When this came out, it was a big hit but under appreciated for what ground it broke in the world of movies. The technological vision alone is worthy of high praise for its sensitivity to evolution in the fields of computing, automotive transportation, law enforcement and robotics. But the true mastery of film production comes with the seamless weaving of intense and extremely complex plot twists with an easy to assimilate format to the audiences. This is an extraordinary story with unusual abundances of turns, tropes and surprises. Cruise delivers a highly charged emotional and powerful performance-- one of his best pictures as well, perhaps since "The Color of Money". Spielberg makes an erratic and chaotic adventure into a smooth ride without over saturating the senses or making it hard to keep up, just to understand what's going on within the character relationships or subtleties of the ironical storyline. The theme of the Civil War is not often cited by reviewers but the motion picture begins with a pre-crime which centers around Lincoln's eye sockets (a pre-crime murderer is involved in the removing of Lincoln's eyes from a cutout which relates to his child's school project). The end shows us Von Sydow's character accepting and then using a 'Civil War General's' handgun, which has 5 gold plated bullets which are described as ending the suffering of the Civil War. There is the famous meeting of the 5 tribes which helped formulate the US Constitution and Lincoln is quoted within the film as suspending habeas corpus within his war. Lincoln is very often cited as the most 'psychic' of Presidents. This reviewer has maintained a Lincoln theme to "Back to the Future" as well (see lincolnwasadummy.com). We are clearly missing something inside the minds of the production team here as it regards the Lincoln era of history, but it makes for even more deep analysis and interest to this masterful movie maker coming out with one of his most brilliant and daring movies. Aside from any of that, this is just a highly entertaining and fast paced film with plenty for all ages, all genres (from horror to crime to action to sci fi to thriller to mystery to even some comedy).

Absolutely 5 stars. This film is aging well and has not lost any of its edge, even after 17 years. Astounding movie making!

Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg was another film inspired by the work of famed sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick.

The story is set in 2054 in Virginia and Washington D.C. where the government has created PreCrime. It uses three psychics to warn of future murders. A special unit, led by Tom Cruise as John Anderton then goes out and arrests the perpetrators before they can commit their acts. The system works so well that the administrator Director Burgess played by Max von Sydow is ready to spread PreCrime nationwide. The dilemma arises when Anderton is accused of a future crime and his unit chases after him. Because he knows the system so well he runs in an attempt to prove his innocence.

The film is full of action, mystery and suspense. For example, Anderton goes to a crooked doctor he once arrested to give him a face job so that he might infiltrate the PreCrime center. While there his unit shows up and sends electronic spiders into all the apartments looking for him. They scan people’s eyes to identify them. Could Anderton’s surgery take effect before the spider’s reach him? Anderton then kidnaps one of the psychics called precogs called Agatha played by Samantha Morton. They escape through a mall. Agatha is able to tell Anderton when to stop, where to turn, and when to run because she can see the future. A very elaborate sequence, excellently filmed by Spielberg.

In the end, the movie is really about free will and the power of the state. Can the government arrest people before they even do anything? What if someone just had elaborate thoughts about killing someone, could they be detained for that? Most importantly does getting arrested for a pre-crime mean people have no way to choose their own path or are their future already pre-determined by some sort of fate? Would this be the first step towards a police state where the government can arrest people just for what they think? Could the system be manipulated and the innocent be arrested for things they would never be able to prove their innocence because they were taken in before they even did anything? Legally, what would this mean for the American justice system where people are considered innocent until proven guilty since being arrested for a pre-crime is based upon guilt? This is another layer to the film, which makes it so interesting along with all the other elements.
C

I can't see how anyone could give this 5 stars. It was so bad, I don't know where to start. There was an unexpected twist that would have been nice, if it hadn't been marred by the obviousness of Hollywood trying to "prove," yet again, that it's "wrong" for even a parent to kill someone who raped his own son. Just...yuck. Utterly unrealistic scenarios, logical gaps on so many levels, used to obfuscate reality and not-so-pleasant, but highly likely scenarios that would challenge the creators' message.

Also, too much cartoonish junk, stereotyping, and grotesque over-reliance on sensationalism and shock. A massive fail.

Here in the 2020s, 3 decades before Minority Report, an early stage of precrime policing has already appeared. It's goes by the name "red-flag law". It deprives Americans of their right to self defense without any due process, based on a precog's vision that they're going to kill. The main difference from Minority Report is that any Joe Shmoe can be a precog. Washington DC and 19 states have already enacted these red-flag laws, and Biden is pushing for a national red-flag law.

Minority Report was released long before cancel culture, but it should be clear to us by now that you deserve to have your life destroyed if you ever said anything which was acceptable at the time, but then became unacceptable later. You may, for example, vote Republican in the 2024 election, but then a decade later the Democrats in power will determine that having voted Republican is evidence of mental illness. Mentally ill people must lose all constitutional protections, and Minority Report gives us a good idea to keep precriminals locked in solitary.

[SPOILER ALERT] While Minority Report ends with society rejecting precrime, I find that unrealistic. The political class benefits too much from their ability to imprison anyone. More likely is a future in which society is ruled by 1% who allow an additional 2% to remain free, while the remaining 97% labor in prisons as punishment for crimes they would otherwise have committed. Then we can finally celebrate a safe America, free from gun violence.

Minority Report is a great reminder of the real dangers presented by big government, with an unrealistically happy ending.

I was watching and thinking, Where have I heard this music before? I did not realize it was Spielberg until I was wondering this and looked it up. My next thought was Indiana Jones and sure enough, the same composer.
It made some of the chase scenes- especially the one with the guys initially trying to get a main character as they flew through an apartment building VERY cheesy and broke how it seemed the movie's tone should be.
It seemed there were 2 different movies not clicking- a cheesy Indiana Jones feel, and a serious thriller that dominated the majority of the film(and was the better and great parts of the film).
Overall, I really liked it, but it should have revised the cheeseball parts.

There were little to no minorities in this movie.

I decided to rewatch this because I just realized this was extremely possible with today's technology...however instead of humans with precog abilities doing it, it will be A.I.

I find it a bit crazy that in the next 20 yrs we will probably have a system that can map out almost all humans decision....and with that ads will be so well placed that it will be able to trick you into buying things that you thought you sat and made a decision about over time. They won't target you with an impulse buy....they will influence your decisions for the next years....

Too many of us are connected to social media...Just because you stop the use of social media does not mean they won't be able to still profile you into a file.

Cameras footage from in grocery stores, sporting events, hospitals, etc. being fed to A.I. recognizing your face and updating a profile clothes you wear, location you went, food you bought, etc. ( most likely the government) somewhere on AWS lol....

Data is being collected and it might take like 5 years to get to you ...but as tech gets better and faster...it will be easier...

We are leaking data out of us faster than we can examine it (for now lol)

Even this post i make can be used....as Data for me....it's over...

You see those periods i put in my text randomly? I do that all the time in internet text. All of what I wrote can be traced back to me because of those dot usages.

Forget any baggage you might have about either Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg, both are capable of superb work and this movie is proof. The film is just chock full of high adventure, real suspense and plot twists worthy of Hitchcock. I don't know what Phillip K Dick story this came from, but I'd bet even if it isn't quite faithful to the original work, it's faithful to the author's intentions, because it makes you think deeply, even invites true philosophical contemplation, which is something old Uncle Phillip was always about.
Again, I can't say enough about the action. You can tell that Steven Spielberg is really in tune with two things: the entire history of action in films, from the subtlest intrigue to the grandest high adventure; and second he's in tune with what contemporary film is capable of, not only in terms of special effects. And he's just damn good at science fiction, too. By the end of the film you've absorbed a whole new fascinating reality, and you feel like it could all come true!
I waited more than a decade to watch this movie; big mistake! Can't recommend enough!