Were the first residents of The City babies that had machines take care of them? Or were some old enough to walk and talk and got herded (maybe and probably against their will) into The City? How did the builders get the residents in?
Well, most people are idiots with bad taste...so there!
I figured that the residents must have been the descendants of the builders and whoever the builders were working for. Since the city was built in relatively close proximity to Washington DC, it may have been intended as a shelter for top government officials and their children.
It's hard to say what sort of cataclysm may have led to them living there. The inhabitants weren't even aware that there was an "outside" - except as unlivable and poisonous.
If there was some sort of world-wide plague, poisonous atmosphere, nuclear war etc., then it wouldn't be that difficult to get people to move into a domed city for their own protection. So, getting the residents in there wouldn't be a problem, if the situation was dire enough.
Overall, my sense was that the original builders of the city were well-intentioned and planned to have some kind of long-term shelter from whatever catastrophe took place, something would have to last decades or maybe even centuries. I don't think they'd have to force anyone to move in there, but at some point along the line, there must have been some kind of major malfunction in the computer system. As to why there didn't seem to be any real human government (other than Sandmen who merely obeyed the computer), that's not really explained either.
But if a robot originally programmed to freeze fish can turn into some kind of megalomaniac, who knows what the city computer was capable of? No humans were really running the place and they didn't really know how the computer worked and much else about the machinery or engineering. I'm wondering if the computer may have killed off all the engineers and technicians and anyone else with the knowledge of how to operate the computer, while forbidding anyone from learning such knowledge or anything that might threaten the computer's power.
They aren't residents, they are subjects. Actually, they are meaningless.
The movies is a conceit taken from the book. Read the book.
Runners are the true point of it all.
I have read the book, why would you assume I haven't? And yes it is better that the film...but it's been probably 1976 or 7 when I read it (because of the movie).
Well, most people are idiots with bad taste...so there!
You're right. I accept my original point was not well made.
I suggested you read the book since if you had it would have been more apparent to me that you knew there was no actual answer since the book contained no domed city for "residents" to be herded into and as is obvious from your question, the movie doesn't give us answers either.
Therefore your speculation would be as good as anyone's.
I explained myself a bit better here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812/board/thread/250267561
Philosophically, life in the city has no meaning. You are raised in a state-controlled nursery and executed at a fixed age. The population would not be taught history: what would be the point? It could only foster dissent. Even the Sandmen, who are the closest thing to an elite don't have any idea about what came before or what lies beyond. We are simply asked to accept the existence of the city and the structure of its society as axiomatic.
It has been many years since I read the book. I believe it was while or before the movie was in production. Didn't the book have an unfinished monument to something like Little War, a youth riot, etc., that was unfinished as the monument's creator had used a fiberglass technique that was unknown to all but him. And when he'd submitted himself for Lastday, the monument wasn't completed. And the inhabitants were awaiting his renewal to finish the monument
↑This may be incomplete/missing info, but I do remember the unfinished monument
The only unfinished monument mentioned in the book is the Crazy Horse monument (which is still unfinished), and the home of The Thinker.
The Box character was working on some unfinished sculpture creation but he wasn't a messiah of any kind. Box is a perfect example of what I mean about the disconnect between the book and the film. A pointless addition.
The Little War was a youth riot, no doubt inspired by the Summer of Love and student/hippie protests in the 1960s and the supposed threat of overpopulation which has these days been replaced by climate change hysteria. Nothing changes when it comes to using emergencies to increase state power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. In Logan's Run it was the young who imposed dictatorship by forcing the execution of anyone over 21.
Chaney Moon, a teen orator, proposed a plan. He was the messiah (kind of). From the book:
"Five years later the Moon Plan was inaugurated and Chaney Moon, now twenty-one, proved his dedication by becoming the first to publicly embrace Sleep.
Young America accepted this bold new method of self-control, and the Thinker was programmed to enforce it. Eventually all remaining older citizens were executed and the first of the giant Sleepshops went into full-time operation in Chicago. One thing the young were sure of; they would never again place their fate in the hands of an older generation.
The age of government by computer began. The maximum age limit was imposed with the new system, and the original DS units were formed.
By 2072 all the world was young."
DS (Deep Sleep) units are the Sandmen. State regulators.
Found it. It was referred to as a fireglass mural in the book. It was made to to commemorate the Burning of Washington, but unfinished. And it was done by Roebler 7 & when he died, so did the fireglass secret.
shareRight, this:
"Ahead was the Jewel Building. Logan paused to survey the vast mural which gave the structure its name—a climbing mosaic composed of tiny bits of fireglass brilliantly arranged to commemorate the Burning of Washington. Orange, purple and raw red flames jeweled halfway up the façade; bodies flamed; buildings smoked and tumbled. Yet the awesome masterwork was flawed, incomplete. Stark, gaping areas broke the pattern. Only the famed muralist Roebler 7 could handle the corrosive fireglass, and when he had accepted Sleep his secret died with him. The project would never be finished."