Equilibrium
Short description
Equilibrium is set in Libria, a future society that has eliminated war by eliminating feeling. Citizens must take a daily dose of the drug Prozium, and books, art and music are outlawed; showing emotion is a capital crime. John Preston works as a Grammaton Cleric, an elite enforcer who tracks down sense offenders. When he misses a dose, he begins to experience emotions for the first time, and his new awareness turns him against the system he has served.
Christian Bale plays Preston, with Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Angus Macfadyen, Sean Bean and Sean Pertwee among the credited cast. Kurt Wimmer wrote and directed the film, his first credit as director; he went on to direct Ultraviolet and Children of the Corn. Jan de Bont and Lucas Foster produced the American production, which runs 107 minutes.
Equilibrium was released in December 2002 on a budget of about 20 million dollars and took roughly 5 million dollars worldwide, a small return. Audiences have been far warmer than critics: on IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from some 361,000 votes and on TMDB 7.1/10 from more than 5,000, while the critics' rating stands at 4.9/10 from 88 reviews. That gap between professional and viewer response has given the film a durable second life.
What's left behind the scenes
- Preston's wife was played by two actresses – Alexa Summer and Maria Pia Calzone, with the first being credited as Vivianne Preston and the second as Preston's wife.
- The film was shot in Berlin, the capital of Germany, from September to December 2000. Filming took place, in particular, at the famous concert hall "Deutschlandhalle" and the "Olympiastadion" stadium.
- A Bernese Mountain Dog puppy was used in the scene with the dog. Interestingly, the dog sounds we hear in this episode (barking, panting, whimpering) were actually made by a specially trained voice actor.
- Around two hundred people auditioned for the role of Patridge, and only when filming began was Lucas Foster able to convince Sean Bean to participate in the film.
- The drug used in the film to induce unconsciousness is called "Prozium." It is a kind of combination of two drugs, "Prozac" and "Valium," each of which is used in everyday life to relieve stress.
- The concept art for Libria was inspired by the work of artist Hugh Ferriss.
- The clerics' weapon is a modified Beretta 92FS pistol.
- During the confiscation of paintings, the camera captures a canvas depicting a young girl – it is Adolf-William Bouguereau’s “The Book of Stories.”
- Filming the gunfight scene between John Preston and the officers took only 30 minutes.
- Kurt Wimmer wanted Dominic Purcell to play Preston. However, the producers did not want an unknown Australian actor in the lead role. To avoid completely upsetting Purcell, they gave him a small role at the beginning of the film.
- The swords used in the film were made specifically for the shooting. They were wooden and broke regularly during filming, as Christian Bale and Taye Diggs fought with swords without holding back.
- The film features a globe with a continental arrangement that differs significantly from our world.
- Partridge reads poems by Yeats.
- All orchestral sounds are samples from the private collection of Media Ventures; no symphony orchestra was used.
- In the scene where the 'Mona Lisa' is pulled from under the floor, it is painted on canvas. In reality, the painting is made on a wooden board.
- The flag of Libria is styled after the Nazi flag. The Tetragrammaton symbol – a cross made of four ‘T’ letters – is used instead of a Christian cross, lacking its upper part.
- Initially, the Prozium drug was called "Librium" (with a nod to Libria), but it turned out that this is a genuinely registered trademark.
- The car carrying the clerics to Grammaton is a Cadillac Seville.
- The white suit Preston wears at the end of the film is an exact replica of Bruce Lee's mourning suit from 'Fist of Fury' (1972); the black suits he wears for most of the film are a black version of the same suit.
- During the Leader’s speech, footage from various famous events of the 20th century flashes on the screens. The first frames show the “detention” of Rodney King; the second video clip features Adolf Hitler from Leni Riefenstahl’s film “Triumph of the Will”; the third scene recounts a unique incident that occurred in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989, when an unknown man ran in front of the tanks.
- Daniel Radcliffe auditioned for the role of John Preston's son.
- The Tetragrammaton is a word used in Judaism as the name of God.
- The assault weapons used by the guards in the final shootout are modified Heckler & Koch G36s.
- Meticulous statisticians counted 236 corpses in the film.
- In the dog shooting scene, the sound of a shotgun is heard, but the soldier is actually firing a WA2000 sniper rifle.
- With the active participation of Kurt Wimmer, the project's director and screenwriter, new elements were introduced into the art of martial arts. No one had ever filmed a gunfight from this angle before.
- Despite common misconception, wires and cables were not used during the filming of the breathtaking stunts that, at first glance, seem to defy gravity. For example, the “backflip” on a motorcycle was filmed on a trampoline.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
