In the novel “Logan’s Run,” the maximum age allowed before termination is 21. William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s 1967 dystopian novel imagines a future society that controls population and resource use by requiring everyone to die on their twenty-first birthday.
Citizens who reach this final day report to a Sleepshop, where they are killed with a pleasure-inducing toxic gas. Those who refuse become “Runners” and flee toward the legendary Sanctuary, pursued by Sandmen—officials responsible for terminating escapees. Logan 3 begins as one of these enforcers before becoming a fugitive himself.
The novel makes age visible through a palm-mounted crystal called a palm flower. Its color changes in seven-year stages: yellow from ages 0–6, blue from 7–13, and red from 14–20. On the final day it blinks red and black, then turns black at 21. The 1976 film adaptation is often remembered differently because it raises the termination age to 30, a common source of confusion.