Actor-Inspired Element: From the very beginning, Steven Spielberg wanted Greta (Dr. Eddie's assistant) to sing something by ABBA, but Peter Stormare suggested that she should sing something else, to make the scene more absurd. The Swedish children's song "Små grodorna" ("The Small Frogs") was chosen by Stormare. This song is usually sung on Midsummer Eve parties in Sweden.
Blooper: When Anderton is arresting Howard Marks in the opening, he gives the day's date as April 22nd. The next scene, presumably that same night, says that the nationwide referendum on Precrime is to take place on April 22nd and the following scene has the vote taking place in a week.
Doing It for the Art: Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg both agreed to waive their usual salary to help keep the film's budget under $100 million. They agreed to take fifteen percent of the film's gross instead.
Fake American: Averted. The seemingly American Danny Witwer mentions seeing his father get "shot on the steps of our church in Dublin". This line was added in so that if Colin Farrell's native Irish accent crept into the movie, it would be explainable (although he does give a fairly convincing performance).
The transparent data tiles used by Precrime are being developed in real life. Interestingly, those transparent data tiles are actually Iomega Clik/PocketZip disks with the metal bits (and logos) replaced with the transparent material, making this life imitating art imitating Product Placement.
Also, the multitouch technologies used by gadgets such as the iPhone have some similarity with the Pre-Crime interface. With the iPad this is even closer. Especially to the smaller tablet-sized systems the Precrime officers use.
The Other Darrin: Sean Anderton is played by two different child actors, Tyler Patrick Jones and Dominic Scott Kay.
Playing Against Type: Tim Blake Nelson normally plays villains or idiots, plays Gideon, the warden of the haloed prisoners, who, while a mild jerk, is neither.
Saved from Development Hell: The movie started out in the hands of Carolco Pictures who intended it to be a direct sequel to another Philip K. Dick adaptation, Total Recall (1990). Apparently the movie would have been set on a terraformed Mars, where mutants with psychic powers were abducted and used to power the Pre-Crime system. They even intended to bring Arnold Schwarzenegger back to play Quaid as the main character. They apparently even had a script written, but then Carolco went out of business. A new script in 1997 was the one who had Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise coming on board. Still, it would take a few more years for development to actually start, since Cruise's Mission: Impossible II went over schedule and Spielberg then decided to make A.I.: Artificial Intelligence before Minority Report.
Anderton's watch, which combines analogue hands with a digital background, was considered a sci-fi marvel at the time the film was released. Since then, smartwatches with customizable displays have become mundane.
With the advent of the Kinect, it seems kinda silly that people need to wear that glove to use the computer in the Precrime office, although it could be argued it is used to prevent interference from other people (like when Anderton throws the previsions to the corner of the screen when he goes to shake Witwer's hand).
Justified, for now, in that real-life gestural systems require the use of a glove in order to resolve more detailed gestures more quickly than devices like the Kinect.
The removable storage media used in the film was a good prediction of Flash Memory storage devices such as Secure Digital cards and USB devices. Smart phones, wireless sharing, and cloud storage gave these devices some serious competition, however.
Throw It In!: The part during the mall chase where Agatha grabs a woman and tells her "He knows. Don't go home." was not in the script. Spielberg added it on the set.
Peter Stormare ad-libbed the back-alley doctor's line "She's already smitten. She only has eyes for you."
Spielberg stumbled on the shot of Anderton and Agatha embracing in profile completely by accident. He was setting up another shot, saw an opportunity while peering through his viewfinder, and called over Janusz Kaminski. He rightfully felt it'd be perfect for the poster.
Jan de Bont was originally going to direct the film, with Spielberg executive producing. After The Haunting (1999) met with a scathing critical reaction and underwhelming box-office returns, however, Spielberg threw de Bont off the project and decided to handle it himself. de Bont is still listed as a producer during the opening credits.
Earlier working scripts implied that the 2054-era movie would be set in a retrofuturistic 1950s-style world, with characters heavily lampshading the psychology of surrounding oneself with artifacts, vehicles, clothing and building designs from that era.
Matt Damon was originally considered for Danny Witwer. Javier Bardem was offered the role, but turned it down because he "didn't want to just run around chasing Tom Cruise".
Ian McKellen was originally considered for Burgess.
Meryl Streep was originally cast as Iris Hineman, but had to back out.
