MovieChat Forums > Minority Report (2002) Discussion > Can You See? Is it Now? I hate the futu...

Can You See? Is it Now? I hate the future

posted 8 years ago by kaskait
9 replies | jump to latest

So I hated this film. But decided to take another look.

And realized that the story is not the story we think it is.

The story hidden and connected in many ways to War of the Worlds and A.I.

A world where people have no rights. Are prisoners of corporate interests. A world where people have no jobs because AI has totally taken over. A world of Monsanto DNA freak people and other fauna. People who take refuge in drugs both legal and illegal.

Who live totally different lives in VR.

Is this "story" a VR? So who is doing the watching in that dirty little back alley VR sleep chamber?

Look. The whole movie looks like the "visions".

I misjudged you on this one Spielberg. Sorry about that. Changing the rating to a good 8.

Too bad that this board and the rest of it will be erased.

But I bet you saw that coming.

[–] Memorex101 8 years ago

Is this "story" a VR?

IMHO:

Yes. Agatha’s. (Evidenced by the movie being bookend by her.)

I would entertain the idea that the film shows us Agatha’s VR world where she envisioned circumstances where John is framed for murder and incarcerated; so that she could then imagine his containment VR dream world. Or in other words, Agatha dreaming about someone else’s dream; a mind split [MK-Ultra style] to create a safe space away from the horrors of being forced to watch murders.

… and down the rabbit hole we go.

[–] kaskait 8 years ago

We are getting too many third person, omniscient viewpoints in the film.

What it looks like are player parts interspersed with background story cut scenes like a video game. Nothing in the storyline could be real at all.

Spielberg, when the film was released, made a big talking point about how he was given access to all this technology in development. So the REAL we are seeing is all the gadgets in the film. Did you notice the Google Glasses?

What else could be real? Well, we are being shown what conspiracy theorists call "Agenda 21" in action. Everyone lives in communal, high rise apartments. The ones who are off the grid live in broken down tenements or they remove their own eyes to avoid retinal scan detection. No one is allowed to own cars or DRIVE them. The cars can be automatically taken out of the users control at the will of law enforcement or any criminal hacker. We see plants spliced with animal DNA and with secretions that are deadly. We also see people who are genetic experiments (the precogs). But most importantly, we see Washington DC ACTING OUTSIDE THE CONSTITUTION! Pre-crime is a veritable COUP against the United States government.

This story shows all the downs of that future the elites have planned for us and none of the benefits.

If robot technology builds the cars and everything else. How do most of the people we see work? Does this mean everyone is on the dole? Everyone under control of a corporate system that can destroy them at will?

Back to the film's viewpoint. It seems WE are the pre-cogs watching the "Future". Hence all the signs asking us if "We can See".

[–] paulsdhart (277) 5 years ago

... No one is allowed to own cars or DRIVE them. The cars can be automatically taken out of the users control

true, but what about the red car in the factory? I always thought it was strange in this film,to have the automated cars and on the other hand normal cars you could drive

[–] Lucia2016 (612) 4 years ago

Film aired tonight in UK at 10pm prime time 2 day's before the new year, very timely

And what a year 2021 looks set to be, the transition in the 'New Normal' is now in full swing

This year has disappointed me so much not in so much as to what's happening but the manner in which the general public have swallowed this guff

I am sure when they were first pushing all these new measures there was an air of a boxer in the first round feeling out the opponent and proceeding with caution
'they're not going to fall for this'
'This may just push them over the edge'

They've always seen us as dumb and easy to manipulate but we always had heart (Like Rocky) and we always stuck together but i think that the hearts gone and they now know they can walk straight through us

I could go in to another tangent about immigration one of the things regularly thrown up is community's being fractured and with all this coming to a head now and being at the forefront of my mind it all seems logical that was an earlier part the agenda and once the community's were weak they can then go in for the kill- My minds wandering now, this film triggers me

From what i understand these Smart Cities have been being trialed in select places for the last few years so wouldn't have thought we are very far off
I hope to death i'm wrong and it's the most depressing thought to have but it really does feel as if 2020 has been a missive coup and we have lost the battle and life won't ever be the same again- Fuck me that's Depressing

I really don't want to live in a Philip k Dick universe and i am very worried indeed

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

The film presents a morally ignoble future, where death bears no promise; and work no spiritual reward.

[–] Ace_Spade (9548) 4 years ago

Can you expand on that? I'm not sure I see what you mean, but it sounds interesting. (It also doesn't sound that far off from the common "wisdom" of the present age).

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

The film outlines a deterministic model where free will is discarded. In such a world, where spirituality, divinity, and meaning run in direct opposition to Burgess’s ubermensch paradigm, we see that humans, who have lost the ability of moral discernment, default to their base nature, leading them into the abyss.

Minority Report highlights a future of attenuated propriety, with the proliferation of drug use, consumerism, dissolution of the family, and happiness reduced to a basic chemical reaction. When the moral ideal has been found too difficult and left untried, work becomes a means of Epicurean fulfillment, life as provisional suffering, and death as the preferred destination.

In the present age, it seems all signs point to a society tired of living.

[–] Ace_Spade (9548) 4 years ago

I thank you for that lovely expansion of your ideas here. I was expecting something interesting, but you brought out the big guns.

Groovy.

As far as fate goes, I think Minority Report opens on a society that are becoming accepting of the idea of running on rails. As you say, they're throwing the notion of free will into the trash. But the confrontation at the centre of it all is that title: the minority report says that life might not be as rail-roaded as it appears...

It is interesting to think about that if people just assumed their actions are predetermined and that punishment for what they "would have done" is acceptable, then they begin functioning on pure autopilot.

And, yes, if everything we do is out of our control, why not just fill up the void with consumerism (products zapping your retinas and speaking to you), drug use, and VR simulated realities where you get to kill your boss and have an orgy?

But then along comes the alternate option and Anderton starts fighting for truth over lies, for free will over fate, and for taking control of his life again.

The cars are a good metaphor, too. They drive themselves, at first, anyway, but as Anderton goes rogue, he starts literally driving himself around as well as figuratively taking the wheel.

I think a lot of people live the rote life. Go to work. Why? It's what you do. Don't do this, do that other thing. Why? It's what you do. Work can be great - rewarding, fulfilling, useful - but it's about the examined life, yes?

And, of course, taking your life and responsibilities in your own hands, not letting yourself complacently adhere to the rails because you never heard the minority report.

[–] Ace_Spade (9548) 4 years ago

I'm glad you gave it a second look. This is a really solid sci-fi film with some good, deep concepts and a lot of thought-fertilizer to ponder over and sprout more thoughts from. My personal favourite aspects are regarding the themes of fate and causality and free will, but the VR take is interesting, too.