Movie 2005.06.26: Minority Report

Minority Report is one of the better sci-fi movies I've seen. Central theme is about fate, determinism, and free will. You have three precogs who can "see" crimes before they are committed. Then you have John Anderton, the top man at the Justice Department's elite Precrime Unit - tracking down and putting away the would-be criminal before he/she even has the chance to commit the crime.

Question is, how can you arrest someone if no crime has actually been committed? Anderton's argument is that the crime is already predetermined by fate. There is no free will, no alternate future. Sure as a ball rolling off a table will hit the floor. Easy for him to say, until the precogs "predicted" that he will kill a total stranger in 36 hours. With no way of defending himself from the vision of the infallible precogs, he runs with his colleagues hot on his heels. He ultimately finds his would-be victim, who turns out to be the creep who kidnapped and murdered his missing son six years ago. So against all his wishes, he knew he had to kill the guy (as foretold). He pulls out his gun, but his free will takes over. He reads the man his rights. The man demands to be killed, or else his family will be in trouble. There was a scuffle. A gun goes off. Determinism wins over free will. Anderton is on the run again.

To make a long story short, Anderton was being set up by his boss Burgess because he discovered that the precrime system isn't really infallible. At the celebration party for Precrime's nationwide launch, Anderton makes his revelation public. At that point in time, the precogs predict that Burgess is going to kill Anderton at the hotel balcony. Anderton gives Burgess two options: if Burgess kill him, it would prove once and for all that precrime works, but he won't be around to appreciate the recognition because he'll be "archived." If he doesn't kill Anderton, then it'll prove that precrime is fallible, and Burgess' invention will be scrapped. Seeing no easy way out, Burgess takes the third option - he shoots himself just as the Precime cops arrive at the crime scene.

I quite like the movie - dark and serious, fast-paced, with just the right level of plot complexity. Might have to look around for Philip K. Dick's 1950's short story, on which the movie is based. Things to look for in the year 2054 (assuming the movie is as psychic as the precogs): virtual reality, hacked memories, online e-paper, self-driving cars, vertical expressways, holographic memory, personal jetpacks, targeted advertising/marketing, retina-scanning spiders, etc.