History YMMV / TheAdjustmentBureau

* AntiClimax: After chasing David and Elise throughout New York (eventually having them cornered by Thompson), the Chairman decides to let them have free will and let them go without a fuss, all without even showing his face.
* BrokenAesop: The main message of the movie seems to be ScrewDestiny, as the main character fights to defy "The Plan" and be with the girl he loves. Yet, [[spoiler: we find out that the only reason he's so obsessed with this girl is because they were originally meant to be together in the first place, before the plan changed. Also, David can only effectively fight the plan by receiving help from an Adjustment Bureau Agent on the inside.]]

* WhiteAndGreyMorality: Given the ParanoiaFuel premise, the [[BecauseDestinySaysSo Plan]] that the bureaucrats carry out leads humanity in a generally positive direction. It becomes less a conflict of good vs. evil and more a debate on to what degree HumansAreFlawed, and how hard we're willing to work to [[EarnYourHappyEnding make the Plan unnecessary]].

* OneSceneWonder: Terence Stamp is only in three or four scenes, but completely steals all of them.

* BrokenAesop: The main message of the movie seems to be ScrewDestiny, as the main character fights to defy "The Plan" and be with the girl he loves. Yet, [[spoiler: we find out that the only reason he's so obsessed with this girl is because they were originally meant to be together in the first place, before the plan changed. Also, David can only effectively fight the plan by recieving help from an Adjustment Burea Agent on the inside.]]

** The collapse went into the dark ages, which lead to the rise of power of the Catholic Church, which if it hadn't had happened may have went to a wholely different set of actions besides the Crusades. This is just one example. The rest of the world may have been "fine", but that doesn't mean there wasn't a large ripple effect. Think of "too big to fail" on a major scale.

** The collapse went into the dark ages, which lead to the rise of power of the Catholic Church, which if it hadn't had happened may have went to a wholely different set of actions besides the Crusades. This is just one example. The rest of the world may have been "fine", but that doesn't mean there wasn't a large ripple effect. Think of "too big to fail" on a major scale.

* UnfortunateImplications: In the ending, [[spoiler: the Bureau is not gone - they just deigned to make an exception for David and Elis, and this is their happy ending. Granted, total free will would cause world wide disaster, and the moral of the story is that free will is something you earn -- but are the two of them honestly going to keep on living life as usual, in a world where they know all their friends and family are following a very precise script since they haven't "earned" the right to do otherwise?]]

* HollywoodHistory: We're told that letting humanity off the leash led to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages. The fact that parts of the world outside Europe were doing just fine, or no worse than usual, during that period is ignored.

* {{Unfortunate Implications}}: In the ending, [[spoiler: the Bureau is not gone - they just deigned to make an exception for David and Elis, and this is their happy ending. Granted, total free will would cause some world wide disaster, and the moral of the story is that free will is something you earn -- but are the two of them honestly going to keep on living life as usual, in a world where they know all their friends and family are following a very precise script since they haven't "earned" the right to do otherwise?]]
** The plan is not that detailed.[[spoiler: They are only making him lonley and misserable, because that makes him a great POTUS. Otherwise they would not care about him.]]

* {{Unfortunate Implications}}: In the ending, [[spoiler: the Bureau is not gone - they just deigned to make an exception for David and Elis, and this is their happy ending. Granted, total free will would cause some world wide disaster, and the moral of the story is that free will is something you earn -- but are the two of them honestly going to keep on living life as usual, in a world where they know all their friends and family are following a very precise script since they haven't "earned" the right to do otherwise?]]

* The Dark Ages only happened in one part of the world--another part grew rapidly.
* The "Chairman" decides that since the two main characters tried hard enough to stay together, they would get a happy ending. The Aesop being that few who have free will choose to make sacrifices for it. Except that, in this case, they literally were just INSANE ENOUGH to get themselves killed to be together. Because, of course, everyone, under threat of a FateWorseThanDeath by people who are both everywhere and possess supernatural powers, chooses to keep pursuing a romantic relationship with someone they hardly know. That's called insanity, not free will.
* Are the bureaucrats really [[{{our angels are different}} angels]] and The Chairman really {{God}}? Maybe. Or maybe they're not really [[{{made of magic}} supernatural]], instead, perhaps they're {{time cops}} originating from [[{{GrandUnifiedTimeline/TheFarFuture}} the distant future]]. They could be descendants of humanity, and maybe The Chairman isn't God per se, but more of a [[{{the singularity}} Post-Singularistic superintelligence]] overseeing past, present, and future.
** [[TakingAThirdOption Or maybe they're sufficiently advanced aliens who discovered and uplifted us eons ago.]]
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEu2TyI-Nw "Future's Bright"]]
* FridgeLogic: The movie makes a big deal of David choosing Elise over what The Plan says he should do to prove that he has free will and his decisions are his own. [[spoiler: ...Except for the fact that the only reason he's choosing Elise is because it was in a previous version of The Plan that never got fully overwritten, and therefore isn't a real choice at all. The movie never addresses the fact that David doesn't appear to actually have any free will whatsoever.]]
** I believe the point was less about them actually [[spoiler: actually having free will in their choosing of each other, and more about their willingness to fight for their right to deviate from the plan. In the end, because of their willingness to do so, they are granted actual free will (note the rest of their "plan" from that point on is completely blank. In other words, yes they chose each other because of a previous plan, but WHY they were together didn't really matter.]]
** Also, [[spoiler: if the plan was rewritten, shouldn't Elise have felt a connection to Adrian just as much as she did to David? The original plan had her with David, but the new plan had her with Adrian, so why didn't the new plan do anything about her feelings towards him?]]

* {{Unfortunate Implications}} : Anyone? In the ending David and Elise [[spoiler: are walking down the street and everyone around them is wearing a hat, which signifies an Adjuster. Granted, total free will would cause some world wide disaster. But how could you live knowing that all your friends and family are following a very precise script? Wouldn't you try to at least free them? Apparently, David and Elise's love is all they need.]]
** It's pretty clearly stated that [[spoiler: if you want free will, you have to earn it. People have to want something so badly that they're willing to give up everything for it, whether they know about the plan or not. David and Elise earned it, but they don't have the right to give it to other people. ]]
*** Also, small point but worth making, [[spoiler: Just because everyone wearing a hat ''could'' be an Adjuster it doesn't mean they ''are'' one. Harry says early on that they have limited manpower.]]

** It's pretty clearly stated that [[spoiler: if you want free will, you have to earn it. People have to want something so badly that they're willing to give up everything for it, whether they know about the plan or not. David and Elise earned it, but they don't have the right to give it to other people. ]]

* {{Unfortunate Implications}} : Anyone? In the ending David and Elise [[spoiler: are walking down the street and everyone around them is wearing a hat, which signifies an Adjuster. Granted, total free will would cause some world wide disaster. But how could you live knowing that all your friends and family are following a very precise script? Wouldn't you try to at least free them? Apparently, David and Elise's love is all they need.]]

** [[TakingAThirdOption maybe they're SufficientlyAdvanced aliens who discovered and uplifted us eons ago.]]

* Are the bureaucrats really [[{{our angels are different}} angels]] and The Chairman really {{God}}? Maybe. Or maybe they're not really [[{{made of magic}} supernatural]], instead, perhaps they're {{time cops}} originating from [[{{grand unified timeline far future}} the distant future]]. They could be descendants of humanity, and maybe The Chairman isn't God per se, but more of a [[{{the singularity}} Post-Singularistic superintelligence]] overseeing past, present, and future.

* Are the bureaucrats really [[{{our angels are different}} angels]] and The Chairman really {{God}}? Maybe. Or maybe they're not really [[{{made of magic}} supernatural]], instead, perhaps they're {{time cops}} originating from [[{{grand unified timeline the far future}} the distant future]]. They could be descendants of humanity, and maybe The Chairman isn't God per se, but more of a [[{{the singularity}} Post-Singularistic superintelligence]] overseeing past, present, and future.

* Are the bureaucrats really [[{{our angels are different}} angels]] and The Chairman really {{God}}? Maybe. Or maybe they're not really [[{{made of magic}} supernatural]], instead, perhaps they're {{time cops}} originating from [[{{grand unified timeline/the far future}} the distant future]]. They could be descendants of humanity, and maybe The Chairman isn't God per se, but more of a [[{{the singularity}} Post-Singularistic superintelligence]] overseeing past, present, and future.

* Are the bureaucrats really [[{{our angels are different}} angels]] and The Chairman really {{God}}? Maybe. Or maybe they're not really [[{{made of magic}} supernatural]], instead, perhaps they're {{time cops}} originating from [[{{the far future}} the distant future]]. They could be descendants of humanity, and maybe The Chairman isn't God per se, but more of a [[{{the singularity}} Post-Singularistic superintelligence]] overseeing past, present, and future.

* {{Unfortunate Implications}} : Anyone? In the ending David and Elise [[spoiler: are walking down the street and everyone around them is wearing a hat, which signifies an Adjuster.]] Though they see this, they don't really care because they can finally be together. Granted, [[spoiler: total free will might cause some world wide disaster. But how could you live knowing that all your close friends and family are following a very precise script?]]

* WhiteAndGreyMorality: Given the ParanoiaFuel premise, the [[BecauseDestinySaysSo Plan]] that the bureaucrats carry out leads humanity in a generally positive direction. It becomes less a conflict of good vs. evil and more a debate on to what degree HumansAreFlawed, and how hard we're willing to work to [[EarnYourHappyEnding make the Plan unnecessary]].

* ParanoiaFuel: The idea that your whole life's direction, down to what whether or not you're late for work, could be controlled by a group of cosmic beings, especially since [[spoiler: anyone wearing a hat could be one of them]].

ParanoiaFuel: The idea that your whole life's direction, down to what whether or not you're late for work, could be controlled by a group of cosmic beings, especially since [[spoiler: anyone wearing a hat could be one of them]].