Hey folks, Harry here with a damn fine report on MINORITY REPORT's shooting script by way of XANTHOR. Now many would probably want to know Xanthor's identity (No Steven, I won't tell you) but all I can say is that he is not a pre-cog or a head agent. Rather he's a Spy Mole... on deep deep deep cover... From time to time he might sneak up and spill some beans, but overall.. he remains... as always... Coooool...
"Moriarty" here. Just wanted to say that I'm not sure this guy actually read a shooting draft of the script. Harry's been cut off from the world, so I don't blame him for not knowing what he's talking about. No, wait... yes, I do. He's supposed to know. I'm afraid this back thing has turned the poor boy's brain to oatmeal. Normally, he would have called me and asked me to check this story out since I'm one of the few people outside the production with intimate knowledge of the revised shooting script. The setup is right in the review below, but one detail sounds to me like this guy read the old pre-Scott Frank draft of the script, the one that's been bouncing around the Internet for a while. Then again, he got the page count right... 153 pages of insane SF goodness. I will say this... I adore MINORITY REPORT on the page, and I am dying to see the film. If Spielberg shot what was written, it could be a classic SF film on par with BLADE RUNNER, but without borrowing from it as so many films shamelessly do. It's sad, it's exciting, and it's a genuine head game. Here's XANTHOR with a decent look at the film's basic premise...
Minority Report takes place in and around the D.C. area. Tom Cruise plays Jon Anderton, an ex-cop turned head agent of Pre-Crime. Pre-Crime is an organization that has been running in D.C. for 6 years, and it's been 6 years since a single murder has occurred.
The supreme court is about to vote on an amendment that would make Pre-Crime a legal form of making arrests throughout the whole country. Pre-Crime uses a tribunal of 3 psychics who predict murders... however as far as Anderton understands these psychics are not fully human... they are just future-seeing-beings who are not conscious, plugged into a computer to display their thoughts. These beings can see crimes anywhere from 8 minutes to several weeks in advanced and up to 400 miles away.
The problem with murders is that they are generally crimes of passion and thus can only be seen a short period of time in advanced... that's how the drama is created in this film... nothing makes drama like a countdown.
Anyway, why are they able to see murder but not other crimes? Well... murder is such a tragic event that it sends out waves through the space-time continuum... yes.. that's right... ok... I buy it... lets move on.
So after the initial red-ball alarm that gives us all this back story and what-not we establish that Pre-Crime is being looked over by a man who will advise the Supreme Court about Pre-Crime... I cannot remember his name but he becomes the primary man chasing after Cruise.
Let me just say here that this script does kick ass but it really really really is a lot like Mission: Impossible (the first one). It sort of is Mission: Impossible plot meets fugitive, meets blade runner, meets Matrix.
Ok... back to story. After the first redball, where they tear the roof off a building and arrest a man for almost killing his wife who was sleeping with someone else, there is another red ball... they go through all the procedure in figuring out all the info about the crime (the psychics... or pre-cogs as they're called, only get bits and pieces in a sort of jumbled collage) and golly gee it comes up as Jon Anderton...
Cruise see's his own name on the red-ball alarm and quickly sneaks out of the Pre-Crime headquarters (which incase ya wanna know is the Ronald Reagan building in D.C.) before anyone notices him. So... this becomes a very public chase. Can you see the shock... one of pre-crimes finest is going to kill someone? So now... Cruise is conflicted... if he gets caught, Pre-Crime will pass nationally which is what he wants... but if he commits the crime... or if he doesn't Pre-Crime won't pass nationally.
Cruise tracks down the maker of the Pre-Cog system and discovers that not all of the pre-cogs always agree... that sometimes one will disagree and that's called a minority report. Oh yeah... the one that always disagrees is the smarter of ! the three (i.e. the girl). So she tells him if he goes back to the headquarters he can find his minority report and prove his innocence. The problem with this, is that if they don't always agree than pre-crime is not a legal form of arrest and so it's his inner struggle again, but he does decide to go back and find the minority report.
I'm in about 30 or 40 pages of a 153 page script now... and I won't ruin anymore except one thing... Anderton does not have a Minority Report.
This is an amazing script, and after reading it I am unbelievably psyched to see it. I really rushed through things here and there is alot more going on ofcoarse, such as Cruises son that went missing years ago right before Pre-Crime and he's divorced... and blah blah blah... but this is an amazing script that will without a doubt be one of the better films of it's year (current release is June 2002).
Enjoy and maybe I'll give some more away later
-Xanthor
