The year is 2054. Murders can be now be stopped before they even occur, thanks to the sophisticated techniques of the PreCrime police unit, headquartered in Washington, D.C. The method by which the PreCrime unit prevents murders is through a mixture of advanced technology and the use of Precogs. The Precogs are three human beings with powers of precognition that allow them to visualize crimes before they happen. Heading the PreCrime division is John Anderton. Anderton is a highly competent cop who has spiraled into drug addiction since the disappearance of his son, Sean, six years ago.
The PreCrime unit is being audited for its effectiveness and efficiency by Danny Witwer of the Department of Justice. After Anderton discovers a mysterious record of a murder from early Precrime days, he is suddenly revealed by the Precogs as the next murderer on the loose. Shocked by this realization, Anderton makes a run for it, pursued closely by his colleagues in the Precrime unit.
The victim of Anderton’s future murder is identified as Leo Crow, a man he doesn't even know, and the crime is set to take place in just 36 hours. Anderton’s escape allows him to track down the person who created the Precog technology, an eccentric older botanist/scientist named Iris Hineman. During their conversation, Hineman tells John that on rare occasions, one of the three Precogs will experience a vision of the future crime that differs from the other two. This divergence from unanimity is referred to as a “minority report,” and most of these reports originate from the Precog named Agatha, the "most talented" one. The occurrence of minority reports has been obscured from public knowledge because its discovery would throw the PreCrime system’s credibility into question. Anderton realizes that his only hope to prove his innocence and avoid arrest is to make his own minority report public.
Technological advancement in surveillance have essentially stripped everybody of their privacy in the future. People are identified by their irises, so John must seek out a black market eye transplant in order to keep his identity secret so he can remain underground. After receiving a shady blackmarket surgery, John sneaks back into the Precrime headquarters and proceeds to abduct Agatha, causing a system-wide shutdown of Precog activity (since everything depends on the three psychics working in tandem).
John visits a hacker in order to download the minority report involving the murder of Leo Crow, but he is disturbed to find that no such report appears to exist. Reviewing Agatha's visions, John once again comes across the memory of the murder that he saw just before getting targeted. It is the drowning of a woman named Anne Lively by a hooded figure a few years before.
As the hour of John's projected murder of Leo Crow draws near, Anderton brings Agatha to Leo Crow’s apartment. There, he discovers a collection of photographs of various children, including his missing son, Sean. When Crow arrives homes, Anderton assumes that he's the one who kidnapped his son, and intends to carry out the murder the Precogs have predicted. However, when Agatha convinces John that he possesses the power to change his own future as a result of becoming conscious of the narrative, John decides not to kill Crow. Crow further complicates that narrative, however, when he admits that he’s not really a child killer at all. In fact, he signed up to be murdered by Anderton in exchange for the future financial stability of his family. Eager for his payoff, Crow grabs Anderton’s gun and shoots himself with it.
Still on the run for his life, Anderton, with Agatha in tow, flees to the home of his estranged wife Lara, who lives near a lake. While enjoying this brief sanctuary, Anderson discovers that the drowning victim Anne Lively was actually Agatha’s mother who, under the influence of a drug addiction, sold her daughter to the Precrime program. While she attempted to get Agatha back after getting off drugs, she was murdered. Anderton realizes that he has been framed for the murder of Leo Crow because he discovered this connection between Anne Lively and Agatha.
What Anderton doesn’t know is that Danny Witwer has now reached the same conclusion about Anderton’s actual involvement in the death of Crow. Investigating further to determine why someone would frame Anderton for that murder, he studies the footage of Anne Lively’s death, which reveals that the successful drowning was actually the second attempt on her life. The first attempt was averted by the PreCrime system, but the subsequent attempt occurred mere minutes later, and went unprevented. When Witwer informs the department’s director, Lamar Burgess, of what he's found, Burgess shoots him with Anderton's gun.
Burgess has Anderton arrested for the murder of both Crow and Witwer. Agatha is returned to the Precog Temple and the PreCrime system comes back online. While consoling Lara, John Anderton's ex-wife, about Anderton's arrest, Burgess inadvertently reveals that he is hooded figure from the footage who murdered Agatha’s mother. Realizing that Burgess is the villainous mastermind behind everything, Lara manages to disarm the device imprisoning Anderton’s brain functions, and Anderton, in turn, manages to unveil Burgess as the murderer by showing the entire footage of Agatha's vision of Anne Lively's killing during a formal banquet celebrating the success of the Precrime unit. Suddenly, the system issues a report that Burgess will kill Anderton.
When Burgess and Anderton finally confront each other, Anderton points out that Burgess is in a bind: if he kills Anderton, he will be locked up, but if he doesn't, the efficacy of PreCrime will be disproven and his corporate legacy will falter. Burgess shoots himself, and PreCrime is disbanded.
Afterwards, John and Lara reconcile and get pregnant with another child. The Precogs are given a home in a small rural cabin in an undisclosed location.
