Fade the Butcher
03-07-2006, 09:52 PM
Equilibrium is a 2002 action/science fiction film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer. Similarities to classic dystopian novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World are evident, as well as the Outlanders series of novels. Christian Bale has the lead role in the film and is supported by Taye Diggs, Emily Watson and Sean Bean.
Tagline: In a future where freedom is outlawed outlaws will become heroes.
Synopsis
Following an apocalyptic third World War, the strict government of the dystopian city-state Libria has eliminated war by suppressing all human emotion. In the monochromatic and sedate society, artifacts from the old world are destroyed and the population is required to take sedatives. Grammaton Cleric Preston, a man trained to locate and arrest those guilty of feeling emotions, finds himself abandoning the drug and experiencing outlawed feelings. As he struggles to contain his feelings from his superiors, colleagues, and family, Preston finds himself drawn into a sinister world of double-crossings and lies, and becomes an unwitting pawn in a sophisticated plot which ultimately changes the repressed society forever.
Plot
Equilibrium is set some time in the future, in the dystopian city-state of Libria. The film explains how, in the early years of the twenty-first century, a devastating Third World War breaks out, the impact of which brings civilizations across the planet to their knees. After the war ends, world leaders fear that the human race cannot possibly survive a Fourth World War, and so set about building a new society which is free of conflict. Believing that human emotion is responsible for man's inhumanity to man, the new leaders ban all materials deemed likely to stimulate strong emotions, including art, music, and literature (these materials are rated "EC-10" for "emotional content" and typically destroyed by immediate incineration). Furthermore, all citizens of Libria are required to take regular injections - "intervals" - of a liquid drug called Prozium, collected at the distribution centres known as "Equilibrium". Prozium suppresses strong emotions, creating a sedate and conformist society. The loss of emotions is a heavy price, but it is considered to be one paid gladly in exchange for the elimination of war and crime.
Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, which is led by a reclusive figurehead known as "Father". Father never interacts with anyone outside the ruling council, but his image is omnipresent throughout the city in a strong cult of personality. The Tetragrammaton Council strives to create identical lives for all Librians, and uses its police state apparatus to enforce unity and conformity. The procedure for dealing with criminals is well-established in Libria - "processing" and trial pursued via the Palace of Justice, prior to terminating enemies of the state in furnaces (except in the case of unidentified persons, subject to "summary destruction"). At the pinnacle of Librian law-enforcement are the Grammaton Clerics, a special order of police trained in the deadly martial art of Gun Kata, an art which teaches users to predict the actions of opponents during firearm combat. The Clerics exist for the purpose of locating and destroying EC-10 materials, and for pursuing, apprehending, and, if necessary, terminating "sense-offenders" - people guilty of feeling emotions.
Despite the efforts of the police and Clerics, a resistance movement exists in Libria, known as "The Underground". Members of this movement believe that war and crime are a small price to pay in order to experience human emotions, and consequently they are responsible for terrorist activity against Libria, targeted specifically against the Prozium factories. The leaders of the Underground believe that if they can disrupt the production and distribution of Prozium for a short period of time - even a single day - then the Librians will rise up and destroy the Tetragrammaton Council. The Underground operates within Libria itself, but also has contact with resistance groups residing in "The Nethers" - the ruins of cities destroyed during World War III. These outsiders hoard objects and artifacts from the old society before World War III, including art and literature. Subsequently, they are the targets of Librian death squads composed of police and Clerics.
The film's protagonist, Grammaton Cleric First Class John Preston, is Libria's highest ranking Cleric, whose success stems from his intuitive ability to identify sense-offenders. After a raid on a group of resistance members in The Nethers (which ends with the destruction of the Mona Lisa), Preston notices that his partner, Grammaton Cleric First Class Errol Partridge, has personally taken a copy of the poems of Yeats under false pretenses. Preston discovers that Partridge has not turned the book over for destruction, so follows him to a ruined cathedral in the Nethers, where Partridge talks of the loss of everything that makes them human, most notably the right to experience emotions. When Preston argues that emotions lead to jealousy, hatred, and destruction, Partridge admits that it is a heavy price to pay, but one worth paying. Preston summarily executes Partridge for sense-offense. Shortly afterwards, Preston accidentally breaks his morning dose of Prozium, and begins to experience emotions.
Preston is assigned a new partner, the career-conscious Brandt, who claims to have similarly perceptive abilities in identifying sense offenders. Following a standard police raid on Mary O'Brien, a Librian woman who has stopped taking Prozium, his emotional confusion is exacerbated during her interrogation. Subsequent attacks and raids into the Nethers expose Preston to illegal objects salvaged from the ruined cities, his fledgling emotions are further stimulated by seeing the sunrise over the skyscrapers of Libria, and hearing the music of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (first movement). He first acts out of emotion when he makes an excuse not to execute a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy in the Nethers. Preston has by now ceased taking Prozium, and is forced to try and maintain his monotone and emotionless facade in front of his son and the increasingly suspicious Brandt. Over the course of the film, Preston's behavior increasingly mirrors that of Partridge in the beginning, even to the point of repeated dialogue.
Soon, Preston is involved in increasingly illegal activities, including regular visits to the Nethers. During one such visit to return the puppy he rescued, he is forced to kill several Librian policemen. Brandt, having seen Preston re-arranging his desk (signalling a dislike of conformity) and attempting to save resistance members during a raid in the Nethers, becomes suspicious, and before long Preston is summoned before Vice-Counsel DuPont, a high-ranking member of the Tetragrammaton Council. Preston explains that he is attempting to infiltrate the Resistance in order to destroy it. DuPont tells him that he has heard rumors of a cleric attempting to join the Resistance (a reference to Preston's own unreported activities), and Preston promises to find this traitor. Preston unwittingly makes contact with the Underground, who inform him that they have been watching his progress for some time. He agrees to assassinate Father, an act which will create enough confusion for the Underground to detonate bombs in Libria's Prozium factories and hopefully bring down the Tetragrammaton Council. However, after watching the execution of Mary O'Brien in Libria's furnaces, Preston weeps uncontrollably, and, during this clear demonstration of strong emotion, he is arrested for sense-offense by Brandt.
Brandt brings Preston before DuPont, claiming that he has captured the traitor and accusing Preston of not taking Prozium, killing a police patrol in the Nethers, and conspiring with the Underground to assassinate Father and destroy the Council. Preston, however, turns the tables on Brandt. During a previous raid in the Nethers, Preston secretly swapped guns with Brandt, and so informs the Council that the policemen were killed with the weapon currently in Brandt's possession. Brandt realizes that he has been set up and tries to inform DuPont, but is taken away for trial and execution on the orders of DuPont. Apparently cleared, Preston is released. He returns home to destroy his stashed Prozium before a police patrol finds it, and is confronted by his young son. Preston fears that his son will betray him to the police for not taking Prozium, but he in fact reveals to Preston that he and his sister have not taken Prozium for some time. Relieved, Preston goes ahead with his plan. As part of an elaborate plot formed with the Underground, the leaders of the Resistance turn themelves in to Preston, who persuades DuPont to grant him an audience with Father, during which he intends to assassinate Father and spark off a general uprising against the Librian government.
Preston arrives at the seat of the Librian government for his audience with Father, and is advised that as a security measure, he is to have no weapons in Father's presence and is required to take a lie detector test, which he had first encountered with the Underground. His emotions are picked up by the lie detector, and it is soon revealed that Preston has been tricked. Via a telescreen, Father speaks to Preston, revealing that he has been aware of Preston's sense-offense, and has staged Brandt's arrest in order to lull Preston into a false sense of security and allow him to think that his assassination scheme can go ahead. Thus, Preston has been tricked into handing over Libria's enemies whilst simultaneously walking right into Brandt's trap. Preston, defeated, asks Father how he was aware of the plot. The face on the telescreen changes, revealing the face of Vice-Council DuPont, who explains that the real Father died years ago, and that the Tetragrammaton Council elected DuPont as the new Head of State. He has simply used the image of Father as a political figurehead.
Preston, however, immediately regains control of his spiralling emotions and, using pistols that he has snuck in beneath his ceremonial uniform, kills the guards surrounding him. He makes his way through the corridors of the Tetragrammaton Headquarters, killing several dozen guards, until he encounters DuPont and Brandt at DuPont's office, a richly decorated room which reveals that Libria's ruling elite are sense offenders themselves. A swordfight ensues in which Preston quickly dispatches DuPont's elite bodyguards and finally Brandt himself (none of whom have time to put up any resistance). Preston and DuPont engage in a final hand-to-hand gun-kata duel with pistols, and Preston eventually manages to disarm DuPont. Weaponless, DuPont tries to bargain for his life with Preston, arguing that Preston, a human being with emotions, cannot kill him, another human being with emotions. He asks if it is a price worth paying. Remembering Mary's execution, Preston replies that it is, and shoots DuPont. Preston then destroys the telescreen propaganda machines which broadcast across Libria, and the device which projects stunningly realistic holographic images of Father. Realizing that the Tetragrammaton Council is faced with a crisis, the Underground detonates bombs in Libria's Prozium factories.
The film ends from different views - Preston's son smiling from his school desk as the Prozium factories explode, Preston's daughter playing at home with the rescued puppy while the telescreens shut down, the leaders of the Underground cheering at their execution as they hear the bombs explode across Libria, and Preston himself watching through the windows of DuPont's office as the citizens of Libria riot in the streets, slaughtering police and clerics, signalling the collapse of the Tetragrammaton Council.
Sulla the Dictator
03-07-2006, 09:55 PM
Has anyone else seen this movie? My brother recommended it and I am about to watch it.
Its a fun sci-fi movie. I'm surprised you haven't seen it, considering your crush on Christian Bale. :p
He's a great actor, by the by. After this go get the Machinist. He literally STARVED himself for that role.
sugartits
03-07-2006, 10:01 PM
He's a great actor, by the by. After this go get the Machinist. He literally STARVED himself for that role.
That was a pretty good movie.
One minute he's a skinny nutjob the next he's a beefy Batman...I think he might be crazier than Bateman.
Fade the Butcher
03-07-2006, 10:02 PM
Its a fun sci-fi movie. I'm surprised you haven't seen it, considering your crush on Christian Bale. :p
He's a great actor, by the by. After this go get the Machinist. He literally STARVED himself for that role.
I'm about thirty-five minutes into the movie. I can see now why my brother knew it would interest me. It's a great film. It reminds me of Gattaca though; a wonderful concept portrayed as something evil. Of course, I also came away from that movie with just the opposite impression.
Sulla the Dictator
03-07-2006, 10:04 PM
I'm about thirty-five minutes into the movie. I can see now why my brother knew it would interest me. It's a great film. It reminds me of Gattaca though; a wonderful concept portrayed as something evil. Of course, I also came away from that movie with just the opposite impression.
The concept isn't evil, its silly. :p
1-800
03-07-2006, 10:06 PM
The concept isn't evil, its silly. :p
Some nice fight scenes, though.
A real triumph of style over substance.
Sulla the Dictator
03-07-2006, 10:15 PM
Some nice fight scenes, though.
A real triumph of style over substance.
Very true. I like the use of statistics to justify what are in essence super powers. :D
Pretty neat movie.
Billy Score
03-07-2006, 10:45 PM
I enjoyed the film also, of course, i thought bale was the antagonist. The gun fight at the end was priceless, very original (the little game of slapping the gun away from your face while turning like a ballet dancer).
Pertwee was awesome and the concept of the omnipresent "father" who is not even alive but is used as a focus point and the quasi religious feel to the society is appealing.
Helios Panoptes
03-07-2006, 11:26 PM
Some nice fight scenes, though.
A real triumph of style over substance.
Worse than The Machinist? Christian Bale's frame had more substance than the film. I want my two hours back.
Donny the Punk
03-08-2006, 01:56 AM
Any movie with Sean Bean in it is guaranteed to be great. Why Christian Bale adapts his voice to sound like a whitebread yank instead of using his great Welsh accent is beyond reason's ability to understand.
Fade: you can see your boyfriend nude in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', if you want. :p
Fade the Butcher
03-08-2006, 02:12 AM
Fade: you can see your boyfriend nude in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', if you want. :p
I don't watch gay flicks. How was Brokeback Mountain?
Donny the Punk
03-08-2006, 02:17 AM
Shakespeare's Demetrius was gay?
Brokeback Mountain was great, except for the kissing scenes where I had to avert my eyes. :p
Billy Score
03-08-2006, 07:18 AM
So Fade you liked the movie even though the antagonist representing your position was a black man? :p
That guy's a fine actor by the way. He was excellent in the Way of the Gun.
Taye Diggs is a fine actor. what's wrong with him.
He is married to a jewess i might add, you must love this (i am sure her family did. A taste of their own medicine IMO)
Jonathan
03-08-2006, 09:23 AM
I've mentioned Equilibrium here before. As far as films go, I wasn't particularly impressed with dialogue, plot, or imagery. But the concept of the ordered society appeals to me big-time. My ideal society would not resemble Libria superficially, but the "bovine-existence" and the strict order would be similar.
koch curve
06-17-2007, 05:01 AM
possibly one of the worst movies of all time
hey lets combine a dystopian totalitarian regime ruled by a omnipresent dictator (just like in 1984), with a team of guys who burn books (just like in farenheit 451), with a emotion-robbing drug that the population is forced to take (just like in thx 1138), and then throw in a black trenchcoated protagonist with slicked back black hair and stop motion martial arts abilites that let him kill tons of people at once (just like in the matrix), who then stops taking the medication (again just like in thx 1138), then throw in predictably horrible plastic acting by christian bale and taye diggs, some terrible cgi and a plot twist involving the dictator being a fake propaganda creation designed to control the people (oh yeah again just like 1984) and release it to the public
only bumped this thread because i saw fade's preston avatar
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