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The first time I saw "Equilibrium" it fascinated me for different reasons. The action scenes, or rather, the fight scenes, were amazing to watch, especially the Gun Kata scenes. It's also a love story of sorts, but its main point is emotions, or the lack thereof.

It's the year 2070, and you get a glimpse of what it might be like if some mad dictator decided, after being fed up with war, that the world would be better off with no emotions. No emotions, no anger, therefore, no war. Father, the dictator, played by Sean Pertwee, hammers this message in throughout the movie by way of videos throughout the city and television broadcast. Everyone's emotions are kept in check by daily intervals of "Prozium", injected in the neck.

John Preston, played by Christian Bale, is the main character and at the beginning of the movie, he's a by-the-book Senior Cleric of the Tetra Grammerton. They are the enforcers of the laws, and they find and destroy the unwanted citizens of Libria: The Resistance. Their crime is "Feeling". The penalty for Feeling is death. Near the beginning he kills a fellow officer who is caught reading Yeats.

And then comes the first day Preston doesn't get his morning dose of Prozium before he has to go out on a raid. Almost immediately he starts Feeling as he takes in the beauty and wonder of the assorted stash of objects found behind a hidden wall at the house of one Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson). Pictures, wallpaper, books, and classical records make up a portion of the contraband. Some items were just ordinary things we take for granted every day. Even to the woman, standing proudly, with lipstick and blush on her cheeks. The sensory overload evoked emotion in him that he'd never felt before. Not even when his own wife was executed for her sensory crimes right in front of him. And when he hears classical music for the first time, it brings tears to his eyes.

Of course, he comes under suspicion by his new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs), as well as his own son, who acts like a mini android and calls him "John." After he starts purposefully missing his scheduled doses, his emotions become rawer with each raid or confrontation with the rebels. He wonders how he's watched blood flow from his victims before and not felt anything. After Mary's execution brings him to his knees in front of all of Libria and he's arrested for it, he's galvanized into changing all that Libria stands for.

With the help of the Resistance, and his children (feelers the whole time it turns out), he leads the battle to restore their world to one of emotional freedom. In the final battle he discovers that Father's top enforcer is a Feeler who wanted to hold on to his dream of being able to Feel in secrecy, surrounded by beauty, but without war, while ordering the deaths of others.

This movie really made me think about living in a world free of emotions. It might work for some, and it might even do one good to be less emotional about some things. Having known and felt love, I wouldn't want to live without it, even with the hurt that sometimes comes with it. Of course no war would be a great thing. But if I couldn't break down when I listen to music that touches my soul, laugh when my children are being silly, or even return love, then somebody pass me the Prozium, please!

Learn more about this author, Antonella Lee.
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