Revisiting 2002’s Christian Bale-starring dystopian action thriller

Released: 2002Run time: 107 Mins. Director: Kurt Wimmer Rated: R

Stars: Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Angus Macfadyen, Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Sean Pertwee

Equilibrium, a mashup of familiar dystopian and post-apocalyptic action films, finds a firm footing in the genre. Director and writer Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet) takes those of the past and makes something fresh. This movie is not close to groundbreaking, but is a an entertaining addition to the speculative fiction genre.

[Spoiler-filled, be warned]

In Equilibrium, after third world war, humanity has rebuilt itself. In a post-World War III dystopia of Libria, led by Father. Only seen and heard on screens throughout the totalitarian city-state, Father (Sean Pertwee, Event Horizon) is the propaganda machine. Blaming war on anger and fear, emotions have been outlawed and is enforced by a new arm of law called the Grammaton Clerics. John Preston (Christian Bale, The Prestige) is one of the most highest ranked clerics of the order. Never having felt emotion, he is a ruthless killer, master of the Gun Kata. The Gun Kata is a fictional martial art which treats the gun as a total weapon. He also has the gift of being to intuit if another has emotions, making him highly valuable for that alone.

The Disease is Human Emotion

Humanity has been reduced to emotionless drones, self-administering multiple daily doses of an emotion-inhibitor called Proxium. Those that have stopped taking Proxium and have feelings are labeled sense offenders and are executed. Preston’s wife was label this and executed, leaving him with two children. Items of the old world that invoke emotional responses, such as art (music, paintings, literature) have been banned. These items are “EC-10” - condemned items, either destroyed or confiscated during raids by the clerics.

During one such raid cleric Preston notices that his partner Errol Partridge (Sean Bean, The Lord Of The Rings) has “confiscated” a poetry book that was meant for incineration: The completed works of Yeats. When he questions him on it, he claims to have taken it so that it would not be missed and will turn it into the evidence department. He finds that Partridge attempted to deceive him and tracks him outside of Libra to the Nether, outside of the city. He finds Partridge reading poetry. Partridge knows what the result of him being caught will be, stating that he will gladly pay the cost for feeling emotions, before Preston shoots him.

Preston is given a new partner, Andrew Brandt (Taye Diggs, Brown Sugar), a cleric with ambitions to move up the ranks. He also has the same intuitive gift. Before taking his morning dose of Proxium, Preston accidentally breaks the vial and does not get a replacement before he is picked up by Brandt for raid. During the raid Preston meets Mary O’Brien (Emily Watson, The Golden Circle), a member of the resistance. At this point in the movie, the roles between Preston and Brandt to those of him to his former partner. We see the emotional transformation of Preston, experiencing feelings he has never felt before: guilt, remorse, anger, sadness, desire.

This emotional transformation is played out amid a resistance group called the “Underground”, the Father and the Tetragrammaton Council. The Underground’s goal is to free the populace from the Proxium by destroying the their factories, prompting an uprising of the people. Preston eventually finds the Underground and joins their fight.

DuPont pleads for his life asking, "Is it really worth the price?" Paying homage to Partridge's last words, he responds, "I pay it gladly" and kills DuPont.

The third act is deception, twists, turns and some very high action choreographed set pieces, with a questionable resolution. There are several script contradictions/flaws/ plot holes (ex: suppressing emotions to end war and violence, but the clerics and the enforcements are senselessly killing men, women, children, and puppies in raids). Sean Bean casting mirrored his role in The Game of Thrones, highly underutilized. With Christian Bales skilled acting, spending more time delving into his emotional awakening would have helped this films impact. Now streaming on HBO Max.

In Retrospect ★★★1/2