Do yourself a favor and watch Logan's Run.
The plot concerns a utopian society wherein the scarcity of resources only permits people to live to age 30. Upon reaching this point, people are given a choice: submit to the Carousel to be "renewed" or try to run, making you the target of the Sandmen constabularies. The trick comes from our main character who is one of these Sandmen and is then given a covert assignment to thread his way through an underground railroad of runners and find his way to their purported utopia on the outside world. Despite still having a few years to 30, the computer that dictates society marks him for "renewal", forcing him to run.
Without wanting to spoil anything the movie does lose some of its steam towards its last quarter section. There's buildup to some great momentum that gets lost after the story reaches a certain point. While it never quite regains what was lost, there remains a certain poignancy in what occurs.
Now I said I did not want to spoil anything, but for the sake of actually having something to say I want to get a better depth of the story, and to do that I have to reveal things that are better left discovered than told. Logan's Run is currently available on Netflix (at least here in the United States). Don't let me ruin it for you if you haven't already seen it. Logan's Run is truly a beautiful film.
Okay, now onto spoilers.
The movie concerns itself with the sacrosanctity of youth and pleasure, of technology and perfection. Having been left in ruin by war and decay, society has reduced itself to a city shutoff from all else and dictated by a machine, besides which there are no leaders. People are defined by the number which comes after their name (the main character's name being Logan 5, his friend Francis 7, so on & so forth) and by their age. Despite the circumstances life is pleasant, and hedonism is rampant; casual sex being wanton and there are no longer taboos for homosexuality.
This movie was made in the 70s, and yet these points bear a striking resemblance to 21st century living. Youth and pleasure and technology too often dominate people and their decisions, their politics. People are devauled into being little more than a number and a color (the latter of which is short-hand for their age). The only way to live past thirty is to escape, to break free of the hedonic mold and run away into the unknown in search of the fabled Sanctuary sought by runners. Only, when they do so, our two main characters discover that there is no Sanctuary to be found. They travail against the forlorn ruins of the old world, suffering new pains in their plight only to find that they are truly alone.
Even so, after everything they've been through and wanting at times to give up and go back to the utopia they once knew, they press on, and in time free the rest of their old society, pouring everyone back into the world at large for an uncertain future. Despite everything, there's a beautiful sense of hope found in being able to grow old and even to see the overgrowth of the ruins. There are some parallels with our lead characters, them being a man and a woman in love with each other cast forever out of paradise, this all bearing resemblance to Adam and Eve. This comparison remains poignant even from a secular perspective given that the world is established as desolate after so many years of solitude and allowing the environment to reclaim itself. Things haven't gotten much better, really, as implied by the sole outsider encountered in the movie who tells of fish that used to be in the stream and now no longer dwell there—even without human intervention, eradication is still occurring. Yet, because of this biblical parallel, we see a contrast which portrays this world not as an ending but as a beginning, as it was for Adam and Eve. Accepting pain and turmoil is not an instant death, as we might so often believe, but instead is a way to begin a newer, greater path, and by denying this suffering we deny a greater part of our world, and leave so much to be unseen.
Among all of this, Logan's Run is amazing because it has become a meta-example of itself. The movie is more than 40 years old as of writing, and it shows its age, particularly in its looks. But just because something is older does not mean it is worthless. There's a certain charm to the movie's looks, and to this day the special effects still look good. It is easy for (young) people to dismiss a movie just because it "looks old," but in doing so they deny themselves new insight and/or context which could expand their horizons—in the movie's case, the young people of this utopian society do this quite literally.
As I mentioned, the movie loses some of its momentum after a certain point, but while this is never regained, there is indeed something new to be enjoyed, as this is the part of the movie where we see the "utopia" break open and spill its young people out into the wide world. The first bit of the new/old world they see is an old man—the aforementioned sole outsider—whom they regard with fascination and embrace, enthralled by the unfamiliar sight of a face that has lived more than 30 years.
It is rather easy to lose hope once we reach a certain age. When we're young, to be 30 years old seems so daunting, as if it were a mark of death. We sometimes fail to see that there is so much more to life than simply being young or having sex. The world is not so narrow, after all. What a wonder it is to know that the world does not end with pain nor pleasure, but keeps on spinning despite our flaws and careless ways. That's what hope is, it would seem.
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