The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick is a science fiction that deals with the fine line that exists between a government exercising control over people to maintain security while granting citizens liberty. It is a commentary on fate and free will and depicts how invalidating either of them will only affirm their existence further.   

The Minority Report | Summary 

The story starts with John Anderton, the creator and head of the ‘precrime’ division of the police, meeting Ed Witwer, his new assistant who instantly makes him feel insecure, nervous, and old. Precrime uses three mutants called “precogs” which foresee future crimes and stop them. Anderton discusses his system with Witwer, and they both conclude that Anderton does not like Witwer. The system, however, predicts that Anderton himself will kill a man within the coming week. 

Stepping out of his office, he meets Lisa, his slim and attractive wife in the police uniform who now works at the Precrime department as an executive officer but used to be his secretary. Anderton also suspects that Lisa is involved in the plot that is being set up to frame him for murder, and she advises him to take a break from all the stress because he is becoming paranoid. Anderton believes he is being conspired against by the Senate which is working with Witwer to remove him as commissioner; he confirms that he has no intent of murdering Witwer and thus decides to flee the planet before being detained, while the card with the precognitive data confirms he will not kill Wiwer but a man named Leopold Kaplan, who Anderton has never heard of in his life. He further believes that Lisa is involved in this plot to set him up. 

While heading home to pack, Anderton is met by a man who takes him to see Kaplan, who is the Army General of the Federated Westbloc Alliance. Despite explaining that he has no intent of killing the man and that he is possibly being set up by Lisa and the Senate, Anderton is turned over to the police for Kaplan’s safety. Once they’ve departed in a car with bodyguards, a bread truck crashes into the car and a man named Fleming tells Anderton that his wife is behind all this provides him with a new identity and money, and advises him to check into the minority report. Anderton later returns to the police station. He listens to the precog tapes and learns that while the majority report claims that he will murder Kaplan, the minority report indicates that he won’t. Lisa convinces him, having suddenly entered the room, to leave on a ship. 

Lisa suggests that she believes Anderton to be innocent, much like the others in the detention camp. She suggests that he return to the station, believing Witwer to have good intentions. On Anderton’s refusal, she holds him at gunpoint. At this point, Fleming, who was hiding on the ship barges out and strangles Lisa. He is knocked unconscious by Anderton and it is revealed that Fleming is an army major working with the Intelligence. Thus, Fleming must have been working with Kaplan, who had been working throughout to keep him out of police custody to discredit the precog system and reassume domestic policing powers.

At the station, Anderton tells Witwer about Kaplan’s plan to discredit the majority report which will make the Precrime system developed by Anderton look completely flawed. When he sees the army holding a rally out his window, Anderton assumes that Kaplan will read out the minority report to the public and decides to kill Kaplan to make the majority report correct. In the concluding scene, Anderton is arrested and prepares to leave with Lisa and explains to Witwer that there were three minority reports, two of which agreed that he would indeed murder Kaplan. Anderton tells Witwer, who is now the new Police Commissioner that he could face a similar situation. 

The Minority Report | Analysis 

Through Anderton’s character, Dick emphasizes the theme of fate vs free will in a futuristic, almost utopian society. While the story invalidates the concept of free will altogether initially by the depiction of detention camps full of “innocent” people who haven’t yet committed crimes but will, free will is affirmed through the character of Anderton himself whose choice of killing Kaplan is done to uphold the validity of the minority report. 

The story also elucidates how the assertion of security can be done at the cost of reducing people’s rights as citizens. While Precrime has radically reduced the crime rate- they have had only one murder in five years- they also have detention camps full of innocent people who have only been predicted to be criminals. 

Character Sketches

Anderton

Anderton, the protagonist of the story, mistrusts people easily and is severely insecure– of his own age as well as Witwer. While he is intelligent and well deserving of his position as the Police Commissioner, it is his paranoia that takes over him which eventually makes him kill Kaplan; however, it is the reader’s understanding that will render this murder an act of predestination or free will. 

Kaplan

Kaplan, the “antagonist” of the story is an old General of the Army who plots to discredit the Precrime and its usage of precogs to predict crime. Whether he is truly an antagonist or not is up to the reader to decipher since the Precrime Department does not exactly function with absolute morality; it indeed jails people who are innocent.  

Witwer

Witwer, Anderton’s assistant and future replacement, is a young and vivacious man who makes Anderton insecure about himself. His interactions with Lisa make Anderton suspicious of his plot to remove him from his position. 

Lisa

Lisa is a Precrime executive officer and Anderton’s former secretary, who is now his wife. Anderton suspects her of being involved in a plot with the Senate to remove him from his position when she is overfriendly to Witwer. She becomes the voice of reason although failingly so, for Anderton and her ultimate intentions lie with the greater good, that of the protection of Precrime’s reputation and the greater good in the society that it creates. 

The Minority Report | Literary Devices 

1. Setting: The minority report is set in a postwar, futuristic era that involves the government’s employment of radical elements like space travel, and precogs to ensure the security of the citizens. This perhaps reflects the author’s own experiences with the postwar society including the influx of highly developed machinery and technological advancements.

 2. Symbolism: The three mutants can be analyzed as catalysts to the extreme dehumanization of people that can happen in a controlled society that values security over people’s liberty. 

The Minority Report is thus a gripping science fiction set in a futuristic, postwar society that questions the existence of free will and posits a dichotomous relationship between authoritarianism and individual autonomy. It portrays the dangers of too controlled society and the compromise on human rights and liberty that it brings.