# Questions about Minority Report **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2002, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775 "2002-07-01T03:09:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775/21 "2002-07-04T11:41:31Z")
If Precogs can predict futures that never happen, then surely they can predict a missing son’s life that didn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775/22 "2002-07-04T23:47:01Z")
**this whole post contains spoilers** No sense in making everything in a spoiler tag. But fair warning! Ok… > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by majinborg \* > When the murder of Leo Crow was predicted, the ball naming Anderton as the murderer didn’t come out until several minutes later, after the validation procedures had already begun. Given that, and the footage we saw of Ann Lively’s death (with the murderer’s back to us), I wouldn’t think it at all impossible that sometimes the murderer’s name is never given. This doesn’t really cover it. Here’s the timeline, with names omitted because I can’t remember them. Old guy plans to kill lady, and thus hires a killer. Boy Wonders see this murder occur; Girl Wonder doesn’t, she instead sees the old man murder Lively. But, since her report disagrees with the other two, it is a Minority Report and is never filed (excep in her own mind). If a ball came out, then, it would be the hired killer. So, pre-crime division sends cops out to stop the murder and catch the hired killer. But the “real” murder is about to begin. Old guy then proceeds to kill Lively in the same manner that the Boy Wonders predicted the hired killer would. _All three of the re-cogs see this pre-meditated murder_ but it is dismissed as an echo; because it is dismissed, no report is filed, no ball drops. **With regards to an event with no cause** ; that is, how could the pre-cogs have foreseen the murder by Cruise’s character and proceed to report it if it requires their report to trigger the events in the first place? Answer: they couldn’t; but, this is not a plot hole. Allow me to sexplain my version of events and non-events (which would have been except that they were impossible, and so had to be altered). The event with no cause has a cause, but its cause _is_ the paradox. So, here we go. Old man plans to get Cruise out of the way because he is stumbling onto the Minority Report issue which is doubly bad: it would both jeapordize the pre-crime unit in general (what with the Justice Department sniffing around) and could reveal that he had murdered Lively himself. So he hires this dupe to pose as the killer of Cruise’s son, the one way he could get Cruise to kill anyone. Now the trouble is: how do we get Cruise to know about this? Solution: tip him off! Here’s where things get crazy. Plan A would be to tip Cruise off. When Cruise is tipped off, he premeditates a murder. But a premeditated murder would be reported, and he would see the report. This makes Plan A go away once it has been enacted; time resolves the paradox by having the report be the tip-off. The cause of this chain of events (Plan A) is lost in an alternate (and impossible!) set of events! So the report is filed, Cruise sees it, is dragged down a series of events, et cetera. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775/23 "2002-07-05T01:00:52Z")
SPOILERS… but this whole thread is a spoiler. There is another possible interpretation. Cruise’s character tells Crow that every day he thinks of 2 things: 1. Whether he would recognize his son if he saw him on the street and 2. What he would do to the guy who killed his son if he found him. #1 motivates (emotionally) the pre-cogs monologue. ## #2 indicates that Cruise’s character has indeed pre-meditated the murder, at least in some sense. He has planned on killing his son’s murderer, although he would only be aware of his opportunity a few minutes before the event. I hope the Movie Geek (Cervais) reviews this film. [http://moviegeek.homestead.com/files/index.htm](http://moviegeek.homestead.com/files/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2002, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775/24 "2002-07-05T07:29:43Z")
I watched this last night. To go back to the original question, both the wife and the lover’s names were on the ball. ---
**Author:** ![NardoPolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NardoPolo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NardoPolo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775/25 "2002-07-06T14:15:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by peasea \* > \*\*OK, here’s what I don’t get: > That back-alley eye dealer seemed reaallly pissed at Anderton, and seemed to hint that some come-uppance was in order. Did he actually do anything to Anderton that made up for years of sodomy? Seems like all he did was help him out. Was it different in the short story, maybe? \*\* Well, he did leave that nasty sandwich and bottle of sludge in the refrigerator for him. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775/26 "2002-07-06T19:20:55Z")
No, he left a really nice sandwich and a fresh bottle of milk in there…all the disgusting stuff was already there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-minority-report/116775.md?page=1)