This is based off another one of them Phillip K. Dick short stories. Speilberg'll direct and Tom Cruise is set to star in it.

An excellent short story. I don't see how it can be filmed, especially by Mr. Spielberg and his pattented "Look of Amazement" style of filming.

I've heard that this movies gonna be released in july of 2001

Good movie.
Before my nit, I must review some 'facts' established during the movie.
SPOILER...


The three precogs can see a future murder that would happen if the future remained unaltered.
The more preplanning a murderer makes, the more advance notice the precogs get.
But then they see Tom killing someone, and Tom has access to their vision.

However, Tom would never have tried to find the victim in the original time-line. Seeing the vision alters the future and leads Tom to the victim, but Tom didn't kill him. And suicide shouldn't show up in visions. Also, why did the precogs get the vision so early in the first place, since Tom didn't do any preplanning because he didn't know the victim?

The female precog is the minority in minority report. She had a vision that the other two precogs didn't have. She saw the face of the real bad guy. But it is also established that she was the dominant precog and the other two depend on her. Why wouldn't her vision be accepted by the other two? And didn't the bad guy take an awful chance that his face wouldn't appear in the visions of all three precogs?

Story by Philip K. Dick
Screenplay by Scott Frank
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Cast
Tom Cruise Detective John Anderton
Colin Farrell Detective Ed Witwer, the Federal inspector
Max von Sydow Director Burgess
Samantha Morton Agatha, the gifted female precog
Michael Dickman Arthur ---(the two
Matthew Dickman Dashiell twin precogs)
Steve Harris Jad, the African Precrime detective
Neal McDonough Officer Fletcher, the blonde officer (Lt. Hawk from ST First Contact)
Patrick Kilpatrick Knott, the mostly bald officer
Anna Maria Horsford Casey, Anderton’s secretary
Lois Smith Dr. Iris Hineman, the "inventor" of precrime turned botanist
Peter Stormare Dr. Solomon, the eye transplant surgeon.
Kathryn Morris Lara Anderton
Arye Gross Howard Marks, the cuckold murderer foiled in the beginning of the movie
Mike Binder Leo Crow, the man the precogs see that Anderton will kill
Jessica Harper Anne Lively, the woman whose murder Anderton sees through Agatha’s vision when he enters the Temple.

---I really liked this movie. Stories with psychic powers or time travel often cannot avoid huge plot holes or paradoxes, but I didn’t see any in the movie; it was very tightly written, and everything fit together. Nice allegory. Hope Cruise and Spielberg get together again.
---I really liked the sharp, quick-tongued way in which Dr. Hineman talked. It was nice to see an elderly supporting character in a film who wasn’t a doddering fool, a stereotypical sweet motherly person, or simple cannon fodder.
---The moment when Anderton begins giving the Miranda warning to Leo Crow was the character arc climax of the film, and I wanted to applaud. Nicely done.

NITS:
I found the manner in which Anderton casually jumps from car to car while travelling down the side of a building at high speed—without any hesitation or visible concern on his part—to be utterly unbelievable.

Did anyone else find it hard to swallow that Anderton was able to take out an entire Precrime squad, all with armor, jetpacks, stun guns, etc.? Also, when struggling with one of them inside the car factory, he at one point flips right over, which I didn’t buy at all, but my friend Chris Lopez told me that while officer held onto his upper body, Anderton climbed up the side of a column or ladder to do this. I didn’t see this. Did anyone else see that?

What happens when someone entering a building or public vehicle with a retina scanner wears dark glasses, or simply enters it walking backwards?

Why in the world were those repulsor stun guns designed to require recocking after each shot? This seems like the kind of thing you do with a pump shotgun.

When I first understood the concept for the film, I thought maybe this society used a multitude of precogs at various locations, and bred them for this function, but the movie makes clear that Arthur, Dashiell and Agatha are unique, (Agatha in particular), that their gifts were accidents, and that without Agatha, there is no Precrime. But if that’s the case, then Precrime eventually will end, because the three of them will eventually grow old and die.

Following the eye transplant, Dr. Solomon tells the recuperating Anderton that he left a sandwich and a bottle of milk in the fridge. When the blindfolded Anderton goes to the fridge, there is a much older, spoiled sandwich on the shelf above the fresh one, and a bottle of spoiled milk, presumably left by the room’s previous occupant. Anderton takes those, and immediately spits them out. Isn’t it an amazing coincidence that the spoiled food was the EXACT same type of food Solomon left for Anderton, a sandwich and a bottle of milk?

When the Precrime squad search the motel where Anderton is recuperating from his eye transplant, Fletcher says four spiders should be enough, one per floor, but right after Anderton takes refuge in the bathroom, we see the spiders come up through a trap door, and I counted seven of them.

Anderton nearly loses his old eyes when they fall and roll down the ramp leading up to the Temple. Why in the WORLD is there an inclined RAMP there?

When Anderton pulls up to Lara’s house in the red Lexus, Lara tells Burgess on the phone that Anderton has pulled up. Burgess asks if Agatha is with him. Lara looks at the car out the window and says yes, but we see exactly what she sees, and Agatha is not visible in the car.

The one major plot problem I perceived—an instance in which the writer has a character take actions simply as a slave to the plot, and not out of any logical character or personality trait was this: What in the WORLD did Anderton hope to accomplish by confronting Leo Crow? What he should’ve done was simply inject himself with some anaesthetic, and locked himself in a room for 20 hours until the time of the envisioned crime passed. Maybe even destroy his gun, which he might’ve surmised from the precog vision was the one he would use to kill Crow. Doing this would prevent that future. Instead, he does something very dumb, going out of his way to seek out the total stranger he’s supposed to kill, when he knows that doing this only makes it all the more likely it could happen.

Oh yeah. I LOVED the mall sequence where Agatha uses her gift to tell Anderton exactly what to do to evade the Precrime squad. Very nice twist on the old "Chase scene in a public place" motiff.

Stories with psychic powers or time travel often cannot avoid huge plot holes or paradoxes, but I didn’t see any in the movie

Wrong. The entire concept of the precogs is a plot hole/paradox.

SPOILER WARNING.

Highlight the following text to read.

The precogs see the future murders of people. The police go and arrest the future murderers. Therefore the murder never happens, so the precogs can't see it, so the murderer isn't arrested, so the murder happens, etc... etc... etc...

Paradox.

I enjoyed the fact that the plot revolved around the art of nitpicking. ie. scrubbing the image and later when Witwer nitpicks the vision and notices the water ripples going in different directions.

did anyone else have the Austin Powers: Goldmember trailer on thier copy of this film (with the giant mole jokes), then have to watch the nurse with the giant mole. VERY, VERY disturbing. $tupid Austin Power's gag ruined that whole scene in MR for me.

Actually, I think that the doctor left the spoiled food there as revenge for Anderson sending him to prison.

My nits: (Note SPOILERS)
The killing of Crow was a brown ball. But it should've been a red ball, as the killing wasn't premeditated. He wasn't going to kill him, but then decided too because of emotion.
Even after Anderson goes rouge they don't delete his clearance, because he uses his eye to get through. Even after he already does that, they still don't delete it because his ex-wife uses it to break into the prison.
How can precrime "go notion" if the precogs can only sense an area around them, and there are only three of them?

All in all though, very good movie. Excellent plot, and great action scenes.

I didn't notice the line saying that Anderton sent Solomon to prison.

Spoilers

Actually it was a brown ball because he was planning on what he would do when he found the person who abducted his kid.

-Also I really liked the fact he NEVER found his kid or any info.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I liked this movie. Up until Crow was killed anyway. After that, things got way too unbelievable for me. The end also seemed to take too long to reach.

When Anderton kidnaps Agatha, he takes her into a car and asks if she's cold. He then puts a jacket onto her. At first it looks like it's covering her shoulder. However, a closeup shows that it is not. The next shot makes the jacket look like it's covering her shoulder again but it's hard to tell from the far angle. Another close up shows that the jacket has magically jumped over her shoulder without she or John moving it.

It's nice to see that in 52 years the Mets, Fox, Gap, and several other elements of today's society will still be around, but "Cops?" Are you serious? Is that show that popular? Will it become the prime time "reality soap opera" or something?

Are those projectors the future of T.V.? No thanks.

The spiders were awesome, especially how one held the little panel open for all of the others to get out of. Nice.

I have to admit, at first, I thought that Anderton had found the guy that had taken his son until Crow admitted that he wasn't the guy.
I also thought that Witwer was the guy that set Anderton up until they showed him talking to Fletcher at the crime scene. Then it all became clear.

It was kind of weird to see Stormare in this movie just days after seeing him in "Windtalkers."

When I saw the agents with Witwer chasing after Anderton with their really weird looking guns, it was very difficult to stop myself from humming "Men in Black."

Luigi Novi: I really liked this movie. Stories with psychic powers or time travel often cannot avoid huge plot holes or paradoxes, but I didn’t see any in the movie; it was very tightly written, and everything fit together.
Read the first post. I think that Christopher brings up a really good point.

Luigi Novi: When the Precrime squad search the motel where Anderton is recuperating from his eye transplant, Fletcher says four spiders should be enough, one per floor, but right after Anderton takes refuge in the bathroom, we see the spiders come up through a trap door, and I counted seven of them.
Didn't Knott say something that convinced Fletcher to release more than four?

The one major plot problem I perceived—an instance in which the writer has a character take actions simply as a slave to the plot, and not out of any logical character or personality trait was this: What in the WORLD did Anderton hope to accomplish by confronting Leo Crow? What he should’ve done was simply inject himself with some anaesthetic, and locked himself in a room for 20 hours until the time of the envisioned crime passed. Maybe even destroy his gun, which he might’ve surmised from the precog vision was the one he would use to kill Crow. Doing this would prevent that future. Instead, he does something very dumb, going out of his way to seek out the total stranger he’s supposed to kill, when he knows that doing this only makes it all the more likely it could happen.
Like he said, he had to know why he was going to kill someone he had never heard of. Of course, that doesn't explain why he brought his gun with him. Maybe in case he ran into some of his former co-workers. Besides, he would have had to lock himself in a room by himself for 36 hours, much longer than 20.

supercooladdict: did anyone else have the Austin Powers: Goldmember trailer on thier copy of this film
No, but I had the new James Bond film.

Luigi Novi: I didn't notice the line saying that Anderton sent Solomon to prison.
He tells Anderton about it right before the eye operation while Anderton is loopy on the drug Solomon gave him.

JoshM: "Cops?" Is that show that popular? Will it become the prime time "reality soap opera" or something?
Luigi Novi: Reruns, Josh.

JoshM: It was kind of weird to see Stormare in this movie just days after seeing him in "Windtalkers."
Luigi Novi: And that so soon after Bad Company.

JoshM: Besides, he would have had to lock himself in a room by himself for 36 hours, much longer than 20.
Luigi Novi: I was thinking about the point at which he decided to go after Crow, which I believe was after the scene in the car where he told Burgess that it was 36 hours hence. During that car scene, he was too panicky to form a plan.

It's also nice to see that posting a descriptive credits list came in handy for someone. (Or did you remember all the names from the movie on your own, Josh?)

Actually on the cops show they were displaying an image of anderton on it.

Oh yes, the credits, I meant to thank you for that Luigi. I never remember the names of the characters in movies. We should lists the casts in these more often.

What exactly can those two witnesses see while Anderton is sorting through the precog images? Anderton seemed to look at the image of himself for quite a while before either reacted to it. In fact, I think he was able to see it, react to it, stare at it a little in shock, move it before Jad could see it, then bring it back only to stare at it a few seconds more before the female witness even questions what she is seeing. I guess they're as confused as he is.

I went to the local mega-plex to see it.

Saw some truly kick-@$$ previews: Red Dragon (the prequel to Silence of the Lambs), Solaris (teaser trailer--directed by James Cameron and Steven Soderburgh [ed: how twisted will this BE?], starring George Clooney), etc.

For the 'XXX' trailer...Dolby-digital surround is unmatched.

MOVIE:

Started off well (nits in a moment:P). Right before (Spoiler; highlight) John realized something was wrong (in the beginning-middle)

...the film cut off. Apparently, there was a power surge (in the whole theater--it was raining). The sound started coming through without the picture, so I walked out, and asked an usher if someone could shut the sound off in theater 15. I went the five feet back to my theater, and it was off. Hmm. Quick.

The film came back on in a few minutes. It was pretty freaking good.

NITS:

The precogs see future murders, which are then stopped. If the SWAT teams stopped it, then the precogs should not have been able to see it. Paradox.

When Tom is going through the mall, he grabs several items and walks off. Then he throws money to a homeless man. How can he walk off without paying, since money obviously still exists?

That's all, for now...

The way I understood temporal mechanics (and the way they described the paradox in the movie) if it never happened but was going to happen it still would have been seen by the precogs because by that time it was still a gonna happen event that had not been stopped and turned into a nonevent in the spacetime continuum.Sorta like somebody at point A sees something that will happen at point C but someone at point B stops the event before it happens so the person at Point A saw it but B stopped it which means as of A's Point of View it was gonna happen but has now not happened.
As for the money issue I carry credit cards and also carry money. In the future with the identiscans everywhere maybe all you have to do is grab something look at the scanner and it is deducted from your bank account. But sometimes things like the balloon vendor or others who don't have easy identiscanner access would still have to use money for their activities. So money would still need to be in use.

Here's a question I have. They shut down Precrime at the end of the movie because Burgess' suicide proves the precogs wrong. That is, they didn't see what actually happened.

However, aren't the precogs proved wrong *every* time they see a murder? Isn't that the point of Precrime, to ensure that their visions don't come to pass? I don't quite see the difference between the Precrime squad stopping Howard Marks and Burgess deciding to commit suicide rather than kill Anderton. Both crimes were stopped because someone who had knowledge of the future decided to use the knowledge to change it. The second time, it just didn't happen to be the Precrime division.

Now, there are some very good Constitutional reasons to shut it down (and I would *love* to see a copy of the Constitution ca. 2054; I would imagine that they took a bottle of Wite-Out to the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments), as well as the mismanagement angle, but I was dissatisfied with the "oh, the precogs were wrong, the system doesn't work" angle.

Burgess committed suicide? I thought he was shot by the precrime cops.

Spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
.
.
.
.
.
No, Burgess committed suicide by shooting himself. And it was quite instant, so I don't think that the precogs would have had time to see it.
As for that point about the precogs seeing a future that ends up not happening, well that is a good nit. This might not hold water for most of you, but I have friends who had preconitioned future happenings told to them, in which they altered, that being them being in an accident or such, and yet they altered it, and yet the first precoginitioned future was still first told even though it didn't happen in the end.

One part that got me, is where Agatha was talking about their son in Lara's home there. She was describing their son, like she was seeing him from the grave, going from six years old, to adolescent to young adulthood to six years old again, but yet, I always thought she could only read the future, and not see beyond the grave. I thought that maybe their son was alive somewhere, and he was going to be reunited with his parents again, and what Agatha was doing was reading this future. I was a bit disappointed that this didn't happen.
Also, we did not get what really happened to the son, and I find it strange that John's son was abducted in that very public pool, and yet no one did anything or told John who took him?!?!? I find the pool scene very objectional.

Also, in the beginning, when they were trying to stop that precoged murder from happening, I thought it was hilarious how they did it. They knew that that the wife and her lover were going to be killed by those nasty small scissors, so what do they do, a bunch of them jump through the slanted ceiling windows, and the poor couple get bombarded by a whole slew of bigger, more jagged types of deadly glass, raining down on them. Oh yea, smooth move precrime team!!! I was surprised that the couple survived. They were better left to the whims of her jeolous husband. *grin*

See my earlier post about precogs being a nit

The time period of the movie is 2054. There is an election day (April 22nd) that is on a billboard and then announced as a Tuesday. However, April 22nd, 2054 is actually on a Wednesday.

Anderton didn't change history. Agatha keeps telling him he has a choice, but he doesn't. Since the Crow incident would never have happened had he not had access to the Precog vision, he was fated to have a confrontation with Crow in that hotel room that would result in Crow being shot to death. (They said early on that the Precogs were not in agreement on the time of death.)

But if the Precogs can only see murders, should they have been able to see Crow's death, which was not murder but an accident?


Both crimes were stopped because someone who had knowledge of the future decided to use the knowledge to change it.

Not quite.

In the Howard Marks case, it was an external force (the Pre-Crime cops) that intervened and prevented the murders from happening.

In the Burgess (named after Anthony Burgess?) case, there was no external factor to interfere in the commission of the murder. The fact that Burgess is able to (himself) make a different choice suggests that the Pre-Crime system is not infallible. Instead of preventing murders that were going to happen, they prevented murders that might have happened.

What if (as he suggests when he's arrested) Marks hadn't wasn't going to kill them? What if (like Burgess) he changed his mind?

The fact that Burgess reconsiders suggests that the visions received by the Precogs are not a certainty. That alone is proof that the system doesn't work.

What if (as he suggests when he's arrested) Marks hadn't wasn't going to kill them? What if (like Burgess) he changed his mind?

I'm still not seeing how this necessitates shutting down Precrime. Burgess only changes his mind because someone who had unauthorized access to the Precogs got to him and presented him with a choice, something that wouldn't have happened if Precrime had operated according to procedure. The actions of a rogue agent don't necessarily mean that the system he defies is fallible. (As it happens, that system *was* fallible, but it was largely *Burgess'* fault, not the precogs'.)

I also don't quite see why proving that the system is fallible means it needs to be shut down anyway - the current criminal justice system obviously has flaws, and we allow it to operate because it's the best we can come up with. I don't think that Precrime is the best idea in the first place, but I have a hard time believing that the government could sell the shutting down of a program that stopped all but two murders in six years in Washington, D. C., for crying out loud. (Per capita, DC is one of the worst areas in the country for violent crime in the present day.)

So, er, why isn't Anderton blind in his left eye after he leaves the surgeon? They made a *huge* deal over the "leave the bandages on 12 hours or you'll go blind" and they didn't even show him stumble, once.

What kind of anti-consumer society makes it so easy to kick out the windows in those cars? What if a kid kicked one out?

Spielberg deliberately focused for one moment on the clock in Anderton's room when the spider lifted up the blindfold, I believe, to indicate to the viewer that, because he was near the end of the 12 hours, there would be little or no damage.

i thought the movie was okay, i guess i thought a cruise/ spielburg collaboration would have impacted me more like the matrix, lord of the rings, etc.

a fews thoughts
1) anderton eating the rotting sandwich and spoiled milk. i would have guess the the smell would indicate neither were suitable to be consumed but i guess he was really hungry

2) loved the scene in the car plant. but i guess lexus is only making a limited number of cars to increase price because i dont remember seeing any other cars in the plant. anderton just drove it out the door once it was completed.

3) the pre-crime cops stop the jon doe from killing the lady (anne lively) then just leave. i mean they dont get any info or question her about the incident. that bothered me. but i guess burgess knew that would happen

Re: Car plant

SPOILER!!!


It looked like he was sealed inside the car compartment, like underneath the floor or in the engine compartment. How did he get inside the car? A convenient design?

I'm still not seeing how this necessitates shutting down Precrime. Burgess only changes his mind because someone who had unauthorized access to the Precogs got to him and presented him with a choice, something that wouldn't have happened if Precrime had operated according to procedure. - Matthew Patterson

Like the Crow incident, the murder the Precogs predicted would never have happened had Anderton not been released and confronted Burgess, prompting him to point a gun at him. The very act of prediction set in motion the chain of events that led to Anderton's death.

But Burgess's change of heart turned something that was perceived to be a certainty into just a possibility. If you can choose not to do it, even after the Precogs said you will do it, then that makes Precrime no more efficient than our current police force (except for the fact that they could predict where a murder might happen).


I also don't quite see why proving that the system is fallible means it needs to be shut down anyway - the current criminal justice system obviously has flaws, and we allow it to operate because it's the best we can come up with. I don't think that Precrime is the best idea in the first place, but I have a hard time believing that the government could sell the shutting down of a program that stopped all but two murders in six years in Washington, D. C., for crying out loud. (Per capita, DC is one of the worst areas in the country for violent crime in the present day.) - Matthew Patterson

Well, there's this little thing called due process...

Again, the reason people were being arrested was because the threat they posed to others was considered a certainty. But as we learn throughout the film, that isn't actually the case.

As for the drop in murders... if we incarcerate everyone in Washington D.C. right now, we would accompplish the exact same thing.

But is that the world you want to live in?

Mark Morgan: So, er, why isn't Anderton blind in his left eye after he leaves the surgeon? They made a *huge* deal over the "leave the bandages on 12 hours or you'll go blind" and they didn't even show him stumble, once.

Luigi Novi: Spielberg deliberately focused for one moment on the clock in Anderton's room when the spider lifted up the blindfold, I believe, to indicate to the viewer that, because he was near the end of the 12 hours, there would be little or no damage.

Didn't the clock show that only 6 hours had passed?

There's no reason to think that he's not blind... in that eye. The spiders didn't check both eyes, if memory serves, just the left one. So maybe that eye is permanently damaged... that doesn't mean that he can't utilize the other one.

And what was the point of that thing that messed up Anderton's face? Presumably he uses it so that he won't be recognized. But he waits to use it until he's just outside the doors to the Precrime building. And then he identifies himself to the first person he encounters in there.

Being blind in only one eye would have caused Anderton's depth perception, at the least, to be completely thrown off. Not to mention that he would have had a blind side to adjust to.

At no point did they show him having to adjust to a blind side, but to me, it's rather clear "working blindly" was never a part of his training, since his navigation in the apartment, blindfolded, was rather dismal.

I had to wear a patch over one eye once after undergoing eye surgery. While I had no depth perception in the literal sense, I certainly wasn't stumbling around like a blind man because of it. Truth be told, I functioned just fine. Our bodies and minds adapt very quickly to such changes.

IIRC, Josh, he had only three hours left. I could be wrong, though.

He had 6 left, Luigi.

It was 6, but my point was: why make it a huge plot point...and then never use it? Like having a gun on a table in act two...and then never firing it, ever.

Ok, I thought there were only 6 hours left, in my perception, and I agree, they did make a big point about it, and then nothing came of it. Yea, he may have been able to work with just one eye, but I would think, for plot purposes, they would atleast show him trying to focus the damaged eye, to see the result of having it exposed before the normal 12 hours.

Also, about the arguement of the precrime being shut down, despite it's may have a tidbit of fallibility, then what our current crime protection today, I can understand with your arguements. The thing is, there is also the lives and wellbeing of the three precogs. I felt bad for them, spending every hour of every day in that pool, and they have to view these horrible images. I think the movie was explaining that if the precrime program was 100% infallible, then it's worth the sacrifice of the three young precogs, but considering it is not doing what the program hoped, along with the questionablity of arresting people who could be innocent, then why make three people suffer if the program was not doing what it is suppose to do.
.
Spoiler
.
Spoiler
.
Spoiler
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I liked it at the end when they showed the fully clothed, and full head of hair precogs getting their lives together. Atleast the movie showed that their wellbeing mattered.

Can you see...?

Well, I've finally seen the film at last. Having only seen it once, I really liked it.

One question, however, that SlinkyJ touched upon: was it right to use the three precogs as tools of the police in the first place? The benefit: a greatly reduced murder rate in DC, plus a means of income for many officers and other staff at the DoPC. The cost: the freedom and no doubt the sanity of those three youths. I mean, whatever do they get out of all this precrime-busting malarkey? Monkey-nuts? I agree with SlinkyJ's last comment, but only because they finally got to do their own thing, sort-of.

Cosmo Landesman, in his Sunday Times review of the film (he gave it 3 stars out of 3 - an "Outstanding" film), stated that there was an alternate possible reason for Anderton being set up, and that having asked other reviewers about it they came up blank. Does anyone know what this may be? (I'll probably come up with it eventually if I see the film again, but if anyone does know, please post as a hidden spoiler and I'll find it eventually.)

And speaking of the movie itself, as I said to someone after the film, with films like these who needs adverts? I wonder which of those companies will survive until the real 2054 kicks around. (Please let it not be Bu*ger King...)

Was the Eyeballing Scene cut from the UK version? I remember an early review which stated that it was given a BBFC 15 certificate (presumably because of the gratuitous eyeball shots) but the version I saw had a 12 certificate and was rather mild in the ophthalmology department.

The following scene with the blindfolded Anderton rummaging for food, taking the awful stuff over the more tasty grub, seemed like the perfect postmodern metaphor for the film, i.e. "we could see it coming."

As an arachnophobe, I did like the scene where the lone spider does a double-take while, leaving the bathroom Anderton hides in, upon hearing an air bubble pop. (By the way, don't spiders have eight legs? I know... 21st Century techno-slang!)

Was I the only one thinking "Attack of the Clones" during the chase through the L***s car plant? (Apparently not - Spielberg also thought this too! He also commented that both films featured characters with jetpacks.)

Finally, as a full-blooded male, I was amused to see Tom Cruise's character being kissed and fondled by some, shall we say, less aesthetically flattering characters... [You're fired, Nine - everyone]

Another important question concerns "going national." How is this possible? Can the precog's radius be boosted somehow, and if so, how could they possibly process all of the signals for an entire nation? Or does this mean finding (making?) more precogs?

If the three were to be used in a national programme, what with the US having so many time zones, so many people (possibly more by the 2050s), and assuming their sphere of precognition could span the whole of North America, they would burn out very quickly. I got the impression that these three were found by chance, so the chances of more being found and subsequently used would be small (unless the three decided to spawn children), which again brings up the question: should the Police have taken advantage of their gift (curse) at all?

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

... but if you haven't seen the movie, why are you reading this?

To me, the biggest nits showed up in the factory scene. It's not such a big deal that the factory is fully automated, but for crying out loud, doesn't anyone (human) actually work there? What if they need to shut the plant down for some reason (like, say, a manhunt involving federal agents)? Shouldn't there be some people controlling the place?

And in the end of said factory scene, when Anderton drives away, well... how exactly did he do that? It was previously established that those cars deal operate using some sort of computer guidance/navigation system, and that it can't be overwritten. Now, when the finished car leaves the assembly line, there should be some guidelines in place for where it is designated to go, so that it doesn't just sit there after being finished (or a worker should show up to drive the thing out, but there aren't any of those, I guess).

Regarding Anderton's not going blind. When the spider pried open his eyes, the shot seemed to indicate that the eye was turning a milky white color, which would definitely indicate that he should not have been able to see out of it. But, of course, that was never addressed.

Changed premise! When Anderton talks to the doctor who "invented" precrime (I can't remember her name and I don't think it's in the credits above), she tells him that the precogs, before people figured out what was going on, would spend all night having nightmares about people being murdered. Okay, stop. This means that all three can see the future. But later on, everything seems to indicate that the other two can't function without Agatha! How does that work? If each of the precogs can sense the future, then after Anderton nabs Agatha, the other two, sedated and soaking in that "proton milk," should still be able to pick up future murders!

And given the incredible Big Brother-like aspects of the police, it seemed incredibly unlikely that they wouldn't know the Marks' exact address.

Okay, so those were the big nits. I do have praise for this movie, however. I think it paints a great picture of the future. I mean that not in the Big Brother sense, but in the more technological aspect. I think that advertisers will try to get personalized ads in place eventually, or they'll at least try. So it's a bit scary, but cool at the same time.

I agree with the nit about the colour of the ball in the Leo Crow prediction. It should have been red. I don't think vague thoughts of revenge against person or persons unknown counts as premeditation (and how could you possibly be arrested for non-specific threats against a non-specific person anyway?) and John only had a motive for the murder about five minutes before the due time (according to his watch). That's a crime of passion - a red ball event. The whole scenario doesn't work.

Re: the red ball confusion...

Burgess' plan was to have Crow claim he kidnapped Anderton's son, so Anderton would kill him. However, he had to figure out a way to get that information (that Crow was "responsible") to Anderton. Without the precogs, Burgess would have to tip that information somehow. This would make it extremely likely that the killing would be premeditated. However, Burgess crossed things up, not realizing that the simple act of his contacting Crow would trigger the precogs. He probably thought that they wouldn't envision the murder until he got the information to Anderton. Given this, the nit is actually that Burgess' name doesn't show up on the "perpetrator" ball. While Anderton would have done the actual killing, Burgess was definitely involved. This leads to the question of can the balls record those who hire people to kill?

I'm with Sparrow47. What bugged me was the whole "Burgess sets Anderton up" premise that got the movie (and Anderton) up & running. Remember he needed 2 get A out of the way BEFORE Precog went national becoz A was getting wind of precog discrepancies. That's what, 2, 3 days away? He had 2 hire Crow, make sure Crow contacted A or that A got wind of Crow, & then A was somehow supp 2 meet/find Crow, & Burgess had 2b sure A wld kill him (thereby triggering the precogs), all before the deadline. But in the movie, B hadn't even got any info abt Crow to A before the precogs saw the alleged murder, which cld not have been premeditated. Precogs shld not be able to see an unplanned (by A) murder 3 days in advance if no substantial events have occurred to set it (or murderous intention) in motion. See the opening credits murder - precogs were triggered only around time guy discovered wife's adultery. And if it's premeditated by B, then his face shld be seen, meeting Crow, etc. I don't buy precogs being triggered against A just by B hiring Crow.

As for Agatha's "vision" of A & ex-wife, I also thought she was seeing an alternative future of them with son, but my friend says she ended by calling the child a "she". Which of course makes you wonder if she really saw them getting back together, or she manipulated them into fulfilling a fake vision, because she thought that wld make them happy again.

Well, pre-meditation is not defined by a time interval but by a state of mind. Had Anderton shot Crow according to the set-up, then pre-meditation is certainly a possibility. Anderton certainly seemed very much aware of what he was doing and the consequences of those actions. The problem, of course, is that he didn't murder Crow at all, but shot him accidentally while fighting for control of the gun.

Precogs shld not be able to see an unplanned (by A) murder 3 days in advance if no substantial events have occurred to set it (or murderous intention) in motion. - tuaz

Why not? They see the future. While they do say they generally have less time to track murders of passion, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that murderous intention had to have taken place before the Precogs could see the murder. If that were the case, then they could never prevent murders of passion because the intent to kill in those cases happen moments before the act.

In the opening pre-murder, the Precogs have their vision before the husband has even left the house.

At one point in the movie, Anderton is on a train, and a businessman reading an interactive USA Today looks at Anderton suspiciously. Right behind this businessman is a woman talking on a cell phone. It’s Cameron Crowe, director of Vanilla Sky, and Cameron Diaz, both of whom were visiting the set. Crowe put Steven Spielberg in a scene in Vanilla Sky, so Spielberg returned the favor.

My coworker had this point. "After Anderton is Haloed. Is the ending we see what really happened or what he was dreaming off. When he was in his caccoon."

OMG I didnt think of that. Most of Phillip Dick's movies mess with your mind and that would be the ultimate mess.

Brazil did such an ending but planted a lot of clues... I just don't see it this time. The structure leaves it open, yes... also, one could argue that in Star Trek Generations, Picard and Kirk never left the Nexus.

*Most of Phillip Dick's movies mess with your mind..*

You mean his STORIES. Phillip Dick never made movies.

Yes sorry. I got my media mixed.

Liked the movie a lot, a couple nits:

**Spoiler**
My understanding is that if you have knowledge of the future, you can then choose a different path. So since Anderton saw the precogs prediction, he could choose not to shoot Leo Crow. Okay I get that. At the end when Burgess is pointing the gun as Anderton, Anderton goes on about how Burgess can choose. Burgess does in fact choose an alternative to what the precogs saw. However, the precog's vision occurred while Burgess was chasing Anderton around after the speech, so neither Anderton nor Burgess would have seen the vision or prediction that the cops or we the audience saw.

With respect to Ann Lively's murder. The way I understand the state of the data available is that the vision of the attempted murder was recorded. Then the actual murder took place, which was not recorded in the normal database since the techs thought it was an echo, and was only recorded in Agatha's brain because that’s what happens to minority reports. I can understand that they would see the attempted murder since events preceding the murder are often shown. When the murder occurred at the beginning of the movie and the precogs experienced the echo, there was some instruction to shut down the incoming data, and the precogs stopped thrashing around. So that means for echoes, after the input has been turned off the information no longer flows to the precogs. Additionally I thought, according to weird plant lady, the minority report dealt with an alternate future. The actual murder of Ann Lively was not an alternate future so would not have been a minority report. The twins should have also seen the actual murder and it would be in the general files. If the incoming information was shut down since the techs thought it was an echo, it should not be recorded in Agatha’s brain.

In fact I find the title a bit ironic since the minority reports actually did not have a material impact on the plot. Anderton's "murder" of Crow did not have a minority report, and Ann Lively's murder was not missed because it was an alternative future, or a minority report, but because the technicians thought it was an echo. Though I suppose that Anderton’s knowledge of the existence of the minority reports is what compelled him to kidnap Agatha.

I enjoyed the scene in the mall where Agatha’s visions of the enabled them to hide behind the balloons and gate an umbrella. However, I thought the precogs could only see murders in the future, they couldn’t even predict assaults or other crimes, since murder had a large and unique impact on the psychic ether, or what ever they had. So how is it that she can see that a mother will buy balloons for her daughter, or even when Anderton is captured at his cottage, that the cops are coming for him.

The Dr who did Anderton’s eyes was put away by Anderton and sent to a prison where he was treated very badly. I believe he mentions an incident in the shower. The way he was talking I thought he was going to do something awful to John. Instead he leaves some rotten food and milk (why did he leave the non-rotten food) and gives John some Japanese person’s eyes. They built up a lot of tension, and did not seem to do anything with it.

---

Quote:

In fact I find the title a bit ironic since the minority reports actually did not have a material impact on the plot. Anderton's "murder" of Crow did not have a minority report, and Ann Lively's murder was not missed because it was an alternative future, or a minority report, but because the technicians thought it was an echo. Though I suppose that Anderton’s knowledge of the existence of the minority reports is what compelled him to kidnap Agatha.

---

Interesting to note your phraseology there:

"murder" of Crow.

You know what a group of crows is called?

Cynicalckick:Umm, the reason Anderton kidnapped Agatha--a MAJOR element in the movie--was to GET the minority report.

Also, that minority reports are ignored--even though it's possible it will happen. This is an element of why Precrime won't work.

I get that Anderton's knowledge of the minority report was a critical plot element, my point was that after all the fuss, neither of the incidents (Crow, Lively) actually involved a minority report.

With regard to it being an element of why pre-crime won't work. One possible way around it would be to say:
1) In the event there is no minority report, it's gonna happen, so let's get the murderer before it happens.
2) If there is a minority report psycops notify the potential murderer "we think you're gonna kill this person on this date in this way. We suggest you don't do it, we'll be keeping an eye on you"

They could even notify the potential murderer in the event there is no minority report, I think it would be an effective deterrent. But then again it's not real, and who wants to hear all that at the end of a movie anyway.

No one: Interesting to note your phraseology there: "murder" of Crow. You know what a group of crows is called?

I didn't know and I looked it up. A group of crows is a murder or muster. I never would have guessed this, a group of jellyfish is called a smack. www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/animals/Animalbabies.shtml

However, Tom would never have tried to find the victim in the original time-line. Seeing the vision alters the future and leads Tom to the victim, but Tom didn't kill him. And suicide shouldn't show up in visions. Also, why did the precogs get the vision so early in the first place, since Tom didn't do any preplanning because he didn't know the victim?

Perhaps in the origional timeline Lamar Burgess would have left him notes or clues of some kind that lead him to figure that in the hotel he would find the man who killed his son.

Also, we did not get what really happened to the son, and I find it strange that John's son was abducted in that very public pool, and yet no one did anything or told John who took him?!?!? I find the pool scene very objectional.

Why is it objectional that kind of thing does happen. some kidnappings happen for no reason at all, it added depth to the film that it was a random unsolved crime rather than a suprise revilitation that comes up inthe third act and allows him to get revenge.

Anderton didn't change history. Agatha keeps telling him he has a choice, but he doesn't. Since the Crow incident would never have happened had he not had access to the Precog vision, he was fated to have a confrontation with Crow in that hotel room that would result in Crow being shot to death. (They said early on that the Precogs were not in agreement on the time of death.)

Anderton did change history. In the pre-cog vision Anderton said "goodbye Crow" and gleefully blew him away. What really happened is Anderton read him his rights and Crow commited suicide. The only problem is that the suicide looked so much like the pre-cog vision of the murder to all the cops on the outside it looked just like the pre-cog vision of the murder.

But if the Precogs can only see murders, should they have been able to see Crow's death, which was not murder but an accident?

See above. If Anderton had said "Goodbye Crow" and blew Crow away like in the vision it would have been a murder.

Changed premise! When Anderton talks to the doctor who "invented" precrime (I can't remember her name and I don't think it's in the credits above), she tells him that the precogs, before people figured out what was going on, would spend all night having nightmares about people being murdered. Okay, stop. This means that all three can see the future. But later on, everything seems to indicate that the other two can't function without Agatha! How does that work? If each of the precogs can sense the future, then after Anderton nabs Agatha, the other two, sedated and soaking in that "proton milk," should still be able to pick up future murders!

Perhaps they can see murders in there dreams but not clear enough or far enough in advance for it to be usefull without her.

Darn, Brian, the whole time I was scrolling down this page, I was working out an explination for the whole buisnes of Crow's death, but you just said everything I was thinking!

I just watched this again. Great movie. Most of the nits have already been pointed out or discussed, but this has always bugged me.

After Lara finds out while tying Lamar's tie that Lamar is actually the villain, she takes John's gun and eyeball to gain access to the prison. She then points the gun at the back of the warden's head. The warden complies with her request - but he should know he is in no danger! No red ball. Lara can't possibly intend to kill him in any future. He could have just called security right there.

The warden wouldn't be aware of the red ball or not as it happens in the precrime hq which is not in the prison. So he doesnt know if they are coming or not and it is always a good idea to cooperate with a crazy lady with a gun to the back of your head.

A while ago Mpatterson questions why Precrime has to be shut down and Darth Sarcasm makes the excellent point about due process. But is it necessary to arrest everybody "seen" by the Precogs? Well, arrest maybe if they are caught moments before the act but that comatose incarceration probably not, that's what rehabilitation programs are for.

Somebody mentions that before the "three" essentially became salves of DC they were having dreams about murders, but it was believed that the dudes couldn't have visions without Agitha. They were talking about Precrime not working without Agitha, and her being the strongest of the three, not a catlyst of some sort. The other two could certainly "see".

Great movie! The trailers made it look lame but I was quite impressed.

LN: Why in the world were those repulsor stun guns designed to require recocking after each shot?
Since projectile firearms are still widely used I would imagine this weapon consumes a lot of energy and requires recharging after each shot.

LN: When the Precrime squad search the motel [...] Fletcher says four spiders should be enough, one per floor, but [...] I counted seven of them.
The other officer with Fletcher (Knott?) said to use eight because he's 'gotta eat.'

LN: Anderton nearly loses his old eyes when they fall and roll down the ramp leading up to the Temple. Why in the WORLD is there an inclined RAMP there?
Perhaps for water runoff if a pipe bursts or it rains a lot. Also, if one of the precogs needed to go to somewhere, and they wanted to keep their absence a secret, they would probably use a wheelchair or stretcher. What bothered me about that scene is Anderton not being more careful with his eyes.

Slinky J: One part that got me, is where Agatha was talking about their son in Lara's home there.
You bring up an interesting point here, one that shows just how good Agatha is. Not only did she predict the son's possible future, she also predicted that they would be living in that house; Lara said they lived in John's apartment while they were married.

Sven: Cosmo Landesman [...] stated that there was an alternate possible reason for Anderton being set up, and that having asked other reviewers about it they came up blank. Does anyone know what this may be?
That depends on what the main reason was. John was set up because of his interest in the Anne Lively case and, becuause Precrime was going national, Burgess didn't want the drug-using Anderton to screw things up.

Yasu: my point was that after all the fuss, neither of the incidents (Crow, Lively) actually involved a minority report.
The Lively case most certainly did contain a minority report. Agatha foresaw the second act while the twins did not.

Brian: If Anderton had said "Goodbye Crow" and blew Crow away like in the vision it would have been a murder.
He did say "Goodbye Crow" in the actual timeline, as he was beginning to leave, and then came the misfire.

So Precrime is shut down at the end, for several reasons, but is their headquarters completely useless now? Seems like such a waste with all that technology and tactical team equipement. If DC still had homicide detectives, or anybody with some semi-basic forensic skills, they would discover that Anderton didn't murder Crow or Witwer before he was sentenced.

inblackestnight: Since projectile firearms are still widely used I would imagine this weapon consumes a lot of energy and requires recharging after each shot.
Luigi Novi: What does recharging it have to do with cocking it?

That's what I thought they were doing. Re-cocking guns after every shot hasn't been done since single-action revolvers of the early 1900s, pump shotguns don't count because that's not acutally considered cocking. In most cases, cocking a gun isn't necessary, it just happens a lot in movies/TV because writers think it adds drama or something. The weapons on MR seem to be firing a burst of energy that's suppose to knock down, and maybe incapacitate, the intended target. I don't really see why a cocking mechanism would be added to this sort of weapon.