[lit-ideas] Logan's Run
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 23:13:24 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
Just a quick note. I saw Logan's Run last night . Farrah Fawcett Majors' =
acting notwithstanding, it was pretty good. Basically, the movie is set in=
the year 2376. (Note: spoilers ahead for anyone thinking of seeing the mo=
vie.) The plot: the outside world is destroyed, and life takes place in a =
domed (not doomed, domed) city. Citizens are strictly controlled by a comp=
uter which apparently runs independently of humans. People live only for p=
leasure. Reproduction is done in "breeders" without mothers or fathers. L=
ove and marriage are unknown. No one has ever seen the sun or sky or natur=
e of any kind outside the bubble. It is an Eden of sorts, with the caveat =
that at the age of 30 people are "renewed". Unbenownst to the populace, "r=
enewal" is death, to keep the population in check. There is a group of peo=
ple who knows the truth about renewal, and they attempt to get away from th=
e city to a place called "Sanctuary". They become "runners". It is the jo=
b of the Sandmen to capture and kill runners. =20
The conflict happens when Sandman Logan-5 is ordered by the computer to inf=
iltrate the runners and find this place called Sanctuary. Logan and partne=
r Jessica-6 become runners themselves, discover the outside world, a desola=
te unpopulated place, where they are the only people (Adam and Eve in a sen=
se). For the first time they experience sunlight, salamanders (not an enti=
rely pleasant experience), cats, and old age (Peter Ustinov). They also di=
scover that Sanctuary doesn't exist. Disillusioned, they make their way ba=
ck to the domed city, where Logan-5 is interrogated by the computer. The c=
omputer cannot compute that there is no such place as Sanctuary, and it imp=
lodes from this information. The city is destroyed. The people are free.=
=20
Philosophically, Logan's Run is along the same lines of The Matrix in that =
the people of the city live a reality generated by a computer which they ac=
cept and live as their only reality. Indeed, having experienced nature as =
it really is, they prefer the reality they left behind in the domed city ge=
nerated by the computer. Even those who suspect that renewal is really mur=
der live under an illusion, that there is a place called Sanctuary. At the=
end of the movie the populace is freed of the city, but it is not clear th=
at reality is will be all it's cracked up to be. =20
The movie rather reminded me of the invasion of Iraq. The ideal of democra=
cy wonderful, like the illusion of Sanctuary, but getting to it by people w=
ho have lived a reality created for them is a journey into hell. =20
And with that, it's late, and I'm going to bed.
Andy Amago
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