Equilibrium Explained In a Nutshell

Equilibrium is about a post WW3 future society that has decided to produce a drug called Prozium to suppress human emotion and therefor end war and violence. The people that go off the dose are referred to as sense-offenders and are put to death by the future law enforcement agents called Clerics. As the rebels prepare one of their biggest terrorist acts, an unlikely new player enters the game.

The Equilibrium Movie Trailer

The Equilibrium Movie Review Breakdown

Tagline: In a future where freedom is outlawed, outlaws will become heroes
Who is in it? Christian Bale, Dominic Purcell, Christian Kahrmann, Sean Pertwee, William Fichtner, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Sean Bean
Genre: Action – Drama – Science Fiction
Was it action packed, dramatic, and sci-fi? Yes!!
Would this movie be for every action fan? Yes, for sure!
Should you see it? Yes. This is one of the most badass and underrated movies I’ve ever seen to date.  I’m not in any way, shape or form messing around when I say this.
Run Time: 107 minutes
Rating: R

The Verdict

Equilibrium is the mother of all underrated movies. This film’s only fault is the timing in which it was released. Many people lumped it in with the other ‘Matrix’ ripoff films and cast this one aside. Being a great film that was almost nothing like The Matrix, should have gave this movie an advantage. In fact, if this movie was made before The Matrix, people would be comparing it to this movie. Enough talk about other films that ran on too long and ended like a plane crashing into Care-Bear land, lets talk about a great and under estimated movie instead! How this movie fell through the cracks is effing BEYOND me…

The film starts by telling us that early in the 21st century there was a third world war. The survivors agreed that the world couldn’t withstand a fourth and developed a drug called Prozium to end human emotion altogether. Anyone that goes off the dose is considered a ‘sense offender’ and is apprehended and incinerated by the future law enforcement agents of the ‘Tetragrammaton Council’ known as Clerics. Another duty of the clerics is to find and destroy anything that is deemed ‘EC-10′ (contraband) by the council. EC-10 items include music, collectibles, or anything else that can possibly trigger an emotion. Everyone dresses in blacks and whites, everyone lives in the same houses with no decorations, there is no happiness or sadness, there is simply existence.

John Preston is the highest ranking cleric and can kick the most asses. Preston has a unique gift to instantly tell if someone is ‘feeling’, making him ridiculously good at his job. Interestingly enough Preston’s wife was convicted and incinerated for sense offense and he had no idea. Later down the road Preston’s partner was a sense offender as well, Preston was unaware at first until a minor slip up gave him away. Preston executed his partner himself in a region outside the highly secured society everyone lives in called ‘The Nethers’. Basically Preston accidentally drops his dose one day and didn’t have any more to use. When he went to Equilibrium to get more, he found it closed due to a terrorist act. Preston went through the entire day and started to feel little by little and decided not to dose any more from then on.

Long story short, Preston’s new partner finds him out and turns him in. Preston makes it look like he is the one off his dose and gets away clean. Preston is contacted by some rebels referred to as the resistance and they want him to help them sabotage all of the Equilibrium centers to stop the dose for one day. They figure that if everyone was off their meds for even a single day, everyone would stop dosing. Preston and the rebels devise a plan that would make him look really good, good enough to meet ‘Father’ the leader of the society. Nobody is granted an audience with him for any reason but after Preston takes down the resistance single handed he caves and a meeting is arranged. Once at the meeting we find out that Preston’s new partner had planned everything and they now have all of the rebels and Preston, a sense offender. After his partner leaves, Preston goes crazy and kills everyone, And I mean everyone in his way. He kills and kills until he gets to father’s office and by that time he is out of guns and ammo. He steals a sword and kills all of the guards then his partner grabs a sword and walks over. Preston’s partner is the second best cleric but Preston makes him look like a fool. He literally kills him in 2 seconds, then he kills father and then shuts down the propaganda television center. The rebels blow shit up and take over, One man had taken down society and freed the entire world.

Official Nutshell-Movies Explanation

Equilibrium (2002): A Utopian government suppress emotions with chemical shots to control people, But the people revolt to re-discover life.

Bonus Stuff!

This is an Equilibrium based music video I posed 5 years ago on Youtube. This is seriously one of the most badass movies I’ve ever seen.

Fun Facts about Equilibrium

• In certain scenes, the muzzle flash of the pistols and rifles fired by the Clerics and guards will reveal the Tetragrammaton insignia.
• Grammaton Cleric wristwatch used in the film is an Android Alien watch with a black face, no maker name on the dial.
• The poem that Partridge reads in the church is “He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” byWilliam Butler Yeats, published in the collection “The Wind Among the Reeds” (1899). “Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
• The pistol-whip fight between John Preston and the officers took only 30 minutes to film.
• The cars driven by the Grammaton Clerics are Cadillac Sevilles with exteriors and interiors painted totally white
• The puppy used in the movie was a Bernese Mountain dog. The noises it makes (barks, whines, yelps etc) weren’t actually made by the dog at all, but by an actor who specializes in dog impersonations.
• The “kendo”-type swords used during the sparing scene were designed specially for the film and are turned wood which broke quite easily during filming because Christian Baleand Taye Diggs were really whacking each other with them.
• The inspiration for the cityscapes and the design of Libria come mainly from the works of Hugh Ferriss, an early 20th century conceptual artist.
• Originally, the drug Prozium was named Librium (hence the term “People of Libria” as often referred to throughout the film). However, Librium turns out to be a registered trade name for the anti-anxiety drug chlordiazepoxide. The name was quickly changed to Prozium, a sly combination of Prozac, and Valium, which both have calming effects.
• Tetragrammaton (translation: “word with four letters”), is actually a word used in Judaism in reference to the name of God. “YHWH”.
• Some of the tank-like vehicles seen driving along the streets are, in fact, white-painted airport tugs, the kinds used for pushing very large aircraft such as 747s.
• John Preston kills 118 characters in this movie, which makes him responsible for exactly half of the total 236 deaths shown. As of 2009, he continues to hold the 3rd place record for most deaths in a movie caused by one character.

Equilibrium is an underestimated and wonderful movie that unfortunately came out after The Matrix.