Future Crime

Minority Report is the second installment in Steven Spielberg’s Running Man trilogy. A series of unrelated films with an on-the-run theme. Minority Report takes place in a future where crime, including murder, can be stopped before it happens. In other words, PreCrime. A police department that uses three psychic individuals with precognitive (Precogs for short) abilities to predict future crimes. Something that can be good, because you can stop murders before they happen. But also bad, because technically the criminal hasn’t done anything yet. I don’t imagine this future will ever be possible. Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, the police captain in charge of PreCrime. John goes on the run when one of the predictions turns out to be himself killing a man he’s never met. This role fits Tom Cruise very well since he’s always running in his movies. Unlike most high concept science fiction movies though, I was actually able to follow Minority Report very well. Spielberg is really good at presenting high concepts like this in an easy to understand action packed way. Along with the future crimes, this future also includes: personalized advertisements, cars that drive on walls, enormous highways, and glove operated holograms. Some people criticized the happy ending. Which is different from the mostly high stakes tone of the movie, but what else would you expect from Steven Spielberg. The only problem I had with it is that it lead to the mediocre TV series. Minority Report has a future as one of Spielberg’s best sci-fi action thrillers.

Captain John Anderton seeks future crimes