Minority Report Film Techniques

Packed full with action, mystery, and deception, Minority Report tells the story of the year 2054 in Washington D.C., where police utilize a psychic technology to convict murderers before their crime has been completed. The film Minority Report is categorized as a dramatic mystery and was directed by Steven Spielberg in the year 2002. Tom Cruise, who plays the leader of Precrime, is convicted of murdering a man that he has never met. At the beginning of the movie, Tom’s character is convinced that a character named Danny Witwer, played by Colin Farrell, is out to take his job. The movie and plot intensifies as John finds out more information on the history of Precrime and how his murder ties it all together.

Some of the literary techniques

The use of quick cuts and edits along with the use of non diegetic music create the intense sensation that is created throughout the film. In the movie, John Anderton gets in a fight with Witwer in the middle of a car factory. The editor incorporated many quick cuts in the scene to make the fighting seem much faster than it actually is. The non diegetic music in the scene emphasizes the tension during the fight: as the tempo accelerates, the fighting is heightened. This duo of cinematic techniques is used again in the movie when John is running away from the police. This epic scene of Tom Cruise jumping from car to car, on what seems to be the equivalent of the interstate today, is emphasized by the quick cuts and violent music. Another important cinematic technique that is applied throughout the film is variety of shot angles in each scene. The multiple different shot angles allows the audience to see exactly what the characters are seeing in the film and their surroundings. For example, towards the beginning of the film, the variety of shot angles when John Anderton first walks into the Precrime center allows the audience to get a first view of what the whole building is like on the inside. The audience is also shown a variety of angles whenever John is looking at a prediction on the hologram screen. By doing this, the director is allowing the audience to be all-knowing of what the crime is and how all of the pieces of the investigation initially fit together. Yet another important cinematic technique that is used in Minority Report is lighting. The lighting throughout the film gives the audience a sense of the mood in each scene. Lighting is important to each scene in order to make the emotions portrayed in the movie come to life in the audience. A bright lighting is used when Agatha is talking about Sean and John’s life in their old house,