Taglines: The system is perfect until it comes after you.
Minority Report movie 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.
Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story of the same name by Philip K. Dick. The cast includes Tom Cruise as Chief of PreCrime John Anderton, Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as the senior precog Agatha, and Max von Sydow as Anderton’s superior Lamar Burgess.
The film combines elements of tech noir, whodunit, thriller and science fiction genres, as well as a traditional chase film, as the main protagonist is accused of a crime he has not committed and becomes a fugitive. Spielberg has characterized the story as “fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot”.
The film’s central theme is the question of free will versus determinism. It examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance. Other themes include the role of preventive government in protecting its citizenry, the role of media in a future state where technological advancements make its presence nearly boundless, the potential legality of an infallible prosecutor, and Spielberg’s repeated theme of broken families.
The film was first optioned in 1992 as a sequel to another Dick adaptation, Total Recall, and started its development in 1997, after a script by Jon Cohen reached Spielberg and Cruise. Production suffered many delays due to Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 2 and Spielberg’s A.I. running over schedule, eventually starting in March 2001.
During pre-production, Spielberg consulted numerous scientists in an attempt to present a more plausible future world than that seen in other science fiction films, and some of the technology designs in the film have proven prescient. Minority Report has a unique visual style. It uses high contrast to create dark colors and shadows, much like a film noir picture. The film’s overlit shots feature desaturated colors which were achieved by bleach-bypassing the film’s negative in post-production.
Minority Report was one of the best reviewed films of 2002. It received praise for its writing, visuals and themes, but earned some criticism for its ending which was considered inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the movie.
The film was nominated for and won several awards. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Editing, and eleven Saturn Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Saturn Award for Best Music, winning Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction, Best Writing, and Best Supporting Actress. The film was a commercial success, earning over $358 million worldwide against an overall budget of $142 million (including advertising). Over four million DVDs were sold in its first few months of home release.
Minority Report (2002)
Oirected by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, Kathryn Morris, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Stormare, Anna Maria Horsford, Sarah Simmons
Screenplay by: Scott Frank
Production Design by: Alex McDowell
Cinematography by: Janusz Kaminski
Film Editing by: Michael Kahn
Costume Design by: Deborah Lynn Scott
Set Decoration by: Anne Kuljian
Art Direction by: Ramsey Avery, Leslie McDonald, Seth Reed
Makeup Department: Mark Anthony, Karen Asano-Myers
Music by: John Williams
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, brief language, some sexuality and drug content.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox (North America), DreamWorks Pictures (International)
Release Date: June 21, 2002
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