Minority Report (2002)
November 10, 2022 11:23 AM - Subscribe

John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a murder charge.

Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell and Max von Sydow.

Roger Ebert review

The Collider: Minority Report is a movie obsessed with what we can see, and that seeing is believing.
posted by nubs (15 comments total)
 
I enjoyed the movie enough, but the short story by Dick is really top notch IMHO.
posted by nubs at 11:26 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


$5 more for MeFi! More info here.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:31 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


It's a good movie, but it's worth mentioning that it has a much more Spielbergian ending than the PKD short story.

One of the things I appreciated about the movie is that its vision of the near future seemed well-realized, cohesive.
posted by adamrice at 12:48 PM on November 10, 2022


I have enjoyed this movie quite a bit, despite some clunky elements (and the end, yes, Spielberged into total lameness)

but I loooove Lois Smith as Dr Hineman and the scene in her poisonous greenhouse. so fun and really well done.
posted by supermedusa at 12:59 PM on November 10, 2022


I often wonder if the only way to adapt a PKD story for TV or Film is to take the framing idea and then throwing away the rest, because that's all that ever seems to be done!
posted by drewbage1847 at 1:15 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]


I've read that during preproduction there was a huge consultants conference where they established what different aspects of the future would be like - the area I was particularly intrigued by being the future advertising with personalised billboards triggered by retina ID because... well, I mean, if they could, they would, right?
posted by Molesome at 2:06 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


Two things really bother me about this film.

One, the security protocols around the precogs. You would think that one of the first things to do, should one of your staff be put under investigation for pre-murder, is to remove their retinal access to the facility. And even when that lapse in security is exposed, they don't shut it off - his ex-wife uses the same exact eye later on for the exact same thing!

Two, that hoary chestnut "villain reveals himself by accidentally mentioning information that he wouldn't have access to if he weren't the villain." Find a better way to do your reveal, people.
posted by Paragon at 3:57 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


the movie that birthed my crush on Samantha Morton
posted by kokaku at 4:30 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]


This was the movie that introduced the "virtual floating computer screens" you see everywhere since. Sure, it's a neat idea and it looks kinda cool and was different for the time, but how useful are translucent screens/windows that require large arm gestures to manipulate? Anyway, these floating computer windows have become an expected trope that needs to go away, IMO.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:37 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]


Good film. I liked it.
posted by kyrademon at 5:23 PM on November 10, 2022


Anyway, these floating computer windows have become an expected trope that needs to go away, IMO.

Tom Cruise somehow makes swiping around in the air look cool, but if I were doing it, passersby would be wondering if I needed medical intervention.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:39 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]


I've heard this interface described in HCI circles as the "rotator cuff injury gui".
posted by andorphin at 3:28 PM on November 11, 2022 [7 favorites]


I really didn't like this, finding it (like many Dick adaptations) incoherent at anything but the most superficial level of both plot and theme. But I'd have to rewatch to go on my detailed rant and I'm not going to do that.

So I'm actually in the odd spot of commenting on the one part I loved: The slow motion chase scene, when Tom Cruise escapes not by ridiculous acts of physicality or speed, but by making the right choice at every (metaphorical) crossroads. Legit well done, and a nice spin on a Hollywood cliche.

I often wonder if the only way to adapt a PKD story for TV or Film is to take the framing idea and then throwing away the rest, because that's all that ever seems to be done!

Linklater's A Scanner Darkly is pretty good adaptation. The tone of the novel is captured; what plot changes there are, are in line with the normal requirements of a new medium, as opposed to just not appearing to think much of Dick's idiosyncracies.

The second closest is Carpenter's Dark Star. Really the only thing that keeps this from being a perfect PKD adaptation is that it is not actually based on a PKD story.
posted by mark k at 1:48 PM on November 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


mark k: "the only thing that keeps this from being a perfect PKD adaptation is that it is not actually based on a PKD story."

Maybe that makes it more perfect.
posted by adamrice at 6:00 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]


First rewatch since the theater and was kind of blown away. This is really some next level craftsmanship and there are some just amazing scenes. The hotel sequence with the eye scanning spiders is just so good and that last shot that starts in an attic and just seamlessly pulls back into a helicopter shot (:chefs-kiss:).
posted by octothorpe at 6:12 PM on January 11, 2023


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