Equilibrium

Plot synopsis:
Equilibrium is set in 2072 in Libria, a city-state established by the survivors of World War III, which devastated the world, where a totalitarian government requires all citizens to take daily injections of "Prozium II" to suppress emotion and encourage obedience. All emotionally stimulating material has been banned, and "Sense Offenders" – those who fail to take their Prozium – are put to death, as the government claims that the cause of all wars and violence is emotion. Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, led by "Father", who is seen only on giant video screens throughout the city. At the pinnacle of Librian law enforcement are the Grammaton Clerics, who are trained in the martial art of gun kata. The Clerics frequently raid the "Nether" regions outside the city to search for and destroy illegal materials – art, literature, and music – and execute the people hiding them. A resistance movement, known as the "Underground", emerges with the goal of toppling Father and the Tetragrammaton Council.
John Preston (Christian Bale) is a high-ranking Cleric. His wife, Viviana (Alexa Summer and Maria Pia Calzone), was executed as a Sense Offender. Following a raid, Preston notices his partner, Errol Partridge (Sean Bean), saving a book of poems instead of turning it in for incineration. Preston tracks down Partridge, who is hiding in the Nether region reading the book. Partridge confesses to Preston that he believes he was wrong to serve the government. He acknowledges that the consequences of feeling emotions are a "heavy cost", but remarks, "I pay it gladly" as he slowly reaches for his gun. Preston is forced to execute him.
Preston dreams occasionally about his wife and the day she was arrested. After Preston accidentally breaks his daily vial of Prozium, his son Robbie enters and reminds him that he needs to report the loss and request a replacement, but Preston is unable to before going on the next raid. As a result, he begins to experience brief episodes of emotion that evoke memories, stir feelings, and make him more aware of his surroundings. He intentionally skips more doses of Prozium and hides them behind the mirror in his bathroom.
Preston's partner is replaced with career-conscious Brandt (Taye Diggs), who expresses his admiration for Preston's "uncompromising" work as a cleric. On their first raid, they arrest Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson), a citizen identified as a Sense Offender. To Brandt's surprise, Preston prevents him from executing O'Brien on the spot, saying that he wants to keep her alive for interrogation. Brandt grows suspicious of Preston's hesitation to execute Sense Offenders and destroy contraband. As a result of his new secret emotions, Preston feels remorse for having killed Partridge, and he also develops an emotional relationship with O'Brien. Preston eventually uncovers clues that lead to a meeting with Jurgen (William Fichtner), the leader of the Underground resistance. Jurgen convinces him that Father must be assassinated. They plan to disrupt Prozium production in an attempt to spark a popular uprising.
Preston is brought before Vice-Counsel DuPont (Angus Macfadyen), who reveals that there is a traitor in the upper ranks of the Clerics. DuPont appears to be onto Preston, but then assigns him the task of uncovering and stopping the traitor. Relieved to learn he has not been implicated, Preston accepts and renews a promise to locate the Underground's leadership. He learns of O'Brien's scheduled execution, but Jurgen advises against interfering, which could sabotage plans for the revolution. Jurgen decides to allow the leaders of the resistance to be captured by Preston, so that Preston can gain the government's trust in order to approach Father and assassinate him. Unable to bear O'Brien's execution, Preston unsuccessfully rushes to stop it. Brandt catches Preston having an emotional breakdown in the streets, arrests him, and brings him before the Vice-Counsel. Preston tricks DuPont into believing that Brandt is the real traitor. Following Brandt's arrest, Preston is informed that a search of his home will take place as a formality. He rushes home to destroy the hidden vials, only to find his son – who stopped taking Prozium after his mother died – already has.
Preston turns in Jurgen and others from the resistance, and as a reward, is granted an exclusive audience with Father. Upon arriving, he discovers that Brandt was not actually arrested but was part of a ruse to expose Preston and the Underground. DuPont is also revealed as the real Father; he had secretly replaced the original Father after his death. It also becomes clear that DuPont does not take Prozium and can feel emotions. He taunts Preston, asking him how it felt to betray the Underground. Enraged, Preston fights his way through an army of bodyguards into DuPont's office and defeats Brandt in a katana battle. In a final gun kata showdown with DuPont, Preston wins. DuPont pleads for his life reminding Preston that he represents life and feeling and asks, "Is it really worth the price?" Preston responds with Partridge's last words, "I pay it gladly", shoots DuPont, and destroys the command center that broadcasts propaganda videos of Father. The Underground carries out the destruction of Prozium manufacturing and storage facilities and attacks key points throughout the city. Preston watches the successful revolution with satisfaction from above in DuPont's office, as a smile breaks across his face.

Tags: neo noir, murder, thought-provoking, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, action, philosophical, brainwashing, romantic, sci-fi

Review:
I know it's stupid to believe that a futuristic society is dumb enough to believe that the mere existence paintings, poems and sculptures can somehow lead to WW4.I know there's a statue as well as stylish architecture in the headquarters of the people who ban artwork.I know it's stupid to assume that a culture based on taking a drug every morning is not a very secure or feasible idea.I know it makes no sense for a culture with no emotions to still be able to fall in love, choose a spouse and desire sex to create children.I know half the people that Preston attacks are just standing there doing nothing while they wait to get their ass kicked.I know the sets look cheap.I know it's stupid that the "police" seem to die because their helmet glass breaks, when they'd probably be smart enough to have shatter-proof, if not bullet-proof plexiglass in the first place.I know there's no reason random citizens would sit in a square to watch a guy on a big screen giving a speech, re-enforcing what the characters already know.I know it paints a stupid picture of characters with emotion as looking like long-haired Gothic slobs who do nothing but sit in rooms with paintings and LP records and poetry books all day.I know the emotionless characters express emotions and crack facial expressions when they're probably not supposed to.I know Gun-Fu doesn't make much sense as to its practicality.I know this film is an inspired rip-off of "Fahrenheit 451", "1984", "THX-1138", "Brazil", and "Blade Runner".................But I love it.Although it's a mish mash of every "man vs.
Set in a future, post-World War III society where emotions have been outlawed, Equilibrium tells the story of John Preston (Christian Bale), a government agent who begins to have doubts about the policy he is enforcing.Equilibrium is the perfect example why I do not rate lower for derivativeness or unoriginality.
The high-concept material in Equilibrium is handled brilliantly.On its surface, after a brief action-oriented beginning, Equilibrium is basically a progression from a fairly complex sci-fi film (meaning simply that it takes a lot of exposition to get up to speed) to a thriller to a "gun fu"-styled actioner.
The cast does an excellent job of portraying characters who are supposed to be mostly emotionless but with cracks in the stoic armor continually poking through.Wimmer has a harsh view of our society's self-medication epidemic--even the title of the film seems to be a stab at the common claim that drugs like Prozac and Xanax are taken to help one "smooth out", or "equalize", extremes of mood, or extreme dispositions.
While the nay-sayers will say that the film is too unoriginal, borrowing elements of its story and premise from "Fahrenheit 451" and "Brave New World," these complaints can be disregarded as the movie adds enough of its own style and story to make the comparisons plausible in basic premise only.
If you are a fan of such books as Brave New World, 1984, The Giver, or This Perfect Day or movies like the Matrix and Logan's Run--Equilibrium is just the movie for you.
In addition to a terrifying plot set in our very own future, the movie has mind-blowing action sequences that are choreographed beautifully (but not obviously) and shot brilliantly and spectacular acting on the part of Christian Bale.
Whether you love action or a great plot line, this movie gives the Matrix trilogy (especially Reloaded and Revolutions) a run for its money--to say the least..
The matrix (at least the first one) didn't take itself too seriously, but this one did...and I think it lived up to the challenge as much as any action movie set in the distant future with some reality bending.
If I may say so, this is what gun fights in hard core science fiction movies should look like.Many people criticize the movie for being unrealistic or too extreme, altogether forgetting what kind of movie they're watching in the first place.
The characterization may be just a little heavy (Bale's character going from not understanding a question about what he felt when his wife was incinerated to having a soft spot for puppies, etc.), but like another outstanding and equally over-the-top film, Shoot 'Em Up, nothing is out of place.
Something similar happens in this movie.The similarities to The Matrix films are obvious, but limited mostly to superficial things like the fight scenes and some costumes.
This movie has a spectacular plot (post-apocalyptic world war III), and thus a fascist regime in which feelings, emotions, and so forth are abhorred.
John Preston has always been a Cleric, but the failure of his partner and an encounter with a feeler start him thinking and feeling.With sighs of `matrix clone' and `cashing in', I, like many viewers overlooked this film in favour of other things that may have come across as more original.
The concept does fall down a little bit with too much thought but on the surface it works well enough to suffice for a sci-fi action movie - the running time doesn't allow for much more than superficial thought here, although there is enough in this future to be thought provoking.The action is good considering the low budget involved here.
The support cast features Bean, Pertwee, Connelly, Fincher and McFadyen but really it is totally Bale's movie and he does pretty well to make it together.Overall this is not a great film but it is an enjoyable action sci-fi that manages to produce an interesting, if unoriginal plot and some slick and fun action that is no less slick or fun for being a low rent version of The Matrix's effects.
It's set in the future, in the real world, and yet we're supposed to digest the idea that humans can jump 20 feet into the air and dodge the bullets of 20 close-range gunman using "statistical probability."I suppose by now you're thinking to yourself, "This movie sounds awful.
After seeing this movie, ritual seppuku seemed like a fun way to pass the time.This movie will be the low marks on the resumes of actors and actresses like Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Sean Bean, and Emily Watson.
From what we see its only he and his fellow Grammaton Clerics who are trained to squelch their emotions entirely, as well they might since they are the cruel enforcement arm of their society's vicious goals.Third, Bale deserves a lot of credit for the way this movie succeeds.
The "Matrix" films aren't based in reality; they're based in some crackhead alternate universe where a whole bunch of wacky things happen and the movie tries to make sense of it with a lot of pretentious sci-fi jargon that only geeks of the genre will fully absorb.
It's obvious that the movie didn't had a terribly high budget and I must see that they handled this well and made the best out of it.The fight scene's are fairly good but simply too much over-the-top to find it really entertaining or believable.
Also the ending disappoints heavily and overall the movie leaves a bad aftertaste.Christian Bale on the other hand is simply cool and wonderful in his role and he portrays a good main character/hero.
This movie also had to steal plot elements from "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984." Interestingly, "The Matrix" was stealing elements from Hong Kong action films, which means that "Equilibrium" has second-generation plagiarism going on.There is not a single original thought or idea in this movie.
But you realise after you watch him, every time you read the novel again HE IS Patrick Bateman), a LITERALLY starving and tormented loner (please see The Machinist if only for his PERFECT, ground-breaking work of art, which includes both his acting skills and his beyond-emaciated body), a hopeful gay teenager turned hopeless adult (Velvet Goldmine, where he's amazingly accurate in a minor -as length goes- role and you really believe he's a shy and lively teenager and minutes later you believe he's a weary, melancholy adult), a conflicted superhero (the best Batman by far, followed by Michael Keaton of course) and all sorts of middle-of-the-road characters.
"The Matrix," a movie I (and many, many other people) love, compiled different pieces from countless stories/films/myths around the world.
"Equilibrium," on the other hand, only regurgitates familiar science-fiction ideas, including "Matrix." The result feels like a copy of a copy of a copy: dull and painfully predictable.But I digress, I realized late in the picture I had it all wrong.
The premise is ridiculous, the action is way over the top, and the script is full of absurd buzz words like "Grammaton" and "Gunkata." After borrowing themes from so many other pictures, "Equilibrium" is best enjoyed as a big budget "Plan 9 from Outer Space," as the finished product is so terrible it is actually hilarious..
It's not just the leaders who show emotion, which would be a fine example of hypocrisy, no; it's the folks working the menial jobs that get to run around and wet their pants in fear.The movie also tries to cash in on popular Hollywood-Fu by creating it's own martial arts called Gun-Kata, the name itself already brings back horrible memories of Gymkata and the Gun gimmick isn't any better then the Gymnast on a concrete horse fighting 'crazies'.
Like EQUILIBRIUM, which is one of the most painfully bad movies I've seen in a while (and I've seen a lot of bad movies recently, including COLD CREEK MANOR and JUNIOR...).The whole concept is so ludicrous that I had a hard time watching the film.
And that's the major problem with this film: totalitarian states are not just black and white things, they are as complex, if not more so than so-called free societies.The other problem with EQUILIBRIUM is that the filmmakers actually tried to make the killing techniques look cool and edgy, even if these fighting techniques are basically evil.
Before I write anything, I should state that I'm not sure I've just seen the same film as the majority of people who've written comments here.It was called Equilibrium, and it featured an excellent cast, including Christian Bale and Sean Bean.But it was absolutely no good whatsoever.
This movie has some of the most non-original material ever, the fight scenes are so matrix, with the slow-motion action-real time camera effects.
I really wanted to like this movie, because I think Christian Bale is a great actor and I'm a general fan of of the dystopia genre, but this film just asks too much of us.I can't believe some reviews use the word "original".
I watch a lot of action movies and have seen more or less every good shootout ever filmed, and most of the scenes in Equilibrium are better than any other filmed.
The plot here does the job and is somewhat interesting at one point, and there's a nice little symbolic use of Yeat's poem "You tread on my dreams." I doubt the movie could stand on its own without the action sequences, but frankly kung fu movies aren't supposed to be judged on Story or Characters, so the fact that it isn't cringe-worthy is just bonus.COMEDY) Not really a comedy.ACTION) The director Kurt Wimmer invented a fictional style of martial arts called Gun Kata which all the Grammaton Clerics use, supposedly based on thousands of simulations of recorded gunfights.
There are bits where he mows down stormtroopers, swordfights six clerics, and then that final showdown which is this awesome 1-on-1 Tai Chi/Wing Chun sticky hands (armed!) sequence.The filming is great, just fast enough to be exciting, not so fast or violent that you miss moves (although you will be tempted upon second viewings to frame-by-frame many of the fights, especially the final showdown).The director Kurt Wimmer once complained that in Equilibrium he was saddled with a choreographer who leaned into hard-style Karate when he wanted to go with more soft-style Wushu, but let me tell you there's really no difference.
The Gun-Kata thing is cool and works well, a lot thanks to Bale's execution.If you want to watch a cool and actually thought-provoking sci-fi movie and still have a good time then this is your choice..
'Equlibrium' like 'Minority Report' is one one of the current crop of post-Matrix science fiction = action movies that you'll watch once, yawn, and never think about again.
I could go on about how stupid the Gun-Kata stuff is, or how the movie is built on a paper-thin premise (we have technology NOW to medicate people automatically e.g. insulin, but they can't do this in the future?), or how Taye Diggs' character inexplicably has emotion (What the?) but I can't be bothered, the fact is this is a lame action movie full of plot holes.
This film also makes you think about how important the arts are in our world and what it would be like with no emotion.
The plots share a common sci-fi theme, an oppressed people fighting an unfeeling regime, but Equilibrium is based in solid reality while the Matrix world is illusion.
The thought provoking futuristic view of society actually has some merit when you look at world regime's of the past and their efforts to control the masses, so believability is extremely high as well.All in all, this is one great movie which definitely should have been noticed by more people..
Not at all.Christian Bale gives a great performance- a man who is learning to feel, and at times it's heart-wrenching to watch as a man capable of taking out whole rooms of heavily armed men single handedly becomes in an instant so childlike as he discovers what it's really like to feel.Taye Diggs is a wonderfully unlikeable character and Sean Bean in his small role is the exact opposite.
I was genuinely upset about his fate, even if we didn't really see him for very long at all.This movie has a lot of emotion, and plenty of fantastic Action sequences of Christian Bale kicking some major behind to contrast it.
The action is think and the plot '1984' like (timeless).What made the movie more fascinating for me was the use of 'martial arts' and the way in which the use of guns evolved like the samurai arts of old, replacing the sword with a pistol.The acting was superb and the main character was the icy killer from 'American Psycho', who used his charm and wit as in 'American Psycho' to pull off a superb non-feeling Cleric.There are of course some great fight scenes, utilising guns, samurai swords and empty hands that would make any viewer happy to sit down and watch this film.If you liked 'The Matrix' and love old Samurai movies, try this film, you will feel for it..
While this film may be under writer/director Kurt Wimmer's credit, this work owes more than a little credit to the Bradbury classic, because this film has a lot in common while also not having much in common.Christian Bale, just fantastic as always (he gave the 2nd best performance last year for American Psycho), plays a cop type of guy in a zombified nation where the satirical points in 451 are expressed as thought is forbidden and controlled and anyone else who goes against it is killed.
He follows orders as always, until he meets a woman, played by Emily Watson, who in a way changes his thinking and with that starts to grow emotion.Sounds like possibly a cheap rip off, but the film does cool touches in the story and structure to make it nice and as Bale goes through his change, we are sucked in.
Christian Bale has another great performance and although having a commercial ending, I liked this movie.
wonderful artdesign and really good camerawork, a nice plot, but directed sooooooooo bad, that one could start crying.how can anyone think that showing martial arts in an action movie after matrix with just a 10th of the matrixbudget could work?
I Think So. This film is very similar to 1999's The Matrix with the spectacular visual effects, awesome action sequences and mind-blowing gun fights.
Whe he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.When I was watching this film, I expected a chase movie (if you had read the plot, you would know why).
I also liked the plot twists in the film, although some are obvious.The performance by Christian Bale is fantastic, turning into an emotionless person into a two dimensional character.
Even Sean Pertwee makes an appearance as the face of Father, the secretive leader of a futuristic fascist world where emotions are banned and suppressed by daily injections of drugs.Bale's lead role in this movie is almost a dress rehearsal for "Batman Begins" - the "Gun Kata" action sequences are similar in tone to the "Batman" film but are actually more effective.
It was truly amazing to see Christian Bale in a movie like this, and I think he played the part perfectly.
A great adventure film that makes you think a lot about the value of feelings, how people get away with violence and how human societies are going to be formed in the future.
"Equilibrium" is one of the most passionate and emotional movies I've ever seen, and this comes from a movie that depicts a society that exists based on the concept that emotion and passion are the very things that led to the destruction of humanity, which is why feelings have been banned in the movie.Starring Christian Bale, who in 2002 wasn't really the big name celebrity that he is today, Taye Diggs, Sean Bean, Emily Watson, William Fichtner and Angus McFayden, this movie is classified as science fiction, but there's far more drama than sci-fi and even action.