Have you heard of it?
I never have, until recently.
It’s an early 2000’s film starring Christian Bale, about a dystopian future where the government watches and controls everything, much like the novel 1984. Except in Equilibrium, people are forced to take a drug that suppresses emotions and feelings.
I thought it was a pretty cool movie. I just finished reading the novel 1984, and a friend told me about this movie, saying that it was pretty similar to 1984. I checked it out on Amazon Prime (Sponsor? Pay me money!) and really liked it. I liked it because it had the ending I was picturing when I was reading 1984. For those of you who’ve read 1984, I’m sure you feel the same way about it. As I was reading, I imagined the book going in one direction but as I neared the end, I realized that it was not going to turn out that way, and sure enough, as I got to the last page, it ended on a depressing note. I’m sure George Orwell ended it that way on purpose, trying to send a certain message, but I pictured a much more triumphant, exciting ending, maybe you’d call it an “American ending” where the good guy definitely defeats the bad guy in the most awesome way possible, and well, that’s what you get with Equilibrium.
As I was reading 1984 I was thinking of how I would make it into a movie, as I think it would be really cool to remake, but set it in the future from now, so it would be like 2045 or something. And I know that they did make a movie actually based off of the book in 1984, but I heard it wasn’t very good, so I would be willing to remake it. But I think I would change parts of it, like the ending, for example. I’d give it an ending kind of like Equilibrium, but maybe a little smarter, Equilibrium just kind of ends without solving much. The government is overthrown and everyone runs wild and the city blows up, so I’d try to make something a little smarter happen, like him actually taking power. Just a thought.
What was also interesting about Equilibrium is that it’s told from the point of view of Christian Bale’s character, John Preston, who is an enforcement officer. That’s really interesting to me because 1984 is told from the perspective of a sad little government employee. Another “Americanization” I guess, since John Preston is trained as a fighter and can defeat anyone, and Winston Smith in 1984 doesn’t really do anything, like the whole time. He literally runs away into the slums with the girl and hides, thinking about how horrible the government is, and that’s it. So Equilibrium is cooler in that sense too.
But it was a fun watch overall, and I’d recommend watching it to anyone who’s into sci-fi dystopian future films.
And for those of you who’ve seen it…DAT FACE SLICE DOE!
The Qualmist 