Imagine a society that has advanced to a point where foreign policy does not need to involve war, and where violent crime is no longer a fact of life. This is the world of Equilibrium, and what a glorious world it is!

Of course, there's got to be a catch. In order to neutralize anti-social behavior, the general population is kept dosed up on a drug that deadens violent emotion. The catch is that it also deadens all other emotion. Dosage is mandatory; non-compliance is a capital crime. Orwell gave us a future where free thinkers are most certainly not welcome. Equilibrium gives us a future where you're not even allowed to feel.

Sense offenders are sniffed out by Clerics- highly trained agents who have the ability to detect emotion in other people. John Preston is a prodigal among this elite, but things start to change the day he accidentally misses his dose.

Equilibrium's premise may be exaggeratedly farfetched, but it is a terrifying premise none the less. Is the prize of a world without violence worth the cost of a life without feeling? As the movie's title suggests, life is equally sterile for everyone: all buildings share the same grey décor, all desks share the same design and are organized the same way. Anything that might arouse emotion is banned: music, art- even the windows are covered with opaque tinting, lest anyone be moved to tears by the beauty of a sunrise over the city. The fate of a sense offender is grim: massacre during a Clerical raid, or incineration in the city furnace if you get captured. The resulting cookie-cutter life is nicely captured by Kurt Wimmer's stark, utilitarian direction.

Did anyone mention that Equilibrium is actually an action film? Because underneath its modern-fable exterior, that's exactly what it is. The fighting sequences are focused on Christian Bale's Preston, master of the Gun Kata, a rote-learned technique that places a gunfighter in the statistically most survivable position in relation to his opponents, while simultaneously calculating the firing angles to most efficiently kill everything that poses a threat. What this actually means is that Equilibrium is a movie that doesn't just combine guns and kung fu á la The Matrix; guns are actually a part of the kung fu, extensions of the master's body like a ninja's sword. Naturally, this results in sequences where Preston takes on vastly overwhelming odds and comes out on top, but damn, does it look good. Oh yeah, speaking of swords, there are plenty of those as well (although with considerably less blood than you might expect, given the injuries that they inflict).

Equilibrium does have its flaws- mostly in the form of plot holes and under-developed secondary characters- but they do not detract enough from the film to sufficiently explain why Equilibrium has been so woefully ignored. Apparently it sneaked into theaters last summer, and sneaked out just as quickly. I had never heard of it until yesterday, when I watched it at my college dorm. It's out now on DVD, and is certainly well worth a rental if not a purchase (it's on my wishlist). Recommended.

See Nick Barrett's review here.

(First seen here at my place.)