Equanimity in extreme disturbance cases

Equanimity is one of the central points of buddhism practice. I am curious what would happen to that state in cases of extreme disturbance. Imagine that you were in immediate danger, like being killed by someone , robbed or raped. I guess Equanimity would not be helpful on those cases, unless we are talking about calmness to think better how to counter-attack. But that would require action, and not only being observer, how equanimity states. With base of these circunstances, i would like to hear your opinions. What would happen to an equanimity state in case of extreme disturbances?