The Great Irony of Life
Anderton is a Police Commissioner, the founder of Precrime. All his life, as he was working on improvement of his Precog system, he always was a good guy who captured bad guys; now his system, the work of his life, played a joke with him – he is accused in the intention to commit the crime, although he hasn’t even thought about it. And the funniest thing is that he didn’t even know the man, who he was supposed to kill. Anderton is wondering how could it happen, his system is perfect and he is an honest men. The explanation is only one for him – there is a plot against him. The irony here is that Anderton became a victim of his own pet project.
The murder with a noble purpose
Anderton is a potential murderer – that is what his precogs say, but he knows that the data was false because Kaplan wanted to destroy the Precognition system. Now, in order to prove that his invention works, Anderton has to kill Kaplan, because it was said in his card. The irony is that he has to risk his life to protect his job and respect in society even though he will be regarded as murderer: “In that, the second –time path, all I wanted to do was to keep my job. It wasn’t Kaplan I wanted to kill. It was my own position and life I was interested in”.
Old and bald but still hard-working
When Anderton sees his new assistant – the young handsome man with blue eyes, his first thought was: “I'm getting bald. Bald and fat and old.”. but he didn’t say it aloud, he wanted to show this young man that he is still able to work and not going to retire: “I'm under no compulsion to retire. I founded Precrime and I can stay on here as long as I want. It's purely my decision”. It is ironic how the old man wants to show off, though actually he knows how miserable he is and he trembles when thinking he will be removed by his new assistant.
Worldwide plot
Anderton is convinced, that his new assistant wants to remove him and he is in plot with Anderton’s wife Lisa. And Kaplan was “a kind man” who helped Anderton to uncover it, but, as it happened, it was just his fantasy – Witwer and Lisa helped him to protect the Precrime system and his reputation and the Kaplan was “a bad guy”. The irony is that Anderton’s fear of retirement was so strong that he started to see the foe in every person he meets, even in his wife.
