way late comment... if haven't seen, might want to check out Aeon Flux movie (2005), and would love a reaction to it, another similar tyrannical gov sci-fi like equilibrium, but with a big plot twist, and shockingly, it was made by MTV too...
ultra violet movie too is decent, had potential, cool concept, but not done that well in terms of story-telling and plot, but it's got good action/fight scenes (milla jovovich)
@Miles Doyle Dude,Tacitus,Pliny the Younger,Suetonius and Lucian were Roman propagandists and Josephus was a fucking sell-out traitor to the Jewish people who was rewarded for his treason with great wealth and adoption into the Flavian dynasty of Rome!Not to mention that two documents attributed to Josephus are proven Christian forgeries and the third is suspected with good evidence to be one as well!
When this came out people hated it. But it’s massively underrated, and I’ve always find it an amazing dystopian sci-fi. This and V fir Vendetta are just amazing films.
V for Vendetta is just okay, doesn't hold up and has a lot of problems this is excellent though try: Strange Days No Escape (Ray Liotta and a bunch of others, about authoritarianism, freedom) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Rollerball Brazil Dark City Zardoz Gattaca No Blade of Grass Death Race 2000 Deathsport Stepford Wives Terminal Island Judge Dredd (original) Demolition Man Escape from NY+LA (LA IS better!, but NY a must!) Final Programme
I love when Christian is hooked up to the polygraph speaking with father and all the readings flat line. Showing he's learned to suppress his emotions through discipline. Granting him all the benefits of his cleric training without the drugs dulling his senses.
One of the most underrated movies I've ever watched. One day randomly watched this movie on TV, and immediately loved it! Christian Bale was awesome, the gun kata scenes were awesome. Story and the concept was intriguing.
This is one of my favorite action movies ever. It's so daring, and does things with its action no movie has before or since. And Christian Bale really carries it too, that main character role could have been so much more hacky and kitsch, but Bale did as Bale does and made it work.
Notice how the further he's off the pill the more colorful the film gets. I LOVE this movie and said "SCREW the negative reviews, this is GREAT!" =) My younger sister randomly had seen it and recommended it to me. I wondered why I had never heard of it (a decade after it was made).
I love the fact that Christian Bale is such a great actor that he can show the character going from 0 emotions to all the emotions. ^o^ Also the boy in me just loves the over-the-top Gun Kata scenes. Damn epic! :D
One of my favourite action films, so underrated it should be considered a sense-crime! Preston saving the puppy(the first time)is such a brilliant scene, one of the best in the film, the way Preston flinches for every shot, but have to keep his cool, until it becomes unbearable for him. I mean, what tugs on your Heartstrings more than getting a kiss from a little puppy. Now imagine meeting a puppy for the "first time ever" you'd essentially die from cuteness overload! The Prozium only dulls your emotions though, it doesn't completely erase them and you're "allowed" to smile and be courteous, but your logic and reason are supposed to be your driving force, not emotions/feelings. Bluntly put, Prozium overly tips the Mind/Heart scale in favour of the former. Because Preston is such an intuitive cleric his son overcompensates to come off as a robot while also protecting his sister. I still, to this day, hope that Kurt Wimmer(the director)will announce a sequel or prequel - both would work really well, imo.
Gun Fu was inspired by John Woo’s high octane Hong Kong gun action flicks. From there, Equilibrium takes the premise literally and even name it as Gun Kata and show it on screen. John Wick finesses it to perfection.
Watched this on a whim once... absolutely loved it. Really great idea. Creates its world extremely well. Bale nails the acting. The fighting style is unique and fun and an interesting twist on normal fights. This one is totally underrated by pretty much everyone. Favorite moment is when he just cuts Tay to pieces with ZERO delay or waste of energy. Just ends him. Quick. Efficient. No talking. Done. That is an amazing moment. A lot of people make fun of the Gun Kata stuff, but it's actually pretty damn cool idea.
I freaking love this movie. I wish the fight scenes and gun kata in this didn't have as many cuts as they do but still, it's all done very well. Its main similarity to John Wick is that it has a pretty innovative and well executed concept. The creation and parallel existence of two completely different worlds, moved forward by different sets of rules or lack thereof. For Preston, the gradual transition from utter apathy to overwhelming emotion is brilliantly done by Christian Bale. I still want to know if Taye Diggs' character was a sense offender or not. He really did smile a lot. I'd say it's sarcasm but he's not supposed to be able to do that either, is he?
@@BaddMedicine Thank you! Another couple of movies to check out maybe are Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet. They're more like Equilibrium than John Wick but still within the same group, I'd say.
@@marciasilva549 I'd definitely second the recommendation of Ultraviolet. It's also by Kurt Wimmer, and you can see the evolution of his interpretation of the gun kata/gun fu in that film.
The director self admits that he made a mistake hiring actual martial artists for this movie. Their action was too fast and accurate to film properly. He truly realised this in a conversation with Maggie Cheung on a flight to Singapore, who recommended dancers, who are trained to repeat detailed physical choreography with exacting precision (Maggie is herself a ballerina [and one of *The Heroic Trio* ]). Incidentally that is the director himself in the title sequence doing gun katas. Apparently he ran out of money on this small budget movie (only USD$20 million apparently) and had to film himself when putting together the opening credits during editing. Gun Fu was a formal genre in HK cinema since John Woo's *Hard Boiled* (1992) , where the director applied standard wuxia tropes to a gun duel (although you can find earlier sporadic examples of interesting gunfight sequences in many earlier HK action films, just not as formalised). And of course, many imitators afterwards.
Gun Fu established its roots in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), then he brought it to the US w/ 1989's The Killer. Hard Boiled is the peak of the concept, while Face/Off popularized it in the west.
Out of all the actors who have died the most on screen Sean Bean doesn't even break the top 10. The most is still the late and great Sir Christopher Lee with 70
I remember renting this movie from a little video store back in the day. No idea what it was, no idea what it entailed. Just saw it had Christian Bale and cover looked cool. Turned out to be one of the better dystopian sci-fi films I've seen.
So glad you liked it!! "Gun Fu' was first established by John Woo in the late 80s It took a while for America to get in to it when we had the Rambos and the Dirty Harrises at the time
I am so fortunate to have experienced this movie on the big screen. I remember working at my local theater in 2004. Equilibrium only came out in like 50 screens in America and our theater had one of the prints. First day, there were barely 10 customers each screening, but the reaction was the same. Word of mouth increased to the weekend and were sold out. My co worker and I were watching the movie on our break and leaned next to him and said, “this dude better be the next Batman”…
The funny thing about these stories is that everyone believes it's a warning about the future when in fact we have been living it for the past 100 years.
True. Hundreds of innocent people were murdered during the so-called Salem Witch Trials. Do you wanna know what stopped the Salem Witch Trials? When the wife of a rich man in town was accused. Their explanation? Only the 'poor' were accessible to the works of the Devil. In other words, the rich were beyond the Devil's reach.
@@QoQabai658 Which is ironic considering Jesus himself was supposedly a carpenter`s son from a poor Jewish family in Galilee and Nazareth,regions of Ancient Palestine and said things like: "Blessed are the poor." "Blessed are the meek,for theirs is the Kingdom of God." "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." "Woe to ye that love mammon(Money)for no man can serve two masters,mammon and God, either ye will love the one and resent the other or ye shall revere the one and despise the other!"
Actually I remember when this came out, it’s not that it didn’t do well, it was an art film that was only displayed in art theaters. I lived in Northern California at the time and remember being told to drive 2 and 1/2 hours to see this in a theater, which I regret not doing to this day.
The drug is called Prozium(Prozac and opium or valium put together),Equilibrium`s where the Prozium is restocked,manufactured and supplied and Libria is The State.
I remember when I had first found this film, it was just a bit after I finished reading Orwell's 1984 for a class I was in (like you guys say it reminds you of haha). I remember loving it that much more, because I felt it was 1984 meets the matrix. I'm also a sucker for a 'character on the antagonist side switching'. Or like, that awakening to the corruption they're a part of and then fighting against it. The whole, taking something down from the inside... gosh, I've always loved this movie. It's really epic, and emotional (though I suppose that's a main point!) Was excited to see a reaction to this film. I remember not expecting an optimistic ending, and was pleasantly surprised to get one.
To state that John Wick's influence came from Equilibrium is almost on point. Check out John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 1& 2 and The Killer for more inspirational sources.
This is one of the most underrated movies from the early 2000s. It had the unluckiness of having been released after The Matrix phenomenon, but in the end, Equilibrium still has the dystopic future vibe that Neo's Saga got lost with time. Great reaction guys! 🤗
Glad to see this movie is finally getting the attention from reactors it deserves. The Matrix influence of course is very obvious even to him waking to the "real world" also esthetically, wardrobe, "gun-fu" 🙂, etc. But it's a real gem on itself and quite unique in the action genre.
It was awesome seeing you view "Equilibrium." It is one of numerous great films which I was introduced to during my first year at college. Despite how much I love this movie, no one else ever seems to have heard of it before. It's always nice to see others appreciate it.
This film actually came out a little bit before the Matrix, but everybody likes to compare them to this one's detriment. I honestly think this movie is absolutely fabulous, it really well mixes together I think three main dystopian sci-fi premises, Fahrenheit 451 with Brave New World and 1984. Fascinating synthesis in my opinion; and obviously Christian Bale's acting in it is phenomenal. I cannot recommend it enough to everybody who is interested in this kind of story... but yes I feel like it definitely doesn't get the props it deserves. A lot of people at the time thought the gun kata thing was silly, but I think it's actually really interesting. The scene with Christian Bale at his window tearing the film off the glass and the emotion he shows when he sees the sun shining on the buildings is one of the most phenomenal scenes and some of the most phenomenal acting I've ever seen in my life. Again yeah, I think this movie is deeply underrated and needs to be given its props more often and I'm really glad somebody gave it a chance.
Sweet that you guys reacted to and love Equilibrium. Me and my friends went to see it, thinking it might be a fun dumb action flick to just waste the day with at the theater. We were pleasantly proven so wrong where the themes along with the acting were good. It's going to turn 20 next year, which is crazy to think about. Here's a few recommendations for you guys to add to the viewing list: - Big Trouble in Little China (1986). John Carpenter. Kurt Russell. Martial arts. Adventure. Mortal Kombat. ;-) - Best of the Best (1989). A good martial arts/sports movie of it's time. Also has a great 80's soundtrack. A fantastic ending that'll require tissues. - Warrior (2011). A great martial arts/sports movie with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. Great ending.
Wow. Impressive pick guys. The dystopian version of the world this film takes place in is heavily influenced by George Orwell's literary classic '1984'. In that book people are not allowed to show emotion, they have extremely limited rights and no freedome of speech, and everyone is monitored all the time. Their are surveillance cameras everywhere, even in people's own homes, and the world looks very similar to the one in this movie. Very grey with nothing to evoke emotion. What's interesting is that George Orwell wrote the book in the 1940's and it talks about a lot of technologies that didn't exist until recently. It's also considered one of the best books ever written and is well worth reading.
@@BaddMedicine It's mixture of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, and a few other dystopian science fiction stories, especially of the later golden age of science fiction - 1950s and 60s. With a dose of Kung Fu Theater. Ha
Fun fact: The film was filmed mostly in Berlin on former Nazi-Buildings to show the ideology even more of one leader, who rules all of the people and the architecture.
@@BaddMedicine Yep,the director Kurt Wimmer is of German descent,the buildings,haircuts and architecture bear a striking resemblance to Fascist Spain under Franco(The irony being the Librians claim to have eliminated hate and war despite echoing the dress,architecture,propaganda and grooming of some of the most hate-filled,bloodthirsty regimes in human history) and the "EC-10" thing was a kind of low-key metajoke towards MPAA censorship and its similarity to fascist suppression of art of the kind The Film depicts.
@@BaddMedicine What makes it even worse is Dupont,Brandt and the other Librian ruling party members almost certainly are conscious of this hypocrisy which is the real reason they`re so strict about burning books and artwork that might lead the populace to question this inhumane way of life.
Brandt is showing emotions because he simply is truly evil and supporting the system by heart - thus not having to take the drug, just like Dupont and his highest ranking lackeys. One major question of course is, why you would give someone the training and install as highest ranking Cleric who does not qualify as being capable to fulfill the role without being dependent on the drug... - but even this is explained in the end 😄 Nevertheless - one of my all-time favourite movies! I simply cannot believe that there are men living in the western world these days who have not watched this pure gem from 2002....
This movie came out after 9/11 around the same time the Dixie Chicks trashed Bush and got cancelled. Im guessing thats why the movie company didn't support it. I saw it in the theaters when it first came out, loved it.
Taye Diggs character kept smiling because the bastard could feel. That's what pissed me off the most when I saw this on DVD back in 03. There they are, killing all these people, for the very 'crimes' they themselves were guilty of. I was absolutely repulsed by the hypocrisy.
12:35 wrong! He’s playing Beethoven’s 9th symphony. It was released on May 7th 1824. 197 years ago. The copyright duration of composed music is the same as for books, paintings and other literary and artistic works: the author's lifetime + 70 years. Therefore, the musical compositions of old masters like Beethoven (1770 - 1827) or Mozart (1756 - 1791) are all in the public domain and you can freely use them.
This was a movie that completely escaped my notice. Then I was reading the Corporation RPG (far future cyber-punkish roleplaying game) and they listed "Equilibrium" as one of the influences and references for the game. I bought it, watched, and absolutely loved it! Such a great movie with an amazing cast.
The main influence on the plot of Equilibrium was *Fahrenheit 451,* a book by Ray Bradbury that was filmed in the 1960s (the movie is pretty dull). It's about a "fireman" whose job is to burn books and art, because they are deemed to stir emotions and create conflict. The other influence is *Brave New World,* a novel by Aldous Huxley in which all citizens of the civilised world are heavily medicated so as to prevent unhappiness (this idea was also used in George Lucas's first film "THX 1138").
@@BaddMedicine subbed, interesting to see reviews on older movies! the casino royale was was awesome, I seen that in cinemas...and yes it was a weird flex with 007 in that ford mondeo 😆
This is one of the best Sci Fi movies, ever made. If you really get into it, and understand what is going on, here. One of my absolute favorite scenes, are when he rips off the plastic film on his window, and see the beauty of the sun in the sky.
The crazy thing about this movie is that the trailer for this first dropped as a trailer for the first matrix. Made going to see matrix in theaters so great ,in my humble opinion. Great reactions 👏🏽
It's nice that you all three seem to catch onto how even small emotions are 'tells' but you need to also remember that you cannot really recognize subtle emotions without understanding them or experiencing them yourself. it's why sociopaths that has no emotional understanding of others can only really mimic it. So it's insanely hard for any of the dulled people in the movie to notice if others are just doing some basic emotional hiding.
I saw this in a real theater when I was stationed in Hawaii. I remember reading in the paper about movies playing that weekend, and decided to take a girl to see Equilibrium based on a one-paragraph synopsis. First thing I did when I got back to the barracks afterward was tell all my friends how good it was. The next weekend my buddies said they couldn't find the film playing anywhere. A story I read years later was that since the film had actually premiered in Germany (where it was filmed) and had already made its budget back there, the studio didn't want to risk any more money on advertising in the US if it were to flop.
Director Kurt Wimmer claimed he`d never read Fahrenheit 451 nor seen any of the film adaptations made at the time, he was more so referencing his own experiences as an artist in Nazi Germany prior to moving to the US.
@@AspieMediaBobby woah that's crazy he'd never read Fahrenheit 451 or seen adaptations!!! just figured it was so police force going around destroying art so people don't 'live inspired' - it's almost as if the scene with the Yeats book was an homage to 451 very interesting!
Well to be fair Sean Bean doesn't die in everything.... though he does die a lot , but he had lived in others like Troy, National Treasure, Ronin, Silent Hill series, The Martian, Flightplan, North Country and of course in the tv series Sharpe
Well, Sean Bean didn't die _on-screen_ in Ronin, but given what occurs later in the film I wouldn't be surprised if someone didn't follow-up later to eliminate him quietly. Speaking of, if you guys haven't seen Ronin you should definitely watch Ronin.
There is a character and scene in an anime called Trinity Blood that is practically a godsdamned love letter to this movie. Father Tres Iqus, codename "Gunslinger," is a cybernetic member of an organization called AX, deployed by the Vatican, which basically defends what's left of the earth from vampires. His fighting style (gunfu or gun-kata) is very similar to Cleric Preston's. He even uses the same type of gun.
Homie working that wa2000, one of the rarest most expensive precision rifles in the world and they've got it standing in as a pump action shotgun, they even Inserted a racking sound.
The comparison to John Wick is well deserved. However, what I always noticed is how it uses much more cuts during fightscenes. In John Wick, there are a lot less cuts during fights, which make them much more intense imo.
One of my favorites! Very underrated. But I guess there's a reason stories about authoritarian distopias don't get much attention... too close to home I guess.
About the last polygraph scene - they didn´t checked his sleeves, because Preston had a apparent weapon - ceremonial katana. Also the fact that they suppresed their feelings means they forgot how to improvise.
Trivia: To get that desolate feeling through architecture (in this case Bauhaus style) they filmed this movie nearly in it's entirety in Berlin, Germany, near the Bundestag (senate) and its subway station, and the Reichstag Building (former Nazi senate). Bale being an absolute method actor, he doesn't care about the money, but about the role. So this movie was actually done on a budget on a string .... at a point where they couldn't afford to film most scenes in multiple takes. Nearly ALL combat footage - especially the final fight against father - where done in ONE SINGLE TAKE and then cut to make it look like it was done with multiple takes. Also regarding SFX, they worked mainly with miniatures and matte painting (cheaper) then with CGI (even though there was obviously CGI present). .... and then there was the _gun kata_ ... Kurt Wimmer (the director) actually invented it, even though everyone is under the impression to have seen this or similar in many movies, it was only in 2002 that we saw it first. It is OBVIOUSLY complete BS, but movies are supposed to look cool - and this does ABSOLUTELY look cool !!!
What's everyone's reaction to Equilibrium? The gun kata action was great!
React to movie Dredd.. The Karl Urban one!!
Never seen it. We can add it to the list. 🤘
@@BaddMedicine
The movie is very underrated!!
way late comment...
if haven't seen, might want to check out Aeon Flux movie (2005), and would love a reaction to it, another similar tyrannical gov sci-fi like equilibrium, but with a big plot twist, and shockingly, it was made by MTV too...
ultra violet movie too is decent, had potential, cool concept, but not done that well in terms of story-telling and plot, but it's got good action/fight scenes (milla jovovich)
I love how Christian Bale shows emotion & then shuts it off when in combat.
His acting was great. Very underrated when people talk about Bale movies.
"No...not without incident"...killer line :-)
I don't think he shut it off, he just focused it. Like when Bruce Lee said don't think, feel. Well Preston went from feeling to thinking.
Interesting thought. Could've.
@Miles Doyle Dude,Tacitus,Pliny the Younger,Suetonius and Lucian were Roman propagandists and Josephus was a fucking sell-out traitor to the Jewish people who was rewarded for his treason with great wealth and adoption into the Flavian dynasty of Rome!Not to mention that two documents attributed to Josephus are proven Christian forgeries and the third is suspected with good evidence to be one as well!
When this came out people hated it. But it’s massively underrated, and I’ve always find it an amazing dystopian sci-fi. This and V fir Vendetta are just amazing films.
Really surprised people blew this off
Yeah, I think it's a really good dystopian film!
V for Vendetta is just okay, doesn't hold up and has a lot of problems
this is excellent though
try:
Strange Days
No Escape (Ray Liotta and a bunch of others, about authoritarianism, freedom)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Rollerball
Brazil
Dark City
Zardoz
Gattaca
No Blade of Grass
Death Race 2000
Deathsport
Stepford Wives
Terminal Island
Judge Dredd (original)
Demolition Man
Escape from NY+LA (LA IS better!, but NY a must!)
Final Programme
Correction: Most critics hated it, but few audiences saw it b/c it only ran in theaters for less than a month in the US.
@@BaddMedicine Mainly critics.
I love when Christian is hooked up to the polygraph speaking with father and all the readings flat line. Showing he's learned to suppress his emotions through discipline. Granting him all the benefits of his cleric training without the drugs dulling his senses.
A year late, but I never noticed that! Thanks
One of the most underrated movies I've ever watched. One day randomly watched this movie on TV, and immediately loved it! Christian Bale was awesome, the gun kata scenes were awesome. Story and the concept was intriguing.
Agreed! It was surprisingly good
This is one of my favorite action movies ever. It's so daring, and does things with its action no movie has before or since. And Christian Bale really carries it too, that main character role could have been so much more hacky and kitsch, but Bale did as Bale does and made it work.
Bale did fantastic. And the story feels like it won't ever get stale.
This movie started the Gunfu imo.
"oh Sean Bean! He's gonna die in like 10 min" 😂
Yes, you're right. The man's a walking spoiler.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The Martian was the exception, he survived there😆
🤣
@@ponczi Troy, Silent Hill, Sharpe, The Dark. Do those films not count?
@@ponczi He got fired tho. That's the most lethal it could get for him there. xD
Notice how the further he's off the pill the more colorful the film gets. I LOVE this movie and said "SCREW the negative reviews, this is GREAT!" =)
My younger sister randomly had seen it and recommended it to me. I wondered why I had never heard of it (a decade after it was made).
I love the fact that Christian Bale is such a great actor that he can show the character going from 0 emotions to all the emotions. ^o^ Also the boy in me just loves the over-the-top Gun Kata scenes. Damn epic! :D
This movie was surprisingly good
This movie is so underrated. Before he was loved as Batman I knew him as Preston. Loved your reaction and review, subscribed!
Hell yeah! Thanks for the sub and the watch! We appreciate it! 🤘🤘🤘
I always recommend it to people, one of the top sci-fi movies!
One of my favourite action films, so underrated it should be considered a sense-crime!
Preston saving the puppy(the first time)is such a brilliant scene, one of the best in the film, the way Preston flinches for every shot, but have to keep his cool, until it becomes unbearable for him.
I mean, what tugs on your Heartstrings more than getting a kiss from a little puppy. Now imagine meeting a puppy for the "first time ever" you'd essentially die from cuteness overload!
The Prozium only dulls your emotions though, it doesn't completely erase them and you're "allowed" to smile and be courteous, but your logic and reason are supposed to be your driving force, not emotions/feelings. Bluntly put, Prozium overly tips the Mind/Heart scale in favour of the former.
Because Preston is such an intuitive cleric his son overcompensates to come off as a robot while also protecting his sister.
I still, to this day, hope that Kurt Wimmer(the director)will announce a sequel or prequel - both would work really well, imo.
You never know... Maybe someday
The twist with children will remain one of the best in the history of cinema, this boy looked too convincing!!)
Gun Fu was inspired by John Woo’s high octane Hong Kong gun action flicks. From there, Equilibrium takes the premise literally and even name it as Gun Kata and show it on screen. John Wick finesses it to perfection.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I didn’t even know y’all did this one. Sooo underrated. Christian Bale is great in this. 💜
This was quite the surprise.
Watched this on a whim once... absolutely loved it. Really great idea. Creates its world extremely well. Bale nails the acting. The fighting style is unique and fun and an interesting twist on normal fights. This one is totally underrated by pretty much everyone. Favorite moment is when he just cuts Tay to pieces with ZERO delay or waste of energy. Just ends him. Quick. Efficient. No talking. Done. That is an amazing moment. A lot of people make fun of the Gun Kata stuff, but it's actually pretty damn cool idea.
I freaking love this movie.
I wish the fight scenes and gun kata in this didn't have as many cuts as they do but still, it's all done very well. Its main similarity to John Wick is that it has a pretty innovative and well executed concept. The creation and parallel existence of two completely different worlds, moved forward by different sets of rules or lack thereof.
For Preston, the gradual transition from utter apathy to overwhelming emotion is brilliantly done by Christian Bale. I still want to know if Taye Diggs' character was a sense offender or not. He really did smile a lot. I'd say it's sarcasm but he's not supposed to be able to do that either, is he?
Agreed! Well said here! 🤙🤙🤙
@@BaddMedicine Thank you! Another couple of movies to check out maybe are Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet. They're more like Equilibrium than John Wick but still within the same group, I'd say.
We will check those out! 😁😁👍👍👍
@@marciasilva549 I'd definitely second the recommendation of Ultraviolet. It's also by Kurt Wimmer, and you can see the evolution of his interpretation of the gun kata/gun fu in that film.
🤘🤘🤘
The director self admits that he made a mistake hiring actual martial artists for this movie. Their action was too fast and accurate to film properly. He truly realised this in a conversation with Maggie Cheung on a flight to Singapore, who recommended dancers, who are trained to repeat detailed physical choreography with exacting precision (Maggie is herself a ballerina [and one of *The Heroic Trio* ]). Incidentally that is the director himself in the title sequence doing gun katas. Apparently he ran out of money on this small budget movie (only USD$20 million apparently) and had to film himself when putting together the opening credits during editing.
Gun Fu was a formal genre in HK cinema since John Woo's *Hard Boiled* (1992) , where the director applied standard wuxia tropes to a gun duel (although you can find earlier sporadic examples of interesting gunfight sequences in many earlier HK action films, just not as formalised). And of course, many imitators afterwards.
Interesting here
Gun Fu established its roots in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), then he brought it to the US w/ 1989's The Killer. Hard Boiled is the peak of the concept, while Face/Off popularized it in the west.
When the polygraph went flatline, it was awesome
Most underrated Christian Bale movie hands down! This movie was fucking incredible, and deserves so much more attention... 🤘🤘🙌🙏
Out of all the actors who have died the most on screen Sean Bean doesn't even break the top 10. The most is still the late and great Sir Christopher Lee with 70
I love this movie! It’s a bummer there aren’t more reaction vids for it
A nice surprise this movie was
Wish I can say the same for the movie "Hackers" by Angelina jolie and Johnny Lee Miller, not enough reactors
I remember renting this movie from a little video store back in the day. No idea what it was, no idea what it entailed. Just saw it had Christian Bale and cover looked cool. Turned out to be one of the better dystopian sci-fi films I've seen.
So glad you liked it!! "Gun Fu' was first established by John Woo in the late 80s
It took a while for America to get in to it when we had the Rambos and the Dirty Harrises at the time
It's great stuff! Really surprised we don't see more then Wick doing it.
There's a masterful use of color temperature in this movie.
Agreed
I loved your comments along the film. They are all natural and don't piss off. Thanks guys.
A very underrated gem of a movie
I am so fortunate to have experienced this movie on the big screen. I remember working at my local theater in 2004. Equilibrium only came out in like 50 screens in America and our theater had one of the prints. First day, there were barely 10 customers each screening, but the reaction was the same.
Word of mouth increased to the weekend and were sold out. My co worker and I were watching the movie on our break and leaned next to him and said, “this dude better be the next Batman”…
Loved this movie from the moment I saw it for the first time, all these years ago.
The funny thing about these stories is that everyone believes it's a warning about the future when in fact we have been living it for the past 100 years.
The story will never go stale
@kyre lymrick ironic. Afraid is feeling. It's an emotion.
@kyre lymrick not in this movie. It's just instructions to have purpose.
True. Hundreds of innocent people were murdered during the so-called Salem Witch Trials. Do you wanna know what stopped the Salem Witch Trials? When the wife of a rich man in town was accused. Their explanation? Only the 'poor' were accessible to the works of the Devil. In other words, the rich were beyond the Devil's reach.
@@QoQabai658 Which is ironic considering Jesus himself was supposedly a carpenter`s son from a poor Jewish family in Galilee and Nazareth,regions of Ancient Palestine and said things like:
"Blessed are the poor."
"Blessed are the meek,for theirs is the Kingdom of God."
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."
"Woe to ye that love mammon(Money)for no man can serve two masters,mammon and God, either ye will love the one and resent the other or ye shall revere the one and despise the other!"
Actually I remember when this came out, it’s not that it didn’t do well, it was an art film that was only displayed in art theaters.
I lived in Northern California at the time and remember being told to drive 2 and 1/2 hours to see this in a theater, which I regret not doing to this day.
Dang 2.5hr? Would've been an awesome memory for sure. 🤙🤘
The drug is called Prozium(Prozac and opium or valium put together),Equilibrium`s where the Prozium is restocked,manufactured and supplied and Libria is The State.
The story, the action, the costumes, the characters. Everything about this movie is so good.
I remember when I had first found this film, it was just a bit after I finished reading Orwell's 1984 for a class I was in (like you guys say it reminds you of haha). I remember loving it that much more, because I felt it was 1984 meets the matrix.
I'm also a sucker for a 'character on the antagonist side switching'. Or like, that awakening to the corruption they're a part of and then fighting against it. The whole, taking something down from the inside... gosh, I've always loved this movie. It's really epic, and emotional (though I suppose that's a main point!)
Was excited to see a reaction to this film.
I remember not expecting an optimistic ending, and was pleasantly surprised to get one.
To state that John Wick's influence came from Equilibrium is almost on point. Check out John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 1& 2 and The Killer for more inspirational sources.
We will check those out! 🤘🤘🤘
Don't forget John Woo's hard boiled, face-off, and hard target. Those movies have alot of action scenes and gun fights in them.
I recall the name face off. That had cage & Travolta, right?
@@BaddMedicine Yes, you are correct.
🤘🤘🤘
This is one of the most underrated movies from the early 2000s. It had the unluckiness of having been released after The Matrix phenomenon, but in the end, Equilibrium still has the dystopic future vibe that Neo's Saga got lost with time. Great reaction guys! 🤗
Freaking love this movie. It's a masterpiece. The behind the scenes are also amazing.
Love the movie. And Christian Bale is just perfection.
Underrated film. Thanks for reacting to it.
Thank you for the watch. 🤘🤙
Glad to see this movie is finally getting the attention from reactors it deserves. The Matrix influence of course is very obvious even to him waking to the "real world" also esthetically, wardrobe, "gun-fu" 🙂, etc. But it's a real gem on itself and quite unique in the action genre.
This is one of those 2000's movies that no one ever saw but I randomly saw on like TBS like a decade ago and it was amazing
The very moment, people began to feel....war broke out again.
A nice surprise this was. Wasn't expecting it.
Unhappy ending where humanity dies off because protagonist brakes the law and reason makes movie even better
It was awesome seeing you view "Equilibrium." It is one of numerous great films which I was introduced to during my first year at college.
Despite how much I love this movie, no one else ever seems to have heard of it before. It's always nice to see others appreciate it.
This movie really shined the light on Deep Fakes and the relevance today is haunting.
Fortunately, we don`t have Deepfakes that picture-perfect yet and probably won`t for another 200 or so years at least!
I don't think I've ever seen a reaction to Equilibrium before. Great movie.
It's not HISTORY they're erasing... it's ART, which are the expressions of FEELINGS.
Anything related to feeling...even proper emotion to family, animals, etc
Christian Bale - 3:10 to Yuma, and The Machinist (a slow mind blower).
This film actually came out a little bit before the Matrix, but everybody likes to compare them to this one's detriment. I honestly think this movie is absolutely fabulous, it really well mixes together I think three main dystopian sci-fi premises, Fahrenheit 451 with Brave New World and 1984. Fascinating synthesis in my opinion; and obviously Christian Bale's acting in it is phenomenal. I cannot recommend it enough to everybody who is interested in this kind of story... but yes I feel like it definitely doesn't get the props it deserves. A lot of people at the time thought the gun kata thing was silly, but I think it's actually really interesting. The scene with Christian Bale at his window tearing the film off the glass and the emotion he shows when he sees the sun shining on the buildings is one of the most phenomenal scenes and some of the most phenomenal acting I've ever seen in my life. Again yeah, I think this movie is deeply underrated and needs to be given its props more often and I'm really glad somebody gave it a chance.
A lot of people were and still are correct, the "gun kata" scenes are stupid.
Sweet that you guys reacted to and love Equilibrium. Me and my friends went to see it, thinking it might be a fun dumb action flick to just waste the day with at the theater. We were pleasantly proven so wrong where the themes along with the acting were good. It's going to turn 20 next year, which is crazy to think about.
Here's a few recommendations for you guys to add to the viewing list:
- Big Trouble in Little China (1986). John Carpenter. Kurt Russell. Martial arts. Adventure. Mortal Kombat. ;-)
- Best of the Best (1989). A good martial arts/sports movie of it's time. Also has a great 80's soundtrack. A fantastic ending that'll require tissues.
- Warrior (2011). A great martial arts/sports movie with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. Great ending.
Basically what happened here just not in the theater. 🤙🤙🤙🤙 Thank you for the suggestions. We will add those to the list. 🤘🤘🤘
I love Best Of The Best. That movie shows that even independent movie can make great quality film.
Agreed
Best of the Best is great martial arts drama, excellent movie all around, underseen and underappreciated, great recommendation, highly agree
I was ridiculed my entire childhood for this and MI 2 being my favourite movies growing up 😂
Wow. Impressive pick guys. The dystopian version of the world this film takes place in is heavily influenced by George Orwell's literary classic '1984'. In that book people are not allowed to show emotion, they have extremely limited rights and no freedome of speech, and everyone is monitored all the time. Their are surveillance cameras everywhere, even in people's own homes, and the world looks very similar to the one in this movie. Very grey with nothing to evoke emotion.
What's interesting is that George Orwell wrote the book in the 1940's and it talks about a lot of technologies that didn't exist until recently. It's also considered one of the best books ever written and is well worth reading.
Didn't even know about the books. That's pretty cool. And the story will never go stale cause it can fit in any era.
@@BaddMedicine It's mixture of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, and a few other dystopian science fiction stories, especially of the later golden age of science fiction - 1950s and 60s. With a dose of Kung Fu Theater. Ha
Boom
Fun fact: The film was filmed mostly in Berlin on former Nazi-Buildings to show the ideology even more of one leader, who rules all of the people and the architecture.
That's interesting
@@BaddMedicine Yep,the director Kurt Wimmer is of German descent,the buildings,haircuts and architecture bear a striking resemblance to Fascist Spain under Franco(The irony being the Librians claim to have eliminated hate and war despite echoing the dress,architecture,propaganda and grooming of some of the most hate-filled,bloodthirsty regimes in human history) and the "EC-10" thing was a kind of low-key metajoke towards MPAA censorship and its similarity to fascist suppression of art of the kind The Film depicts.
@@BaddMedicine What makes it even worse is Dupont,Brandt and the other Librian ruling party members almost certainly are conscious of this hypocrisy which is the real reason they`re so strict about burning books and artwork that might lead the populace to question this inhumane way of life.
Brandt is showing emotions because he simply is truly evil and supporting the system by heart - thus not having to take the drug, just like Dupont and his highest ranking lackeys.
One major question of course is, why you would give someone the training and install as highest ranking Cleric who does not qualify as being capable to fulfill the role without being dependent on the drug... - but even this is explained in the end 😄
Nevertheless - one of my all-time favourite movies!
I simply cannot believe that there are men living in the western world these days who have not watched this pure gem from 2002....
This movie came out after 9/11 around the same time the Dixie Chicks trashed Bush and got cancelled. Im guessing thats why the movie company didn't support it. I saw it in the theaters when it first came out, loved it.
It was surprisingly good. And still relevant to some degree.
Very interesting concept with the ban of emotions & cool action scenes at the end & good to see Sean Bean in this movie too! 😎🎬
This movie is 21 years old and I still watch it. From buying it at the height of DVD, to watching it on t.v now watching it online. Great movie!
You should watch his acting as a child in Empire of the sun he is absolutely amazing. The best child actor I have ever seen.
So glad you saw this one.
It was entertaining
Taye Diggs character kept smiling because the bastard could feel. That's what pissed me off the most when I saw this on DVD back in 03. There they are, killing all these people, for the very 'crimes' they themselves were guilty of. I was absolutely repulsed by the hypocrisy.
Yup! Agreed!
That`s the government for ya. "Do as we say, not as we do,plebes!"
12:35 wrong!
He’s playing Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
It was released on May 7th 1824. 197 years ago.
The copyright duration of composed music is the same as for books, paintings and other literary and artistic works: the author's lifetime + 70 years. Therefore, the musical compositions of old masters like Beethoven (1770 - 1827) or Mozart (1756 - 1791) are all in the public domain and you can freely use them.
it depends on the recording
This movie is barely known, completely under-rated and one of the best ever...
This was a movie that completely escaped my notice. Then I was reading the Corporation RPG (far future cyber-punkish roleplaying game) and they listed "Equilibrium" as one of the influences and references for the game. I bought it, watched, and absolutely loved it! Such a great movie with an amazing cast.
Damn..... This Reaction was so good, I'mma watch this movie right now
Thank you! And yes you should. 🤙🤘😁
Bale is a method actor, so i heard he was actually taking prozium for this movie. He just made his own Prozac & Vallium mix to get prozium LOLZ!
🤣🤣🤣
One of my favourite movies of all time, thanks!
I know I'm late to the party but equilibrium was one of my fab roles from Christian Bale instant subscribe.
The main influence on the plot of Equilibrium was *Fahrenheit 451,* a book by Ray Bradbury that was filmed in the 1960s (the movie is pretty dull). It's about a "fireman" whose job is to burn books and art, because they are deemed to stir emotions and create conflict. The other influence is *Brave New World,* a novel by Aldous Huxley in which all citizens of the civilised world are heavily medicated so as to prevent unhappiness (this idea was also used in George Lucas's first film "THX 1138").
1984 meets Fahrenheit 451 its a shame its not a better known movie
Really surprised it isn't either
It's notorious for having poor marketing. Unfortunately. A cult classic though.
Really surprised more people haven't mentioned this when they talk about Bales movie career.
I've always loved this movie
Surprised at how good it was.
@@BaddMedicine subbed, interesting to see reviews on older movies! the casino royale was was awesome, I seen that in cinemas...and yes it was a weird flex with 007 in that ford mondeo 😆
Thank you for the sub. We appreciate it! And I think it was practical and funny with the Ford spot. 🤣🤣
i lost it when you said he was going to die in 10 minutes lol.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥🔥
Great classic film!
🤘🤘🤘
One of my favorites. So underrated.
I’ve always thought this was better than the Matrix! Saw it at the cinema.
Best line in the film “now without incident”
This is one of the best Sci Fi movies, ever made.
If you really get into it, and understand what is going on, here.
One of my absolute favorite scenes, are when he rips off the plastic film on his window, and see the beauty of the sun in the sky.
The crazy thing about this movie is that the trailer for this first dropped as a trailer for the first matrix. Made going to see matrix in theaters so great ,in my humble opinion. Great reactions 👏🏽
Much appreciated, Jose. Thanks for watching 🤙
It's nice that you all three seem to catch onto how even small emotions are 'tells' but you need to also remember that you cannot really recognize subtle emotions without understanding them or experiencing them yourself. it's why sociopaths that has no emotional understanding of others can only really mimic it. So it's insanely hard for any of the dulled people in the movie to notice if others are just doing some basic emotional hiding.
Really under-rated movie. Love the gun-kata, wish they would have made a sequel or something more about it.
I saw this in a real theater when I was stationed in Hawaii. I remember reading in the paper about movies playing that weekend, and decided to take a girl to see Equilibrium based on a one-paragraph synopsis. First thing I did when I got back to the barracks afterward was tell all my friends how good it was. The next weekend my buddies said they couldn't find the film playing anywhere. A story I read years later was that since the film had actually premiered in Germany (where it was filmed) and had already made its budget back there, the studio didn't want to risk any more money on advertising in the US if it were to flop.
you guys are killing happy to see you grow best of luck in the future of this channel
Thank you! We appreciate the kind comments. 🤙🤙🤙
I love equilibrium its one of my favorite Christian Bale movies
This movie is so underrated. To me it's like Fahrenheit 451 done properly action-y.
Surprisingly good!
yep, that is what I always tell people " Fahrenheit 451 as an action movie too"
Director Kurt Wimmer claimed he`d never read Fahrenheit 451 nor seen any of the film adaptations made at the time, he was more so referencing his own experiences as an artist in Nazi Germany prior to moving to the US.
@@AspieMediaBobby woah that's crazy he'd never read Fahrenheit 451 or seen adaptations!!! just figured it was so
police force going around destroying art so people don't 'live inspired' - it's almost as if the scene with the Yeats book was an homage to 451
very interesting!
Well to be fair Sean Bean doesn't die in everything.... though he does die a lot , but he had lived in others like Troy, National Treasure, Ronin, Silent Hill series, The Martian, Flightplan, North Country and of course in the tv series Sharpe
🤣🤣🤣🤣 love the line... "Doesn't die in everything... Though he does die a lot"
He died in National Treasure though.
@@berggaming8783 No he didn't he was simply arrested , look for yourself
ua-cam.com/video/co4EsnwAM1Q/v-deo.html
Well, Sean Bean didn't die _on-screen_ in Ronin, but given what occurs later in the film I wouldn't be surprised if someone didn't follow-up later to eliminate him quietly.
Speaking of, if you guys haven't seen Ronin you should definitely watch Ronin.
I don't think everyone had seen Ronin.
There is a character and scene in an anime called Trinity Blood that is practically a godsdamned love letter to this movie. Father Tres Iqus, codename "Gunslinger," is a cybernetic member of an organization called AX, deployed by the Vatican, which basically defends what's left of the earth from vampires. His fighting style (gunfu or gun-kata) is very similar to Cleric Preston's. He even uses the same type of gun.
Christian Bale can do no wrong. I vote for more Christian Bale films please ❤
Homie working that wa2000, one of the rarest most expensive precision rifles in the world and they've got it standing in as a pump action shotgun, they even Inserted a racking sound.
I wonder if you noticed that fire from his gun is forming a cross when shooting. Especially in that hall shooting scene at the end.
Whoa.... What?! I'll have to go back and check that.
one of my fave movies of all time so underrated :)
The comparison to John Wick is well deserved. However, what I always noticed is how it uses much more cuts during fightscenes. In John Wick, there are a lot less cuts during fights, which make them much more intense imo.
I would agree.
Such underrated flim
It really is. 🤙
The fact that while making this-FIVE YEARS before Batman Begins, the director bet Bale 500 that he'd be Batman within 10 years. Bale paid that gladly.
One of my faves! Thanks!
Thank you! 🤙🤙🤙
This movie , I feel (lol), is greatly underrated , thanks for checking it
One of my favorites! Very underrated. But I guess there's a reason stories about authoritarian distopias don't get much attention... too close to home I guess.
Could be. Something that might also be a button push for some which is understandable.
Great reaction! Gotta do 'District 9' next if some haven't seen that.
Thank you! Not sure if everyone has. But we'll sad it to the list.
Glad you watched it. Loved the reaction, guys.
Have you watched 1917? It's a great movie if you haven't watched it before please do...
Thank you and thank you for the watch. I don't think any of have. We can add it to the list.
Best movie ever. Christian Bale is amazing.
This is such a brilliant movie; one of the best dystopian ones.
About the last polygraph scene - they didn´t checked his sleeves, because Preston had a apparent weapon - ceremonial katana. Also the fact that they suppresed their feelings means they forgot how to improvise.
Trivia: To get that desolate feeling through architecture (in this case Bauhaus style) they filmed this movie nearly in it's entirety in Berlin, Germany, near the Bundestag (senate) and its subway station, and the Reichstag Building (former Nazi senate). Bale being an absolute method actor, he doesn't care about the money, but about the role. So this movie was actually done on a budget on a string .... at a point where they couldn't afford to film most scenes in multiple takes. Nearly ALL combat footage - especially the final fight against father - where done in ONE SINGLE TAKE and then cut to make it look like it was done with multiple takes. Also regarding SFX, they worked mainly with miniatures and matte painting (cheaper) then with CGI (even though there was obviously CGI present).
.... and then there was the _gun kata_ ... Kurt Wimmer (the director) actually invented it, even though everyone is under the impression to have seen this or similar in many movies, it was only in 2002 that we saw it first. It is OBVIOUSLY complete BS, but movies are supposed to look cool - and this does ABSOLUTELY look cool !!!
i was lucky enough to have a teacher that was the CGI director on this film... such an underrated film
I think Christopher Nolan saw this film and choose Christian Bale for Batman role .
Wouldn't be surprised if that happened🤙🤘