Equilibrium is a 2002 American science fiction film[3] written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Christian Bale, Emily Watson, and Taye Diggs. The film follows Bale as John Preston, an enforcement officer in a future in which feelings and artistic expression are outlawed, and a society where its citizens are forced to take psychoactive drugs to suppress emotion. After accidentally missing a dose, Preston awakens and begins to uncover the suspicious inner workings of the regime governing the totalitarian state.

Established by survivors of World War III, the totalitarian city-state of Libria blames human emotion as the root of all conflicts. It strictly outlaws all activities or objects that stimulate emotion, with violators labeled Sense Offenders and sentenced to death. The population has to take a daily injection of the emotion-suppressing drug called Prozium II. Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, led by “Father”, who communicates propaganda through giant video screens. The police force is led by the Grammaton Clerics, elite fighters trained in the art of gun kata. Clerics frequently raid homes to search for and destroy illegal materials – art, literature and music – executing violators on the spot. A resistance movement, known as the “Underground”, emerges to topple Father and the Tetragrammaton Council.

In 2072, John Preston is a high-ranking Cleric whose wife, Viviana, was executed as a Sense Offender, leaving him as a single parent of two. Following a raid, Preston’s partner Errol Partridge saves a book of poems by W. B. Yeats instead of turning it in for incineration. He follows Partridge to the Nether – a term for regions outside the city – and finds him reading the book. Seeing Preston, Partridge claims he gladly pays the price of feeling emotion. Preston executes Partridge.

Preston accidentally breaks his last vial of Prozium and is unable to refill them before the next raid. Brief episodes of emotion set in evoking memories, stirring feelings, and making him more aware of his surroundings. He intentionally skips additional doses of Prozium, hiding them behind his bathroom mirror. Partridge is replaced with an ambitious, career-conscious Brandt, who admires Preston’s work as a Cleric. On a raid, they arrest Sense Offender Mary O’Brien. Preston prevents Brandt from executing O’Brien, saying she should be interrogated.

Preston feels remorse for killing Partridge, develops an emotional relationship with O’Brien, and seeks atonement. He uncovers clues that lead to meeting Jurgen, the Underground leader. Jurgen plans to disrupt Prozium production to spark an uprising and convinces Preston that Father must be assassinated. Vice-Counsel DuPont meets with Preston to reveal that there is a traitor in the upper ranks of the Clerics, and assigns Preston the task of unmasking the traitor. Relieved, Preston accepts and promises to locate the Underground’s leadership.