So, I’ve always kind of wondered what it would be like to live in a dystopian future. Now, I didn’t necessarily want to experience it, but I’ve certainly watched enough movies about dystopian societies to at least be curious. Now, for the record, I don’t think we yet live in a dystopian future. At least I don’t think so. It’s kind of hard to tell. If you watch movies set in dystopian future, no one is really commenting on how they are living in a dystopia. You never see conversations like, “Hey, Frank, did you think we’d ever live in a dystopian society?”
“No, Al, I sure didn’t and, I have to tell you, I don’t like it.”
Instead, it’s always just kind of their reality as they all go about their daily life. So who knows, maybe we are?
Over the weekend, I bought the Blu-ray for the director’s cut of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan off Amazon (I’ve decided to start buying physical media again, but that’s another story) and then it also gave me the option to buy Logan’s Run, which I did (most physical media is so inexpensive these days, which is one big reason I like it again) because I hadn’t actually watched it in so long, I knew it more as a concept than I do an actual movie.
Logan’s Run (directed by Michael Anderson, who just turned 96 on Monday) is set in a dystopian future where people are killed once they reach the age of 30. Now, the people don’t think they are being killed, they think they are being “renewed.” A few residents don’t want to be renewed, so they run, looking for a place called Sanctuary. These “runners” are hunted down by Sandmen and are killed. (Not just killed, they are also sprayed with a substance that dissolves their bodies. It’s quite grim.) The computer that runs the city sends a Sandman, Logan 5 (Michael York), on a mission to find Sanctuary and destroy it by aging him four years to his 30th birthday, which results in the crystal embedded in his hand to blink red – sending Logan on his own run for his life. But there is no Sanctuary, which results later in the dramatic line reading, “There. Is. No. Sanctuary.”
One of the interesting things about future dystopias is that a lot of people seem really happy. Put it this way, if you’re 22 and live in the world of Logan’s Run, life seems pretty good! Pretty much everyone who is not 30 seems relatively pleased. So that’s why it’s always hard to tell: sure, hundreds of people’s lives were upended on what was essentially a ban on a specific religion, but it’s still easy to find people who seem happy about all this. (Though, I don’t think “reasonable” people are happy about this. In Logan’s Run, even reasonable people seem happy.) The ban is so crazy, the thought of Trump issuing an executive order to “renew” people when they turn 30 doesn’t even seem completely farfetched anymore. I mean, who knows? I can see conversations going like this:
“Wait, Trump really signed an executive order today that says people have to be killed once they turn 30?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, the courts are going to overturn it. You see, he just wants to see what he can get away with. There’s no way this holds up.”
“Oh.”
The more I think about it, the more I think maybe we do live in a cinematic dystopian future right now – only people are little less happy than they are in most fictional dystopian futures. It’s crazy, our present has ruined movies set in dystopian futures because a lot of them seem a little more appealing than what our reality is right now. I wanted to watch Logan’s Run and feel better in a, “Well, at least we don’t have to deal with that,” kind of way. And, instead, I found myself either envious or thinking, Yeah, that seems about right. If right now someone made me choose between reality and living in the world of Blade Runner, I’d have to think about it. At least in Blade Runner there are flying cars.
Do you know what a hard movie to watch right now is? Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. One of the most compelling aspects of Star Trek has been that it’s set in something that’s more resembling a utopian future. It’s always been a future of diversity, hope, and the promise of peace. It does not feel particularly great to watch right now as we watch people get their rights stripped away.
So, welcome to our dystopian future. And it’s not as good as what we were promised in the movies. In the movies, there’s always some heroic action that can be taken to better things. Right now, all we can do is protest and donate money to the right organizations and hope it works. That’s about it.
There is no Sanctuary.
You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
