Minority Report Review

 

        I remember I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel back in the mid-2000s. There was a show that talked about Hollywood movie science, and in one of the segments included from the film Minority Report. One of the first shots that I saw was the use of tiny tripods in the film. That was only a small slice of the futuristic tech in the whole movie. When I finally sat down and watched it for a film class at Texas A&M, never would I think that this would be my favorite Steven Spielberg film. SPOILERS will appear in the review.  

1. Story

        The film takes place in 2054, John Anderton played by Tom Cruise is an officer for a new department called PreCrime. Their job is to stop crimes before they even happen. They use a dual way to assess threats by using three beings called Precogs. Twins and a woman who have clairvoyant powers to see into the future. Also, technology that helps John with putting together footage that the Precogs see.  After a successful mission, Agent Danny Witwer played by Colin Farrell, assesses the department before giving it the go ahead to become permanent. 

        While looking through new footage from the clairvoyants, John realizes that he is a perpetrator for killing a man. He goes on the run from his fellow officers and Agent Witwer, in an attempt to clear his name. I never realized that the overall world and technology would make me love this film. I feel that the film is a combination of an action, sci fi, and noir film rolled into one. Not once where it feels so tonally off but manages to keep the action and the drama balanced to make an enjoyable film. 

        One of the other things about the film that is the focus is the technology. Back in 2002, nobody thought that we would have anything that closely matched the film. Most of it feels quaint and not that far off, considering that we have ads targeting us and wireless earphones where we can talk to people. Although, you would probably need a phone. Not that it didn’t steal the spotlight, I feel that it’s a character in its own right. The world feels idealistic but frightening. Since the very idea that you or anyone can be a criminal for a crime you weren’t aware that would happen. 

2. PreCrime

        The whole organization is the main thing that drives John to be who he is. We get a reason as to why he joins. He lost his son at a pool and vows to use the department to try to find him. When he gets confronted by Agent Witwer, it is probably one of the best moments in the film. They discuss just how PreCrime is functional. It’s a battle of wits in the spoken word. Since Danny is questioning if its possible that the department is prone to mistakes and John sticking to his guns by saying it’s a fool proof way of dispensing justice. 

        I like that it’s not very biased but presents the organization as a good and bad. Mostly leaning to the really bad aspect. Since we see that John might have sent some innocent civilians to jail. The whole futuristic jail is such a frightening sight, most of the prisoners are in a suspended state where they see an idealistic vision of their life. The whole unraveling of the department mostly helps the character arc of John. Who becomes such a cheerleader for the new way of justice, to running away from it. 

        Even when John meets the founder of Precrime, she has doubts about the whole project. Throughout the film, it more or less talks about the idea that maybe stopping a crime before it happens is wrong. For anyone, it seems ideal since nobody gets hurt. On the other side of the coin, someone innocent might become a victim for a false arrest. It’s more or less a metaphor on authority since that is fallible as well. For a film to based on a short story from the same writer that wrote Blade Runner, he appears to be prescient. 

3. Precogs

        Continuing from my talk about the department, these beings as well gets its own tab. All three are named after detective authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie. We only ever focus on the clairvoyant Agatha since she has the McGuffin that drives the film and gives John what he needs to clear his name. The whole reason as to why they were granted the ability to see into the future made sense, sort of. They explained that they were birthed from some drug using parents. I’ll let that slide since it is the future and I’m assuming any narcotic can produce some power.

        I like that they as well bring the conundrum that PreCrime isn’t a reliable system of justice. When we see their visions of a crime that will happen, there appears to be some version where it happens differently. It’s used so well as a red herring since the director of Precrime Lamar Burgess, played by Max von Sydow actually manipulated the future in order to implicate John from using Agatha to solve her mother’s death. 

4. Very Basic Philosophy That I Understood, And So Can You

        Now this movie has some philosophy that anyone can understand. Hell, it’s in the dialogue as well. There are two concepts at work here: the idea of free will and predeterminism. The latter is mostly this, anything that is going to happen will happen. John sees his supposed crime being committed and he is given a chance to avoid it from happening. I like that concept since there is a chance for him to essentially avoid being a cold-blooded killer. 

        That isn’t to say that the movie is deep in anyway. The ending is probably my only complaint since John gets captured and anyone can interpret that what we see after is what John is being shown in the futuristic jail cell. Although, with that he can’t see what his ex-wife is saying to Lamar. Who knows, it’s cathartic since John gives Burgess an ultimatum to either give Precrime the attention it deserves or ruin it. All which is a catch 22, and highlighting the philosophical points I just mentioned. 

5. Overall 

        As I said earlier, Minority Report is one of my favorite Spielberg movies. An honest tough choice to really pick and choose a favorite, but this one is a within the Top 5. It’s prescient with its subject matter and the technology isn’t that far off. Just the thought that the film is nearly 20 years old is crazy to me. More so that people have not heard of it nowadays. 

       Minority Report gets a four out of five.