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)
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)
Continuity mistake: When Preston is examining the snow globe it's quite a big one (his hand can barely fit around the wooden base). When he drops the snow globe on the floor it's considerably smaller in size. (00:41:10)
Continuity mistake: After the "Faith, I have it speech", looking at the Mary O'Brien interrogation footage, the birthmark on his nose changes position from the right side of his nose to the left side, and after that shot it returns to his right side again. (00:46:25)
Revealing mistake: When Preston returns to the Nethers he gets out his car and puts the dog down. When he gets back into the car the shot of him getting out is played backwards because the steam/smoke from the engine moves into the car. (00:46:40)
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)
Audio problem: When Preston is confronted with the dog he says "My name is John Preston". In the following shot his mouth is still moving but it's only at the end of this shot that he starts talking again. (00:50:20)
Continuity mistake: After the puppy barks from inside the trunk, the cop goes to it and looks at Preston. Preston asks one last time for him not to do it. Shot changes to showing the cop again. You see him reach down and lift his arm, and you hear the sound of the trunk creaking as it opens. Then the shot cuts to showing the trunk. Now you see him lift the trunk and hear it open again. (00:51:10)
Continuity mistake: After the gun fight over the puppy, Preston is in his bathroom and begins pulling his mirror out of the wall. The shots showing Preston have his face half covered in shadow, but his reflection shows no shows no shadows on him in reverse shots. (00:53:00)
Revealing mistake: Preston pulls his bathroom mirror out of the wall so he can hide his Prozium behind it. The shots taken from inside the hole in the wall have some sort of blue glow at the very bottom. You can tell this is some sort of light, probably on the camera itself, as when the mirror is put back on the wall, it should be pitch black inside the hole as it blocks out all light. But the blue glow remains. (00:53:35)
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)
Revealing mistake: When Preston attacks the guards with the studs on his gun, there is a slow zoom out of one of the guard's visors. On the right, you can see the reflection of Christian Bale's stunt double. (00:58:50)
Continuity mistake: When Christian Bale is fighting the guys with the spiked butts of his guns, he breaks one guy's visor. Then it shows a side-view of his gun, and there are no spikes. (00:58:55)
Revealing mistake: During the fight where Preston deploys his lethal pistol whips on the Grammaton cops, watch closely towards the end of the sequence. There is a semi close up of one of the cops getting nailed in the face with Preston's gun. His helmet's visor shatters and you can see some red come off it, supposedly blood. But you can see there is a second layer of protective visor sunk back in the helmet to protect the actor's face from shattering glass/plastic. (00:59:00)
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)
Continuity mistake: When Preston is crying over Sean Bean he has a face full of tears. When the guard enters Preston stands and he has a tear-free face. (01:03:05)
Revealing mistake: When Preston is seeing the body of Sean Bean he opens up his picture holder. When he does this, watch Sean Bean's shoulder and you'll see his muscle twitch by his neck. This happens at the end of this shot before it changes to a close up of the photos. (01:03:40)
Continuity mistake: The second interrogation of Mary doesn't go so smoothly once Preston tells her that he was the one who killed Partridge. She grabs a pen and tries to stab him with it. They wind up on the table in their struggle and he is on top of her. The side shot shows their faces right next to each other, with their noses barely an inch apart. The shot changes to over Preston's shoulder and their faces are suddenly noticeably much further apart. (01:05:00)
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)
Continuity mistake: Mary O'Brien is trying to collect herself before entering the execution chamber. If you take a closer look, you'll see cleric Preston standing right behind her. He is supposed to arrive in front of the execution chamber only after Mary has already stepped inside it and the lock has been engaged. (01:21:25)
Answer: Because of their display of emotions it is clear that the elite are not taking their Prozium. If the idea of the emotionless society worked, then yes the elite should be taking their Prozium. However, this society obviously doesn't work and instead of being the solution to all man's problems, Prozium have just become a way of subduing the masses while the elite are free to do as they please.
Andreas[DK]