Dr. Santas’ Study Questions
for
Minority Report
(Steven Spielberg, 2002)
Things to Look For:
 Based on a story by Phillip K. Dick—see short story
 Connection to Paycheck, Truman Show, Matrix, Memento, and Next
 Connection to Greek tragedies such as Oedipus Rex, and modern dystopian literature like 1984.
 Themes relating to fate, freewill and determinism—does foreknowledge imply determinism?
 Themes of individual liberty and privacy versus public safety—what does the need for security and
certainty do to individuality?
Questions:
1. What is “pre-crime”? Does the concept make sense? Is it anything like thoughtcrime (as in George
Orwell’s 1984)? Explain.
2. Where are the private spaces in the society depicted in this film? Who has access to your identity?
Your habits? Your thoughts? Is this a problem? Explain the relation between privacy and personal
identity, and what happens to individuality when personal spaces disappear.
3. If your future behavior is predicted, does this means you could not have done otherwise—that you
have no choice on the matter? Or are all predictions merely hypothetical (i.e., conditional)? Explain.
4. What does Witwer mean when he says “There must be a flaw—it’s human”? What does this imply for
a criminal justice system looking to prevent crime without wrongful accusations?
5. “The procogs are never wrong, but occasionally, they do disagree.” How can this be? What does this
say about fate and determinism? Explain.
6. What are minority reports? Why are they important? Why are they always destroyed? Why would the
pre-crime system collapse were people to find out about these reports?
7. Compare Dr. Hineman and her relationship to Burgess with the Oracle and her relation to the Architect
in the Matrix.
8. Anderton has no clue that he will be a murderer, or why; yet a chain of events had started that would
lead him inexorably to kill the victim. This is predicted by the precogs and later it becomes clear why.
What does this scenario tell us about self-knowledge and its relation to fated or pre-determined
behavior?
9. Compare the fate of John Anderton to that of Oedipus in Oedipus Rex. They both insisted they could
not do what was prophesied; and on insisting on finding the truth about the murder, were seemingly
drawn to the act like a moth to a flame. Yet Anderton escaped his fate when Oedipus did not—why?
Consider Anderton’s relationship with Agatha in contrast to that of Oedipus and the Delphic Oracle.
10. Anderton is manipulated into “choosing” to murder Crowe. Would this be a true choice, and would he
then have true agency? In the end, learning of the plot, he chooses not to do it. Using this example,
explain the relation between compulsion, manipulation, and determinism and contrast these to agency
and free choice.
11. Is Agatha right to say that seeing one’s future gives you choices you otherwise would not have? What
does this mean? What are the implications for the difference between prediction (foreknowledge or
precognition) and intentions (agency and freewill)? Explain.