Minority Report

In 2054, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is a member of an experimental Washington, D.C. police force known as Precrime, which uses future visions generated by three "precogs", mutated humans with precognition abilities, to stop murders. Due to the unit's actions, D.C. has been essentially murder-free for six years. Though chief of the force, Anderton has been addicted to an illegal psychoactive drug since the disappearance of his son Sean (Dominic Scott Kay), which also caused his wife Lara (Kathryn Morris) to leave him. With the Precrime concept poised to go nationwide, the system is audited by Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), a member of the Department of Justice. During the audit, the precogs predict that Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crow (Mike Binder) in 36 hours; believing the incident to be a setup by Witwer, who is aware of Anderton's addiction, and given the fact Anderton doesn't even know Crow, Anderton attempts to hide the case and quickly departs the area before Witwer begins a manhunt for him. Anderton seeks the advice of Dr. Iris Hineman (Lois Smith), the lead researcher of the Precrime technology. She explains to Anderton that the three precogs—the children of drug addicts using experimental drugs years ago—may see different visions of the future. When this happens, the system only provides data on the two reports which agree; a "minority report", showing the futures where the perpetrators may not have actually committed a murder, is discarded. According to Dr. Hineman, the female precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) is likely the one who witnesses the minority reports. Anderton has his eyes surgically replaced to avoid iris recognition scanners before travelling back to Precrime and kidnapping Agatha. This also disables the precogs' hive mind and prevents the system from being used. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker, who is able to extract both Agatha's vision of Crow's murder—which reveals John's case lacks a minority report—and another depicting the murder of a woman named Anne Lively (Jessica Harper), which Agatha also showed to Anderton the day before he was incriminated. In an attempt to outrun the police, Anderton and Agatha end up at the apartment building where Crow is to be killed. Anderton breaks into Crow's room and finds hundreds of pictures of children, including his son, on Crow's bed, leading him to conclude that Crow is the man responsible for Sean's disappearance. When Crow arrives, Anderton holds him at gunpoint, but ultimately decides to control his anger and place Crow under arrest. Crow admits that he was hired to plant the photos and be killed so his family would be paid handsomely; realizing Anderton will no longer kill him, Crow grabs the officer's hand, making him fire at point-blank range, and dies. After assessing Crow's "murder", Witwer doubts that Anderton killed in cold blood, and approaches the Precrime division's director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) at Anderton's apartment. Witwer, who has also discovered Agatha's recording of the Anne Lively murder, points out that it differs slightly from the original recording and observes that someone must have manipulated the system to fake the murder. Witwer deduces that it would have be someone high up in Precrime to have access to the precog visions, to which Burgess then kills Witwer with Anderton's gun. Because Agatha is with Anderton, Precrime is unable to detect the murder. Anderton approaches his wife Lara, from whom he is separated, for refuge, and realizes that his knowledge of the Lively case is why he is being targeted: Lively was Agatha's mother, and shortly after her request to see her daughter again, Lively was never heard from again, despite an earlier attempt on her life failing when it was predicted by the precogs. The Precrime unit eventually captures Anderton and restores Agatha to the system. Burgess attempts to comfort Lara, but accidentally reveals that he knows more about Lively's death than implied. Lara uses this information to free Anderton. At a banquet to celebrate the success of the Precrime unit and Burgess, Anderton plays Agatha's vision of the Lively murder for the gathered crowd, clearly showing Burgess as the murderer. Anderton explains that Burgess had hired a drifter to kill Lively, only to have it prevented by Precrime. Having viewed the precog vision, Burgess had then killed Lively in the exact same way as in the vision. Because precogs sometimes experience relapses of past murders, or "echoes," Precrime had put off this new murder to be an echo (Witwer had known the two visions to be separate murders after noticing water lapsing in opposite directions). As Burgess sneaks off to confront Anderton to silence him of the Lively murder, a new precrime report is created: Anderton is the victim and Burgess is the murderer. When Burgess finds Anderton, Anderton says it's over and presents him with an no-win situation: if Burgess kills Anderton, he proves the system works but at the cost of his incarceration, while if he does not, the system will not have worked and the Precrime division will be shut down. Anderton reveals the fundamental flaw of the system: if one knows his or her own future, he or she can change it. Burgess resolves the paradox by killing himself. Anderton and Lara try to have another baby and get back together. The Precrime program is shut down, all those jailed as a result of Precrime are paroled and released and the precogs are given the chance to lead a full life. The film ends with the precogs themselves living together in a cabin on a remote island, far from anyone who would trouble them with visions.