Genetic engineering has led to the development of three pre-cogs - human adapted creatures - who can see the future - this knowledge is used to stop yet-to-be-committed murders. A trial system has successfully been implemented in Washington DC where the murder rate is now zero.

They say the system is infallible, but it isn't, of course. Our hero, John Anderton (Tom Cruise), a pre-crime cop, is framed to commit a murder after his son (Sean) is taken from a public swimming pool while timing his Dad who is trying to hold his breath for 20 minutes like a whale... as you do...

"A melee of special effect-fighting from great heights - it's amazing John still has a nose left after all of those punches to the face. Luckily his eyes did not pop out..."

"Tom Cruise did a lot of his own stunts in this movie... Thankfully he was not horribly dismembered, although it is not clear on the DVD whether they actually removed his eyes or not (I assume they must have). A plastic bag triumph of eyeball horror..."

"Not since Clockwork Orange has there been such eye-in-socket mayhem. In this movie, we see Tom Cruise's eyes removed completely for the very first time in movie history. Unfortunately, whilst being bandaged so, he did not attempt a reprise of his siphon swirling Cocktail stunts performed with such youthful vigor in the 1980's... such a shame..."

"All performed knee-deep in an unpleasant futuristic technologic black-custard type sauce, with eye recognition the order of the day. Nice stunts, but Tom Cruise looks very pasty..."

"If you put John Anderton's virtual reality type interaction with his computer system to the sound track of Saturday Night Fever, his moves exactly match that of Travolta's. Love those gloves too..."

John Anderton steals a water-living pre-cog who splashes warnings at him of danger. He dries her off (so not to ruin his car) and they escape. (He steals her because he has found out that a Minority Report (a report which is produced when not all three pre-cogs agree on 'seeing' a future crime) is saved in her... thus the system is flawed...)

Anderton fails to commit the murder he is predicted to have committed - that of his son's apparent murderer. It turns out that the man set up to kill his son, had been promised that he would be killed by Anderton so that his family can get money. Anderton had been set up... and, worse, it appears that the pre-cogs want to tell you what you want to hear... (note the emotional scene where the pre-cog tells what happened to their son...)

Without the pre-cog in the system, it all breaks down of course, not a good sign with it going national soon...

The end is complicated, but essentially the director of the system is covering up a murder he committed of the mother of one of the pre-cogs...

A well visualized science fiction effort. The stunts are superb, the acting fine, the technology entertaining. A fine comment to make about society's trust in technology...

December 16 , 2002.