Director Report Card: Steven Spielberg (2002)

23. Minority Report

There have doubtlessly been more enigmatic Hollywood superstars but few have had the longevity of Tom Cruise. The man has been an A-lister for four decades now and shows no signs of slowing down. If anything, Cruise has re-committed himself in recent years to entertaining the public with ever-increasing examples of blockbuster stunts and an unfailing love for the theatrical experience. And yet, the question remains: Who is Tom Cruise? There's always been something ineffable behind his eyes and flawless smile. His affinity with death defying stunt work recently pairs well with his unavoidable association with a high-powered sci-fi cult full of weirdo jargon about superhuman abilities. There's always been this lingering sense that the Tom Cruise we know is an elaborate mask, a perfected façade of movie star charisma meant to cover up lord knows what.

Regardless of however I may feel about Cruise, it's undeniable that he's a massive movie star. This makes it unsurprising that Cruise would want to work with Steven Spielberg, the biggest director in all of Hollywood. Supposedly, the two met while Cruise was filming "Risky Business" and had been trying to figure out a project together for years afterwards. That eventual film would take a convoluted path to the screen. Philip K. Dick's short story "Minority Report" was originally optioned with the intention of being turned into a sequel to a previous Dick adaptation: "Total Recall." When Schwarzenegger passed on the project and Carolco went bankrupt, the script went into many years of turnaround. After it came to Cruise and Spielberg's attention, another round of extensive rewrites would follow before it was finally ready to go before cameras. The first Cruise/Spielberg collaboration would go before audiences in June of 2002.

In the near future year of 2054, all homicides have been wiped out in D.C. due to the implementation of the "precrime" program. Three psychics, isolated in a water filled chamber, receive visions of murders that are about to occur and the police are dispatched to stop the crimes before they happen. John Anderson, traumatized by the disappearance of his own son years before, leads the program. Days before the precrime program is set to go national, a vision is received of Anderton killing a man he's never met. He goes on the run, determined to clear his name and figure out the circumstances of the predicted homicide. 

One can't help but assume that, like all the film brats, Spielberg is enamored of the ever commercially unviable film noir genre. He did produce "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," after all. And so it becomes tempting to look at "Minority Report" as the director's sci-fi spin on the shadowy crime genre. There are certainly hints of noir here. Anderton has a troubled past, still haunted by the death of his son, and has turned to drug abuse to cope with the trauma. A story that has a hero sneaking around and trying to root out corruption within an institution like the police certainly suggests the cynicism of noir. With its future porn vendors, back alley surgeries, and a plot laced with suspicion and deception, this is probably among the darker of Spielberg's popcorn movies. Ultimately, however, the ever sentimental filmmaker is unwilling to commit to this darkness. "Minority Report" has a happy ending, where everything is worked out and the protagonist is in a much better place than the one he started in.

Considering Philip K. Dick's work also formed the foundation for "Blade Runner," the ultimate sci-fi noir, that's another reason to read "Minority Report" through that lens. Yet Dick's work, on the whole, was concerned with more philosophical ideas. The value of humanity, the malleability of memory, the perception of reality, and mind-bending drugs were just some of the ideas he wrote about. "Minority Report" asks similarly big questions. The story is concerned with nothing less than the nature of free will and whether fate exists. Obviously, the idea of precrime suggests people are destined to perform certain actions. This is questioned throughout yet the precogs remain infallible. When Anderton himself is predicted to commit murder, we have to wonder whether he'll go through with it. As the story winds on, and more reveals come, it certainly seems like a possibility. This forces the viewer to grapple with similarly big questions. Do we have total control over our own lives? Or is everything we think and do set in stone from the beginning?

"Minority Report" comes to its own conclusion to this question while also incorporating a much darker message about authority. If the idea of cops being able to arrest people for crimes they haven't committed yet sounds nightmarish, that's precisely the point. By the end, it becomes apparent that precrime will be used by a corrupt system to further their own goals. The prison system in "Minority Report" is also especially hellish, people forced into a trance like state they can't move from. While Spielberg stops just short of condemning the entire police system, never quite showing precognition-assisted cops are doubtlessly evil and prejudiced as they might be, it still thoroughly dismisses the idea that absolute faith in the criminal justice system is a good thing. (Continuing the theme throughout Spielberg's career, of a suspicion of governing bodies while also admitting that some people within them are still well intentioned.)

Following "A.I.," this would be the second time Spielberg had made a science fiction movie actually set in a future society. The director and his team talked extensively with futurists, in an attempt to create as plausible a version of the future as possible. In some ways, "Minority Report" does a pretty good job of capturing our likely future. Here, the police are assisted by spider-like robots that seem like a logical extension of our current, drone-filled world. Another nice touch is that "Minority Report's" version of D.C. is covered with large, digital billboards. Computer assisted advertisers immediately scan passerbys' eyes, determining their identity, and selling specifically to them. In our current age of hyper-targeted internet ads, this prediction seems to have just about come true. 

Yet, as much as Spielberg and his team strove to make a plausible future, “Minority Report” has a similar problem to what faced “A.I.” The same way that film's world was marred by hokey creative choices, “Minority Report” is sometimes undone by a goofy theatricality. The electrified batons the cops wield are called “sick sticks.” The drug Anderton is addicted to is "neuronin." The precogs' visions are delivered via an elaborate system of wooden balls and chutes, which seems hopelessly impractical. Much how the filmmakers couldn't predict how commonplace simple search engines would become in "A.I.," here they couldn't anticipate the rise of internet pornography. People pay to have full body, digital sex adventures in sleazy, back-alley dens. Seems unlikely to be popular in the face of VR porn and OnlyFans. 

Even if the audience's immersion in "Minority Report's" fictional world is sometimes splintered by a campy or unlikely note, there's one thing you can't deny: Steven Spielberg directs the hell out of it. Two sequences prove especially impressive. One tracks the spider drones as they work their way through an entire apartment, building suspense and showing what a serious threat the little machines are. Another has Anderton and the freed precog avoiding detection in a shopping mall, the psychic predicting everything that happens with pinpoint accuracy and timing, even taking a minute to talk to people passing by about their futures. The tightness of the editing, the fullness of the cinematography, and the absolute control Spielberg has over the visuals are also evident in the film's often breakneck action sequences. Cruise dangling from fellow cops wearing jet packs, careening in and out of near-by homes, recall the incentive excitement and humor of the "Indiana Jones" films. A scuffle in a car factory clearly represents Spielberg trying to compete with more modern, kinetic and special effects driven spectacles like "The Matrix." He does a fine job of it too.

Being something of a noir pastiche, "Minority Report" does have a plot that twists and turns. The future prediction element gives the script an excuse to circle back on itself in multiple ways. Yet the screenplay doesn't cheat and, in fact, seems to go out of its way to ensure the audience doesn't get confused. Only the mechanics of the precog technology itself, and the sympathetic way that effects the mystery at hand, ever feel slightly convoluted. Still, I can't help but wonder if "Minority Report" would've been improved by a slightly more twisting plot. The audience definitely figures out who the responsible bad guy is early on and it's the exact machinations of the scheme that need to be uncovered. It's a script that is suitably tight but perhaps needed a little more room to properly leave the audience in suspense, while also tackling its headier themes more directly.

As well executed as "Minority Report's" thrills are, and as ambitious as its ideas are, this is still Spielberg in popcorn movie mode. Entertainment and excitement is his main goal. The weakness of this approach is most apparent in the film's hero. Tom Cruise is certainly capable of giving vulnerable performances. He did just that in "Eyes Wide Shut" and "Magnolia," around this time. Yet he's operating closer to Maverick here. While Cruise is great to watch when outrunning jet packs or escaping in a future car, you certainly never buy him as a desperate drug addict perpetually mourning his dead son. Honestly, the drug subplot represents "Minority Report's" most undercooked element and never truly comes into focus. We don't see Tom desperate for a hit, strung-out or hungover, or sacrificing his morals to satiate his addiction. The only time his perfect movie star veneer cracks is when Anderton seemingly discovers the man that killed his son. Cruise's inhuman intensity is perhaps best suited to moments of unhinged emotion like that. Otherwise, the movie might as well be about Ethan Hunt.

Perhaps aware of his leading man's shortcomings, Spielberg packs "Minority Report's" supporting cast with heavies and dynamite character actors. Max Von Sydow, commanding voice of authority with just the right amount of sinister intent in his eyes, is well cast as the head of the precog program.  Colin Farrell appears as Cruise's primary rival for the first half of the film, a clever example of having a then up-and-coming leading man facing off against an established star with comparable charisma. Reliable tough guy actors like Neal McDonough and Patrick Kilpatrick appear as physical obstacles to Cruise while Tim Blake Nelson and Peter Stormare are allowed to gleefully ham it up in sleazy roles that suit their talents. Truthfully, the best performance in the movie belongs to Samantha Morton as the precog that Anderton liberates. Morton adds a properly spacey effect to the role while seeming vulnerable enough to activate the viewer's protection instinct. 

Well received by critics and audiences, "Minority Report" won positive reviews and did nicely at the box office. It seems the film satisfied the public's urge to see one of our most popular screen stars team up with one of our most beloved filmmakers. And, don't get me wrong, this is a totally compelling movie with strong action scenes and a story that keeps you gripped. Yet I can't help but wonder about the darker, more ambiguous, philosophical movie hiding inside "Minority Report's" DNA. Well regarded to this day, I can't help but count the movie among Spielberg's more middle of the road efforts. Middle of the road for Steven is still far above many other blockbusters, so that's hardly a criticism. But maybe we needed a little more of "A.I.'s" cynicism, more of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind's" grandeur, and some "Saving Private Ryan's" grit here. [Grade: B]