Plot Summary (the book)
The story begins with John meeting Witwer at Precrime, and explaining to him how the system works. Whilst he is doing so, the computer produces a card saying that John will kill Leopold Kaplan, a man he has never met. John promptly takes the card before anyone else has a chance to see it, and returns home to show it to his wife, stating that he thinks he has been framed. He sees his only chance for freedom as becoming a fugitive until the time when he would supposedly commit the murder has passed, thus proving his innocence. However, whilst he is packing to go on the run, he is abducted by an unknown man who threatens him with a pistol. The man drives him to meet Leopold Kaplan, and upon meeting him John explains his theory that he is the victim of a plot conceived by a clique inside the police agency, designed to allow Witwer to overthrow him and take control - and that no murder will occur. However, Kaplan tells John that, regardless of his supposed innocence, he is still sending him to the police, and John is led to a car by one of his men and driven off. During the journey, the a truck collides with the car, and Anderton finds himself dragged from the wreckage by Fleming, who gives him a set of ID cards, and advises him to keep a low profile until after the time murder was predicted as happening.
John escapes to the slums and rents a cheap hotel room, and upon arrival he examines the ID - it contains a message, “The existence of a majority logically implies a corresponding minority” (pp. 18). John turns on the radio and hears a news flash about majority and minority reports, and he realises that the message is telling him that he must obtain the minority report. He promptly contacts Page at Precrime and arranges to meet him there; upon his arrival, he is directed to the minority report from Precog 'Jerry'. Jerry's report has taken the previous report into account, and says the John will not murder Kaplan having seen the report that suggests he will. Suddenly, Lisa turns up, and the two Andertons escape the building in a police cruiser.
Once they have left the building and are in flight, Lisa reveals to Anderton that Kaplan is the head of the International Veterans' League (a restricted-access club open to high ranking officers only) which wields a great deal of influence in New York, publishing three magazines and occasional TV coverage. She also points out that, if the minority report that Anderton has obtained is true, then the majority report can't have been faked - thus, John realises that he is faced with a dilemma: either hand the minority report in to Kaplan (leading to Precrime being discredited and shut down), or keep hold of it and be arrested. He decides that, “If the system can only continue by imprisoning innocent people, then it deserves to be destroyed” (pp. 27). Lisa is disappointed, and pulls a gun on him, ordering him to turn the ship around. Suddenly, Fleming (who had been hiding in the ship) jumps out and grabs the gun. He say that Kaplan and Witwer have been working together to frame him - however, John doesn't believe this and knocks him out before he can kill Lisa. Fleming's ID reveals that he has been working for Kaplan and the IVL - the whole operation has been a setup.
The Andertons return to Precrime, and explain to Witwer that there is an Army plant somewhere at Precrime that has been passing on information. Witwer calls back the order to arrest Anderton, and orders his men after Kaplan instead. Meanwhile, John examines the prevision reports from the Precogs, and realises that he is going to kill Kaplan (this element of the story is detailed in the section 'what is Precrime?') - he then informs Witwer of the planned Army coup, and tells him that he is going to commit a murder. Witwer agrees to John's suggestion of sending him to a colony planet as punishment, as opposed to a state prison. Soon afterwards, John arrives at the AFWA rally, and meets Kaplan, telling him that he'll go along with his plan to discredit Precrime. Kaplan invites John onto the stage, and gives the following speech:
“There can be no valid knowledge about the future. As soon as precognitive information is obtained, it cancels itself out. The assertion that this man will commit a future crime is paradoxical. The very act of possessing this data renders it spurious. In every case, without exception, the report of the three police Precogs has invalidated their own data. If no arrests had been made, there would still have been no crimes committed” (pp. 39)
Kaplan then goes to read out the 'invalidated' material from the reports, but in doing so he sees (for the first time) Precog Mike's prevision that John will revert to the plan of murdering him after having seen the minority report. He tries to run offstage, but John pulls out Fleming's pistol, and shoots Kaplan in the chest, killing him. John is arrested immediately, and is violently sick. John is later met by Witwer as he and his wife are packing their possessions in preparation for exile, and John explains how the series of prevision reports determined that the murder would take place. Witwer asks him if this situation could happen again, and John remarks that it would be possible, but only the case of the Commissioner of Precrime, as he would be the only one with access to the report data. The story ends with John and Lisa leaving Earth, and Witwer taking full control of Precrime.
Plot Summary (the film)
The motion picture adaptation of Minority Report begins with a prevision of a murder that is about to happen: A man, called Howard Marks, will find his wife in bed with her lover, and will kill them both. The case – the 1,108th to be brought to Precrime – is reviewed by John Anderton, who determines the location where the crime will take place. Taking a police squad with him, John travels to the crime scene, and prevents the murders with seconds to spare – Howard Marks is arrested, and imprisoned. Following his work that day, John visits his drug dealer and picks up some Neuroin – a drug which he has used since the abduction of his son 6 years previously. He returns to his apartment, and watches some videos of his son and wife.
The next day, John returns to Precrime and discusses the upcoming national vote on the scheme with Precrime’s director, Lamar Burgess. John is then introduced to Danny Witwer, and FBI agent who has come to seek out flaws in the system. The two are immediately acrimonious toward each other, especially when Witwer demands access to the temple to view the Precogs. Reluctantly, John is forced to allow him access due to his FBI clearance. Whilst in the temple, John is grabbed by Precog ‘Agatha’, who has a vision of a woman being drowned and asks John, “Do you see?” John is puzzled by this, and presumes it is an ‘echo’. He travels to the archives to find the report, which reveals that the killer was unknown because he had had his eyes replaced to bypass any retina scanners (see ‘Differences between the book and the film’). It also reveals that the murder victim was a woman called Anne Lively, a former Neuroin addict who had recently cleaned up – and furthermore, it is noted that Agatha’s prevision is missing from the composite report. John is perplexed, and visits Burgess for advice – however, Burgess simply reminds John about how Precrime had helped the Andertons cope with the loss of their son.
The story then cuts to Precrime, presumably later that day. Witwer is seen remarking that John is “in a lot of trouble”, and moments later case 1,109 is reported – the victim is reported as being a Mr. Leo Crow, however the murderer’s name is not revealed. John goes to view the data, and sees the following:
-No tax records for 5 years
-Federal housing
-The numbers ‘9’ and ‘6’
-An old woman smoking a pipe and laughing
-A room with large windows
-A man about to be shot, and another man outside the window wearing sunglasses
-John Anderton shooting the man with a gun, and the man subsequently falling through the window
Seconds later, a ball is produced which states that “John Anderton” will commit a murder. John grabs the ball, and escapes the building. During his escape, he bumps into Witwer, who reveals that he had discovered John’s addiction to Neuroin and is going to report him. John escapes into a car and immediately calls Burgess, saying that Witwer must have set him up. During the call, the car is disabled, and John attempts to escape to the subway. However, his retina is scanned as he tries to enter, and he is chased by police into an alleyway. With typical Tom Cruise finesse, John manages to fight off the policemen, and is subsequently chased into a car factory by Witwer and his men. Following another action sequence, John manages to steal a car, and escape to the countryside, where he meets Dr. Iris Hineman, the creator of Precrime. She reveals that the Precogs are the children of Neuroin addicts – born with the ability to predict the future. John explains his predicament, and she replies saying that “the Precogs are never wrong, but occasionally, they do disagree”. She explains the concept of minority reports, and points out that, in order to allow Precrime to continue, they are immediately destroyed upon production – the only way to get hold of the minority report is to hack directly into the Precog’s brain. According to Hineman, it is always Agatha, “the more gifted of the three”, that produces minority reports.
John duly sets off to get replacement eyes in order to infiltrate Precrime - he is also given a device that will temporarily age him so that he is unrecognisable. After a brief run-in with the police and some mechanical spiders, he travels to Precrime and enters the temple using one of his old eyes. However, just as this is happening, Witwer happens to be reviewing the Leo Crow prevision and sees that Agatha is in the room at the time of the murder - he realises that John will be coming to the building to kidnap her, and sends his men after him. John then escapes the building with Agatha via a waste chute, and they escape to a 'cyber-parlour' to download the minority report from Agatha's brain - coincidentally, Witwer happens to find a card giving the name and location of the cyber-parlour owner in John's old office, and realises that that is where he must be taking Agatha. At the parlour, John downloads the minority report and saves it to disc - however, it appears to be identical to the composite report that he saw before. At this point, the police arrive (again), John and Agatha escape (again), and they find themselves outside the shopping mall. John looks up, and sees the 'man wearing sunglasses' from the prevision of the crime - it is, in fact, a giant advertisement facing an apartment building.
They enter the building, and the prevision begins to become reality: John enters the foyer, and sees an old woman smoking a pipe; he and Agatha travel upstairs, and go to enter Leo Crow's apartment, 1006 - however, the number on the door has been tampered with, and is in fact an upside-down 9 (hence the '6' and the '9' in the vision). Upon entering the room, John sees a pile of photographs on the bed, one of which has Leo Crow with John's son, Sean. John remarks that he's going to kill Crow, but Agatha tells him, “You still have a choice - the others never saw their future - you still have a choice”. Crow enters the room, and Anderton assaults him immediately. Crow says that he killed Sean, and John pulls out his gun and points it at him - however, he doesn't shoot, and the predicted time of the murder passes with Crow still alive. He places Crow under arrest, at which point Crow remarks that if he doesn't die, his family get nothing. He reveals that a man had called him, and offered to pay his family a large sum of money if Leo would pretend that he killed John's son - furthermore, he points out that the pictures are fakes. Suddenly, he grabs John's gun, and shoots himself in the stomach with it, falling through the window in the process - he dies in the exact same way as is seen in the prevision. John and Agatha immediately leave the building.
The story cuts to Witwer entering the (now empty) apartment, and following some brief examination, he travels to Burgess's home to inform him that they've been chasing the wrong man all along. He explains that he's found the minority report of Anne Lively's murder, which shows that it took place at a different time to the composite report. He explains the possibility of getting away with a murder by faking an 'echo' (detailed here), and states that an action of this nature could only have been committed by someone high up in the Precrime hierarchy. Burgess agrees, and rather cryptically states that without Agatha, the Precogs can see nothing and anyone could get away with murder. Witwer looks confused, and suddenly Burgess pulls a pistol and shoots him dead, making it quite obvious who the real murderer is. Shortly after this, Burgess receives a call from John's estranged wife Lara, who tells him that John has just arrived at her house.
We cut to John and Lara; John is explaining that he has been set up because he found out about the murder of Anne Lively. Agatha reveals to the two of them that Anne Lively was her mother, and then shouts at John that he must run away. Immediately, the building is raided by police, who arrest John for the murders of Leo Crow and Danny Witwer. Agatha is put back into the temple, and John is incarcerated in prison. We cut to Lara Anderton talking to Burgess in his home - she mentions that John thought he'd been set up because of the murder of Anne Lively. Burgess tries to placate her by offering to investigate the drowning of Lively, at which point Lara points out that she'd never actually said that Lively had been drowned. Burgess looks nervous, and leaves. Lara then takes Burgess's pistol from his desk, and uses it to break John out of prison.
We cut again to a party - the vote on Precrime has been positive, and Burgess and friends are celebrating. He gives a short speech saying that Precrime will soon be going nationwide, and then receives a phone call which he goes to answer in private. On the phone is John, who accuses Burgess of murdering Anne Lively because she had wanted her daughter back, which would have meant Precrime could not have gone ahead. Suddenly, the video of Agatha's Anne Lively prevision is broadcast on a large screen on the party, which shows quite clearly that Burgess is the murderer. Burgess leaves the party immediately - at the same time, Agatha sees a vision of the murder of John Anderton by Burgess. We cut back to Burgess, who pulls out a pistol and steps out onto the balcony to kill John. John explains to him the if he isn't killed, the Precogs will be proved wrong and Precrime will be over; on the other hand, if John is killed, the system will live on but Burgess will be sent to prison for his murder.He states that, as Burgess knows the future, he has a choice and will be able to change it. Lamar then says, “forgive me”, and shoots himself dead.
The epilogue of the film then follows. It is explained that, following Burgess's suicide, Precrime has been shut down and all prisoners incarcerated because of it have been unconditionally pardoned and released - although the police will keep tabs on them. The Precogs are sent to an undisclosed location to live out the rest of their lives in peace, and John and Lara (who is now pregnant) are shown back together looking happy. The credits roll, and we all die a little inside.
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