Blog 14- Minority Report: The Dystopia Created by Technology

I had to watch the 2002 film Minority Report my sophomore year of high school for a science fiction film analysis elective. After rewatching the movie recently I noticed many aspects that I had missed the first time. The Steven Spielberg film stars a young Tom Cruise as John Anderton, the captain of Washington D.C.'s PreCrime unit in the year 2054. PrimeCrime actually predicts murders before they happen. The technology works due to the visions of PreCogs, which are three genetically mutated humans that see snippets of the future (but only murders). The (future) criminal is arrested moments before they are about to commit murder and put into a small capsule where they live the rest of their lives basically as a vegetable. 

The entire justice system falls apart as the captain John Anderton is shown as a future murderer in one of the visions. As he tries to prove that he is innocent and will not commit murder he finds out that the three sibling PreCogs do not always see the same vision and there is (rarely) and alternate future called a minority report that is immediately deleted. While this film is a science fiction dramatization of how technology creates a dystopia, there is somewhat of an eerie reality today in some of the aspects predicted in 2002 when the film was released. 

One of the most interesting scenes from the movie is Anderton trying to escape the very officers he used to lead. He goes on an epic journey jumping on top of and through the self-driving cars that occupy the mega highways of the future. Today in 2021, many self-driving cars are successfully underway. After a little research I even found out that Spielberg worked with Lexus to create what cars could possibly look like in 2054 (pictured above). Lexus now claims that this car and others like it could be out as soon as 2027. 

The next prediction turned into a reality is the method of identification they use in the movie. Everyone is identified by eye scans. Cities are filled with thousands if not millions of machines that scan citizen's irises when they enter any building or even public transportation so the government can track them at all times. Anderton actually undergoes an eye transplant so he cannot be easily tracked and arrested. While we are not at this extreme level, all of us with iPhones have given Apple our fingerprint and even faceprint for identification purposes. Is that much different? 

In one scene, Anderton goes into a department store/mall and once his eyes are scanned all of these advertisements begin to pop up holographically tailored to him and his interests. They even say his name in them. As I was writing this blog post, an ad popped up on the side of my screen showing articles of clothing I had looked at a few days ago. I personally don't see much of a difference between the ads in the dystopian film and the ads today, except maybe that ours don't physically pop up in front of us when we enter stores. 

Although this movie is quite bizarre, I definitely recommend watching it. It can put our reliance on technology into perspective. While it can uncover the scary idea that we are drawing closer to this horrific dystopia becoming our reality, it can also help us realize some of the problems of society. We could possibly do our part as individuals to make small differences in our lives so we do not fall victim to the dangers of living in a completely technological and government run world.