MovieChat Forums > Minority Report (2002) Discussion > The ironic thing about this movie

The ironic thing about this movie

posted 10 years ago by macorchiu
17 replies | jump to latest

Didn't the precogs system actually work and it got shut down anyway?

I mean theres 3 ways it wont work, 1) if someone on the inside manipulates it by faking the murder and exploit the echo getting diregarded to commit the murder for real, 2) future murderer having a choice since he knows his future(which by the way originates from the system working, and 3) minority reports.

You could more or less easily fix 1) and 3) by not having a psycho as the chief and by taking extra care for the few minority reports that will happen, and the situation 2) will never happen in normal cases.

So yeah, the system would have worked perfectly with some easy fixes and yet got shut down for good.

[–] mattyblast 10 years ago

I hear you. My issue is with the fact that all the prisoners were unconditionally released. The only prisoners that should have been released are the ones that had missing previsions (due to the existence of a minority report). The rest of them, where the three pre-cogs agreed, should have stayed locked up.

Look at Howard Marks, for crying out loud. He was inches away from stabbing his cheating wife before Pre-crime stopped the murder from happening. Why does he deserve to be set free?

[–] yurenchu 10 years ago

My issue is with the fact that all the prisoners were unconditionally released. The only prisoners that should have been released are the ones that had missing previsions (due to the existence of a minority report). The rest of them, where the three pre-cogs agreed, should have stayed locked up.

So John Anderton should have stayed locked up too?

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
https://y2u.be/VI57QHL6ge0

[–] jeevese 10 years ago

In response to the OP Macorchiu:

I think you missed the entire point of the movie in that everyone has a choice when committing any act, even an act of crime. When I first saw the trailer to this film, I thought, "Wow what an interesting concept, a 'precrime division.'" Then I took a step back and thought wait a minute all crimes are sanctioned as crimes until they are in the process of being committed or are being planned or premeditated.

One can not simply arrest someone because they had a thought pop into their head about committing a crime. This is eventually brought up in the film by Colin Farrell's character and is the overall theme of the movie. You have a choice.

***(Spoilers)***

The precog kept telling John this when he was about to shoot his son's fake kidnapper. "You have a choice." Which is why the system collapsed within itself. Many were probably thinking of committing a crime, but thought well enough to not go through with it. Precrime disrupted the notion of choice. John even mentions this when he's talking to the old lady in the garden. He says something to the effect of, "You mean to tell me I put away people that are really innocent ? " This is why all the prisoners were let go. (Although I do agree the first example of murder in the film was pretty obvious what his intentions were, so he should not have gotten a pardon). There is a sense of irony when the creator/director, Lamar, gets caught in the own system he deems flawless and ends up killing himself.

[–] yurenchu 10 years ago

(Although I do agree the first example of murder in the film was pretty obvious what his intentions were, so he should not have gotten a pardon).

What PreCrime could and should have done with Howard Marks, as soon as his name popped up, is call him on his phone, and say: "Hey, PreCrime here. You're currently on our radar and we have reason to worry about your state of mind. Would you come down to the office, please?" (or something to that effect.) That might have been enough to alert Marks to his own future behaviour and avert this murder/manslaughter attempt.

The whole PreCrime Department was structured under the premise that the future is inevitable, and that all that cops could do and had to do, was act like a bunch of cowboys to catch the future killers in time, and incarcerate them for life (which is of course a conveniently simple and cheap approach); eventually that was proven to be a false premise, and that's already one enough reason why PreCrime had to be disbanded.

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
https://y2u.be/VI57QHL6ge0

[–] macorchiu 9 years ago

Oh, maybe i did misunderstand the movie as i thought that it was confirmed the precogs could predict the future... But the system had the 3 flaws i mentioned.

Save for the first "murder", the rest of the cases shown had been manipulated in some way, no?

[–] macorchiu 9 years ago

I mean it's obvious That if you 100% know You are going to murder someone you will have a choice to do it or not, thats why there were no more premeditated murders and only "rage" ones.

[–] yurenchu 9 years ago

In the end, Lamar Burgess chose to commit suicide, even though the red ball had predicted that he would kill John Anderton.

Every person who was caught by PreCrime before he actually killed, still had a choice.

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
https://y2u.be/VI57QHL6ge0

[–] psdhart 9 years ago

My issue is with the fact that all the prisoners were unconditionally

me too

[–] mkohary 9 years ago

Because he didn't actually commit the crime. That's kind of the whole point of the movie - jailing people for crimes they haven't committed yet, even if you're absolutely certain (for whatever reason) that they're going to, is fundamentally wrong.

[–] shazzboy 10 years ago

I was more concerned by the fact that 3 people were kept as slaves. Yet, no one ever seems to mention that part.

[–] jeevese 10 years ago

In response to Yurenchu:

Exactly !

In response to shazzboy:

"I was more concerned by the fact that 3 people were kept as slaves. Yet, no one ever seems to mention that part."

True, but I think Spielberg also wanted the audience to interpret that society in the film, during the year 2054, had all fallen victim to some sort of slavery, under the watchful eye of the government. It was an example of an Orwellian society. The constant eye scanning within the public sector, advertisements personally focusing on each individual, infrared scanning of inhabitants in buildings, the spider walkers randomly scanning people's eyes for positive identification.

They were all slaves in a way to this new form of "security" and they followed in line accordingly. It is not too much of a stretch that people would casually turn a blind eye to these three individuals being held captive and utilized for the "good of humanity."

[–] carbon-101 9 years ago

It DIDN't work! Because you could fake a murder. You are not very bright are you, or did you even watch the movie?

[–] macorchiu 9 years ago

Did You even read my post you idiot?

[–] karlhinze 9 years ago

Did You even read my post you idiot?

If there was a 'Like' function on this site, then that post would have had one from me. 👍

Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoile

[–] asiamatron 9 years ago

The system would've worked better if people were arrested before they could commit the crime and given counseling, ergo they wouldn't be charged with a crime but the police would keep an eye on them.

The bottom line is everyone has a choice until they actually commit a murder.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] irehawk 9 years ago

John forced that old man killer to kill himself completely, which is correct. John put multiple effort to do that, rather than letting himself get killed by that old man killer.