Trivia for
Equilibrium (2002) More at IMDbPro »

• In certain scenes, the muzzle flash of the pistols and rifles fired by the Clerics and guards will reveal the Tetragrammaton insignia.
  
  
• Grammaton Cleric wristwatch used in the film is an Android Alien watch with a black face, no maker name on the dial.
  
  
• The poem that Partridge reads in the church is "He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by William Butler Yeats.
  
  
• The William Butler Yeats poem used was published in the collection "The Wind Among the Reeds" (1899). "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
  
  
• Two hundred people were interviewed for the role of Partridge and filming had already started when Lucas Foster brought Sean Bean in, having convinced him to take the role.
  
  
• The pistol-whip fight between John Preston and the officers took only 30 minutes to film.
  
  
• The cars driven by the Grammaton Clerics are Cadillac Sevilles with exteriors and interiors painted totally white
  
  
• The dress uniform worn by Preston in the not without incident shootout was based on the mourning uniform worn by Bruce Lee in Jing wu men (1972).
  
  
• Kurt Wimmer had originally wanted Christian Bale for the lead role as Senior Grammaton Cleric John Preston after seeing him in American Psycho (2000). Bale was not available at the time so he considered Dominic Purcell for the role. Ultimately Bale became available and Purcell was cast as Seamus The Resistance Fighter in the opening of the film instead.
  
  
• According to Kurt Wimmer at the Atlanta Q&A, only Christian Bale had actually been offered the role of Preston.
  
  
• The film was not given a wide release because it had already run into profit as a result of overseas sales, and Miramax didn't want to risk turning a money maker into a loss.
  
  
• The pistols used by the Grammaton Clerics are Beretta 92Fs (not Beretta M93Rs, as some believe) converted to automatic-fire. Many other modifications were made, including changing the disassembly lever into a fire mode selector, lengthening the barrel and adding a compensator to the barrel. The occasional Tetragrammaton Cross shaped muzzle flashes were computer animated.
  
  
• The painting of the young girl during the opening raid sequence is "The Story Book" by Adolphe-William Bouguereau.
  
  
• The music that Preston listens to on the Victrola is Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony, First Movement.
  
  
• The puppy used in the movie was a Bernese Mountain dog.
  
  
• The noises the puppy makes (barks, whines, yelps etc) weren't actually made by the dog at all, but by an actor who specializes in dog impersonations.
  
  
• The name of the emotion suppressing drug, Prozium is a sly combination of Prozac, and Valium, which both have calming effects.
  
  
• All the orchestral sounds are samples from Media Ventures' private collection, no symphonic orchestra was recorded. "Real" instruments include electric guitars and some percussion.
  
  
• The "kendo"-type swords used during the sparing scene were designed specially for the film and are turned wood which broke quite easily during filming because Christian Bale and Taye Diggs were really whacking each other with them.
  
  
• The inspiration for the cityscapes and the design of Libria come mainly from the works of Hugh Ferriss, an early 20th century conceptual artist.
  
  
• The shotgun used by the trooper to shoot the dogs is actually a Walther WA-2000 sniper rifle, minus the bipod, with an added shotgun-style handle.
  
  
• Originally, the drug Prozium was named Librium (hence the term "People of Libria" as often referred to throughout the film). However, Librium turns out to be a registered trade name for the anti-anxiety drug chlordiazepoxide. The name was quickly changed to Prozium.
  
  
• Two different actresses played Preston's wife. The "condemnation archive footage" was filmed first, and featured Alexa Summer. However, when it was time to film the scene where she was arrested, she could not be found. Maria Pia Calzone had to take her place. As a result, there's two separate credits, Summer is credited as "Viviana Preston", while Maria Pia Calzone was credited as "Preston's Wife", even though they are supposed to be the same character.
  
  
• Despite popular belief, absolutely no wires were used in the film at all. All of the gravity-defying stunts were done through conventional means. For example, the backflip off of the motorcycle was done with a trampoline.
  
  
• The film's fight choreographer Jim Vickers and Kurt Wimmer had some slight disagreement on how the martial art Gun Kata should be performed on screen. You can see little friendly jabs to the choreographer in the film. When Kurt Wimmer performs the Gun Kata at the beginning, you see it's very fluid and smooth. The way it's actually used in the film is very rigid with a few flowing moves thrown in. Also, in Angus Macfadyen's speech to the Clerics in training, he says "each fluid position", slightly stressing the word "fluid". Wimmer wanted Gun Kata to be smooth and soft-style. Vickers, trained in hard-style karate among other things, modified the original Gun Kata slightly, and because of budgetary restraints, that's the version we see in the final film. Wimmer has said his own vision of Gun Kata can be seen in most of its glory in his next film, Ultraviolet (2006).
  
  
• The white sword and ribbon used just before "without incident" sequence was not attached. The intention was that it would be sewn on and that Bale would rip it off at the appropriate moment, but they couldn't get the stitching to work so that it would rip just right. Finally, they decided to leave it unsown, and just have Bale hold it with his hand for the few seconds he was on camera.
  
  
• John Preston kills 118 characters in this movie, which makes him responsible for exactly half of the total 236 deaths shown. As of 2009, he continues to hold the 3rd place record for most deaths in a movie caused by one character.
  
  
• Tetragrammaton (translation: "word with four letters"), is actually a word used in Judaism in reference to the name of God. "YHWH".
  
  
• The film has several similarities in theme to George Orwell's novel "1984" and Aldous Huxley's novel "Brave New World." Mary's last name, O'Brien, is possibly a reference to a character in "1984." The windows shaped as the letter T (as in Dupont's office and the guards' helmets) could be a reference to "Brave New World," where Christian crosses have the top part cut off to form a T, in honor of 'Henry Ford' and the Model T automobile.
  
  
• Some of the tank-like vehicles seen driving along the streets are, in fact, white-painted airport tugs, the kinds used for pushing very large aircraft such as 747s.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Kurt Wimmer] 1. Silhouetted figure in the Grammaton Cleric introduction with narration, 2. Rebel who is pushed up against the column in the warehouse raid and executed.
  
  
• Writer and director Kurt Wimmer invented the martial arts style of gunfighting for this movie in his backyard.
  
  

Related Links