Published in 1967, the novel depicts a dystopic Malthusian future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching the age of 21.

The introduction to the book says: The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength.

Runners are those who refuse to report to a Sleepshop and attempt to avoid their fate by escaping to Sanctuary—a place where they can live freely in defiance of society's dictates.

Despite her initial distrust of him, he is aided by Jessica 6, a contact that Logan made after he chased her Runner brother, Doyle 10, into Cathedral, where he was killed by the vicious pre-teens known as "Cubs".

He is working from within the system, as he believes the computer controlling the global infrastructure, buried beneath Crazy Horse Mountain, is beginning to malfunction, and that society will die with it.

David Pringle gave Logan's Run two stars out of four and praised the novel as "a good SF thriller"; he also stated it was superior to the film version.

The film uses a very limited set of premises and plot lines from the novel (everyone must die at a specific age, Logan runs with Jessica as his companion while being chased by Francis).

The motivations of the characters are also quite different—in the film, the age of planned death is 30—instead of reporting to a Sleepshop, citizens must take part in a ritual called "Carrousel" [sic] in which they are incinerated with the chance of being "renewed".

The only other person that Logan and Jessica encounter outside the city is an old man (Peter Ustinov) who lives with a large number of cats in the United States Senate chamber of the largely intact ruins of Washington, D.C. Logan kills Francis, who is simply a Sandman in the movie and not a rebel leader, and leads the old man back to remain just outside the domed city, returning to try to lead a revolt against the culling.

[5] The director planned to make it closer to the novel than the original film, restoring elements including Crazy Horse Mountain and sky gypsies.

[10] The following May, Singer's availability to direct Logan's Run was rendered questionable by scheduling conflicts with filming a planned sequel to Superman Returns.

[15] In May and June 2010, Carl Erik Rinsch was hired to direct, and Alex Garland and Michael Dougherty were set to write the script.

[18] In August 2011, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn was attached to direct the remake, which would star Ryan Gosling and Rose Byrne, with a script by Andrew Baldwin.

[22] By July 2015, Levine had exited the project and was replaced by Simon Kinberg, who in addition to writing a new story and treatment, also planned to produce the film with Greg Berlanti.