Iqbal, Minority Report

In the article, Hollywood and Rhetoric of Panic, by Antonio Sanchez-Escalonilla, he states that, “In Minority Report, there is a use of the eyes and vision as thematic symbols that emphasize the ideas of seeing, oberserving, watching and forseeing”. Minority Report is set in 2054, where an experimental police force called Precrime has diminished the crime in the city of Washington D.C. The Precrime employs three "precogs". Precogs are mutated humans with the ability to view murders that occur in the future. The Precrime officers then analyze and interpret the precogs visions to track down and prevent the murder before it happens. John Anderton, played by Tom Cruse, is chief of the force. He gets tied up in the “precognition”, when the precogs see Anderton kill a man named Leo Crow. Anderton goes on a hunt to find Dr. Iris Hineman, the lead researcher for Precrime. Dr. Iris Hineman reveals that the precogs do not always agree about the future. The differing vision, a "minority report," could show his innocence. Anderton undergoes eye replacement surgery to avoid the iris identification systems throughout the city. He then uses his old eyes to enter Precrime headquarters and abduct Agatha, the precog that Hineman noted always had the minority report. Sanchez says that, “Anderton has an eye transplant to change his identity and eludes its control.” Towards the end of the movie, Precrime receives reports that Burgess will kill Anderton. Anderton tries to convince Burgess that either he can kill Anderton, showing Precrime works but becoming a murderer himself, or he can spare him, showing Precrime as a failure. Anderton reveals the fundamental flaw of the system: if one knows his or her own future, he or she can change it. In the movie, people who are seen to commit these murders are continuously shown their “attempted” murder. I say attempted because no one knows if they actually do commit the murders or not. This in a way is outcasting criminals. Every person has a choice. They can either choose to murder the person or not to. This choice is taken away in Minority Report by arresting people on judgment of what they might do.