Equilibrium (2002)

These shots show the state of the world after a third world war. Mankind has taken a new path toward eliminating war with a drug called Prozium. This drug suppresses all emotions, eliminating war altogether at the sacrifice of happiness and joy. A world grown like this would be gray upon gray due to lack of interest in ornamentation, as these shots show.




I found the detail of this shot to be at once subtle yet obvious. The room itself is nothing to gawk at, but rather the globe and the continents are the main point of interest. You'll see the continents do not look very much like how they do now. This implies not only a change in human behavior after the famed WWIII, but also a permanent change in how the land itself is arranged. This sort of thing is permanent and unbending, which hints at the authoritarian rule practiced in this society.



This is a shot I liked because it showed an element that I picked up immediately while the character ran right over it. He's running his hand along the wall across the bullet holes in this hallway (a raid is in progress). As he does this, a glint of light plays across his hand as he passes one of those holes. I saw this and immediately assumed there was a secret room of some sort, all before he doubled back after noticing it for himself.



In this post-WWIII world where people deaden their emotions with a periodically-applied drug, a new crime has been defined: sense offense. People found to be missing their dose and experiencing emotions are arrested and executed, and all the material possessions that invoke such emotional responses are confiscated and burned.



After accidentally dropping his dose of Prozium and missing his refill from the closest resupply building, (closed due to terrorist activity) he decides to try and live the day without it. He falls asleep and dreams, waking with a start. He sees the splatter of rain on his window, which has some sort of greying film covering it. He rips at it and tears it off to reveal this beautiful view of the city. He's feeling emotion for what one can assume is the first time, and his initial reaction is to run to the bathroom and nearly inject himself with Prozium. But he doesn't, and so the plot thickens.