MINORITY REPORT, starring Tom Cruise, tells the story of John Anderton (Cruise), a cop with Washington, DC's Precrime unit, in 2054. Precrime has been in existence as a unit for six years as the movie begins, and the unit's cops rely on the visions produced by precognitives (precogs for short) to develop evidence against those about to commit crimes. The precogs, in other words, produce visions of murders about to happen; these visions are broadcast on special screens and recorded on special computer equipment for later viewing.

How much later these visions are viewed depends on when the crimes are about to be committed. Records of a "redball" crime - those about to be committed within, say, an hour or two, a time frame almost exclusively reserved for crimes of passion such as the one which opens the movie - are viewed ASAP precisely because they are about to occur within the hour, while crimes occurring further into the future are viewed slightly later, and in more detail. This is because Precrime has more time to be able to develop the evidence provided by the precogs if the crime is not a "redball." (The names of the victim or victims are recorded on one wooden ball, and the names of the murderer or murderers are recorded on another.)

The precogs - who gained the ability to predict murders largely as the result of attempts to correct severe brain damage they sustained while they were inside the wombs of drug-addicted mothers - eventually predict that John Anderton himself will commit murder. I won't say who he was supposed to murder or why, but suffice it to say that this scenario was set up due to the corruption Anderton is exposing within the Precrime unit at the hands of its leader, Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow). The rest of this movie is spent evading Anderton's former Precrime-unit colleagues while continuing to ferret out information about the corruption in the unit.

I disagree with many of the critics of this movie, who have said that they feel the issues it brought up (civil-liberties issues, most notably) were merely touched upon while the focus shifted to the action sequences in MINORITY REPORT.

It is true, as Anderton himself notes toward the beginning of this film, that the mere act of precognition of a murder or other event (Anderton uses the example of catching a ball that's about to roll off a table) would likely interfere with a given event's occurrence. It is also true that the only evidence against many of these "pre-criminals" is the vision of the murder elaborated upon by the precogs; this means that the pre-criminals have been detained and contained (in the DC jail system of the future) with no evidence against them to speak of, or due process or any of the other rights we take for granted here in America.

However, I feel that were this film to do without the action sequences - the act of chasing Anderton around DC (including one rather scary sequence where Anderton is chased down while he's getting an eye transplant in order to evade having his retinas scanned) - it would be far less suspenseful and entertaining. Put another way, if we did without the action in this film, we would merely have another art film where the characters turned into talking heads, discussing the issues brought up by the film in such an intellectual fashion as to cause the average viewer to be bored to tears.

Also, were the filmmakers to avoid action sequences entirely, we would be losing out on some of the small humorous moments of the movie. I have implied before that retinal scanning is an important part of the plot, for example. In one rather hilarious sequence, after Anderton gets his eye transplant and is healed from the procedure, his retinas are scanned and he is asked, "Mr. Yakamoto," what did you think of the (whatever it was) you bought the last time you were in this Gap store? In other words, all marketing in the mid-21st century is based on individual sales records and retinal scans.

If you enjoy action movies which make you think, go see MINORITY REPORT. However, it isn't your typical brainless action flick, so it may still bore some viewers to tears.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older