“Never trust anyone over 30” was the mantra of the youth culture of the late 1960s and early ’70s. Logan’s Run (1976) takes that concept a step farther...when they turn 30, kill them.
Set in a futuristic self-contained city, protected by an enormous translucent bubble, Logan’s Run posits a creative if cold-blooded system for zero population control. The benefits: a life of hedonistic pleasure in a moneyless society...including casual sex, materialism and plastic surgery on demand. The drawback: when your number’s up, you must undergo a spectacularly staged pseudo-religious ceremony known as “Carousel”—Orwellian Newspeak for “Extermination”—and hope for "renewal".
The city is peopled with impossibly beautiful actors of the 1970s, including Michael York as Logan, Jenny Agutter as Jessica and Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Holly. In a prescient sequence that foreshadows our current world of Internet hookups, they connect with each other for no-strings sexual pleasure via “The Circuit,” a kind of Star Trek transporter in every living room.
As a “Sand Man,” Logan’s job is to terminate “Runners,” those who don’t want to be incinerated in the fiery Carousel arena and try to escape. But when the crystal on Logan’s palm changes color prematurely, making him a target for Carousel, he must become a Runner himself and find a mythical place called “Sanctuary,” where people are allowed to grow old.
"Sit facing the screen, Logan 5. Identify. "
