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The plot of the 2002 science fiction neo-noir film ''Minority Report'' concerns itself with a number of themes. The film's plot centers around a trio of psychics called "precogs", who see future images called "previsions" of crimes yet to be committed. These images are processed by "Precrime", a specialized police department, which apprehends the criminals based on the precogs foreknowledge. The cast includes Tom Cruise as Precrime officer John Anderton, Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as the senior precog Agatha, and Max von Sydow as Anderton's superior Lamar Burgess. The film is a combination of whodunit, thriller, and science fiction.〔Buckland. pgs. 193–5〕 Spielberg has characterized the movie's story as "fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot."〔Arms, Gary, & Riley, Thomas. essay in Kowalski. pg. 13〕 The film's central theme is the question of free will vs. determinism. It examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance. It also concerns itself with the role of preventative government in protecting its citizenry, which was apt of the time of the picture's given America's debates over the government's expanding powers after 9/11. ''Minority Report'' presents a future of increasing electronic surveillance, personalized advertising, and it analyzes the role of media in a future state where electronic advancements make its presence nearly boundless, the potential legality of an infallible prosecutor, and Spielberg's repeated theme of the broken family. Spielberg's analysis of the familial aspect was motivated by his own parent's divorce when he was a child. ==Free will vs. determinism== The main theme of ''Minority Report'' is the classic philosophical debate of free will vs. determinism.〔Higgins. pg. 56〕 One of the main questions the film raises is whether the future is set or whether free will can alter the future. As critic C.A. Wolski commented, "At the outset, Minority Report... promises to mine some deep subject matter, to do with: do we possess free will or are we predestined to our fate?"〔 However, there is also the added question of whether the precogs' visions are correct.〔 As reviewer James Berardinelli asked, "is the Precogs' vision accurate, or has it in some way been tampered with? Perhaps Anderton isn't actually going to kill, but has been set up by a clever and knowledgeable criminal who wants him out of the way."〔 The precog Agatha also states that since Anderton knows his future, he can change it. However, the film also indicates that Anderton's knowledge of the future may actually be the factor that causes Leo Crow's death. Berardinelli describes this as the main paradox regarding free will vs. determinism in the film, "()ere's the biggest one of all: Is it possible that the act of accusing someone of a murder could begin a chain of events that leads to the slaying. In Anderton's situation, he runs because he is accused. The only reason he ends up in circumstances where he might be forced to kill is because he is a hunted man. Take away the accusation, and there would be no question of him committing a criminal act. The prediction drives the act – a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can see the vicious circle, and it's delicious (if a little maddening) to ponder."〔 Film scholar Dean A. Kowalski argues that in this scenario free will still exists, as the perpetrators control their actions, and the precogs visions are but the facts that resulted from their choices.〔Kowalski. pg. 231〕 The central theme of the movie is discussed in the film's fourth scene. Witwer discusses the PreCrime system with the division's staff. He believes that its main "legalistic drawback" is that it "arrests individuals who have broken no laws." Jad responds, "But they will!"〔Kowalski. pg. 232〕 When Anderton later arrives upon this discussion, he acknowledges the paradox Witwer raises; that the precogs prevent an event accepted as fact, but one which will never happen. To show him that people regularly use predetermination, Anderton picks up a wooden ball and rolls it toward Witwer, who catches it before it lands on the ground. When asked why he caught the ball, Witwer says "Because it was going to fall." Anderton replies, "But it didn't." Then confidently tells him, "The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn't change the fact that it was going to happen."〔 Kowalski feels this example is faulty in the sense that the ball has no free will; it merely acts according to the laws of physics, but he acknowledges that if an individual were to have freely chosen to commit murder, then it would hold.〔Kowalski. pgs. 232–3〕 Film scholar Stephen Mulhall points out that unlike the laws of physics which have a series of scientifically testable causal laws, Anderton merely has the visions of the precogs, whose psychic abilities are not fully explained by science.〔Mulhall. pgs. 163〕 Another quandary is that if the precogs visions are infallible then the future cannot be otherwise, while if they are incorrect people will be punished for crimes they will never commit.〔Kowalski. pg. 242〕 Kowalski contends that the precogs only attain knowledge of what he calls the "''conditional'' future".〔Kowalski. pg. 233〕 He cites as evidence two examples: the scene where Agatha steers Anderton through the mall by foreseeing dangerous events and helping him circumnavigate them, and a later scene where she tells Anderton and his ex-wife what would have happened to their child if he had lived. In the first example, Agatha knows what Anderton will freely choose to do when presented with specific facts so she provides them to him, and, in the second, she knows what will have happened to the Anderton's son based on specific scenarios throughout his life, in which she can see what he would have freely chosen to do, and what selections various people in his life would have freely made.〔Kowalski. pgs. 234–235〕 According to Kowalski, the PreCrime unit therefore removes individuals from precise situations where they would freely choose to become a murderer.〔Kowalski. pg. 236〕 Philosophy professor Michael Huemer says "that the only way the otherwise predetermined future seen by the precogs can be averted, we are led to believe, is by the influence of the precogs themselves."〔Huemer. pg. 103〕 He argues that their "knowledge of their would-be future" enables them to make changes to prevent its occurrence. This means that Howard Marks, the arrested potential killer from the film's opening scene, is destined to his fate and no action he could undertake would change it.〔 Individuals with minority reports however, have a chance to change their futures according to Huemer, and since there was no minority report (i.e.; no possible alternative fate) for Anderton, he could only change his future by having access to the precogs visions.〔Huemer. pg. 104〕 Huemer compares the humans situation to that of a robot; since a robot controls itself, but has a set number of programmed actions, its fate falls within those actions. It lacks free will in the sense that it cannot choose any action outside of its programming, even if one may exist. He also considers a decaying atom which has a 50% chance of survival within the next hour, since the atom has no actions which it can undertake to change those odds, its fate is pure chance. Thus he believes a person needs a set of options, the knowledge of those options, and the ability to choose between them to have free will.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Themes in Minority Report」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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