I just watched an episode of the Simpsons (my most reliable source of general knowledge) where there was a reference to a young girl who had a glowing gem/diamond looking thing on her hand which changed colour. The colour change meant she had grown “too old” and was past her use by date.
What the hell is this taken from?? I know I’ve seen it before (was it an old sci-fi flick?)… please help as its been bugging me…
It was Logan’s Run (1976).
I saw that movie on TV once. In Logans Run, everyone had a colored jewel on their right hand, not in their hair. I think the color sequence was blue (young child), green, yellow, and finally red. Red lasted until you were 30 years old, then the gem would start flashing. At this point, guys called the ‘Sandmen’ would come and kill you. Noone except for a handfull of spiritual leaders was allowed to live past thirty. I think everyone was cloned, and the concept of a ‘family’ was unknown. Pretty depressing movie.
Oops. I thought the original poster said the girl had green hair. My bad :o
[nit] In the Huxlyesque civilization, when you turned thirty, you went to a public ceremony where you (in theory) had the chance to be ‘reborn’ or some such thing and return to society as a child (or iguana, or table lamp… my memory if very fuzzy on the details. I think it had something to do with the fan in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory). No one ever really made it, which among other things gave Logan the idea that it was all a big scam. If you didn’t voluntarily participate in the ceremony, if you beat feat and either tried to hide within society or sneak out of the city to the wilderness beyond, you were referred to as a runner. Logan was a sandman whose job it was to hunt down runners and bring them to justice. The story was about him flipping and becoming a runner himself, and his journey to the outside. [/nit]
When I saw it at ten or so years old I thought it was a fantastic flick. I’d really like to see it again, but I’m afraid that my heightened cheese detection abilities will make my question my youthful taste. Anyone know if it’s based on a book, and how good the book is?
Rhythmdvl
Ah, I remember now. The ‘ceremony’ was basically a obstacle course/deathtrap, and the reward for reaching the end alive was to be able to live out your natural life as one of the society’s leaders. Of course, the ceremony was rigged so that everyone died, unless the leaders had an opening and decided you had the right stuff. A leader’s hand crystal was clear. Apparently, most people thought that the leaders were immortal, because they never seemed to die like everone else…
Yes. It’s a book by William F. Nolan called (what else?) Logan’s Run. And, although the movie is among my favorites, I find the book to be far more exciting. It’s only about 100 pages long and IMHO it’s well worth taking out a few hours to read it. You’re right about the movie. If you can’t seem to turn off your cheese-o-meter don’t bother. It screams of the '70s and really bad special effects. If you can put the cheesiness aside, by all means watch it again.
There are several very big differences from the book to the movie. Such as, in the book there really is a Sanctuary, but, in the movie there isn’t. But, the one that always bothered me was in the book the maximum age was 21, in the movie it was 30 - why raise the age for the movie?