Minority Report (2002)

It’s difficult to make a summer blockbuster film capable of making audiences think. The summer months are typically reserved for big-budget franchises, goofy comedies, cheeky action films and sappy chick flicks. Minority Report is one of those rare summer releases that has the ability to give its core audience exactly what it wants while daring to add a dash of maturity and philosophical intrigue.

Set in 2054, the film focuses on the Department of Precrime, a highly specialized task force that has eliminated virtually all murders in Washington D.C. and its suburbs. Using three mutated humans with precognitive abilities, the Department of Precrime is able to see when and where murders will occur and stop them before they happen. In a matter of weeks, the US Department of Justice is planning to take the Precrime method and expand it to a national level.

Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, chief of Precrime. Despite the success of the program, he is a troubled man. Years before, his son was abducted right out from under his nose, never to be found. Since then, his obsession with Precrime killed his marriage and he is secretly addicted to psychoactive drugs. As if it isn’t bad enough that Anderton has skeptical DOJ officers poking around the department on a daily basis, the trio of precogs throw him for a loop when they predict that he will murder someone in a few days.

Anderton doesn’t know the man he is supposed to murder but, in the world of Precrime, that doesn’t matter one bit. Anderton attempts to hide the precogs’ vision long enough for him to escape Precrime headquarters. Once the prediction is discovered, the film becomes a wild cat-and-mouse game as Anderton uses his knowledge of Precrime tactics and technology to evade capture, all the while trying to figure out why he is going to murder someone he doesn’t even know.

The filmmakers could have simply stopped with the manhunt storyline and still ended with a similar conclusion. Thankfully, they did not. Instead of a generic, sci-fi chase flick, the writers and director Steven Spielberg expand upon the philosophical musings and paranoia of Phillip K. Dick’s original short story.

Instead of characters simply questioning the merits of Precrime, we get to see the process breakdown before our eyes. The audience isn’t treated like a bunch of children. We don’t get ‘Sunday School’ answers here. Rather, characters discuss the pros and cons of using precognition to prevent crime like thinking adults. This allows the audience to consider the heady concepts of free will versus determinism after the on-screen conversations stop and the action picks up.

One of the unique aspects of the film is how restrained Spielberg is with his depiction of the near-future. Instead of teleporters and outlandish clothing, most of 2054 looks like it does now. Sure, there are futuristic-looking cars that flow along magnetic roads and the police use non-lethal, charged-air blasters instead of guns with bullets but Minority Report gives us a future built on the present instead of one that has completely overtaken it.

Anderton finds ways to work around the technology of the future, which goes to show that all the gadgetry in the world is no match for human determination. The most dangerous challenge comes in the form of iris scanners set up across the entire city. These scanners help police track down the movements of suspects as well as advertisers pitch products specifically to individuals. The scanners are impossible to avoid, leading Anderton to take drastic steps to avoid detection (this also leads up to an intense scene where he is cornered by iris scanning robot spiders). This technology is especially creepy now that it is actually going to be used for these very purposes in real life.

Less than ten years later, some of the effects already look dated but that is almost to be expected with the rapid improvement of CGI and motion capture. The overuse of digital grading to sap some of the saturation and vibrancy from the color palette seems silly to me but it does help match the bleakness of Anderton’s dilemma, which Cruise puts all of his effort into. In fact, most of the cast do a terrific job of making their characters, and this future world, seem believable.

I won’t deny that this film runs a little long. As much as I enjoy the philosophical arguments, the intricate murder mystery and the fantastically choreographed action sequences, the nearly two and a half hour run time wears on you come the third reel. Some will feel just as exhausted as Anderton does by the time the film begins wrapping things up. This will turn some viewers off, especially if they aren’t as interested in sci-fi thrillers as the intended audience but those who have the patience, nerves and determination to see Minority Report through to the end will be rewarded.

The big question asked by this film is ‘Can the future be changed?’ You’ll have to watch this one to find out.

RATING: 3.75 out of 5