In a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers
before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused
of a future murder.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Philip K. Dick (short story), Scott Frank (screenplay) | 1 more
credit »
Stars: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton.
Storyline
In the year 2054 A.D. crime is virtually eliminated from Washington D.C.
thanks to an elite law enforcing squad "Precrime". They use three
gifted humans (called "Pre-Cogs") with special powers to see into the
future and predict crimes beforehand. John Anderton heads Precrime and believes
the system's flawlessness steadfastly. However one day the Pre-Cogs predict
that Anderton will commit a murder himself in the next 36 hours. Worse,
Anderton doesn't even know the victim. He decides to get to the mystery's core
by finding out the 'minority report' which means the prediction of the female
Pre-Cog Agatha that "might" tell a different story and prove Anderton
innocent.
Box Office
Budget: $102,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $35,677,125 (USA) (21 June 2002)
Gross: $132,014,112 (USA)
(25 October 2002)
User
Reviews
The future, we are told, are what we make of it. Philip K. Dick did not
want to take that chance, so he wrote many many many short stories about the
future of man and where we, as a society, were headed. Blade Runner, Total
Recall, Paycheck, Screamers, and Minority Report are all short stories written
by Dick about the future that have been turned into a movie, and most have a
less than enthusiastic view of where we are headed. In Minority Report, we see
the effects of predicting the future to the point of crimes are prevented by
arresting murderers before they kill. If that does not appear logical, there is
a quick little scene early in the movie that addresses those concerns, and on the
surface makes sense. Tom Cruise plays the Washington,
DC pre-crime chief, John
Anderton, who runs the investigators who rely on 3 scientifically engineered
beings who can see murders before they happen. The system, of course, raises
civil liberty issues, but seems to work perfectly, that is until Anderton is
fingered for a murder. The rest of the movie, Anderton tries to not only prove
that he is innocent, but also that he was set up, possibly by an oily
Department of Justice figure who is investigating Precrime before it goes
national after an election, played by Colin Farrell. Directed by Steven
Spielberg, Minority Report plays as both a "Whodunnit?" and a
futuristic exercise of science fiction. Much time was spent on designing the Washington, DC
of the 2050s, including cars that run on magnets, virtual reality stations, and
much more throughout the film. The most interesting design is of the "sick
sticks" used by cops to bring down criminals.