Logan's Run: Is the Domed City actually "Sanctuary"

[Ian Keldon]

I'm referring more to the movie than the series, but you might argue it for that as well.

It would be the sort of "dark irony" that permeated 70s science-fiction if the legendary Sanctuary, last hope of the Runners, was in fact a garbled story from the Collapse of an installation that would offer "sanctuary" to the survivors (at least those chosen to be admitted).

It was close enough to Washington that it could have been a CoG project of some sort.

[Carcazoid]

It's been a long time since I saw the movie (first run in theater) or read the book (shortly before the TV series), but if I'm remembering it right ...

In the movie, Sanctuary didn't really exist--did it? The book goes a lot of places the movie couldn't, including the Crazy Horse monument, and if I remember correctly, a rocket to somewhere. The moon?

[Andrew_Kearley]

Yes, in the book, Sanctuary is an old forgotten space station near Mars. They take the rocket to the Moon, which is the staging post for the flight there.

[Greg Cox]

Carcazoid wrote:

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It's been a long time since I saw the movie (first run in theater) or read the book (shortly before the TV series), but if I'm remembering it right ...

In the movie, Sanctuary didn't really exist--did it? The book goes a lot of places the movie couldn't, including the Crazy Horse monument, and if I remember correctly, a rocket to somewhere. The moon?

In the movie, it's implied that Sanctuary is just a myth. In the book, it's on the moon. (Although the authors destroyed the lunar Sanctuary quickly in the sequel in order to bring the novels more in line with the movie.)

I like the idea of the City being the origin of the myth. That would be a nice twist . . ..

[Klaus]

The Crazy Horse monument was one of my favorite things about the book... other than the 30-instead-of-21 bit, the idea of the people forgetting about the outside was a trope they didn't need to add to the movie.

[Greg Cox]

You know, given the popularity of THE HUNGER GAMES, now would be the perfect time to remake LOGAN'S RUN--with an appropriately young teenage cast.

[Ian Keldon]

Greg Cox wrote:

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In the movie, it's implied that Sanctuary is just a myth. In the book, it's on the moon. (Although the authors destroyed the lunar Sanctuary quickly in the sequel in order to bring the novels more in line with the movie.)

I like the idea of the City being the origin of the myth. That would be a nice twist . . ..

I more got the impression that Sanctuary may or may not have been a myth, but that no one had successfully escaped the City thanks to the "freezing robot".

Greg Cox wrote:

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You know, given the popularity of THE HUNGER GAMES, now would be the perfect time to remake LOGAN'S RUN--with an appropriately young teenage cast.

They've been talking about one off and on for a couple of years...here's the most recent thing I could find quickly (from May of this year):

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/popc...-95031189.html

[Greg Cox]

They have been talking about a remake for ages now. I remember them announcing the Bryan Singer version back when I was still working full-time at the Flatiron Building, and that was at least fifteen years ago . . . .

[Mr. Laser Beam]

In the movie, there is no Sanctuary. The computer running the city thinks there is, but this is because it doesn't know about Box, who has been freezing all the runners leaving the city *looking* for Sanctuary. Thus, the computer must have assumed that these missing runners had actually found it, and thus (in the computer's mind) Sanctuary must exist.

[Ian Keldon]

^That doesn't explain how the people found out about it though.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ What people?

Sanctuary does not, in fact, exist. Nobody in the city, including the computer, knows this, because they don't know about Box. Thus everybody thinks that the runners who have already fled the city have actually found Sanctuary.

The only people who DO find out about it are Logan and Jessica, because they meet Box (thus finding out what happened to the other runners) and then see what's outside the city. Then they come back and tell everybody.

[Greg Cox]

Yeah, the clear implication of the movie is that it's a myth, a rumor, an urban legend of sorts. No doubt it got built up over the years in retelling, probaby by generations of scared, would-be Runners who desperately wanted to believe there was someplace to run to . . . .

"Oh, yeah, there's definitely a Sanctuary. A friend of a friend of this girl I met once knew somebody who made it!"

"But maybe it's just a legend? Maybe I would have better odds at Carousel?"

"Hah! That's what the Sandmen want you to think! There has to be a Sanctuary--or what's the point of Running?"


Remember, seventies sf cinema tended to be fairly cynical and iconoclastic, so the idea that "Sanctuary" was just a pretty myth luring people to a frozen death was typical of the bleak, pessimistic attitude you found in such films as ZARDOZ, PLANET OF THE APES, SOYLENT GREEN, WESTWORLD, A BOY AND HIS DOG, etc.

[Leviathan]

No...however Logans Run + Soylent Green = AWESOME.

[Sindatur]

Leviathan wrote:

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No...however Logans Run + Soylent Green = AWESOME.

Carousel is Soylent Green?

[Greg Cox]

Leviathan wrote:

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No...however Logans Run + Soylent Green = AWESOME.

How about Logan's Run + Soylent Green + Hunger Games.

When you turn 21, you have to fight to death against other young people--and the losers get turned into food paste!

"Feed your Hunger Games with Soylent Green!"