The minority report

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The minority report (English original title The Minority Report ) is a short story by the American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick . It first appeared in Fantastic Universe magazine in 1956. Minority Report is one of Dick's classics and served as the template for the 2002 film Minority Report with Tom Cruise as the lead actor and Steven Spielberg as director.

The title uses the term "minority report" in the sense of an opinion that differs from the majority, similar to a minority vote .

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The story takes place in the future after a global war. John Anderton is the successful head of Pre-Crime, a special state police organization. With the help of three mutated people, the so-called precogs, he foresees pre-crimes (future crimes) and arrests the “perpetrators” before the crime is committed. As a result, the last actual murder committed was five years ago at the time of the action. The pre-crime system has been in operation for a total of 30 years. Anderton gets the younger Ed Witwer as his assistant, who is to inherit him one day in the chief position. Anderton is suspicious and also jealous because Ed becomes friends with Anderton's wife Lisa all too quickly. When Ed introduces himself and Anderton explains pre-crime to him, the system is just spitting out the file cards of the next future murders. Anderton's name is on one of them: he will shortly kill Leopold Kaplan, a man he doesn't even know. He quickly lets the card disappear into his pocket.

Anderton initially thinks that the card has been tampered with and that Widwer is intriguing against him. The real pulling the cord is the chaplain. He belongs to an association of army veterans who eradicate pre-crimes in order to discredit the police and restore the central role of the army in the state. What matters to Kaplan is that while pre-crime predicts the murder, it remains intact and Anderton remains free. Pre-crime would be flawed and many “perpetrators” would presumably be imprisoned innocently.

Anderton recognizes that in addition to the majority report of two precogs predicting a murder, there could also be a minority report giving the title - that one of the three precogs has a different vision of the future in which the murder does not happen. Therefore, although he is already on the wanted list, he sneaks into the police headquarters and gets the original data of all three precogs. From this he recognizes that there are even three minority reports: Each Prekog sees a bit of a different future. The first precog Donna saw a certain future course ('murder'). With this knowledge, the second precog Jerry came to a different future course ('no murder'). The third precog Mike, knowing the other two predictions, came to a third future course ('murder').

While the police are now feverishly looking for Anderton on the basis of the majority report ('murder'), Kaplan has the minority report from Jerry ('no murder') and invites Anderton to join him on the podium at a large demonstration. There he wants to confidently demonstrate the fallibility of pre-crimes. As he scans the reports, he realizes that Anderton is about to kill him. After the crime, Anderton surrenders to the police.

Anderton goes into exile with his wife Lisa in another star system. Ed Witwer succeeds Anderton as chief of pre-crime. The reputation of pre-crime has been restored. Complications can only arise in one case: when pre-crime executives themselves are affected by the predictions and can influence their future based on this knowledge. A widower as the new pre-crime boss could soon have this experience, says Anderton shortly before leaving.

additional

Pre-crime
Pre-crime (in the original Precrime ) is a law enforcement system that recognizes future criminal offenses from theft to murder before the act and pulls the future offender out of circulation. They are sent to an internment camp. Crimes are prevented in this way. A look into the future succeeds with so-called precogs. These are mutated people with a gift for looking a week or two into the future. At the time of the act, pre-crime has been successfully in use for 30 years. The last murder was five years ago. Computers record the incoherent statements of the precogs and calculate the predictions from them.
Precogs
Precogs are mutated people in whom the ability to precognition was discovered in early childhood . This ability is cultivated in training camps and human traits and personality are lost. During pre-crimes, the precogs sit in special chairs and are wired.
Minority report
A computer evaluates the reports from the three precogs. Usually the three should match. If not, the computer compares the reports and creates a majority report (if about two precogs match) and a minority report (which differs from the other two). In the short story, Anderton finds out that all three visions of the future can also differ significantly from one another.
society
The society in the short story is dominated by two centers of power. The state maintains the pre-crime system, but its actions are controlled by an army authority. Since no more armed forces are to be expected after the last war, the reputation of the military is falling. The general and war veteran Leopold Kaplan wants to restore this. The landscape between the cities is described as destroyed and covered with craters.

Differences from the film

  • In the short story the precogs are Donna, Jerry and Mike, in the movie Agatha, Dashiell and Arthur.
  • In the short story, the three precogs each have a different vision of the future, in the film the vision of Dashiell and Arthur is identical, while that of Agatha is different.
  • In the short story, Anderton developed and founded pre-crime, in the film he joined the organization after kidnapping his son.
  • In the short story, Anderton and his wife Lisa go into exile in a colony in a distant star system; in the film, he and Lara are expecting their second child.
  • In the short story, Anderton's antagonist is General Leopold Kaplan, in the film there are two people, Leo Crow as the victim and his superior Lamar Burgess as the antagonist.
  • In the short story the pre-crime system continues under the direction of Ed Witwer, in the film it is dissolved.

literature

  • Philip K. Dick: The Minority Report . From the American by Thomas Mohr. In: All 118 SF stories in five volumes, Vol. 4: At the time of Perky Pat, Haffmans Verlag bei Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86150-811-3 (Volume 4), ISBN 978-3-86150 -803-8 (entire cassette).

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