Haylie LaTesta

Karofsky

Philos. Themes In Film

20 April 2021

Time in Minority Report

Minority Report is a 2002 film that contains many philosophical points of interest.

While it mainly focuses on the topics of free will and determinism, it also raises questions

about the idea of multiple timelines and the flexibility of the future.

The film takes place in 2052, where a new police force called the PreCrime unit has

been formed. The unit uses advanced technology along with three human clairvoyants, or

PreCogs, to pre-visualize murders before they happen. This allows the PreCrime police to

swoop in and prevent the crime, taking the would-be murderer to a pseudo-prison where

they are kept in a state of technology produced dream until their sentence is over.

It is shown in the film that once someone becomes aware of their future, they are

able to make a decision that changes it. For example, both John Anderton and Lamar

Burgess were pre-visualized killing someone, but once they knew this, they consciously

decided not to. This, however, raises many questions about the future as a concept. While

these incidents clearly show that, in the film, not all futures are certain, it also opens up a

possibility of multiple timelines.

If the PreCogs pre-visualize something, there has to be a future in which it exists, as

in the “milk” they are only able to see the future and nothing else. Could this mean that at

any given time there are many possible futures, but only for those who have the possibility
of coming into contact with a PreCog? For example, everything lined up for John to be in the

PreCog visualization room at the time his future kill was previsualized. This path was

obviously set already, as thus far the world of the film has been guided by deterministic

views. Even continuously throughout the film, PreCog Agatha has already foreseen most of

John’s actions and is telling him what to do according to what she has seen, proving that his

path, up until the moment he kills/doesn’t kill Leo Crow. He is only able to make the choice

not to kill Crow because he knows that it is his future. This would mean that anyone not in

contact with a PreCog or the PreCrime system would have no control over their future.

A skeptic could say that this means the PreCogs are simply fallible, which would

mean every single person’s future is predetermined regardless of interaction with the

PreCogs. This does not make sense in the context of the movie, however, as it is called

Minority Report because it is so rare that the PreCogs disagree upon a future that the Chief

of PreCrime did not even know that it was possible. Because their previsualizations are

mostly correct and can only be changed by someone who has seen a previsualization, this

opens up the possibility for multiple futures, though there is still a possibility of fallibility,

but once again, it would be a minority.

It is also interesting to note that those in the PreCrime unit clearly have the ability to

change other people’s futures. Aside from the fact that they are able to stop murders before

they happen after having seen these previsualisations, thereby saving a person’s life and

creating a new future in which they still exist, they can also change the futures of those

around them by having access to previsualizations. When John tells Lamar that Lamar’s

imminent future involves him killing John, John gives Lamar the ability to change both of

their futures, ending in Lamar killing himself and John walking away unharmed. This opens
a door for the idea that PreCrime’s newest tactic could be telling pre-visualized murders

what their future holds in hopes that they will change it, but still standing guard and

waiting for the timer to countdown to 1 second before just in case.

Any of these questions raised by Minority Report are extremely interesting. Whether

it be regarding free will and determinism or the possibility of multiple futures and

timelines, this film has something philosophical for everyone to think about.