Office Space

Office Space
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Mike Judge
Written by	Mike Judge
Produced by	Daniel Rappaport Michael Rotenberg
Starring	Ron Livingston Jennifer Aniston David Herman Ajay Naidu Diedrich Bader Gary Cole Stephen Root
Cinematography	Tim Suhrstedt
Edited by	David Rennie
Music by	John Frizzell
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	February 19, 1999
Running time	89 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$10,827,813

Office Space is a 1999 American comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. It satirizes work life in a typical software company during the 1990s, focusing on a handful of individuals who are fed up with their jobs. The film's sympathetic portrayal of ordinary IT workers garnered it a cult following among those in that profession, but also addresses themes familiar to office workers and white collar employees in general. It was filmed in Dallas and Austin, Texas.

Office Space is based on the Milton series of cartoons created by Mike Judge. Office Space was Mike Judge's foray into live action film and his second full length motion picture release (the first being the animated Beavis and Butt-head Do America). The promotional campaign for Office Space often associated it with Beavis and Butt-head, leading audiences to expect the brand of humor of the creator's previous animated efforts rather than the relatively low-key ironic humor of the film.

While not a box office success, the film has become a cult classic; it has since sold very well on video tape and DVD, and some of the movie's dialogue has entered into the popular lexicon since its release.

Plot

The movie opens in a generic U.S. suburb (see Production notes below) about the year 1999. 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, whose last name cannot be pronounced correctly by anybody else; 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 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, and fears that he may be on the Bobs' downsizing list. 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.

Peter then begins removing items at work that exemplify his unhappiness (inspirational banners; a wall of his cubicle that blocks his view), takes Lumbergh's parking spot, and destroys a fax machine that is constantly prone to errors. Despite Peter's poor attendance record, laziness and insubordination at work, he is promoted by the Bobs while Michael and Samir are fired. 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 $305,326.13 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.

He fully expects to be arrested the next morning, but his problem solves itself: Milton, after getting his stapler taken away by Lumbergh, being increasingly ignored, having to move to the cockroach-infested basement, and not receiving any more paychecks, finally snaps and sets fire to the Initech office building, having warned several times throughout the film that he would do as much. (Milton had actually been laid off years earlier; nobody told him, and he continued to come in to work and get paid due to a system glitch.) Peter finally finds a job that he likes: working in construction with his neighbor Lawrence and hauling away rubble from the fire. Samir and Michael get jobs at Initrode, a rival company. While cleaning up the debris, Peter finds Milton's stapler and keeps it, saying "I think I know someone who might want this".

Meanwhile, Milton has made his way to a resort in Mexico, living well off the $300,000 that he found in Lumbergh's office before setting the building on fire.

Cast

• Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons: Protagonist, software engineer
• David Herman as Michael Bolton: Peter's co-worker, co-conspirator, and friend
• Ajay Naidu as Samir Nagheenanajar: Peter's co-worker, co-conspirator, and friend
• Jennifer Aniston as Joanna: Peter's prospective girlfriend
• Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh: Peter's main boss and main antagonist
• Stephen Root as Milton Waddams: Squirrely-looking Initech employee; mumbles a lot
• Richard Riehle as Tom Smykowski: Useless Initech employee
• Diedrich Bader as Lawrence: Peter's streetwise, construction-worker, next-door neighbor
• Jenn Emerson as Female Temp: Super-happy "case of the Mondays" girl
• Paul Willson as Bob Porter: Consultant
• John C. McGinley as Bob Slydell: Head consultant
• Kinna McInroe as Nina: Administrative Assistant / Operator "Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking."
• Todd Duffey as Brian: Obnoxious Chotchkie's waiter
• Greg Pitts as Drew: Initech employee (the "O-face guy")
• Alexandra Wentworth as Anne: Peter's cheating girlfriend
• Mike McShane as Dr. Swanson: Peter's "occupational hypnotherapist" who dies in his first session
• Orlando Jones as Steve: Door-to-door magazine salesman
• Mike Judge as Stan: Manager of Chotchkie's (credited pseudonymously as "William King")

Artie Lange also auditioned for the role of Milton. He describes his audition as being so bad it was "like a plumber who won a radio contest and got to try out for a movie".

Production

Filmed primarily in Austin, Texas, the origins for Office Space lie in a series of four animated short films about an office drone named Milton that Mike Judge created, which first aired on Liquid Television and Night After Night with Allan Havey, and later aired on Saturday Night Live. The inspiration came from a temp job he once had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders and a job he had as an engineer for three months in the Bay Area during the 1980s, "just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful". The setting of the film reflected a prevailing trend that Judge observed in the United States. "It seems like every city now has these identical office parks with identical adjoining chain restaurants", he said in an interview. He remembers, "There were a lot of people who wanted me to set this movie in Wall Street, or like the movie Brazil, but I wanted it very unglamorous, the kind of bleak work situation like I was in".

Judge sold the film to 20th Century Fox based on his script and a cast that included Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston, and David Herman. Originally, the studio wanted to make a movie out of the Milton character but Judge was not interested, opting instead to make more of an ensemble cast–based film. The studio suggested he make a movie like Car Wash but "just set in an office". Judge made the relatively painless transition from animation to live-action with the help of the film's director of photography who taught him about lenses and where to put the camera. Judge says, "I had a great crew, and it's good going into it not pretending you're an expert". Studio executives were not happy with the footage Judge was getting. He remembers them telling him, "More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You're failing! You're failing!" In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film until a focus group approved of it. Judge hated the ending and felt that a complete rewrite of the third act was necessary.

Judge also hated the poster that the studio created for Office Space. He said, "People were like, 'What is this? A big bird? A mummy? A beekeeper?' And the tagline 'Work Sucks'? It looked like an Office Depot ad. I just hated it. I hated the trailers, too and the TV ads especially". Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman conceded that the marketing campaign did not work and said, "Office Space isn't like American Pie. It doesn't have the kind of jokes you put in a 15-second television spot of somebody getting hit on the head with a frying pan. It's sly. And let me tell you, sly is hard to sell".

Reaction

Office Space was released on February 19, 1999 in 1,740 theatres, grossing USD $4.2 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $10.8 million in North America, barely recouping its production costs. On the Monday after the opening weekend, Judge received a phone call from Jim Carrey's agent. The comedian loved the film and wanted to meet him. Chris Rock called two weeks later.

The film received mixed to positive reviews with a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 68 metascore on Metacritic. In his review in the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote, "It has the loose-jointed feel of a bunch of sketches packed together into a narrative that doesn't gather much momentum". Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote that Judge, "treats his characters a little like cartoon creatures. That works. Nuances of behavior are not necessary, because in the cubicle world every personality trait is magnified, and the captives stagger forth like grotesques". In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle writes, "Livingston is nicely cast as Peter, a young guy whose imagination and capacity for happiness are the very things making him miserable". In the USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna wrote, "If you've ever had a job, you'll be amused by this paean to peons".

However, Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C" rating and criticized it for feeling "cramped and underimagined". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Rick Groen wrote, "Perhaps his TV background makes him unaccustomed to the demands of a feature-length script (the ending seems almost panicky in its abruptness); or maybe he just succumbs to the lure of the easy yuk . . . what began as discomfiting satire soon devolves into silly farce".

Legacy

Office Space has become a cult classic, selling very well on video and DVD, As of 2003, it had sold 2.6 million copies on VHS and DVD. In the same year, it was in the top 20 best-selling Fox DVDs along with There's Something About Mary.

Comedy Central premiered Office Space on August 5, 2001 and 1.4 million viewers tuned in. By 2003, the channel had broadcast the film another 33 times. These broadcasts helped develop the film's cult following and Ron Livingston remembers being approached by college students and office workers. He said, "I get a lot of people who say, 'I quit my job because of you.' That's kind of a heavy load to carry". People approached Stephen Root asking him to sign their staplers. The Red Swingline stapler featured prominently in the film was not available until April 2002 when the company released it in response to repeated requests by fans of Office Space.

The red stapler was also featured in the Scrubs episode "My Chopped Liver", with the character Perry Cox (portrayed by Office Space actor John C. McGinley) speaking to a red stapler.

Entertainment Weekly ranked it fifth on its list "25 Great Comedies From the Past 25 Years", despite having originally given the film a poor review.

The series Family Guy parodied the scene of Michael and Samir destroying the fax machine in the episode "I Dream of Jesus". In the episode, Brian and Stewie steal Peter's favorite record, Surfin' Bird by The Trashmen, and proceeded to destroy it in a similar manner, with the same music ("Still" by the Geto Boys) playing in the background.

Reebok's "Office Linebacker" series of short films features a scene where Terry Tate (the linebacker) tackles a worker because of incorrect TPS reports.

On February 8, 2009, a reunion of the cast took place at the Paramount Theatre in Austin to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the movie, which included the destruction of a fax machine on the sidewalk.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Track listing

1. "Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee" (Canibus/Biz Markie) - 4:21
2. "Get Dis Money" (Slum Village) - 3:36
3. "Get Off My Elevator" (Kool Keith) - 3:46
4. "Big Boss Man" (Junior Reid) - 3:46
5. "9-5" (Lisa Stone) - 3:40
6. "Down for Whatever" (Ice Cube) - 4:40
7. "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" (Geto Boys) - 5:09
8. "Home" (Blackman/Destruct/Icon) - 4:22
9. "No Tears" (Scarface) - 2:27
10. "Still" (Geto Boys) - 4:03
11. "Mambo #8" (Perez Prado) - 2:06
12. "Peanut Vendor" (Perez Prado) - 2:39

See also

PC LOAD LETTER error, parodied in Office Space

• Dilbert
• PC LOAD LETTER
• The Office (UK TV series)
• The Office (US TV series)
• Stromberg (TV series)
• Waydowntown

External links

• Office Space at IMDb
• Office Space at AllMovie
• Office Space at Rotten Tomatoes
• Office Space at Metacritic
• Office Space at Box Office Mojo
• Cue the Stapler! article in Time
• Lumino Magazine's 5th anniversary retrospective article
• Filming Locations
• Office Space Extras a collection of various extra material surrounding the movie.