The Adjustment Bureau
“Your future has already been written. Falling in love wasn't part of the plan.”
Director
George Nolfi
Release
4 March 2011
Runtime
106 Minutes
Certificate
12A
Synopsis
David Norris believes his future belongs to him. He's a charismatic politician with ambitions that could eventually carry him towards the highest levels of American government. But after an election setback, David encounters Elise Sellas. She's spontaneous, funny and unlike anyone he expected to meet that night. Their encounter changes David's outlook almost immediately. Then she disappears from his life. Later, chance appears to intervene. David encounters Elise again on a bus and this time manages to get her telephone number. It feels like the beginning of something. Except David wasn't supposed to be on that bus. And Elise wasn't supposed to re-enter his life. Soon afterwards, David walks into his office and sees something impossible. His colleagues freeze as strange men perform some procedure on them. David runs. They capture him and take him to a warehouse, where he finally learns the truth. The men belong to the Adjustment Bureau. Their job is to ensure people's lives continue according to a plan created by an unseen figure they call the Chairman. Small events can be manipulated. A missed bus. A spilt drink. A telephone call arriving at precisely the right moment. Tiny adjustments capable of pushing someone's entire life in another direction. And according to David's plan, Elise isn't supposed to be part of his future. The Bureau warns him to stay away from her. They even destroy the paper with her telephone number. David seems to have no way to find her again. But he refuses to forget. Years pass before another chance encounter puts Elise back in front of him. This time David isn't prepared to let her disappear. That decision puts him into direct conflict with the Bureau. The agents insist that separating David and Elise isn't cruelty. Their futures don't fit the plan. David is supposed to become an enormously influential political figure. Elise has her own. future Together, the Bureau claims, they will prevent each other from becoming the people they were meant to be. David now faces an extraordinary question. If somebody could prove that leaving the person you love would make both of you more successful, would that make leaving them the right choice?
The Movie Trailer
The Adjustment Bureau is a romantic science-fiction thriller about a man who discovers his future isn't simply influenced by chance—it's being actively controlled.
David Norris is an ambitious politician whose career appears destined for great things.
Then he meets Elise Sellas.
Their encounter is brief, unexpected and immediately changes something in David.
When they meet again by chance, David begins to wonder whether Elise might become far more important to his life than either of them expected.
There's just one problem.
They were never supposed to meet again.
David accidentally discovers a mysterious organisation operating behind the ordinary world, manipulating events to keep people's lives following a predetermined plan.
They are the Adjustment Bureau.
And according to their plan, David and Elise cannot be together.
David is given a choice.
Accept the future that has been designed for him.
Or fight against forces capable of manipulating almost everything around him for the chance to choose his own.
Universal's official synopsis confirms the central conflict: David discovers powerful unseen forces conspiring to keep him and Elise apart and must choose between accepting his predetermined path or defying fate.
THE PLAN
David's Future Has Already Been Decided
David Norris always assumed that his successes and failures belonged to him.
Then he discovers the Adjustment Bureau.
Suddenly every coincidence becomes suspicious.
A delayed journey might not be bad luck.
Running into someone might not be chance.
Even arriving somewhere thirty seconds late could be part of an adjustment designed to push his life back towards its intended path.
The terrifying part isn't that the Bureau can predict David's future.
It's that they're actively helping create it.
David isn't fighting somebody who wants to destroy his life.
He's fighting people who insist they already know what his life is supposed to become.
DAVID & ELISE
Falling in Love Wasn't Part of the Schedule
The Bureau's biggest problem isn't David Norris.
It's David and Elise together.
Every time they're separated, something pulls them back together.
For David, that begins to feel like proof that their relationship must mean something.
The Bureau sees things differently.
They insist the attraction between them is an error — something left behind by an earlier version of the plan that should no longer exist.
That turns an ordinary love story into an argument about destiny.
David isn't merely trying to convince Elise that they belong together.
He has to challenge the machinery of fate itself.
FREE WILL
What Is a Perfect Future Worth If You Never Chose It?
The Adjustment Bureau doesn't initially threaten David with death.
It offers him success.
Stay away from Elise, and his political career can become everything he once dreamed it would be.
Elise can fulfil her own potential too.
It's an unusually powerful temptation because the Bureau might actually be telling the truth.
David isn't choosing between happiness and disaster.
He's choosing between the extraordinary future somebody else has designed for him and the uncertain future he wants to build himself.
That makes the central question much larger than whether David and Elise end up together.
If every important decision has already been made for you, can the resulting life ever truly belong to you?