Review Summary: Unfortunately overlooked due to its availability, Equilibrium is one of Klaus Badelt's finest moments.
When Equilibrium first released in 2002, I remember being ribbed by friends for enjoying it. For most people at the time, the film was seen as style over substance – a glib Matrix rip-off that heavy-handedly drew inspirations from some of the big-hitting dystopian novels from the early-to-mid-twentieth century (three of my favourites being
1984,
Fahrenheit 541, and
A Brave New World). However, as time has moved on, the film is seen in more favourable terms, with even the same friends who initially poked fun at me conceding it is a good movie. For me it wasn’t so much the striking visual austerity, or the cool looking Grammaton Clerics with their unique "Gun Kata" fighting style – which was not only a visual spectacle, but actually had a grounded utility to it – it was the bleak, sanitised reality John Preston lived in. Indeed, Equilibrium isn’t a masterpiece, and it certainly doesn’t try to mask its influences, but the aforementioned novels are combined to make a particularly interesting and dire world out of it. Totalitarian city-state Libria is built upon the wreckage of World War 3, a war so devastating it brought the Tetragrammaton Council to conclude human emotion is the pre-eminent factor in all human conflicts. As a result, Libria subjects its people to using an emotion-supressing drug called Prozium II, while the state sets out to destroy any and all culture that came before WWIII. This is achieved by the police and the elite task force, the Grammaton Clerics, raiding homes in search of illegal contraband – i.e. literature, art and music – and destroying it on the spot, along with its owner getting a death sentence. John Preston (Christian Bale) is one of Libria’s finest Clerics and a zealous follower of the council’s cause. He suspects his fellow Cleric, Errol Partridge (Sean Bean), of being an offender and eventually catches him with contraband, killing him in the process. This creates a crack in John’s steely resolve, where he begins to listen to the haunting words Errol told him before he was executed, subsequently questioning his role in society and what it all means.
In truth, Equilibrium isn’t as rich or as clever as the source material it reveres and imitates, it’s just a solid action movie with a lot of unique characteristics, however, the message it is trying to convey is effective enough. This, of course, wasn’t enough to save the film from being a colossal failure at the time, due to a studio blunder where it initially made a profit from international pre-release tickets; this created a false confidence where they gave little promotion to the movie in an attempt to mitigate financial loss. The irony here is that in doing so, it gave the movie a limited theatrical release and crushed its legs: the result was a $20 million movie racking in a meagre $5 million globally. Nevertheless, what does this have to do with Klaus Badelt’s amazing score for Equilibrium? Well, as the movie was writhing around on the floor due to Miramax’s error, the soundtrack never actually got an official release, having only ever been released in an unofficial capacity, or by fans putting it on YouTube. Because I’m a fan of classical music, and an even bigger fan of soundtracks, I hunted down the most complete version of this score – Cimmerian Records’ 2CD set, released in 2021 – which is regarded as the most comprehensive version on the market.
The overarching theme of Equilibrium is the loss of humanity’s emotions in a technocratic society. What I love most about Klaus’ score here is that it blends organic orchestral elements and electronics with its most unique quality: a Gregorian choir. The orchestra represents Preston’s struggle regaining his humanity, while the electronic and Gregorian portions of the music epitomise the world he was born into – a world where science and technology are seen as the new religion (it’s all very
A Brave New World). Album opener “Grammaton Clerics” and “Encounter” set the stage perfectly with their brief durations – a collection of foreboding, atmospheric synths with big percussive drums, and the haunting dominion of its Gregorian choir. While “Burned” and “Evidence” feel like these grand, powerful pieces which loom over the listener. “Without Love” has a heartbreaking desperation to it at the start of the track, before being interrupted with a mechanical awakening of industrial pulses and clanks that phase out into another moment of emotional reflection, thanks to the use of the agonisingly slow strings that drag across the track. It’s a unique combination that feels completely in line with the film’s themes, but it also makes the album stand out from a lot of other scores during this time.
Klaus Badelt’s MO is very much in line with what Hans Zimmer does – both composers have this larger-than-life presence to their music, and it’s a sound that’s distinctly poignant but energetic at the same time. Indeed, Badelt’s style is so similar to Zimmer’s I actually couldn’t believe the first Pirates of the Caribbean score was done by him when I first found out. Zimmer had a hand in its development, of course, but I digress; these two composers are cut from the same cloth and approach things in very much the same way. Yet,
Equilibrium is arguably Badelt’s greatest work, simply because it has the poignancy of Zimmer mixed in with the driving excitement of Harry Gregson-Williams’
The Rock, which creates a sound entirely his own. There are a couple of corny tracks like “Kata Moves”, that distinctly represents the era of which it came from, but on the whole, this is a fantastic score with loads of really great moments on it. The Gregorian influences really make the music pop, but even with that out of the equation, the baseline hooks for
Equilibrium are memorable and stand on their own two feet. It’s a real shame this OST didn’t get an official release as I feel music listeners are missing out on a really unique experience. You can still listen to this on YouTube, and I implore you to do so, however, if you can hunt down Cimmerian Records’ 2CD set, I’d definitely recommend grabbing that as it’s the most comprehensive version available. It also includes a “blueprint” style track that maps out all of the ideas in fifteen minutes – something I really enjoy listening to on these soundtracks. Hans Zimmer’s
Man of Steel “Sketchbook” song is a thirty-minute-long epic that embodies the entire project, and I regard it as the definitive song on there because of it. “Equilibrium Suite” is very much in the same vein, though not as slick transitionally. Still, it’s a great way to experience all the sounds and melodies this album has to offer. Overall, give this a listen if you’re a fan of soundtracks, there’s plenty here to enjoy. I certainly regard this as his finest hour, with Pirates being a close second.
