Minority Report

During the scene in which the ‘spiders’ are searching the apartment building, the first thing we notice is the casual manner in which the pre crime unit goes about distributing the spiders into the building. One of them even saying remarking that he would like to get this done quickly so that he can eat. This leads to them putting more spiders into the building so that they don’t have to search them by hand, in their mind saving time. This shows the casual nature of their investigations, and how simple and meaningless they consider it to invade people’s lives with their robotic scanners. And how integrated technology is into their society that there is an easy, and readily available technological substitute for door to door searches. The police officers throw the spiders towards the stairs of the building, where they sprout tentacles to move up the stairs and into the building. The second thing we notice is the noises the spiders make when moving. The first sound is the tinticles hitting the ground as the spiders move up the stairs, this is a metallic sound reinforces their robotic nature, but also adds a creepy vibe to them as it reflects humanities fear of insects, as the sound resembles that of a small insect. There is also a suspenseful music that follows the spiders around, this gives the spiders a larger presence then their carbon bodies appear to have., showing the real impact they have on their environment despite their size. The suspense also implies a sense of danger that comes with the spiders. During the scene, we see a birds eye view shot of the spiders in the rafts looking down on the inhabitants. This shows the power of the spiders, and the control they have over people. As well a belittling the people in the apartments. During this moment, we see many different people engaged in different activities. The first one we see is a seemingly single mother with too young girls. The first thing this does is set up the idea of the type of people that live in this apartment, those who don’t have as much money, showing the exploitation of the poor. It also shows that although these spiders appear to be the norm, that does not mean they are not still invasive and scary. This is shown when the woman has to console her daughters, who are scared of the spiders. The next room we see is of a couple being intimate, as the spiders scan their eyes. Again, this shows the invasive nature of the spiders, as they do not register the scene, and instead simply follow their programing. This reinforces their robotic nature of the spiders, as well as the power the pre crime unit has, as the inhabitants have no private space that is not invaded by the law enforcements when they deem it necessary. In the next room there is a couple having an intense argument, and they suddenly and casually pause their argument while they are scanned. And they start arguing again as soon as the scanning is complete. Showing that this invasion has become a part of their everyday lives, and they simply accept it. Also suggesting that this type of search has happened many times before. When we see the spider, we always see many spiders moving at once, some in different positions, often working together to scan the eyes of the people in the building. Which implies intelligence. The multiple spiders we often see resembles an infestation, which shows the control the government has on the building, and also the creepy and animalistic nature of the spiders. When the spiders come to John’s door, they cannot get in, so they go under the floor vents, this shows their ability to problem solve, as well as that nothing can stop them in their objective. Each of these mechanisms are equipped with a small spot light, this implies a sense of intelligence, as the spiders seem to be aware of what is around them. While John is hiding in the ice bath to avoid the erase his heat signature, while he is doing this a small bubble scapes his nose and pops on top of the bath. The noise the bubble makes is magnified to increase its presence and significance. This is also to show what the spiders hear, as such a small bubble would not be audible to the human ears. Which also shows how advanced the spiders are. When the spiders return to the bath, they shock the water to get him to come out. Which shows that these spiders can be dangerous, as they are equipped with weapons, it also comes into question when they would use these, and raises questions about police brutality. When John’s heat signature is detected by the pre crime unit, as he is forced out of his ice bath by the spiders, two pre crime officers come up the building to the room he was detected in. Going past the single mother and her kids, the distressed mother is shouting at the officers that they were scaring her kids. He dismisses her, even saying “If you don’t want your kids to be terrified, keep them away from me.” This shows his complete lack of empathy for the people in this apartment, and how highly he values himself, and how important he thinks his job is that he thinks it’s perfectly ok to invade people’s lives with no regard for their wellbeing. When the spiders attempt to read John’s eye, his breathing and hands are shaking, and he is taking a long time to lift his bandage, exposing the dried blood around his eyes. This is all meant to display the discomfort and pain that John is in. As well as the fear he feels that he will damage his eyesight if he opens his eyes now, to reinforce this we see an image of a clock counting down to when John was supposed to take off his bandage, showing that time was not yet up, and there was a serious risk to his eyesight. We move from an extreme close up shot of his sore looking eyes to a point of view shot as his eyes are scanned, and we gain an appreciation for how painful it must be to have such harsh lights shone into your eyes. Once he is scanned, and it is revealed not to be him. The officers immediately cease their investigation into the building, showing not only their total faith in the technology and their methods, but again, the casual nature in which they conduct these investigations. As one officer remarks upon the the imminent possibility of a lunch break now that they have searched the building.

One Reply to “Minority Report”

  1. You don’t need so much plot in here, Mikaela. Also, make sure you describe the effect of the use of each technique on the. viewer

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