John Anderton

John Anderton was a former Chief of the Department of PreCrime until it was shut down in 2054. His current status is unknown.

Pre-Minority Report
Sometime in his adult life, he met Lara, got married, and had a son, Sean. One day, John and Sean visited a public pool in Baltimore, and played a game of who can hold their breath underwater the longest. After Sean was able to hold his breath for a long time, John challenged him and dove under the water. However, when he rose from the water, Sean was gone. Terrified, John called his name out, trying to find him.

After a police and FBI investigation proved inconclusive, John was unable to cope with the disappearance of his son Sean, divorced his wife Lara, and became a drug addict. He also joined the experimental Department of PreCrime, and eventually became its Chief while becoming close friends with Lamar Burgess. Although he proved himself (in Lamar's words) to be "the best cop he ever knew and in some ways the best man," John's scars from his son's disapperance caused him to be withdrawn from having a social life and was devoted solely to the work of Pre-Crime. In fact, Lara later attested that John joined Pre-Crime to prevent what happened to his son from happening to other people again.

Minority Report
In 2054, while conducting a tour of the PreCrime facility for Danny Witwer, John witnessed Agatha's vision about a woman named Anne Lively who had gone missing after her drowning was prevented by PreCrime officers. Intrigued by this mystery, Anderton learned that Anne Lively was a neuroin addict who cleaned up herself and has never been heard from since. Shortly after presenting these findings to Lamar, the Precogs generated a vision where John was going to murder a man named Leo Crow in 36 hours. John, not knowing who Crow was, fled PreCrime Headquarters and was hunted down by federal agents under the command of Agent Danny Witwer.

Anderson sought out the advice of Dr. Iris Hineman, the creator and "mother" of the PreCrime Program. She revealed to John that sometimes, one of the three Precogs, usually Agatha, produced a different vision than the other two. This would have eventually been labeled a "minority report" and upon its creation, it was deleted in order to keep it a secret in order to ensure the system's credibility. Anderton, armed with this new knowledge, searched for the deleted minority reports to prove his innocence.

Anderton went to a black market doctor to have his eyes removed and transplanted in order to avoid the city's retinal recognition system. He broke into PreCrime Headquarters and kidnapped Agatha, effectively shutting down PreCrime, as the Precogs operated as a hive mind. Anderton reached a cyber parlor in a mall and met with a hacker named Rufus T. Riley, who helped John tap into Agatha's mind to extract the minority report. However, there was none, and instead Agatha showed him the image of the murder of Anne Lively in 2049. He escaped from the cyber parlor with Agatha, using her psychic abilities to elude his former comrades.

Discovering the Truth
John and Agatha made their way to the building where John's predicted killing was meant to take place, eventually ending up in the same room where Leo Crow was staying. Despite Agatha's pleas to turn back, John pressed forward with his investigation and saw numerous pictures of children laid out on Crow's bed, including one of his son Sean with Leo Crow. Realizing that Crow was responsible for the abduction and death of his son, Anderton realized that he had no minority report and that he was indeed destined to kill Crow. At that moment, Crow entered the room and questioned Anderton's presence. Enraged by the loss of his son, Anderton assaulted Crow and forced a confession out of him that he murdered his own son. As John pulled out his gun and prepared to kill Crow, Agatha warned him that because he saw his own future, that he could still choose whether or not to go through with it.

Ultimately, John chose to arrest Crow rather than kill him. Crow begged him to go through with it, revealing that he had been hired by an unknown man to pose as Sean's supposed killer in exchange for securing Crow's family's financial well-being. Despite John's attempt to learn the truth, Crow committed suicide in a similar manner to the Precogs' predictions, thus framing John for the murder. John and Agatha left and went to Lara's cottage to seek solace and contemplation. In his discussion with Lara, John realized he had been set up because he found out about Anne Lively prior to the manhunt. He and Lara question Agatha who envisions an alternate future of what the Andertons' life might have been like if Sean had not disappeared. Just as John deduces that Agatha is Anne Lively's daughter, PreCrime officers arrive en masse at the cottage and finally arrest John for the murders of both Leo Crow and Danny Witwer (the latter having actually been murdered by Lamar Burgess for learning about Anne Lively). Anderton was condemned to be in Containment with all the other would-be murderers, imprisoned by the same system he had believed in and fought so strongly for over the years.

Taking Down PreCrime
John's imprisonment did not last long, as Lara set him free from Containment, having inadvertantly found out that John was innocent and that Lamar had a hand in Anne Lively's death. On the night when PreCrime was about to become a national crime-fighting system, Burgess was being honored at a dinner in his honor by friends and family. John spoke to him over the phone and then revealed the full truth: Years ago, Agatha was Anne Lively's daughter who had been taken away by his mother because of the latter's drug addiction. Fortunately, Anne rid herself of the drug addict and wanted her daughter back. By then, Agatha and the twins Arthur and Dashiell were already incorporated into PreCrime for their psychic abilities to be used to prevent murders. Since Agatha was the strongest of the three PreCogs and all three were required to use their abilities, Lamar knew that losing Agatha would mean the loss of PreCrime. So, he staged the murder of Anne Lively by luring her out to Roland Lake and falsely promising to reunite her with her daughter. He hired an unknown neuroin addict to muder Anne Lively knowing that the PreCogs would see that murder. After the John Doe killer was apprehended by PreCrime, Lamar waited until he and Anne were completely alone. Then, Lamar dressed himself in the same clothes as John Doe and drowned Anne Lively. Although the murder was actually taking place the second time, the technician responsible for caring for the PreCogs incorrectly assumed it was an "echo" and disregarded it. Anderton's discovery of Anne Lively threatened to expose Lamar's actions, so Lamar used the memory of Sean's disappearance to frame John for Leo Crow's murder since that memory would provoke John to seek revenge for the pain he endured.

With Lamar exposed as the murderer and his legacy in tatters, he sets out to kill John. On the balcony overlooking the city of Washington D.C., Anderton points out the dilemma that Lamar now faces. If he doesn't kill John, the PreCogs are proven wrong and the PreCrime system is shut down. If he does kill John, Lamar will be imprisoned but the PreCrime system will remain in place, ensuring its credibility. However, John points out the greatest flaw in the system he once considered perfect: Lamar has seen his own future, meaning he can choose to remake it if he wishes. Just seconds before the PreCrime officers arrive to prevent John's murder, Lamar opts to commit suicide.

A New Beginning
Because Lamar chose to kil himself instead of John, his death irrevocably destroys the credibility of PreCrime as the perfect system. Six years after the experiment began, PreCrime was shut down. The facility was abandoned, all the prisoners who were incarcerated were unconditionally released (although police departments would keep track of them for years to come), and the PreCogs were allowed to live their lives in peace on a cottage within an undisclosed location. As for John, he and Lara reconciled and remarried. Even better, they would now start over the family with another child of their own. John was finally at peace for the first time in so long that he could move on from the loss of his son and let go of PreCrime.

Behind the Scenes
John Anderton was portrayed by Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

Appearances

 * Minority Report