Review of Minority Report (2002) by Another V — 09 Jan 2017

Minority Report is an action-packed futuristic sci fi thriller directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise.

It's set in a futuristic 2054, with a lot of futuristic technology, some of which is already here. We already have thermal scanners and the early stages of biometric scanners.

One of the prime themes in Minority Report is precognition. Three Precogs are kept floating in a little pool in a state of sleep, milked for their nightmares of actual murders. An enterprising guy contrived to use the Precogs, like animals, and the PreCrime Unit was created. PreCrime detection has brought the murder rate in Washington DC to about 0, a phenomenal success.

Now, someone from the Attorney General's office is looking into it, with the possibility of expanding the system nationwide, which I don't see how would work since the PreCogs can only sense murders in a 200 mile radius, right? And there are only 3 of them, so in order to expand it nationwide, you'd need to create more PreCogs by giving more pregnant women the drugs that caused it, which we find out is fatal for nearly all children born this way. Dilemmas which they don't really get into in this.

Detective John Anderton, whose own son was murdered before the PreCrime system went into effect, works relentlessly as a member of the PreCrime Team to stop murders before they happen. When this supposedly failproof murder detection system says that Anderton himself is going to commit a murder, Anderton goes on the run and tries to figure out what is going on and why. He is in a race against time and a race against getting caught. It doesn't help that almost everywhere he goes, scanning technologies identify him.

With all the action and suspense, it's easy to overlook multiple characters who seemed to be strangely odd, possibly sexually deviant. For example, the guy who takes care of the PreCogs. He seems to especially like Agatha. And the surgeon and his naughty nurse who change out Anderton's eyes? Wow.