Run, Runner!

In my last post, I mentioned “Logan’s Run” as a favourite movie of mine. I’ve watched it dozens of times, and that mere mention motivated me to watch it yet again. I wanted to work it into a blog entry, but reviewing a movie from 1976 didn’t seem all that useful. I looked on IMDB at the goofs, and have decided instead to capture some of them for all to see. There will be spoilers, obviously.

Unlike many movies with stratospheric budgets and lazy editors, the goofs in Logan’s Run are all pretty easily dismissed. By the time I was done, I was more impressed by the movie than when I started.

You can click any of these images to see a larger version. That will take you to an image page showing a medium sized screen shot. You can click the image again to see the full-sized version.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

The first goof is the funniest. It’s so obvious that I can only assume it was left in as a laugh. As people settle in to view Carousel, we cut to two extras. One decides to cup her hand and whisper to the other just as she decides to turn and talk back. What we end up with is one punching the other in the nose.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

We see here that the robes dropped by the Carousel participants disappear between shots. There is plenty of on-screen time for some unseen Carousel attendants to have removed them. I bet they sell pretty well on Space eBay™.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

The next few are not goofs, but the result of filming on location in an active mall (the “Apparel Mart” in Dallas Texas). Here we see that a sign has been covered with a white rectangle.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

The board used to protect the floor from the heat of these pyrotechnics is impossible to miss.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

A fall from the second floor isn’t very exciting, so the directors were hoping you wouldn’t notice that the Runner climbed on to the second floor, but fell from the third.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

I’m not sure how anyone even spotted this, but take a look. The amount of Space Koolaid™ in Logan’s glass is different when he sits down than when he stands up moments later. Perhaps it’s just really volatile?

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

This one is pretty obvious. When Logan makes his fateful visit to the computer, the light over his head is off for the shots of his face and on for the shots of his back.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

Doc’s machine apparently has a life of its own. The handles start in the down position. After a really quick cut to Logan and back, they’re in the up position.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

I’ve seen this goof mentioned in a few places. Jessica enters New You with her bracelet (that she made a point of retrieving from the cub at Cathedral Plaza), but leaves without it. The DVD commentary acknowledges the continuity error meant reshooting “a few scenes”, but the bracelet never does appear again. I found it sitting on the floor, dropped in the scuffle. It started as a goof, but there are three or four frames that resolve it.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

There is mention that the light-grey strip on Logan’s shirt disappears. The grey strip is actually on a separate tunic that we can see Logan removing here. Oh, I seem to have zoomed in on the wrong portion of this shot. How did that happen?

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

Cover a significant character in mirrors and roll him around a film set and you’re going to get reflections. There are a few places where there seems to be film crew visible. It’s more evident at full speed than frame by frame. It must have been a challenge to film Box, and they did a good job.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

When Logan shoots box, the upper pyro fires when he aims low and vice versa. It’s pretty obvious once you know, but watching normally you’d probably miss it.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

Tired and thirsty, unable to find water, Jessica-6 still manages to find time to stop and do a bit of laundry. The hem of her dress is noticeably cleaner in this one shot. I’m guessing they were just shot in a different sequence than they were shown.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

After Logan’s interrogation by his surrogates, he shoots his way out of the computer hall. It’s hard to miss this stuntman and his pyrotechnics mask. Give the guy a little credit. His whole head explodes in a shower of sparks when he’s shot. It’s not a dummy, either. There is clearly a guy standing inside the fireball.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

The city falling down around them, everyone leaves via the stairs. This one guy decides he’ll save time belly-flopping from the second floor onto a flower bed. As he does, you can see an exit sign behind him. Again, they are filming in the mall. They missed this one sign. And anyway, they don’t have exits in the future? They may not be allowed out of the city, but I’m sure they let them out of the buildings.

© 1976 Turner Entertainment Co.

And finally the famous Vulcan greeting at the very end of the film. I’ve watched it many times. My opinion is that it’s just a random hand gesture. The arm seems to belong to a girl (though I may be wrong). If so, she could be a Star Trek geek but I think it lends support to my argument that her hand just happens to be in this position.

There were other “goofs” not shown above. Wires visible in Carousel, for example. The Carousel scene was filmed on, arguably, the most complex custom wire harness system created. At least in 1976. Yes, there are some harnesses and wires visible, but it’s not too bad.

After the runner is killed, you can also see the shadow of wires on the wall as the guy from the clean-up crew flies in. They’re noticeable because they’re moving. Frame by frame, there is no suitable image to capture.

IMDB says Jessica’s green tights appear and disappear. Not when I look. There are shots where they’re difficult to see because of lighting, but she seems to wear them consistently until she removes them during the Box scene. They also say Logan’s hair gets shorter when he returns to the city. He may have had a trim, but I couldn’t tell.

When Francis jumps from the balcony, we cut to a different angle and he does clearly land far from where he should have. It’s really obvious, and there’s nothing interesting to screen shot for that one. Similarly, the falling Styrofoam boulder that stops rolling when it touches a guy is clear, but not in a static screen shot.

So, there we have it. The goofs are all easy enough to find if you know about them in advance. They’re all quite trivial, and few of them would be seen by someone just watching the movie normally. It was fun finding them, though. I may just try this sort of thing again on another movie.