Minority Report (2002)

With so many movies out there, sometimes I pick ones to watch based on how many times I hear people reference it. That way I can watch it and get in on the joke. As you can imagine, Minority Report gets referenced a lot lately with the rise of surveillance tech.

Can't say I understood why this movie is so heavily referenced given I don't think it properly explored the problems it raised though. All the philosophy stuff took a back-seat to the personal intrigue story of Director Burgess' thirst for power.

In the real world, once a technology is released and used for expanding surveillance, it's hard to put back into Pandora's Box. It's true that corrupt individuals can abuse systems, but the system itself didn't fundamentally change itself to prevent abuse in the future. Without a powerful grassroots movement to replace the system or keep it in check, what will happen the next time another person like Burgess comes along? They will probably succeed since they will remember to revoke the access of former employees this time.