Problem in "falling ball" example in Minority Report [closed]

In Minority Report, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) tells John Anderton (Tom Cruise) that capturing people who have not committed a future crime means preventing that future. So, it becomes a fundamental paradox because PreCrime captured innocent people then. However, John gives an example where he pushes a ball towards Danny who catches it.

The dialogues are not exact, they just represent the talk at hand:

John: "Why did you catch it?"

Danny: "It was going to fall."

John: "You're certain?"

Danny: "Yea"

John: "But it didn’t fall, you caught it. The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn’t change the fact that it was going to happen."

But, the flaw in this falling ball explanation is that a ball is supposed to fall down. By nature of gravity, it is known that a ball will fall/move down when it leaves a surface (doesn't have a surface to move on further). The ball is an inanimate object that has no choice and is bound to follow only one course of future if Danny had not caught the ball.

The same can't be said for a human being planning to commit murder. There is the element of choice until the very last moment. There are at least two paths of future and PreCrime can't say that just because they prevented it from happening doesn't change the fact it was going to happen.

In short, a ball falling is deterministic and a human thinking of murdering someone is probabilistic. Why was then an example of a deterministic fact used to justify a probabilistic scenario? In case it seems that the question is philosophical, what I actually mean to ask is:

Why did film-makers choose such an example for John to say? Is it not wrong to cite a deterministic event to justify a probabilistic one?
If it is not wrong to cite such an example, then can someone tell if there is any significance to choosing such an example?

plot-explanation minority-report

Best Answer

Here is that scene:

The presumption for the whole Precrime is that the Precogs are always right and that they always predict murder. So if the Precogs see someone wanting to commit a murder, they report it - there is no "the attacker can change his/hers mind": unless stopped - just like the ball on the table - the attacker is going to kill the victim. So, if you prefer, from the characters in the movie point of view both events - murder and the ball falling - are both deterministic: a ball will fall from the table and a murder will be committed.

The abuse of the Precrime was not about falsely hiding the information that the would-be murderer can change his mind, but about predicting the wrong murder: Ann Lively has been assaulted by a man who intended to murder her, until he has been stopped by the Precrime unit, even while in the end she has been murdered by someone who was looking just like the first attacker.

The fact that the minority reports exist (so there is a chance for the alternate outcome) makes of course the whole statement about determinism false - but that is why the existence of those reports is kept secret.

It would be also worth to mention that even without killing anyone, many of the people arrested by Precrime could be (even in real world) charged at least with attempting murder:

An attempt to commit a crime occurs if a criminal has an intent to commit a crime and takes a substantial step toward completing the crime, but for reasons not intended by the criminal, the final resulting crime does not occur. Attempt to commit a particular crime is a crime, usually considered to be of the same or lesser gravity as the particular crime attempted

So legally speaking, those people are still guilty.

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Who killed Anne Lively in Minority Report?

Lamar killed Anne Lively for the same reason that he later set up John to murder Leo Crow - in order to protect Precrime.

What is the main message of Minority Report?

"We don't choose the things we believe in; they choose us." The main theme of Minority Report is the classic philosophical debate of free will vs. determinism. One of the main questions the film raises is whether the future is set or whether free will can alter the future.

What is the philosophy of the PreCrime system?

PreCrime is made possible through the psychic powers of three \u201cgifted\u201d individuals who come to be known as Precogs. These three individuals can see murders that will inevitably occur in the future. Through these metaphysical visions, PreCrime can track down and stop murders before they ever take place.

Why does Anderton receive 3 minority reports?

Before they leave Earth, Anderton explains to Ed Witwer his reasoning for shooting Kaplan. After obtaining the precog reports, he realized that all three were "minority reports" in a way because each described three entirely different situations, rather than a single situation with two possible outcomes.

Minitory Report- Falling Ball Scene (determinism)

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Images: Alex Green, Anton Uniqueton, Nicola Barts, Alex Green