Equilibrium - A Libertarian Review

Set in an Orwellian future, the elite forces of an all-powerful government are on a mission to find and destroy any last remnants of human emotion. This is due to emotions and all forms of artistic expression having been outlawed since the founding of the state of Libria after WWIII, which was supposedly caused by men having negative emotions and passions.

The main character, Preston, is one of Libria's most skilled and ruthless assassins and destroyer of art. However, things begin to change when he is forced to kill his partner after witnessing him reading a book of poetry and then getting told that emotions are what make life worth living. After this incident, Preston fails to take the emotion-negating drug and thus starts to experience feelings of his own. This leads to his ambitious young partner becoming suspicious of his being a "sense offender".

Preston eventually meets with the head of the resistance to Libria and its drugs--the Underground. They enlist Preston to assassinate the head of the state, Father, since he is one of the few people capable of being granted audience with the man. Preston pledges to try his best. However, his young partner and Father are keen to the scheme and set Preston up. Although Preston falls into the trap, he ends up killing his way through his partner and an onslaught of guards, and making it into Father's office to confront him one-on-one.

The movie ends with Preston getting the better of Father after a titanic battle between the two men. Preston, from Father's office, then overlooks the state of Libria being "liberated" by the Underground.

The allure of this film to the libertarian is in its representation of an all-tyrannical state, and its effects on the individuals within that state. Though this sort of state rule seems quite unlikely in this day and age, one can perhaps find many parallels between those methods of rule with those found in the world today. America and the other states may not be as outwardly tyrannical in an Orwellian and Librian fashion, but they are indeed as tyrannical in more of an insidious Huxlian manner--which may be much harder to form a resistance against.