How well do you remember Minority Report?

Minority Report (2002)Tom Cruise
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox

As much as Steven Spielberg enjoys making movies about the past, the legendary director has never shied away from telling stories about the future. Fifteen years ago, on June 21, 2002, Spielberg teamed up with Tom Cruise to make Minority Report, a psychological crime thriller that depicted a near-future world in which crimes could be predicted before they even happened.

In the film, Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) heads up the Precrime division, a special unit of the police force tasked with stopping murders before they ever occur. This is thanks to the pre-cogs, a trio of otherworldly, mutated individuals who are able to predict very specific facets of the future. One precognition sees that Anderton himself will commit a murder, in 36 hours, and the victim is someone he has yet to meet. The vision kicks off a game of cat-and-mouse that reveals surprising secrets about those who established the Precrime division in the first place, as well as painful memories from Anderton’s own past.

Minority Report turned out to be a rather prescient film in its own right, given the technology that was presented on-screen has either since been realized or is close to becoming a reality today. Spielberg and his team of “futurists” took great pains to create a hyper-realistic future world, even creating a bible to keep on hand and make sure everything remained consistent: from new pilotless modes of transportation, to privacy-destroying advertising techniques, and much more.

In honor of the movie’s anniversary, test your knowledge in the quiz below.

Related Articles