Human Boundaries &
Multiple Time Paths
Minority Report: the film and
the novel
Outline
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Starting Questions
Sci-fi Films and Human Boundaries
Ref. Two Theoretical Models on “posthuman” identities
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Philip K. Dick & Minority Report
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the Film
Questions
 DC in the film—the
cityscape
 high-tech & commodities
The Symbolic: Eyes;
Father-Son Relations
Problems with Precrime
 Free choice?
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the Novel
Problems with Precrime
 Anderton and Lisa
Reality: interpreted and
changed many times (the
implications of minority
report)
Comparison between the
novel and the film
Starting Questions
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What questions do recent sci-fi films
ask?
Are the boundaries between the
human and the non-human still
meaningful?
Sci-fi Films
I. Definition: "A good science fiction story is a story about
human beings, with a human problem, and a human
solution, that would not have happened at all without its
science content.“ (Theodore Sturgeon source)
 Alternative possible worlds as reflections on our present
world.
II. Kinds:
 Disaster films  environmental issues
 human vs. monsters, alien,
 Monster films
robot (Who is the monster)
 Alien life forms
 ‘mad scientist’ (Father)
 Robots
 Mind and identity  memory and social surveillance
 Time travel  thru’ machines or in the mind
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_film#Film_versus_literature
Sci-fi films: Examples
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Disaster films: Armageddon (1998) The Day After
Tomorrow (2004); It's All About Love (2003)
Monster films: Jurassic Park(1993), King Kong
(2005)
Alien life forms: 70’s-80’s-1998 –Star Wars & Star
Trek; E.T. (1982); Alien (1986)
Robots: Blade Runner (1982); Men in Black (1997),
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001); The Island (2005);
I, Robot (2004)
State, Mind, Machine and identity: Videodrome
(1982); The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), The Net
(1995), Gattaca (變種異煞1997), Enemy of the
State (1998), The Matrix (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001);
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Time travel: Back to Future (1985)
Sci-fi films: Recurrent Themes
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nostalgia for the past (e.g. the 50’s), pastiche of
stereotypes -- Back to Future (1985) ; King Kong (2005).
Father/Creator Complex, and parent-children
relationship: Alien (1986), Blade Runner (1982); A.I.:
Artificial Intelligence (2001); The Island (2005).

Can be traced back to Frankenstein.
State surveillance and dictatorship (through zoning,
computer, video, implanted device and genetic
manipulation, etc.) : Videodrome (1982); The
Handmaid’s Tale (1990), Enemy of the State (1998)
The human and the machine/animal -- Men in Black
(1997), I, Robot (2004)
Nature of memory, and its erasure: Vanilla Sky (2001);
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Sci-fi Films: Penetration of
Human Boundaries
Human
Ads & Commodities
Body, action
Mind, thought
Relation
Shaping bodies,
Creating desires.
State
Machine & Science
categorization,
device implantation,
Discipline,
computer interfacing
Surveillance & punishment (voice, hand, virtual
reality), enetic
manipulation
Ref. Two Theoretical Models
(1) Cyborg –Donna Haraway
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Identities have to be “contradictory, partial,
and strategic'.”
Cybord identity: "a kind of disassembled and
reassembled, postmodern collective self",
breaking the dichotomies between "mind
and body, animal and human, organism and
machine, public and private, nature and
culture, men and women, primitive and
civilized.
Ref. (2) Body without Organs
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Body not as a totality, or organic whole; "body" is a
discontinuous and non-totalized series of
processes, organs, flows, energies, corporeal
substances and incorporeal events, intensities and
durations. (source)  nomadic subjects
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1983)
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari problematize
previous models of subjectivity by eliminating the
opposition around which the subject is constructed:
"There is no such thing as either man or nature now,
only a process that produces the one within the
other and couples the machines together." (2).
 Anderton and his eyes?
Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)-General Introduction
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Had a vision on a rural California road in 1960’s:
“a cold, metallic and malevolent face that filled
the entire sky.” (Gale)
Developed a deep sense of paranoia--as well
as a serious drug habit, which clearly didn't help
matters--during the early 1960s and it continued
off and on until he died.
In 1972, Dick started sending letters to the FBI,
alleging that a sinister political organization was
trying to recruit sci-fi writers to plant coded
information in their novels.
After five marriages and artistic poverty, he died
the year Blade Runner was released. (Barsanti)
Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)-General Introduction
 "My major preoccupation is the question,
'What is reality?'" Dick
 In novel after novel, Dick's characters find
that their familiar world is in fact an illusion,
either self-created or imposed on them by
others.
 His work-- favorite source texts of
Hollywood sci-fi films –
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Blade Runner (“Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep?”),
Total Recall (We Can Remember It for You
Wholesale), and
Minority Report (1956)
Minority Report:
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Film Characters:
Chief John Anderton
Pre-Crime Director Lamar Burgess
Lara, Sean
Witwar
Minority Report:
Questions for Discussion
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What do you think of the world of 2054
constructed in this film?
What are the problems with Precrime?
Are there any recurrent symbols in this
film?
The World of Minority Report
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DC—power center vs. highrise off from
the Potomac River
Precrime department:
beautified image of
precogs
Vertical Buildings
“Vertical Building” vs. slums
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The World of Minority Report–
Home and Transportation
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Cars driven by magnetic power
Computerized home, controlled by voice
The mall, ads, high-tech
luxuries
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Animated ads everywhere
interpellating the
individuals (with eye-scan
device)
Ads of Bulgari, Guinness,
of Amex
Auto factory of Lexus (clip)
Avoiding Physical Violence:
Precrime
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Invisible Violation of Human
Bodies and Private Spaces
Image of the Eye
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vision or illusion? –a bit cliché.
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Agatha’s vs. Anderton’s the use of Clarity;
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“Can you see it?” vs. “One-eye man is king.”
Eyes as a way of control of everyone and Anderton’s
access to Precrime.
Eyes –look at the mirror Images society offers and thus
their position get fixed;
The Big Eye—of the camera
Father(s)’s Control and the
Loss of Mothers
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Fathers: Burgess, Anderton
(Lost) Mothers: Ann Lively and Dr.
Kineman (exiled and an alternative
world of control)
Lara – self-exiled (with her voice—the
photowork--barely heard) becomes a
mother again
Precrime: problems
(1)Treatments of the precogs
(2) fallibility of prediction; intention =
crime?
(3) Penalty
 Howard Marks
 encased in what looks like a humansized test-tube
Freedom to choose
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Anderton Leo Crow (repeats
the stereotypical lines
policemen has when arresting
someone—when Crow is not
really guilty.)
Lamarr Burgess  Anderton,
Burgess:
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his desire to keep the system
working,
his instinct for his own survival
his ambivalent feelings towards
Anderton  “ Sorry my boy”
Are they really free to choose?
Precog’s Abilities—
Romanticized diffused
and reduced
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In the novel, precogs’
messages need analysis and
they are limited to prediction
of manslaughter
Agatha: knows everything to
the most minute detail
(umbrella, balloon man, etc);
can tell a future wished for
but not existing.
Endings
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Family reunion
Seclusion
Closing of precrime how
about the other means of
social surveillance?
Minority Report: Novel
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
John Anderton & Lisa; Ed Witwar; Leopold Kaplan 29, 64,
Fleming 42, 72; Page
Plot
Witwer the young man, A. gets the card with his own name on;
Lisa’s responses – the victim: Leopold Kaplan
A. taken to Kaplan (conspiracy theory)
A. rescued by Fleming, lives in the slum area as an electrician.
As Earnest Temple, listens to the news about A.
Meets Page to get Jerry’s vision; Lisa’s rescue
Lisa – no conspiracy; Fleming tries to kill Lisa
Meets Witwer—gets Donna’s vision; Army’s rally outside; A.
decision
Kills Kaplan
starts for the colony. offers another interpretation of the
‘minority reports’.
Problems with the Precrime
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99.8% Success p. 11; 1 murder in 5
years;
“they are innocent” p. 7
Precogs—idiots and deformed 8-9
Anderton –belief and doubts
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Belief in the system 12
Doubts over Lisa pp. 18-20, 34
Fatigued and old pp. 3, 5, 36-38;
Various Interpretations of “Will
he do it?”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
A’s: W’s conspiracy to gain power p. 32;
37-38 proves the system wrong
Fleming: your wife is behind it 41
Chap 5: discovery of the minority report
p.49
Jerry’s vision p. 58  a new time path
Everybody is guilty of plotting. P. 78
Donna’s  Jerry’s  Mikes pp. 81-82
All three are minority reports pp. 100-
Differences between the film
and the original novel
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The novel
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critiques precrime, but not the treatment of
crecog—nor offers solutions.
Precogs’ predictions are not unanimous and can
be corrected; (the film does not really present
any “minority report”— the “Ann Lively” one is
actually the result of fabrication.)
Presents Anderton as old, bald and exhausted
(no handsome Anderton as hero)
focuses on Anderton’s suspicion of his wife and
Witwer’s conspiracy (no father-son plot—
Hollywood formula?)
Reference
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“Philip K. Dick” Contemporary Authors
Online, Thomson Gale, 2005.
Sinister plots: for Philip K. Dick, author of
"The Minority Report," the line between fact
and fiction was nightmarishly narrow. (Other
Worlds). Barsanti, Chris.