Office Space

Office Space
File:Office Space DVD.jpg
Directed by	Mike Judge
Written by	Mike Judge
Produced by	Daniel Rappaport Guy Riedel
Starring	Ron Livingston Jennifer Aniston David Herman Ajay Naidu Diedrich Bader Gary Cole Stephen Root
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	February 19, 1999
Running time	89 min
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000 (estimated)

Office Space is a 1999 comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. Though it pokes fun at work life in a typical software company during the late 1990s, the film resonates with corporate employees as a group, by portraying individuals who are entirely fed up with their jobs. The movie was filmed in Austin and Dallas, Texas.

Office Space is based on the Milton series of cartoons Mike Judge created for Saturday Night Live and Liquid Television.

Office Space was creator Mike Judge's first foray into film, and his first project since the finale of his Beavis and Butt-Head animated series in 1997. The box-office failure of Office Space (grossing just over $10 million US—slightly more than it cost to make) is often attributed to the film's promotion campaign - which often used the tag-lines "Beavis and Butthead" or "By The Creator Of Beavis And Butthead", thus drawing an audience who was expecting a brand of humor that more closely resembled the creator's previous animated efforts. The film has since become a substantial cult classic, garnering fantastic sales on video and DVD (a special edition DVD, called, "Office Space: Special Edition with Flair!" was released in 2005.) Much of the movie's dialogue has entered into the popular lexicon since its release.

This film is number 65 on Bravo's “100 Funniest Movies.”

Plot

Template:Spoiler In a cube farm setting evocative of the Dilbert comic strip, the film depicts the daily grind of Initech workers Peter, Michael, Samir, and Milton. Soon after the movie begins, two consultants (nicknamed “The Bobs” since they both have the same first name), are brought in to Initech to help with cutting expenses by downsizing and outsourcing. The workers at Initech are then interviewed for the purposes of determining which employees are to be shown the door.

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a programmer who spends his days updating bank software to remedy the then-expected Y2K disaster. His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu), whose last name no one else can pronounce; Michael Bolton (David Herman), who is angry that he shares his name with the real-life singer; and Milton Waddams (Stephen Root), a soft-spoken, fixated collator who mumbles to himself incessantly and is repeatedly walked on by management, especially the hollow office manager, the soulless Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Lumbergh—a stereotypical corporate middle-manager who spends most of his time wandering the office coffee mug in hand, wears white-collared shirts and suspenders, and emotionlessly micromanages his employees while engaging them with superficial small talk—is Peter’s nemesis.

Meanwhile, Peter is stressed, burnt out, and ineffective, and will likely be first on the Bobs’ downsizing list. Fortunately, something unusual happens during the occupational hypnotherapy session urged upon him by his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend—the "occupational" hypnotherapist (Michéal McShane) suddenly dies before he can snap Peter out of a state of complete relaxation. The newly-relaxed and still half-hypnotized Peter announces that he will not work anymore, instead pursuing his lifelong dream of “doing nothing,” and finally asking out Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), a waitress he’s long wanted to date. During his interview with the Bobs, Peter unreservedly speaks his mind about the absurdity of his job and of how Initech is run. The Bobs misinterpret Peter’s candor, easygoing attitude, and the valid points he makes as evidence of a corporate executive mentality. Much to his surprise—and Lumbergh’s dismay—Peter receives a promotion while his friends Samir and Michael, two of his department’s best employees, are going to get canned.

In order to get back at the company, the three friends decide to infect the accounting system with a computer virus which will round down fractions of a cent from accrual of interest and transfer the leftovers into their own account (see salami slicing). Peter, when questioned by Joanna about what he and his friends had been celebrating, attempts to diminish the sense that he is doing something illegal by comparing the theft to taking the pennies from the penny tray at a convenience store. However, it takes $305,326.13 in one day and the three friends are certain that such a large amount going missing in so short a time period will be noticed and that they will go to jail. After a crisis of conscience, Peter decides to write a letter in which he takes all the blame for himself. Peter slips the envelope with the letter and the money (in unsigned traveler’s checks) under the door of his boss’s office.

However, all their problems are solved when Milton snaps after Bill Lumbergh takes away his beloved red Swingline stapler and moves his desk yet again, this time to the cockroach-infested Storage Room B in the basement. Milton then sets fire to the boss’s office, which destroys the entire building, including all the computers and the virus code. Peter finally finds a job that makes him happy (working construction with his neighbor Lawrence), Samir and Michael get jobs at Initrode (a rival company), and Milton makes his way to a resort in Mexico with the traveler’s checks. Template:Spoilerend

Cast

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

• Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons
• Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh
• David Herman as Michael Bolton
• Ajay Naidu as Samir Nagheenanajar
• Jennifer Aniston as Joanna
• Diedrich Bader as Lawrence
• Paul Willson as Bob Porter
• John C. McGinley as Bob Slydell
• 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 (Manager of Chotchkie's)
• Jack Betts as the Judge
• Stephen Root as Milton

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.
• PC Load Letter— an actual laser printer error message indicating that the printer needs letter-sized paper, but more generally a catch-all for any nonsensical error message.
• 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 “Still” by The Geto Boys plays, in a scene visually referencing a violent episode in Casino. The term Office Space-style, or “Going Office Space on” is used to refer to this type of destruction. [1]
• Did/Didn’t you get that memo?—refers to a question a worker is asked by multiple supervisors at varying levels.
• O-Face—refers to a facial expression made during an orgasm.[2]
• A case of the Mondays—refers to accidental expressions of deep frustration at one’s job (especially on Mondays); phrase is used by a cheery co-worker to describe Peter’s attitude at the start of the film, and again later by Brian, the insufferably upbeat Chotchkie’s waiter.

A red Swingline stapler

• Red Swingline stapler—Item that is the only constant in the life of abused employee Milton Waddams, who snaps after it is stolen. The red Swingline was no longer in production when Office Space was released, but due to popular demand Swingline released a limited run of the red version in 2004. It remains a symbol of quiet dissent amongst office workers. The official Swingline product page describes the product thus: “Discover the stapling star of any office space-the bold head-turning design and legendary performance of Swingline’s Rio Red Stapler.” [3] The Rio Red may be a reference to Milton’s eventual tropical retreat. This model has become the best-selling in Swingline history.
• Flair/Pieces of Flair—refers to the mass quantities of buttons and pins Joanna is required to wear while working at the fictional Friday’s-esque restaurant “Chotchkie’s,” as in the title of the 2005 “Special Edition, with Flair” DVD release. (Tchotchke is a Yiddish word meaning “worthless trinket”—like the pieces of flair)
• In a promotional ad for an episode of the show 30 Days about job outsourcing, series creator Morgan Spurlock is seated in an office cubicle. He drinks from a coffee cup and says the Lumburgh line “yeah, we’re gonna have to move your desk…”

Trivia

• Except for two songs by Perez Prado, the movie soundtrack consists entirely of gangsta rap songs.
• 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 episode of Family Guy titled “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz.”
• In the series of Reebok commercials featuring "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker", after one of his devastating hits on a co-worker, he yells "You know you need a cover sheet on your TPS Report, Richard!"
• There are three known “Milton” animated shorts which aired on SNL during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons (93a, 93p, 94d.)
• An early release of the film in the Boston area left out the hypnotherapist scene, as well as the subplot with Peter’s ex-girlfriend “Anne.” The conclusion was also different, with the co-workers splitting the money. While this more hardened story line resonated well with Bostonians, a softer story line was eventually preferred by the director.
• Though not seen in the theatrical movie itself, there is talk of Lumbergh’s death relating to the fire in one of the deleted scenes on the Special Edition DVD.
• In the film Bad Santa, a character played by Office Space actor Ajay Naidu calls Billy Bob Thornton an “ass-clown,” an insult used in Office Space.
• The UK Company Initech Ltd. was named after the company in the movie. The founder used to work for the US corporation Allegis Group which seemed to be made up of the cast of Office Space. Hence their motto - I.T. Solutions for the "Real World".
• The video game F.E.A.R. contains several levels with shoot outs set among cubicles in an office building. Papers entitled "TPS Report" litter desks, notes with the phone number to “Chotchkie’s" are on cabinets and sharp-eyed players will find a red, Swingline stapler. A poster paper entitled "Planning to Plan" adorns a wall.
• More recently, Blizzard Entertainment used a scene in this film in a commercial for World of Warcraft. The scene in particular was of Peter playing a shareware Tetris clone on his work computer while blowing off Lumbergh. The Tetris clone running on the monitor was digitally replaced with footage from World of Warcraft, and the game's box was digitally added to the top of the monitor. [4]

See also

• Dilbert -- Another look at cube life
• The Office (UK TV series)
• The Office (US TV series)

External links

• Office Space at IMDb
• Time "Cue the Stapler!"
• Lumino Magazine's 5th anniversary retrospective article
• Filming Locations