Logan's Run

Logan's Run. 1976 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter, Roscoe Lee Brown, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Michael Anderson Jr., Peter Ustinov
Director: Michael Anderson
Available from Amazon for cheap right now...

Logan 5 (York) is a Sandman, operating within a large domed city in the 23rd century. This domed city contains survivors of "war, overpopulation and pollution". Infants are implanted with a "Lifeclock" in their hands, a device that changes color as they grow older. When a citizen reaches their "last day" at age 30, the Lifeclock blinks red, then blacks, and they must report to "Carrousel", where they are told that there is hope of Renewal, a form of reincarnation. Those who refuse to submit to Carrousel are labeled "Runners", and the Sandmen are responsible for hunting down and terminating them. Logan and his friend Francis 7 (Jordan) attend a Carrousel ceremony, leaving briefly to hunt down and kill a Runner. This particular Runner was carrying a silver ankh.

After hours, Logan meets Jessica 6 (Agutter) who is also wearing a similar ankh. She declines his sexual advances, but they still discuss why it's wrong to run. The next day, Logan turns in the ankh at Sandman headquarters, and the supercomputer within the complex reveals that the ankh is a symbol for a group of outsiders assisting Runners trying to reach "Sanctuary". Logan is assigned to find Sanctuary and destroy it, and the computer advances his Lifeclock so he can pass as a runner. The computer ignores Logan's questions about whether or not he'll need assistance from another Sandman, or if his Lifeclock will be reset after the fact. Logan goes to recruit Jessica, seeking her help in reaching Sanctuary; she is reluctant to join Logan until she sees him assisting a Runner instead of killing her. Unfortunately, Francis also witnesses this, and he's unaware of Logan's undercover assignment, so he kills the Runner, then starts chasing Logan and Jessica.

From there, Logan and Jessica make their way through the bowels of city with Francis on their heels, encountering a bizarre robot named Box (Browne) whose job is preserving any food that comes his way, Runners included, and eventually, they escape the domed city entirely. Upon discovering the ruins of Washington, D.C. outside after a long journey in the outdoors, Logan and Jessica realize there is no Sanctuary. There is, though, an old man (Ustinov) living in the old Senate building with a roomful of cats, to their surprise. While there is no Sanctuary, there is now the knowledge that life does not have to end at age thirty...as the rest of the domed city's inhabitants will soon discover.

A great sci-fi popcorn movie. Highly recommended film.