Essay Questions

Why are all the paintings burnt in the beginning of the film?

The film begins with the main character, John, together with a team of highly skilled soldiers attacking a group of people in a warehouse. After every person in the warehouse except from John is dead, a pile of paintings, including the Mona Lisa are shown. The paintings are then all destroyed after a soldier confirms that the paintings are the original ones. The paintings are destroyed because they represent a threat to the idea of not feeling any emotion at all. Paintings were created to transmit a message, to make the person looking at them feel a range of emotions. The paintings were dangerous because they could push a person to stop conforming to the idea promoted by the society and stop believing that the best way a person could live his or her life is by not feeling any emotion at all. Because of this, the paintings had to be destroyed because they represent something dangerous for society.

The plot of the film is similar to which literary piece?

The plot of the film Equilibrium can be compared with that of the novel 1984. Both novels take place in some sort of post-world-war era, dominated by the desire not to suffer anymore. As a result, the society became more willing to give their power to a totalitarian form of government which eventually suppressed the people. There are two types of crimes highlighted which are extremely similar: in the film we have the ‘’sense’’ crime and in novel we have the ‘’thought’’ crime. Both ‘’crimes’’ are innate to a person but society tries to eliminate them through various means. Another similarity is the way in which children are used by the regime to control the adult population. The young children are easily manipulated though the education they receive and they are thought to tell on their parents, becoming little spies controlled by the government. The children both in the film and in the novel are told that loving their country should come above all and thus they feel nothing when they tell the government about the behaviors of their own parents, sentencing them to death. Another similarity is the way the population is controlled, first through mass surveillance methods and then through people who have to deal with those who refuse to obey the government in their every aspect of life.

How did John end up committing a sense crime?

While other characters in the movie committed sense crimes because they wanted to experience the world, this was not the case for John. He was one of the most loyal supporters of the government and never questioned them. When his wife was taken away from him, he did not react in any shape or form and was not affected to see her leave. This proves just how indoctrinated he was and how unlikely it was for him to commit the crime willingly. For John, it was an accident because one of the vials he was supposed to take broke and he became vulnerable by accident. However, the following day when he woke up was an important day for him because he was moved by a sunrise and thus became determined not to take the medicine blocking his emotions anymore.

Why were emotions outlawed?

In the beginning of the film it is mentioned how the action takes place in a post Third World War society. The war was devastating and a large of the population was annihilated. What is more, society became aware that should a fourth war start, the entire human population would be destroyed and the planet would be damaged beyond recognizing. Because of this, the governments all over the world came up with a solution, a method to prevent a new war from starting. Their idea was to suppress all emotions, the cause of the wars until then, and to keep the entire human race in check while also hunting down those who broke the laws and refused to become emotionless. Thus, emotions were outlawed as an attempt to stop a new devastating war from breaking out and destroying the human society.