Equilibrium

In the first years of the 21st century, a third World War broke out. Those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive a fourth; that our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked. So we have created a new arm of the law: The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man's inhumanity to man - his ability to feel.

Thus, with these opening lines the movie Equilibrium begins. And I tell you, it's quite a great movie.

Set in the future where the world has been ravaged by a Third World War, the city of Libria stands as a proud city amidst the ruins around it. The citizens of Libria are governed by the totalitarian Tetragrammaton Council that controls the city in a police state to maintain "order and conformity". To do this, a drug called Prozium is used to suppress human emotions and thus, maintain the stable peace. The Council also employs the Grammaton Clerics to maintain this order, as well as hunt down the resistance fighters of the Underground alongside the Librian death squads.

Yeah, you read right: emotions are SUPPRESSED. No movies, no art, no songs, no games, none of that. It's all propaganda spread through the enigmatic politcal/spiritual figure known only as Father. The Council is directed by him, though no one has actually met him in person (for fears of assassination attempts). So most of the administration is handled by Vice-Counsel DuPont. Everything with emotions in it are rated EC-10 (EC for Emotional Content) and are subjected to immediate combustion (burned!)

Enter John Preston, Grammaton Cleric First Class and the best of the best.

Yeah, that's him. Christian Bale, in a role not many will remember, unfortunately.

He's the most prodigial Clerics in the Council, and has proven himself many times against the Resistance. His newest victory in the start of the movie is the summary incineration of the Mona Lisa and other priceless art pieces!
He also killed - sorry, executed - his partner, Cleric Errol Partridge (Sean Bean) because of sense-offense (feeling). Ouch! So, he's then assigned a new partner, the ambitious Cleric Brandt (Taye Diggs).

All goes well, until he misses his Prozium dose one fine day. Then he feels, and he rises up against the system he had fought so hard to presrve without a pang of regret. That's heroic. He then bands with the Underground to bring down the Librian government once and for all. But Brandt gets suspicious and begins to monitor Preston closely, until the execution of sense-offender Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson), who was apprehended earlier on, and who Preston may have started to love, and Preston breaks down. Though caught, he gets lucky when Brandt is blamed instead for sense-offense.

Preston asks to meet Father, in hopes of killing the fella, but it seems his foes have planned his fall all along. However, heroes are heores, and he thwarts DuPont's attempt to kill him and saves Libria from emotionless life once and for all. The end.

Sorry my story telling sucks. I'm rather busy in the IT lab. I'll get to you on why the movie's great in my future post. Recess beckons! =)