Minority Report: How the Movie’s Story is Different From the Book

Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Report is based on a short story of the same name by famed science fiction author Philip K. Dick, but the movie has some major differences from the book – including John Anderton’s fate. Played by Tom Cruise in the film, John is described (in his own words) as “bald and fat and old” in the opening lines of Dick’s short story. John was effectively split into two different characters for Spielberg’s movie: the version of John played by Cruise, and Max von Sydow’s ageing Precrime founder, Lamar Burgess.

Minority Report also stars Colin Farrell as Danny Witwer, a young federal agent who has been assigned to investigate Precrime and look for flaws ahead of the program going national. In the book this character is called Ed Witwer, and has been sent by the Senate to take over John’s job – though officially he’s just there to act as John’s assistant until his retirement. In both versions of the story there’s immediate animosity between John and Witwer, and when the precogs predict that John will murder a man whom he has never met, he immediately suspects Witwer of framing him.

John’s backstory of having a son who was kidnapped six years previously isn’t in the book, and neither is John’s neuroin addiction. These elements were created for Spielberg’s adaptation of Minority Report, in order to explain John’s devotion to Precrime and how he could be motivated to murder Leo Crow. They aren’t the only changes that were made, however. Here are the biggest differences between Philip K. Dick’s The Minority Report and the movie adaptation.

The Precogs Are Deformed and Severely Brain Damaged

In the movie version of Minority Report, the precogs look relatively normal aside from being kept in a pool and wired up to computers. Agatha (Samantha Morton) is able to converse with John after her drugs wear off, and when the precogs are released at the end of the movie we see them living a life of peaceful seclusion and reading books. By contrast, in the original story the precogs are described as “gibbering, fumbling creatures” with “enlarged heads and wasted bodies.” As John explains, “their talent absorbs everything,” leaving their brains unable to function in any capacity beyond seeing the future. Unlike in the movie, the precogs in Dick’s Minority Report are constantly receiving information about the future, including not only murders but petty crimes like assault, tax evasion and theft, as well as a large amount of useless data.

John Anderton Decides to Kill His Victim

In the book version of Minority Report, John Anderton’s victim is called Leopold Kaplan, not Leo Crow, and he’s not just a random desperate criminal. Kaplan is a retired general who is actually responsible for plotting his own murder by Anderton, as part of a conspiracy to dismantle Precrime and reinstate the army’s power. Whereas in the movie John doesn’t have a minority report, in the original story he has three. In the first prediction, Kaplan tells John about the conspiracy and John kills Kaplan. In the second, John learns that he is predicted to kill Kaplan and chooses not to. This is the outcome that Kaplan wants, because it would prove that Precrime is fallible and may have locked up innocent people.

Kaplan believes that there is a majority report, because two of the precogs predict that John will kill him. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that these two reports actually disagree with one another. The third and final minority report is that John will learn about the second minority report (in which he does not kill Kaplan) and change his mind again, choosing to kill Kaplan in order to save Precrime. This is ultimately what happens.

Witwer Survives and Takes Over John’s Job

Farrell’s version of Witwer is shot and killed by Lamar Burgess after figuring out how Anne Lively was murdered. That storyline is not a part of the original book, and Witwer doesn’t die in Philip K. Dick’s story. Instead he gets his wish and takes over John’s job, after John is sent into exile on a colony planet as punishment for murdering Kaplan. Witwer’s new job comes with a concerning caveat, though; he inherits a system that he knows to be flawed and vulnerable to manipulation, and John’s parting words are to warn Witwer that he could easily be set up in just the same way that John was. Yes, the original ending of Minority Reportwas a lot more ominous than what ended up in the movie.

About The Author

Hannah Shaw-Williams
(3313 Articles Published)

Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

More From Hannah Shaw-Williams