In 2054, the US government is planning to nationalize the Precrime police procedure in use in Washington, DC. Three clairvoyant humans called Precogs see an impending homicide and officers analyze the death to find the exact time and location of the crime. They arrest the future perp and charge him with intent to murder. The precogs—Agatha Lively (Samantha Morton), Arthur Arkadi (Michael Dickman), and his twin Dashiell Arkadi (Matthew Dickman)—lie in a shallow pool under sleep-inducing drugs that reduce external stimulus. Their thoughts are projected on screen and stored in a database as the would-be killers are imprisoned in virtual reality. This has eliminated premeditated murder, but crimes of passion are still a problem.
U.S. Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) audits Precrime and finds that in 36 hours, commanding police officer John Anderton (Tom Cruise) will kill Leo Crow (Minke Binder), a man he never met. Anderton had joined Precrime after his son Sean was kidnapped and never found. He is depressed, withdrawn, and addicted. His wife Lara (Kathryn Morris) has left him. Knowing he has no intention of killing anyone, Anderton runs, and a manhunt begins. Anderton goes to see the founder of Precrime, Doctor Iris Hineman (Lois Smith) and learns that one Precog often sees something different from the other two—the Minority Report, which is erased from the record, though a backup copy is still in the mind of the Precog.
Also, he learns that early addicts to something called Neuroin tended to have mentally disabled children with precognitive abilities. Three of these were turned over to Precrime. Anderton kidnaps Agatha, the most clairvoyant Precog, which shuts down the group-mind and thus Precrime. Anderton and Agatha track Crow to a hotel room and find photos of children, including Sean, Anderton’s missing son. Anderton accuses Crow of killing him, but Crow says he was hired to plant the photos. He actually wants Anderton to kill him so money will go to his family. Anderton refuses and Crow kills himself.
Anderton finds no minority report in Agatha’s mind, but there is a vision of a five-year-old murder—Agatha’s mother, Anne Lively, who sold her daughter to Precrime. She was drowned by a hooded figure when she tried to get her daughter back later. Witwer learns that there was more than one attempt on Lively’s life. When he reports this to Precrime Director Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow), Burgess kills him. Precrime is, of course, offline.
Anderton is captured and imprisoned, and Agatha is reconnected to the system. Burgess inadvertently reveals his guilt and Anderton is released from prison. It seems Burgess had been able to get away with it because his crime had been judged an echo premonition. Once Agatha is back in the system, a new report is generated showing that Burgess will kill Anderton. Burgess faces a dilemma. Either he kills Anderton and validates Precrime or spares him and sees the program discredited. So, Burgess kills himself. Precrime is abandoned. All prisoners are released. The Precogs are moved to an undisclosed location. Anderton returns to his estranged wife.
The film was directed by Stephen Spielberg and is full of science-fiction action, as one would expect of a Tom Cruise movie. It has been referred to as a tech noir, whodunit, thriller, science-fiction chase film, all about free-will and determinism,. It was based on a 1956 short story by Phillip K. Dick. It began as a sequel to Total Recall, but it was delayed because Spielberg was busy with AI and Cruise with Mission: Impossible 2. It received an Oscar and eleven Saturn awards, and most critics raved. A think-tank of futurists employed by Spielberg came up with lots of ideas of future technology which have actually come to pass, in transportation, media, police-work, and computer intelligence. It was creepy to hear advertising on the subway calling to the fleeing Anderton my name. The music was by John Williams, who wrote a film-noir score instead of a science-fiction score. An intelligent sequel TV series lasted one year.
The Precogs were named after Dashiell Hammett, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie. Cameron Crow and Cameron Diaz are extras on the train. Tom Cruise and Stephen Spielberg waived their salaries to keep down the budget but took 15 per cent of the gross and did all right for themselves. Lexus paid five million dollars for product placement and gave Spielberg a $62,000 convertible. The car-factory scene was based on one that Alfred Hitchcock never filmed for North by Northwest. The wonderful scene in which the precog Agatha steers Anderton through a mall filled with police by predicting all of the cops’ moves, timed to the second, featured a sign on the wall that said, “See what others don’t.”