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In “The Minority Report,” Precrime Commissioner John Anderton finds his loyalty to Precrime challenged when he himself becomes a victim of the system. From Anderton’s perspective, this challenge causes him to reject his selfish sense of self-preservation for the betterment of society. However, given the grim, dehumanizing values of Precrime and the dystopian world Anderton lives in, we can also see the narrative as a character regression. Forced by self-preservation to see the flaws in Precrime, Anderton nearly rejects the dehumanizing values of Precrime only to ultimately decide to uphold the status quo. To make these two readings even more complicated, political conspiracy shapes the events of the story thanks to Kaplan’s manipulation. The power struggle between the Senate, the police, and the Army undergirds the events of the story, raising the question of whether free will ever truly existed.
Dick uses Witwer, a newcomer to the Precrime Division, as an excuse for Anderton to explain the concept of Precrime to the reader and define its primary moral dilemma. The people arrested under a Precrime system are, by definition, innocent of any crime, since they technically haven’t done anything wrong yet. The system relies on its ability to take the rights away from any citizen, placing them in a detention camp, under the guise of public safety. Anderton’s first interactions with Witwer also have an overwhelming sense of paranoia. Even before the plot starts in earnest, Anderton is convinced that Witwer is out to take his job as part of a power grab for the Senate. Anderton believes he is ultimately disposable if someone powerful enough wills it. It is no wonder, then, that Anderton immediately believes a conspiracy is at work when he finds his name listed as a potential murderer, inciting the action of the story.
The rising action follows Anderton’s desperate attempts to escape and clear his name. Behind the scenes of Anderton’s efforts, Kaplan uses his agents, including Page and Fleming, to encourage Anderton’s paranoia. When Kaplan orders some of his soldiers to turn Anderton in, some of those soldiers bring up insurrectionary bits of conversation, questioning the validity of Precrime and the possibility of the system being used to imprison innocent people. The papers Fleming gives Anderton encourage him to seek out the minority report, collecting evidence that Kaplan can use to discredit the police as corrupt and pave the way for his own return to power. Anderton, terrified for his own safety, is weak to this manipulation and follows Kaplan’s plan to the letter. Page, an undercover plant for Kaplan, emphasizes Anderton’s audacity in returning to the police station to retrieve the minority report to encourage Anderton’s feelings of bravery and righteousness. By the time Anderton and Lisa escape the police station, Anderton has begun to doubt the validity of the entire Precrime system. He even tells Lisa that his safety matters because he’s “a human being,” asserting the value of individuality and personhood.
However, Anderton’s rebellion cannot survive the realization that he is being manipulated by Kaplan. Once he realizes Fleming has been an agent of the Army all along, he quickly rejects all doubts he had about Precrime, and instead returns to Witwer and plans to save the whole system. Anderton’s discovery of the three differing reports from the precogs forces him to decide once and for all where his values lie. He now knows for sure that all three reports are factually different from each other and instead tell a linear narrative. He could, nevertheless, have decided to go against the narrative and choose freedom for himself at the expense of Precrime. However, that would allow Kaplan, a dangerous man, to shift the balance of power out of equilibrium and toward the brutal military. He therefore decides to sacrifice his freedom, and, at the climax of the story, shoots Kaplan in the middle of his military rally.
The story’s conclusion leaves the reader to consider not only whether Anderton’s choice was truly what was best for society, but whether he really had any true desire or ability to make a choice at all. First, Kaplan’s manipulation of anti-Precrime sentiment means that exposing Precrime would be the same as supporting him, preventing meaningful change. However, Anderton’s decision appears to go beyond merely choosing the lesser of two evils. Instead, Anderton gets to abdicate responsibility for his actions. As an exile, Anderton may not be able to return to earth, but he has his liberty and his rights intact. Additionally, he has silenced his own questions, even thinking that Witwer, with experience, will learn not to question what he doesn’t understand. With his parting words to Witwer, Anderton further resists any self-reflection. He instead suggests that the systemic issues of Precrime being up to interpretation and easy to manipulate are actually an individual issue only effecting the Precrime Commissioner. His warning also demonstrates that the fear of power grabs and conspiracies are endemic in this society, fostered by the easy way Precrime can be used to manipulate the narrative of good and evil.
