Pants

I never meant to infer that the happy ending was studio imposed.

Blade

It's been a while since I've seen them, so I don't remember what he said vs. what other people said.

They aren't very long (unfortunately), you should check them out.

Nuff

Slightly off subject, sorry for the threadcrap, but for those of you who enjoy debating the ending of the film I would strongly recommend reading the short story its based upon. IMO the story resolved most of these issues with its different ending and I'm a bit miffed at Spielburg for changing things for no reason resulting in a lesser story.

audrey

Agree completely. I am at a loss to understand why SS changed the ending. PKD's ending took me totally by surprise.

Numanoid

What's it called? Is it online?

Nuff

The short story is also called "Minority Report" by Phillip K Dick. Its pretty short but I loved it.

TCG

Is there a site where it can be read or downloaded?

chanster

I watched the movie last night.. I hadn't seen it since the theaters. It really looks like a dream to me...everything falls into place...those that claim the ending is not a dream because Aderton doesn't get his son back, I think are wrong, because he has another child (or at least his wife is pregnant). I think Aderton in the conversation with Agatha at his house, right before he is haloed helped him to come grips that his son is gone.

I don't think Aderton has to be in every spot in a dream. I know when I dream, I have many dreams where I am not in the dream at all, just watching something.

I find it too simple (and something that Spielberg must have seen as well) that Lamar conveniently leaves the gun and eye in the box of possessions..especially since he gave the box to his wife to keep. An eye would have rotted by that time anyway (as far as the first "Eye Switch when Adertond does it), that worked because of the conspiracy of him to get the Precog and fulfill his destiny of killing Leo Crow.

ScandalUMD

Dream sequences have to be carefully constructed to adhere to certain rules. It does not hold constant with these rules for a character to dream a series of events which do not include him. A dream world necessarily exists within a character's mind, and by definition does not exist beyond his perception.

Thus, the entire sequence in which Anderton's wife discovers Lamar's guilt and frees Anderton simply does not work within the dream metaphor.

Further, Spielberg chooses to show us the revelation of Lamar as the killer from Lamar's viewpoint, which is inconsistent with the entire sequence being a part of Anderton's dream.

joshd2012

Sorry if this was answered previously, but I couldn't find the answer when I scanned through the post.

I just got down watching the movie, and one thing stands out. In the beginning, it is said that the precogs can't see suicides, yet at the end they see Lamar's suicide. How can this be? First Anderton's name comes up which means that Lamar is going to kill him. But then Lamar changes his mind and decides to commit suicide, and the precogs predict that. But precogs can't predict suicide, right? What am I missing here?

PixyJunket

Man it's been a while since I've seen this, I NEED to get the DVD.

Blade

The precogs didn't predict the suicide, they predicted that Lamar was willing to murder Anderton. That was part of the point of the movie, that the precogs couldn't allow for people changing their mind at the last moment. This is the same thing that happenned to Anderton. Lamar set him up to meet the "man" who kidnapped his son and subsequently killed him. Lamar knew that this would send Anderton over the edge and he was right. But at the last moment Anderton changed his mind. It was Lamar's public demonstration of free will that causes the program to fail.

joshd2012

The first ball came down and it had the name of "Anderton" on it. That meant that Anderton was going to be murdered. When they played the movie, they saw that Lamar was going to murder Anderton. Then, another ball came up that showed Lamar's name. Isn't that a predictor that Lamar was going to kill himself after he changed his mind?

fumanstan

Haven't see in the movie in awhile... but i assumed the first ball was Anderton and the second ball was Lamar, meaning Lamar was going to kill Anderton. Remember, two balls drop, one for the victim and one for the killer. Not sure about the colors, i'd have to rewatch it. Since Lamar knew this ahead of time, he was able to change his fate just like Andterton changed his by not killing the guy he was set up to kill.

Blade

Ah. When you said "see" I thought you were talking about the visions. I checked for that, not the color of the balls. I would have to check again, but I would bet that fumanstan has answered your question.

TCG

People have said it, but the precogs thought Lamar was gonna kill Anderton, so the cops went out there to stop that.

It was NOT that people could change their minds at the last second, but that people could change their minds if they KNEW what the future held (like a crime of passion).

joshd2012

Ok, I see now, thanks everyone.

audrey

Since someone revived this thread, I took a few minutes to review the previous posts. In looking back over some of the arguments in favor of the dream ending I am struck by a certain similarity to the theme of an amusing 70’s Italian movie, Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspension, in which a high ranking police official commits a murder and leaves obvious clues pointing to his guilt. The underlings investigating the crime discount the evidence, as it would be impossible for a person of the official’s stature and rank to commit such a heinous crime. The parallel here is the argument that: Spielberg is a great director. The ending, if not a dream, is, trite and unsatisfying. Ergo, the ending must be a dream because a great director like Spielberg would not construct such a hackneyed final act.

Whether Spielberg is (or is not) a great director is, of course, debatable. But employing one’s perceived stature as evidence of intent is at best a fallacy that adds no substantive value to the discussion. Great artists fail all the time. I agree with ScandalUMD; there is nothing in the movie (or in Spielberg’s body of work) to suggest the final act is a dream.