Logan's Run

This has been the most enjoyable ‘Read the Book, Watch the Movie’ challenge yet. Both the book and the movie are excellently put together with a gripping, fast paced story and original characters. Another great Science Fiction plot conceived way ahead of its time.

The story is set in the not-too-distant future where, due to overpopulation, no-one lives beyond the age of 21. Each citizen of this new order has a small gem stone embedded, from birth, into the palm of their hand. This gemstone changes colour the older you get. Once the stone turns black your life is over. You are expected to report for execution so that a steady population can be maintained. Of course not everyone is willing to be executed and so attempt to escape by going on the run, searching for a mysterious place called ‘Sanctuary’. These ‘runners’ are hunted by police of the future known as ‘Sandmen’ who exist solely to hunt down and terminate runners. The main protagonist is Logan 5 a Sandman who decides to go on the run himself after his own gem turns black.



The book and the movie are actually quite different in a significant number of ways, too many to list but I will name some. The book is set on a much larger scale; the entire world is under the control of the new totalitarian authority whereas in the movie only a relatively small community are affected. Logan’s reasons for going on the run are different too; in the book he reaches his last day on earth and decides if he can find and destroy Sanctuary then he will be hailed a hero and not executed however in the movie Logan is ordered by the authorities to hunt for Sanctuary when he is nowhere near the age cut off himself. Minor details are different too; for example in the movie the age limit is 30 not 21. I’m sure this was done for practical reasons otherwise the whole cast would have been teenagers! I preferred the ending of the film as opposed to the ending of the book which felt abrupt and a little rushed. The addition of ‘Carousel’ in the movie was a stroke of genius, I’ll say no more!



All I will say is that both the book and the movie are excellent; apart from the ending of the book I have no real complaints at all. I prefer the movie but that was always likely to be the case since the movie is one of my favourites. The only aspect of the movie I never really liked much was the music which is horribly dated (the movie was made in the 70s)
One more point I will raise; the book had some scenes in it which could not possibly have been effectively re-created using 70s special effects. I have heard through the grapevine that a new version of Logan’s Run is currently in the very early stages of production. It is billed for release sometime in 2012. I hope that with the dramatic improvements in special effects over the years it will be able to do the book full justice.