Adjustment bureau why cant they be together

The Scriptures are full of such questions. The strength of The Adjustment Bureau is its ability to tell an adventure-filled love story that takes viewers deeper than they expected to be taken, to ask a series of questions about life that is common across religious traditions. Am I free to choose, to alter that plan, or to create a plan, or to live into that plan? Is there chance? Free will? Are we destined, and if so by whom, or what? These are the perennial questions that Nolfi, the filmmaker, has embedded into his story and the result is compelling.

He has given us a movie that teenagers and adults alike will enjoy… and then ponder. At Fuller Seminary where I teach, we pre-screened the movie twice at a near-by Cineplex which seats close to How did we understand the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a God we all believe in, to direct the lives of men and women?

The same quandaries proved common to us all. But seldom have they been served up in such an engaging way. A strongman?

Someone caring? Someone relational? And how does this compare with your understanding of God? Who are the men in hats? David successfully finds Elise in the washroom of the courthouse she is getting married in and in the process of apologizing to her, he reveals the existence of the Bureau. In danger of getting his mind erased, David gets Elise to follow him through the different portals until they end up at the Statue of Liberty, where they are trapped. However, Harry then comes to Thompson with new instructions from the chairman.

Thompson reads the new instructions and then excuses itself. Random chance barges in, and its interference must be corrected. In "The Adjustment Bureau," Matt Damon plays a congressional candidate named David Morris, who walks into a men's room he has every reason to believe is empty, and who should emerge from one of the stalls but Elise Sellas Emily Blunt. What was she doing there? You don't cross-examine a Meet Cute.

The important thing is, these two people, who were never intended to meet, have that particular chemistry that means they're a perfect romantic match. They know it, we know it, and when their eyes and lips meet, their stories become entangled. Phillip Dick was intrigued by devices that allowed him to examine the mechanisms by which life unfolds. I think he voted for free will in the short run the span of intelligent life on Earth, say , evolution for the middle distance things develop according to underlying principles and predestination in the long run the universe will entropy and cease.

A man and a woman whose eyes Meet Cute need only be concerned about the very short run. In the movie, David Morris becomes aware of certain men wearing suits and fedoras, who strangely start to appear in his life.

They explain that they work for a bureau that makes corrections when things go slightly wrong. For example, David and Elise were not intended to meet.

What was she doing in the men's room, anyway? For her sake and his, David must not see her again. OK, so this is where it gets intriguing. They do meet again, once again by pure chance.

But this time, they recognize each other, you see, because they had met earlier. Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate it? In the film, Damon plays a man who glimpses the future planned for him and realizes he wants something else.

David learns he is up against Fate itself—the men of The Adjustment Bureau— who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from sharing their lives together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept his predetermined path…or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her. While rehearsing his concession speech in a hotel bathroom, Norris meets a woman hiding in a stall.

The two share a surprisingly enjoyable conversation, ultimately leading to a kiss. Inspired, David goes off his prepared script and delivers a candid speech which is extremely well-received, making him an early favorite for the Senate race.

Some months later, Norris is preparing to start his first day at a new job. At a park near David's house, Harry Mitchell receives an assignment from his boss: Ensure Norris spills his coffee by AM; shortly thereafter Mitchell falls asleep while waiting and misses David, who boards his bus.

He encounters Elise, the woman from the bathroom, who writes down her phone number on a card and gives it to David. When Norris arrives at work, he finds his boss and campaign manager , Charlie Traynor, is being examined by unfamiliar men in suits.

David attempts to run and the men give chase. Eventually, David is incapacitated and taken to a warehouse to meet Richardson and his men. Richardson explains he and his men are from the Adjustment Bureau. The job of the Bureau's "caseworkers" is to ensure people's lives proceed as determined by "the plan", a complex document Richardson attributes to "the Chairman.

Finally, Richardson tells David he is not meant to meet Elise again, burns her phone number, and tells David to forget her. For the next three years, David takes the same bus every day, hoping to see Elise.

He encounters her one day and they reconnect. The Bureau tries to stop him from building his relationship with her, causing their schedules to separate them. David races across town, fighting the Bureau's abilities to "control his choices" to ensure he will meet Elise again. During the chase, The Bureau uses doors to travel, opening inconspicuous doors that lead to another location blocks away.

Richardson discovers that David and Elise "were meant to be together in an earlier version of the plan", and Harry speculates on whether or not the plan is always correct.

David and Elise spend an evening at a party, connecting when David tells her he became a politician after the loss of his mother and brother. They spend the night together, expressing their bond the next morning. The Bureau has Thompson formerly called "the Hammer" take authority regarding David's adjustment. He takes David to a warehouse, where David argues he has the right to choose his own path.

Thompson says that they gave humanity free will after the height of the Roman Empire, but humanity caused the Dark Ages. The Bureau took control again and created the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. When free will was returned around it resulted in two world wars and the near destruction of the planet with a nuclear conflict. Thompson releases him, and he runs to Elise's performance at her dance studio.

Thompson follows, and tells him that if he stays with Elise, he will ruin his political future as President of the United States and also ruin Elise's future as a world-famous dancer and choreographer; with David, Elise will be limited to teaching dance to children.

To make a point, he uses his adjustment power to cause Elise to fall and sprain her ankle. Overwhelmed with his future in jeopardy and faced with hurting Elise's future, David abandons her at the hospital. Eleven months later, David runs for election again and sees an announcement of Elise's imminent wedding. Harry, feeling guilty for earlier events, contacts David via secret meetings in the rain and near water.

David learns from Harry that the Bureau's weakness is water, allowing them to meet without the Bureau finding out. Harry reveals that Thompson exaggerated the consequences of David and Elise's possible relationship, and teaches David to use the doors so he may stop Elise's wedding. He gives David his hat, empowering David to use the doors. David finds Elise in the bathroom of the courthouse where she is to be wed. Initially furious and hurt after his earlier desertion, Elise is shocked when David reveals the Bureau's existence to her, and shows her how he travels through doors.

They are chased across New York.