The Movie
In the year 2054, violent crime in the United States (and murder in particular) is at an all-time high. In an effort to contain the violence, the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington DC have created PreCrime, a specially-assigned task force that proactively stop murders before they can even be committed. Their means of doing so is through "PreCogs" (short for "pre-cognitives"), three mentally-altered humans who are capable of seeing visions of the future. When the PreCogs sense that a murder is going to be committed, their thoughts are read, and an automated system processes two painted wooden balls: one ball with the name of the perpetrator(s) engraved into it, and another with the name of the victim(s) engraved into it (the shape and grain of each ball is unique, rendering the system fully tamper-proof). The color of the ball is indicative of what kind of murder is going to happen: a brown ball indicates a premeditated murder, which the PreCogs can predict up to four days before it is committed. A red ball indicates a crime of passion, which, due to the lack of premeditation, cannot be seen until often no less than an hour before it will be committed.
The only three things that the PreCogs can predict are the victim or victims, the perpetrator, the exact date and time of the murder, and the exact sequence of events that lead up to the crime. As they cannot pinpoint the location of the crime, the PreCrime task force must perform a meticulous process called "scrubbing", where they process the images produced from the PreCogs' visions in order to locate telltale clues and thus narrow down the location. Once they are certain of the location, the team flies off in a special aircraft to thwart the crime. They then secure the culprit by "haloing" them (a device placed around his head that renders them fully incapacitated).
The movie opens with a demonstration of the system as the task force, led by John Anderton (Tom Cruise), catches an early morning Red Ball case. The perpetrator is going to be a male in his 40s named Howard Marks, who in exactly 24 minutes is going to catch his wife Sarah in bed with another man named Donald Dubin after coming home to ostensibly get his glasses. Upon finding them together, Howard will stab them both to death with a pair of scissors.
Anderton scrubs through the images, while also having to deal with the arrival of Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), a Justice Department official and former MPDC homicide investigator who's been sent to audit the PreCrime system before a Congressional vote on whether or not to take the system nationwide. One of Anderton's colleagues, Fletcher, explains to Witwer the basic workings of the system as Anderton continues analyzing the vision. John soon narrows down the location, and leads a number of PreCrime officers to the location, leaving Witwer back at PreCrime headquarters.
With mere seconds to go, Anderton and his colleagues find the residence, and stop Howard before the PreCog's vision can come to pass. Howard is identified by iris scan, and is promptly arrested and "haloed", while his wife and her lover are immediately given counseling by a trauma response unit.
After the suspect has been apprehended, the murder reappears on the displays back at headquarters. Witwer sees these and questions one of the technicians about this, and is informed that sometimes after a crime that has been stopped, the PreCogs have these "echo" images pass through their minds, before they are deleted from the system.
That evening, Anderton reminisces over home movies of his ex-wife Lara (Kathryn Morris) and the couple's missing six-year-old son, who disappeared several years before at a public swimming pool. Anderton is also shown to have an addiction to an illegal inhaled hallucinogen called Neuroin (New Heroin).
The next morning, Witwer's official tour of the PreCrime headquarters begins. Throughout the tour, Witwer points out there are lots of questions about the ethics of the PreCogs. Anderton and his colleagues explain that the system is designed in a way to be practically foolproof, due to the nature of premeditation and the fact that the PreCogs see what the killer will do, not what they intend to do (this is why they don't get false alarms caused by people who contemplate murdering someone but will never actually go through with it).
At Witwer's insistence, Anderton takes him into the chamber in which the PreCogs are kept semiconscious in a pool of fluid similar to amniotic fluid and are wired to the PreCrime computer system. Though he is somewhat impressed by what he has seen, and even with the absence of murders in D.C. since the program started, Witwer is still convinced that the program is not flawless.
After Witwer has gone, the PreCog Agatha (Samantha Morton) snaps fully awake, and images of a woman being murdered play across the chambers video screens.
Curious as to these images, Anderton goes down to Containment, where numerous other haloed Precrime assailants are kept. With the aid of a supervisor, Gideon (Tim Blake Nelson), Anderton finds the assailant who was in Agatha's Previs, though he is classified as a John Doe, due to him having swapped out his eyes for someone else's, to fool the identification sensors. He also learns that this was one of PreCrime's first cases.
Gideon attempts to pull up more information on the case, but finds that of the three precogs, Agatha's Previs is missing. As well, information on where the supposed victim named Ann Lively is, is also missing. The only information that the computer has on her, is that she was a single mother, who was also a Neuroin addict, but records indicate she went to a rehabilitation clinic to treat her habit.
Anderton reports his findings to Precrime Director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow), who suggests that he let the matter drop. Turning his attention towards the thought that when Precrime goes nationwide, they need to find a way to protect it from larger interests. Anderton assures his mentor that he won't let that happen.
Upon returning to his office, Anderton is alerted to a premeditated murder that is to take place in 36 hours. The victim has already been identified as Leo Crow, but the perpetrator's identity is still a mystery. As he begins to review the information, Anderton is shocked to find that he will be the perpetrator! Anderton attempts to get out of the building before this revelation reaches his colleagues, but encounters Witwer in the elevator, leading John to think that Witwer is setting him up. However, an alarm in the building sounds, and Anderton rushes from the elevator, and out of the building.
It isn't long before PreCrime officers find John. He manages to escape from them, but then is found by Witwer and some officers. The chase leads the group into an automated auto assembly plant, where Anderton survives, and escapes in a newly-built car.
He makes his way to the residence of Dr. Iris Hineman (Lois Smith), whose research laid the groundwork for the Precrime program, upon finding out that some children of Neuroin addicts, soon developed the ability to see future murders. Quite eccentric but still coherent, Hineman explains that the three precogs do not always agree on their visions of the future; when this happens, the one that deviates the most from the others is typically ignored. In order to establish his innocence, Anderton must determine if he has a "minority report" that will clear his name. Anderton is puzzled as to which of the precogs would generate a minority report, and Hineman tells him it's the "most talented" of the three: Agatha.
Since everyone is subjected to iris scans wherever they go, Anderton undergoes an eye transplant at the hands of a shady doctor. The doctor is actually one of John's past cases, whom he busted for performing questionable surgery, however, the doctor performs the procedure anyway, leaving John alone to recover.
While recovering after the surgery, he dreams about the day his son was abducted from a swimming pool, and awakens to find the Precrime team searching the building for him. Small robotic eye scanners known as "spiders" are sent into the rooms; one of them finds Anderton and scans his iris, but the surgery has succeeded and he is not recognized. Returning to the Precrime offices in disguise, Anderton removes Agatha from the precogs chamber, disrupting the trio's hive mind that makes the system work.
He takes her to a hacker friend of his, who successfully extracts her vision of Crow's murder for Anderton to see. However, the vision does not deviate from what he saw previously, and Anderton realizes that he doesn't have a minority report.
Suddenly, Agatha begins to have a seizure, and the image of Ann Lively being drowned is seen again. As Anderton watches the vision, his friend alerts him to Precrime officers in their vicinity. Agatha and Anderton narrowly escape Anderton's team, by making use of strategic information provided by Agatha, who is able to predict the immediate future.
Anderton tracks down Crow's address and gains entry to his apartment. Crow is not present, but he finds a pile of photographs of children, including his missing son. Anderton realizes that there is no minority report in his case and he is now going to kill Crow, whom he now blames for the kidnapping. When Crow enters, Anderton assaults him to extract a confession as Agatha pleads with Anderton not to commit this murder. Anderton ignores her pleas and is intending to kill Crow, until the timer on his watch goes off... the time when the murder is supposed to take place. Anderton relents, and begins to read Crow his Miranda rights. Crow reveals that the photographs are doctored and were given to him to leave in the apartment in order to set up this very confrontation. His family has been promised a cash payoff only if Anderton kills him; to force this outcome, Crow grabs Anderton's gun hand, aims the weapon at himself, and pulls the trigger, depriving Anderton of any chance to find out who hired him.
After Anderton and Agatha flee, Witwer and the Precrime team arrive to investigate the crime scene. Witwer is skeptical about the "orgy of evidence" that was left behind and later discusses his misgiving with Burgess, bringing up the Lively case as well. He now has all three precogs records of that murder, but slight differences between them lead him to deduce what really happened that day.
Witwer shows Burgess the previsions from containment, but then reveals Agatha's which was not on file. Agatha's vision shows a very big difference, leading Witwer to postulate that the crime against Anne Lively took place at two different times. When Burgess questions Witwer, the young man posits his theory: Ann Lively's potential killer was arrested based on the matching visions of Arthur and Dashiell, but after Precrime had taken the man away, a second person (dressed to look identical the potential killer), arrived and killed her in exactly the same manner. The similarity of the incidents would simply lead the precog techs to assume the act Agatha witnessed was an 'echo' vision, and therefore, disregard it. Witwer suggests that only a member of Precrime could have the skill to manipulate the system in this way, whereupon Burgess, revealing himself as the true architect of John's framing, shoots and kills Witwer, knowing that the other precogs are unable to foresee this murder in Agatha's absence. Shortly after the murder, Lara calls Burgess to tell him that John and Agatha are staying with her.
As she relaxes in the calm surroundings of Lara's home, Agatha shares with John and Lara a vision of what might have been had their son lived. During this time, John has been thinking about Anne Lively, and deduces that she is Agatha's mother. However, PreCrime soon swarms the house, and John is arrested, and Agatha is returned to the PreCogs chamber.
Burgess later meets with Lara to comfort her, before he is to attend a ceremony in anticipation of the nationwide PreCrime roll-out. During this time, Lara brings up Ann Lively, which Burgess claims he has no knowledge of. However, he claims he'll go to the containment chamber and inquire to Gideon if anyone drowned a woman by that name. His mentioning of the cause of death (which she didn't reveal to Burgess), then makes Lara suspicious.
Realizing Burgess is lying, Lara rushes back to precog headquarters and forces Gideon to release Anderton. Once he's out, Anderton calls Burgess to reveal he's figured out his whole murderous modus operandi.
Of the three PreCogs, Agatha was the strongest, and enabled much of the program to continue. However, her mother Ann Lively, got over her Neuroin addiction, and wanted her daughter back. Knowing this would sideline the program, Lamarr arranged for the John Doe that Anderton saw in containment to attempt the murder. Once PreCrime had apprehended the fall guy, Burgess appeared to Ann, dressed in identical clothing to the suspect's, killed Ann in the way the PreCogs saw. But, given that PreCrime had apprehended a suspect, it was assumed Agatha's vision of her mother's death was little more than an 'echo.' Thus, the vision was deleted, and Ann Lively just became another 'missing person.'
As Lamarr and John continue to talk, a new red ball murder is detected by the precogs...with Anderton as the victim and Burgess as the perpetrator. Realizing that Anderton must be somewhere nearby, Burgess takes an antique revolver given to him as a gift and searches for him. When the two men come face to face, Anderton points out that Lamarr has caught himself in a Catch-22 Dilemma: if he kills Anderton, he will prove that Precrime works, but will go to prison for life. If he doesn't kill Anderton, the Precrime system is proven to be unreliable and will be shut down. Burgess resolves the dilemma with a third option: killing himself.
With the Precrime program having been found to be subject to manipulation and thus flawed, it is quickly abandoned. All criminals imprisoned under it are granted immediate pardons and are released from prison, though local police departments keep watch on many of them for years. Anderton reconciles with Lara, now pregnant with their second child, and the precogs are moved to an unnamed remote location where they can live in peace.
