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: 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)
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)
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)
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: 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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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: During the final battle scene, Preston throws the two "weighted" magazines down the corridor, where they stand upright and wait for him. But as he battles his way down the hall, in various shots his guns already have the weighted mags in them, before he drops his regular mags and inserts the new ones from the floor. (01:33:25)
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)
Continuity mistake: When Preston and Partridge return from the Nethers and shoot themselves up with Prozium, watch Preston's Prozium syringe: even though he inserts a vial of the drug, the syringe is still empty when he puts it to his neck (you can see the tube that the needle's connected to doesn't have any liquid in it). It's only during the close-up that the syringe is suddenly full of the amber-colored Prozium. (00:11:20)
Continuity mistake: After the final battle, Christian Bale has blood on his collar, dribbling down it in three or four places. In a few close-up shots though, the collar only has a very small amount of blood, right on the edge. (01:38:30)
Continuity mistake: In the burly battle at the end of the film, in which a couple dozen guards are dispatched, Preston's white Nehru jacket remains spotless. Even after he kills DuPont, there isn't a speck of blood on Preston's jacket. Moments later, in the Father's broadcasting room, Preston now has a considerable neck wound and a quantity of blood staining the jacket collar and shoulder. The DVD lamely attempts to explain this delayed bleeding as a bullet wound that Preston sustained while fighting DuPont. However, after Preston shoots up the broadcasting room and finally exits the Equilibrium building, the blood stains have mostly vanished from the shoulder and collar of his white jacket.
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)
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]