Equilibrium is still Christian Bale’s most important sci-fi movie

The first thing you typically hear about Equilibrium, Christian Bale’s 2002 dystopian sci-fi action movie, is that it’s a knockoff of The Matrix. That actually isn’t true. Equilibrium was already in the works when The Matrix hit theaters in 1999, and while it’s possible director Kurt Wimmer borrowed some ideas from the Wachowskis, either intentionally or through cultural osmosis, his movie is definitively its own thing — even if it still suffers from living in the shadow of one of the greatest films ever made.

But while The Matrix’s influence on Equilibrium has been overstated (if anything, it’s Fahrenheit 451 meets Brave New World), its influence on Hollywood is undeniable. Without this movie, we probably wouldn’t have John Wick.

Equilibrium takes place in a dystopian future. After the events of World War III, the survivors agree that the only way to avoid another mass-casualty conflict is to suppress human emotions. Art is banned, and everyone is legally mandated to drug themselves into an unfeeling stupor. Bale plays John Preston, a police officer trained to enforce these rules, but when he fails to take his own medication, he begins to understand the true nature of his authoritarian world.

Wimmer’s biggest innovation wasn’t just distilling the plots of classic dystopian fiction into cinematic spectacle, it was the type of action he used. The director pioneered his own style of combat, combining the fluid “gun fu” style, which originated in Hong Kong cinema and was popularized in America by director John Woo, with the rigid orthodoxy of Equilibrium’s world. The result was “gun kata,” developed by Wimmer in his own backyard.

The result was unique and stunning. Bale’s robotic movements in Equilibrium are enforced by the way his character wields guns both as guns and as extensions of his fists. Wimmer further developed the technique with his 2006 film Ultraviolet, which added acrobatic techniques to its gun kata choreography.

While Equilibrium was a flop, its influence on the action genre is undeniable. Not only did it help bring gun fu to Hollywood, it showed how fight choreography can reinforce narrative themes. John Wick director Chad Stahelski took a similar approach when he transformed Keanu Reeves into an unstoppable hitman who unleashes a similar form of gun kata on wave after wave of enemies.

Finally, just over a decade after Wimmer invented gun kata, his work reached the masses thanks to the magic of Keanu Reeves. So with Bale back in theaters this weekend (albeit with a film that owes nothing to Equilibrium), there’s never been a better time to revisit the forgotten action movie that quietly changed the genre.

Equilibrium is streaming on Pluto TV and available to rent digitally from all the usual places.