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.

 

[marksound]

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]

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]

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".

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/popcornbiz/Logans-Run-Remake-Has-Hot-New-Director-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]

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

Carousel is Soylent Green?

 

[Greg Cox]

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!"

 

[Klaus]

^^I assume you'll be writing the novelization?

 

[Ian Keldon]

^ 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.

Not what I mean. If Sanctuary is a creation of the Computer, then it MUST have told someone at some time, or the "runner network" would not have formed around trying to get to it, even adopting the ankh as their symbol.

It's clear that the Computer heard about Sanctuary FROM someone, probably a runner or an informant.

 

[Greg Cox]

^ 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.

Not what I mean. If Sanctuary is a creation of the Computer, then it MUST have told someone at some time, or the "runner network" would not have formed around trying to get to it, even adopting the ankh as their symbol.

It's clear that the Computer heard about Sanctuary FROM someone, probably a runner or an informant.

Huh? The Computer didn't create Sanctuary; it's just investigating the same urban legend the Runners are perpetuating. Its mistake is that it can't understand that human beings are capable of believing in something that doesn't exist, and even inventing elaborate mythologies and symbols to support that belief . . . like the ankhs and such.

The Computer believes Sanctuary is real because the Runners believe Sanctuary is real, and the Runners believe Sanctuary is real because no Runner has ever returned to the City . . . so they must have found Sanctuary, right?

(Nope, they all ended up flash-frozen by a crazy robot. Sanctuary is a myth, like El Dorado or Shangri-La.)

The whole thing is a not-so-subtle commentary on religions, cults, witch hunts, and conspiracy theories.

 

[kythe]

I like the idea that Sanctuary is a convoluted version of a story that had its beginnings in the purpose of the dome itself. Why was the dome built in the first place, and why was the age of 30 chosen for Carousel? (I've never read the book, but I love the movie).

 

[Klaus]

From the book, via wiki:
"The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength. By the early 1970s over 75 percent of the people living on Earth were under 21 years of age. The population continued to climb—and with it the youth percentage.
In the 1980s the figure was 79.7 percent.
In the 1990s, 82.4 percent.
In the year 2000—critical mass."

In the book the cutoff is 21, not 30...