Minority Report

Minority Report (2002 film)

Laughably rendered,

over-wrought spectacle. Please

just read the story.

Minority Report (Short Story by Philip K. Dick)

Conspiracy? No.

Yes! No…? Free will means choice. (What?

Forget the precogs.)

A/N

I tried to watch Minority Report last night but it absolutely sucked. Once the jetpack chase scene commenced, the tone immediately degraded from drama to comedy. I had no way back into the film; they killed it right then. What followed was a weird, drawn out Lexus commercial and then a super cringey scene between Tom Cruise's Anderton and Lois Smith's Hineman. Suffice to say, I didn't watch further. When reading the remaining plot online, I learned just how much had yet to happen. Consider my mind blown by poor storyboarding decisions.

Some accuse sci-fi of being too complex. I blame the filmmakers who adapt perfectly sensible sci-fi stories into messes like this.

If, by chance, you like Minority Report, please help me understand why. 😂

As to P.K.D.'s story, it's extremely well-written. It raises very complicated and important questions about pre-determination and free-will, and manages to showcase a character arc that many modern narratives lack. For being a reactive character for much of the plot, Anderton ends up sacrificing his morals to protect his own ideas of justice and the good of society. Sure, he gets to leave Earth with his wife afterward, but no one said he was a good guy.

I was left wondering what Dick's opinion of free-will was, though. Despite the ethics of Precrime being questioned, it's ultimately protected by Anderton's actions. To his mind, only someone in his position (director of the Precrime department) could have been set up like he was because only someone with access to the visions would be able to alter them. But doesn't that still imply that informing predicted criminals of their fate could change their mind?

The last line of my second senryū, "Forget the precogs" is meant to evoke this question in the reader. If free will depends on choice, ie., making informed decisions, then the precogs are slaves, and intentionally ignorant slaves at that. Did they have any choice in what their lives have become? Can they quit? Thus, the system is founded on forced ignorance (precogs and majority reports) to enact justice. Much like our current society. If we don't know the law, they can enforce it however they want, right? As long as it's "in our best interests."

Whatever that means.

Oh! This was for Matthew Fromm's fun challenge! See more below: