Minority Report

Other mistake: Leo Crow grabs Anderton's gun and they each fight for control of it. Crow succeeds in forcing Anderton's hand to pull the trigger, killing Crow. The problem is, right after the gun is fired, we see a shot of Anderton with his arm fully extended and with his entire hand holding the entire gun, as if he had aimed and fired the gun himself. Such a sequence of events is at least totally illogical if not physically impossible. (01:44:10)

Matty Blast

Minority Report mistake picture

Other mistake: The name on the red ball at the beginning has the name 'Donald Dubin' on it. But in the end credits, it is spelled 'Donald Doobin'. (00:02:10 - 02:17:40)

Other mistake: When Anderton and the pre-cops are gearing up to prevent the Howard Marks murder, there is a shot of Anderton loading his gun. If you watch closely you can see he places a clip under the gun but doesn't actually put it in, he just sort of mimes inserting it. (00:08:55)

Other mistake: When Witwer is killed, he actually reacts to the impact on his head before the shot is heard. We are standing mere feet from the incident, so no 'speed of sound' delay applies. It's an obvious sound error during editing.

Other mistake: When Witwer tells Fletcher that Andertons already won and that Agatha is part of his future right after Anderton kidnaps Agatha. Fletcher should have already known that from the precious scene when Witwer told him that Agatha is the woman in the room with Anderton. (01:27:47)

DBase

Other mistake: At the beginning of the movie, we learn that the precogs "do not see what you intend to do, only what you will do" and that they cannot see suicides. At the end, Burgess intends to kill Anderton but does not go through with it; he commits suicide instead. Given these two facts, the precogs should not have seen Burgess' confrontation with Anderton at the end, and a red ball should not have been created.

Matty Blast

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Suggested correction: Burgess intention was in fact to kill Anderton, but the knowledge of the precogs predicting his murder attempt, the conflict inside his conscious, and the sound of the arriving helicopters made him change his mind at the last second, just like Anderton did in the apartment. The point is they have a choice, and having knowledge of that, only that, changes the future and makes it different from the visions.

lionhead

Plot hole: Anderton's wife gains entry into the jailhouse using her husband's eyeball - but he's already locked up inside, so his eye would not still have access to enter as it pleased. Any place anywhere that would have any sort of security system requiring anything from a simple passcode to a card key to a retinal scan, would immediately delete the user in such instances from all rights. And would also certainly report on any attempted use of such (retinal scan, pass code, whatever). (02:00:45)

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Suggested correction: I thought that this was a mistake as soon as I saw it on screen, but reconsidered. It's perfectly possible that there was some, probably human caused, delay in updating the security system. After all, there wasn't a rush to do it since they already had the chief on ice. Maybe the sleep jail was still on a legacy system without automatic updating. Just assuming that in the near future that all systems are all perfectly integrated and instantaneous does not validate this as a mistake.

More mistakes in Minority Report

Officer Fletcher: John, don't run.
John Anderton: You don't have to chase me.
Officer Fletcher: You don't have to run.
John Anderton: Everybody runs, Fletch.

More quotes from Minority Report

Trivia: Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed Tom Cruise in Magnolia, has a cameo on the train. It is reported that he is so hard to find that Anderson himself does not know where he appears.

More trivia for Minority Report

Question: Why all the build up of John having sent the Russian eye-surgeon guy to jail, suggesting that he will hurt John; only to have him successfully complete the operation, and take care of John afterwards?

Nick N.

Answer: Because subverting the expectations of the viewer makes it more interesting. The audience (and potentially John) are set-up to expect bad things, which don't happen. Once the "bad thing" happened, the suspense would be gone and everyone could relax. Expecting something bad but knowing when it might happen maintains the tension.

Chosen answer: It's what's known as a McGuffin; a plot element that seems to be important when introduced, but serves no purpose other than to intrigue/distract the audience. The term was popularised by Alfred Hitchcock.

J I Cohen

That's not *quite* what a MacGuffin is. A MacGuffin not only seems important, it *is* important; in fact, one of its two diagnostic characteristics is that a MacGuffin is something around which the entire plot revolves. The other property fundamental to what makes something a MacGuffin is the fact that the origin, purpose, function, and, in some cases, even identity of the object is left either vague or completely undefined. The briefcase in Pulp Fiction is a classic example (although there *is* a compelling argument that the object in the briefcase is in fact a specific artifact).

Well, according to the doctor when the operation is beginning, the doctor reveals that in prison, he spent all of his time in the library, including books on medicine and technology. As a result, he found his "true calling", and is thankful to John for helping him see that.

More questions & answers from Minority Report

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