I remember the film well, and have viewed it several times. What with implantable microchips, I guess we’re moving closer to the dystopian future underscored in the movie. See you all at Carousel! Don’t be late.
Of course I know the movie, but I’m an old fart.
I liked the TV show, at least at the time. Been trying to decide if I should get the DVD of the show, or just be happy with my memories.
Before Star Wars, the 70s were full of that type of sci fi (more about society and less about special effects. Movies filmed in shopping malls!) Aside from the aforementioned Silent Running, there were films such as Genesis II/Earth II (the films about the post-apocalyptic future made by Roddenberry). And Rollerball was a crackerjack movie. The Andromeda Strain, Omega Man, Soylent Green, Death Race 2000, A Boy and His Dog. All these movies substituted a downer-70s attitude for the Star Trek optimism.
No one ever seemed to ask exactly HOW the society in LR came about. Who willingly volunteered for Carousel the first time? Didn’t anyone say no? Who had the brilliant idea to “save” humanity by killing them at 21/30?
And be careful about asking for a remake. Look at the way movies are remade today. Rollerball, Death Race, Andromeda Strain, The Night Stalker reboot - they all substitute the 90s-00s paranoia and conspiracy mongering for the pessimistic 70s attitude. And were all unwatchable, IMO.
Saw the film, have the DVD, read the book. Still quote it from time to time.
And I liked seeing Jenny Agutter naked. 
We’re buggering the planet but you can whip out your phone and dial up a sex date. Fucking prophetic.
Watching it as a grown-up, the thing that I like, because it’s so '70s, is that these young people apparently have transporter technology, but since they have nowhere to go, they use it to play One Night Stand Roulette.
Nekkid Jenny Agutter.
Dang! I knew there was a reason I love you besides your fabulous screen name.
I’ve heard of it and know the basic plot and can recognize references to it in other media (Futurama, etc) but haven’t actually watched it. (Edit: 43 years old)
I’m 45 and I remember recording it to VHS from PBS at some point in my teen years. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen the show but I know the movie.
Saw it in the theater with my best friend, who almost whooped when Farrah Fawcett-Majors’ name appeared in the credits. I said, “Who’s that?” and he just gave a dirty chuckle and said, “You’ll see.” (This was pre-Charlie’s Angels and The Poster. Yes, I owned one.)
And yes, that brief second of a nude Jenny Agutter provoked a lifelong crush.
I’m 68. I read the original novel, some 35 years ago – found the basic idea striking, but wasn’t hugely impressed with the book itself – never read any of the sequels. I must have known that a film was made from the original, if only because for a brief while long ago, I hung around with a group of sci-f / fantasy buffs who were madly into all things “Logan’s Run”. I haven’t seen the film: I essentially don’t “do” films, and hardly ever have. I’m not snobbish about this – it simply came to be, that films aren’t my thing.
I was in college when Logan’s Run came out, which likely made me the perfect age for it. We were very into the sci fi movies coming out during that period - 2001, Silent Running, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and more. As strange as it may seem to today’s college kids, these movies engendered very serious, very earnest discussions about where science might lead us in the upcoming new century.
Then, as others have said, along came Star Wars and changed the world of sci fi movies forever.
Sure, these movies from the early '70s seem incredibly dated and naive today (with the exception of 2001 which I think still holds up well), but in their day they addressed controversial topics in an entertaining way.
Slightly off topic - one night when I couldn’t sleep, I watched a B horror movie made in the '90s that starred Jenny Agutter. She was in her 40s-50s by then, and I realized that she really wasn’t a very good actress.
And if you run, they try to shoot you with…a…portable Bunsen burner?
Yes, I’ve seen it.
I’m 47 and this was a quintessential staple of my childhood pop culture memories. I saw this maybe 100 times on the late movies or renting the video. My friends and I found it endlessly quotable.
“Fish and plankton and protein from the sea!”
“Oh, runner!”
“Let’s have sex!”
“Theeeeeeerrrrrrre…isssssssss…nooooooo…sanctuaaaaaarryyyyy…”
The movie is STILL the ultimated nightmare, dystopian vision of the future: Life inside an enclosed shopping mall!
I remember it. Saw it when it came out. I wouldn’t call it a classic, but I watched it recently on a high-number cable channel.
Like my young adult male mind would have forgetten her, either!
The book is better. The cut-off age is 21, instead of 30. I thought the movie was good for the time period in which it was made.
In the book (the first one is rather good, but the rest are dreck) it is explained that the world was brought to the brink of destruction by overpopulation and that a youth revolution occurred (a lot of conservative paranoia over the counter culture influenced the plot). They didn’t have Carousel and just called it “sleep”. The first person to accept “sleep” was the original advocate for the plan to “save” humanity by killing people at 21. I believe he was called Moon.
Interesting. I read the novel in the film tie-in version and always had the notion it was like 2001 in that the two forms were more or less the same thing. It wasn’t for many years that I knew the book had been written ten years earlier.
It was an okay read for the time, very much in the vein of the plethora of “New Wave Lite” writers and books about how Pollution and Eco-Disaster and the Youth Explosion and Computers and Drugs were going to be the End of Us All.
When I was a kid living in Wisconsin which seemed to mostly be winter or mosquitoes, life in a modern climate controlled shopping mall with tropical plants and wearing comfortable clothes with no sidewalks to shovel seemed like heaven.
Yep.
The age cut-off in the book was 21, but finding sufficient quality actors that could pull off 21 and under even with Dawson Casting was apparently too difficult so in the movie and TV show they upped it to 30.
Also, in the book there was a LOT of sex and drugs, all of it 21 and under and a LOT of it much younger than that given that the girls who reproduced did so naturally and thus had to have the kid prior to their 21st birthday. Basically, underage sex and drugs.
They sanitized it and aged up everyone for the movie, which still had sex and drugs, and sanitized it even more for the TV show due to prime time requirements.
What qualified as R back in the 1970’s was different than what earns an R these days.
Interesting point - in the movie those in Carousel go “poof!” or out with a small bang. In the TV show they re-used the footage from the movie but changed the effect to turning into sparkly dissolving crystals because, I guess, blowing flying people up on prime time was too intense or something.
No, the effects aren’t up to modern standards. This was pre-Star Wars after all. Think Star Trek original series and practical effects (the TV show actually had some very minor CGI in it, probably the first TV show to have that).
I got the TV series on DVD and I’m happy with it, BUT since there isn’t the rabid fan base no one was able to put a lot of money into restoring it. The only DVD release I’m aware of is one that has a clunky, sort of primitive early '90’s PowerPoint interface and some of them film or video stock they used as a source had clearly deteriorated a bit. Also, TV screens can be a lot bigger these days and enlarging the picture from the original intended size can reveal things like drywall seams in the set walls that are not nearly so obvious in a smaller sized image. At least the sound quality seems to be in very good condition.
So… if you liked the show just be aware this isn’t some masterfully re-mastered fully restored to glory series. It’s the difference between ST:TOS remastered episodes and un-restored versions. The story is still there, but it’s not up to modern image standards.
Just so you’re aware of what to expect.
The novel actually does give some history of the society. The movie and TV series does not.
The TV series actually used the same gun props as the movie and they really did shoot flames out of the barrel. Actually, the TV series re-used both footage and bunch of costumes and props from the movie. It does make for a stronger connection than typical, which is just as well given some of the movie-to-TV changes that did occur.