Minority Report — When the Story World Becomes The Villain

Hi, I’m Michael.

This is Lessons From The Screenplay.

Phillip K.

Dick is well known for inspiring some of the greatest story worlds ever put

on screen,

and Minority Report is no exception.

A radical, stunning vision of the future,

Minority Report’s world design continues to influence science fiction to this day.

But the design of the technology isn’t the most important part of the story

world.

When screenwriter Scott Frank was brought onto the project,

director Steven Spielberg told him to ignore the tech

and instead focus on the story itself.

“The first thing that Steven said to me is ‘write this like it’s happening

today.

If somebody answers a phone, they answer the phone.

Don’t describe the phone.

If they get in a car, they get in a car.

For the moment, let’s just think about the story.’

Which was a huge relief to me.

It made it much easier to think about things."

The concept of Precrime— arresting people before they’ve actually committed a murder— is the

important part of Minority Report’s story world;

the futuristic cars, jetpacks, and illogically transparent screens are just cool.

So today I want to compare three versions of this story— Philip K.

Dick’s original short story from 1956, Jon Cohen’s 1997 script,

and Scott Frank’s final script— to explore how each tries to establish the philosophy

of the story world...

To look at how they attempt to persuade the audience to believe in the

system of Precrime...

And examine how the story world itself becomes the antagonist of the story.

Let’s take a look at Minority Report.

One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is providing exposition— defining the characters,

history, and world of a story in a way that feels organic.

Minority Report weaves in exposition about Precrime in several environmental ways,

from showing advertisements being broadcast in the city...

“On Tuesday, April 22,

vote Yes on the National Precrime Initiative."...to overhearing a tour being given to students.

“Well, the precogs have such a powerful gift they have to be kept in

peaceful seclusion so as to not be distracted from the outside world.”

But there’s so much to explain

that the film has to rely heavily on one of the most frequently-used

and effective exposition devices:

Introducing a character who is as clueless about the story world as the audience.

In Minority Report, this character is Danny Witwer.

Witwer serves as a kind of audience surrogate,

and as he learns how Precrime works, so do we.

“The commission of the crime itself is absolute metaphysics.

The precogs see the future and they are never wrong.”

The problem with this technique, however, is that it’s often not very dramatic.

If one character’s desire in a scene is to gain information,

and the other’s is to give it, there are no obstacles.

No obstacles, no conflict, no drama.

In his book Into The Woods, John Yorke writes:

“All good exposition is disguised by making it dramatic – by injecting conflict.

Desire, in story structure, should always be countered by an opposite desire,

and this in turn creates the conflict drama needs.”

In Philip K.

Dick’s original story, the character of Witwer is used to convey exposition,

but with very little conflict.

In Jon Cohen’s 1997 script,

Witwer is the partner

and best friend of Anderton—

or “Anderson” as he’s called in this draft.

So while Witwer provides some conflict in challenging Anderson’s beliefs,

their interactions can still feel forced.

But in Scott Frank’s final script,

the character of Danny Witwer is cleverly used both to convey exposition

and inject conflict into the story,

because he’s Anderton’s opponent.

Witwer is a Department of Justice agent sent to audit Precrime before it’s adopted

as a nationwide practice.

So Witwer is looking for flaws, "It's not the future if you stop it.

Isn't that a fundamental paradox?"

which results in Anderton having to not just explain precrime, but to defend it.

ANDERTON: Why did you catch that?

WITWER: Because it was going to fall.

ANDERTON: You’re certain?

WITWER: Yeah.

ANDERTON: But it didn’t fall.

You caught it.

ANDERTON: The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn’t change the fact

that it was going to happen.

Forcing Anderton to actively defend Precrime is important, because in Minority Report,

the audience has to do more than simply understand the world.

The audience must buy into the world.

The concept of arresting people before they’ve committed a crime relies on the idea

that the future is predetermined

and that there is no free will.

This is a philosophy that is contrary to what many people believe,

so the filmmakers must help the audience suspend their disbelief

and embrace the laws of the story world.

The first way Minority Report achieves this is by showing us the prevention of

a murder which we can confidently agree was going to take place.

Showing precrime at its best helps the audience understand and believe in its value.

“I’m placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marks

and Donald Dubin that was to take place today,

April 22nd, at 0804.”

But Minority Report also creates an emotional connection to the story world.

Screenwriter Scott Frank did this by giving Anderton a personal reason to believe in

it.

Saying, “The main character had to be running from something

or acting out some personal problem for it to really work.

So, what if Anderton was a policeman before Precrime

and experienced the loss of his own child right in front of him.

I thought that anger

and guilt would lead to a denial for the character in terms of what

he was doing,

and that might give him some real motivation and make things interesting.”

“Sean?!”

In both the original story and Jon Cohen’s script,

Anderton is the founder and director of precrime.

Therefore, his belief in the system is self-evident and never explained in depth,

so the audience is asked to accept the system

but doesn’t connect with it emotionally.

But by giving Anderton a tragic backstory— one he believes could have been avoided

had precrime existed at the time of his son’s disappearance— the audience is compelled

to feel empathy for Anderton

and see the merit of the story world’s philosophy.

At least for a while.

“Goodbye, Crow.”

“Anderton, wait!”

When Anderton discovers that he has been convicted of a future murder,

his beliefs get turned upside down, and the story world becomes the antagonist.

There are two central opponent characters in Minority Report.

Witwer, who eventually comes to believe Anderton, and Lamar Burgess—founder of Precrime.

But Anderton’s desire is much greater than simply stopping these “bad guys.”

In the second act of the story,

Anderton learns that the precogs— the “gifted” humans who can see the future— aren’t

always in agreement.

IRIS: Most of the time,

all three Precognitives will see an event in the same way.

But once in a while,

one of them will see things differently than the other two.

ANDERTON: Are you saying I’ve haloed innocent people?

IRIS: I’m saying every

so often those accused of a precrime might—just might—have an alternate future.

As director Steven Spielberg says:

“If one of the precogs dissents and casts a dissenting vote,

then it can’t be a perfect system,

and there must be something wrong with it, and it’s something so wrong,

that the system would not be allowed to exist in our nation.”

And so Anderton’s desire becomes clear: dismantle precrime.

In every version of the story the resolution is centered around the fate of

the precrime system itself.

In Philip K.

Dick’s original story, Anderton recognizes the flaw in precrime,

but he takes action to make sure the system actually prevails—

or as screenwriter Scott Frank charmingly puts it:

“In the end of Dick’s story,

the hero sacrifices himself for this completely fascist system of law enforcement.

He’s set up by some guy in the army you don’t know

or even care about for reasons

that aren’t at all clear.

Then it ends.”

The system of precrime lives on.

In Jon Cohen’s script,

Witwer wants Anderson to kill him in order to prove precrime works,

but Anderson makes every effort not to follow through.

But when Witwer takes one of the male precogs and tries to kill him,

Anderson has no choice but to shoot.

In this version of the story, the fate of Precrime is unclear.

Interestingly, the concept of minority reports is never even mentioned,

so Cohen never makes a decision about the state of free will.

Scott Frank’s final script finds a balance between these concepts.

In his final moments,

Burgess— who the precrime unit sees murdering Anderton— takes his own life.

That fact that he chose not to murder Anderton,

as was foreseen by the precrime system,

shows that there is indeed free will in this story world.

So while Burgess is the main opponent for Anderton,

his demise alone doesn’t solve the greater problem.

It’s not until we see the dissolution of the story world

as precrime is dismantled

that we can feel the story has truly been resolved.

Minority Report is a great example of how the world of the story can

be more than just a fun

or interesting setting.

It demonstrates how creating characters with opposing views on the world’s philosophy can help

elegantly convey exposition and persuade the audience to buy into the world’s systems...

And it shows how the story world itself can be the primary source of

conflict,

so that by the end we only feel satisfied

when Anderton brings down the system with the help of a minority report.

A lot of the technology

and concepts predicted in Minority Report have come true—

and then some.

"Get away, John Anderton.

Forget your troubles."

There’s a documentary that looks at Philip K.

Dick’s works and their film adaptations to explore the ways his visions of the

future have come true.

It’s called “The World's of Philip K Dick,”

and it’s one of the many great documentaries available on CuriosityStream.

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Thanks to CuriosityStream for sponsoring this episode.

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