2054, Washington D.C. After six years of experiments, Pre-Crime law enforcement - in which murderers are caught before they commit their crime, thanks to the aid of a trio of psychics - has been deemed a success and is on the verge of going national. The project is headed up by Lamar Burgess (Von Sydow) and his protandeacute;gandeacute;, John Anderton (Cruise) who - through this technology - have prevented any murders taking place in the capital for the last six years. Others aren't so convinced - chief among them, F.B.I agent Ed Witwer (Farrell), assigned to find flaws in the system. When one of the psychics - known as 'Pre-Cogs' - predicts that Anderton will commit murder, the former golden boy is forced to go on the run from a system that he helped create.
Neither Spielberg nor Cruise have a reputation for making really uncommercial films and Minority Report doesn't deviate radically from their respective career trajectories. It is - with the honourable exception of Schlinder's List - perhaps the darkest movie in Spielberg's catalogue to date. Certainly, it's the most adult orientated of his films. For the most part (an annoying final few minutes aside where, he attempts to tie up every single loose end) it is a very enjoyable and intelligent film, which shouldn't fail to entertain most audiences
