#9: Minority Report (2002)

This decade saw a huge leap into the Sci-fi genre by mega-director Steven Spielberg, where 3 of the 7 movies he directed fell into that genre. The first was A.I. (2001), a movie he took over after Stanley Kubrick's death, and though it is a fairly decent movie, it suffers from Spielberg's touch. The second, Minority Report (2002), is named here as the ninth best of the decade. And finally was Spielberg's weakest attempt, War of the Worlds (2005).

Minority Report stands head and shoulders above anything else he made this decade (Catch Me if You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), Munich (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)) as a great entertainment and a great story. It's one of the few movies that I can continuously pop into the DVD player and be completely mesmerized for, from the opening to the end.

Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, a futuristic cop in the year 2054, where new technology has allowed cops to catch murderers before they actually commit the crime. The movie sets us on the eve of the program, which is only in D.C., being taken national. Colin Farrell plays Danny Witwer, who is investigating the unit, dubbed Pre-Crime, to find any flaws. Of course, a flaw is discovered when Anderton himself is named as a future killer, though the doesn't know the man he is supposed to kill. Much of the rest of the time he is on the run.

The film is a terrific sci-fi parable of our times, and uses technology that scientists actually believe could exist in the future. The film has a desaturated look, and is quite frenetic during some of the crazier scenes. The overall Production Design is outstanding, from cars that run on autopilot to a really awesome sonic boom gun thingy. Everything about is great.

But what really makes the movie work is its mythology. The future is seen by three individuals, known as Pre-Cogs (Samantha Morton is one of them), who are kept in a water tank at all time and isolated from the cops. How they work, why they work, and why Agatha (Morton) got there is all compelling and really makes you want to know more about this world. Tom Cruise's character is given an admittedly somewhat hammy backstory (his son was taken at a public pool), but Spielberg thankfully never gives us any closure on that thread, which makes it more powerful and more true to life.

My roommate Ben brought up on interesting theory about the ending: when Anderton is eventually apprehended, he is put into Tim Blake Nelson's holding cell, and is he lowered into the catacombs, Nelson says, "All your dreams become reality." (something along those lines) After that, everything is in Anderton's head, as the person who set him up kills himself and dramatic improbable things happen.

Whether the ending is in Anderton's head or really happens is irrelevant to me; its still a thrilling conclusion that I love seeing played out again and again. What does matter is that Spielberg crafted one of the greatest entertainments of our time, and a movie I know will hold up for years and years to come.