Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the movie has some graphic violence, including sci-fi shooting, fistfights, brutal and graphic murders, and suicides. Anderton abuses illegal drugs. Viewers see a flashback of his son's abduction. The movie also has some gross and grisly visuals, particularly when Anderton has his eyes replaced as a way of avoiding the retinal scans that the police use to track everyone's whereabouts.
Families can talk about private vs. public good. Is it worth violating the rights of some innocent people in order to prevent violent attacks? How would Anderton answer that question at the beginning of the movie, and how would he answer it at the end? What about the rights of the precogs? Is it fair to ask them to give up any kind of normal life if it will prevent people from being killed? Families can also discuss Anderton's inability to come to terms with the loss of his son. How do people go on after devastating losses? Also, what do you think daily life will be like half a century from now.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nell Minow
It's 50 years from now, in Washington, D.C., where familiar landmarks like the Washington Monument are surrounded by vertical highways and where computers in The Gap not only recognize you when you walk in the door but remember what you bought the last time you were there.
John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is a top detective in an experimental "pre-crime" unit. An experimental program wires the brains of genetically altered "precogs" (short for "precognition") to computers that display their glimpses of the future. Anderton stands before the display like he's conducting a symphony and directs the images so that he can find the perpetrators before they kill. There's no way to know if everyone who's arrested under this program would in fact have become a murderer, but the fact is that since the program has been in place, there hasn't been a single murder in Washington. It's been so successful that it may be expanded to the whole country.
Anderton only feels alive when he's stopping a crime. When he's not at work, he numbs himself with drugs and watches his old home movies. He was so devastated by the abduction and probable murder of his son that his marriage fell apart. The only feeling he allows himself is the satisfaction that he's sparing others from the agonizing pain that he's suffered. And then the precogs' identify Anderton himself as the next killer. He has to run -- and as he's running, he has to figure out how you prove that you're not going to commit murder.
As with Blade Runner, also based on a story by Philip K. Dick, this is a very traditional noir-ish detective plot set in an ominous future where the apparent ease created by technology has overtaken human individuality. How much privacy and justice would you be willing to give up to bring the murder rate down to zero? Anderton finds that it's less than he thought.
The three precogs are named for mystery novel greats: Agatha, Arthur, and Dashiell (for Christie, Conan Doyle, and Hammett). They turn out to be the result of an experiment that went wrong. The most striking scene in the movie is Alderton's meeting with the scientist who created them (a brilliant performance by Lois Smith). These creatures who can predict the future were ironically the product of a scientist who never anticipated the direction her experiment would take. Like Norse god Odin, Anderton must give up his eyes to find wisdom; it's only when he literally looks through someone else's eyes that he can understand what he's seeing.
The movie is visually stunning, with brilliantly staged action sequences and vividly realized characters. Colin Farrell is mesmerizing as Anderton's rival, and Max von Sydow brings great depth to his role as Anderton's boss.
Families who enjoy this movie might like to take a look at Steven Spielberg's fellow future-set drama A.I. Or try his more successful movies about contact with extraterrestrials: Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. Older viewers may also enjoy Blade Runner and The Matrix.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentMild sexual references -- couples kissing and preparing for sex, fantasy vision of ideal woman, other suggestions of sex. |
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ViolenceIntense peril and violence, including murder and suicide, and a grisly operation. |
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LanguageSome strong language, including one use of "f--k," as well as "s--t," "ass," "hell," etc. |
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Social BehaviorThese future police use technology to arrest people for crimes before they even commit them. When one of them needs to go rogue, he resorts to some questionable methods to stay free and undetected. Some strong female characters. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoCharacter abuses drugs; reference to addicts. Some smoking (fairly background). |
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