22 Years Ago, Christian Bale Starred In This Overlooked Dystopian Sci-Fi Movie

This post contains spoilers for "Equilibrium."

In 2002's "Equilibrium," the dystopian megapolis of Libria encourages its citizens to keep their emotions in check. This mandate for emotional regulation is one among many acts of censorship enforced by this totalitarian regime, which views emotional excess as the catalyst for conflict. Here, natural flora is consciously overwritten with sleek concrete edifices and all art is banned, lest it provokes powerful sentiments. To suppress humanity's naturalistic urge to feel intensely, the Tetragrammaton Council — who govern the city and is led by a man named "Father" — administers a mandatory drug to the populace to subdue these impulses. Every dose of this drug, Prozium II, is closely monitored, and failure to comply with these rules will earn you the brand of a Sense Offender, which is considered a crime punishable by death.

The only way to offset such a bleak, oppressive world is to introduce an unlikely hero who is jolted awake from the haze of totalitarian control. Enter high-ranking Grammaton Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale), the most dedicated enforcer of Libria's rules, who viciously employs choreographed gun-fu to incapacitate and, in some cases, kill Sense Offenders. Bale embodies Preston with the effortless stealth and brutality that would foreshadow his turn as Batman three years later (in 2005's "Batman Begins"), where he also moves through the dark like a creature of the night. Instead of throwing around batarangs, Preston guns down his targets with deliberate panache (and without much remorse). However, the future of Libria is forever changed when Preston decides to turn his muzzle toward the city's totalitarian oppressors.

When "Equilibrium" first hit theaters 22 years ago on December 6, 2002, the dystopian sci-fi action film was dismissed as unoriginal and self-serious, with its over-the-top action declared silly and un-engaging. Unfavorable comparisons were made to "The Matrix," and accusations of theft from literary works like "Brave New World" and "Fahrenheit 451" were promptly levied against a storyline that does borrow heavily from these texts. Looking back, though, these evaluations feel excessively harsh. "Equilibrium" — despite its glaring flaws — has several hauntingly poetic moments in which Bale drives the frenetic drama forward with his inimitable screen presence.

Preston's first onscreen act as Cleric is to set the Mona Lisa on fire, much to the chagrin of his squad partner, Errol Partridge (Sean Bean), who secretly values and treasures art. Although Patridge's tells are subtle — subtle enough to evade Preston's suspicions — a missing copy of W.B. Yeats' poems convinces Preston that his partner is a Sense Offender. All confiscated works of art are to be deposited by Clerics for incineration, but Patridge is unable to part with these poems because they speak to him on a fundamental level. After Preston tracks him down to a secluded church, where he finds Patridge reading the book, the latter quotes Yeats before being shot to death by his partner:

"But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams."

There's a flicker of remorse on Preston's face as he shoots Partridge, affording us a glimpse into the first cracks in his reputation for being a ruthless stickler for rules. Partridge's death, along with his dying words, triggers a metamorphosis within Preston, who begins to question the validity of emotion suppression and secretly stops taking Prozium II. Once the cumulative effect of the drug wears off, he is overwhelmed by an influx of raw emotions, especially the ones he experiences after listening to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Is this what it's like to feel unfettered? To dream? Preston wonders this as the symphony envelops him (causing him to break down) and later, in one of Bale's finest moments as an actor, when he frantically peels off protective window covers to witness his first sunrise in years.

These intense, dramatic moments are balanced with slick gun-kata-styled action, the kind that has now been re-popularized by the "John Wick" franchise to immense success. These sequences are set up like elaborate dance performances, where the fluid brutality of Bale's Preston initially presents him as a sharp-edged pawn. However, his gradual transformation grants these rehearsed moves a reckless, unpredictable edge.

"Equilibrium" truly shines when it focuses on examining Preston's humanity, with his newfound lust for life prompting him to rediscover radical empathy. This is triggered when he comes face to face with a frightened puppy, and once the small creature boops Preston's nose with his own, his allegiances are rewired for life. Absolutely nothing can stop John Preston from getting that puppy to safety, even if it means brutally killing an entire squad of Clerics and exposing his new identity as a passionate Sense Offender.

At first glance, "Equilibrium" offers nothing novel when it comes to dystopian movies and their common themes of state surveillance, systematic oppression, and artistic censorship. Thing is, once you peel back the superficial layers as Preston does, a second world of beauty, sensuality, rebellion, and freedom is revealed. Parsing Libria with new eyes, Preston is shocked by the cultivated apathy that the masses wear like badges of honor, especially his new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs), who is onto him and is ready to do anything to prove his suspected defection.

There's also the underground Resistance who wish to rally him to their cause, and one of its members, Mary (Emily Watson), who is scheduled to be incinerated by the state, reminds Preston about the power of dizzying attraction and the sensuality invoked by the perfume worn by someone you desire. Now doomed to live a double life, Preston has to don an impassive facade while feeling everything at once, where he oscillates between simulating his blemish-free reputation and violently breaking down once he's unable to save Mary from her fate.

Bale transitions between these extremes with remarkable ease, employing subtle microexpressions to denote an internal turmoil or a change of heart when he's playing double agent. When these subtleties fail to deceive, Preston uses his customized guns and samurai swords to hack, slash, and shoot his way through his enemies, breaking bones and ripping out spines without batting an eye. This time, though, he targets the Tetragrammaton Council and the enigmatic "Father," armed with nothing but his fists and the dogged determination to start a revolution to topple a totalitarian regime.