A film about the future inspired by the past, the sequel that never was, and two Hollywood legends finally join forces. Let's dive into the inspirations and creative minds behind "Minority Report."
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00:00A film about the future, inspired by the past, the sequel that never was, and two Hollywood
00:07legends finally join forces. Let's dive into the inspirations and creative minds behind
00:13Minority Report.
00:15Years before Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise brought Minority Report to the big screen,
00:21audiences almost saw a radically different version of this project. Per Gizmodo, Philip
00:26K. Dick's short story, Minority Report, was optioned in the 1990s for a feature film that
00:31would be helmed by Total Recall director Paul Verhoeven. When looking over the story, Verhoeven
00:36felt it would be the perfect material for a sequel to his 1990 film, Total Recall. The
00:41connection between these two sci-fi properties wasn't completely random, as Total Recall
00:46was based on another Philip K. Dick story. We can remember it for you wholesale.
00:51From there, the follow-up began to move quickly into production, with Total Recall leading
00:55man Arnold Schwarzenegger agreeing to come back for the sequel. However, just as the
01:00project was getting off the ground, the production company in charge of the feature went bankrupt.
01:05The script then got snagged by 20th Century Fox, who decided to make a standalone Minority
01:10Report movie that didn't have any connection to Total Recall. This eventually led to Spielberg's
01:16take on Minority Report, which was co-produced by 20th Century Fox.
01:21While the final version of Minority Report garnered widespread acclaim, fans of Total
01:25Recall are doubtlessly disappointed they never got a sequel to this film.
01:30"...consider that a divorce."
01:33Minority Report wasn't just another Tom Cruise action movie, nor was it just another sci-fi
01:38film helmed by Steven Spielberg. This was a momentous moment in the career of both of
01:43these men, as it finally gave Cruise and Spielberg a chance to work with each other. It was no
01:49coincidence that the duo was finally making a movie together, either, as they had been
01:53trying to unite forces for years. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg recalled
01:58how he had first met Cruise on the set of Risky Business back in the early 1980s.
02:03Right then and there, a spark began to form between the two, and they were determined
02:07to work together. Cruise put it plainly,
02:10"...I just knew I wanted to work with the guy. Even back then, he was Steven Spielberg,
02:15the guy who did E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark."
02:18Years went by, however, as they kept trying to figure out the perfect project to join
02:23forces on. Things almost came together for them when Spielberg was set to direct Cruise
02:27on 1988's Rain Man. However, Spielberg had to depart from the film because of scheduling
02:32conflicts with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
02:35But he never gave up on his ambitions of directing a Tom Cruise picture. Eventually, Cruise brought
02:40Minority Report to Spielberg, and suddenly, the project they had been waiting for came
02:45to fruition. Finally, there was a production that united an iconic director with an equally
02:50iconic actor.
02:52At the dawn of the 21st century, speculation was running rampant over what would be the
02:57next Steven Spielberg directorial effort. The filmmaker's last film had been the 1998
03:02feature Saving Private Ryan, which scored Spielberg a Best Director Oscar win for the
03:07second time and was one of the highest-grossing films of the year via Box Office Mojo. These
03:13feats, combined with the man's reputation as one of the most acclaimed and successful
03:18directors ever, meant that all eyes were on where he would go next.
03:22Plans to have Minority Report film in the first year of the 21st century were scuttled
03:26in March 2000, when it was announced that Spielberg would be helming A.I. Artificial
03:31Intelligence First via BBC News. A.I. was a production that had been lingering on Spielberg's
03:37to-do list for years, but it took precedence once Stanley Kubrick, who wrote the screenplay
03:42for A.I., passed away in March 1999. Kubrick had spent decades writing A.I., and this,
03:48combined with the deep bond he and Spielberg shared, inspired Spielberg to make this film
03:53a priority. So the start date of Minority Report got pushed to April 2001, which meant
03:58it would not have the honor of being Spielberg's first directorial effort of the new century.
04:04While Tom Cruise was always set to anchor the world of Minority Report as the protagonist
04:09John Anderton, several other actors came and went from the film's supporting cast throughout
04:13its production. Many of these were massive names who could have been right at home with
04:17the level of prestige associated with Cruise and Steven Spielberg. One such person was
04:23Matt Damon, who was approached to play a character who has a kinship with John, but then is forced
04:27to hunt him down when John is pre-accused of murder. Per USA Today, Damon was interested
04:33in the part, and his then-recent Oscar win for writing Good Will Hunting would have made
04:37him an appropriately acclaimed artist for such a star-studded project. Plus, Damon and
04:41Spielberg had already worked together once before on the box office juggernaut Saving
04:45Private Ryan.
04:46While Damon was dying to reunite with this filmmaker, it was never meant to be. Scheduling
04:51conflicts prevented him from joining Cruise in Minority Report. Damon was already on the
04:55line to do Ocean's Eleven, and the filming schedule for that Steven Soderbergh ensemble
04:59piece directly conflicted with Minority Report. With that, Minority Report began to look around
05:05for someone else to take on the role instead, which eventually went to Colin Farrell.
05:10Minority Report was filmed in the summer of 2001 and wrapped just a few months before
05:15the terrorist attacks of September 11th would forever alter the United States of America.
05:20In the wake of such devastating horrors, it was inevitable for people to read new 9-11
05:25relevant layers into pieces of art that were never meant to comment on this historical
05:30event. When it came to Minority Report, even director Steven Spielberg was well aware of
05:34this. Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Spielberg was upfront about how a film like
05:39Minority Report, which is about policing and privacy, would register with people in the
05:44wake of 9-11. He noted that the film mirrored how authorities were rounding up people in
05:48real life to get information and prevent future atrocities, saying,
05:53"...I feel that history has caught up with our imagination and given us a cold soak of reality."
05:59"...If there's a flaw, it's human. It always is."
06:05In many ways, Minority Report was a movie that could only exist in the 21st century,
06:10namely with its digital effects wizardry and its use of then-fresh-faced talent like Colin
06:15Farrell and Samantha Morton. But it's also a feature rooted deeply in one of the great
06:19film genres of the 20th century — noir. Film noir, which literally means black film,
06:25often focuses on stories of lone protagonists who must endure in the face of society's gone
06:31haywire due to moral corruption. So it's easy to see why Minority Report would fit
06:36into the hallmarks of this genre. But to ensure that Minority Report lived up to all of its
06:41potential, Spielberg opted to do a crash course in the all-time greats of the noir landscape
06:46before he started shooting this high-concept Tom Cruise vehicle. He told Entertainment Weekly
06:51that he thoroughly dug into the classics of the genre. Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo,
06:56and The Maltese Falcon were the movies he turned to while molding his vision for Minority Report.
07:02He also noted that he tried to embrace the darker edges of the genre to counter his,
07:06quote, sentimental side.
07:08"...Oh my gosh, are you okay?"
07:12Much like our own modern world, the universe that Minority Report inhabits is one defined
07:17by technology. Not only is the futuristic tech used to prevent crimes before they even happen,
07:22but virtual aides show up all over the place while spider robots are used to hunt down
07:27lethal criminals. This is a world defined by machines even more than by the men that made
07:32them. Because of their importance to the story, Steven Spielberg was very careful about the role
07:38technology would play in Minority Report and how it would be realized. According to Entertainment
07:42Weekly, Spielberg gathered a group of futurists and asked them to brainstorm a plausible vision
07:48of what life in 2054 could be like. Talking to Roger Ebert, Spielberg elaborated that his goal
07:54with Minority Report was to make a movie where all the futuristic tech shown on screen could
07:59eventually become a reality. This informed some hopeful details about Minority Report's vision
08:05of what's to come, including the idea of a transportation system that isn't as harmful
08:10to the environment. Simultaneously, he wanted to present an eerie quality to the intrusive nature
08:15of futuristic advertising. Spielberg said of his own beliefs about what would become reality,
08:20In the future, television will be watching us and customizing itself to what it knows about us.
08:26The thrilling thing is that we'll make us feel we're part of the medium. The scary thing is,
08:31we'll lose our right to privacy. This dichotomy gets reflected in various spots in Minority Report,
08:36which both demonstrates how far media and consumer materials have come,
08:40and also how nobody has privacy in the society portrayed on screen.
08:45In the summer of 2002, both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg released new directorial efforts
08:52that were costly action blockbusters. Lucas debuted Star Wars Attack of the Clones,
08:56which heavily utilized digital sets. In contrast, Spielberg's Minority Report primarily employed
09:03practically realized backgrounds. Even though this mystery takes place in the future,
09:07Spielberg still went the route of building elaborate sets that the actors could see and
09:12feel as they shot the film. Talking to Roger Ebert, Spielberg expressed admiration for
09:16Attack of the Clones and all that Lucas had accomplished with his digital sets.
09:20However, Spielberg also said that he was hoping to never get to the point
09:24where he was shooting movies that would involve just green screens and CGI sets.
09:28This was in part because physical sets stimulate and inspire the actors.
09:33On Minority Report, Spielberg was insistent that practical sets be used whenever possible.
09:38Even seemingly impossible pieces of camerawork, such as the overhead shot of the robotic spiders
09:44entering the building where John is hiding, were realized through on-set ingenuity rather
09:49than post-production digital wizardry. Spielberg's commitment to old-school
09:53production design choices ensured that the world of Minority Report reverberated with
09:57tangibility and grit.
10:00Perhaps more distinct than any of the fight scenes or explosions in Minority Report
10:06is the look of the entire feature. The visual style of Minority Report is unique and feels
10:12drained of color, which complements the grim atmosphere of the film. Talking to The New York
10:16Times, Steven Spielberg noted that he used a process called bleach bypassing to achieve this
10:22effect. Bleach bypassing is done in post-production and drains out the color from people's faces,
10:27now instead of having cheeks and skin tones that radiate warmth, everyone in Minority Report has
10:33pale faces, which helps to accentuate their constantly intense and paranoid demeanors.
10:38Spielberg noted that touches like this ensured an old-school grainy appearance
10:42that made it feel more like the noir films of old. The result was that Minority Report combined
10:48older-looking techniques and styles that were seen predominantly in the 1940s with a modern tale
10:53and technology, which truly made it look like no other movie out there.
10:59Minority Report arrived in theaters with lots of hype thanks to its collaboration between Tom
11:04Cruise and director Steven Spielberg. The melding of these Hollywood titans excited film fans,
11:09but there was also some concern wafting in the air around its release. Chiefly, this was an unusual
11:15blockbuster in the summer of 2002, and this was a season dominated by lighthearted Star Wars
11:20adventures and the first Spider-Man movie.
11:24"...so you won't help me?"
11:25"...I can't help you, nobody can."
11:27But in the end, Minority Report did manage to secure $358.8 million worldwide,
11:34more than tripling its sizable $102 million budget. This feature also came in ahead of
11:39other notable Spielberg titles globally, such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,
11:44and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If there was a complaint to be had here,
11:48it's that Minority Report did get overshadowed by several other 2002 movies. While it was the
11:5410th biggest film of the year worldwide, domestically, Minority Report was in 17th place.
12:01It even came in behind titles like Signs and XXX. While it didn't crush all other 2002 movies,
12:07Minority Report was still a profitable exercise,
12:10reinforcing that Spielberg blockbusters can always draw a mighty crowd.