Corrected entry: After Witwer is killed, Lara calls Burgess, who asks, "Has he got the precog with him?" to which Lara responds, "Yes". But Lara has never seen a precog. How would she know what a precog looks like?
Tailkinker
24th Aug 2010
Minority Report (2002)
22nd Oct 2009
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: How can the precogs confine their dreams/visions to the District of Columbia? When they were about to go "national", we are to believe they will all of the sudden be able to have visions that stop at the Canadian and Mexican border?
Correction: The range attainable by the precognitives' visions is never stated. It apparently covers the entire District of Columbia, but there is clearly some distance limitation involved, otherwise putting the precogs into an isolated cabin to give them a peaceful vision-free existence, as we see at the end of the film, would be a pointless exercise. While the situation you bring up never arises during the movie, it's hardly unreasonable to assume that should a vision be pinpointed to a location outside DC, then the PreCrime unit could simply notify appropriate authorities in that area, or they may have agreements with those areas that they can enter them in the course of their duties, or they may simply be ignored as being outside PreCrime's jurisdiction. Likewise, once the programme is expanded to the national level, some sort of agreement could readily be drawn up with neighbouring governments to cover the eventuality of a prevision being traced to a location outside the United States. None of these possibilities are explored in the film, but the fact that they aren't touched upon doesn't make this a mistake, simply an unanswered question.
19th Dec 2006
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: This film is based on a play written by Sophocles call Oedipus Rex. If you read the play you will see that there are many references to this play in the movie, from his eyeballs being taken out to the telling of his fate.
Correction: Actually, no, it's based on the Philip K. Dick story of the same name. Whether Dick might have borrowed any ideas from the Sophocles play is irrelevant, this film was not based on it. Any similarities, and there aren't really that many, are purely coincidental.
3rd Sep 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: When Lamar shoots Colin Farrell, where was a pre-cog ball?
Correction: It's explained quite clearly in the film - unless the three precogs are together, it doesn't work. As Agatha is away from the twins, off with Anderton, there's no precognition, so Lamar can kill Witwer without being picked up.
The question still remains though: why was there no pre-cog ball of Witwer's murder rolling, before Agatha was kidnapped by Anderton? Witwer's murder happened a few hours after Crowe's death, hence the pre-vision of Witwer's murder could have easily occurred a few hours after the pre-vision of Crowe's death.
The decision to murder Wither was not made until after Agatha was taken. As stated at the beginning of the film premeditated murder gives them more time to look at the visions and decode the information, crimes of passion only give them minutes.
Well yeah but they aren't attained only after the decision is made by the perpetrator. Anderton got his ball well before he even knew he would do anything. His ball came hours before the intended murder, so should Lamar's. I like this question.
But with Anderton there were events that lead to the murder that happened before he knew anything, like Burgess hiring Crow to be the victim. So somehow the Precogs pickup on that and created a ball. With Wither there was nothing before hand that would trigger the Precogs.
The PreCrime system works by the PreCogs scanning for people with the intent to kill and then determining details. Burgess' intent to murder Witwer came well after Agatha was disconnected, when he discovered that Witwer knew about the framing of Anderton. Therefore, there couldn't have been a ball, as the system was offline.
Correction: It's because Burgess' murder of Witwer would count as a red ball since he doesn't have any reason to murder Witwer until Witwer reveals he's getting too close to uncovering the truth. By the time the precogs would normally have foreseen such a murder (remembering the movie states red ball killings only have a few minutes worth of warning) Agatha has long since been removed from the equation so yes, it makes sense Witwer's death isn't picked up ahead of time.
8th Jun 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: Precrime couldn't figure out Howard Marks' new address. But the Post Office (also a federal organization) must have known it; otherwise how would the Markses get their mail? Recall that a magazine or newspaper was shown in the previsions, and Anderton unsuccessfully tried to zoom in on the address label, proving it was delivered. The United States Postal Service knew their new address, yet Precrime didn't?
Correction: Magazines, letters and so forth are delivered to whatever's on the address label - it doesn't automatically follow that this information is in a Post Office database somewhere. Besides, we never see how the magazine gets to the house - it could have been forwarded on from their old address by the new occupants, or Marks could have gone back and collected it.
3rd Jun 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: Wouldn't they cancel Anderton's access rights the moment he became wanted for murder? He gets into the Precrime building and the Temple - where the security is expected to be extremely high - without any problem at all.
Correction: Burgess needs Anderton to get to the right place to kill Crow - he may well have anticipated that, in order to get the necessary information to find Crow, Anderton might have to get back into the PreCrime building at some point. As such, he might have used his authority as Director of PreCrime to delay the cancellation of Anderton's access rights.
25th May 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: It was a real nail biter when Anderton and the pre-crime squad was pressed for time to figure out where Howard Marks was going to murder is wife and his wife's lover, but wouldn't it be a simple task to look up Howard Marks' address in a world where computers can convert brain waves into images?
Correction: They look up all the men named Howard Marks in the area, only to find that the right one has moved house in the last week and his address hasn't been updated in the databases yet - hence having to use the images to locate the right house. All this is stated quite specifically.
6th Apr 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Corrected entry: Danny Witwer tells Anderton: "I spent two years in Fuller seminary before becoming a cop. My father was very proud ... he was shot and killed when I was fourteen on the steps of our church in Dublin." 1st of all, Fuller is Lutheran, but Danny carries a Catholic medallion. 2nd, he must have either attended a college-level seminary at fourteen or have contact with his dead father.
Correction: The Catholic medallion might be a family thing, not connected with his time in Fuller, or changes in the religious landscape in the fifty years between now and the events of the film may explain this. Obviously Danny would not have attended the college-level seminary at 14, nor could he have had contact with his dead father - his statement that his father was proud is intended to be ironic, and to show that he has lost someone to violence as well.
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Correction: Lara may not have seen one before, but it's hardly unreasonable for her to make the assumption that the woman with Anderton is the missing precog. Who else could she be? Anderton's hardly going to have stopped to pick up a date.
Tailkinker ★