Logan's Run

In his comedy routine, Texan comic Bill Hicks (R.I.P.) sometimes ridiculed his fellow Texans.  When close-minded locals learned that he was in fact, literate, he joked, they ominously growled, “Looks like we got ourselves a ‘reader.’”  Yes, one of those weird people, like me, who read books – possibly without pictures in them.  

My buddy Dave reviewed a movie, “Logan’s Run”, and I managed to find the original paperback at a used book store, written by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.  I breezed through it fairly quickly, and then watched the film from Netflix.  Both are…OK….and certainly bear some repeating.

In the distant future, America has become another one of those superclean totalitarian societies run by a computer.  Everything is taken care of, we have no wants, fears, worries, or wars.  Naturally, anything this perfect has to be too good to be true, so what’s the catch?   Everyone has to commit suicide at age 30 (age 21 in the book).   As it is, this somewhat draconian solution to overpopulation has been meekly accepted by the majority of the population, who have been told, and believe, that they will be “renewed” (reborn).   A small minority of people (“runners”) decide to escape when their age comes up, so an elite force of “Sandmen” chase them down.   The runners talk of a place called “Sanctuary”, a faraway, possibly mythical, place where the computer can’t reach and they can live out their days until they die a natural death.  Even the Sandmen aren’t quite sure if Sanctuary truly exists.

One Sandman, Logan, is assigned to find Sanctuary, by teaming up with a female runner.  However, he begins doubting the official story and quickly decides to run himself, especially since his own time is up anyway; the Sandmen are not exempt from the euthanasia requirement (in the movie, the computer artificially ages him so he can credibly infiltrate the runners).   Francis, Logan's former partner, then turns into his nemesis, chasing him down.

Book vs. Movie.  The movie has Michael York (looking like Ashton Kutcher’s father) as Logan, and Richard Jordan (Duncan Idaho in “Dune” and General Armistead in “Gettysburg”) as Francis; even the much-desired Farrah Fawcett has a minor role.  The plot is essentially the same at the beginning but diverges considerably as the story goes on, with completely different endings.  Normally I can’t necessarily recommend reading the book when a 90 minute movie is available, but in this case the differences between the two and the short length of the book make the repetitive effort somewhat worthwhile, at least in my opinion.   

The Island.  This is a much more recent film which actually takes “Logan’s Run” as its essential plot, but veers off considerably from there (much as “Total Recall” zoomed off from “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”).    Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanssen star in the recent film.  It’s creepy and disturbing, but definitely exciting.