Director: Kurt Wimmer
Writer: Kurt Wimmer
Stars: Christian Bale, Sean Bean. Emily Watson
Once in and while a movie comes out that is so prophetic that just a few years later, its main premise comes true. Such is the case with Equilibrium, which was released in 2002, but reflects the world of what happened to start in 2020 with the sudden rise of the totalitarian state and the pandemic under Joe Biden, Justine Trudeau, and The World Health Organization.
Equilibrium is a world in the future that ends war by turning the population into mindless zombies by forcing them to become totally unemotional with the forced use of a drug called Prozium. John Preston (Christian Bale) and Partridge (Sean Bean) are best friends and enforcers who dispose of anyone who refuses to go along with the mandated rules.
The trouble comes when Partridge begins to have doubts. He’s caught reading a banned book and has sympathies with the rebels who do not go along with the forced rules. Something must be done and it’s up to John Preston to do something about it. And he does. He kills his friend, without reservation, for breaking the rules.
But there is a strong reminder that John Preston’s wife was incinerated because of similar beliefs and he lives with his two children who miss their mom. John has a change of heart when he sympathizes with a stray puppy and is immediately confronted by other enforcers and is forced to take them out in an action scene that shows the true character of John Preston. This gets him wondering why he does what he does in killing people who simply have a different opinion.
He accidentally comes in contact with an underground group of people and starts his own underground rebellion. To pull it off, he must play the part of a loyal follower even though he stops taking the drug.
Design by Video Gamers Oasis
He unsuccessfully tries to save the life of Mary O’Brian (Emily Watson) who has been jailed. But this leads to the downfall of the powers that be because the rebellion takes hold as the people are fed up with the whole situation.
Christian Bale is excellent as the main character dealing with realizing the tragedy of his ways and Emily Watson creates much empathy with her sad eyes and hopelessness for a character who is doomed. The costume design is unique and overall the acting is excellent.
When Equilibrium was released in 2002, we lived in a very minor similarity to the movie plot. However, looking at present times with global surveillance, lockdowns, cancel culture, the destruction of various parts of history, and forced vaccine mandates, it’s easy to see how fiction can become reality.
