MINORITY REPORT

20th Century Fox
PG-13

Minority Report is a futuristic action detective thriller starring Tom Cruise and set in Washington DC. For six years, DC has been murder-free thanks to astounding technology, which identifies killers before they commit their crimes. But when the chief of the Precrime Unit (Tom Cruise) is himself accused of a future murder, he has just 36 hours to discover who set him up--or he'll fall victim to the "perfect" system he helped create.

While this movie is good on the surface as an action flick, it also carries with it a smorgasbord of ethical and theological subject matter for a group to sink their collective teeth into. Try one of the following options:

Baptism
One scene during the movie (1:06:07) has Tom Cruise getting a new set of eyes so that he can make it through the eye scans without getting arrested (for a crime he didn't commit). After he gets his new eyes, he is given a "new life" with a new identity. But before he can start his new life, he is not allowed to open his eyes for 24 hours. During that time, the police raid the building with the aid of electronic spiders that sense your presence through heat, and then scan your eyes. When he hears them enter the building, he fills a tub with ice water and almost goes undetected, but then he exhales and the "spiders" find him and scan his eyes, only to find he is not who they are looking for, and move on.

How to use it
When we are baptized our sins are forgiven and we are given new life. Check out Romans 6:4 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 for biblical support, and use this short scene as an illustration of Baptism and the new identity we receive.

Eyes
Throughout the movie, there is a running theme about eyes; here are some of them: 

• The pre-cog says, "Can you see?" several times.
• Someone offers this advice: "Sometimes in order to see the light you have to risk the darkness."
• There is a husband who returns to the house to get his glasses and catches his wife cheating on him. He says, "You know I'm blind without my glasses."

How to use it
Instruct youth to write down every reference about eyes. Then, put a concordance into their hands and ask them to find eye references in the Bible. There are many, from Matthew 5:29, "If your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away…" to Proverbs 7:2, "Keep my teachings as the apple of your eye" and the many stories of blind men being healed through washing (like in John 9:1).

Ethical questions
Our justice system is founded on some fairly important principles such as we are all innocent until proven guilty. Another is that you must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This movie challenges both of these principles. With "spiders" that scan your eyes, everyone in the building is checked to find out if you are guilty or not, and you are not free until you are proven innocent, turning the "guilty until proven innocent" principle on its head.

"Beyond a reasonable doubt" is brought into question because none of the people who are arrested are given a trial; they are immediately removed from society. Presumably, this is because there is no doubt because the pre-cogs are never wrong. This is the whole crux of the movie; the pre-cogs can never be wrong or there is reasonable doubt.

How to use it
Split your group into two and have them debate whether or not pre-crime is a good thing. Suggestions for material you can ask them to cover:

• Pro: Pre-crime erases murder in a large city for a 7-year period of time. One might argue that even if there is a percentage of mistakes, pre-crime works as a tool to eliminate murder from a society. As their advertisement says, "That which keeps us safe will also keep us free."
• Con: Pre-crime doesn't even allow for the possibility that it could be wrong. The movie gives several great quotes to this side, such as, "but its not the future if you change it." Several characters even prove this to be true. John doesn't actually kill the person he is slated to kill, LaMar kills himself instead, and the pre-cog changes the future as they are running away from the cops by seeing things that will happen in the future and putting obstacles in the way so they will not be seen. 

Other questions to consider
Is it possible that severe punishment is not even necessary? That murder might be stopped simply by intervention? Might different murders also carry a different sentence? Could people be given a trial, or might your case be investigated if there was a "minority report?" What percentage of mistakes is OK to make for the greater good of eliminating murder? Consider present-day cases of people being arrested for a crime, tried in court, convicted, sent to prison or death row, only to be released upon discovering DNA evidence that proves they never committed the crime.

Where do you put your faith
The Pre-cogs are deified in a variety of ways:

• They are called miracles.
• They are kept in a room called the temple that only one person is allowed into. When one leaves the temple, people confess things to her.
• They were "Innocents being used to stop the guilty."
• One line describes them like this: "They are much more than [human]. Science has stolen most of our miracles--in a way they give us hope--hope of the existence of the divine."
• They are beings who know the future but let people choose for themselves. Point this out to your group and ask:
  • Who do you/we trust? Where do you/we put our faith in society?
  • The pre-crime system is presumably all-knowing, infallible, and acting in the best interest of society. Are there systems or people in authority that we believe to be near-perfect, unquestionable, or above criticism? What happens when they don't live up to our expectations?
  • Is there a human system that can live up to those standards?
  • In what ways do you trust God, and for what?
  • What does God promise? What has God done to make good on those promises?

This movie is rich with possibility for uses within your group. Feel free to use these suggestions as a jumping off point for your own ideas.