| Director | Steven Spielberg |
|---|---|
| Genre | action film, dystopian film, film based on literature, science fiction film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 145 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $102 million |
| Box office | $358.4 million |
In 2054, a "Precrime" pilot program is running in Washington, D.C. in the United States. Three clairvoyant individuals known as "precognitives" or "precogs" receive psychic visions about imminent homicides. Police detectives use information from the visions to apprehend would-be perpetrators before they can commit a crime. Those arrested are put into a coma and imprisoned indefinitely. Although Precrime has eliminated nearly all premeditated murders during its six-year existence, impulsive killings are still attempted, giving the police only a short time to act.
Precrime chief John Anderton joined the program after his six-year-old son Sean was abducted in a public swimming pool and presumably killed several months before the program's introduction. He is addicted to a drug called neuroin, and he and his wife Lara have separated. Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer audits Precrime to uncover flaws. Anderton watches as one of the precogs, Agatha, has a flashback of a woman drowning. He learns from the prison warden that the intended victim, Anne Lively, went missing shortly after her murder was prevented; he also discovers that Agatha's vision of the crime is not on file. Soon afterward, the precogs predict that Anderton will kill a man named Leo Crow, whom he has never met. Anderton flees, prompting Witwer to begin a manhunt.
Anderton visits Dr. Iris Hineman, a geneticist whose research led to the creation of Precrime. She reveals that the precogs' abilities were acquired in utero from their neuroin-addicted mothers. She also explains that one precog occasionally sees a different future vision from the others, which is known as a "minority report". The minority reports are purged from the record to maintain the precogs' reputation of infallibility, so if Anderton has a minority report, he will have to find Agatha, the precog with the strongest precognitive abilities.
After undergoing black market eye transplant surgery to evade retinal scanners, Anderton returns to Precrime. He kidnaps Agatha, which shuts down the group-mind generated by the three precogs. With the assistance of a hacker, Anderton searches Agatha's memories but fails to find a minority report for Crow's murder. However, he finds and downloads her memories of Lively's death. Pursued by Precrime officers, Anderton and Agatha track Crow to a hotel room and find photos of many children, including Sean. Crow confesses to killing Sean and Anderton nearly shoots him, but relents at the last moment to place him under arrest. Crow then claims he was hired to pose as Sean's killer and goad Anderton into killing him, saying that his family will be paid only if he dies. When Anderton refuses, Crow kills himself in a manner similar to the precogs' vision of Anderton killing him.
Witwer investigates Lively's case and finds clues suggesting that she was murdered. When he reports his findings to Lamar Burgess, the director of Precrime, Burgess kills him, knowing that the remaining two precogs cannot foresee his crime without Agatha. Precrime officers locate Anderton at Lara's house and imprison him for murdering Crow and Witwer. While discussing Anderton's concerns about Lively with Burgess, Lara becomes suspicious of him. She breaks Anderton out of prison, which allows him to confront Burgess at a banquet celebrating the national launch of Precrime.
Anderton reveals that Lively was Agatha's mother. She had given up custody of Agatha, but later tried to reclaim her. Desperate to preserve Precrime, Burgess hired a man to kill Lively, knowing that Precrime would intervene. After the murder was prevented, Burgess killed Lively himself in the predicted manner. The Precrime technicians, trained to disregard the second murder vision as an echo of the first one, deleted the record. Once Anderton began to investigate, Burgess arranged for Crow to pose as Sean's abductor to provoke Anderton to murder.
The precogs predict that Burgess will kill Anderton at the banquet, but Burgess kills himself instead. Sometime afterwards, Precrime has been shut down and all the prisoners have been pardoned and released. Anderton and Lara have reconciled and are expecting a second child, while the precogs are moved to an undisclosed location to live in peace and anonymity.