Equilibrium

(Equilibrium)

In the nation of Libria, there is always peace among men. The rules of the Librian system are simple. If you are happy, you will be arrested. If you cry, the law will hunt you down. If you read a contraband book or so much as look at a smuggled painting, you've committed a criminal sin. And skip your medicine and your life will be over.

Up until now, top-ranking government official John Preston (Christian Bale) has believed in this system, has upheld the system as a highly-trained "Cleric" who seeks out and destroys those who don't take their pills. But then he skips his own dose of Prozium - and discovers an incredible new world of sensation that gives him the passion to fight for freedom.

What would it take to stop human hatred? For some, the answer lies in the brain. Stop the turmoil within the mind -deaden all desire, passion, anger, fear, confusion and hope - and you can stop the turmoil in society. But what would it be like to never know the heart-stopping beauty of a painting, to never ache with longing for a lover, to be without the motivating spark of fierce anger?

DoctorSF's Words

In the tradition of sci-fi works that imagine a perfected future gone alarmingly wrong Equilibrium presents a vision of a world at peace, with a tremendous human cost. This is a world where war is a distant memory, yet where there is no music, no art, no poetry, where anyone who partakes in such banned activities is guilty of a "Sense Offense," a crime that carries a death sentence. Kurt Wimmer was inspired by Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 151," George Orwell's "1984," Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," and Phillip K. Dick's "Minority Report" but into this world he places a man who is about to have his mind blown wide open when he begins to experience the sensational highs and lows of emotional life.