Adaptations
are never carbon copies. A prime example
is Philip K. Dick’s short story and Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film, Minority Report. The
structure of the storytelling is indeed
different as well as other key elements.
The narrative transforms its structure into a more episodic
approach
when brought to the screen. Words on
paper take on a new identity when brought to life on a visual basis.
Philip
K. Dick’s Minority Report, written in
1956, was ahead of its time. The short
story explores the consequences of technology and science and how the
technology echoes the present state of society.
Both the story and the film emphasize the same basic themes,
however the
actual plot is almost completely diverse.
The film takes place around the year 2054. For
five years (six in the film), the
Pre-Crime Unit has successfully made murder a thing of the past. Their astounding technology is credited to
three
pre-cogs. These “idiot” pre-cogs
identify killers before they commit their crimes, drastically cutting
the crime
rate by “ninety-nine and a decimal point eight percent” (in the film
this rate
was zero) (Dick 74). However, this
infallible system runs amuck when Commander Anderton, played by Tom
Cruise, is
accused of a future murder. Anderton
finds himself with only 24 hours (36 in the film) to discover who set
him up
and in the process, flee from the hands of the authority he once
governed. If he fails, Anderton will fall
victim to the
perfect system he co-created. Both the
story and the film are suspenseful and ask the question, “Is pre-crime
justified?” The notion of innocent until
proven guilty is virtually discarded.
The accused murderers are based upon pure metaphysics. Theme and plot are not the only ways in which
the film and the movie can be compared and contrasted.
Even
the characters have very different traits.
John Anderton in the short story is rather old and balding. He seems rather disgruntled and has an
immense disliking for Witward. In
Spielberg’s film, Anderton is played by Tom Cruise who is far from old
and
balding. Spielberg most likely chose the
young A-list actor as opposed to an older one that fits the profile of
Dick’s
Anderton mainly for money’s sake. Simply
having the name “Tom Cruise” in a movie leads many more people to view
the
film, even if they do not necessarily know the story line.
In the movie, Anderton’s motive for joining
the pre-crime forces was because his son was kidnapped and murdered. As a result, Anderton finds himself with a
drug problem as a means of coping with his depression.
In the film, Anderton and his wife are
divorced. However, in the beginning of
Dick’s story, Anderton has suspicion that his wife, Lisa, is behind the
plot to
set him up. In the film, Anderton is
fortuned to kill Leon Crow, whereas in the story he is predetermined to
kill a
man by the name of Leopold Kaplan.
Anderton as a character deviates from story to film.
In
addition to Anderton, the three psychic beings, dubbed pre-cogs, are
exceedingly
different in the story and the film. In
Dick’s rendition, the pre-cogs consist of Mike, Donna, and Jerry. As kids they were noted as having cognitive
malfunction and were given psychiatric testing.
Once their involuntary talent was discovered, they were hooked
up to
wires and became “idiot” mutants. In
Spielberg’s film, the pre-cogs include Agatha, Arthur, and Dashiell;
Agatha is
the most gifted of the three. In the
movie, a genetic biologist by the name of Hineman worked with children
of drug
addicts and came across the three “miracles” thus pioneering pre-crime. At one point in the film when talking to
Cruise she says that to them, their gift is nothing more than a “cosmic
joke”
(Spielberg). Whereas in the story the
pre-cogs are illustrated as “deformed and retarded”, the film gives
them an
almost God-like image (Dick 73). The
Pre-Crime unit refers to their chamber as the shrine and themselves as
the
clergy. In layman’s terms, the story
depicts them as stupid babbling mutants where the film glorifies their
talents
as if they were almost bestowed upon them from heaven.
As the general theme tends to stay
equivalent, the characters are enhanced or completely eliminated when
put into
the motion picture.
When it comes to accuracy, Spielberg
could not receive higher than a D+.
However, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
By taking his own vision and coupling it with
Dick’s, he creates a powerful sci-fi thriller that helps usher in the
futuristic age to come. He keeps the
basic theme alive but chooses to manipulate various aspects to enhance
suspense, liven the storyline, and make it more appealing to the viewer. When it comes to effectiveness, Spielberg
receives an A. He takes a 70 page short
story and transforms it into a two hour and 30 minute action-packed
blockbuster. Let’s face it, if Spielberg
devised the film verbatim from the original short story, it would be
pretty
dull.
The timeliness of Minority Report is uncanny,
given the
current situation in politics. Philip K.
Dick’s short story emerged in 1956. The
script for the film, written by Jon Cohen and Scott Frank, was
completed well
in advance of the shock of the post-9/11 terror frenzy.
Dick’s intuitions of pre-crime enforcement
have been brought to the big screen at just the moment when his
seemingly
sixth-sense is starting to be seen in real life. Both
the story and the film warn the future
of society of the suffocating effects of an encroaching
police
state.