Office Space

Office Space
Directed by	Mike Judge
Produced by	Daniel Rappaport Guy Riedel
Written by	Mike Judge
Starring	Ron Livingston Jennifer Aniston David Herman
Music by	{{{music}}}
Cinematography by	{{{cinematography}}}
Editing by	{{{editing}}}
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Released	February 19, 1999
Running time	89 min
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000 (estimated)
Preceded by	{{{preceded_by}}}
Followed by	{{{followed_by}}}
IMDb profile

Office Space is a 1999 comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge, partially based on his 1991 animated short films of the same name. It pokes fun at work life in a typical software company during the 1990s by portraying individuals who are entirely fed up with their jobs. The movie was filmed in both Austin and Dallas, Texas, USA. Although the setting is not stated explicitly, a reference to Las Colinas, Texas, implies that the setting is the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Office Space is based on the Milton series of cartoons Mike Judge created for Saturday Night Live. While not financially successful at the box office—just about breaking even—it has proven to be popular on home video and in rental stores. Most recently, a special edition DVD was released, with additional content.

Plot

In a cube farm setting evocative of the Dilbert comic strip, we peek into the lives of Initech workers Peter, Michael, Samir, and Milton. Soon after the movie begins, two consultants (called "The Bobs" since they both have the same first name, and which also suggests their line of work) are brought in to Initech to help with downsizing and increasing productivity. The workers at Initech are then interviewed for the purposes of determining which employees could be eliminated.

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a programmer who spends his days updating bank software for the supposedly impending Y2K disaster. His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu), whose last name no one else can pronounce; Michael Bolton (David Herman), who shares his name with the real-life singer-songwriter Michael Bolton, much to his dismay; and Milton, a soft-spoken, reserved collator who mumbles to himself a lot and gets repeatedly taken advantage of by the company, especially the office manager, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Lumbergh is a stereotypical corporate middle-manager who seems to spend most of his time wandering around with his coffee mug in hand, emotionlessly supervising his employees and engaging them with superficial small talk.

Meanwhile, Peter is stressed, burnt out, and ineffective, and will likely be first on the Bobs' downsizing list. Fortunately, he has an accident in hypnotherapy — the hypnotist suddenly dies before he can snap Peter out of a state of complete relaxation. The newly-relaxed Peter announces that he will not work anymore. However, his interview with the Bobs goes well and, to his surprise, Peter receives a promotion, whereas his friends Samir and Michael, two of the company's best employees, get fired.

In order to get back at the company, the three friends decide to inject a computer virus into the accounting system so that it will round down fractions of a cent from accrual of interest and transfer the leftovers into their own account (see salami slicing). However, due to an error in writing the virus, it works too quickly and the three friends are certain to go to jail. However, all their problems are solved when Milton, having finally experienced the last straw with being mistreated, gets fed up and sets fire to the building, thus destroying any evidence of the virus... and doing well for himself in the process.

Cast

Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh (left) and Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons.

• Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons
• Jennifer Aniston as Joanna
• Ajay Naidu as Samir Nagheenanajar
• David Herman as Michael Bolton
• Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh
• Stephen Root as Milton Waddams
• Richard Riehle as Tom Smykowski
• Alexandra Wentworth as Anne
• Joe Bays as Dom Portwood
• John C. McGinley as Bob Slydell
• Diedrich Bader as Lawrence
• Paul Willson as Bob Porter
• Kinna McInroe as Nina
• Todd Duffey as Bryan
• Greg Pitts as Drew
• Michael McShane as Dr. Swanson
• Linda Wakeman as Laura Smykowski
• Kyle Scott Jackson as Rob Newhouse
• Orlando Jones as Steve
• Barbara George-Reiss as Peggy (Lumbergh's Secretary)
• Mike Judge - credited pseudonymously as "William King" - as Stan (Chotchkie's Manager, who could be a clone of Bill Lumbergh; Chotchkie is the restaurant where Joanna works)
• Jack Betts as the Judge

In popular culture

Several phrases, items and concepts from the film have found their way into common usage (particularly in office environments):

• "TPS report" — denotes any type of mindless office paperwork, based on the film's satirical example of such work.

• "Did you get that memo?" — refers to a question a worker is asked by multiple supervisors at varying levels (after the one Peter is asked throughout the movie).

• "Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison" — refers to a maximum-security federal penitentiary, as opposed to the "resort prisons" that house white-collar criminals.

• The printer — In the movie, this appliance's unreliability finally prompts Peter, Samir and Michael to take baseball bats to the device in an open field as rap music plays, in a scene visually referencing a violent episode in Goodfellas The term Office Space-style is used to refer to this type of destruction.

• "PC Load Letter" — a catch-all for any nonsensical error message (and an actual laser printer error message indicating that the printer needs letter-sized paper).

• "Assclown" — slang term referring to a person of irritating or dubious character; taken from Michael's derisive comment about his musical namesake.

• Initech — sometimes used as placeholder text in lieu of a PHB-driven company's name.

• The red Swingline stapler — Item that is the only constant in the life of abused employee Milton Waddams, who snaps after it is stolen. (Swingline did not start manufacturing the staplers until after the success of Office Space; the ones used in shooting the movie were black staplers painted red.)

• "I believe you have my stapler" — Line from Milton that has since become a fad on ytmnd.com.

• "Flair" — refers to the mass quantities of buttons and pins Joanna is required to wear while working at the fictional T.G.I. Friday's-style restaurant "Chotchkie's, as in the title of the 2005 "Special Edition, with Flair" DVD release.

Trivia

• In the similarly themed British television series The Office, "Pete Gibbons" is mentioned on two occasions as a former Wernham Hogg employee.

• Gary Cole reprised his role as "Bill Lumbergh" in the December 18, 2005 episode of Family Guy.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Office Space

• Office Space at the Internet Movie Database
• Time "Cue the Stapler!"
• The Bill Lumbergh Soundboard