Minority Report’s whole plot is centered around one highly controversial issue: pre-crime. With the development of pre-crime, Washington D.C. has been able to boast that they have been crime free for six years. However, there’s one blatant problem with pre-crime: the criminals being arrested haven’t committed the crime for which they are being persecuted yet. These “criminals” can’t even be truly categorized as such, for the majority of them have never committed a crime. But as Anderton points out, the pre-cogs know what’s coming, and just because you stop something from happening doesn’t negate the fact that it would have happened without your interference. The pre-crime industry argues that not only have they stopped crime from taking place in these instances, but they have curtailed any future crime, because people are terrified of what would happen should they even try. These poor “criminals” get “haloed” as soon as they are arrested. They are sentenced, without a trial might I add, to a life of watching non-stop the crime they may have committed. They are kept alive with the biological necessities in a tubular cell, but are essentially in a reverse coma – their brains work fine, but their bodies are completely devoid of movement. It is almost as if they are “body-dead” instead of brain dead. Pre-crime has made an example of these so-called “criminals.” People are absolutely petrified of what might become of them, should they decide to delve into a life, or even a minute, of crime. The citizens of Washington, D.C. have given up many of their civil liberties to ensure pre-crimes success, but it all is for “the greater good.” In exchange for peace and safety, citizens’ privacy is almost non-existent: the spiders come into their homes to scan their retinal IDs; they are scanned whenever they enter a store, or board a train; even their minds have the potential of being invaded. Spielberg made a comment after his movie came out, not long after 9/11, “Right now, people are willing to give away a lot of their freedom in order to feel safe…Where do you draw the line? How much freedom are you willing to give up?” It seems as if the citizens in Minority Report have given up almost all of their freedom in order to be safe. They don’t even have the freedom to choose anymore. Agatha points out to Anderton that he has a choice, that there is always a choice. Apparently not, because pre-crime doesn’t give you that option. The potential criminals didn’t have a choice when they were aggressively detained and carted away. They are the outcasts, the scum of the earth, all for possibly committing a crime in the future. Maybe.
Washington, D.C. is not they. It is one city. Some very good summary, but what other than the fact you clearly think it is unfair, can yo say about the way the film makes that slant clear?
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