" However, Lowell does have a better relationship with humanlike drones who are also aboard the ships. The science and technology depicted in Silent Running are not always plausible, and Trumbull's special effects are low quality even by the standards of the time (he had a larger budget in his later film Blade Runner), but the melancholy message is powerful . The soundtrack songs are performed by Joan Baez and the film score was composed by Peter Schickele. Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. When orders come from Earth to jettison the domes that contain the plants, blow each of them up via nuclear explosions and return, Freeman Lowell decides it is his mission to save the plants on his ship, the "Valley Forge. " Each ship carries six domes. When one of his crewmates comes to set a bomb in Lowell's forest, Lowell strangles him with the handle of his shovel. America Race Walking Athletes In the struggle Lowell's right leg is injured. He then traps the other two crewmates in one of the domes that is about to be jettisoned, and they are killed when Lowell releases the dome and blows it up. "