By Chris Snellgrove | Published
For scholars of a certain age, Logan’s Run (1976) is one of the scariest sci-fi series ever made. The film depicts a dystopian future where humanity lives in loose harmony, surrounded by automated machines that take care of everyone’s needs. But as the opening crawl warns us, there’s a catch: once a person turns 30 (as evidenced by the crystal in their hands), they must kill themselves in a ritual known as “The Carousel,” after which they will be reborn. In fact, there is no rebirth; everyone just sacrifices themselves to forcefully build a society where everyone is young and happy.
Logan’s Run (currently streaming for free on Tubi) is particularly frightening to Millennials because it exposes our anxiety about our own mortality. There’s nothing like a cinematic reminder that death creeps up on us all, every day. As an added kick in the teeth, the movie’s Big Bad is an evil computer, emphasizing how AI could be the final death of humanity. Ironically, however, modern technology has made Logan’s Run a joke. Thanks to the social media created by Zoomers and even Generation Alpha, Millennials have long felt trapped in a world driven almost exclusively by the likes and dislikes of a younger audience.
And, trust me: it doesn’t take bad AI to make us wish we were dead!
No Country for Old Men
For longtime sci-fi fans, Logan’s Run it will probably feel like a hodgepodge of genre ideas you may be familiar with in other media. The idea of volunteering to be exterminated, for example, feels very similar to people flocking to suicide zones. Soylent Green. The film features special agents assigned to hunt down and kill those on the run, such as Deckard who hunts down the characters Blade Runner. Of course, the idea of a computer with potentially nefarious motives driving the entire society exists many episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. On paper, all this does Logan’s Run it is very accessible, even for newcomers.
With all that being said, I can’t help but feel that modern technology has given the message and vibe of it Logan’s Run very unwanted. I’m not even talking about AI here, although it’s worth noting that our entire economy is supported by the collective efforts of tech bros to make their own badass computer. No, I’m talking about how social media sites like Twitter and YouTube have made Millennials and older groups feel like their characters. Logan’s Run: basically dead to anyone over 30.
Never Trust Anyone Over 30 (Because They’re Dead)
In Logan’s RunTo separate (forever, as it turns out) the old people from the young people was managed by artificial intelligence, and everything was baked in their strange culture. In the real world, there are no evil AIs forcing people to liberate themselves when they turn 30 (at least, not yet). However, older groups such as Millennials still see a large gap between their cultures, and say, the Zoomer culture. Technology plays a big role in this because it has destroyed what the old groups once considered indestructible: monoculture.
Millennials and older demographics in particular grew up watching the same popular movies and TV shows. They read the same newspapers and magazines that were popular all over the country, and read the same great books. The effect of this was what is now known as monoculture: when almost everyone read and watched the same things, we all had the same cultural touchstones. If a movie has a funny line or two, it becomes part of our collective language. We knew every star, every quote, every pop culture moment. As insiders Logan’s Runwe had a shared culture that we all knew and understood.
Shocking new technology
But the Internet, originally intended to unite the world, ended up dividing everything. Anyone with a camera could become famous, which led to a proliferation of influencers and small celebrities whose content was available at the push of a button. The monoculture was gone, quietly replaced by a series of niche cultures that were confusing and impenetrable to anyone outside of them. This leads, inevitably, to a cultural divide: how the heck are TV-raised Millennials supposed to understand things like the looksmaxxing movement, which promotes hammers on the face as a way to achieve beauty?
One thing on a popular computer Logan’s Run I couldn’t have predicted that real-world technology would create a fast-paced, disappearing culture. Teenagers no longer get funny lines from movies or TV shows; they find themselves on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and this ephemeral slang disappears as quickly as it appears, replaced by something from the next viral vid. That’s why Millennials and Gen X feel like they’re going crazy trying to understand Zoomers: by the time you get a buzzword like “rizz” or “delulu,” these young people have already moved on, and the will point and laugh when you try to insert “gyatt” into a conversation.
In the Digital Age, You’re Already Dead
Obviously, language is used as a symbol of culture, and shared slang is a way to show that you belong to a group. Hyper-online youth keep up with the changing slang by constantly watching new videos from their favorite content creators. When an old person like me tries to use outdated words, it happens a lot it is clear that I am not part of the group. Without understanding something as basic as the language used, it is difficult for Millennials and older groups to understand the layered irony and willful brain rot embedded in the popular Zoomer and Generation Alpha memes.
How does this all fit together Logan’s Run? In that fictional world, technology makes things easier by dividing society into two groups: a group of young adults and a group of 30-year-old corpses. The film is intended to show concern about aging and feeling disconnected and useless over time. But in the real world, algorithms have divided people innumerable interest groups, jokes, and even a language unreadable to viewers born before the World Wide Web. We don’t have to be hunted down and killed as insiders Logan’s Run; instead, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers are quietly idle, as if we were never born.
Is that bleak and sad? You bet! But it could be worse: you might be hunted down and killed because the glowing crystal in your hand told everyone you’ve entered your dirty thirties. Carousel doesn’t exist in the real world, but you can find the next best thing through streaming Logan’s Run free on Tubi. By watching this classic film, you can be reborn as a person who enjoys all the grace and understanding that comes with age. If that doesn’t work, don’t look to me to talk to you: as a Millennial again teacher, I have been waiting for new people to rise up and kill me, long time!
