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What a person might do depends on what knowledge they have.
Anderton’s values and decisions throughout the story change based on the information he has. At the beginning of the story, he cannot imagine himself killing anyone, especially not in a society that has all but eradicated murder. By the end, understanding Kaplan’s plan for a military coup, Anderton resolves to kill Kaplan at any cost. This principle underlies his initial understanding of the minority report. As he explains to Lisa, he doesn’t think people arrested under Precrime could be secretly innocent because they had no opportunity to be warned through the Precrime computer. (“I was in a position to see the card, to get a look at the report. That’s what did it.”) Although he puts these doubts out of mind by story’s end, the possibility that Lisa’s thought might be true lingers for the reader: there may be people in the detainment camps who changed their minds or reassessed their options if they had the information the Precrime Division did.
We also see this idea echoed in Anderton’s decision to uphold the Precrime system at the cost of his own liberty. Throughout the story, Anderton operates on incomplete knowledge of the situation he’s in. Without a full understanding of Kaplan’s intentions, Anderton assumes Witwer is his enemy, and his own system is being intentionally used against him. As long as Anderton believes that his growing doubt in Precrime is organic and has grown out of his predicament, he is willing to suggest that the system itself might need to be destroyed. The minute he realizes those doubts were fed to him by Kaplan and Fleming, he dismisses them for good. Awareness of their manipulation keeps Anderton from assessing the validity of those doubts.
People will trade their own freedom for an idea of safety.
The essence of the Precrime system is the idea that it’s worth sacrificing some personal freedoms if it means an overall safer society. As Anderton explains to Witwer, prosecuting people after a crime has been committed does not seem to deter criminals and involves some degree of acceptance that violence will always happen. The theory of Precrime posits that it’s better to arrest potential criminals who have not materially committed any crime than tolerate violence in society. Because of Precrime, only one murder has occurred in the last five years. Even before Kaplan’s scheme is revealed, Lisa argues with Anderton to turn himself in instead of revealing the minority report because she believes the system is for the good of society. While she’s not unconcerned about the possibility that some of the imprisoned people might have a minority report that negates the majority, she ultimately has judged that the lack of overt violence in their society is worth the sacrifice. Anderton’s decision at the end involves deciding to sacrifice his freedom by killing Kaplan in plain view of the public to validate the Precrime system. Although none of the doubts raised about Precrime have been resolved, Anderton, seeing the danger Kaplan poses, ignores these doubts for what he believes to be the greater good.
Powerful people can co-opt rebel movements.
One of the bleaker aspects of “The Minority Report” is that all the valid criticisms and shortcomings of the Precrime system are ultimately the strategy of a would-be military dictator. As Anderton’s time as a fugitive progresses, he begins to hear and voice more and more doubts toward the Precrime system. However, it’s ultimately revealed that all these doubts were suggested to him through Kaplan’s agents. The manipulation begins when the soldiers driving Anderton back to the precinct ask if he thinks other innocents could have been imprisoned under Precrime. Fleming’s note encourages Anderton to seek out the minority report, forcing him to see how Precrime’s programming is not entirely straightforward and involves some interpretation. Kaplan’s scheme culminates in a rally that claims to be for justice and human rights but has the foreboding inclusion of soldiers and military paraphernalia. Kaplan has hijacked these ideas to set himself up to seize control. While the flaws highlighted in the Precrime system are real, by co-opting the voice against Precrime, Kaplan has effectively made standing against Precrime standing with him. This situation makes it all too easy for Anderton to reaffirm his support for the status quo.
