Is there a destiny for each of us ?
Are we but puppets to be manipulated by circumstances ?
Is everything decided well in advance ?
Or is there a free will ?
Can we change the course of the future ?
Some of the questions facing John Anderton (Tom cruise), a policeman in a futuristic world.
A world in which crime has been all but abolished.
The cost ? ? Privacy, liberty and justice
A world based on half a vision
Set in the year 2054, Minority Report is based on a short story by sci-fi writer P.K. Dick.
Have you ever had a gut feeling, a vision, a dream and known that it?s going to come true ? That is precognition. This story is about 3 mutants with that rare gift ? or is it a curse ? ? they dream of crimes and foretell them just a few days before they can happen.
The police swoops down on the murderer before he can commit the crime and arrests him. The assumption is that it would have happened anyway.
And the penalty is death.
Anderton becomes the victim of the very system that he serves when the Precogs predict that he will murder a man who he does not even know in three day?s time. Now the accused, Anderton escapes. As he flees through the city, iris recognition technology makes it possible for the police to track him down.
Circumstances scheme to bring him to the very hotel room where he is to commit the murder.
What does he find there that drives him to what he thinks is the impossible ?
Can destiny be averted ?
On the brink of pressing the trigger, as the precog who dreamed the murder reminds him again and again You can walk away. It?s a choice.
As you step further into the story, you realize that Anderton has been framed. The system is being used by the very man who created it. Hiding behind precog dreams to save himself for the murder that he cold bloodedly committed, Lamar Burgess (Max Von Snydow) makes a brilliant villain. In a dramatic climax, Anderton returns from the brink of death to reveal Burgess?s true face.
As Anderton and a now desperate Burgess come face to face, it is Anderton?s turn to remind him You can walk away. It?s a choice.
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It?s a movie that raises and answers some very interesting questions about science and how it should be used.
Where does crime prevention meet human rights violation ? ? a very thin line.
Where does justice begin to infringe upon the right to self-determination ? ? a grey area between technology and ethics that is yet to be explored.
Is prescience a science ? ? watch this potboiler to find out.
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Cons are that you need your entire attention to figure out the plot ? and very keen observation to work out the subtleties. For example, why Anderton was being set up is still not clear to me.