Trailer
Plot summary
Sealed beneath a cluster of geodesic domes, the remnants of a civilization that survived war and pollution live a life of pleasure run by a computer. Each person carries a life-clock crystal in the hand that changes color with age, and at thirty must enter the Carrousel, a ritual that destroys the body under the promise of renewal. Those who refuse are known as Runners, and the Sandmen hunt them down. Logan 5, a Sandman, is called from a Carrousel to terminate a Runner, among whose possessions he finds a pendant bearing an ankh. That evening he meets Jessica 6, who wears the same symbol. The computer tells him the ankh points to a place called Sanctuary, and orders him to find and destroy it, keeping the mission from the other Sandmen.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Logan's Run (1976)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- American International Pictures offered to buy Pal's projects, including Logan's Run, for $200,000, but MGM declined, wanting a minimum of $350,000, and Pal left the project to produce Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze for Warner Bros.
- The budget escalated from the projected $3 million to $9 million, making it the most expensive MGM film made in ten years, with most of the money going to the sets.
- A longer sequence in the ice cave, where Box asked Logan and Jessica to pose for his ice sculpture, was cut because of its extensive nudity so that the film could receive a PG rating, as PG-13 did not exist yet.
- David Zelag Goodman wrote a nearly completely new screenplay, raising the age of death from 21 to 30 so that more actors could be considered for casting.
- The film's success with young viewers led CBS and MGM Television to pay $9 million to base a television series on it; the series, starring Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies, debuted in September 1977 and ran for 14 episodes before being canceled.
- The robot character Box was not a mechanical effect at all: the part was performed by placing actor Roscoe Lee Browne inside a robot costume.
- Martin Kevorkian, Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, argued that Box, voiced by African-American actor Roscoe Lee Browne, could serve as a precursor to Darth Vader, voiced by African-American actor James Earl Jones in Star Wars.
