The Crypt is the seventh episode of the Logan's Run television series. It first aired 7 November 1977.
Summary[]
On a dark and stormy night, Logan and friends ride through the ruins of a city. Rem comments on the poisoned air which killed most of the people. Logan comments that the buildings lasted but the people died. This is why Rem has a hard time understanding human motivations. As they pass by a building a red light starts flashing. It seems to have been triggered by the presence of their vehicle. Rem urges caution when exploring. They enter the building and as they explore Logan finds a electric eye bean by a door. he carefully triggers it and a video screen on the far wall comes to life. On the screen we see a female scientist who immediately starts talking to whoever might be listening.
She assumes that the air has cleared. She recorded the massage in March of 2120, and that below this building there is a complex of scientists. But the plague came. There was radiation above. Infection below. But not all of them died. Six were chosen though they were victims of the plague. They had been frozen , but by the time they found a cure the power had gone out on the elevator and they could not reach them. She placed the serum under the screen and begs that the serum be taken to those six people below as they may be mankind's salvation. The tape cuts off.
Rem and Logan talk about the serum and being frozen. Logan provides Rem with some more light, by blasting a filing cabinet, while Rem works on fixing the elevator. Rem has it working again very quickly. The elevator stops and they enter a long hallway lined with some nifty vacuformed panels. Logan notices that the air down below feels fresh enough. Rem notes that he was not worried about it because he does not breathe.
As they walks there is an earthquake. Logan drops the serum box and it is crushed by a pillar. Rem and Jessica are huddles against one wall. Jessica's knee hurts. They panic while looking for Logan. Logan starts looking for the case. Rem finds the case only to discover one of the two vials is broken. There will be only enough serum for three of the the frozen scientists. While the trio contemplates this another aftershock happens. Rem quickly closes the case that covers it with himself to protect the remaining doses of the serum. Logan tries to protect Jessica. Rem is pelted by some bits of Styrofoam. In the cryo chamber a piece of ceiling falls onto a console causing a counter to start counting up. It stops when it reads 713. back in the hallway Rem speculates that the plague may have been eliminated by the freezing process. Logan wonders what they will do if it has not. Jessica is still having a hard time walking so Rem carries her. Logan goes off exploring the corridors. Jessica asks Rem if he is heavy. Rem makes a comment about her being heavy, the realizes it may have not have been the right thing to say so he quickly adds on that she is pleasantly heavy. As they come around a corner a large red screen is flashing "More to come..." on it. Rem and Jessica stop to look at it. Logan walks down another corridor and a heavy metal door opens to reveal the six frozen bodies. Rem abandons the machine and carries Jessica to where Logan is watching the people wake up. At the same time all of the doors open.
When we next see the people they are thawing out around the room. They are full of questions but Logan does not have good news to deliver. Victoria Mackey ( a robotics expert) notices that Rem is a machine and is amazed. Dr. Greenhill, the medical member of the group, looks at Jessica's knee. Logan tells them of the complication. Mr. Kim is psychic, he realizes how the flask was destroyed. They impart the information that they are all past the contagious stage. They think about diluting the injections but discard that idea. The Kim ( a telekinetic psychic) asks Dr. Greenhill how much time they have left as the freezing process just arrested the disease. She tells them that they have two days maximum. Dr. Greenhill decides that the trio should make the decision as to who lives and who dies. The administrator, Mr. Liman, offers to hang onto the serum. David ( a city designer) does not like the idea of a bureaucrat holing onto the serum. This idea is not popular with the others. They finally agree to have Logan and Rem hide the flask.. ( a stupid idea with a psychic around) The group splits up to do various things from changing clothes to checking the generators. Logan and rem hover around Jessica for a moment with a look of concern.
Logan and Rem are looking for a place to hide the flask. As Logan approaches a wall a door opens up. Logan walks in. Rem turns back and walks towards the room. Logan walks on. Rem opens another automatic door. Logan finally finds his way to a long crematorium. Rem explains what they did with their dead. They agree that they would not be likely to search that room. the find and empty urn and stick the vial in. As they leave they have another aftershock.
In a comfortable living area Jessica asks Dr. Greenham about being frozen but she does not remember. Dr. Greenham asks Jessica about why she left the City of Domes. Jessica tells about sanctuary. In the background are 4 other survivors talking about something. As he tries to walk, Logan and Rem come in the room. The other Move to join Logan and Rem. Mrs Mackey talks for the group. They do not want Rem involved in the final decision. Logan is upset. the psychic decides that they need Mr. Liama for a vote. Rem goes to fetch him. He is upset too, but not willing to admit it. Rem finds Mr. Liman dead. Apparently crushed by a heavy piece of machinery. However the cobwebs on the equipment have not been disturbed.
In the crematorium the Mr. Kim is reading a eulogy over Mr. Loman's body. Two of the three women seem upset. They bow their heads and then cremate the body. Back in the communal room Logan has reached the conclusion that he should not make the decision of who lives or dies. They go over their options. Logan suggests that they draw straws, or interview them to find out who should live. back in the entry book with the red screen Rem sits down and fiddles for a while. His twiddling brings up a vote of another man waiting to die. He has noticed something in their records which is disturbing him. he is reexamining the files looking for what is bothering him. Rem fiddles some more and the man reappears. Something is terribly wrong. One of the six is an impostor!
Logan is back at the cryo room where for some reason there is a photo enlarger on a stand. Sylvia Reyna enters and talks to Logan. She wonders if it still rains outside. She tells a bit of her life story. She laments the death of her lover who died at a missile launching base. He makes some romantic advances towards Logan. She would give anything for a chance at life again. Logan abruptly leaves. Jessica comes to talk to Dr. Rachel Greenhill. The doctor tells her about the hardships of making life and death decision. In the background lurks David who comes in and tells how indispensable the doctor is. He tries to convince Jessica how important he is. He make a disparaging remark about how Sylvia will survive and how Logan will see to that. He then leaves. Jessica notes that David is very cynical. Victoria Mackie comes in to the room where Mr. Liman was found. She asks him if he can lie. He tells her that it is against his programming. They have a little session about where the vial might be hidden. David finds Sylvia and Logan in the hall. Sylvia leaves after David makes a discouraging remark. David plays with Logan's gun.
Back in the communal room they are all debating how their skills are the most important for this new civilization. Rem walks back in on the ego discussion. Rem come in and announces more information about Mr. Liman's death. Sometimes it is not convenient to tell the truth. Mr. Liman was already dead when he was placed under the machine. Rem plays Sherlock homes for a while. David reminds Rem that it would not be possible for any of the six to commit the murder. Sylvia watches quietly. David suggests that they get the injections now. Logan decides to wait a day longer. just then the lights go out. Mrs. Mackey goes to turn on an auxiliary generator. When the lights come back on she is found dead with a strange gun lying beside her.
Now there are only four. The doctor covers the body in the hallway. Logan is staring at David. Jessica is ticked off and wants to give them the serum. Logan goes to get the serum before the killer strikes again. Rem brings up more evidence, that one of them is an impostor. Logan returns with the serum. he leaves it on a table as he enters. Rem explains how the impossible was accomplished. How an impostor got in. According to the computer records they have never met before entering the chamber. Computers made the decision as to who was to be frozen. People were dying all the time. So someone switched places by altering simple facts. Dr, Greenham is eliminated by Jessica because she fixed Jessica's Leg. Mr. Kim is eliminated by Logan for his bit of psychic levitation just after being unfrozen. Rem suggests that it could be Mr. Perrim ??? because he was strong enough to have committed the first murder, but he claims to have designed the complex and knows where every nut bolt and wire is located. This leaves only Miss Raina. She looks around like a trapped deer.
She announces that she was only a computer technician. He sees the serum and runs over the grab it. Sylvia runs off with it. Logan pursues her. She is cornered in the cryo chamber. Logan tries to reason with her. But she is rotten to the core. They struggle and Logan gets the serum away form her. Logan tells her why he left the city of domes in one of his most dramatic moments of the entire series. "i left the city of domes to find a place where murder wasn't an official ceremony, where the right to live and the right to die didn't belong to the state. But to each one of us. I left it to find sanctuary, where those rights exist!" She asks for a few drops so she could go with him.
He gives the serum to Mr. Kim. Logan tells the survivors to judge her. As Logan leaves David tells him that they will name a city after him. He tells rem that they might names one after him too. Remsville? Rem Corners? Remsylvania? David smiles as they leave down the hallway. On the entry way screen can still be seen flashing "More to come..." They turn back to Sylvia, now in the corner staring to cry. very frightened. In the next scene the doctor is setting the controls in the freezing machine again. The camera pans over to where Sylvia Reyna has been out back into a cryo-chamber.
The final shot shows our trio driving away on the solarcraft. It is still night. Thus ends one of Heather's best performances on the series. The scene where she is utterly disgusted by the behaviors of these people from the past is especially great. Rem also had some fantastic scenes in this episode.
Original Script[]
It is dated April 14th 1977 and mentions that Logan's Run is an IBIS production in association with MGM Television. In this story/extended treatment by Harlan Ellison there were many major and minor changes made before the episode was shot. Quite a shame too as if this had been produced as written it would have been the type of sweeping epic that would have allowed the series to run many seasons. There were only about 12 lines of actual dialogue in this story. I have tried to point out all the major and minor difference is this brief outline of his treatment. Logan and the others are traveling at high noon in their hovercraft (which has the ability to fly a few feet off the ground (a la Luke's land speeder) where Rem is intently watching a Richter gauge. Rumblings are heard from outside. They are also following a radio signal. Clearly evidence of advanced humans. As they draw near to some buildings the needle jumps up to 8.2 and the full force of the earthquake hits them. Masonry and concrete are flung up. One damages the propulsion unit on the hovercraft. The hovercraft crashes and Logan and the others are thrown around quite badly. When they wake up Logan thinks he may have a broken arm and Jessica has a nasty cut on her thigh. They discover they can not get the hovercraft to work. Rem thinks he can repair the hovercraft but there are tools he will need which they do not have. They decide to hike to the remaining buildings. When they arrive they find many dead people in the rubble. The rubble turned out to be some sort of medical outpost but it is now destroyed. While searching for bandages and medication to treat their wounds they come across a DNA Biochemist. She is the only one left alive and she is clearly dying being pinned under a metal beam. Rem explains a fulcrum and lever to Logan and they lift the beam off the dying woman. She is obsessed with telling them about her biomedical team. Evidently they have been working on a cure for the past 25 years having found the earlier research by long dead scientists. They continued working on a cure for the six trapped in the crypt. She tells them how that the plague was slow acting and when a great mind in the group was threatened they were frozen. So over a period of fifty years the six were frozen. They had developed the cure, but the quake just struck and they had not had time to give it to the six. The box with the serum has a detailed map. The Biochemist make them promise they will take the serum to the six and then she dies. Logan and Jessica find some food while Rem finds the tools to repair their craft. Logan's arm appears to be only sprained, but Jessica's wound is getting infected. Rem tried to treat Jessica with what he can find. After partially fixing the hovercraft they travel to the mountains where the crypt is located. Logan and Jessica feel that these six might represent the hope for a brave new world and that they could be the best link to finding Sanctuary. The entrance to the crypt has been blocked by a rock fall. They find an air shaft and after removing the cover descend on the metal ladder inside. However as they climb down another aftershock hits causing them to fall 10 feet to the floor. Unfortunately the flask that Logan was carrying is smashed. they grey fluid leaks out on the ground. Arriving at the bottom they go through the records room with the flashing More To Come message and enter a huge white walled chamber. The damage from the earthquakes is evident. The catwalks form the upper levels are damaged and hanging and many machines have been crushed. While they're are there another aftershock happens and rocks block the way they came in. Another rock falls on the control console and the six begin to thaw. Logan and Jessica rush to help the six revive. At this point the script as shot becomes more similar. Mr. Lyman was a member of parliament and is seen as gentle and humane. Rae Greenhill is a biochemist and good at genetic engineering. She is also very beautiful. (Her name was changed in the final story.) Sylvia Reyna can relate to machines. She is a computer engineer and can relate to machines. She is not at all beautiful. David Pera is described as Hemingwayesque and having a beard and speaking in a short telegraphic way. He is of course a city planner. Victoria Mackie is a structural engineer and a wizard on the forces of climate control. She is physically strong and rugged looking. Dexter Kim is very philosophical as well as being a scientist. he is rather short. Only two of the six know one another having been frozen the same year. The six want to know where the cure is. Logan tells then there is only enough serum for three of them. Pera goes wild yelling at Logan and attacks him. Later he is calmed down. Logan points out that they risked their own lives to save them. Pera apologizes. Jessica suggests reducing the dosage of the serum but it is immediately rejected as it might render the serum useless. Lyman demands the flask. The group concludes the only one who should hang onto the flask is Rem. Rae Greenhill allows Rem to draw off a few drops to experiment with. Rem, Logan and Jessica are asked to hide the serum so no one will be tempted to use it. Logan, Jessica, and Rem find a drawer stacked room where the inhabitants of the complex have buried their dead. There is still one skeleton lying up against the wall. the assume that worries about the plague will keep them out of the boxes. The trio discusses the fact that they are sealed off on this one huge cavern. Food, air and escape are the main topics. Rem wants the doctor to look at Jessica's wound which are becoming inflamed and very painful. Then after that Logan and Jessica will have to eat. The supplies they brought with them are meager and they worry they will have to share with the others. At some point during this conversation about escape and who lives and who dies they they realize their dream hope that this might be their sanctuary has died. When they return to the group they discover a vote has been taken and Logan and Jessica are the only one impartial enough to make the decision of who gets the serum. Rem is rather bothered by the fact the he is being left out of the decision. Rae Greenhill says they have four days at the outside to decide, but the symptoms will return much sooner. Her tests have revealed that the plague spores are no longer in the air and that Logan's immune system is probably immune to it anyhow. Dexter Kim notices one of them is missing. The group devises a search. to find food, supplies, and Mr. Lyman. Sylvia Reyna attaches herself to Logan. others climb up into the catwalks, which Dexter looks for the source of the underground stream running through the complex. Logan and Sylvia look in a far quadrant. She makes sexual overtones towards Logan. Logan, coming form a pleasure culture, responds in kind, but he pushes her away quickly when she whispers in his ear to make sure she gets one of the injections. Logan was duped and used by the sandman and he will not be used again. Logan decides to continue on with her in tow and they find the body of Mr. Lyman with his head caved in. Logan notices the cobwebs on the back of the machine and realizes at once that he was killed and that it was made to look like an accident. Logan says nothing about this to Sylvia but we can see on his face all the implications of what this murder means. One of the legendary saviors of the human race is a vicious killer. Maybe the person killed so they could continue work they saw as important, or maybe they just murdered for a better chance of survival. Is that the best that can be expected from the saviors of humanity? The group of five takes the body to the drawers. Dexter remains to say a few poetic words over his body though he never knew him before the freezing. Kim then points out that one good thing came out of this. Now Logan's and Jessica's decision is a bit easier. he says this in such a sad and direct way that no one sees the comment as cruel. They all agree there should be some discussion as to whom is more important. The five leave. Logan motions to Jessica and Rem to stay. They decide that Mr. Lyman was killed while they were out hiding the flask but they do not know who of the five would have done it. Logan wants the killer excluded from the possibility of getting the serum. Rem disagrees on the grounds of logic: What if the killer has killed out of a belief that he or she is necessary to saving the world, and what if the killer is absolutely correct? What is he or she must be kept alive? Rae, as the only one who can pass on her medical knowledge; or Victoria for her knowledge of physics and climate control; Pera, the builder, who knows how people need to live, etc. Which one is dispensable? Rem makes such a logical case that they retract their all to human and vengeful decision. They continue their search for food. rem goes to absorb the data banks for information which might help them in their decision, as well as information which might aid them in the search for sanctuary should they ever get out. Rem finds the screen in the first room they entered and scrolls back 150 years of fine print. We hear, for the first time in the series, a statement of what the war was like in a voice over. as well as bits of information about what may have started the war. Eventually Rem reaches the end. Then he hears the journal entries of the last surviving man in the complex. In a series of entries (almost exact to what ended up on the screen) we learn that one of the six (now five) is an impostor. Logan and Jessica find some food (pills and wafers) and the stream running through the complex provides water. As they eat the begin to rationalize which if the three are to live. While they talk we see a point of view shot of one of the five.. the view is already starting to see double (one of the effects of the plague) Much information is revealed about the five remaining people. rem probes to find out who is the impostor but no clues arise. Kim admits to having falsified some research findings at one point in the past the help build his reputation. They complain about the plague symptoms returning. the doctor revises her death schedule to two days at the outside. Sylvia shows her interest in Logan again. Jessica reacts with jealousy that she did not know she possessed. It is the first time we have seen any indicators that their relationship is other than Finally Viewing Hour. The five demand that Logan and Jessica decide now and that waiting may doom them all. But Jessica and Logan do not know these people. They need Solomon like wisdom to know them better at once. but they are only two young people and hardly know themselves. Sylvia is extremely warm to Logan telling him that once they are above ground that she can repair the hovercraft. Jessica and Rae have become friends while Rae tends to Jessica's wounds. Kim shows them new ways of looking at the world. They have never met a great dreamer before and are captivated by him. Victoria gets some of the machines working and shows by action -- trying to clear away debris to attempt to gain access to other ways out - - that she is committed to rebuilding the world. David Pera turns out to be enormously likable and funny as well. he makes Logan, Jessica, and even Rem laugh! After all they have been through, after the death they've seen and Francis's stalking them they are able to laugh. A few hours later the light generator fails. Teams go out to try to restore them. As Logan and Jessica walk along the dark catwalks they see a glow among the stalagmites. Then they hear a human obviously in pain. Approaching closer they see Rae. Someone has managed to hook her unwillingly to a particle bombardment machine. As they watch she is disintegrated. There are now four. Extreme closeup of a really really angry Jessica screaming in rage, pain and anguish at the four remaining. "None of you deserves to live! What's so special about you, what makes you think you can save the world? You're just like the rest of us, scared little animals! You can't even save yourselves!" Logan tries to calm her but she brushes him off and yells at Rem to give them the serum and watch them kill each other to use it. Rem pins his arms around her and makes a strange calming sound (much like the tones used to put subjects in labs under "Russian sleep") it is very alien but utterly tranquilizing. Jessica calms down and Rem removes a tear from her cheek. Rem was programmed to know about them but this appears to be the first time he has ever seen one. he holds it to his face and wonders if it is a tear. he then decides it is a tear. Then he asks Jessica if it is a tear. he is wondering if she is in pain and now feels better. Jessica is still upset at the loss of her friend. Rem ponders that she may not have been the friend she claimed to be. he relates the fact now that one of them is an imposer. The dead doctor is off the hook for her medical knowledge to cure Jessica's wound. Dexter is shocked to learn that another of them was murdered. Logan explains the setup of the first murder. Rem surmises that the murdered disposed of the body of the real person in the same way, by disintegration, and then took his/her place. The murderer did not need an accomplice as the chambers in the crypt are self-sealing and hand an emergency opening handle. Rem rolls his eyes when he computing a bit of new information. if they find the phony then they also find the killer of at least three people. They run a quiz on all the people but each person is easily able to answer all the questions. Except that rem has trapped the killer. Rem turns to Sylvia. She answered the questions to well. Showing knowledge of events well a week after the date she was frozen. She was actually a lab assistant. She does not whimper, but stands tall as he declares she had most of the same breakthroughs as the real Sylvia had. Logan asks Rem to get the serum. Logan gives it to Kim. he tells Kim that he does not have to do anything to achieve justice. Just wait a day and she will dye all by herself. or maybe she is more valuable than one of you three. the judgment has to be yours. Logan and Jessica want to leave. the three try to get them to stay. Jessica is the first to say no. Their new world will to closely resemble their old world. Dexter has found the source of the stream and it leads in two directions. In and out. Rem working with Victoria makes some breathing devices then they leave doing underwater downstream (except for Rem who just walks underwater) they emerge outside looking for that nebulous Valhalla called Sanctuary.