Equilibrium (film)

Equilibrium
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kurt Wimmer
Produced by	Jan de Bont Lucas Foster Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein
Written by	Kurt Wimmer
Starring	Christian Bale Emily Watson Taye Diggs Angus Macfadyen Sean Bean William Fichtner
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Cinematography	Dion Beebe
Editing by	Tom Rolfe William Yeh
Studio	Dimension Films Blue Tulip Productions
Distributed by	Dimension Films Miramax Films
Release date(s)	December 6, 2002 (2002-12-06)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$5,359,645

Equilibrium is a 2002 American dystopian science fiction action film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer. It stars Christian Bale, Emily Watson and Taye Diggs.

The film follows John Preston (Bale), a warrior-priest and enforcement officer in a future dystopia where both feelings and artistic expression are outlawed and citizens take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions. After accidentally missing a dose, Preston begins to experience emotions which make him question his own morality and moderate his actions, while attempting to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives. Ultimately, he aids a resistance movement using advanced martial arts, which he was taught serving the very regime he is helping to overthrow.

Plot

Equilibrium is set in a city-state of Libria. After a Third World War devastated the Earth, an authoritarian state emerged whose ideology determined human emotion to be the root cause of conflict. All emotionally stimulating material is banned and "sense offenders" are apprehended and consigned to "combustion". Illegal materials are rated "EC-10" for "emotional content" and incinerated. Everyone is required to take daily injections of Prozium, an emotion-suppressing drug for the common economic and social benefit.

Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, which is led by a figurehead known as "Father" (Sean Pertwee). Father never interacts with anyone directly, but is seen on giant video screens throughout the city. The Tetragrammaton Council uses the police to serve conformity. At the pinnacle of Librian law enforcement are the Grammaton Clerics, who are trained in the martial art of gun kata. The Clerics raid the "Nether" region outside the city, where they destroy emotionally stimulating materials such as art, books and music, executing the people hiding them. Despite their efforts, a resistance movement, known as the "Underground", has emerged.

The flag of Libria. The four Ts on the flag represent the Tetragrammaton Council

John Preston (Christian Bale) is a high ranking Grammaton Cleric and a widower with two children whose wife, Viviana (Alexa Summer), was executed for "Sense Offense". After a raid, Preston notices his partner, Errol Partridge (Sean Bean), taking a book of poems instead of incinerating them. Realizing Partridge is keeping the book, Preston tracks him down and executes him. Before he dies, Partridge says that all the consequences of feeling are a cost he "would pay gladly". The next morning, Preston accidentally breaks his daily vial of Prozium, and as he does not have an immediate replacement, he begins to experience emotions. Upon gaining replacement vials, he decides against taking them and instead hides them behind the mirror in his bathroom.

Preston is partnered with career-conscious Brandt (Taye Diggs). Together, they arrest Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson), for sense offense. Preston's emotional confusion is exacerbated during her interrogation. Without Prozium, Preston finds it difficult keeping an emotionless facade in front of his son (Matthew Harbour) and his suspicious partner. Preston forges an emotional connection with O'Brien and he feels remorse for killing Partridge, especially after he finds out that Partridge and O'Brien were lovers. He eventually contacts the Resistance and is then summoned before Vice-Counsel DuPont (Angus Macfadyen) who reveals there is a traitor in the clerics. DuPont tells him to exterminate the Resistance and to find the traitor. The Resistance convinces him to assassinate Father to start a revolution. They plan to disrupt Prozium production which will then lead to an uprising by the populace.

After Preston fails to stop Mary O'Brien's execution, he is caught having an emotional breakdown by Brandt, who arrests him and brings him before the Vice-Counsel. After tricking DuPont into believing that Brandt is the real traitor, Preston is informed that a search of his home will take place as a formality. He rushes home to destroy the hidden vials of unused Prozium before the search team can find them, only to find the search team is already inside and searching. He proceeds directly to where he had hidden the vials, but finds that his son — who reveals that he stopped taking Prozium after his mother died — has already taken the unused vials from their hiding place to prevent the search team from finding them.

Preston and the Resistance leader Jurgen (William Fichtner) agree that the only way the reclusive Father will grant Preston an audience that will make it possible to assassinate him, would be if Preston can get credit for having the Resistance leadership arrested. As planned, the leaders of the Resistance are captured and Preston is granted an exclusive audience with Father. Father actually turns out to be DuPont, who replaced the original Father after his death. Preston goes on a rampage, fighting his way to DuPont's office, which is filled with artwork and ornate furniture, all illegal items. It is revealed that Brandt was not arrested, but was part of a ruse to expose Preston. It also becomes clear that DuPont does not take Prozium and has been reading poetry. DuPont taunts him, asking Preston how it felt to betray the Underground. Preston kills all of DuPont's bodyguards, and defeats Brandt in a katana battle. Preston and DuPont finally fight in a gun kata battle, which Preston wins.

DuPont tries to convince Preston to spare him, asking if taking his life is worth the emotion of knowing he killed someone who is "feeling" and knows how beautiful life can be. Preston repeats Partridge's last words and announces that he gladly will pay the cost, shooting DuPont in the chest. He then destroys the propaganda communication control systems, freezing all of the indoctrination propaganda everyone had been subjected to all their lives. The Underground blows up the Prozium manufacturing and storage facilities, while scores of rebels successfully attack key points throughout the city. Just when Jurgen and the Resistance leaders are being sent to their execution, they hear the sounds of the explosions and smile with the knowledge that their revolution succeeded. Preston quietly watches the overthrow of the government from DuPont's office, holding O'Brien's red ribbon and smiling.

Cast

• Christian Bale as John Preston
• Emily Watson as Mary O'Brien
• Taye Diggs as Andrew Brandt
• Angus Macfadyen as Vice-Counsel DuPont
• Sean Bean as Errol Partridge
• William Fichtner as Jurgen
• Matthew Harbour as Robbie Preston
• Sean Pertwee as Father
• David Hemmings as Proctor
• Emily Siewert as Lisa Preston
• Alexa Summer as Viviana Preston
• Maria Pia Calzone as Preston's wife
• Dominic Purcell as Seamus
• Brian Conley as Reading room overseer
• Kurt Wimmer as Rebel victim

Gun Kata

Main article: Gun fu

Gun Kata is a fictional gun-wielding martial art discipline. It is based on the premise that, given the positions of the participants in a gun battle, all trajectories of fire are statistically predictable. By memorizing the positions, one can fire at the most likely location of an enemy without aiming at him in the traditional sense. By the same token, the trajectories of incoming fire are also statistically predictable, so by assuming the appropriate stance, one can keep clear of the most likely path of enemy bullets.

The Gun Kata shown in Equilibrium is a hybrid mix of Kurt Wimmer's own style of Gun Kata (invented in his backyard) and the martial arts style of the choreographer, with elements of Wing Tsun. They disagreed on the appropriate form of Gun Kata, with Kurt Wimmer advocating a smoother, flowing style and the choreographer supporting a more rigid style. Much of the Gun Kata seen in the film is based on the choreographer's style. Kurt Wimmer's Gun Kata is dispersed sparsely throughout the movie, most notably in the introductory scene with the silhouetted man, played by Wimmer himself, practicing with dual pistols.

Production

Olympic Stadium in Berlin, representing Librian government offices.

The Hall of Enforcement in Equilibrium, represented by the Subway station under the Reichstag Building.

Most of the filming used locations in Berlin, due to its unique mixture of fascist and modern architecture. According to the visual effects supervisor Tim McGovern who worked alongside Kurt Wimmer, the fascist architecture was chosen "to make the individual feel small and insignificant so the government seems more powerful." In addition, the modern architecture that is also found in Berlin emphasizes the futuristic and stolid appearance of the city state of Libria. Moreover, while the city state of Libria has thick walls represented by an abandoned fortress-like East German military base, the exterior of the city is filmed in the decrepit neighborhoods of East Germany, where many of the surviving rebels reside. In addition to the geographic location, a few European art directors also made substantial contributions to the production.

Equilibrium's locations include:

• Olympic Stadium (Berlin), built for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
• Deutschlandhalle, also built for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
• Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
• Berlin Tempelhof Airport, which was built before the Nazi era, but completed during and carries lots of the Nazi trademark architecture of World War II.
• Bundestag (Berlin U-Bahn) station, a modern unopened subway station near the new Reichstag Building, plus some long tunnels of the Berlin U-Bahn.
• Decrepit East German neighborhoods, as well as an abandoned massive East German military base.
• The EUR, Rome fascist district, built by Mussolini.

Although making a science-fiction movie, Wimmer intentionally avoided using futuristic technology that can become obsolete, and he also decided to set his story in an indeterminate future. “I wanted to create more of an alternate reality than get caught up in the gadgetry of science fiction,” he explains. “In fact, there’s no technology in Equilibrium that doesn’t already exist. It’s more like a parallel universe, the perfect setting for a parable.”

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 37% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 83 reviews, with the consensus being "Equilibrium is a reheated mishmash of other sci-fi movies." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 33 out of 100, based on 22 reviews. The New York Times dismissed Equilibrium for having heavily borrowed from Fahrenheit 451, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and other science-fiction classics. Roger Ebert, however, awarded the film 3 stars out of 4, noting that "Equilibrium would be a mindless action picture, except that it has a mind. It doesn't do a lot of deep thinking, but unlike many futuristic combos of sf and f/x, it does make a statement."

Wimmer said in a Dreamwatch magazine interview that "the paying customers seemed to get it," and in contrast, the critics 'didn't seem to see that the film had a different message than" Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Wimmer later said, "Why would I make a movie for someone I wouldn't want to hang out with? Have you ever met a critic who you wanted to party with? I haven't."

Mathew Buck of That Guy with the Glasses reviewed Equilibrium as the third episode for his review series Bad Movie Beatdown, and it received a massive backlash from the film's fanbase. It is as of present day, the most negatively received video on the web site.

Box office

The film had an estimated production budget of $20 million. Given international pre-release sales had already made a profit, the studio allocated a reduced promotion and advertising budget to avoid the risk of the film becoming a loss-maker; as a consequence, theatrical release was limited.

The film was shown in only 301 theaters at its widest release in the United States, earning $541,512 in its opening week, and only $1.2 million when it closed at December 26, 2002; the film earned $4.1 million internationally, for a total of $5.3 million worldwide.

See also

• List of dystopian films
• List of films featuring surveillance

External links

• Equilibrium at the Internet Movie Database
• Equilibrium at AllRovi
• Equilibrium at Rotten Tomatoes
• Equilibrium at Metacritic
• Equilibrium at Box Office Mojo