ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Mike, you are cookin' with gas!

Yes indeed, one or more sequels that incorporated your concepts would be awesome. I like the idea that the Dome Citizens (to coin a phrase) realize the risk they'll take if they go outside, because of the pandemic which necessitated the domes in the first place.

You asked about the role the A.I. would play in all this. I'd like to have the A.I. reprogrammed to make it serve the new society which the Dome Citizens create after their Great Awakening.

After all, these guys are babes in the woods when it comes to establishing a stable and prosperous community. The computer's data banks would contain a wealth of knowledge the Dome Citizens would need — including information on the viral infection which caused the pandemic.

Here's a thought: suppose the virus only became contagious when an infected individual reaches middle age!

If that was the case, then it was the original reason for eliminating the people at age thirty — to prevent them from spreading the virus when it was no longer dormant in their bodies.

This would explain the sealed suits the people on "Carousel" wore, and the way their bodies were destroyed during the ritual. They were being treated as a potential sources of infection . . . and then incinerated!



Imagine a story in which the Dome Citizens learned that they wouldn't be able to enjoy long lives after all, because the virus would become active and kill them — and they'd spread it to others as well.

I think the sequel would tell the story of how they learned all this from the A.I..

But they also discover that a source for a vaccine is now available to them . . . in the blood of the only known individual who has a natural immunity.

This guy!





Mike, this works perfectly with your idea concerning teams that venture out in search of social enclaves which need to be vaccinated. These isolated groups might have versions of the "Carousel" ritual that involve the sacrifice of the middle-aged people.

Convincing these uneducated people that they could be cured of the virus and therefore abandon the sacrificial ritual would be a challenge.

Mike, you've really opened up this concept with your suggestions. Bravo!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

I wrote the following, gosh, about 20 years ago. I think I posted it on the late lamented old board, so let me add it back to the conversation:


Run Logan Run (Logan Rennt)


Logan’s Run is one of those movies of which I had only the vaguest adolescent recollection. I don’t remember when I first saw it, or even if I saw it in a theater, though this seems likely. I had fragmentary memories of scenes, but suspected that many of these are from photos from the film, or bits encountered whilst channel-flipping years after the fact. Of my first viewing of the film I only clearly remembered a robot called Box, and this so dimly that I wasn’t even certain that Box was part of Logan at all.

Clearly the film didn’t make much of an impression on me. But then again, I can’t recall many details of most films I saw in my preteen years. Unlike today’s youth who may watch the same movie three times a day on VHS and DVD, Logan’s Run was a singular viewing experience for me, overshadowed soon after by the likes of Star Wars and its cinematic ilk.

So, it was with some trepidation that I rented and watched Logan’s Run on DVD. Two things struck me about the movie. One, that the premise held all kinds of promise for commenting on society, youth, aging, responsibility, and about cultures that would dictate your life and when it ends. Two, that the film as a whole almost totally fails to explore virtually any issue it raises.

It’s easy to make fun of Logan’s Run, what with its 70’s pedigree feathered and blow-dried on practically every frame. From the polyester jumpsuits to the sideburns and even Farrah Fawcett with the hairdo that she’d make famous in Charlie’s Angels. Tomorrow is yesterday but picking on the film for its fashions and special effects (Oscar-winning in 1976, rendered ridiculous by Star Wars and Close Encounters the following year) is too easy. Sure, many a classic suffers similar faults but succeeds based on the merits of its story or the film as a whole.

Sadly for Logan, it’s no classic.

In the post-“Catastrophe” 23rd century what we see of humanity resides in a City of Domes; a self-contained world where the populace have no responsibilities or cares. Pleasure is the order of business. But, like all science fiction utopias, there’s a catch. Each citizen’s 30th birthday is their “Lastday”. On that auspicious date each is expected to dutifully go to “Carousel” where their lives will end in a blaze of fire. But the citizens go willingly either because they just accept their lot or perhaps because of the promise that some of them will experience “renewal” and be born again (and we’re not talking being “saved” here).

Every citizen’s Lastday is easily apparent, as they carry their age literally in the palm of their hand, in the form of a small crystal that changes color with time and flashes red when 30 rolls around.


“Rosy Palm” takes on a whole new meaning…

Naturally, there are dissidents who would question the system or try to live longer. Of course, this is not tolerated, and a police force of sorts — the Sandmen — exists to terminate all who would renounce or escape Lastday: the Runners.

Titular Logan 5 is a Sandman, and he enjoys his job. He gets a sadistic kick out of chasing down terrified Runners. Just Logan’s luck, he’s assigned by a computer to discover and destroy “Sanctuary”, the place to which Runners try to escape. In order to make this ruse work, his lifeclock is altered to make him appear to be 30. This may fool the Runners he is to use to find Sanctuary, but imperils Logan because his fellow Sandmen will take him as a Runner for real.

Logan enlists the aid of a woman he suspects to be tied to the Runners — Jessica 6 — but she’s rightfully suspicious. After both the Runners’ underground and the Sandmen try to kill Logan, Jessica becomes convinced of his sincerity. And Logan, who suspects he will not be given back the 4 years taken from him, begins to question the system as well. Furthermore, he and Jessica (somewhat inexplicably) start to fall in love.

In their subsequent adventures they escape from the City to the wilderness Outside, where they learn that much of what they’ve been taught are lies, and that life needn’t end at 30 (a message for the aging youth of the 60s, to be sure).

Unfortunately, the film is a letdown because of its inability or unwillingness to explore the issues it raises. Life in the City of the Domes is short but full of pleasure, but there’s no exploration of that. What kind of people would result from a world that asks them to do nothing more than to have fun? We see only that they are bland and childlike, having sex, doing drugs, and getting cosmetic surgery, but clearly this can’t be all.

There are tantalizing glimpses of people who operate on the fringes of this society, like the youthful “cubs” who inhabit and are locked away in a distant sector of the city. It raises questions about how this society functions, and what supplies it, but no answers are forthcoming. How do the cubs get food? Why are they even tolerated? The Sandmen seem unconcerned with these feral youth, and Logan only ventures into their domain in search of a Runner. This implies that the Sandmen are merely enforcers of Lastday, and have no other concerns. Are the citizens free to do whatever they want so long as they show up for Carousel on Lastday? Is violence and even murder permissible?

The questions extend beyond the City of Domes. Just before reaching Outside, Logan and Jessica find a series of frozen caverns, within which they encounter a creature that claims to be more than man and machine but is clearly something of both. Its name is Box, and its stated purpose is to collect and store nutrients from the sea. But, the sea’s bounty has long since vanished, and Box has taken to freezing the only things that come into its lair: Runners.

Logan battles Box, and he and Jessica escape as Box’s world comes crashing down upon it. But was Box a function of the City of Domes? Was it part of the food supply? There is an implication that the Runners are being preserved for food, with interesting implications about what that could mean.

But, again, the connection with the City is tenuous, and we’re left to wonder what it all meant.


Redefining the meaning of BOXed lunch

Facing the real world Outside, Logan and Jessica struggle through the untamed wilderness. Jessica clings to the belief that they’ll find Sanctuary, but Logan suspects there is no such place. Two turning points change their fates and change them.

First, they discovered their lifeclocks have turned clear, symbolically freeing them from the tyranny of Lastday.

Secondly, they discover the ruins of Washington D.C., and within it the proof of life beyond Lastday — the wizened visage within the Lincoln Memorial, a living breathing Old Man.

Peter Ustinov’s turn as the Old Man is the biggest delight of the film. Living in the crumbling ruins of the U.S. Capitol building with a clowder of house cats big enough to qualify as a herd, the Old Man is funny, touching and tragic. He is by turns loony, wise, and comic, and manages to be some of these at the same time. It’s a neat trick to be simultaneously tragic and funny, but Ustinov does it with such a deft hand that it seems effortless.

It’s the Old Man who confirms Logan’s growing suspicions of the lie that is Lastday, and this knowledge of the lie gives this one-time killer a conscience. He now knows he can grow old, live a long life, and raise a family. But he can’t live with himself if he doesn’t try to save everyone else from Lastday.

It’s a satisfying turn for the character.


No smart remarks about the best thing in the film.

Unfortunately, from this high point the film descends into the obvious. The climax is a letdown, because it doesn’t pay off the buildup we’ve gotten.

Logan and Jessica. return to the City of Domes, bringing the Old Man along as proof of their discoveries. They leave him outside as they brave water systems to get in, but they don’t get far. Calling attention to themselves by yelling at crowds bound for Carousel, they are apprehended by the Sandmen.

Logan is interrogated by the computer that assigned him to find Sanctuary. But when the computer can’t understand Logan’s answers, it conveniently explodes. A firefight starts in the computer room, which result not just in the room being destroyed, but the entire Sandman building — and then, it seems, much of the city itself.

Suddenly aware of the world outside, the inhabitants happen upon the Old Man and are all smiling and happy to see him. There is no shock of the unknown, no repulsion at what old age mean — and seemingly, no real surprise at the apparent betrayal of everything they’ve believed . . . or at least of having their world crashing down around their ears.

It’s a unsatisfying conclusion. It’s too pat. Too easy.

When Logan and Jessica yell to the populace to renounce Lastday, no one listens. They laugh and continue on to the bread and circuses. But would everyone be so? Would not those who were considering running want to hear more? It would have been more dramatic to see at least one person moved by Logan’s cries. Whose lives and ideologies would be threatened by the truth? And who would embrace his claims? Who would rally to Logan’s side?

The filmmakers missed an opportunity to visually represent the various factions that could result, how (lifeclock) color would turn on color. As the costumers put the characters in wardrobes that reflected their lifeclock color, it would have been easy to dynamically illustrate these differences. Youth, the yellows and greens, would stand for the status quo, unable to look to the future, as youth often is, and thinking only of the pleasures to come and that Logan threatens it.

The Reds, whose time is almost up, might tend towards Logan’s side, for they face with their own mortality, and the fear that invariably comes with that.

In the end I’m left to wonder what the film is about. It’s not about a culture obsessed with youth, because it fails to explore that in any but the most superficial way. And, for all its tawdry exhibition of a society that seems to exist for fun, sex, and drugs, it ends up in Leave it to Beaver land.

Ultimately it’s just another middle of the road expression of feel-good values that people should love and settle down as mother and father, raise their children and grow old. Nothing necessarily objectionable there, but a pretty bland destination given the journey taken to reach it. Too bad it didn’t take the road less traveled.

[Bud Brewster]

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Good lord, Maurice! That is the most amzing in-depth analysis of Logan's Run I have ever read!

Bravo!

Sir, your writing style is awesome! I truly enjoyed they way you expressed your options. And your opening remarks shared an anecdotal experience with the movie . . . something we all enjoy hearing. Then you described aspects of the movie which I'd never considered. In doing so you defined both its strong points and weak points in ways I'd never considered.

Maurice. I'm proud to have your magnificent review of this movie on All Sci-Fi!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)