Office Space

Comedic tale of company workers who hate their jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss.

• Director: Mike Judge
• Genre:Comedy / Crime / Romance
• Runtime:89 minutes

Cast

Ron Livingston : Peter Gibbons
Jennifer Aniston: Joanna
David Herman : Michael Bolton
Ajay Naidu : Samir
Diedrich Bader : Lawrence

Peter Gibbons is a disgruntled programmer working for Initech, a company plagued by excessive management. Peter spends his days “staring at his desk” instead of reprogramming bank software for the then-expected Y2K disaster. His co-workers include highly strung Samir Nagheenanajar, who is annoyed by the fact that nobody can pronounce his last name correctly; Michael Bolton, who detests having the same name as the famous singer, whom he hates; and Milton Waddams, a meek, fixated collator who constantly mumbles to himself (most notably about his workmates borrowing his favorite red Swingline stapler). All four are repeatedly bullied and harassed by management, especially Initech’s callous vice president, Bill Lumbergh. The staff are further agitated by the arrival of two consultants, informally known as “The Bobs,” since they share the same first name, who are brought in to help with cutting expenses, mainly through downsizing.

Peter is depressed, bored, and pushed around at work. He attends an occupational hypnotherapy session urged upon him by his girlfriend Anne. The obese occupational hypnotherapist, Dr. Swanson, suddenly dies of a heart attack before he can snap Peter out of a state of complete relaxation. The newly relaxed and still half-hypnotized Peter wakes up the next morning and ignores continued calls from Anne (who confesses to cheating and leaves him) and Lumbergh (who was expecting Peter to work over the weekend). Peter announces that he will simply not go to work anymore, instead pursuing his lifelong dream of “doing nothing,” and asks out Joanna, a waitress who shares Peter’s loathing of idiotic management and love of the television program Kung Fu. Joanna works at Chotchkie’s, a restaurant that plays on TGI Friday’s interior decoration and uniform standards (Joanna’s hatred for her occupation eventually culminates in an argument with her boss and her being fired after she gives him the finger).

Peter then begins removing items at work that exemplify his unhappiness (inspirational banners, a wall of his cubicle that blocks his view, and a printer that is prone to constant errors) and takes Lumbergh’s parking spot. Despite Peter’s poor attendance record, laziness and insubordination at work, he is promoted by the Bobs because of the positive impression he leaves upon them with his earnestness. Meanwhile, Michael and Samir are fired, seemingly a symptom of the disposability with which the consultants view most Initech employees. To exact revenge on Initech, the three friends decide to infect the accounting system with a computer virus, designed to divert fractions of pennies into a bank account they control. A misplaced decimal point causes the virus to steal over $300,000 in the first few days, a far more conspicuous loss to Initech. After a crisis of conscience and an argument with Joanna, Peter writes a letter in which he takes all the blame for the crime, then slips an envelope containing the letter and the money (in unsigned traveler’s checks) under the door of Lumbergh’s office late one night. Read more

Watch full Office Space online streaming for free