"It's not about the movies"
“minority
report” (2002), directed steven spielberg
This powerhouse summer blockbuster teams up movie idol, heartthrob, Tom Cruise (fresh from his critical and financial failure “Vanilla Sky”) with superstar director, Steven Spielberg (fresh from his critical and financial failure “A.I.”). The story takes place in a not too distant future where, through psychic means, the police can predict a crime and arrest the perpetrator before they commit the crime. I’m sure the star and the director would have appreciated having this ability prior to getting involved in their previous projects.
Actually,
when you think about it, wouldn’t most of us like to be able to tap into the
power to predict the future? I know
I sure would. It would have been
nice to have known ahead of time about that idiot in the super sized Ford truck
that tried to cut me off on the freeway on the way home from the theater
tonight. Or better yet, that I was
going to get shortchanged on my food order in the McDonald’s drive through.
Don’t you just hate when that happens?
You order a cheeseburger, a fish sandwich, some fries and a coke and when
you get home you discover that they forgot to give you the fish sandwich.
That’s par for the course with McDonalds, though.
The only thing worse is when you order inside at the counter and you have
to step aside and let the guy behind you place his order because part of your
order isn’t ready yet. As you
stand there patiently, you can see that the part of your order (the
cheeseburger, for instance) that is
ready is just sitting there. Why?
Because you are waiting for the fish sandwich. Does the cretin in the paper cap at least bag the partial
order? Of course not.
He can only bag complete orders. While
you are waiting for the fish, the guy behind you steps up and orders a
cheeseburger and you are forced to watch helplessly as the last cheeseburger, your
cheeseburger, is handed out to someone else. As the cheeseburger is being whisked away, you watch your
fish sandwich slide down the chute and…. just sit there. Why? Because it
is only a “partial” order now and you have to wait for a new cheeseburger to
be prepared before the complete order can be bagged and finally given to you.
This
kind of thing doesn’t happen at Wendy’s.
If your order isn’t complete, they give you the part that is.
They invite you to sit down at a table and tell you that they will bring
you the rest when it is ready. Isn’t
that so much more civilized? Of
course, half the time they forget to bring you the food, but that’s not the
point. The point is, if you were
able to see the future and you knew how much trouble it was going to be to get
some fast food you would have just skipped the whole thing and heated up the
leftovers at home.