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Section 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Minority Report, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Security vs. Liberty
Fate and Free Will
Trust and Paranoia
Summary
Analysis
Back at the station, Anderton informs Witwer that Page is a spy who has been passing information to Kaplan. Kaplan—who just left the station in an army truck—now has the minority report. “He has the information that proves the majority report obsolete. He can break the Precrime system,” Anderton explains. After studying the data tapes for clues, Anderton hears the sound of an army rally outside.
Kaplan is now in possession of the minority report, which he can use to reassume greater policing powers for the army. He can use it to strike a deal with Precrime in private, or to discredit Precrime in public. Seeing the rally, Anderton correctly anticipates the latter option.
Themes
Viewing the spectacle through the window, Anderton surmises that Kaplan will read the minority report at the rally to discredit Precrime in the eyes of the public. “I’m going to have to fulfill the publicized report. I’m going to have to kill Kaplan. That’s the only way we can keep them from discrediting us,” Anderton announces.
Significantly, Kaplan and Anderton have both assumed, up to this point, that Anderton will not actually murder Kaplan. However, Anderton now changes his mind, sacrificing his own safety—and Kaplan’s—for the sake of the greater good. Since the public knows of the majority report, Anderton must make it true by killing Kaplan. Doing so will prove Precrime’s methodology correct and allow the system to survive.
Themes
