Sean Wykoski

The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau was an excellent movie. I found it incredibly relatable to the two topics we are discussing in this class. The movie touched on the topics of free will and determinism; whether or not we as humans are free to do as we want or if all of our big decisions are determined for us and we are just following a plan.

In the movie, David Norris had dedicated his whole life to becoming a successful politician due to the death of his family. When he meets a girl, Elise Sellas, they instantly fall in love. However, they weren't supposed to meet again. David discovers the Adjustment Bureau on accident and finds out about how they intervene with people's fate. They tell David that he is not to find Elise again because it isn't what the chairman wants. The chairman in this movie is what I believe to a reference to some type of deity. David spends 3 years looking and waiting for Elise when they run in again. Since he has broken from the Chairman's determined path an antagonistic force is applied in a last attempt to thwart David and Elise's love for each other. Thompson guilts David into making a decision, either David continues to be with Elise, but they both lose their dreams or he never sees Elise again and they both go on to become successful in their dreams. David state's "So much for free will" and Thompson replies that they had tried giving humans free will, but each time we seemed to ruin it through destruction and tragedy. This brought up the point the movie makes about free will. The Bureau stated that we have free will at times, like deciding what to drink or what toothpaste to buy, but that they handled our big life decisions. It made me wonder if free will does exist or do we just have the belief that it exists. It brought up the fact that even though we may feel free, the tiny things that happen to us are what keep us on a pre determined path. If there is a god, or "Chairman" as they call it in the movie, does this god have an ultimate plan for us that we are unable to diverge from or are we able to decide our own fate. I liked at the very end of the movie how David and Elise were able to prove that humans can handle free will by fighting for it. They loved each other and they knew that there was no way they could ever be happy without the other, so instead of giving into the Bureau's predetermined plan, they fought for their happiness and ultimately changed the Chairman's predestined path for them. I thought that the movie really brought out another way that I think about determinism and free will. I've always heard both ideas, but I felt that the movie did a great job of combining the two ideas to let people decide of one was actual or if it was just an idea.