Equilibrium

Equilibrium (2002)

58 mistakes

(6 votes)

Factual error: When they first pick up the Mona Lisa, they show the back. There you can see a canvas sheet over a wooden framework. However, the Mona Lisa is painted directly onto wood, no canvas at all. The scan they run even says it's painted onto wood, despite visual evidence to the contrary. (00:06:35)

stupidonlinename

Equilibrium mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The photo of Cleric Partridge with Mary O'Brien is crumpled and folded when we first see it in the morgue and when Cleric Preston shows it to O'Brien. However, when Preston is sitting at his desk and looking at the photo by himself, closeups of the photo show it as smooth without the signs of wear and tear seen previously. (01:01:25 - 01:03:20)

Phil C.

Continuity mistake: The cover of the book Sean Bean is reading reads 'The Poetry of William Butler Yeats'. However, while he's turning over the pages, the poems 'The Detective' and 'The Courage of Shutting-Up' by Sylvia Plath can be seen. (00:07:50 - 00:15:10)

Equilibrium mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Preston's apartment is being searched, he walks into his bathroom to find his hidden Prozium capsules. He shuts the door in the camera's face and when you see the interior of the bathroom (with the camera behind Preston) you can very briefly see the cameraman's head. (01:28:05)

Continuity mistake: With the dog in the trunk, Christian Bale reaches with his left hand to pet the dog, then cuts to the close-up of his right hand petting the dog, and then cuts back to his left hand doing the petting. (00:49:30)

Equilibrium mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the final rampage through the corridor, Preston shoots through the door, killing the guards on his side but also those in the room - we see them falling to one side. But when the corridor guards fall through the doors, in shots from Preston's point of view the guards are visible standing just inside the door before being knocked down. (01:30:30)

Jon Sandys

Continuity mistake: In the scene where John Preston finds the room with the snow-globe and the record player, he is shown removing and dropping his gloves as he walks the hall touching the wall, prior to discovering the room. As he is shown entering the room, he is also shown removing the gloves that he had just moments ago discarded. (00:37:00)

Factual error: The real Mona Lisa is much smaller than the 'authenticated' painting shown in the film. (00:06:30)

Equilibrium mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the opening action sequence, one of the sense-offenders slams wide the front doors of the hideout and begins firing at the police. The camera cuts to the police, who immediately open fire; when we cut back to the sense-offender being riddled by bullets, the hideout doors are securely closed behind him. (00:02:00)

Phil C.

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when the police arrive at the Resistance hideout we see the police pull up then take cover behind their cars, G36 rifles at the ready. A lone guy comes out and is immediately put down, as this happens you can see the windshields of the police cars are already shot up and cracked even though at this point the Resistance people have yet to return fire. (00:01:50)

Equilibrium mistake picture

Revealing mistake: There is a shot right after the first time the clerics are entering the city from the nethers that you see an APC patrolling the wall road above the entrance. In that shot two shadows are being cast on the road. As the CGI APC passes through them they simply don't cast a shadow on it as they should. (00:08:40)

Visible crew/equipment: When Preston returns to the Equilibrium after he has uncovered his window, there is a shot where the camera slowly moves from the front of the crowd to the back of the crowd. If you look at the backs of the people to the right you can see a shadow moving from someone in the film crew. (00:32:55)

Mortug

Continuity mistake: When "Father" and Preston are fighting, Preston manages to take the gun away. You can see that both hands are empty, but during the next shot, "Father" still has a gun in his right hand. Then, when they cut to the full shot of father straightening up, his hand is empty again. (01:37:00)

Continuity mistake: When you see cleric Preston's wife walking to the incinerator, if you look very closely, you see that they are not the same person, one is a look-alike. [Director Kurt Wimmer reveals the reason for this during one of the commentary tracks (still a mistake, but here's why). The incinerator scene was shot first. When it came to shooting the house arrest scene (which occurs earlier in the film, but was shot later) the actress was nowhere to be found, hence the use of a lookalike.] (01:19:50)

Equilibrium mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene after the destruction of the "TV center", Preston is looking out through a window over the city's explosions taking place. In one shot his right hand is shown holding the red piece of fabric he got from Mary O'Brian. In a scene before that, when he destroyed the "TV center", his right hand was bloody. He could have gone to wash it in between, but that seems unlikely, since his neck wound is still not taken care of. (01:34:45 - 01:36:10)

Equilibrium mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The book Sean Bean takes is quite narrow when it's in his pocket, but when we see him reading it later (definitely meant to be the same book), it's about 50% thicker. It was also originally a hardback, but when he's reading it he's bending the cover like a paperback. After he drops it, it becomes a hardback again. (00:07:50 - 00:15:55)

Jon Sandys

Revealing mistake: It's very brief, but during Father and Preston's fight scene, they mirror imaged part of the movie. It's apparent because the sword on the desk has it's handle pointed to the right and you can see the curtain in the background. In every other shot, the handle is facing to left of the room. (01:33:00)

Revealing mistake: In the final encounter Preston takes on eight Clerics with Samurai swords. Watch him stab the last one and you can see the blade go under the man's arm. The shot changes and the flaw is just as apparent when Preston takes up the sword again, the stabbed Cleric is holding the blade for him. (01:35:20)

Continuity mistake: In the pistol whipping scene, we see Preston deploying a set of "studs" from his pistols. However, in a later shot, where we see the pistol butt's closing reflection on a visor, the studs aren't out. (00:58:50)

Continuity mistake: In the final showdown, Christian Bale quickly slices up Taye Diggs. Diggs drops his sword before falling to his knees, then it cuts to a wider shot showing the sword still in his hand. (01:35:55)

DuPont: The gun katas. Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element. The gun kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increase to lethal proficiency makes the master of the gun katas an adversary not to be taken lightly.

More quotes from Equilibrium

Trivia: The word 'tetragrammatron' has some very interesting origins which render the film either profound or pretentious, depending on your point of view. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3477909 for a full explanation.

More trivia for Equilibrium

Question: The speeches that "Father" gives are emotional, in that they are intended to instill emotion in the listener. I understand that Father and presumably quite a few others of the head council are not taking the Prozium, but is there a reason they are still giving these rousing speeches to the masses that are supposedly devoid of emotion? Am I just missing some of the story?

Gary O'Reilly

Chosen answer: As I see it, the point of the speeches is not to evoke emotions in the listeners, but rather to show what emotions such as anger and jealousy lead to in the course of human history. So they use historic "evidence" to justify their actions (such as killing sense offenders) and to show what emotions can lead to.

Andreas[DK]

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