Minority Report - #timetravel #movies and #books

"The Minority Report" is a 1956 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in Fantastic Universe. 

Philip K. Dick is a Chicago born sci-fi writer who suffered from mental illness and substance abuse during his long career. He wrote many great stories which have been adapted into Hollywood movies. Such titles are:

Blade Runner (1982), based on Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Total Recall (1990), based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"

Paycheck (2003), starring Ben Affleck, based on Dick's short story of the same name.

The Terminator series also uses the theme of humanoid assassination machines portrayed in Second Variety.

And of course, Minority Report (2002),  directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise and based on the short story "The Minority Report".

Minority Report is about an organization (Pre-Crime) that stops murders from occurring before they happen. This is done by using the three individual, yet hive minds of the Precogs, hooked to a machine that gives the organization visual pictures of future crimes. 

The 2002 Steven Spielberg film was originally intended to be a sequel to Total Recall, but delays in production turned it into a stand-alone action thriller and murder mystery.

Tom Cruise plays the main role as PreCrime Captain John Anderton.

Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer,

Samantha Morton as the senior Precog, Agatha,

Kathryn Morris as Anderton’s ex-wife, Lara… 
and

Max von Sydow as Anderton's superior Lamar Burgess

The film's central theme is the question of free will versus determinism. Should a person be punished for a crime he will commit, but hasn’t?

All the actors do a great job. I won’t spoil it here, but Cruise starts out the movie with blue eyes and ends it with brown. He abuses a drug to relive being with his little boy who was abducted while under John’s watch.

Main Precog, Agatha (Samantha Morton) is particularly good in this role, especially when she is removed from the machine and taken into the real world. But her precognitive powers remain. The first question she asks in Anderton’s car is, “Is it now?”

Actress, Samantha Morton as she really looks.

Speaking of the cars, the movie is set in 2054 and the cars and roads are creative. It’s obvious that the cars are not actually driven, but programmed and auto-pilot the passengers to their destination.

Kathryn Morris plays Anderton’s ex-wife, Lara. It’s refreshing to see exes remain civil and stick up for each other in a Hollywood production. You get the impression they just couldn’t make it after the loss of their son.

Max Von Sydow and Kathryn Morris

Although there is no actual traveling in time, this movie still is under that genre because of the seeing into the future and racing against time. I fully recommend it.

Minority Report on TV

Coming this fall (September 21), Fox television network will air Minority Report. This is the first Steven Spielberg film to be adapted to TV. It will take place ten years after the movie and will follow one of the original male precogs and a female detective.

The show has cast Stark Sands to the dual role of Precog twin brothers, Dash and Arthur. Meagan Good Plays Lara Vega. Daniel London will reprise his role as Wally the Caretaker from the film. Laura Regan is set to play Agatha, which was played by Samantha Morton in the film.

The trailer looks promising to me. Great futuristic effects and possible chemistry between the characters. I will be watching it.

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