Equilibrium (2002)

Directed by: Kurt Wimmer
Starring: Christian Bale, Dominic Purcell, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs

Government Official [Speaking to Masses]: There is a disease in the heart of man. It’s symptom is hate. It’s symptom is anger. Its symptom is rage. It’s symptom is war. The disease… is human emotion. But Libria, I congratulate you. There is a cure for this disease. At the cost of the dizzying highs of this emotion, we have suppressed its dismal lows. And you, as a society, have embraced this solution.

In the world of Equilibrium, mankind narrowly avoided annihilation during the Third World War. Realizing Earth couldn’t survive a Fourth, a group banded together to rid the planet of the root of evil, hate, and violence… emotions. To achieve this goal, they created a drug called Prozium that removes all emotions from its users, positive and negative. An order known as the Grammaton Clerics are formed to enforce the mandatory use of Prozium, and soon a violence-free society known as Libria is formed.

Christian Bale is John Preston, a Cleric charged with eradicating the last few pockets of resistance, killing any ‘Sense Offenders’ he finds… people who read, listen to music, and use frilly mirror frames. Preston’s own wife was recently found to be a Sense Offender, and was summarily executed in front of him. When Preston accidentally goes a day without taking his dose of Prozium, he begins to experience emotions for the first time, and begins to question his life’s work.

It’s easy to dismiss Equilibrium as a Matrix clone. You’ve got the bleak futuristic landscape devoid of human emotion, the black leather overcoats, and the kickass fight scenes. However, if you write this movie off you’ll be missing a pretty sweet action/sci-fi hybrid. It may sound like a typical cautionary sci-fi tale, but it isn't. Equilibrium very rarely feels preachy, which is always a danger in these allegorical Big Brother type movies. If nothing else, you get to see Bale as yet another total badass character. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if his role in this movie played a big part in his getting Batman.

Like I said before, the gun battles in this movie are quick-paced and stylish as hell. Clerics use a technique called Gun-Kata, a martial art that teaches the user to stay in one place while firing two guns in such a way as to achieve maximum killing potential. These fights alone are enough to make this movie required viewing, even if the rest of the movie sucked (which it doesn’t). Each battle is more insane and brutal than the last. Trust me when I say that once you see this movie, you are likely to demand Gun-Kata in all of your movies. In fact, you’ll probably end up running down the streets screaming “Give me Gun-Kata or give me death!” If you do, don’t worry, I did too… it’s totally natural… go ahead and be a sense offender… I won’t tell anyone.


Micah

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