The five loosely-connected things called Logan's Run are:
They all take place on a future Earth where all (or nearly all) members of the society in question are to end their lives while they are still young. Those who fail to voluntarily end their lives by the appointed age become "runners" who are hunted down and killed by police-like enforcement officers called Sandmen. In all three media, the character Logan, who is himself a Sandman, joins up with a woman named Jessica 6 and eventually becomes a runner himself.
Cameron Nolan (yes, the same Nolan as William F.) says the following regarding Logan's Run, Logan's World, and Logan's Search:
"I checked with Paul Kennedy, the bookseller who has all the copies of the LOGAN TRILOGY, and here's the accurate, up-to-date info:Price: $25.00 (includes shipping and handling)
Credit Cards Accepted: Mastercard, Visa, and American Express
Paul Kennedy's e-mail address: PKennedy@Interloc.com"
IN THE BOOK IN THE MOVIE
-- --- ---- -- --- -----
The story is set in the 22nd The story is set in the 23rd
century (the year 2116). century (the year 2274).
At the end of the 20th century, a Some time between now and the 23rd
war called the "Little War" broke out century, "war, overpopulation, and
which resulted in the overthrow of pollution" force their survivors to
older people. As a result, all over live in a self-contained domed city.
the Earth, no one is allowed to live The city is a hedonistic paradise
past the age of 21. marred only by the fact that all of
its inhabitants, for reasons never
explained, must end their lives at
age 30.
Your age is measured by a flowerlike Your age is measured by a crystal
crystal in your right palm, which is in your left palm called a "life
yellow from age 0-6, blue from age clock", which is clear white from 0-8,
7-13, red from age 14-20, blinks turns yellow at 9, turns blue-green at
between red and black the day before 16, turns red somewhere in the 21-24
you turn 21, and turns black when range (they can't seem to make up their
you reach 21. minds), and blinks with a red light
from just before age 30 and onward.
The flower crystal is implanted in No explanation was given as to how
the right palm shortly after birth the lifeclock got stuck in one's
by giant automated hourglasses. left palm.
The 21-year age limit covers the The 30-year age limit only covers
whole planet. There is no place you The City. The lifeclocks of those
can go to escape from the message in who venture outside turn off and
your right palm. revert to being clear white.
To enforce the age limit, those who To enforce the age limit, those who
turn themselves in for Deep Sleep on turn themselves in on lastday are
lastday are put to death painlessly, allowed to participate in "carousel"
while those who run are hunted down which carries a vague promise of
by the Deep Sleep (DS) men and killed renewal through reincarnation, while
with a horrendously painful weapon those who run are hunted down and
called a "homer" which homes in on killed by the Sandmen.
body heat and ignites every pain nerve
in its target.
The under-21-year-old citizens of the The City is apparently run by a
world are governed by a slowly great big computer that speaks with
failing computer called The Thinker, a feminine voice.
centered in the Dakota mountains.
The DS men are sometimes called The Sandmen have no other name.
"sandmen".
The hero of our story is a DS man The hero of our story is a Sandman
named Logan 3 who is on lastday. named Logan 5 who is 26 years old
(4 years before he must end his life).
In hunting down a runner named Doyle Upon terminating an unnamed runner,
10, Logan 3 hears him mutter "sanctu- Logan 5 discovers an ankh in his
ary", and decides to make his mark on pocket. Upon seeing this, the city's
history by finding this sanctuary central computer tells Logan that
place and killing all the runners. there are 1056 unaccounted runners and
that both ankhs and "sanctuary" have
been identified with them. She orders
Logan to become a runner to find this
sanctuary and terminate all runners
there, and to do this she reprograms
his lifeclock to blink as though he's
30. (During this exchange, Logan
comes to the conclusion that renewal
is a hoax because the computer refuses
to answer his questions and cops an
attitude.)
Logan 3 seeks out Doyle 10's sister Logan 5 seeks out Jessica 6 (whom he
Jessica 6, and pretends to be Doyle has seen wearing an ankh) and tries
after fast-healing plastic surgery. to convince her that he wants to run.
The runner he terminated earlier is
apparently not related to Jessica 6.
After figuring out that Logan 3 isn't Logan 5 and Jessica 6 break out of
her brother on lastday, Jessica 6 has the city and run around outside until
a wild romp around 22nd century Earth they find the ruins of Washington DC,
with him, which culminates in their where they meet a lovable old man with
meeting Ballard, a man of the unthink- a fondness for cats (and T.S. Eliot)
ably advanced age of 42. played by Peter Ustinov.
In the end, Logan 3 decides that dying Logan 5 meets up with his old Sandman
at age 21 is a bad thing, encounters buddy Francis 7, who refuses to
his old DS buddy Francis 7 and tries believe the message the clear-white
to convince him not to homer him down, crystal in his palm is telling him and
discovers that Francis 7 was Ballard battles Logan to the death. Logan
in disguise, and then he and Jessica wins. Logan decides that sanctuary is
6 board a rocket to go to Mars where a myth and resolves to return to the
sanctuary is located, and they live city and tell everyone to stop dying
happily ever after until the sequel, at 30. He's captured by Sandmen who
Logan's World, comes into print bring him to the computer room for
a few years later. interrogation where, faced with six
holographic duplicates of Michael
York's head, the computer explodes
and takes the city with it. Everyone
runs out of the city, sees the Old
Man, is overawed at the prospect of
living to be this old, and lives
happily ever after.
The guns were called "guns". They The guns were never referred to by
were shaped like a revolver and name. They were shaped like a night-
carried one each of 6 different stick and, when firing, looked like
bullets: homer (see above), tangler a bunsen burner or blowtorch. There
(sticky net), nitro, vapor, ripper, were no "settings" — every gun blast
and needler -- all programmed to resulted in a lethal but compact
to explode if anyone but the explosion that looked suspiciously
registered owner tried to use them. like a firecracker.
An inhalatory drug called "muscle" The only reference to "muscle" was
acted as a super amphetamine, more in the scene with the cubs at
than doubling your reaction speed but Cathedral, and although they put
causing physiological danger. drug "pads" (breathing mask looking
things) over their own faces,
and Billy for some reason put his
mask over LOGAN'S face (presumably
to induce a heart attack) — we never
got to see what the effects of this
"muscle" were.
William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson's original script for the movie
was considerably closer to the book than the final product. However, due to
a hiatus in production and the replacement of producer George Pal with Saul David,
a different script (by one David Zelag Goodman) was used for the movie instead.
John Obendorfer (johnob@pogo.wv.tek.com) relates this anecdote:
"William F. Nolan came to San Diego State to give a lecture. He told the most amazing story: the novel was written in a Howard Johnson's booth, where Nolan & Johnson holed up for 3 weeks. Yes, they wrote the whole thing in three weeks (and it sorta reads like it ...)It turns out that Nolan needed college tuition money for one of his kids, and I don't know what Johnson's motive was. The hilarious part is that they collected the bucks they needed, then George Pal (Big Name SF Film Producer) got interested — one would almost say obsessed with — the idea of making a movie from the novel. This would be in the mid-to-late 60s timeframe. But by playing coy, Nolan & Johnson managed to parlay this 3-week hack novel-writing exercise into a ~$500K fee for the film rights.
Nolan went on to comment that Pal's first draft of the film script followed the novel pretty closely, and MGM rejected it, stating that it would cost $100M to build a 22nd century Los Angeles, Crazy Horse Mountain (a real place), Pittsburgh, Undersea City, and Cape Canaveral for the characters to run around through. That's when they started getting interested in the 'domed city' approach.
He was somewhat disappointed that the movie lost what he regarded as the 'deep theme' of the novel — namely, that a youth-dominated culture would be shallow and fadlike, that it takes experience, wisdom, and age to sustain a genuine culture — the young can't impart the essence of the culture to those younger still.
And as to why Logan & Jessica were 26 and 22 in the movie — 'They cast Michael York & Jenny Agutter, and there was no way either of them could pass for 20.' Somebody asked him about why the Francis/Ballard thing was dropped, and Nolan said 'Oh, yeah. Sure. Have Peter Ustinov rip off his make-up and turn into Richard Jordan. Yeah, that would work real good.' (He expressed some cyncism about the fact that the producers cast actors, then wrote the story around them, rather than the other way around.)"
Since the TV series was based on the movie with NO input from the book, the differences are too numerous to mention.
IN THE MOVIE IN THE TV SERIES
-- --- ----- -- --- -- ------
The theme music was an eerie blend of The theme music sounded like the
orchestral and electronic sounds, disco version of Princess Leia's
forged by the masterful Jerry theme. (As of May 2004, the sound
Goldsmith. track album is available on
filmscoremonthly.com.)
The story is set in the 23rd century The story is set in the 24th century
(in the year 2274). (in the year 2319).
The City has no proper name -- it's The City is referred to as The City
just referred to as "The City". of Domes.
The lifeclock in your left palm tells There are no lifeclocks. The City
you when your 30 years are up by of Domes just keeps really really
blinking red. good track of all of its citizens'
birth records or something.
When you get near the top in the When you get near the top in the
Carousel, you die by exploding. Carousel, you die by turning into
purple crystals and disappearing.
The guns had no name and only did The guns were called "weapons" and
one kind of damage. had three settings: Stun, Blast,
and Kill. Settings were changed by
twisting the back of the barrel.
The gray stripe across a Sandman's Since many scenes were going to be
chest was actually the top of a shot in the desert, the gray stripe
rather warm tunic. was sewn onto the rest of the costume
with no tunic starting in episode 3-4.
Logan 5 is 26 years old, but the Logan 5 is 27 years old.
city's Big Bad Central Computer
artificially advanced his lifeclock
to blink as though he were a runner.
Logan 5 is searching for Sanctuary Logan 5 is searching for Sanctuary
because the city's Big Bad Central because he ... uh ... you know,
Computer gave him a mission to I'm not sure. Maybe because he
find sanctuary and terminate all felt that dying at 30 was "wrong"
the unaccounted runners. somehow.
After going through a long, harrowing After pressing an ankh to the G in
experience escaping from The City, the word DANGER on a sign, and
Logan and Jessica eventually team up climbing up one whole flight of
with an old man on the outside who stairs to escape from The City of
agrees to return to The City with Domes, Logan and Jessica team up with
them. an android named Rem and his faithful
hovercraft, and they ride off into the
sunset to have all sorts of wild and
wacky adventures together.
NOTE: While many of these differences originated in a need to lower
production costs, a few stemmed from the network's standards against TV
violence. For instance, the producers were only allowed to fire a gun in
earnest one or two times per episode, but were allowed as many "stun" shots
as they liked.
The Texas locations for the film were:
Owen Madden (omadden@cswnet.com) also says:
Darryl Lee (lee@darryl.com) adds:
A lot of the information I have in this department comes from an SF fan I met in Santa Monica when I was 10 years old, whose name was Barry Lasky. I even bought some prop lifeclock crstals from this person and saw pictures of him firing a working model of the gun in the movie/series. Barry, if you're reading this, please get in touch and tell me all the details I'm missing!
>From Microsoft's Cinemania '94: Michael York (1942 - ) Occupation: Actor Birth Name: Michael York-Johnson Born: March 27, 1942, Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England Education: National Youth Theatre; University College, Oxford (English) Handsome blond lead who made his London stage debut in Franco Zeffirelli's stage production of Much Ado About Nothing in 1965 and his film debut in the same director's opulent adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew (1967). York has typically played charming, well-bred characters, such as the struggling, sexually confused writer opposite Liza Minnelli in Cabaret (1972) and the dashing D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (1974) and its sequels. York played himself in Billy Wilder's Fedora (1978). Filmography: 1967 The Taming of the Shrew 1968 Romeo and Juliet 1969 Alfred the Great 1969 The Guru 1969 Justine 1970 Something for Everyone 1971 La Poudre d'escampette 1971 Zeppelin 1972 Cabaret 1973 England Made Me 1973 Lost Horizon 1974 Murder on the Orient Express 1974 The Three Musketeers 1975 Conduct Unbecoming 1975 The Four Musketeers 1976 Logan's Run 1976 Seven Nights in Japan 1977 The Island of Dr. Moreau 1977 The Last Remake of Beau Geste 1978 Fedora 1979 The Riddle of the Sands, associate producer* 1980 Final Assignment 1983 Au nom de tous les Miens 1983 The Weather in the Streets 1984 Success Is the Best Revenge 1986 L'Aube 1987 Der Joker 1988 Phantom of Death 1989 Midnight Cop 1989 The Return of the Musketeers 1990 Come See The Paradise 1990 Night of the Fox 1991 Eline Vere 1992 The Long Shadow 1993 Wide Sargasso Sea *) Jenny Agutter appeared with him again in this movieHe recently starred as an evil general in some USA network movie of the week. For more up-to-date information, consult the Internet Movie Database.
>From Microsoft's Cinemania '94: Richard Jordan (1938 - 1993) Occupation: Actor Born: July 19, 1938, New York, NY Education: Harvard Former veteran of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival who began making regular screen appearances in both lead and supporting roles in the 1970s. Divorced from actress Blair Brown. Filmography: 1964 Ready For the People 1971 Lawman 1971 Valdez Is Coming 1972 Chato's Land 1973 The Friends of Eddie Coyle 1973 Kamouraska 1975 Rooster Cogburn 1975 The Yakuza/Brotherhood of the Yakuza 1976 Logan's Run 1976 One Night Stand 1978 Interiors 1979 Old Boyfriends 1980 Raise the Titanic! 1984 Dune [he played Duncan Idaho] 1984 A Flash of Green, producer, script consultant 1985 The Mean Season 1986 The Men's Club 1986 Solarbabies 1987 The Secret of My Success 1989 Romero 1990 Delusion 1990 The Hunt for Red October 1991 Shout 1991 Time Bomb 1992 Heaven Is a Playground 1992 Primary Motive 1993 PosseRichard Jordan won a Golden Globe award in 1977 for his starring role in The Captain and the Kings, and was a regular on The Equalizer during its 1977 season. After appearing in Gettysburg, he fell ill during the filming of The Fugitive and had to be replaced. He died of a brain tumor on August 30, 1993.
>From Microsoft's Cinemania '94: Jenny Agutter (1952 - ) Occupation: Actress Born: December 20, 1952, Taunton, England Talented, atypically beautiful teenage lead who made a smooth transition to adult roles. Filmography: 1966 East of Sudan (as Asua) 1966 A Man Could Get Killed 1967 Gates to Paradise (as Maud) 1968 Star! (cut & retitled Those Were The Happy Times) 1969 I Start Counting (as Wynne) 1971 Walkabout (as Girl) 1972 The Railway Children (as Bobbie) 1976 Logan's Run 1977 The Eagle Has Landed (as Molly Prior) 1977 Equus (as Jill Mason) 1978 China 9, Liberty 37/The Gunfighter/Clayton and Catherine/Gunfire 1978 Dominique/Dominique Is Dead/Avenging Spirit (as Miss Maynard) 1979 The Riddle of the Sands (as Clara Dollman, with Michael York) 1980 Sweet William (as Ann) 1981 An American Werewolf in London (as Alex Price) 1981 Amy 1981 The Survivor (as Hobbs) 1985 Silas Marner (as Miss Nancy Lammeter) 1985 Secret Places (as Miss Lowrie) 1987 Dark Tower (as Carolyn Page, architect) 1987 Amazon Women on the Moon (as Cleopatra) 1990 King of the Wind 1990 Child's Play 2 (as Joanne Simpson) 1990 Darkman (as doctor/nurse) 1990 King of the Wind 1992 Freddie as F.R.O.7 (voice) A War of Children (1972-TVM) The Man In The Iron Mask (1977-TVM) as Louise de la Valliere Mayflower: The Pilgrims' Adventure (1979-TVM) as Priscilla Mullens Beulah Land (1980-TVM) as Lizzie Corlay Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less (1990-TVM) Dream On: No Deposit, No Return (1992-Cable) as EllenShe was also in an episode of the New Twilight Zone series allegedly based on Clarke's "The Star" (about as much as the Nightfall movie was based on Asimov's "Nightfall"), an episode of the British space comedy series Red Dwarf, and an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man
Other TV appearances: Hallmark Hall of Fame "The Snow Goose" '71 (she won an Emmy for this) Magnum P.I. "Little Games" as Miss Delarosche(sp?) '85 Murder She Wrote "One White Rose for Death"'86 Twilight Zone "The Last Defender of Camelot" '86 The Equalizer "The Visitation" '89 Dear John "The British Are Coming" '89;According to at least one viewer, she is every bit as visually ravishing now as she was when Logan's Run (the movie) was filmed in 1976. For more up-to-date information, consult the Internet Movie Database.
The soundtrack to the Logan's Run movie was scored by Jerry Goldsmith. He is one of the major film composers in the country. Among his works include the music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the main title theme music of which was re-used as the opening title theme of Star Trek: The Next Generation). I'm sure the Internet Movie Database has his whole filmography.
The soundtrack was released on LP in the late 1970s. The LP went out-of-print many years ago, but I (heh heh) happen to have a copy. The soundtrack was later re-released on CD. A new-and-improved "extended" CD, which included tracks that were cut from the final theatrical version of the film, is available at filmscoremonthly.com.
The only flaw to mar this otherwise blemishless soundtrack album is the very last track, called "The Love Theme from Logan's Run." Although based on Jerry Goldsmith's actual love theme from the movie soundtrack, Jerry Goldsmith did not do the arrangement this track. It was written by Jimmie Haskell, one of the many obscure hacks out there who take a thing of beauty and crumple it up into . . . Elevator Music. Oh, the horror.
Marco Enterprises made reproductions of both the gun (non-working, I believe) and the transceiver that the Sandmen talked to their HQ with. Anubis Productions made a model of Logan 5 in costume firing his flamegun. And, of course, many stills are floating around.
Andrew R. Burford (burforar@sun1.bham.ac.uk) also says he owns a Logan's Run Annual based on the TV series, and featuring a mix of illustrated text stories, comic strip adventures, a few pictures from the TV series, and the usual puzzles. He picked up one of these several years ago now, and it's currently as inaccessible as everything else he owns right now.
Bill Blake recently restored the Logan's Run Maze cars form the movie. He also made a parody movie called Logan's Romp (or something like that). He has a working flamegun from the movie, and took it apart and figured out exactly how it works.
Jinho@aol.com says that Starland probably has scripts and/or videos from the TV series. (Starland's address is usually advertised in Starlog.) He also indicates that working flame guns are occasionally sold at conventions.
According to Logan31639@aol.com (John), the city model used in the movie was re-used briefly in The Ice Pirates (1984). Since Ice Pirates was produced by MGM, this isn't terribly surprising.
Most of the information in this section comes from the episode guide in Starlog issue #13, groso@shakala.com (Rick Hallock), and atj@mcs.com (Phil Satterly).
LOGAN'S RUN
William F. Nolan himself adds the following:
To be honest, I have no idea. I get many requests asking where one can find video tapes of the TV series, but no one in the know has ever volunteered any such information to me. It may very well be impossible to get tapes of the series, unless you con convince someone to make illegal bootleg copies of the series that (s)he taped off of TV.
In fact, I don't even know who currently has the rights to air the episodes of the TV series, or when they will be showing next.
Andrew R. Burford (burforar@sun1.bham.ac.uk) has this to say:
"In 1976/7, Marvel Comics adapted the movie in comic-book form, but went beyond the end of the movie. In time-honoured fashion, the comic book series ended with a plotline which was never resolved owing to its cancellation. The Marvel Comics run lasted for seven issues.Curt Wiederhoeft (CJW9505@Jetson.UH.EDU) says the following:The end of issue seven left Logan somewhere beneath or inside the city, with a mysterious shadowy figure aware of his presence and presumably preparing to act against him. Who this figure was is unknown, as far as I'm aware, to this day."
"In issue #7 of the Marvel comic (post-film), Logan sneaks back into Sandman headquarters to retrieve the gun which he was supposed to have turned in shortly after graduating from the Academy. The charges here were (in correlation to those in the novel), web, drill, rip, flash, cloud and seeker.Also, Marvel issue #6 is becoming very expensive at the comic shops. Not because of a resurgence in Logan's popularity, but because there's a backup story featuring Thanos, a Marvel villian with a cult following."
groso@shakala.com (Rick Hallock) says the following:
The good news is:
The bad news is:
In the liner notes to the Logan's Run Special Edition laserdisc, William F. Nolan himself says the following:
"Very recently, I made a deal with Warner Bros. involving my two sequel novels and any other Logan material I might write. A high-tech, high-budget remake of Logan's Run is on the horizon."
In August 1997, the plan seemed to be to bring the mandatory-death age back to 21 (as in the novel), get Leonardo DiCaprio (of Romeo & Juliet fame) to play Logan, replace the Carousel with "something different", replace the New You sequence with a Fire Gallery scene from the novel, and put in the flying DevilBird bikes.
In May 2000, I received a letter from William F. Nolan himself (gloat, gloat), which read in part:
"Warner Bros. has a writer/director and is now in official pre-production on LOGAN'S RUN. (Another 1 1/2 to 2 yrs. should see it in theaters.)"Even if this remake ends up suffering from the same Hollywoodism that transformed the 1976 movie, it will be a very different film from its predecessor.
New as of May 2000: William F. Nolan, the co-author of the original Logan's Run novel, has his own website at www.williamfnolan.com.
SciFlicks.com hosts Logan's Run - The Website full of pictures, sounds, and links.
Jesse Braxton has rules for runs, which are runner/sandman hide-and-seek-like games that were played at SF conventions.
David Murray (dmurray@nsol.com) has a web page with lots of screen shots from the movie.
Ken Sanes has an exhaustive analysis of the movie from just about every angle: sociological, mythological, psychological, and, yes, even Marxist. Be warned, though: he's not a very big fan of the book.
"Virtual Vikki" (fox@snowcrest.net) has a Logan's Run webpage too, which has been updated quite a bit since it first debuted in 1996.
Steven Grimes (sstevegm@epix.net) scanned an entire "final" shooting script of the movie onto his old webpage at http://www.epix.net/~sstevegm. NOTE: This webpage is now defunct, but a copy of the script can be found here. Several changes were made in the final film, including not only the cut scenes mentioned earlier in this FAQ but also some dialog re-work. The script helps to clarify some otherwise obscure issues in the movie, such as the role of black (rather than blinking) lifeclocks and what the floating gymnasts were supposed to be doing while on Carousel.
The "Stomp Tokyo Review", so named for its love of Godzilla, has a review of the movie from the standpoint of someone who might be browsing through a video store looking for cheap thrills.
"Coming Attractions" has a page devoted to the upcoming movie remake and the rumors people have heard about it.
The World of Logan's Run (formerly called The Fraternal Order of Sandmen) is devoted to those brave enforcers of law and order throughout the City. It also discusses the 4th book in Nolan's Logan trilogy [sic], Logan's Return.
Darren Lierkamp has a Logan's Run Tour series of webpages, complete with computer-generated images of various scenes in the City that tell the story of the movie. (Note: The URL of this link was changed on 15-June-2001.)
rogermw@ix.netcom.comAnd while you're at it, why not visit my homepage. It's got a back-link on it to this Highly Unofficial FAQ, and many many other examples of my, ahem, creativity.
... I'll be waitin' for ya!