Colin Farrell's Partying Made His Minority Report Co-Star Tom Cruise Angry

Precognition is the name of the game in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report." In this dystopian world, precrime chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) spearheads an operation to apprehend would-be killers alongside those likely to commit spontaneous crimes. But John is under constant scrutiny, as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) is auditing the operation to expose any flaws. The two inevitably clash, but things take a turn for the worse once a precog has a vision that alters John's trajectory forever.

Both Cruise and Farrell deliver riveting performances in their respective roles in Spielberg's sci-fi flick, but things didn't always go smoothly. As Farrell recounted on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," he experienced "one of the worst days I've ever had on a film set" while filming the movie. Turns out, Farrell was late for a 6 a.m. pickup on his birthday because he had "got up to all sorts of nonsense the night before." In an attempt to cope with the situation, the actor asked for "six Pacifico Cervezas and a pack of 20 Marlboro Reds" to be on set before filming a scene, but it took 46 takes to perfect:

"I had a couple of beers and I went to the set. But it was terrible. I will never forget the line that I had, but I couldn't get it out. It was: 'I'm sure you've all grasped the fundamental paradox of pre-crime methodology' [...] I remember one of them coming up and saying, 'Do you want to go and take a breath of fresh air?' And I remember thinking: 'If I go out and take a breath of fresh air, then I'll be under more pressure when I come back in.' It took 46 takes. Tom wasn't very happy with me. Tom was not happy with me."

While Tom Cruise's frustration with the situation is understandable, Colin Farrell did his best under pressure, especially while dealing with alcohol use issues — something he has frankly acknowledged in multiple interviews. After all, the "Minority Report" incident occurred years before he went to rehab and got sober. In the "Late Show" interview, Farrell reflected on his behavior and how big a deal it was for him to work alongside the folks he deeply admired:

"I grew up watching them lads, I grew up watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun' and 'Risky Business', and Steven Spielberg and [composer] John Williams kind of raised me in their films. But it was my birthday on May 31. We were shooting. I begged production of a $120 million film if they would not have me working on my birthday. Who did I think I was?"

Farrell might look back on this particular day with some amount of embarrassment, but his performance in the scene that required 46 takes is electrifying, belying the struggles he endured during filming (though according to Rotten Tomatoes, it's not one of his best movies). His Danny is an unlikable skeptic, but his blunt perspective is instrumental to our understanding of Cruise's John, who wholeheartedly believes in the flawed, fascistic Precrime system. Along with John's belief comes the death of individuality, which Danny vehemently opposes, as he views fatalism as an antithesis to personal freedom. Danny's bureaucratic bent might not paint him as a sympathetic character, but Farrell's performance accentuates the moral complexity of an opportunistic man heavily criticizing a system capable of totalitarian oppression.

John realizes that Danny's suspicions are well-founded, but only after he's personally victimized by the system. What follows is a spectacle-heavy exploration of systemic morality and how individuals like Danny and John factor into these dystopian societies. (It also has a surprisingly real and dangerous hoverpack scene.)