Comparing Person Of Interest And Minority Report

There are certain professions in our society where actions that would be considered a crime by anyone else are accepted. There are even certain professions where killing someone is a possibility of the job. The film Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2001) and the television show Person of Interest (David Semel, 2011) are about stopping crime. However in both narratives the people responsible for stopping the crimes of others also commit crimes. In both cases murder. In contrast to Minority Report, the episode titled “Pilot” of Person of Interest explains the concept of stopping crimes differently. The film states that the program called precrime is able to see murders before they happen; therefore giving the agents of precrime the ability to stop the murder from occurring. However, in Person of Interest it is the work of one man, who enlists the help of an ex-government agent that works to prevent crimes from happening.

The main characters working to prevent crimes all share one common connection. John Anderton (from Minority Report) son disappears and is implied to have been murdered. John Reese, and Harold Finch from Person of Interest also both have people important to them have

For example, in Person of Interest Reese kills a corrupt police officer, Detective James Stills, to protect Wheeler. Wheeler caught onto the fact that corruption was taking place in the law enforcement and judicial branches of the government. In Minority Report Lamar Burgess, the director of precrime, kills a women to keep the system in place. My conclusion, then, is that, both of these murders could be argued as being for the greater good. By keeping the system of stopping crime in place, more people will be saved than the two that are lost. However, drawing the line of who is able to be killed and who needs to be saved is a dangerous line to balance, that no one should have control