Essay On The Movie Equilibrium

Equilibrium is a film that takes place in a world without emotion. I found myself to be very intrigued with the concepts displayed throughout the movie. Additionally, the movie brought up important moral questions that I found myself contemplating. The storyline caused me to question the governments role in society, and how much control others can have over us.

The film documents a society in Libria in which the Tetragrammaton Council, headed by the “father”, controls the government. The government has created a drug called Prozium that inhibits the ability to feel emotions, and every individual must take it every day. If they fail to do so, they are subjected to death or imprisonment. Preston, one of the movies main characters, is a cleric.

His responsibility is to seek out any who individuals are “sense-offenders”. However, he eventually begins to stop taking his drugs, and starts to feel emotions. This leads him to discovering how horrendous the council is. He aids another cleric in suicide, and then is assigned a new partner, Bryant. In the end we discover, that the new partner, Bryant has partnered with DuPont. The real “father” has died, and DuPont was appointed as the replacement. In the end, Preston kills DuPont, and the Underground group releases their bombs along with the prisoners as they destruct the Librian government.
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After I finished watching this movie, I began to think about all of the rights I have and take for granted every day.

I can’t even grasp the concept of living in a world without emotion. Emotions are one of the many aspects of human beings that make us all unique individuals. In a world as depicted in the movie, every single individual in that society was synonymous with the others. Not only would this call for a dull, uninteresting life, but also it desecrates humans from their naturally born rights. When referring back to Kant’s theories, one of his main concerns is not exactly in regards to the laws of nature depicting a human being’s choice but by other human being’s deciding a human being’s choice. Moreover, Kant’s concern is pertaining to individual freedom of action; hence, in the scenario portrayed in the movie, the actions being taken by the Council were morally wrong. They were morally wrong because by forcing the citizens to continually take the drugs, they were making their choices for them, and stripping them from the rights that belong to them. The Council controlled the entirety of society for their own personal gain. Based on the utilitarianism views, it is morally right to do what creates the most good for the most people. This further proves the Council’s action were impermissible. By inhibiting the entire populations emotions, they were most definitely not doing what created the most good for

everyone.
Normally when I watch movies such as this one, afterwards I think little about it. I mean for example typically all I would recall from this movie would be Christian Bale! However, as I’ve been taking this class my thought process has
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been developing. This film caused me to think about how grateful I should be everyday to live in a country that allows me to have the freedoms I do. I often don’t think much about the billions of human beings that live outside of the United States who don’t live in a country where they are free. Millions of individuals live in poverty stricken countries controlled by extremist leaders. Furthermore, what I mainly took from this movie was to be more appreciative. I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff as much as I do because at the end of the day I am extremely blessed, and I want to use the resources I have to reach out and aid others throughout the world.