When we hear Steven Spielberg, we think of the crack of Indiana Jones’ whip, a marauding killer shark, or a spiraling, neon UFO. One of his most underappreciated movies happens to be one of his best, and it just turned 20 years old. Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, and Samantha Morton, hit theaters in June 2002.
The film revolves around a cop named John Anderton, who heads up a department known as Precrime in Washington, DC, in the year 2054. The squad relies on three Precogs, essentially psychics, who predict murders before they happen. Images from their collective minds are mined for clues and evidence that doesn’t exist yet. The Precogs ping Anderton as a future killer, and he goes on the run to prove his innocence.
Minority Report, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, is arguably one of the best science fiction movies of the 21st century and one of the better movies of its respective decade. It blends film noir seamlessly with sci-fi and stunning CGI that still holds up two decades later. The story is thoughtful and dense with layers of themes and warnings and sourced some excellent performances. It was truly ahead of its time.
That all said, would Minority Report work if it were released in 2022 instead of the early aughts? First, let’s explore the themes of the movie.
Society Drowning in Media
As the Precogs predicted the future, so did the movie in which they exist. Minority Report depicts a flashing neon sign of a society on the brink of a media-saturated dystopia. Everywhere we turn, we are assaulted by the blinding glow of interactive advertising. They physically corner you, engage you and drill the marketing into your brain.
Actual brands are utilized, so of course, there is the irony in the mass product placement posing as a criticism of product placement, but it still gets its point across. This apt observation only fell short in citizens drooling over their phones en masse. But the hypnotism of seemingly endless, intrusive content was right on the money.
“My Phone Is Listening”
We’ve all been there. We say the name of a product or service out loud or punch it into Google, and next thing you know, every other ad you see in your Instagram feed matches that thought and that search. The platforms call it “learning your preferences,” a nice euphemism for surveillance. You essentially agree to it in the terms of service microscopic print, but it’s still pretty creepy.
A key plot device in Minority Report is mass retinal scanning. Citizens’ eyes are forcibly buzzed dozens of times in one trip to the store. This keeps track of all people at all times but also allows corporations to mine and store data on what you bought last time you were scanned in their store. The machines are learning everything about you in this fictional world, but they are not far behind in the real one. This also plays into phones knowing your fingerprints and now your face.
Would Minority Report Fly in 2022?
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Setting aside everything Minority Report got right a decade-plus before it happened, would it still work thematically and just as a movie if it were released in 2022? To answer the first part, no. It wouldn’t have the same impact because it would be too on the nose.
Intrusive media, eavesdropping corporations, and first-name basis machines are easy, lazy, and slow-moving targets in this era. Minority Report seemed to have a crystal ball, while now we just need our eyes. More subtle jabs at technology like Black Mirror and Ex Machina are the descendants of Minority Report and more suitable for the 2020s. They hit you with a slow drip of observation while Minority Report emptied the bucket. The latter just wouldn’t work this late in the game.
Would Minority Report still work as a trip to the movies in 2022? Absolutely. It’s well-acted with stand-out performances from Cruise, Farrell, von Sydow, and a roller coaster turn by Morton. It’s further bolstered by excellent one-scene appearances by Lois Smith as the creator of Precrime and Peter Stormare as a shady back-alley eye-swapping surgeon. It’s smart sci-fi that relies on its people just as much as the scenery, chase scenes, and CGI.
It comes from a whip-smart script by writer Scott Frank known for other standout films such as the early George Clooney vehicle Out of Sight and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine swansong Logan. And Spielberg, well, he was just Spielberg. The action sequences, visual effects, and flow of the movie make for a brisk two-and-half-hour experience that we would put up there with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jaws as some of the director’s finest work.