Badlands Story Hour Ep. 189: The Adjustment Bureau

Chris Paul and Burning Bright take on The Adjustment Bureau, George Nolfi's 2011 adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story, with Matt Damon as senatorial hopeful David Norris, Emily Blunt as Elise, and Anthony Mackie and John Slattery as the men in hats keeping him on plan. Chris points out how many real politicians and pundits play themselves in the opening campaign montage, and Burning Bright explains why Damon's Obama-era politics make that blend of fiction and reality hard to watch now.

The two dig into The Daily Show and Jon Stewart's famous Crossfire appearance as a case study in controlled opposition, with Burning Bright borrowing the wrestling idea of the jobber to explain who was set up to lose. From there they read the Bureau as handlers nudging a candidate along a map of nodes and inflection points, why the system works best when most players don't know the plan, and how love can become leverage. They close on the movie's last line, that free will is a gift you won't know how to use until you fight for it, and pick 2001: A Space Odyssey for next week.