NO! Don’t go in there! You don’t have to die! No one has to die at 30! You could live! LIVE! Live, and grow old! I’ve seen it! She’s seen it!
The first time I heard of this film was when I was watching The Island with my mom, she kept saying that the film reminded her of Logan’s Run. While I think The Island is more like The 6th Day, it does take quite a bit from this film. So does that Justin Timberlake, Olivia Wilde, and Amanda Seyfried film and that one Matt Damon time movie.
Yes, none of those could be made if it wasn’t for this film.
This is based off a book and had high class special effects for the time, my mom was telling me how watching it for that first time on the big screen, it just blew everyone away.
Wow!
The film is set in 2274 and people live in this doomed domed city, all their life revolves around is pleasure, like the city in Metropolis.
Pleasure Garden
No sickness, diseases, pain, suffering, etc-just sex, play, and everyone dies at 30, unless they can be lucky enough to get to carousal and renew.
To make sure people accept their fate at 30, they have a police force-called Sandmen. They hunt the “runners”, those that try to escape.
When everyone is born they have a jewel on their palm. They start out white, then become yellow, from there they turn green, then red, then black and flash when their time is up.
Logan (Michael York) is a sandman and in his red period, 26 years old. We first see him when he is looking at his son Logan in the nursery. In this time men donate their seed, women give birth, and children are raised separately from their parents-the only thing they have from them is their name-boys take their father’s name and girls their mother’s name. Now this is an interesting scene, because even though Logan acts like a Sandman we see there is a part of him that doesn’t quite match up with how this world works. He goes to see his child-something his friend finds odd as no one ever does that.
Logan: [tapping on a glass window of maternity room] Wake up.
Francis: Logan, you are here. I couldn’t believe it when they told me. What are you doing?
Logan: [indicates baby] Logan 6. Well it’s not everyday that they authorize a new sandman. I tell you Francis…[indicating baby] that’s him.
Francis: Well maybe, maybe not. What does it matter? Anyway, he isn’t yours anymore.
[Logan continues to tap lightly on the glass]
It reminds me of Fahrenheit 451, how Montag was a fireman and did what they were supposed to do-but there was something different about him, something in his foundation that opened himself to Clarisse’s wondering and changed.
So anyways, Logan goes about his day as normal, watch people try to renew and fail, kill those running, then go home and drink, get high, and swipe left or right for sex.
That last part though, it actually sounds quite a bit like today…
Spooky…
Seriously, you call people up on the circuit, they materialize, and you guys decide if you are going to be together or not. This night Logan meets Jessica, a green-wearing girl (younger than him) wearing an ankh necklace.
Stop, that is important to the plot. Remember it.
Jessica (Jenny Agutter) is sad, as a close friend of hers tried to reach “renewal” but didn’t, he died. She went on the circuit to distract herself, but has changed her mind. She isn’t interested.
Logan: Killed? Why do you use that word?
Jessica: Isn’t that what you do? Kill?
Logan: I’ve never killed anyone in my life. Sandman terminate runners. What’s your name?
Jessica: Jessica.
Logan: You’re sad enough. You’re beautiful. Let’s have sex.
Jessica: No.
Logan: Then why are you wasting my time, hmmm? Why did you put yourself on the circuit?
Jessica: I thought I had to do something. I told you it was a mistake. And I’ve changed my mind.
Logan: Because I’m a Sandman? Am I your first?
Jessica: Yes. And I’m curious.
But she’s got into him. The way she talked about his job, and sandmen has got him thinking…
Hmm…
Like I said before, this film really reminds me of Fahrenheit 451. As Jessica challenges the way Logan looks at things, just like Clarisse did for Montag. From that first meeting-their whole life changes. The book Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953 and the film came out in 1966, so it is easy to see how it influenced this film.
But-back to the story. So Jessica leaves, and Logan and his best pal and coworker, Francis, have fun with some other ladies and drugs.
Forget that girl…or can he?
Another day, Logan and Francis take down a runner and Logan recovers an ankh symbol. When he and Francis turn over the evidence and items they find off the runners, EVERYTHING CHANGES!
This is going to get good…
When he drops the ankh down, the computer freaks out and creepily calls him over to sit.
I wouldn’t!!
He has started Procedure 033-03. The computer tells him over 1600 people have run and found sanctuary. They don’t know where they go but that the ankh is what they use to find/get to sanctuary,
Logan questions the computer and discovers that there is no “renewal” and “carousal”. They all die.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOGAN, STOP! YOU KNOW TOO MUCH!! THEY ARE GOING TO KILL YOU!!!! RUN NOW!!!!
But of course he doesn’t. The computer gives him his mission to find sanctuary, changes his light so that his time is now up and he has to “run.”
OF COURSE it has to be a secret and he CAN’T TELL ANYONE, really?
This is like Departed-level bad idea. Jeez, no pne knows about you except two of us-one who does, and the other who gets fired so no one is going to help you!
So Logan calls up Jessica again to try and get her to help him, as he remembers she has the ankh symbol too. Jessica, however, is much smarter than Logan thought. She doesn’t really believe him as “sandmen never run”. He does all he can, but her group plots to murder him as he knows too much. Before they accomplish it, Logan gets a call to get a runner thats going through the chapel, the place they keep the wild children. Jessica decides to go with him.
So I’m going to test him.
There they have to fight a band of Lost Boys/Lord of the Flies type guys-who Logan’s manages to outsmart. Logan finds the runner and lets her go, showing that he is on Jessica’s side. This does exactly what he hopes it would, completely convinces her that he is serious.
Unbeknownst to them, Francis has been following Logan to help him, but saw that his time is up and that he let the woman go. Now he is prepared to end him.
But aren’t any more!
Logan remembers that the runner he killed the other day had just been given a face change, in order to help him be harder to track. He decides that is his next stop, accompanied by Jessica.
They get there, where the Doctor’s assistant is played by Farrah Fawcett!
That’s how you know you are in the ’70s! They prepare for the face change, but then the Doctor gets a phone call. The phone call is from the others in the sanctuary group and when he comes back, to operate, he turns his machine on all crazy as Logan finds himself in a real jam.
But of course Logan defeats the doctor and afterwards, he and Jessica run some more, and she takes him to where her people meet. They decide to help him, but he reveals the location on his walkie-talkie and the sandmen come and decimate everyone. Logan realizes his mistake and he and Jessica try to flee.
They run out and think they find sanctuary, but instead run into a frozen ice lair with a crazy robot named Box that freezes escapees and turns them into food for the city.
Yeah I know what you are thinking:
Yes, this came after Soylent Green so it is borrowing a lot of elements.
They manage to escape and find a beautiful outside. Sun? Fresh air? No dome? Also their life clocks have been renewed and reset to white.
They find the old buildings of Washington D.C. and in one is an old man with a ton of cats.
Boom, life goal right there. That’s who I want to be.
You know, minus the dystopian future, war, empty world, people dying when they reach 30, etc.
But things don’t stay that way as Francis comes and Logan has to fight him.
They decide after that to go back and help the others, taking the old man with them as proof.
Logan: NO! Don’t go in there! You don’t have to die! No one has to die at 30! You could live! LIVE! Live, and grow old! I’ve seen it! She’s seen it! [shows the crystal on his palm] Well, look! LOOK! LOOK, IT’S CLEAR!
[crowd laughs]
Computer: Last day, Capricorn 29’s. Year of the City: 2274. Carousel begins.
Jessica: No! Don’t! Don’t go! Listen to him! He’s telling the truth!
[more laughter]
Jessica: We’ve been outside! There’s another world outside! We’ve seen it!
[Sandmen grab them]
Logan: Life clocks are a lie! Carousel is a lie! THERE IS NO RENEWAL!
So I really enjoyed it! There are a lot of elements borrowed from other films-but a whole lot more films borrow from it, so it evens out.
And the facebook banner!
To start Horrorfest VIII from the beginning, go to Count Dracula the Propagator of This Unspeakable Evil Has Disappeared. He Must Be Found and Destroyed!: Horror of Dracula (1958)
For more dystopian futures, go to Take Your Stinking Paws Off Me, you D*** Dirty Ape!: Planet of the Apes (1968)
For more on cats, go to Cats, Books, & Tea
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