Next: Star Trek
Chinatown met Blade Runner in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, a trippy blend of old-school detective work and futuristic technology, where a trio of telepaths foretell every murder before it happens. As soon as these psychic overlords produce your name, you’re branded a criminal – which poses an interesting existential debate, as to whether our fate is written in stone, or if we are capable of defying what has been predetermined. John Anderton (Tom Cruise), chief detective, buys into the system, until one day he is singled out as a future killer and must run from his own forces. (Tracey picks the Best Video Games of the Decade)
Knowing the tricks of the trade, Anderton digs out his own retinas, to go off the grid in a city where cameras are always scanning, and kidnaps one of the telepaths, determined to prove their infallible vision wrong. The film is a thriller first and foremost, but Spielberg ensures that every thrill advances a larger debate – tackling issues of justice, destiny, Big Brother and betrayal, all the while suggesting a possible sci-fi future for Hollywood’s oldest genres.
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