Steven Spielberg is known as perhaps our greatest living director, yes, but perhaps we’ve always underrated Steven Spielberg‘s powers of sci-fi-esque prediction. He’s been making the best science fiction movies since the very beginning, with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and hasn’t really stopped since.
In the subsequent years, we’ve had E.T. Ready Player One, AI, Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, and Minority Report. Most of these are pure brilliance, and a few are underrated (justice for War of the Worlds!), but Reddit is convinced that it’s 2002’s Minority Report which is the most prescient.
On a thread titled ‘Which movies portrayal of the future aged the best/poorest?’ Redditors were quick to flock to Spielberg’s side, championing his powers of prediction. “I think Spielberg did a lot of research for Minority Report about where tech was going,” begins the top comment.
“The movie was made in 2002 and the story takes place in 2054. Things shown like touchscreens, facial/retina tech are commonplace now. No flying cars/jetpacks yet.”
Other users agreed, citing one moment in particular as especially having come true. “There’s a bit in Minority Report where Tom Cruise goes into a mall, and all the AI retina scanners go crazy and start trying to sell him stuff he’s likely bought in the past or trigger their marketing algorithms. If that wasn’t future casting I don’t know what is. Already happening on our smart phones where geo locking sends you texts if you drive by a casino, etc.”
Minority Report is certainly a gem, and one of the best Steven Spielberg movies. Tom Cruise delivers a great performance, it’s brimming with inventive and exciting visuals, and it has a brilliantly creative and engaging premise. The plaudits for that, though, and for Spielberg’s powers of prediction, should really be going to author Philip K. Dick.
Dick was one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, bringing a string of the best sci-fi novels to the public through his prolific career. Minority Report is based on one of Dick’s short stories, and while the characters are mostly very different (and there’s added action) the central idea of pre-crime remains the same.
Since his death in 1982, aged just 53, Dick’s endless creativity and genius tales have helped to create some of the best movies of all time. Blade Runner is based on his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Total Recall comes from the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. His novel Vulcan’s Hammer, published in 1960, is currently being developed for a new movie. Spielberg won’t be directing, unfortunately, but we’re excited nonetheless.
For more on Spielberg, check out why he rejected Matt Damon for the same reason as Clint Eastwood. Or, turn your attention to Tom Cruise with our Mission Impossible 7 review, and interview with star Pom Klementieff. If that’s not enough, you can check out our picks for the best thriller movies, and see why we think the Star Trek trilogy is better than the Star Wars trilogy.