Johnny Boy

The only thing I'd change about Minority Report is I'd give Uma Thurman the lead role. Instead of seeing Tom Cruise's butt grabbed ferociously by that female eye doctor, I would've rather seen it done to Uma Thurman. I would've liked to play the roll of the grabber.

Duder

I too interpret the ending of Minority Report as occurring entirely inside Anderton's head. The clues are there, and the only reason the movie doesn't come right out and tell you is because it remains inside his perspective. He doesn't realize that he's dreaming this--as explained previously in the film--and so the audience doesn't "realize" it either. Not having his "waking up" doesn't mean he isn't asleep. I personally love this ending, and consider it absolutely brilliant. The audiences who want the happy ending that Anderton wants simply go along with it without questioning.

(Also, the fact that the ending line about the murders was cut only supports the ending = dream theory. If it was a wish-fulfillment dream, he wouldn't think about negative repurcussions of the elimination of pre-crime, now would he?)

Jericho

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so I may be forgetting something, but there is something that triggers to me that the end is not a dream. Isn't the idea of dreams that we see ourselves a certain way, sort of like how Neo in the Matrix looked different inside the Matrix than outside of it (at least initially). Same holds true for Anderton. If he was really dreaming, shouldn't he look the way he did the entire movie instead of showing up with a shaved head?

Jon2

That's right.

It never crossed my mind that the mechs at the end of A.I. were aliens, and the only reason I could think of (why people thought this) was that that they simply weren't paying attention to the movie. It just seemed really obvious what they were.

As for MR, I'd say that's obvious, too. Unless Spielberg, Cruise or the screenwriter say otherwise, it's not a dream at the end.

As another poster said, this is Spieberg we're talking about. Subtlety is not a word I would associate with his films.

No criticism of Mr. Spielberg intended.

FinkPish

Based on what you are saying, any movie could be assumed to be a dream, just because the director chose never to show the audience anything outside of the dreamer's perspective. In order for the dream ending to work, I think it needs to be at least alluded to, if not spelled out completely. The ending of Total Recall is a good example; it wasn't stated whether it was a dream or not, but it left the door open to either possibility. Minority Report shows us nothing at all, so the logical conclusion is that it is reality; there is nothing that leads the audience to believe otherwise. One shot towards the end of the film isn't enough, for me at least, to convice me that everything that happens afterwards is happening the mind of the character, especially without anything afterwards to support it.

Is there any proof that this "omitted" line actually existed in any cut of the film? The versions of the script I've found online actually have no voice-over at all for the end sequence; just a montage of events showing the end of the pre-crime system and the precogs going free.

And if you want to talk about negative repercussions, don't you think that Anderton would have dreamed an ending that didn't include his friend and mentor killing himself? I think he would had dreamed a scenario where his friend was brought to justice (which is what Anderton was all about), rather than a cop-out suicide.

mikehunt

I couldn't sleep last night and for some reason thought about Minority Report

I've come to two possibilities
it's not a dream, or the dreaming starts way earlier than most people think and it all comes down to his eyes still being accepted for the retina scanner to unlock stuff

I find it hard to beleive that they wouldn't have deactivated his access shortly after he sees his crime and takes off running, yet not only do they work a day after his surgery, they still work long after that when his wife uses one to get in to the prison. Hell, by then they'd be rotting.

So, either the the precrime people are really incompetent and never deactivate his access, and also give biological waste back to his wife as part of his possessions and she uses it to get access

or they actually turned off his access right away, and the dreaming actually starts when the cops catch up to him in the alley and they struggle. We see them almost get a halo on him. My new theory is that they actually did halo him there but his dreaming started immediately and in his dream he was able to fight his way free that first time

PopcornTreeCt

I still stand by that this wasn't a dream. It's not that Spielberg doesn't make great movies it's just that he makes dumb movies. Yes Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List are good movies that play out like a chapter in a high school history text book.

That and the first time I ever heard people think it was a dream was on this forum. If someone has some links where some critics interpret the ending as a dream please post.

Brack

you must've read some awesome high school history text books.

Drop

All art is open for interpretation, there is no reason this can't be. I believe there is enough inside of the film to justify it.

Once art is released, the artist's intent becomes meaningless, it's not up to that person anymore to decide what their work means, it's up to the receiver.

I'm not sure why you think a payed critics opinion is more important than someone on this forum. Critics' opinions are largely unimportant, it's not up to them to decide whether a piece of art is important it's up to other artists and society as a whole.

CKMorpheus

I'll try and watch this tomorrow and get a fresh perspective on it... I really don't know what to believe.

Legolas

Wow, blast from the past post.

Anyway, it's a dream and Total Recall is a dream and you'll get to see in the sequel when Anderton and Quaid team up to fight Freddy Krueger.

Michael Corvin

I have to agree with PopcornTreeSt to an extent. While I love Speilberg, he doesn't have it in him to pull off a such a shocking twist. Every one of his movies are straight forward affairs. Very entertaining ones though.

dhmac

Minority Report was made where either interpretation is valid. As some have pointed out, it's like Total Recall in this regard (which also was based on a Philip K. Dick story and like a lot of his stories, they both share similar themes).

PopcornTreeCt

I'm not putting critics' opinions over forum members I'm simply saying that I've never heard or read of anyone interpreting the ending that way. I've read various interpretations of Tarkovsky films all the way up through various opinions about No Country for Old Men. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong and certainly the next time I check out Minority Report I'll keep an open mind about it.

FinkPish

I disagree. Several times in Total Recall it was alluded to that Quaid possibly could still be on Earth hallucinating about Mars, but also possibly that everything that happened was real. Minority Report didn't do anything like that. People took that one shot of Anderton halo'ed and what Gideon said about all your dreams coming true and assumed that from then on it was a dream; but the movie never referenced this possibility ever again in the remainder of the film (or even before). Minority Report wasn't about dreams and reality (at least for Anderton ), it was about destiny and free will. Having a twist dream ending has nothing to do with what this movie was about, especially if you don't let people in on the twist in the end.

Kory

I had never seen this movie but I bought the 2-disc edition for $5 at Target the other day. Good flick, not sure which theory about the ending I believe yet.

MoviePage

The whole movie is a dream. Tom Cruise's character is asleep in the present day and dreaming about the future. This is obvious because at the beginning of the movie there is a fade in, and at the end of the movie there is a fade out.