YMMV / The Adjustment Bureau

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is everyone working for the Bureau a Manipulative Bastard, or are they Well-Intentioned Extremist types?
  • Is David a heroic everyman standing up for his rights as a human being, or is he a selfish jerk turning his back on a chance to save the world, or at least improve it?
• Esoteric Happy Ending: David and Elise go skipping off into the sunset while Harry theorises that their experience was Just as Planned by the Chairman. Not only is the Bureau still manipulating everything, the implications that the Chairman would force a choice as grave as “Go back to being controlled every second of your life or get lobotomised for interfering with the plan” paint him in a very bad light.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Michael Kelly plays a political advisor two years before his role in House of Cards (US) as Chief of Staff Doug Stamper.
  • Emily Blunt would do two more sci-fi films dealing with the unusual movement through time - Looper and Edge of Tomorrow.
  • Matt Damon, who, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plays an Asgardian actor in the role of Loki, here finding himself in a very similar situation as the real Loki in his solo series- namely, up against a bureaucratic agency of Time Police while he tries to Screw Destiny because of the woman he falls in love with. For bonus points, Damon also previously played an angel named Loki. And in the series, just like this film, the protagonists sharing a Big Damn Kiss is what screws up the universe's planned destiny.
• Magnificent Bastard: Agent Thompson is a high-ranking member of the Adjustment Bureau, nicknamed "The Hammer" for his efficient and heavy-handed tactics to convince people to comply with the Bureau's plan for humanity. Brought in to force David Norris and Elise Sellas apart to fulfill the plan, Thompson explains that Elise was planted by the Bureau to inspire David to make a speech that brings him back from the brink of defeat after losing an election due to a costly mistake and his role in their plans is to become President of the United States. Thompson then reveals that Elise and David will never reach their dreams together, injuring Elise's ankle and goading David into hitting him to make a point about David's impulsiveness being brought to the forefront by Elise, convincing David to abandon Elise so they can fulfill their dreams. When David chooses Elise once more, Thompson leads the efforts to stop David, trapping David and Elise on the Bureau's top floor and only being stopped because the Bureau's leader changes the plan, whereupon Thompson respectfully stands down.
• One-Scene Wonder: Terence Stamp as Thompson. He is only in three or four scenes, but completely steals all of them. It helps that Thompson is easily the most charismatic and dangerous member of the Bureau.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • 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 anyone wearing a hat could be one of them.
  • Plus the fact that if your life is not going very well, this could be their plan for you and they'll do what they need to to keep your life that way.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Anthony Mackie would get his true breakout role a couple of years later as the Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • Emily Blunt was known but not necessarily A-list at the time. She would eventually reach the A-list with Into the Woods a few years later.
• Spiritual Successor: To Dark City, as both films are about a man trying to reconnect with the woman he loves while fleeing from memory-erasing men in very nice hats, who travel across the city through unusual means (and like the Strangers, the Adjusters have a weakness to water.)
• Tear Jerker: The scene where Elise falls during a show. The sheer look of panic on her face as she is carried out is very sobering - especially for such a usually happy girl. Even worse is the shot of her waiting alone in the hospital after David has left her.

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