I had Minority Report wrong.
When you look at it in the context of Steven Spielberg’s overall filmography, the film’s ending seems like it follows in the footsteps of movies like Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and even A.I.
Artificial Intelligence.
Spielberg is a director who doesn’t really go for ambiguous endings and wants to give the audience a feeling of hope even in the face of humanity’s darkest impulses, and so I viewed Minority Report the same way—a film that has a bleak ending, but then it keeps going so that Spielberg can have a happier conclusion.
Upon a recent viewing, however, it’s clear that Spielberg crafted the most ambiguous ending of his career and one that speaks to the film’s larger thematic intersection of choice and observation.
With Minority Report recently streaming on HBO Max, it’s an ending worth revisiting.
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