Logan’s Run (1976)

Movie Info

Taste the bite of my fabulous gun!

Logan 5 (Michael York) is a Sandman.  He lives in the city and vows to stop Runners…those who decide they are not willing go to the Carrousel for their last day.  When he is assigned to go into deep cover find the legendary “Sanctuary”, Logan finds his life-clock to red and that now he is the target of the Sandman.  Teamed with a woman named Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter), Logan 5 is out to uncover the truth, and it could mean leaving the city that has been Logan’s only home.

Directed by Michael Anderson, Logan’s Run is a sci-fi-fantasy action film.  The movie is based upon the novel by William F. Nolan and George Glayton which was published in 1967.  The film won a special achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects and nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction-Set Direction.

Logan’s Run is one of those movies I should have seen years ago but never did.  As a fan of sci-fi and the period in which Logan’s Run was made, it is a perfect mix.  Seeing it much later, it holds no nostalgia and I see a lot of missed opportunities.

Oh no! They all drank the Fizzy Lifting Drinks…Mr. Wonka warned them not to!

The movie’s concept is good, but it has been done before.  Both Star Trek and The Twilight Zone (among others) have explored the idea of limiting life.  I hoped with a full length film and a bigger budget, the idea would have been explored more.  Instead, it felt like it was underdeveloped and kept falling into scenes where there was too much action or too much dialogue.  The film felt unbalanced and never truly explored.

Michael York is solid as Logan, but his character doesn’t seem to be very consistent.  It doesn’t seem very evident through the whole film on where he decides he’s not still a “Sandman” and when he really flips sides.  I like Jenny Agutter as his costar because she doesn’t feel like the typical and traditional lead.  Farrah Fawcett seems more of what I’d expect from casting in a utopia society film , but here she’s just a supporting role.  Peter Ustinov eats up his scene, but he also causes the movie to really drag.

I should be doing Shakespeare in the Park…not Robot in the Dark!!!

Logan’s Run was released before Star Wars, and Logan’s Run didn’t benefit from the sci-fi revolution it caused.  While for the time, Logan’s Run was good looking, it looks very, very dated now.  It uses a series of miniatures (which look almost Godzilla-like) and also throws in some hallucinogenic moments to give it a late ’60s-early ’70s feel.

The concepts of Logan’s Run still hold up and still are worth exploring, but the movie feels like it runs out of steam.  While it drags at points, the ending just does not feel like a payoff, but the producers saying “let’s wrap this up”…it is hokey and kind of unsatisfying.  There have been multiple plans for a remake and attempts to be more faithful to the source material.  The series spawned a short-lived TV series and a Marvel Comic.  I actually wouldn’t mind Logan’s Run being revisited and could see it be a success (again) if done right.