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Agent Richardson is one of the main antagonists of the 2011 science fiction romantic thriller film The Adjustment Bureau, alongside his fellow Agents Harry Mitchell and Thompson and the overarching antagonist the Chairman.
He is a supernatural being with telekinetic and teleportation powers which he employs in his work as a veteran Agent for the mysterious Adjustment Bureau. Significantly more powerful than other Agents, he is the head of an Intervention squad and Agent Mitchell's boss, whom he tasks with following and streamlining up-and-coming Senator David Norris' life. When Mitchell fails, causing Norris to deviate from the Bureau's plan from him, Richardson personally intervenes and attempts to reason with Norris. The politician, however resists Richardson's influence and reaches a ripple point -a spot in his life from where it is impossible to be brought back on track without damaging other humans' Plans. Defeated, Richardson surrenders the case to veteran Agent Thompson.
He was portrayed by John Slattery.
Biography[]
Richardson was a supernatural being known to humans as an "Angel" and employed by the Adjustment Bureau, an organization tasked on subtly influencing them and controlling their society to ensure their survival. By the time of Richardson's promotion to Intervention squad manager, the Bureau had already twice tried and failed to surrender free will back to the humans, with disastrous consequences: namely the Dark Times and the two World Wars. Following these disasters, Richardson's squad operated with impunity, swiftly intervening and resetting deviating humans to ensure their society's survival.
The Norris case[]
Sometime during the late 20th century the human David Norris was born to an ambitious father and an absent-minded mother. The Bureau's Plan for Norris was to eventually have him become US President; as such, Richardson and his subordinate Agent Harry Mitchell made sure that his father would fail in his pursuit of his own political career and that his brother would die from drug overdose, with both events motivating the young Norris into wishing to avoid their fate and finishing what his father had started. The death of his mother -a random event the Bureau hadn't predicted- further motivated him and made him into a passionate people person who gave everything for his home State of New York. Eventually, Norris ran for Senator, but was crushed from his opponent despite having popular support from the city people. The Bureau arranged for a woman, Ellie Sellas, to meet him in the bathroom before he gave his speech in which he planned to announce his quitting from the run; Sellas declared her support for his cause and the two kissed, giving Norris the confidence he needed to make a last minute change to his speech and announce his intention of running for Senator again.
Deviating from the Plan[]
Norris' Plan seemed to proceed to the Bureau's specifications, until a month later when Richardson learned that Norris' aide was objecting to some of his suggestions the Bureau deemed necessary. Richardson organized his team and prepared for an intervention; to ensure that Norris would be absent he tasked Mitchell with spilling the politician's coffee during his morning walk in the park just before 7:05 a.m, causing him to miss the bus and be late by ten minutes. Mitchell however fell asleep and missed Norris, who caught the bus in time and left before Mitchell would catch up with him. In the bus, he met back with Ellie Sellas, whom he was not supposed to see again, and the two became close, with Ellie giving him his phone number in a piece of paper.
Upon arriving at work, Norris found his entire staff frozen and his aide being examined by Richardson and his squad. Realizing the mistake, Richardson hunted a terrified Norris around the building, always being two steps ahead thanks to his teleportation abilities, and eventually trapped him in a corner office. There, Mitchell caught up with them and, in Richardson's orders, placed a cloth over Norris' face rendering him unconscious. The team then took him to a Bureau warehouse to be interrogated by Richardson.
When Norris awoke, he found his captors discussing with higher-ranking officers from the Bureau, who explain to Richardson that Norris' case has been deemed of critical importance and despite knowing about their existence they weren't allowed to erase his memories. Frustrated but understanding, Richardson instead spoke to Norris, revealing the Bureau's purpose and existence to him and allowing him to ask questions. He then took the paper with Sellas' phone number from Norris' coat, and explaining that he wasn't allowed to ever see her again or talk to anyone about the Bureau, he burned it and then dropped the human back into his now brainwashed aide's plan. Norris, having been warned that revealing anything about the Bureau to any humans would result in his immediate amnesticization did not tell anything about his adventure to his aide, and instead watched silently as the previously objecting man now passionately agreed with his business proposals.
Reaching a ripple point[]
For three years the Bureau, specifically Mitchell and Richardson kept an eye on Norris, who followed through with his promise to them and stayed on the path they had tracked for him. His campaign was more successful this time and he was ready to formally announce his candidacy for the next elections, when one morning he somehow noticed Sellas on the street. Ignoring the Bureau's restrictions he followed her and caught up to her; the two went for a walk in the park where they rekindled their relationship. Richardson's intelligence immediately notified him, and he and Mitchell scrambled to the park where they dispatched Norris' aide to prevent the two from kissing -their ripple point. The aide informed Norris that he was late for a speech on Brooklyn bridge; when Sellas suggested to go with him as her dance rehearsal was nearby, Richardson also moved it to another location further away from there. Despite these measures, Norris and Sellas were unwilling to give up their date, so the Bureau dispatched a TV crew to the speech; upon learning of that, Norris' aide practically dragged him away, eliminating the danger and giving Richardson a break.
After the speech, Norris remembers that Sellas' rehearsal is almost over and decides to catch up with her again, to Richardson's immense frustration. Refusing to give up, Norris attempts to reach a bus, but prompted by the Bureau all buses avoid him and no taxi cab stops for him. When Norris persistently flags another cab, Richardson telekinetically causes another car to crash onto it; he then dispatches an Agent posing as a police officer along with the real units responding to the accident to further delay him. Norris sees through the ruse and escapes, eventually reaching the dance hall and managing to lay his eyes on a dancing Sellas. Richardson arrives at the dance hall too late, and looking at his book, he realizes that the two have reached their ripple point.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Teleportation: Richardson, like all Agents, is able to teleport through the world -at least in the city and immediate vicinity of New York- via a network of ordinary-looking doors. As long as he wears his Agent hat he is able to unlock and enter a doorway and exit from another by rotating their handle clockwise, even if the two doors are completely disconnected from one another, being in a different room, building or place altogether. Rotating a door's handle counterclockwise will teleport the Agent inside the Adjustment Bureau's headquarters. No two doors lead to the same place, and not all doors work as portals, but Richardson is very skilled with detecting and using suitable doors to pursue and trap his opponents despite lacking a door map like Mitchell and Thompson, a skill which he used to chase David Norris around his own campaign building when he was trying to escape the Bureau.
- Telekinesis: Like all Agents, Richardson is also able to use rudimentary telekinesis. He used this ability to stop David Norris from escaping the Bureau in their warehouse by slightly lifting a floor panel, causing him to trip and fall.
- Intention detection: By using his Plan book, a notebook-sized parchment with seemingly infinite pages, Richardson has access to every human's decision tree. This allows them to accurately predict their intentions as well as track the way these will influence the rest of the world. He can also detect ripple points, marked with a red circle; these are decisions and events that once performed will irreversibly damage the human's Plan.
- Decelerated aging: All Agents are said to age in a far slower rate than humans; Richardson is no exception and is implied to have been around since the Stone Age.