Class Notes on March 16th - Minority Report Movie Summary and Differences Between Story and Film

Minority Report Movie

Summary

John Anderton is Chief of Precrime, which has precogs that can predict future murders two weeks in advance. The precogs predict that Anderton will kill a man named Leo Crow. He goes on the run because he believes that he has been set up. He tries to figure out who has set him up and over time learns that there is a flaw with the system which allows people to commit murders. He finds out that his boss and friend, Lamar Burgess, killed the mother of one the precogs in order to keep Precrime alive. He also learns that many in many past cases he may have put away the wrong person because minority reports are deleted as soon as they are created. He outs Burgess and forces him in to a situation where is only choices are either to kill Anderton, which will lead to his arrest, or not kill Anderton and prove that Precrime is ineffective. In the end Burgess kills himself because he knows of his future and is able to change it. The movie ends with a standard Hollywood ending as Anderton reunites with his wife, captured people who may or may not be innocent are set free, and the precogs live out their lives in happiness.

List of Characters

John Anderton

Danny Witwer

Leo Crow

Lamar Burgess

Fletcher

Anderton’s wife

Hineman

Precogs

List of Themes

Free will

Blurs the distinction between crime and intent

Man vs Technology

Minority Report Story vs Movie

Similarities

· Same general set of characters

· Precrime is the same

o Preknowledge changes outcome

· Witwer seemed like a bad guy but was a good guy

· Privacy vs Security

Differences

· John is younger in the movie

o Story character split in half, Anderton and Burgess

· Anderton’s life story is totally different

o In the movie he joined to save people from feeling pain like he has

· Anderton is addicted to drugs in the movie

· Anderton is in the middle of the action in the movie, but is more of a headquarters man in the story

· The ending is totally different

o The movie has a standard happy Hollywood ending

· Anderton was actually set up in the movie

· In the movie technology is very important

· In the movie the precogs are far more human

o Agatha, Dashiel, Arthur

§ Names of famous mystery writers

o Being exploited, trapped

· Anne Lively wanted her daughter back

Class Notes on March 14th - Presentation on Philip K Dick

ENGL1102 Class Notes

March 14, 2012

Presentation on Philip K Dick

· Philip K. Dick

o Born December 16^th 1932

o Twin sister died

§ Later wrote about a “phantom twin”

o Went to UC Berkeley, dropped out

o Won Hugo for “The Man in the High Castle” in 1963

o Wrote “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” in 1968

§ “Blade Runner” based on this

o Attempted suicide twice

o Died of stroke in 1982

o Married and Divorced 5 times

o Used drugs often

· His works

o 44 novels, 121 short stories

§ 67 short stories from 1952-1953

o 33 non-fiction essays

o 11 movies based off his works

§ Blade Runner “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

§ Total Recall “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”

§ Confessions d’un Barjo “Confessions of a Crap Artist”

§ Screamers “Second Variety”

§ Impostor “Impostor”

§ Minority Report “The Minority Report”

§ Paycheck “Paycheck”

§ A Scanner Darkly “A Scanner Darkly”

§ Next “The Golden Man”

§ The Adjustment Bureau “The Adjustment Team”

§ King of the Elves “King of the Elves”

· TIME article “His Dark Vision of the Future is Now”

o Says that Dick didn’t like some adaptations

o Scanner Darkly

o Minority Report

o Blade Runner

§ Dick got to see parts of it

§ Quote about never going near Hollywood again

o Recent Adaptations

§ Adjustment Bureau

§ King of the Elves

§ Family suing Google over Nexus 1 phone

o All works have core ideas

§ What is the division between human and machine?

§ Why are some machines more human than humans

§ Defines humans by empathy

§ What does it mean to be real?

· Total Recall – memory loss

· Minority Report – looking into the future

§ Human component emphasized

Class Notes on March 12th - Presentation on Paolo Bacigalupi, “Pop Squad”, and Adaptations

ENGL1102 Class Notes

March 12, 2012

Presentation on Paolo Bacigalupi, “Pop Squad”, and Adaptations

· Bacigalupi Presentation

o Born 1972 in Colorado

· The Windup Girl - 2009

o Praised by TIME magazine

o Won multiple awards

o Involves world where fossil fuels are no longer available

· Ship Breaker – 2010

o 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults

o Follows a child laborer

o Discusses poverty, class divides, etc

o Need to care about our surroundings

· Tweets

o Passionate about his writing

o “Money is a side effect of passion. Remember that.”

o Critical Race Theory, Use of Biotech seeds, Pink Slime for school lunch, Arctic Ocean drilling, etc

§ Concern for environment

· Website: www.windupstories.com

o Updates readers via blog

o Gives address, facebook page, etc

o Shares interviews that he has done

§ Talks about what he thinks the future will be like if people do not change

· “Politics are ugly. Never doubt what small men will do for great power.” – The Windup Girl

· “Pop Squad”

o Opening Scene

§ Strong words

§ Seems like a crime scene

· He seems to be an authority figure

§ “Jungle”

§ Terrible smell

§ Dehumanizes the mothers and their kids

· Animalistic

§ Reaches all of the readers senses

§ Refer to dinosaurs as doubly extinct

· Toys are extinct and dinosaurs are extinct

o Paradox between being immortal but being dead inside

o Does their immortality make them productive or unproductive?

§ One spends 15 years learning a piece, seems to be very productive

· Able to do amazing things

§ However, seems like they are doing things that are very time consuming and too complex

o Kid with dinosaur

§ Image of the boy’s death sticks in his mind

§ Has his blood on his hands

o Similarities with Deckard from Blade Runner

§ Both kill

· Enemies are things in their eyes but very human

§ Both walk away from the job in the end

§ Seem to hate their jobs for some reason

· Torn between what society says should be done and what is moral

§ Neither understands what is driving them away from their job

o Woman on Page 156

§ Smart and attractive

§ Provides hope

§ Becomes attached to her

§ Changes by calling the child “her”

· Adaptations

o Distinction between story and discourse

§ Story is the what

· Plot, setting, characters, timeline

§ Discourse is the how

· Genre, medium, form

o Stories are structures that are independent of any medium

o Aspect of change

o Have to be familiar with the conventions of the form you are adapting from and the form you are adapting to

§ Accepted guidelines for that genre

§ Creator and audience need to understand them

§ Can be broken

o Faithfulness

§ Staying faithful doesn’t mean it will be good, not staying faithful doesn’t mean it will be bad

§ Have to decide on your goals