videoinside.org | Minority Report (film)

Minority Report stars Tom Cruise as John Anderton, a Precrime officer who heads the Precrime police force. Colin Farrell plays Danny Witwer, an agent from the Department of Justice who is sent to observe the process, Samantha Morton portrays the senior precog Agatha, and Max von Sydow plays Lamar Burgess, Anderton's superior.

Minority Report was one of the best reviewed films of 2002,^[2] and was nominated for and won several awards.^[3] 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 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.^[4]^[5]

Plot

In 2054, John Anderton is a member of the Washington, D.C. Precrime police force, which uses future visions generated by three "precogs", mutated humans with precognition abilities, to stop violent crimes. The precogs visions, caused by echoes of violent events, explicitly give the name of the victim, the perpetrator, and the date & time of the crime, but other details must be studied by analyzing the precogs' visions. Though Anderton is a respected member of the force, he repeatedly uses a fictitious illegal drug called neuroin to try to forget his estranged marriage, caused by the disappearance of his son. With the Precrime force poised to go nationwide, the system is audited by Danny Witwer, a member of the United States Department of Justice. During the audit, the precogs predict that Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crow in 36 hours; believing the incident to be a setup by Witwer, who is now aware of Anderton's addiction, Anderton attempts to hide the case and quickly departs the area before a manhunt is issued for him, led by Witwer. Anderton tries to avoid detection from iris scanners in the city, and seeks the advice of Dr. Iris Hineman, the lead researcher that developed the Precrime technology. She explains to Anderton that the precogs may see different visions of the future, and that the system only provides the data on the agreeing reports; the "minority report" is discarded, but in Anderton's case, may be needed to prove his innocence. Dr. Himeman further explains that the female precog Agatha is likely the one to have witnessed the minority report.

Anderton turns to a shady Swedish doctor named Eddie Solomon (Peter Stormare), a man he earlier had arrested, to get his eyes transplanted. Eddie transplants his eyes, but he will go blind if he removes the bandages before 12 hours pass. After doing this, Eddie gives John neuroin so he can "sleep" away the operation's effects. During his sleep, two Precrime officers arrived searching for Anderton. They deploy spyderbots, who scan all the people in the buildings' eyes, including John's, but he is not discovered due to the transplant. Afterwards, John travels back to Precrime using his old eyes to access the precogs' chamber, Anderton extracts Agatha from the system, disabling the precogs' hive mind and preventing the system from being used. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker who is able to extract Agatha's vision of the event, which shows no differences from the other two precogs - the minority report does not exist in this case. The hacker also is able to extract a vision of the murder of a woman named Anne Lively, which Agatha has envisioned before while part of the Precrime system. Anderton and Agatha escape before the Precrime force finds them, and head to the apartment where Crow is to be killed. Inside, Anderton finds hundreds of pictures of children, including his son, and when Crow enters, Anderton holds him at gunpoint to explain the situation. Crow admits that his family would be paid handsomely if he planted these photos and then was killed. Anderton refuses to kill him, but Crow grabs Anderton's gun and makes him fire at point-blank range, killing Crow. Anderton decides to approach his ex-wife for refuge, and the two leave before the precrime division arrives. While hiding out, Anderton realizes that his knowledge of the Lively case is why he is being targeted; Lively was the mother of Agatha and a drug addict, but managed to clean herself up and wanted to see her daughter again, but was killed shortly after her request.

After assessing Crow's murder, Witwer becomes doubtful that Anderton had killed in cold blood, and approaches the Precrime division's director Lamar Burgess. Witwer reveals to Burgess that, through the differing visions of the murder of Lively, someone has managed to manipulate the system to a desired outcome by first faking a murder and then recreating the same setting to perform the actual murder. Witwer explains the killer could hire someone to fake the murder, which the precogs would predict and have the person caught. Immediately afterward, however, the real killer would perform the murder in the exact same way. Because precogs sometimes experience relapses, or "echoes," of past murders, technicians at Precrime would disregard the vision as an echo. Witwer then points out that the killer would have to have been someone with proper clearance to view the precog visions. At this, Burgess kills Witwer, knowing that his crime would not be detected without Agatha present, and framing Anderton for the murder. The Precrime unit eventually captures Anderton and restores Agatha to the system. Burgess attempts to comfort Lara, but accidentally reveals that he was the one that killed Lively. Lara uses this information to free Anderton. At a banquet to celebrate the success of the Precrime unit and Burgess, Anderton plays back Agatha's vision of Lively's murder for the gathered crowd, clearly showing Burgess as the murderer, causing Burgess to start to hunt down Anderton. A new precrime report is created by the precogs, showing Anderton as the victim and Burgess as the murderer. When Burgess catches up to Anderton, Anderton explains the impossible situation: if Burgess kills Anderton, he proves the system works but at the cost of a life sentence, while if he does not, the system will not have worked and will shut down the Precrime division. Burgess resolves the paradox by killing himself. The Precrime program is shut down, all those jailed as a result of Precrime are pardoned and released, and the precogs are given the chance to lead a full life while Anderton reweds Lara and start a new family for themselves. However, when somebody is incarcerated for a precrime, they are subject to a kind of virtual reality, as described by the handicapped corrections officer (Tim Blake Nelson). Thus, everything that happens after Anderton is incarcerated for the precrime could be nothing more than a dream.

Cast and characters

Production

The original story by Philip K. Dick was previously adapted as a potential sequel to Total Recall by writers Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman (later joined by Robert Goethals). The setting was changed to Mars with the precogs being people mutated by the Martian atmosphere, as established in the first film. The main character was also changed to Douglas Quaid, the man played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.^[6] The project eventually dissolved but the writers, who still owned the rights to the original story, rewrote the script, removing the elements from Total Recall. This script was eventually discarded when writer Jon Cohen was hired in 1997 to start the project over from the beginning.^[6]

In 1998, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise joined Minority Report and announced its production, in a joint venture of 20th Century Fox, Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG, Cruise's Cruise-Wagner Productions and Jan de Bont's production company, Blue Tulip.^[7] Production for Minority Report was delayed for several years. It was originally planned to begin filming after Cruise's Mission: Impossible II was finished,^[7] but the film ran over schedule, which also allowed screenwriter Scott Frank to rework Cohen's script.^[8] Then, after the death of Spielberg's friend Stanley Kubrick, Spielberg finished Kubrick's project A.I., postponing Minority Report,^[9] which later started its shooting on March 22, 2001.^[10] When Spielberg originally signed on to direct, he planned to have an entirely different supporting cast. He originally offered the role of Witwer to Matt Damon, Iris Hineman to Meryl Streep, Burgess to Ian McKellen, Agatha to Cate Blanchett, and Lara to Jenna Elfman.^[10] However owing to the delays, all the roles other than Cruise had to be recast.

In 1999, Spielberg invited fifteen experts convened by Global Business Network and its chairman, Peter Schwartz (and the demographer and journalist Joel Garreau),^[11] to a hotel in Santa Monica, California to brainstorm and flesh out details of a possible "future reality" for the year 2054. The experts included Stewart Brand, Peter Calthorpe, Douglas Coupland, Neil Gershenfeld, biomedical researcher Shaun Jones, Jaron Lanier, and former MIT architecture dean William J. Mitchell.^[12] While the discussions did not change key elements needed for the film's action sequences, they were influential in introducing some of the more utopian aspects of the film, though John Underkoffler, the science and technology advisor for the film, described the film as "much grayer and more ambiguous" than what we envisioned in 1999.^[13]

Much of the filming took place in Washington, D.C. where the story takes place. Film locations included Georgetown and the Ronald Reagan Building.

Themes

The main themes of Minority Report are the classic philosophical questions surrounding foreknowledge and free will vs. determinism.^[14]^[15] One of the main questions the film raises is whether the future is set or whether free will can alter the future.^[16] 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?"^[14] However, there is also the added question of whether the precogs visions are correct.^[16] 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."^[16] The precog 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,^[16] "[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."^[16] Most critics gave this element of the film positive reviews,^[17] with many ranking it as the main strength of the film.^[15]^[16]^[18] Other reviewers however, felt that Spielberg did not adequately deal with the issues that he raised.^[14]^[19]

The film questions the notion that people live towards one predestined future in the same way a traditional detective must solve the mystery towards one unalterable truth. In that sense, the movie is akin to postmodern detective fiction where the detective serves as a decryptor to the Pre-cog's "pattern recognition" ability. The detectives use the Pre-cogs as an investigation tool without fully understanding how their powers work or what future vision they are foreseeing. The detective must deal with the possibility that there is a separate truth to be found (the elusive minority report) and whether it is through some conspired "set up" or created by previous knowledge and intervention.

Style

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,^{[citation needed]} 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.^[20] The picture was deliberately overlit, and the negative was bleach-bypassed during post-production.^[21] 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.^[21] 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 '70s car."^[22]

Music

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony) features prominently in the film. The score 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.^[23]

Multi-touch technology foreshadowing

The film foreshadowed multi-touch technology that would become a reality several years later. Anderton interacts with the Precrime computer using a large holographic wall display, which he manipulates with his hands while wearing special gloves. He uses gestures such as "spreading" to enlarge an image and "dragging" to move images around. Earlier films such as Tron (1982) had featured multi-touch technology, but the fast, fluid, and dynamic manipulation of real-time video in Minority Report captured the public imagination in a way that earlier depictions had not.

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.^[20] The precogs 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 Precrime in order to get more military financing back, to a man who murdered a precog's mother in order to get Precrime going, and subsequent murders and plot because of this. Other aspects were updated to include current technology. For instance in the story, Anderton uses a punch card machine to interpret the precogs' visions; in the movie, he uses a virtual reality interface.^[24]

Reception

The film received highly positive reviews, being considered "an intelligent and visually imaginative film that ranks among Spielberg's best"^[25] and gathering high scores in review tallying websites: 92% on Rotten Tomatoes^[26] and 80 out of a possible 100 in Metacritic.^[27] 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."^[18] Some criticisms were also raised—Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine felt that "the script raises moral questions it doesn't probe"^[19] and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times considered the plot "too intricate and difficult to follow."^[28] The film debuted at first place in the U.S. box office, with $35.677 million^[29] and collected $132 million in the United States and $226.3 million overseas.^[4] It was also successful in the home video market, selling at least four million copies in its first few months of release on DVD.^[5]

Plot Inconsistencies

Minority Report (film)

Contents

Plot

Cast and characters

Production

Themes

Style

Music

Multi-touch technology foreshadowing

Storyline differences

Reception

Plot Inconsistencies

See also

References

External links

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Box Office (USA)

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