Minority Report - True Ending

[adam]

First off, this post contains total spoilers so don't read it if you haven't seen it.





I read an article some time back about the hidden ending to Minority Report that is just so convincing that I am positive that it is the intended interpretation, and I really think its an ingenious treatment. It changes the movie entirely and is a totally intellectual way for Spielburg to stick it to all of his critics who claim that his movies all have convenient happy endings.

To summarize the literal ending, John Anderton is sentenced to cryo sleep and it seems Burgess has won. Due to a slip of the tongue he reveals to John's wife that there is some sort of a conspiracy. John's wife frees John and he confronts Burgess, who kills himself publicly and basically reveals the entire truth to the world. The precogs are freed and John and his wife remarry and are expecting a new child. Its a perfectly convenient ending where everyone lives happily ever after, and its very unrealistic how it all plays out, and that's because its all just a dream.

Here's what really happened. As John is being put into cryo sleep, the man working the equipment explains that when you are put to sleep you see your dreams. You see everything that you wish could happen. It cuts to John's viewpoint as it fades to black. This is the real ending of the film. John doesn't win. Everything from this point on is him dreaming.

After it fades to black the next scene is of his wife talking to Burgess where he foolishly and unrealistically reveals his secret. This is the start of his dream where everything plays out perfectly to exonerate him, reunite him with his wife, and reunite him with his son in the form of their new baby. The truth is that the film does not have a happy ending at all.

[Faustus]

you know I saw that movie and remember parts but... I guess I forgot the entire ending because its not ringing a bell.

Guess I should watch it again...

[gadgetguy]

you know I saw that movie and remember parts but... I guess I forgot the entire ending because its not ringing a bell.

Guess I should watch it again...

It's hard enough to sit through a Tom Cruise movie once.

[Faustus]

you know I saw that movie and remember parts but... I guess I forgot the entire ending because its not ringing a bell.

Guess I should watch it again...

It's hard enough to sit through a Tom Cruise movie once.

Actually give up a few scenes and it was a pretty solid film I thought. Even if it was Top Future.

[adam]

I think this is the article I read.
http://www.flakmag.com/film/spielberg/minority.html

[Conquest10]

I remember seeing this movie but can't remember anything about it except some guy being drowned or something like that.

[Super Warrior]

Eh! That movie kinda pissed me off. Mainly the first scene where this guy's icecold-bitch of a wife is cheating on him, he comes home to catch them together, only to afterwards get arrested and put in cryofreeze or something.

So his wife treats him like sh*t and cheats on him, for god knows how long, and when he finds out: he gets LOCKED UP afterwards, presumabley permanetly!

Oooooh that PISSED me off to see that.

So what if the dude *MIGHT* have killed his wife after catching her with the other guy? bitch probabley deserved it IMO.

Yeah sounds silly, but that first initial scene kinda killed any possible enjoyment of the rest of the film. Thats depressing stuff.

[adam]

Wow. You guys are deep.

[lordsmurf]

Compared to Tom Cruise, everybody is deep.

[FulciLives]

Interesting take on the movie. I only watched it once and I do recall liking it but I don't recall the pivitol scene in question (where he goes "under").

I'll have to remember that the next time I see it.

BTW I have not read the book (or shot story) but this is based on a Philip K. Dick writing. I wonder if the text aludes to the same thing or not, i.e., it being a dream.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Supreme2k]

Compared to Tom Cruise, everybody is deep.

He probably hopes all the guys here are deep

[ozymango]

It changes the movie entirely and is a totally intellectual way for Spielburg to stick it to all of his critics who claim that his movies all have convenient happy endings.

Yeah, it turns the movie into that unique kind of story, "It was all a dream."

I suppose it may be possible that the ending as "imagined by our hero" is the "true" end of the film, but I don't think it makes it any less cliched. I was unimpressed with the ending of Minority Report, no matter how you cut it, because in either case there is no follow-through on what could be an interesting premise: If your perfect system of justice can be corrupted, what do you do about it?

That is, either ending focuses on the plight of Tom Cruise, and being he doesn't really give a rat's-ass about actual justice, he's just doing his job, I was pretty bored with the plot as it's just your basic variation on "In a world gone wrong, a man seeks to escape from the clutches of those who would imprison him for a crime he didn't commit." Yawn.

Once he finds out that the system is not what he thought it was -- does he change at all? Does he even think about the fact that maybe he's not the only poor shmuck who got the shaft due to some nasty Corporate Bad Guy? The movie has no philosophical depth, it's all posturing and chase scenes.

[greymalkin]

Super[/url] Warrior]Eh! That movie kinda pissed me off. Mainly the first scene where this guy's icecold-bitch of a wife is cheating on him, he comes home to catch them together, only to afterwards get arrested and put in cryofreeze or something.

So his wife treats him like sh*t and cheats on him, for god knows how long, and when he finds out: he gets LOCKED UP afterwards, presumabley permanetly!

Oooooh that PISSED me off to see that.

So what if the dude *MIGHT* have killed his wife after catching her with the other guy? bitch probabley deserved it IMO.

Yeah sounds silly, but that first initial scene kinda killed any possible enjoyment of the rest of the film. Thats depressing stuff.

ha! Someone is bitter.

The fact of the matter is that cheating on your husband is not a crime according to our government, but killing someone is. There are arguably crimes deserving of death, but having an affair is not one of them.

[adam]

Actually, it is still a crime in many states to have an affair, though the last prosecution was around 50 years ago.

[canadateck]

what is the sentence "on the books" for having an affair?

Max and min?

[adam]

The crime of adultery is a local issue so it varies by state. It is a class C misdemeanor in some which is only punishable by fine. It's the equivalent of a speeding ticket. In other jurisdictions it is a class B Misdemeanor which could theoretically carry as much as 1 year in jail, but in most states a max sentence under a class B is between 4 and 6 months.

Btw: This is a timely question because I'm now working in the DA's office as a prosecutor. If I ever get an adultery charge I'll let you know how it goes.

[coldheadaches]

wow...really? Which states carry the jail sentence and how much does the fine cost?

[adam]

Geesh I don't know. Answering that would require hours of research.

In general, Class C misdemeanors usually cost between $100-$300.

[rkr1958]

The big flaw in the justice system in Minority Report was that it did not distinguish between future crimes of passion and premediated ones. In the case of the guy who caught his wife cheating. All they should have done is to have stopped him and put him away for a day or two and he'd no longer be a threat. If he was then the precogs would see it and he get put away for a future premediated murder.

In the end I feel they through the baby out with the bathwater. I wonder what the murder and rape rate were after versus before?

[Doramius]

Check out Utah's laws about the adultery information. Read into co-habitation too.

As for Minority Report, I saw the same article and too had wondered why they put everyone into cryo-sleep. My next question is what the heck do they do with them. Just let them sleep. That sort of system has got to be an enormous strain on tax dollars. Plus, the abolition of the legal system for such cases seems pretty far fetched. I'd have figured the legal entity would have run the "What If...?" question through the works before something like that ever came to pass. It leads me to believe that the information about the Minority Report would have been found out long before.