| Daniel Witwer | |
|---|---|
| |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Nationality: |  American
|
| Affiliation: | United States Department of Justice Department of PreCrime |
| Profession: | Department of Justice Agent Homicide Detective (fomerly) |
| Played by: | Colin Farrell |
| Films: | Minority Report |
| Appears in: | 1 film |
Daniel “Danny” Witwer was an agent of the United States Department of Justice assigned to conduct a full investigation of the PreCrime Division. He acts as a representative of the United States Attorney General looking for potential flaws in PreCrime. When the Precogs determined that John Anderton would commit a murder Witwer led the effort to arrest him. Over the course of the manhunt he gathered enough evidence to discover the truth about Anna Lively’s death and was killed by Lamar Burgess.
Pre-Minority Report[]
What little is known of Witwer's life is that he was only 15 years old when his father was shot and killed on the steps of his family's church in Dublin. It can also be assumed that he had a somewhat religious upbringing in his youth, in that he spent three years studying theology at Fuller Seminary before opting for a career in law enforcement. His time at Fuller Seminary also influenced his way of thinking about the PreCogs when he remarked how some people were beginning to deify them. Further, he believed that the real power lay in the PreCrime officers who used the PreCogs to hold the balance of power against crime and just like priests did with the Oracle.
Minority Report[]
Witwer was first seen watching John Anderton and the PreCrime officers determine the whereabouts of the future murder committed by Howard Marks. Since Anderton was so resolutely focused on his work at the moment, Gordon Fletcher took him aside and pointed out to him how they conduct operations to prevent the murder.
Later on, Witwer is seen discussing the mechanics of predicting future murders and the legality behind such operations. Despite Anderton trying to prevent Witwer from being allowed to tour the Temple, Witwer used his authority granted to him by the US Attorney General to overide Anderton's. During the tour, Witwer explained his past to Anderton and what motivated him to investigate PreCrime. But when he brought up the subject of losing family to the point of mentioning John's son, Sean, John became irate and demanded to know what Witwer was looking for. When Witwer explained that he was looking for flaws, Anderton defended the system by claiming that it was perfect, even though Witwer claimed that any flaws in the system would be human.
While Anderton was away from his apartment, Witwer broke into his home and discovered several containers of neuroin, the possession of which would have sentenced Anderton to six months in prison and cost him his badge as well. After learning that he was predicted to murder a man named Leo Crow, Anderton fled from PreCrime Headquarters and ran into Witwer in the elevator. Anderton mistakenly believed that Witwer had set him up just so the latter could take over Anderton's job, but chose not to kill him so he could prove his innocence. After Anderton fled, Witwer took over the operations at PreCrime and led a massive manhunt for the former Chief of Precrime, which led to a violent confrontation inside a car factory and ended with Anderton escaping inside a newly created Lexus vehicle.
Despite questioning Lara Anderton extensively about her ex-husband's whereabouts, she refused to divulge any information about him. After Anderton snuck into PreCrime to download any information from the PreCogs about his innocence, Witwer realized what he was up to and tried to catch him in the Temple only for Anderton to slip through his fingers once again with Agatha in tow. Without Agatha's power, the PreCogs could not predict any future murders, forcing Witwer and his subordinates to double their efforts. Despite their best attempts, Leo Crow's death took place (although in truth, it was Crow who committed suicide to frame Anderton for the murder). While investigating the supposed murder scene, Witwer deduced that all the photos of children laid out on Crow's bed were deliberately placed there as an orgy of evidence and that PreCrime had been after the wrong man the entire time. With this newfound information, Witwer asked Lamar Burgess to meet alone at Anderton's apartment to discuss these findings.
Death[]
At Anderton's apartment, Witwer brought John's gun to Lamar and gave it to him before he showed uncovered evidence about a murdered woman named Anne Lively from five years ago. The evidence pointed to two different murders that the PreCogs predicted, one of them actually occurring after the one prevented by PreCrime officers. The second prevision had been used by the murderer to disguise it as an echo so the technician would disregard it without knowing that it was the actual murder taking place. Witwer deduced that whoever had murdered Anne Lively had to have been someone with high access to the system.
Before Witwer could go any further, Lamar remarked that he couldn't hear anything in the apartment from the PreCrime hovercraft outside the windows to the PreCrime officers charging up the stairs or the sounds of their Spyder drones. The reason being, because the PreCogs were offline without Agatha in the system. At that very moment, Lamar shot Witwer through the chest in cold blood using John's gun before the latter could react. As Witwer slunk down against the wall where an image of Anne Lively was superimposed, Witwer took out his Christian medallion around his neck and kissed it just as Lamar shot the young federal agent through the head, killing him for good.
Lamar placed Anderton's gun down on the floor of his apartment and used it to frame Anderton for the murder, hoping to cover up the death of Anne Lively once and for all.
