Production suffered many delays due to Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2 and Spielberg's A.I. The film was first optioned in 1992, as a sequel to another Dick adaptation, Total Recall, and started its development in 1997, after a script by Jon Cohen reached Spielberg and Cruise.
Other themes include the role of preventive government in protecting its citizenry, the role of media in a future state where technological advancements make its presence nearly boundless, the potential legality of an infallible prosecutor, and Spielberg's perennial theme of broken families.
It examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance. The film's central theme is the question of free will versus determinism. Spielberg has characterized the story as "fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot". The film combines elements of tech noir, whodunit, thriller and science fiction genres, as well as a traditional chase film, as the main protagonist is accused of a crime he has not committed and becomes a fugitive. The cast includes Cruise as John Anderton, Colin Farrell as agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as Agatha, and Max von Sydow as Lamar Burgess. and Northern Virginia in the year 2054, where Precrime, a specialized police department, apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three psychics called " precogs". Absolute power demands absolute mendacity.Minority Report is a 2002 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise, and loosely based on the 1956 short story " The Minority Report" by Philip K. We deceive ourselves when we imagine that the aura of power and responsibility will turn such people into better men if anything, it’s the exact opposite. Institutions, it seems are always at the mercy of the duplicitous, ambitious, and corrupt men who are often in charge of them. Anderton, who has for years mourned the disappearance (and presumed death) of his young son years ago, discovers that he was manipulated into joining the department his boss, director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) knew that a desire to prevent future murders like that of his child would make him an unusually loyal soldier. The visions, it turns out, can be easily twisted. The names of perpetrators and victims are printed on wooden balls that are generated by machines - almost like the results of a lottery. There is a sense of level-headed professionalism among everyone who works at PreCrime.
One Precog abduction later, the duo are on the run. The only way to see if this was the case for Anderton’s “crime” is by uploading Agatha’s memories. Apparently, the oracles’ visions don’t always agree on the murders they’re seeing in those cases, the dissenting view, called a “minority report,” is discarded. The system is not as magically infallible as was originally presented. Forget shiny buildings and action-packed chases - Minority Report has both, but it has so much more, elevating it far above the status of popular pulp. There hasn't been a science fiction film this good for 20 years. Brilliantly realised, complex and humane, Minority Report is easily on a par with Blade Runner as one of the best adaptations of Philip K Dick's work ever made.