Minority Report

Set in the chillingly possible future of 2054, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report is arguably the most intelligently provocative sci-fi thriller since Blade Runner. Like Ridley Scott's "future noir" classic, Spielberg's gritty vision was freely adapted from a story by Philip K. Dick, with its central premise of "Precrime" law enforcement, totally reliant on three isolated human "precogs" capable (due to drug-related mutation) of envisioning murders before they're committed. As Precrime's confident captain, Tom Cruise preempts these killings like a true action hero, only to run for his life when he is himself implicated in one of the precogs' visions. Inspired by the brainstorming of expert futurists, Spielberg packs this paranoid chase with potential conspirators (Max Von Sydow, Colin Farrell), domestic tragedy, and a heartbreaking precog pawn (Samantha Morton), while Cruise's performance gains depth and substance with each passing scene. Making judicious use of astonishing special effects, Minority Report brilliantly extrapolates a future that's utterly convincing, and too close for comfort. --Jeff Shannon



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 genetically altered 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. Written by Soumitra




In Washington, D.C., in the year 2054, murder has been eliminated. The future is seen and the guilty punished before the crime has ever been committed. From a nexus deep within the Justice Department's elite Pre-Crime unit, all the evidence to convict--from imagery alluding to the time, place and other details--is seen by "Pre-Cogs," three psychic beings whose visions of murders have never been wrong. It is the nation's most advanced crime force, a perfect system. And no one works harder for Pre-Crime than its top man, Chief John Anderton. Destroyed by a tragic loss, Anderton has thrown all of his passion into a system that could potentially spare thousands of people from the tragedy he lived through. Six years later, the coming vote to take it national has only fueled his conviction that Pre-Crime works. Anderton has no reason to doubt it until he becomes its #1 suspect. As the head of the unit, Anderton is the first to see the images as they flow from the liquid suspension chamber where the Pre-Cogs dream of murder. The faces are unknown to him, but this time, the killer's identity is clear when Anderton will murder a total stranger in less than 36 hours. Now with his own unit tracking his every move, led by his rival Danny Witwer, Anderton must go below the radar of the state-of-the-art automated city, where every step you take is monitored. Because people can't hide, everybody runs. With no way to defend himself against the charge of Pre-Crime, John must trace the roots of what brought him here, and uncover the truth behind the questions he has spent the past six years working to eliminate: Is it possible for the Pre-Cogs to be wrong? Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}




Based off of a short story. It is the near future, a future where murders have become so common, that a system had to be established. This system is called "Precrime", where 3 physics can predict murders before they happen. Allowing police to stop the murders. This system is in production in Washington D.C. Where police officer John Anderton (who lost his son to a murder 6 years previous) has stopped numerous murders in his career. One day, he found out that he is the next person to commit a murder. Now, he is running away from a system he helped become successful, and trying to find out why he was set up to commit murder. Written by John Wiggins




Based on a Philip K. Dick short story, Minority Report is about a cop in the future working in a division of the police department that arrests killers before they commit the crimes courtesy of some future viewing technology. John Anderton has the tables turned on him when he is accused of a future crime and must find out what brought it about and stop it before it can happen Written by Anonymous




In the year 2054, a so-called "pre-crime division" is working around Washington, DC. Its purpose is to use the precog(nitive) potential of three genetically altered humans to prevent murders. When the three precogs, who only work together, floating connected in a tank of fluid, have a vision, the names of the victim and the perpetrator as well as video imagery of the crime and the exact time it will happen, are given out to the special cops who then try to prevent the crime from happening. But there is a political dilemma: If someone is arrested before he commits a murder, can the person be accused of the murder, which - because of the arrest - never took place? The project of pre-crime, at the time being in a state of trial run, is going to be voted about in the near future. If people accept it, the crime rate is going to drop drastically, but it never will be known if there might not be too many people imprisoned, some or even all of them innocent. After John Anderton lost his son to a crime a six years ago, he took up drugs, and works the precog division like nobody else. One day, his own name arrives in the "perpetrator" chute, and the precogs predict that he will kill a man he never knew in less than 36 hours. John takes off, his trust in the system diminishing rapidly. His own colleagues after him, John follows a very small trace that might hold the key to his innocence, a strange unsolved yet predicted murder and a so-called "minority report", a documentation of one of the rare events in which a precog sees something different than the other two. Written by Julian Reischl {julianreischl@mac.com}



It is the year 2054 - Washington D.C. - dreams can be recreated through computers, computer monitors and displays are transformed into holograms, and identification is done through eye-scanning. John Anderton lost his son, and to prevent horrible events from occurring to other individuals he joins a unit known as "Pre-Crime" - where murderers are arrested before they can commit the murder. How does Pre-Crime work? Through 3 people known as "precogs". They are 3 psychics used to see the future and they see murders exactly the way they will occur. Through advanced technology, Pre-Crime officers are able to see what the precogs see, and they analyze the data, identify the perpetrator and victim, and try their best to stop the murder from occurring. The perpetrator is put into a sleep state with a device called a "halo". John Anderton gets accused of murdering a man he has never even met, causing him to run from Pre-Crime and prove his innocence. Written by Demijan Omeragic "Nuh"




Ine the year 2054, murders are predicted before they happen. This is due to three supernatural beings called Precognitives. The three of them are kept in a milky substance in a room called the temple. Images from their brain are produced onto a screen, where Chief John Anderton searches for clues to the murder's location using the images. His faith in the system is born of pain. He lost his son, Sean, six years ago. He's now separated and divorced from his wife, Lara, and has resorted to drugs to keep himself in control. One day, however, his life turns around when the Precogs see a vision of him killing a man named Leo Crow. Now on the run from the cops of Precrime, Anderton has to prove his innocence and discover if his murder was one of the rare cases in which one Precog sees things differently from the other two, called a Minority Report. Written by Ridley Lavine




SYNOPSIS

WARNING: SPOILER

In Washington, D.C. in the year 2054, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) and his team of Precrime police officers are in the midst of apprehending a suspect who is about to commit a murder. They are acting on data obtained from the "precogs," three mutated humans who can see into the future. Only the names of the victim and perpetrator, and the time and date of the crime, are explicitly given; all other facts must be determined by studying the precogs' visions, which are transmitted from their brains directly into the Precrime computer system.

As Anderton works, he is observed by Danny Witwer (Collin Farrell), an agent from the United States Department of Justice. Witwer has been sent to evaluate the system because the country is about to vote on whether to expand the Precrime program nationally. After the suspect has been apprehended, the murder reappears on the displays. It is explained that the precogs sometimes think about a crime that has been stopped, and that these echo images are deleted from the system. That evening, Anderton reminisces over home movies of his ex-wife Lara (Kathryn Morris) and the couple's missing six-year-old son.

The next morning, he and Witwer tour the chamber in which the precogs are kept semiconscious and wired up to the system. After Witwer has gone, the precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) snaps fully awake, and images of a woman being murdered play across the chambers video screens. When Anderton investigates, he finds that the visions from the other two precogs, Arthur and Dashiell, are on record, but Agathas is not. The potential victim, a woman named Ann Lively, was reported as having gone missing shortly after her assailant was caught. Anderton reports his findings to Precrime Director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow), who suggests that he let the matter drop.

Upon returning to his office, Anderton is alerted to a new murder that is to take place in 36 hours, with himself as the perpetrator. He does not know the victim, Leo Crow, leading him to believe that he is being set up. As Witwer and the Precrime team close in, Anderton makes his way to the residence of Dr. Iris Hineman (Lois Smith), whose research laid the groundwork for the Precrime program. Hineman explains that the three precogs do not always agree on their visions of the future; when this happens, the one that deviates the most from the others is ignored. In order to establish his innocence, Anderton must determine whether this minority report exists and, if so, get it for himself.

Since everyone is subjected to iris scans wherever they go, Anderton undergoes an eye transplant at the hands of a shady doctor in order to escape detection in this manner. While sleeping after the surgery, he dreams about the day his son vanishedhe was abducted from a swimming pooland awakens to find the Precrime team searching the building for him. Small bipedal robotic eye scanners are sent into the rooms; one of them finds Anderton and scans his iris, but the surgery has succeeded and he is not recognized. Returning to the Precrime offices in disguise, Anderton removes Agatha from the precogs chamber, disrupting the trios hive mind that makes the system work. He takes her to a hacker friend of his, who successfully extracts her vision of Crows murder for Anderton to see. It is identical to the one he watched in his office.

Now Anderton tracks down Crow's address and gains entry to his apartment. Crow is not present, but he finds a pile of photographs of children, including his missing son. Anderton realizes that there is no minority report in his case he is going to kill Crow, whom he now blames for the kidnapping. When Crow enters, Anderton assaults him to extract a confession as Agatha tries to persuade Anderton that he does not have to commit this murder. He relents and begins to read Crow his Miranda rights. Crow reveals that the photographs are doctored and were given to him to leave in the apartment in order to set up this very confrontation. His family has been promised a cash payoff only if Anderton kills him; to force this outcome, Crow grabs Andertons gun while still in his hand, aims the weapon at himself, and pulls the trigger.

After Anderton and Agatha leave, Witwer and the Precrime team arrive to investigate the crime scene. Witwer has his doubts about the circumstances and later discusses them with Burgess, bringing up the Lively case as well. He now has all three precogs records of that murder, but slight differences between them lead him to deduce what really happened that day. Her potential killer was arrested based on the matching visions of Arthur and Dashiell, but a second person then arrived and killed her in exactly the same manner, the act seen by Agatha and later disregarded as an echo vision. Witwer suggests that only a member of Precrime could have the skill to manipulate the system in this way, whereupon Burgess kills him, knowing that the other precogs are unable to foresee this act with Agatha gone.

As Anderton and Agatha hide in Laras house, he realizes that he was set up because of what he knows about the Lively case. Lively, Agathas mother, had been killed because she wanted to reunite with her daughter. The police finally apprehend Anderton and return Agatha to the precogs chamber. Burgess later meets with Lara to comfort her, only to accidentally reveal that he killed Lively.

Lara forces the prison guard to release Anderton, who proceeds to interrupt a reception in Burgess honor by calling him and playing back the video that shows him killing Lively. At the same time, a new potential murder is reported at the office, with Anderton as victim and Burgess as perpetrator. Realizing that Anderton must be somewhere nearby, Burgess takes a revolver given to him as a present and begins searching the area. When the two men come face to face, Anderton points out the impossible situation. If Burgess shoots, he will prove that Precrime works at the cost of a life sentence; if not, the whole system falls apart. Burgess resolves the dilemma by killing himself instead.

In the aftermath of this incident, the Precrime program is abandoned. All criminals imprisoned under it are pardoned and released, though local police departments keep watch on many of them for years. Anderton reconciles with Lara, now pregnant with their second child, and the precogs are moved to an unnamed remote location where they can live in peace.