Minority Report (film)
Minority Report is a 2002 American science fiction action film[6] directed by Steven Spielberg, loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1956 novella "The Minority Report". The film takes place in the Washington metropolitan area in the year 2054, in which a specialized police department—Precrime—apprehends criminals by use of foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "precogs". The cast stars Tom Cruise as Precrime chief John Anderton, Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as precog Agatha Lively, and Max von Sydow as Precrime director 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.[7] Spielberg characterized the story as "fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot".[8]
Minority Report
- 20th Century Fox[1][2]
- DreamWorks Pictures[3][2]
- Amblin Entertainment[2]
- Blue Tulip Productions[2]
- June 19, 2002 (Ziegfeld Theatre)
- June 21, 2002 (United States)
145 minutes[4]
United States
English
$102 million[5]
$358.4 million[5]
The film was first optioned in 1992 as a sequel to another Dick adaptation, Total Recall (1990), with Arnold Schwarzenegger set to reprise his leading role. When the production company, Carolco Pictures, filed for bankruptcy, the project was reworked into a standalone project. Its development started in 1997 after Jon Cohen's script 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. Some of the film's portrayed technology has proven prescient.
Cruise and Spielberg's high-profile collaboration made Minority Report one of 2002's most anticipated films. It received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success as 2002's tenth most-successful film worldwide, grossing over $358 million against a production budget of $102 million. It was nominated for several awards including an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Editing. Of eleven Saturn Award nominations, the film won Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction, Best Writing, and Best Supporting Actress. It has since been included in lists of the best science fiction films.[9][10][11] A Minority Report tie-in video game and single-season television series followed its release.
Plot[edit]
In 2054, the federal government plans to nationally implement the Washington, D.C., prototype "Precrime" police program, which has been operating for six years. Three clairvoyant humans ("precogs") receive psychic impressions of an impending homicide, and officers analyze their visions to determine the location and apprehend the perpetrator before the crime can occur. Would-be killers are placed in an electrically induced coma and held in a panopticon-like prison facility. Although Precrime has eliminated nearly all premeditated murders during its six-year existence, spontaneous crimes of passion called "red ball" killings still occur, giving the police only a short time to act.
Precrime chief John Anderton joined the program after his six-year-old son Sean was abducted and never found. He suffers from depression and addiction to the drug "neuroin", and his wife Lara has left him. Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer audits the Precrime operation, intent on uncovering any flaws. Agatha, one of the precogs, experiences a flashback to a woman's drowning as Anderton watches. Curious, he learns from the prison warden that the intended victim, Anne Lively, went missing shortly after her murder was prevented; however, he also discovers that Agatha's vision of the crime is not on file. Soon afterward, the precogs predict that Anderton will kill a man named Leo Crow, whom he has never met. Anderton flees, prompting Witwer to begin a manhunt.
Anderton visits Dr. Iris Hineman, a geneticist whose research led to the creation of Precrime, and learns that the precogs' abilities are the result of brain damage caused by their parents' addiction to early, impure forms of neuroin. Hineman explains that one precog occasionally sees a different future vision from the others, known as a "minority report". These discrepancies are purged from the official record in order to maintain the precogs' reputation of infallibility, but the precogs retain their memories. If Anderton does have a minority report, Hineman says, it will most likely have been generated by Agatha since she is the strongest of the three.
After undergoing eye transplant surgery to evade the retinal scanners installed all over the city, Anderton returns to Precrime. Using his removed old eyes, which he kept after the transplant surgery, he enters the Temple where the precogs are kept and kidnaps Agatha, shutting down the group-mind on which Precrime depends. With the assistance of a cybercriminal, Anderton searches Agatha's memories but fails to find a minority report for Crow's murder. However, he finds and downloads her memories of Anne's death. The two track Crow to a hotel room and find photos of many children, including Sean; Anderton accuses Crow of killing Sean and nearly kills him, but relents at the last moment. Crow then claims he was hired to plant the photos and begs Anderton to kill him, saying that his family will only be paid if he dies. When Anderton still refuses, Crow kills himself in a manner similar to the precogs' vision of Anderton killing him.
Tipped off by Anderton, Witwer investigates Anne's case and finds discrepancies to suggest that she had indeed been murdered. He reports his findings to Lamar Burgess, director of Precrime, who kills him with Anderton's gun. Anderton is arrested and imprisoned for the murders of Crow and Witwer, and Agatha is returned to the other precogs. After Anderton's imprisonment Lara discusses Anderton's concerns about Anne Lively with Burgess. Initially Burgess denies any recollection of Anne Lively but later in the same conversation says he will look into her drowning—a detail Lara had never mentioned. She becomes suspicious and breaks Anderton out of prison, allowing him to confront Burgess at a banquet celebrating the national launch of Precrime. Anne, a neuroin addict and Agatha's mother, had given up custody of Agatha; some time later, she broke her habit and tried to reclaim her daughter. Burgess hired a man to kill Anne, knowing that Precrime would intervene, then killed her himself in the predicted manner afterward. The Precrime technicians disregarded the second murder vision as an echo of the first one. Once Anderton began to investigate, Burgess arranged for Crow to pose as Sean's abductor in order to provoke Anderton to murder.
A "red ball" report comes in, indicating that Burgess will kill Anderton. As the two men face each other down, Anderton points out the dilemma facing Burgess: he can spare Anderton and watch Precrime be discredited and shut down, or validate the program by killing him and going to prison. Burgess asks Anderton's forgiveness before killing himself.
Anderton and Lara reconcile, with Lara becoming pregnant with another child. Precrime is abandoned and the prisoners are pardoned and released, though many remain under police surveillance. The precogs are moved to an undisclosed location to live in peace.
The cast also features Jessica Capshaw as Evanna, Precrime's transport pilot, Tyler Patrick Jones as Sean Anderton, John and Lara's son supposedly murdered by Crow, Jason Antoon as Rufus T. Riley, cyber parlor proprietor; Nancy Linehan Charles as Celeste Burgess, Lamar's wife; Victor Raider-Wexler as Attorney General Arthur Nash, Arye Gross as Howard Marks, Ashley Crow as Sarah Marks, David Stifel as Lycon, Anna Maria Horsford as Casey, Joel Gretsch as Donald Dubin, Tom Choi as Nick Paymen, Caroline Lagerfelt as Greta van Eyck and William Mapother (Tom Cruise's cousin) as a hotel clerk, Frank Grillo as Precrime Cop, Jim Rash as Technician.
Cameron Diaz, Cameron Crowe, and Paul Thomas Anderson make uncredited cameo appearances as subway passengers.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Philip K. Dick's story was first optioned by producer and writer Gary Goldman in 1992.[12] He created the initial script for the film with Ron Shusett and Robert Goethals (uncredited).[13] It was supposed to be a sequel to the 1990 Dick adaptation Total Recall, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.[14] However, Carolco Pictures, the production company that produced the film, struggled to secure either funding or Schwarzenegger's interest to progress the project before its bankruptcy in 1995.[15][16] While the remake rights were purchased by Miramax Films in 1997, Shusett and Goldman had removed the Total Recall elements from their script to develop it as a standalone film, Minority Report.
Novelist Jon Cohen was hired in 1997 to adapt the story for a potential film version that would have been directed by Dutch filmmaker Jan de Bont.[17][18] Meanwhile, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, who met and became friends on the set of Cruise's film Risky Business in 1983,[19] had been looking to collaborate for ten years.[20][21] Spielberg was set to direct Cruise in Rain Man, but left to make Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[19] Cruise read Cohen's script, and passed it onto Spielberg, who felt it needed some work. Spielberg was not directly involved in the writing of the script, though he was allowed to decide whether the picture's screenplay was ready to be filmed. When Cohen submitted an acceptable revision, he called Cruise and said, "Yeah, I'll do this version of the script."[18][22] In that version, Witwer creates a false disk which shows Anderton killing him. When Anderton sees the clip, his belief in the infallibility of the precogs' visions convinces him it is true, therefore the precogs have a vision of him killing Witwer. At the end, Anderton shoots Witwer and one of the brother precogs finishes him off, because Witwer had slain his twin.[23] Spielberg was attracted to the story because as both a mystery and a film set 50 years in the future, it allowed him to do "a blending of genres" which intrigued him.[24]
In 1998, the pair joined Minority Report and announced the production as a joint venture of Spielberg's DreamWorks and Amblin Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Cruise's Cruise/Wagner Productions, and De Bont's production company, Blue Tulip, the latter of which had previously worked on Speed 2: Cruise Control.[2] In exchange for directing The Haunting, Spielberg offered to take over directing duties on Minority Report while De Bont was busy with post-production for Twister.[25] Spielberg however stated that despite being credited, De Bont never became involved with the film.[26] Cruise and Spielberg, at the latter's insistence,[27] reportedly agreed to each take 15% of the gross instead of any money up front to try to keep the film's budget under $100 million.[28] Spielberg said he had done the same with name actors in the past to great success: "Tom Hanks took no cash for Saving Private Ryan but he made a lot of money on his profit participation."[27] He made this agreement a prerequisite:[27]
Release[edit]
Context[edit]
The summer of 2002 was expected to be competitive at the global box office due to the high number of franchises, blockbusters, and star-studded projects.[88]
Spielberg typically keeps the plot points of his films closely guarded before their release, and Minority Report was no different.[89] He said he had to remove some scenes, and a few "F-words" to get the film's PG-13 rating.[19] Following the disappointing box office results of Spielberg's A.I., the marketing campaign for Minority Report downplayed his role in the movie and sold the film as a Cruise action thriller.[90]
Tom Rothman, chairman of the film's co-financier Fox Filmed Entertainment, described the film's marketing strategy thus: "How are we marketing it? It's Cruise and Spielberg. What else do we need to do?"[19] The strategy made sense; coming into the film, Spielberg had made 20 films which grossed a domestic total of $2.8 billion, while Cruise's resume featured 23 films and $2 billion in domestic revenues.[19] With their combined 30% take of the film's box office though, sources such as BusinessWeek's Ron Grover predicted the studios would have a hard time making the money needed to break even.[28] Despite the outward optimism, as a more adult-oriented, darker film than typical blockbusters, the studio held different box office expectations for the film than they would a more family friendly film.
Entertainment Weekly projected the film would gross $40 million in the US in its opening weekend,[91] and Variety predicted that the high concept storyline would not appeal to children and would render it a "commercial extra-base hit rather than a home run."[17]
Theatrical run[edit]
The world premiere of Minority Report took place in New York City on June 19, 2002.[92] An online "popcorn cam" broadcast live from inside the premiere.[93] Cruise attended the London premiere the following week, and mingled with thousands of adoring fans as he walked through the city's Leicester Square.[94] It debuted at first place in the U.S. box office, collecting $35.677 million in its opening weekend, narrowly above Lilo & Stitch.[95] Forbes considered those numbers below expectations, as they gave the film a small edge over Lilo & Stitch, which debuted in second place ($35.260 million). Lilo & Stitch sold more tickets, but since much of the film's attendees were children, its average ticket price was much lower.[96]
The film opened at the top of the box office in numerous foreign markets; it made $6.7 million in 780 locations in Germany its opening weekend, and accounted for 35% of France's total box office weekend office gross when it collected $5 million in 700 theaters. In Great Britain, Minority Report made $36.9 million in its first three days.[97] It went on to make $5.9 million in the UK, ranking number one at the box office, beating Spider-Man. Minority Report had the country's third-highest opening for a Steven Spielberg film, behind Jurassic Park and its successor The Lost World: Jurassic Park.[98]
The film then made $6.2 million in Italy in its first ten, $815,000 in its 75 location opening weekend in Belgium, and $405,000 in an 80 theater opening weekend in Switzerland.[97][99] Meanwhile, in Turkey, it made $307,822 from 64 screens, achieving the third-highest opening for any 20th Century Fox film in the country, after Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Titanic.[100] The BBC felt the film's UK performance was "buoyed by Cruise's charm offensive at last week's London premiere."[101]
Minority Report made a total of $132 million in the United States and $226.3 million overseas.[5]
Home media[edit]
DreamWorks spent several million dollars marketing the film's DVD and VHS releases. The campaign included a tie-in video game released by Activision, which contained a trailer for the movie's DVD.[102] Minority Report was successful in the home video market, selling at least four million DVDs in its first few months of release.[103] The DVD took two years to produce. For the first time, Spielberg allowed filmmakers to shoot footage on the set of one of his films. Premiere-award-winning DVD producer Laurent Bouzereau, who would become a frequent Spielberg DVD collaborator, shot hundreds of hours of the film's production in the then-new high-definition video format. It contained over an hour of featurettes which discussed various aspects of film production, included breakdowns of the film's stunt sequences, and new interviews with Spielberg, Cruise, and other "Academy Award-winning filmmakers".[102][104]
The film was released on a two-disc Blu-ray by Paramount Home Entertainment (now the owner of the early DreamWorks library) on May 16, 2010. It included exclusive extras and interactive features, such as a new Spielberg interview, that were not included in the DVD edition. The film was transferred from its "HD master" which retained the distinctive grainy appearance.[105]
Video game[edit]
A video game based on the film titled Minority Report: Everybody Runs was developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released on November 18, 2002, for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. It received mixed reviews.
Theater adaptation[edit]
In 2023 it was announced that David Haig was working on a theatrical adaptation. The production had its world premiere in February 2024 at the Nottingham Playhouse. The story is set in London and the lead role was gender-swapped, becoming Dame Julia Anderton.[148]