In the movie Minority Report (with Tom Cruise), the detective guy
Colin Farrell is being shot. The old man shooting him (the president
of Precrime, or what he was) says something along the lines of "The precogs can't
see us here". So why is it the precogs can't predict this crime?

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Clarification of Question by j_philipp-ga on 19 Sep 2004 08:08 PDT

(I should probably have put a big SPOILER on top, but now I can't edit
the question anymore.)

Good question, j_philipp,!
  
Here's the conversation between Director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow)
and Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell):
  
  
"WITWER: I'm thinking someone got away with murder. 
  
BURGESS: How? 
  
WITWER: By fooling the system. All someone would have to do is wait
for Precrime to stop the murder from taking place, then, a few minutes
later, commit the crime in exactly the same way.
  
BURGESS: Yes... It's called an echo. The act of murder is such a
violent disturbance in the future continuum that it sometimes repeats
to the Precogs.
  
WITWER: Precog Deja Vu... 
  
BURGESS: We teach the tech's to identify them and disregard... 
  
WITWER: So there is a way to fool the system? 
  
BURGESS: Yes. 
  
WITWER: Of course, it would have to be someone with access to the
Prevision in the first place, someone fairly high up --
  
BURGESS: Shhh. You know what I hear? 
  
WITWER: What? 
  
BURGESS: Nothing. No footsteps coming up the stairs. No hovercraft out
the window. No clickity click of little spiders. No one crashing
through that door. And do you know why I don't hear any of those
things, Danny? Because right now, the Precogs can't see a thing."
  
http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/minority_report.shtml
    
  
  
In answer to your question, the Precogs were unable to predict this
crime because the three Precogs were not together at the time of the
murder, and the system cannot work without "Agatha" who is the
strongest Precog.
  
"When Lamar shots Collin Ferrels character, where was a pre-cog ball?
[It's explained quite clearly in the film - unless the three precogs
are together, it doesn't work. As Agatha is away from the twins, off
with Anderton, there's no precognition, so Lamar can kill Witwer
without being picked up.]	"
http://www.moviemistakes.com/membersubmissions.php?memberid=542&titleid=2386&type=corrections
(see first paragraph)
   
"...the Precogs didnt detect Lemar was going to kill Witwer beacause
the 3 Precogs weren't together. When Anderton takes Agatha you will
hear one of the workers say that the system doesnt work without
Agatha. So thats why. You need all three Precogs for the predictions
to work, especially Agatha!"
http://www.kottke.org/02/07/major-minority-report-plot-flaw
(see JAR's post)
   
"They arrested Anderton for killing Witwer because Burgess used
Anderton's gun to kill him. Since the PreCogs couldn't operate without
Agatha, they assumed Anderton killed him through the justification of
the gun."
http://www.dreamworksfansite.com/talkback/showthread.php?threadid=3126
(see yoda's post)
  
  
   
Hope that helps!
  
  
Best regards,
  
Jackburton-ga
  
  
  
Search terms used:
  
"minority report" witwer "pre cogs can't"
"minority report" witwer "precogs can't"
"minority report" witwer "precogs cannot"
"kill witwer" "minority report" killed burgess

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Request for Answer Clarification by j_philipp-ga on 19 Sep 2004 11:36 PDT

Hmm -- on the other hand, the three precogs also weren't together on
the murder of the Tom Cruise character. So why could they see this
one, but not the previous one of the detective?

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Clarification of Answer by jackburton-ga on 20 Sep 2004 05:05 PDT

Sorry J, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the murder of the Tom
Cruise character"? Tom Cruise's character, "Anderton", was not
murdered. Are you referring to "Leo Crowe" -- the character Anderton
supposedly killed? I haven't seen the film in a while, so I'm not
really sure what you mean.

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Request for Answer Clarification by j_philipp-ga on 20 Sep 2004 05:25 PDT

Jack,

The precogs were seeing the Tom Cruise character being murdered by the
Precrime president near the end of the movie (on the Balcony). Oh, but
I guess the precogs were three again, as the female was back in the
pond... that must be it...

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Clarification of Answer by jackburton-ga on 20 Sep 2004 16:02 PDT

Yep, that's it. You see her being placed back in the tank, together
with the twins, right after Cruise is arrested at the wife's home.
Just before she predicts Cruise's murder, Wally (the guy who looks
after the Precogs) alerts the Precrime detectives about a vision
Agatha is having about her mother. He says: "It's a single stream from
the female only with no time or incident date..." So "yes", they were
three again. ...I played the DVD just to make sure!

Ah that's it!