April 12, 2004
The Minority Report: In Print and On Screen
American Military University
HM 214, Science Fiction and Fantasy
by James Landrith
The short story The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick is a
fast-paced crime drama, set in a future where murder is predictable and
preventable. Like all of the Philip K. Dick works I’ve read, I enjoyed
it. However, the 2002 DreamWorks movie version of The Minority Report
was an improvement on the story, with several new characters
introduced. Further, existing characters were enhanced or changed in the
movie version.
One major change from the short story to the movie involved setting.
The short story took place in New York City and the surrounding
countryside. The movie took place in Washington, DC, Baltimore and
Northern Virginia.
The basic plot of both the short story and the movie involve a future
society where murders are preventable through the use of three gifted
individuals known as “precogs” or “precognitives.” These three
individuals are able to predict murders and the identities of the
assailants in advance of the crime, allowing agents of the Precrime Unit
to apprehend the future criminal, effectively preventing the murder.
In both the short story and the movie, law enforcement officer John
Anderton is framed for a future murder. In the short story, the
Precrime Unit had been in existence for fifteen years. In the movie
version, the Department of Precrime had been operating for six years.
For starters, let’s examine the lead character of John Anderton. In
Philip K. Dick’s story, John Anderton was the founder of the Precrime
Unit. Further, Anderton also served as police commissioner. In the
movie version of The Minority Report, John Anderton is police
chief of the Department of Precrime, but not the police commissioner.
In the short story, Anderton is quite a bit older than his wife Lisa,
who had previously been his secretary. Also, the short story portrayed
John Anderton as in his fifties, balding and out of shape.
In the movie version, Anderton’s ex-wife is a photographer and appears
to be about the same age as her ex-husband. Tom Cruise, who portrayed
John Anderton in the movie version, is a runner, obviously in excellent
shape, in his early forties and with a full head of hair. This
particular change in the character of John Anderton allowed for a more
believable and dynamic action sequence. It would be much harder to
believe an out of shape fifty something was capable of outrunning the
entire Precrime police force through the subway, down the side of a
building and through a car manufacturing plant.
In addition, the movie version of John Anderton was far more developed
than the short story version. The movie portrayed Anderton as a
divorced grieving father and drug addict. The movie version also
portrayed Anderton as a man with an intense internal drive and deep
faith and confidence in his work in the Department of Precrime. This
intensity and belief in his work was due, in large part, to the
abduction of his son six years prior. Following his son’s abduction,
Anderton went to work for Lamar Burgess in the newly formed Precrime
Unit, where he immersed himself completely in his work, to the detriment
of his marriage. Anderton completely devoted himself to ensuring that
no family would ever suffer the loss of a loved one again. This
eventually led to the dissolution of his marriage through divorce.
In addition, the movie dramatically changed one character from the
short story. In the short story, character Leopold Kaplan, retired
General of the Army of the Federated Westbloc Alliance was the intended
victim of John Anderton, as well as a major conspirator in the plot to
wrestle control of the Precrime Unit from civilian oversight and into
the hands of the military. In the movie version, Anderton’s victim is
Leo Crow, a prisoner granted release and financial compensation for his
family in exchange for his volunteer death at the hands of Anderton.
Leo Crow impersonates a pedophile and pretends to be the individual
responsible for the disappearance of Anderton’s son.
In addition, the movie version added an extra character, Lamar Burgess,
in the role of police commissioner and founder of the Precrime Unit. In
the end, Burgess is responsible for framing Anderton and murdering Danny
Witwer. Burgess commits these actions in an effort to keep Anderton
from uncovering a murder he had committed six years prior. This prior
murder had been committed in order to keep the lead precognitive,
Agatha, from being reclaimed by her mother who had been in rehab for
drug addiction. Had Agatha been returned to her mother, the Division of
Precrime would have been closed down and Burgess would have been out of
a job.
In the short story, the United States either no longer exists, or has
been incorporated into a larger world-nation. The story never fully
clarifies this point. The government in the short story consists of a
new entity known as the Federal Westbloc Government. Further, the world
has recently been aflame in a military conflict named the Anglo-Chinese
War. In addition, the nation had only recently begun to be ruled by
civilian authority, after a long period of martial law.
The story also contains descriptions of the countryside near New York
City as “war-ravaged rural countryside spread out like a relief map, the
vacant regions between cities crater-pitted and dotted with the ruins
of farms and small industrial plants.” By contrast, the movie pictured
the countryside near Washington, DC as green, peaceful and beautiful.
There is no reference to a recent war in the movie version.
Both the movie and the short story captured the existence of slums in
much the same way. The short story described the run-down areas of New
York as a “vast slum region” with “tumbled miles of cheap hotels and
broken-down tenements.” The vision of the slums in the movie, where
Anderton hid from the police, purchased drugs and changed his identity,
were quite similar.
In addition, the nation had recently endured martial law and military
rule. Further, there are detention camps and civil liberties are not as
respected and protected as they are in 2004. The movie version makes
it clear that the United States still exists and makes no mention of a
war with China. That’s a major plot change, that doesn’t really have a
large effect on the overall story.
Another character who appeared in both the movie and the short story was
Witwer. In the short story, his name was Ed Witwer. In the movie
version, he was named Danny Witwer. The Danny Witwer character in the
movie was an employee of the Department of Justice. His task in the
movie was to execute a warrant and investigate the Department of
Precrime.
Another difference between the movie version and the short story
involved their treatments of the precognitives. The short story
described the precognitives in this excerpt:
In the gloomy half-darkness the three idiots sat babbling.
Every incoherent utterance, every random syllable was analyzed,
compared, reassembled in the form of visual symbols, transcribed on
conventional punchcards, and ejected into various coded slots. All day
long the idiots babbled, imprisoned in their special high-backed chairs,
held in one rigid position by metal bands, and bundles of wiring,
clamps. Their physical needs were taken care of automatically. T hey
had no spiritual needs. Vegetable-like, they muttered and dozed and
existed. Their minds were dull, confused, lost in shadows.
Further, in the short story, John Anderton referred to the precognitives
as “deformed and retarded.” In the movie version, the precognitives
were first portrayed as semi-conscious morons, but later portrayed as
gifted and highly intelligent. Also, the names of the precognitives
were different in the movie version and the short story. In the movie
version, their names were Agatha, Dash and Arthur. In the short story,
they were named Jerry and Donna, with the third precognitive’s name
remaining unmentioned.
Another key difference between the movie version and the short story
involved the manner in which John Anderton assumed a new identity. In
the short story, a mysterious stranger hands Anderton an envelope with a
new identity card and other materials enclosed. In the movie version,
biometrics are used to verify an individual’s identity. Anderton is
forced to take much more drastic measures in the film. Anderton resorts
to the desperate act of submitting to an eye transplant from a black
market physician. Such a transplant, while risky, remains his only hope
of eluding the ever present biometric scanners that allow the
government to keep tabs on the citizenry.
Finally, the biggest difference between the film and the short story
related to the manner in which they presented the conspiracy to frame
John Anderton. In the short story, Anderton is framed by his “victim”,
General Leopold Kaplan. This conspiracy involved a military plot to get
John Anderton removed from the position of police commissioner, while
discrediting the Precrime Unit. The ultimate goal of this conspiracy
was to force the Senate to turn over control of domestic policing back
to the military.
In the movie version, the conspiracy was less a plot to gain control and
more a desperate attempt to retain control on the part of Lamar
Burgess. As the Justice Department and Danny Witwer investigated the
Department of Precrime, Anderton stumbled onto several older Precrime
cases with incomplete case files. During the course of investigating
these incomplete case files, Anderton discovers the fallibility of the
Precrime technique. In the short story, Anderton succeeds in killing
his victim, but only in order to stop him from orchestrating his
military coup. In the movie version, Anderton doesn’t kill his victim.
Rather, the victim kills himself while Anderton is holding a gun on him
attempting to arrest him. By removing the responsibility for the
killing from Anderton, the film made the character a bit more
sympathetic.
In addition, the movie didn’t have any mention of space travel, but the
short story featured a galaxy where planetary colonization had taken
place. Ultimately, Anderton and his wife elect to leave Earth following
the killing of General Kaplan in the short story. In the movie,
Anderton and his wife reconcile and are awaiting the birth of their
second child following the closure of the Department of Precrime. In
the short story, the Precrime Unit continues on, with Ed Witwer in
charge. The movie ends on a far more optimistic note than the short
story. Both are excellent stories in their own right and I enjoyed
reading and watching The Minority Report.
Annotated Bibliography and Works Cited
Dick, Philip K. “The Minority Report.“ The Minority Report and Other Stories. New York, NY: Citadel Press, 1987. 71-102.
This short story combines science fiction and criminal conspiracy while asking the question, “what if you predict the future.”
The Minority Report. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Tom Cruise, Colin Ferrell, Samantha Morton, and Max Von Sydow. DreamWorks. 2002.
This film is based on Philip K. Dick’s short story The Minority Report.
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