The Minority Report: Alternate Ending

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Minority Report was widely seen as an impressive film that was a bit tainted by it's too obvious happy ending. In which Anderton solves the murder, gets his wife back and starts a new family. It always seemed like a bit of a cop out. This was not new for Spielberg, who drew similar criticism with the "I could have done more" ending of Schindlers List, and the "Am I a good man?" Ending of Saving Private Ryan.

There is however a theory that the final part of the film, from the moment Anderton is put in hibernation is an imagination. The one clue regarding this is in a line given by Gideon, the jailer:

"It's actually kind of a rush. They say you have visions. That your life flashes before your eyes. That all your dreams come true."

I've always been a bit dubious about this. Since it really isnt Spielberg's habit to do ambiguous endings at all. The bulk of his work as a director has things fully wrapped up and clear cut.

There is some precedent for this though. Not so much in Spielberg's work itself, But the fact that this is a film based upon a Philip K. Dick story. And the two most famous films to be based on Dick's works certainly have ambigious endings.

Blade Runner, the director cut at-least famously stops in mid-action, just before giving viewers a final tantalizing hint regarding the true identity of it's lead character. It's one of the more famous modern examples of leaving things unsaid in a movie.

The second film is Total Recall. On first Glance a expensive and clever glossy sci-fi action starring Ah'nuld kicking ass at his most violent. It certainly doesn't look like anything but that at first glance. But like Robocop, Verhoeven's film can be enjoyed as "just" an action film, but also as one that has some deeper, hidden layers.

The hero Quaid either becomes entangled in a elaborate chase where his wife tries to kill him, he is actually a henchmen to a human dictator on Mars who's had his memory wiped. Or his mind is experiencing a virtual reality fantasy gone out of hand at Rekall.

The clues given here is that the adventure Quaid requests just before his brain is hooked up is conforms very much to the events that unfold in the film. This is conformed later by the fact that an attempt at intervention by a Rekall doctor tells him exactly how the events in the remainder of this VR scenario will unfold...which is actually exactly how the film goes from that moment on. Yet the script and Verhoeven never settle this matter for sure. Leaving tantalizing clues, but leaving it up to the viewer.

Spielberg is a great admirer of Blade Runner. Minority Report contains a number of references, both subtle and less so to that movie (both use eyes a lot in their visual imaginary).

Is it possible that Spielberg wanted to in some way emulate these previous two Philip K. Dick inspired movies and feature aspects that aren't quite so clear cut as they would appear at first sight?

[Richard Penna 3,687]

I don't think Spielberg's films have that level of depth in them. It's definitely an interesting idea but given, as you said, his movies have a feel-good ending, I think the ending is the ending.

[Incanus 5,714]

I don't think Spielberg's films have that level of depth in them. It's definitely an interesting idea but given, as you said, his movies have a feel-good ending, I think the ending is the ending.

Ditto. Spielberg is hardly ever ambiguous or comfortable with being unclear with his meaning. He likes to play it safe and make the message crystal clear in his films.

[publicist 4,643]

Let's say if he meant that he sure knew how to hide it from his audience.

As some famous director once said, films mainly happen by accident and i doubt Spielberg ever consciously devised an ending he never really set up or actually clued you in visually. After all, he is the traditional storyteller par excellence...all those claims of double meanings people read into some of his movies (A. I. being a prime example but even COLOUR PURPLE and AMISTAD) are more a product of certain stages of gestation the film went through.

[Uni 306]

Yeah . . . I'd have to agree with that. It's too subtle to be credible. If Spielberg had wanted to tantalize, he would've made that alternative possibility more obvious.

Which is exactly what Verhoeven did so masterfully in Total Recall. I once came to the conclusion (after suffering from too much time on my hands to think about such things) that it was impossible for Quaid's experiences to be a dream or implanted memories . . . and equally impossible for them to be reality. It can't all be a dream because we see events and interactions that are beyond Quaid's perception, either because he's sleeping/sedated or because he isn't present in the scene at all. He can't "remember" something he wasn't there to witness. So it has to be real, right? And yet it can't be real, because we see the technicians at Rekall discussing the elements of the story to come—"blue sky on Mars," the alien generator shown in the monitor, along with the exact image of Melina—which is a set of coincidences too unthinkable to believe they just happened to play out that way in real life, during a course of events initiated (again, "coincidentally") by a random dude who walked in the door and asked for a secret agent Ego Trip.

It's a paradox. But that's what makes it so much fun. We never do find out, and that's the best resolution of all.

- Uni

[indy4 155]

Has anybody read the Philip k dick short story? Is there anything in there to suggest such an interpretation?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I haven't read it in years but I'm pretty sure the ending is different, it's less neatly wrapped up and happy. Which makes it unlikely that Dick intended anything like such an interpretation.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Spielberg isn't really good at this kind of thing. I do believe we were supposed to accept the ending at face value and not interpret much else from it.

[Hlao-roo 389]

I haven't read it in years but I'm pretty sure the ending is different, it's less neatly wrapped up and happy. Which makes it unlikely that Dick intended anything like such an interpretation.

It's been years since I read the short story, but, yes, the ending is significantly different, as is the overall denouement.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Has there ever been a Philip K. Dick based movie which wasn't a drastic reinterpretation?

[Jay 37,355]

No.

[Hlao-roo 389]

Has there ever been a Philip K. Dick based movie which wasn't a drastic reinterpretation?

Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, unless you count the interpolated rotoscoping itself as "drastic."

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Has there ever been a Philip K. Dick based movie which wasn't a drastic reinterpretation?

Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, unless you count the interpolated rotoscoping itself as "drastic."

Probably not a coincidence, but it's also the worst of the films.

[Hlao-roo 389]

Has there ever been a Philip K. Dick based movie which wasn't a drastic reinterpretation?

Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, unless you count the interpolated rotoscoping itself as "drastic."

Probably not a coincidence, but it's also the worst of the films.

I thought it was OK. I'd reserve the honor for Impostor.

[Corellian2019 386]

I don't think Spielberg's films have that level of depth in them. It's definitely an interesting idea but given, as you said, his movies have a feel-good ending, I think the ending is the ending.

Ditto. Spielberg is hardly ever ambiguous or comfortable with being unclear with his meaning. He likes to play it safe and make the message crystal clear in his films.

In fact, it could be argued the closest he ever came w/ ambiguity was Munich

Has anybody read the Philip k dick short story? Is there anything in there to suggest such an interpretation?

Nothing at all. The short story revolves around the political conspiracy of eliminating Precrime to restore funding for the military; in fact, John Anderton turns himself in to the authorities as part of his plan to kill his future victim and save Precrime

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Minority_Report

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Munich was ambiguous?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

EOTS has quite a lot of ambiguity

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Munich was ambiguous?

Certainly controversial. I can't count the number of times I've had a heated debate about the houseboat killing.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I actually had forgotten about Munich until now.

*sigh*

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Munich was ambiguous?

Certainly controversial. I can't count the number of times I've had a heated debate about the houseboat killing.

Ambiguous and controversial are two completely different conversations though. Particularly in the context of this thread where we're discussing the filmic meaning. Everything is clear-cut in Munich, to my eyes and ears.

[Uni 306]

Agreed. Don't confuse moral ambiguity with intentional (or unintentional) ambiguity in the resolution of a film or story. That's what this thread is after.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Well, for the later A.I. definitely qualifies.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

How?

[Harmsway 6]

A.I.'s finale is drenched in ambiguity. Note the way the camera holds on zombie-Monica's disoriented face just long enough for her state to begin to register, or the final shot that recalls the end of Solaris.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Oh, I just didn't think her beginning to realize was ambiguous at all.

[Hlao-roo 389]

A.I.'s finale is drenched in ambiguity.

Typical Spielberg. Can't even be subtle about his ambiguity.

[Uni 306]

But he's often ambiguous about his subtlety. . . .

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Happy endings do happen.

[Corellian2019 386]

at all the A.I. comments

Munich was ambiguous?

I would argue that for Munich, the moral ambiguity is the narrative ambiguity; at the conclusion, like "Avner" we're not sure if Operation Wrath of God really did damage the PLO or target those directly involved with the Olympics massacre. What is clear, however, is Avner's growing disillusionment with his country's policy of violent retribution.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

What's funny about the A.I. comments?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Happy endings do happen.

The only ending in life is death!

[publicist 4,643]

Happy endings do happen.

Yeah but they mustn't need take the form of sunbathed posh country houses in the Hamptons that probably only Spielberg or some other prominent figure could afford. It's a vanilla image that just doesn't belong in a cautious future techno thriller.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You mean....like a dream scene?

[publicist 4,643]

I mean like an aggressively photoshopped image out of a real estate broker's expensive advertising catalogue.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

What's funny about the A.I. comments?

Exactly. It's one of Spielberg's darkest endings, by far.

[Corellian2019 386]

No, I was referring to the posts about "never subtle about his ambiguity"/'ambiguous about his subtlety" etc.