Michael Anderson's Logan's Run is the sort of silly, lo-fi science-fiction epic that only had two choices upon its release: Become a cult hit or fade from memory by the time the audience chucked their empty popcorn bags. For some time in 1976, it landed in the former category and was considered by a certain sect to be a classic; sci-fi conventions urged guests to participate in "Runs," reenacting the film's central set-piece. A year later, Star Wars: A New Hope would be released and would usher in a whole new wave of sci-fi with its sprawling, interplanetary alternate reality, and Logan's Run became destined to register as only a minor blip on the scene.

Or so everyone thought: Inexplicably, this cheesy jolt of nonsense has survived the years and has only grown in notoriety, becoming the kind of touchstone that Family Guy pays homage to ad-nauseum. It begins sometime in the 23rd century in an enclosed futurescape where everyone is born with little crystals on their palms that iridescently note your age. When you're born, it's clear; when it's flashing red, you're ready to die at the ripe old age of 30. Death comes in the form of an acid-trip called Carousel where all the 30-year-olds get dressed up, float up towards a big crystal, and then explode.

Those who refuse Carousel are called Runners and they are tracked by black-garbed hunters called Sandmen. This much makes sense: Logan 5 (Michael York) is asked to find a place called Sanctuary, where all surviving Runners end up. The brass turn his crystal flashing red and he befriends Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter), a woman who helps hide Runners. This is where the film's script go into what one might call a free-fall stage. Motivations become convoluted and the very idea of common sense is obliterated as Logan and Jessica rush to escape the enclosed world and end up in a vine-covered, overgrown forest that used to be Washington D.C. while they continue to be hunted by Logan's friend and fellow Sandman Francis (Richard Jordan).

There are some moments here that are vaguely interesting: The scene in the Love Tunnel is just surreal enough to catch your attention, and then there's the great Peter Ustinov showing up as an elder that Logan and Jessica meet on the outside. But it becomes clear from the cluttered allegorical landscape that neither Anderson nor screenwriter David Zelag Goodman have any idea what they want to say. Ambiguity can be a fascinating element of narrative filmmaking, but Logan's Run seems more ambivalent and uncaring than equivocal. Not even the characters know what they are doing, and the actors respond in kind.

A remake of Logan's Run has been in development hell since the early '90s and one can only hope it gets no further than purgatory. It should be pointed out, however, that Michael Bay's The Island is about as close as one can get to a remake of Logan's without plagiarizing. In that film, its two escapees somehow survive a 40-story-plus drop with little more than a scratch. Logan's Run isn't as quick to rebuke mortality, but in its allegiance to concept over ideas and intelligence, it helped lay the groundwork for Bay and a generation of directors who see filmmaking as their own personal sandbox.