# The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau is a 2011 film about the affair between a politician and a ballerina that is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart.
    Directed and written by George Nolfi, based on the Philip K. Dick short story Adjustment Team.

## David Norris

* All I have are the choices I make, and I choose her, come what may.
* [to Elise] I can go through this door alone. You'll never see me or the people chasing us again, or you can come with me, and I don't know what's on the other side, but you'd be next to me and that's all I've wanted since the minute I met you.

## Harry Mitchell

* [to David] You're going to look for her, aren't you? You won't find her. They'll make sure of it. Even if they weren't trying to stop you, there are nine million people in this city. You'll never find her. Forget about her. Move on with your life.
* [to David] The minute you go through that first door, all hell will break loose. Assume everyone with a hat on is a threat. I don't care if it's a Yankee cap, a bowler, or even a yarmulke. Assume everyone in a hat is working with Thompson.
* [voiceover] Most people live life on the path we set for them. Too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while, people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize free will is a gift you'll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that's the Chairman's real plan that maybe one day, we won't write the plan. You will.

## Richardson

* [to David] Very few humans have seen what you've seen today. And we're determined to keep it that way. So, if you ever reveal our existence, we'll erase your brain. The intervention team will be sent, your emotions, your memories, your entire personality, will be expunged. Your friends and family will think you've gone crazy. You, well, you won't think anything.

## Dialogue

    Elise Sellas: Were you just looking at my legs while I slept?
    David Norris: I was helpless against the dress.
    Elise Sellas: It's a skirt.
    David Norris: It's a belt!
    Elise Sellas: You're that guy running for Senate, aren't you?
    David Norris: I am that guy... yeah. Are you a registered New York voter?
    Elise Sellas: Do I sound like I am?
    Elise Sellas: I'm not some hopeless romantic. I would never allow myself to be that way, but once I've felt, even for a moment, what I felt with you. You ruined me. I didn't want to settle for less.
    David Norris: I know the feeling.
    Elise Sellas: It scares the shit out of me.
    David Norris: I'm not going to hurt you.
    Elise Sellas: You don't need to say that.
    David Norris: I'm not going to hurt you.
    David Norris: Who the hell are you guys?
    Richardson: We... are the people that make sure things happen according to plan.
    David Norris: What ever happened to Free Will?
    Thompson: We actually tried Free Will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire, we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. You gave us the Dark Ages for five centuries... until finally we decided we should come back in. The Chairman thought maybe we just needed to do a better job of teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. So we gave you the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution. For six hundred years, we taught you to control your impulses with reason, then in 1910, we stepped back. Within fifty years, you'd brought us World War I, the Depression, Fascism, the Holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that point, a decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix. You don't have free will, David. You have the appearance of free will...You have free will over which toothpaste you use or which beverage to order at lunch, but humanity just isn't mature enough to control the important things.
    David Norris: So you handle the important things? The last time I checked, the world is a pretty screwed-up place.
    Thompson: It's still here. If we had left things in your hands, it wouldn't be.
    David Norris: I guess you're not supposed to identify with your subjects. You're not supposed to feel guilt.
    Harry Mitchell: We're not built to lead with our emotions like you are, but that doesn't mean we don't have them.

## Taglines

* Your Future Has Been Adjusted
* Fight for your fate.
* They stole his future. Now he's taking it back.
* Your Fate Has Been Adjusted
* Your World Has Been Adjusted
* Your Path Has Been Adjusted

## Cast

* Matt Damon - David Norris
* Emily Blunt - Elise Sellas
* Anthony Mackie - Harry Mitchell
* John Slattery - Richardson
* Michael Kelly - Charlie Traynor
* Terence Stamp - Thompson
* Donnie Keshawarz - Donaldson
* Anthony Ruivivar - McCrady

## External links

* The Adjustment Bureau quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* The Adjustment Bureau at Rotten Tomatoes
* Official website