The Adjustment Team by Phillip K Dick

First published in 1954, The Adjustment Team tells the story of Ed Fletcher, a man going about his ordinary routine who accidentally stumbles upon the machinery operating behind everyday reality. Part The Wizard of Oz and part The Matrix, it is a slow dive into what might be hiding just beneath the surface and whether we would actually want to know the truth if we had the opportunity.

The story begins with a Clerk approaching a talking dog and giving it instructions to bark at exactly 8:15 a.m. The bark is supposed to activate “A Friend with a Car,” delaying Ed long enough for an adjustment to take place. Unfortunately, the dog falls asleep and barks one minute late. That tiny mistake sets everything in motion, allowing Ed to arrive somewhere he isn't supposed to be and witness a world no ordinary person was ever meant to see.

It isn't often that I feel genuinely unsettled while reading something, but the description of this other version of reality really got to me. The imagery Philip K. Dick created, combined with whatever my imagination added to it, was surprisingly horrifying. The world Ed discovers feels empty, quiet, artificial, and completely wrong. There is something unsettling about seeing familiar surroundings stripped of the qualities that make them feel real. It was isolating and eerie, and I loved it.

The story ends on a satisfying note, which surprised me considering how strange the opening seemed. When I started the story, I thought to myself, “Am I really going to read a story about a talking dog?” By the end, though, I had bought into the premise and really enjoyed myself. What begins almost playfully develops into one of those classic Philip K. Dick ideas about reality, free will, and how little we may actually understand about the world around us.

In 2011, The Adjustment Team was loosely adapted into The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Unlike many of the Philip K. Dick adaptations I've discussed, this one was commercially successful, earning more than $120 million worldwide against a budget of roughly $60 million, and it received generally positive reviews. The film expands the original idea considerably, turning Dick's strange little story about discovering the machinery behind reality into a romantic science-fiction thriller.

The adaptation is quite different from the source material, but the central idea remains intact: there may be forces quietly shaping our lives without our knowledge, and discovering that truth raises an uncomfortable question. If someone offered you a glimpse behind the curtain, would you really want to look?

The Adjustment Bureau doesn’t share much DNA with the original short story. There’s no talking dog, no main character named Ed, no wife, no creepy sequence, and no big reveal. Really, the only thing retained from The Adjustment Team is the central idea that there is a group of people working behind the scenes, quietly setting events in motion. Everything else is replaced with a story about true love, destiny, fate, and how much one person is willing to sacrifice.

When the movie began, I groaned a little because Matt Damon’s character, David Norris, is a politician, and I just don’t have much interest in movies about politicians anymore. Thankfully, I gave it fifteen minutes, and the movie did enough to capture my attention and keep me in my seat. I thought it was very well done, riveting at times, and ultimately told a great story.

Is it a good adaptation of The Adjustment Team? No. Quite honestly, it’s a pretty terrible adaptation.

Is it a good movie? Definitely. In fact, it might be the best Philip K. Dick film adaptation I’ve watched so far.