Equilibrium

At the beginning of the 21st century, a third  World War breaks out and devastates the world.   The remaining survivors found Libria, a city  where a totalitarian government known as the   Tetragrammaton Council makes all citizens  take daily injections of "Prozium II",   which suppresses emotion and encourages obedience.  Anything that may stimulate emotions like art and   pets has been banned, and those criminals that do  consume those things are called “sense offenders".   If they get caught, they’re put to death because  the council claims those who feel are the cause of   all wars. To make sure that everyone follows these  laws, the council formed a group of well-trained   warriors known as “clerics”, who fight using  the martial art of gun kata. Outside the city,   there is an abandoned area called the Nether where  most of the illegal activity happens. Currently,   clerics John and Errol together with their special  team are conducting a raid to deal with the latest   group of rebels from a group known as "The  Underground". The team discovers that a bunch   of rebels are barricading themselves inside a  building, so while they engage in a gunfight   outside, John goes inside first with guns in both  his hands. He breaks down the door and just waits   there in the darkness, letting the rebels fire and  not getting hurt even once. Once the fire stops,   John uses his gun to shoot all the rebels, using  the gun kata technique which uses geometry and   psychology to choose where to strike with hit  with precision and allows him to be out of the   line of fire. Once everyone is dead, they search  the building for illegal material and when they   break the floorboards, they discover a huge  collection of art that includes the Mona Lisa.   After they use a scanner to confirm they’re real,  John orders his men to set it all on fire. During   their ride back to headquarters, John notices  that Errol took a book and asks him why. Errol   explains that the team tends to leave a thing or  two behind so he’ll log this evidence himself to   avoid trouble with the records. Meanwhile in  the city, the leader Father appears on screens   everywhere reminding people to take Prozium and  that they’ve achieved peace thanks to the system,   which gets him a cheer from the public. Father  always appears on the screens, but nobody has   seen him in person in a long while. When John  arrives at headquarters, he immediately goes to   see Vice-Counsel Dupont to give his report, which  earns him high praise. Dupont wonders how a cleric   has learned so well to sense when someone feels  strong emotions, so John explains he’s learned to   think like his enemies. Then Dupont asks him about  his family, and John very coldly tells him that   his wife was arrested and incinerated for being a  sense offender some years ago. Dupont scolds him   for it, saying a Cleric should be able to tell his  own wife is a criminal. Afterward, John looks at   a recording of the car and notices Erroll acting  suspiciously. He goes to look at the records and   discovers Errol hasn’t been logging any kind  of evidence for weeks, including today’s book.   He decides to return to the Nether to look for him  and finds him reading the book inside an abandoned   church. When John confronts him, Errol laments  that people have lost everything that makes them   human, and when John points out that there is no  war or murder now, Errol admits that he'd gladly   pay the price to make humans feel emotions again.  Then Errol tries to reach for his gun, but John   is faster and kills him first. Before leaving  he covers Errol’s face with the book. Afterward   John meets Brandt, who will replace Errol as his  partner and expresses his hopes to become as good   as John. When John goes home, his son Robbie tells  him that he saw a boy crying earlier and wonders   if he should inform the authorities, so John says  he should. Although they’re father and son, Robbie   calls John by his name instead of “dad”. Later  in the evening, a sleeping John dreams of the day   his wife was arrested. When the officers stormed  into his house, John quickly disarmed two of them,   but he stopped fighting as soon as they told him  his wife was a sense offender. On her way out,   his wife kissed him and asked him not to forget  her while their two kids watched. The next morning   while getting ready, John accidentally drops his  vial of Prozium on the floor and it breaks. When   Robbie notices this, he reminds his father to stop  by the Equilibrium Center to get a replacement.   However when John arrives at the center, he  discovers that it’s temporarily closed because   of terrorist activity and that people must go to  the center in another sector to get their supply.   At that moment Brandt comes to pick him up for a  mission, so John decides to go with him without   telling him about his lack of today’s Prozium.  Then John and Brandt go to see a woman named Mary   and raid her house. John pushes Mary against the  mirror, but he freezes when he's reminded of his   wife. Luckily he recovers fast and after Brandt  destroys the mirror because of its artistic frame,   the officers demolish a wall to find a room filled  with illegal objects. A desperate Mary takes a gun   from an officer and aims it at John, so Brandt  tries to shoot her. However John stops him,   saying they can use her to get information  about the Underground. Afterward Mary is   taken to headquarters for interrogation.  John asks her about the other rebels,   but Mary ignores the questions and instead asks  John about his purpose for living. John says his   purpose is to keep their society running well,  but Mary points out that it’s circular logic:   his purpose is only living to continue his  existence. Before leaving, John watches the   training of the recruits to put his mind at ease.  That night, John doesn't his injection and watches   how Errol's body is incinerated, however he wakes  up realizing it was a nightmare. Feeling strange,   he runs to the window and peels away the tint  on the glass, allowing him to watch the sunrise   for the first time. Such a beautiful sight makes  him feel lots of emotions like awe, and when he   realizes this, he rushes to the bathroom to grab  the syringe gun. However he can’t bring himself   to get the injection again. Then John leaves  for work but before entering headquarters,   he drops a bunch of Prozium vials on the ground  to destroy them. He also takes off his glove and   brushes his hand against another person's  just to know how it feels. In the office,   he notices all desks are exactly the same  and starts rearranging his things. Brandt   sees this and asks him what’s going on, but John  tells him that he's just optimizing his space.   Their next mission is to go after some sense  offenders in the Nether. As they raid the place,   the officers get stuck in a vicious gunfight  against the rebels. a man tries to attack John,   so Brandt shoots the guy. When John catches the  guy, he accidentally stares into his eyes and   sees the life leave the body. Upset by the things  he’s noticing now, he immediately drops the body,   only to feel worse when he notices the blood on  his hands. While the officers kill all the rebels,   John discovers a secret room filled with illegal  things and decides to take a closer look. He finds   a vinyl record of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and  plays it while looking at a snow globe, but as   soon as he hears the music, he's so moved that  he drops the globe and starts to cry. Afterward,   the team burns down everything and Brandt notices  John is keeping a book. Remembering Errol,   John just says he’ll log it himself. Suddenly  an officer announces they’ve found some animals,   which turn out to be puppies. None of them  understand why someone would keep animals in   the house and even wonder if the rebels ate them.  Brandt orders the officers to kill all the dogs   and John tries to object, but he can’t think of  a good reason so he has to second the order. As   the team shoots every dog with no mercy, one of  the puppies manages to escape and runs to John,   who picks it up and is shocked to have his  face licked. An officer tries to take it back   to finish the job but John takes it away, saying  it should be tested for diseases. Sometime later,   John has a meeting with Dupont and argues against  the murder of rebels, pointing out that they   should be arrested and interrogated instead as  the law says. However Dupont informs him that   Father has released a mandate ordering officers to  exterminate all rebels on sight. Afterward, John   watches Mary for a while and decides to ask for  the box with her belongings. Among other things he   finds a ribbon, and after smelling it, he decides  to secretly keep it. In the evening, he goes to   the Nether, unaware that Brandt is following  him. Once there, John tries to release the dog,   but since it won’t stop following him, he puts it  back in the trunk. John even gives it his jacket   and smiles at the little guy. At that moment,  officers arrive at the area and surround him as   they ask for an ID, which John left in his coat.  They take the car keys from him and are about to   open the trunk, only for an officer to recognize  John and apologize for the trouble. Unfortunately   the puppy uses the moment to yelp, so the officers  open the trunk and as soon as they see the animal,   they make John get down on his knees. However  John attacks the officers, using their own   weapons to kill them. There are more men waiting  in the vehicles so John attacks them as well,   using the same technique to steal their weapons  and kill them all in seconds. Then he leaves with   the puppy. The next morning, John decides to hide  his vials of Prozium behind the bathroom mirror   before going to work. Today he’ll be training  with his sword, and Brandt comes by to join him,   starting a friendly fight. Their skills are  almost on the same level, and as they continue   to exchange blows, Brandt keeps on taunting  John, saying he knows John can’t stop thinking   about the "mysterious" murders in the Nether. He  says he's glad those officers are dead because   now the council will order an an acceleration on  the defeat of rebels. The fight ends in a tie,   and then the duo leaves to raid a new sector in  the Nether. While the team searches the area and   engages in another gunfight, John comes across  a bunch of rebels but tells them to leave. The   rebels fear that John will shoot them in the back,  so he has to lead them down a corridor to find a   place to hide. Soon they begin encountering  officers, but John fights them all without   hesitation, giving the rebels a chance to escape.  After a fierce fight during which he kills all the   officers, John goes looking for the rebels, only  to discover they’ve been caught. Brandt says he   knew John would bring the rebels to him, then  he asks him to shoot them all, even giving John   his own weapon to do it. John takes it and after  some hesitation, he gives the gun back to Brandt,   saying it will be better for him to hold on to  his own weapon. Then Brandt orders the officers   to kill all the rebels, so John leaves the room  to be able to keep up a cold face. Sometime later,   John visits Dupont to tell him that he's ready to  become Father's instrument against the resistance,   so Dupont gives him the mission to destroy  the Undeground. Then John goes to the morgue   to apologize to Errol's body for doubting him. He  also checks out Errol's belongings and discovers   he had a lot of pictures, the one with the word  “freedom” on it gets John's attention. He rushes   to see Mary to ask her about Errol, and when she  denies knowing him John reveals the picture, which   shows Mary and Errol had been together. Since Mary  still won’t talk, John tells her he killed Errol,   causing Mary to grab a pen and jump on him to  stab him. John blocks the attack before pinning   her down and gently touching her face, being  affected by her face because he’s reminded of his   wife. After looking more at the picture and the  word written on it, John remembers a place called   "Freedom Reading Room" where a teacher reads the  manifesto to young men. John visits the place   and kicks all the students out before threatening  the teacher until he learns that Errol came often   here to meet with a man named Jurgen. Getting an  idea, John breaks down the shelves by throwing the   teacher against them and comes across Jurgen, who  says the rebels have been watching John. Afterward   Jurgen takes John to the Underground, where  rebels are keeping a secret life filled with   beautiful objects. John is put on a polygraph to  make sure he’s feeling emotions, and as soon as   Jurgen mentions Mary, the polygraph machine  goes crazy. Jurgen admits he knows John has   Mary’s ribbon and tells him his feelings will only  be satisfied if he allows himself to fall for her,   but John points out that Mary will be incinerated  the next day. Then John wonders what he can do   for the resistance, so Jurgen asks him to kill  Father. As soon as John leaves the Underground,   he's surrounded by guards and taken to Dupont,  who says he heard rumors of a cleric who stopped   taking Prozium. Then he asks John what he’s been  doing lately, to which John answers he’s been   attempting to contact the rebels and promises  to double his efforts. Later when he gets home,   John leaves another vial inside the mirror and  watches his children sleep. Curious, he grabs   his son’s syringe box, only for Robbie to wake up  and ask him what he’s doing. John explains that   he's only making sure that Robbie has been taking  his daily dose. Then Robbie goes back to sleep,   but he shocks John by calling him “dad”. The  next day, John goes to see Mary and she finally   realizes he hasn’t been taking his injections. She  can tell that John is feeling lost and confused,   so she touches his hand to offer some comfort.  Afterward John meets with Jurgen to explain that   killing Father is impossible because nobody has  been allowed to see him in years. However Jurgen   says that John is trained for this and promises  that if John gets Father, the rebels will be ready   to destroy all the Prozium labs around the city.  Once everyone is feeling again, then human nature   will win their fight. John agrees to try and  before he leaves, Jurgen warns him not to watch   Mary’s execution because it’ll only make it harder  for John. When John returns to the office, he ends   up seeing the preparation for the execution on  the screens, and this inspires him to look for the   footage of his own wife's death. John feels awful  when he sees himself on the video, not having a   single reaction over the fact his wife was being  burned alive. Wanting to make up for his mistake,   John runs to the incineration room to save  Mary. Unfortunately by the time he gets there,   Mary is already inside the chamber and the machine  turbines have already been started. They can’t be   opened now because if they are, the turbines will  cause an explosion on the streets. John tries his   best to hold back his tears as Mary dies, but  eventually he can’t take it anymore and runs   outside to have a breakdown. At that moment Brandt  arrests him and after beating him up in front of   everyone, he takes him to Dupont. Brandt says that  John has been involved with Mary and that he was   the one who killed the officers in the Nether,  however John reminds Dupont about his mission   to expose the traitor among the clerics and claims  that Brandt is the man they’re looking for. Dupont   proceeds to check the gun that killed the officers  and it appears to be Brandt's weapon. Confused,   Brandt looks at the gun he’s carrying and  discovers it’s John’s because he switched   them the other night. To cover this up, John  tells Dupont that Brandt took his firearm when   he arrested him. Dupont orders the men to take  Brandt away for judgment, but he also informs John   that the law still requires for a team to search  his house. John pretends to be fine with this and   comments that he's disappointed that he hasn't  still met Father despite being an instrument for   the destruction of the Underground. Afterward John  runs back home to take the hidden vials, but when   he moves the mirror he finds the space empty.  At that moment Robbie reveals he took the vials   before the officers could find them to protect his  dad, and confesses he and his sister have stopped   taking their injections since their mother’s  death. John gives them his blessing before   leaving. Moments later, John meets up with the  rebels to start a plan: he calls the Council and   informs them he’s located the Underground. Soon  the officers come to arrest all the rebels, and   John is considered a hero worthy of meeting with  Father. On the day of the meeting, the council   makes John go through a test first. They make him  hand in his weapons and connect him to a polygraph   before asking him for the easiest way to take away  a weapon from a cleric. Suddenly Brandt shows up   and whispers "you ask him for it". Then Father  appears on a screen, explaining that Brandt's   arrest was part of an old plan: for years, Father  has been trying to infiltrate the Underground,   but he realized that he needed a man who would  think and feel like the rebels. Father says   John was the only man who could do that before  revealing his real face: it turns out he’s Dupont,   who has been using recordings to hide the fact  the real Father died many years ago. The council   elected him to replace Father and continue his  traditions. Furious over being tricked like this,   John pulls out the guns he hid in his sleeves  and starts shooting at everyone, using his great   skill to kill them all in seconds. Then John  tells Dupont that he's coming for him and after   shooting the screen, he leaves the room to go on  a killing spree, shooting every single guard that   dares to get in his way and leaving a massacre  on his path. When he finally reaches Dupont,   Brandt is there as the bodyguard. John proceeds to  kill some more guards before going after Brandt,   who grabs a sword so they can fight properly.  Unlike their training, this time John fights   seriously and with just a few quick strikes,  he kills Brandt by cutting off his face. Then   Dupont grabs a gun and attacks John, who takes  a gun from a dead guard and immediately defends   himself. Dupont is a great fighter and at first  can keep up with John, but soon John overpowers   him and defeats him as he takes his gun. Desperate  to survive, Dupont begs for mercy and confesses   that he also feels emotions, however John still  shoots him in the head without remorse. Before   leaving the building, John destroys the machines  broadcasting Father's messages. This is seen as   a sign by the rebels, who immediately  start bombing the Prozium factories all   over the city. Now the locals can understand  that it’s time to fight against the system.