MINORITY REPORT (FILM)

'''Minority Report''' is a 2002 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg, loosely based on the Philip K. Dick's 1956 short story "The Minority Report". It is set in the year 2054, where criminals are apprehended based on . The film stars Tom Cruise as John Anderton, a pre-crime officer, who heads the pre-crime police force.
The film cost over $100 million, though it made more than three times that in worldwide box office, and sold at least four million DVDs in its first few months of release.^[1][2] ''Minority Report'' was one of the best reviewed films of 2002,^[3] and was nominated for and won several awards.^[4] These included four Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction. ''Minority Report'' also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Editing. The film has a distinctive look, featuring desaturated colors which make it almost resemble a black-and-white film, yet the blacks and shadows have a high contrast, resembling film noir.

Contents

Cast and characters

Plot

Possible Interpretations of the Ending

Themes

Style

Music

Storyline differences

Reception

See also

References

External links

Cast and characters

★ Tom Cruise as Chief John Anderton; middle-aged divorced head of the pre-crime department in Washington D.C. affected emotionally by the disappearance of his son

★ Max von Sydow as Director Lamar Burgess; an elderly official in the Washington D.C. crime department and Anderton's superior

★ Colin Farrell as Danny Witwer; cocky Department of Justice agent sent to observe and evaluate the pre-crime process

★ Steve Harris as Jad. Jad oversees the pre-cogs and helps Anderton interpret their visions.

★ Neal McDonough as Fletcher; a Pre-crime officer who works alongside Anderton

★ Samantha Morton as Agatha; the lead pre-cog with the most powerful psychic abilities of the three

★ Lois Smith as Dr. Iris Hineman; one of the pioneers of the pre-crime program, currently retired

★ Kathryn Morris as Lara; Anderton's ex-wife and the mother of his missing son

★ Tim Blake Nelson as Gideon, the sentry at the Department of Containment, which contains all of the would-be killers tagged by Pre-crime. Gideon presents the images of the Ann Lively murder to Anderton.

★ Peter Stormare as the eye surgeon who transplants Anderton's eyes so as to avoid being detected by the retina scanners

Plot

The film is set in Washington, D.C. in 2054, where murderers are apprehended based on foreknowledge. This is provided by three psychics termed "pre-cogs", nicknamed Agatha (Morton), Dashiell, and Arthur. The group making use of the pre-cogs is the Department of Pre-Crime, a high-tech policing division who arrest criminals predicted by the pre-cogs. Thanks to it, the city has gone six years without a single murder. At the start of the film, pre-crime chief John Anderton (Cruise) is in the midst of apprehending a suspect, aided by his team. It is revealed that the pre-cogs only relate the time/date of the murder, the murderer's name, and the victim's name. All other facts, chiefly the location, can only be ascertained by clues given by the various images relayed around the time of murder. Images transfer from the pre-cogs' minds to a computer display, where Anderton manipulates the images in a manner similar to virtual reality to better determine how the murders might happen. Anderton is watched by Danny Witwer (Farrell), an observer from the Department of Justice sent to evaluate the system because the country is about to vote on whether to expand the Pre-Crime program nationally.

Later Anderton goes to his apartment, where he watches home movies of his six-year old son. It becomes evident that his son is missing, and that he is now divorced. The next morning, Witwer is given a tour of the pre-cogs' chamber. The pre-cogs float in a translucent substance, which helps enhance the images they produce. Anderton stays behind and Agatha suddenly emerges from the pool and grabs him. She draws his attention to the ceiling, which also displays images in a pre-cog's mind, now a woman named Ann Lively being murdered. Intrigued by a murder which he's never seen, Anderton decides to investigate. He learns that the other pre-cogs' images of the murder are on record, but Agatha's recorded images are missing; further inspection reveals that her pre-vision is absent in at least another dozen murders. Anderton tells this to Burgess (Von Sydow), his boss and the director of pre-crime, who appears unconcerned.
The next day, Anderton finds a new case unfolding: a murder is to take place in 36 hours. This is unusual: because the pre-cogs are public knowledge, few plan to murder someone in any given time; most crimes are acts of passion, decided upon the spot. The victim is a man named Leo Crow. The murderer is revealed to be Anderton himself. Believing that he is being since he doesn't even know the victim, Anderton takes it on the lam. He manages to escape Witwer and his own team in a car factory, and seeks refuge in the country home of Iris Hineman, one of the pioneers of pre-crime. She reveals that the three pre-cogs were actually the children of people who experimented with a new drug that did serious damage to their bodies, and that the pre-cogs do not always agree in their opinions about the future. On occasion, those convicted of a pre-crime may have an alternative future other than the one where the murder is committed, and, when this happens, the dissenting opinion is left out. Anderton's only hope at proving his innocence is acquiring the hidden "minority report", which Hineman explains is contained in Agatha, the most gifted pre-cog.
Travelling undetected is difficult, since everyone is subjected to constant public retinal scans. Anderton visits a shady doctor (Peter Stormare) to receive an eye transplant. While recovering - during which he must keep bandages over his eyes or go blind -, he dreams of his son, abducted from a swimming pool. He awakens to discover that the pre-crime team is investigating the building with "spyders", robotic eye scanners. He tries to hide but is scanned. The surgery proves successful, however, and he is not identified. Later, he manages to reach the pre-crime offices. He takes Agatha out of the nutrient water disrupting the pre-cog hive mind that makes pre-crime work and escapes again. Anderton finds a hacker friend who accesses Agatha's vision of the murder, which appears identical to the one he saw earlier. An anguished Anderton begins to wonder if a minority report even exists for his future crime. Agatha then begins showing the Ann Lively murder again, prompting Anderton to realise that she wants him to see who killed Lively, but they are forced to flee as the pre-crime team enters the building.

Inexorably, Anderton ends up in Leo Crow’s empty apartment. Searching the room, he finds a pile of photos of children, including his son. Anderton suddenly realizes that there ''is'' no minority report for himself, and that Leo Crow is responsible for kidnapping his son. Anderton ''had'' pre-planned this murder, a long standing wish to kill the previously anonymous person who took his son. Crow then enters and Anderton viciously attacks him, eliciting a confession. Agatha tries to convince Anderton that he does not have to kill Crow, that his future isn't set because he actually knows what it could be, unlike everyone else caught by the pre-crime system. As he is about to shoot Crow, Anderton reconsiders. Crow then says that if Anderton doesn’t kill him, Crow’s family will get nothing: the entire murder was a set up. Crow refuses to tell Anderton who set him up, grabs Anderton’s gun to point it at his chest and manages a suicide by cop by worrying Anderton's hand. Anderton and Agatha leave.
The pre-crime unit arrives and investigates the scene. Witwer sees the photos and raises questions as to what sort of child killer would leave so much evidence lying around. Witwer then discusses his doubts with Burgess and shows him the Ann Lively pre-vision, but two different ones; one from recorded images at pre-crime, the other from Agatha, downloaded by Anderton's hacker friend. The images have slight differences, such as water lapping in opposite directions. Witwer infers that they represent two different murders; the first was the one pre-crime witnessed and someone else, who had set up the first suspect, would then, right after the first suspect was apprehended, kill Lively. Having viewed the Lively pre-vision beforehand, that person would commit the murder in the exact way the pre-cogs had predicted it before. Because pre-cogs sometimes dream of past murders (referred to as an 'echo' or 'pre-cog deja vu'), technicians at pre-crime would assume the murder of Ann Lively being shown again is just the past murder that happened. Witwer intuits that only someone high up would even have access to the pre-cog's pre-visions. Burgess shoots him; since Agatha is with Anderton, pre-crime is not able to prevent the murder.
Anderton hides in his ex-wife Lara’s house; there he realizes he was set up because of his discovery of the Ann Lively murder. Lively is revealed to be Agatha's mother, and was killed because she wanted to re-unite with Agatha and thus ruin pre-crime. The police arrive and arrest Anderton. Later, Burgess accidentally reveals to Lara that he killed Lively by mentioning that she had drowned when Lara never specified the manner of death. Lara releases Anderton from prison using his transplanted eyes, and as Burgess is giving a speech, Anderton confronts him by showing the audience Agatha's pre-vision of Burgess killing Ann Lively. Burgess takes a gun and starts after Anderton; the pre-cogs are back online, they predict the murder and the pre-crime team race away to apprehend him. Anderton shows Burgess that he's at a dead end. If he doesn't shoot him, Pre-crime would end due to incorrectly predicting a murder; if he does shoot him, he would be arrested, but it would prove that the system works. Anderton then explains the fatal flaw of the system: if someone knows their own future, he or she can choose to change it. Burgess commits suicide.
In the final sequence, Anderton explains in voiceover that the pre-crime experiment was shut down. All the criminals imprisoned by the program were unconditionally pardoned, although some were kept under surveillance by police for years afterward. The pre-cogs were taken to an undisclosed location where they could live out their lives in seclusion and peace, no longer tormented by their talents. Anderton reconciles with Lara, who is now pregnant.

Possible Interpretations of the Ending

There are two main possible interpretations of the ending. The first is that Lara frees John from his prison and overthrows the entire pre-crime system. The second is that everything after John's arrest takes place in John's mind while he is wearing a halo in prison. The main supporting evidence for this is that the characters say several times that people's dreams come true while they wear their halos and many of John's dreams (overthrowing pre-crime, getting back together with his wife, having another child) come true after that scene. However, it has been argued that if this theory were true, then John also would have gotten his son back.

Themes

"Like Odin, Anderton must give up his eyes to find wisdom".^[5] This mythic narrative of the getting of wisdom through sacrifice is central to the movie.
A principal theme of ''Minority Report'' is the classical philosophical question of free will vs. determinism.^[6][7] One of the main questions the film raises is whether the future is set or whether free will can alter the future.^[8] As critic C.A. Wolski commented, "At the outset, Minority Report... promises to mine some deep subject matter, to wit do we possess free will or are we predestined to our fate?" However, there is also the added question of whether the pre-cogs visions are correct. As James Berardinelli commented in his review of the film "is the Precogs' vision accurate, or has it in some way been tampered with? Perhaps Anderton isn't actually going to kill, but has been set up by a clever and knowledgeable criminal who wants him out of the way." The pre-cog Agatha also states that since Anderton knows his future, he can change it. However, the film also indicates that Anderton's knowledge of the future may actually be the factor that causes Leo Crow's death. Berardinelli describes this as the main paradox regarding free will vs. determinism in the film, "[h]ere's the biggest one of all: Is it possible that the act of accusing someone of a murder could begin a chain of events that leads to the slaying. In Anderton's situation, he runs because he is accused. The only reason he ends up in circumstances where he might be forced to kill is because he is a hunted man. Take away the accusation, and there would be no question of him committing a criminal act. The prediction drives the act - a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can see the vicious circle, and it's delicious (if a little maddening) to ponder." Most critics gave this element of the film positive reviews,^[9] with many ranking it as the main strength of the film.^[10] Other reviewers however, felt that Spielberg did not adequately deal with the issues that he raised.^[11]

Style

''Minority Report's unique visual style: It was overlit, and the negatives were bleach-bypassed in post-production to desaturate the colors in the film.

''Minority Report'' is a futuristic film which portrays both elements of a dystopian and utopian future. The film renders a much more detailed view of a near-term future world than that present in the original short story, with depictions of a number of technologies related to the film's themes.
From a stylistic standpoint, ''Minority Report'' resembles ''A.I.'', its immediate Spielberg-directed predecessor.^[12] The picture was deliberately overlit, and the negative was bleach-bypassed during post-production.^[13] This gave the film a distinctive look, with colors severely desaturated, almost to the point where the film looked like a black-and-white film, yet the blacks and shadows have a high contrast, looking almost like a film noir picture. Elvis Mitchell, formerly of the ''The New York Times'', commented that, "[t]he picture looks as if it were shot on chrome, caught on the fleeing bumper of a late 70's car."^[14] This distinctive look is the first major stylistic shift in science fiction films since ''Blade Runner'' and the "used future" look of ''Alien'', and has subsequently influenced cinematography and production design in the same way that those earlier pictures influenced the look of the science fiction films of the 1980s and 1990s.

Music

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (commonly known as the ''Unfinished Symphony'') features prominently in the film. The score itself was composed and conducted by John Williams and orchestrated by John Neufeld, with vocals by Deborah Dietrich. The soundtrack takes much inspiration from Bernard Hermann's work.^[15]

Storyline differences

''Minority Report'' had many adaptations in its film transition, such as the addition of Lamar Burgess and changing of the setting from New York City to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. To fit its portrayer and the action scenes, John Anderton was turned from old, balding, and out-of-shape to an athletic officer in his 40s. The pre-cogs were turned from the retarded and deformed to descendants of drug addicts. Anderton's future murder and reasons of the conspiracy were changed from a general who wants to discredit Pre-Crime in order to get more military financing back, to a man who was hired to be murdered by Anderton in order to prevent him from discovering a murder his superior committed years ago. Other aspects were updated to include current technology. For instance in the story, Anderton uses a punch card machine to interpret the pre-cogs visions; in the movie, he uses a virtual reality interface.^[16]

Reception

The film received highly positive reviews, being considered "an intelligent and visually imaginative film that ranks among Spielberg's best"^[17] and gathering high scores in review tallying websites: 91% on Rotten Tomatoes^[18] and 80 out of a possible 100 in Metacritic.^[19] Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and listed it as the best film of 2002. In his review he described it as "...a triumph--a film that works on our minds and our emotions." Some criticisms were also raised—Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine felt that "the script raises moral questions it doesn't probe" and Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' considered the plot "too intricate and difficult to follow."^[20] The film debuted at first place in the U.S. box office, with $35.677 million^[21] and collected $132 million in the United States and $226.3 million overseas.¹ It was also successful in the home video market, selling at least four million copies in its first few months of release on DVD.^[2]
The film earned nominations for many awards, including Best Sound Editing in the Academy Awards and Best Visual Effects in the BAFTAs. Among the awards won were four Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Samantha Morton), the BMI Film Music Award, the Online Film Critics Society for Supporting Actress and the Empire Awards for Actor, Director and British Actress.

See also

★ Inchoate offense

★ Able Danger, a Data mining program intended to predict crime.

★ '', a video game based on the movie

References

1. Minority Report box office reports
2. Home Video (DVD & VHS) Out Sells Feature Films, Video Games and Movies in 2002
3. Best of 2002
4. Minority Report nominations and awards
5. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1807592183/parentsguide
6. Minority Report box office reports Wolski, C.A.
7. Minority Report Ratskiwatski, Ignatz
8. Minority Report Berardinelli, James
9. Minority Report (2002) Info & Tidbits on Minority Report
10. Minority Report review Ebert, Roger
11. Minority Report review Travers, Peter
12. Minority Report
13. Minority Report review Jocobson, Colin
14. Halting Crime In Advance Has Its Perils
15.
16. Future shock: Steven Spielberg's Minority Report is in. Find out how it will make you a better person. - movie review
17. Info & Tidbits On Minority Report
18. Minority Report reviews
19. Minority Report entry
20. A Walk in the Dark Turan, Kenneth
21. Weekend Box Office, June 21–23, 2002
22. Home Video (DVD & VHS) Out Sells Feature Films, Video Games and Movies in 2002

External links

★ ''Minority Report'' concept art by James Clyne

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