In a futuristic dystopian society, citizens, known as "members", live under the Collective, the legislative body which monitors and controls the people's actions.

Returning home one night, he sees two citizens detained by officials and is reminded of a purported epidemic of Switched-On Syndrome (SOS), a multi-stage "disease" that restores human emotions.

Sufferers who do not take their own lives progress to stage four and are detained in the dreaded Defective Emotional Neuropathy Facility (the DEN), the Collective's institution, which no one ever leaves.

The next day at work a suicidal employee jumps to his death and the emotionless workers coldly analyze the moment.

At night while picking up their prescriptions Jonas invites Silas for a walk, and then discloses that he is part of a secret support group and offers help.

He decides to go, where he meets fellow members Bess, Peter, Thomas, Gil, Max and Alice, and learns that the DEN's patients half of the time, mostly through encouragement, end their own lives.

Scared, the two decide to go to the Peninsula, a secluded, primitive section of land, to the bewildered support of the group, who warn them they can never return if successful.

Silas observes Nia from a distance, remembering what they had been to each other, and seemingly affected by her portrayal of emotions much like the beginning of the film.

[8] In July 2014, Kate Lyn Sheil, Aurora Perrineau, and Jacki Weaver, joined the cast of the film.

[12] Doremus, Stewart, Hoult, and producer Michael Pruss attended a press conference in Tokyo on August 2, 2014 to announce the start of the film.

[17] On July 29, 2015, it was announced that Equals was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival and had its world premiere on September 5.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Equals is a treat for the eyes, but its futuristic aesthetic isn't enough to make up for its plodding pace and aimlessly derivative story.

[21] Peter Debruge of Variety, giving the film a positive review, said "Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult play citizens living in an emotion-free future who struggle to understand the attraction they feel for one another in this stylish, if simplistic sci-fi romance.

"[22] IndieWire gave the film a C−, writing that "the real wonder and marvel and breathless mystery of Equals may be that something so dazzlingly white can be so very dull.