age of thirty, they are publicly put through a ritual called Carousel that involves them being blown apart in mid-air (you have to see it to believe it). Some refuse to accept their fate and run away. They're called Runners. The police types sent to track them down are called Sandmen. Michael York plays one of these Sandmen named Logan. He's sent undercover by the super computer that runs things. It wants him to infiltrate the Runners, hoping they will lead him to a supposed safe haven they have called Sanctuary. He meets a pretty runner played by Jenny Agutter and the two find themselves pursued by Logan's closest friend and fellow Sandman Francis (Richard Jordan).A smart, creative, and fun science fiction classic from the '70s. Mocked by many but I love it. It's a great story adapted from the novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The sets are amazing and the old-school special effects are colorful and charming. I always appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship that went into crafting the visuals for science fiction and fantasy films pre-CGI. Nice Jerry Goldsmith score, too. Michael York and lovely Jenny Agutter are very likable. Jenny has a couple of nude scenes that many will appreciate. Peter Ustinov has an amusing role as possibly the oldest man left living in the world. Farrah Fawcett has a small part here. She's attractive but her acting is not good. It's a very interesting and entertaining movie. Not perfect but what is? If you enjoy futuristic movies like the Planet of the Apes series or Soylent Green, you'll probably like this. It's got robots, lasers, babes, ice caves, and all kinds of fun stuff.