Sci-Fi City Fun With Logan, Buck, & Mork

There are countless times that the same sets, the same costumes, the same soundtrack music, and even the same footage appears in more than one movie. There are also times where it’s not exactly the same material, but it’s so close that it might as well be. Michael Anderson’s 1976 futuristic adventure, LOGAN’S RUN, set the template for many sci-fi cities with what they called “The City of Domes.”

There were examples of architectural speculation in film before - Fritz Lang’s classic METROPOLIS (1927) for one - but Robert De Vestal’s Set Decoration (this was before it was called “Design”) for LOGAN’S RUN influenced such sci-fi flicks as Daniel Haller’s BUCK ROGERS AND THE 25TH CENTURY (1979), and the TV series (1979-1981) that followed. 

That’s New Chicago. There’s just something about those curved buildings, huh? 

LOGAN’S RUN was set in the 23rd Century, while BUCK ROGERS was, of course, set in the 25th. I know they’re not set in the same universe, but the similarity of set decorations is uncanny. Also, BUCK obviously had a bigger budget.

 

I remember as a kid watching the hit sitcom that made Robin Williams a star, Mork & Mindy, and thinking that the city on Mork’s home planet looked familiar. 

That’s because it was footage of The City of Domes from LOGAN’S RUN. Looking like it’s been run through an orange filter to make it look at least a little different from its original source (or maybe that was the quality of the film they had), these exterior shots lasted only a few seconds so it flew by most people, but I’m so proud that my 10-year old pop-culture nerd eyes caught it!

By the way, Mork’s home city was named Frizbat - in case you need that for some trivia game some day.

From the mid-‘70s to the early ‘80s, futuristic sci-fi cities were largely shiny, clean silver backgrounds. Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian future-set BLADE RUNNER greatly influenced the direction of many set designs since, but those stylish, advanced cities still exist in movies and TV shows. Like this one from the 2015 Brad Bird/George Clooney flop TOMORROWLAND:

Addition: After posting this, I found another use of the LOGAN'S RUN city design in AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL (1982), which is set slightly in the future (the opening crawl says “In the near future...”). Ken Fickleman’s follow-up was a retread of the original AIRPLANE! with the only difference being that it concerns a space shuttle situation instead of a jetliner disaster scenario. That means they could stuff in a bunch of sci-fi spoofery like jabs at 2001, Star Trek (William Shatner was even in it), STAR WARS, and E.T. In one scene a futuristic cityscape can be seen out of a window at the Transcendental Air desk in the airport:

 

Yes, the set decoration from LOGAN'S RUN strikes again!

There are so many examples of similar sci-fi cities to choose from, so feel free to speak up in the comments section below. It’s been so long since I’ve had a comment that wasn’t an ad, so I’d really appreciate it. Anything to shut those crickets up.

 

More later...