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The Rewatchables

‘Minority Report’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

Tue, 22 Apr 2025

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The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan are charged with taping a podcast before rewatching Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi thriller ‘Minority Report,’ starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, and Samantha Morton. Podcast Manager: Craig Horlbeck Video Producers: Ronak Nair and Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Transcription

Chapter 1: What makes 'Minority Report' a classic?

655.311 - 678.206 Bill Simmons

But consider the Waymo, though. My great-grandfather passed away in 1987. If I could have a conversation with him and I could say, Big Papa... This would be the first thing you told them? I would be like, yo, I'm in a place right now where there are cars that drive on the street with no drivers and they drive people around. Yeah. He couldn't even imagine that. He was born in 1900.

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678.346 - 683.328 Bill Simmons

It's nuts to think that the Waymo is here and it's not that big of a deal.

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683.388 - 695.398 Bill Simmons

I have that every once in a while with my mom where she'll be like, what are you doing when I'm looking at my phone? And I'm like, well, I was looking at a cat and now I'm looking at British Parliament. She's like, what do you mean?

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695.498 - 701.543 Bill Simmons

And I was just like, honestly, you just go like that, and then something else comes.

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702.024 - 719.34 Craig Horlbeck

Craig, where does your generation stand on Waymo? I think, honestly, we're all in. A lot of my friends take Waymo. It's cheaper. They're doing that Uber thing where they're flooding the market with cheap prices so that everybody uses it. Have you had a, like, oh, my God, I'm going to die in a Waymo moment? I admittedly have not taken one. Oh, you have never been in a Waymo before?

719.38 - 720.38 Bill Simmons

My son, Ben Simmons...

721.261 - 740.491 Bill Simmons

um actually signed up early for waymo and was using it before we knew what was going on and we found out we were freaked out i was like there's nobody in the car it's just you and they can't go on the freeway yet they don't do freeway yeah right so just driving around in the neighborhoods he's like sometimes i get in the passenger seat sometimes i sit in the back seat there's nobody else in it

742.708 - 750.634 Bill Simmons

But apparently he said some people are getting busy in the Waymo. Obviously. And you immediately lose your Waymo pass.

750.814 - 761.162 Bill Simmons

If you're in the Waymo, the first thing you're going to think is, yo, this is the fuck train. Get on with it. But they're watching you in the Waymo. The Waymo sex tapes are going to be so crazy.

Chapter 2: How does Spielberg's direction influence the film?

1612.178 - 1624.15 Bill Simmons

Many times. Recently? I haven't, but I watched the thing we based... Remember we did Clatheism at The Ringer in early days, and that was based on him in the turtleneck talking about Scientology?

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1624.17 - 1648.899 Bill Simmons

The Oprah's Couch thing, it became... Kind of like a go-to joke, and we all knew what it meant. But I don't know how many times people have actually gone back and watched how fucking insane it is. And it's just this audience of crazy Oprah lady fans just losing their shit every time he gets excited that he's finally in love. And Oprah's like... I've never seen you like this.

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1649.439 - 1660.787 Bill Simmons

And Cruz is like, I know. I know. And then he just starts jumping up and down. And it's like, what is happening? It is way crazier than I think it gets credit for.

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1660.807 - 1673.418 Bill Simmons

I think it's one of the craziest celebrity moments ever. But there's a crazy trifecta. There's that. There's him being just crazy. He is furious at Matt Lauer.

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1673.498 - 1674.72 Chris Ryan

Yeah, yeah. He's really angry.

1674.9 - 1686.795 Bill Simmons

And then there's the other thing where he's, whatever the video from Scientology leaks, and he's talking and he's like, yeah, have you ever met an essay before? Right.

1689.478 - 1696.9 Chris Ryan

I'm like, oh, fucking shit, Tom Cruise. This goddamn Emperor Palpatine. What the fuck is going on?

1697.26 - 1700.14 Bill Simmons

I love the guy, but he's fucking batshit. Oh, no, no, no, no.

1700.28 - 1702.501 Bill Simmons

17 rewatchable movies.

Chapter 3: What themes are explored in 'Minority Report'?

4870.71 - 4890.205 Bill Simmons

So, you know, normally you have these things and it's just like a bunch of like people taking iPhones and it's a photo album. And this is like fucking... You could release this as a coffee table book. Just pictures of seven-year-old little girls blowing bubbles in the air. It's just fucking amazing. Anyway, simulators to The Fugitive.

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4893.388 - 4918.59 Bill Simmons

Richard Kimball, John Anderton, framed for crimes they didn't commit. Both recognized on the subway by another passenger. Both consulted a colleague to unravel a clue. Both pursued by a police officer and navigate through a crowded public place to try to lose them. Kimball dyes his hair. Anderton has his eyes replaced.

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4920.408 - 4928.671 Bill Simmons

discovered they were set up by a colleague that they had been talking about the whole time and trusted and then blow them up during a ceremony celebrating that colleague.

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4929.811 - 4936.013 Bill Simmons

You got Neuronin, you got Provasic. What are they taking in the fugitive? What's the drug? Provasic.

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4936.033 - 4941.355 Bill Simmons

Yeah. You'll have to excuse my friend, Dr. Richard Kimball.

4941.395 - 4967.658 Bill Simmons

He's been sick. Is there a scene in this one that's parallel or something like the jumping off of the uh the jumping into the damn scene probably the fight the jetpack the jetpack jumping where he just goes yeah that's another similarity whatever you do you're not gonna catch me i'm willing to jump off of the thing or do whatever yeah

4968.988 - 4986.245 Bill Simmons

This is a borderline Sean Fennessey criteria orgasm, criteria and orgasm award, whatever we called that one. Criteria orgasm. Criteria orgasm. Cruise confronts Max at the end. He's wearing a dark hood. And it mirrors the opening of a 1957 movie called The Seventh Seal.

4986.325 - 4986.525 Van Lathan

Yes.

4987.226 - 4992.171 Bill Simmons

Oh. Yeah. So there you go. Apex Mountain.

Chapter 4: What is the significance of the precogs?

5412.657 - 5419.419 Bill Simmons

Like you leave a place, like you fire, you get fired from a place. They discontinue your badge like right away. Yeah.

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5419.479 - 5419.699 Bill Simmons

Yeah.

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5419.759 - 5426.9 Bill Simmons

But all the way to the end of the movie, he can still get into the justice department is able to get in using his retinal file. Like he's,

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5427.68 - 5449.127 Bill Simmons

who's in charge of one of the best pick and nits I've heard in a long time who's in charge of updating the retina files it should not still be giving you access cut your car off right away you can't get back in this is 2025 we would know this 2002 they didn't think of it I'm just saying like they get you out of it and then the other one is retina files the other one is this

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5450.12 - 5467.747 Bill Simmons

So in the crime with the precog, the Ann Wiley, the crime, right? They come and get her murderer and then they just leave her there. for her to be killed. So they don't need her to come to the station and give a statement. Right.

5467.947 - 5473.429 Bill Simmons

I think the idea is it's all staged, right? But I know what you mean where the cops are like, you're good. See you later.

5473.469 - 5488.315 Bill Simmons

Yeah, the cops come get the guy and then that allows Burgess to then kill her while the cops are gone. There's not a cop that goes, hey, I know this was traumatic for you. They literally just leave her standing by the lake for him to come kill her. Well, in Craig's America, that's just how the cops are.

5489.758 - 5495.242 Bill Simmons

Keep the pre-coxswain milk. I'm Craig Horvath and that's my 2054 stance.

5498.164 - 5517.578 Craig Horlbeck

Wait, I have a piggy net. Yeah. You'll have to talk me through this because maybe I'm not thinking about this right. But the whole John Anderton murder, the whole plot seems like a catch-22 to me because Anderton would not have known about the Leo Crow thing unless Agatha told him or saw it. But Agatha would have never seen it

Chapter 6: What are the standout action scenes in 'Minority Report'?

2369.797 - 2370.977 Craig Horlbeck

Yeah, that is true.

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2371.117 - 2372.278 Bill Simmons

I'd help you get out of here.

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2372.418 - 2373.859 Craig Horlbeck

Jack can't talk. He's in a pool of milk.

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2376.727 - 2384.194 Chris Ryan

Jack, he made you... I was complimenting him. Weird, kissing... That's bullshit.

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2385.255 - 2389.039 Bill Simmons

You stop. The elevator ride with Colin Farrell is a good next scene.

2389.379 - 2389.9 Bill Simmons

Great scene.

2389.92 - 2396.373 Bill Simmons

We get a 2054 car chase. We get Max von Sydow now that you've seen this movie a bunch of times.

2396.973 - 2407.318 Bill Simmons

Seedow? Yeah. Just for all my Max guys out there. I just didn't want you to... I never knew that. Yeah. Max von Seedow. I thought it was... I defer to you, but I never knew that.

2407.638 - 2411.42 Bill Simmons

As Dr. Charles Nichols, would you realize this as you're watching this?

Chapter 8: What are the key differences between the film and the Philip K. Dick story?

5169.624 - 5170.124 Van Lathan

No, hell no.

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5170.184 - 5174.525 Bill Simmons

No, his Apex Mountain's a 25-year Apex Mountain. He got a deep bag.

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5174.545 - 5180.786 Bill Simmons

25-year Apex Mountain. He got a deep bag. He got a deep bag of recognizable characters. Yeah.

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5181.666 - 5196.41 Bill Simmons

When they, first year Yellowstone, I'm like, Neil's going to be in this. And then second year he is. He's in there. Precogs, definitely. Washington, D.C. movies, no. Precrime Departments? I don't remember seeing this in another movie.

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5198.314 - 5216.11 Bill Simmons

predictive crime yeah I don't think so Phil Dick movies we just said no we just said no yeah alright Cruise or Hank Scorsese or Spielberg this is the first time this has ever happened the double wow yeah what role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played

5219.472 - 5228.058 Bill Simmons

I have him in the Colin Farrell role. It's an interesting idea of him playing Witwer, because it's a little bit more of a twerp, a little less hot, a little less like... The fight scene suffers, probably.

5228.078 - 5244.09 Bill Simmons

The fight scene suffers, maybe the running and all of that. He wasn't known for... But he also was kind of sneaky, athletic, and people don't talk about it. He was a good ball player and all of that stuff. He never really got into that bag on screen, I guess, that much.

5244.15 - 5247.372 Bill Simmons

He could have been the eye doctor. Oh, for sure. Yeah, he could have been out there.

5247.392 - 5248.352 Bill Simmons

He could have been Gideon.

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