I actually worked close to that opening freeway shot of rush hour traffic. It's the intersection of the dallas north tollway and IH635. Traffic on 635 is notoriously the worst traffic in all of DFW. I had to deal with it every day. First time i saw the movie.....it put me in a bad place from the beginning.
Just 2 weeks ago (pre-corona) I had the same experience but with one of those mobile handicap scooters. I couldn't believe it. I nearly shook the steering wheel the same way. Then I remembered this movie and laughed, so it's all good!
This movie came out when I was 24 and so perfectly nailed the setting for useless, entry level jobs. Cube farm was exactly like my first job, down to the color scheme and glass doors to the offices of the (thousands of) vice presidents. Like Peter said they paid me just enough not to quit and I worked just hard enough to not get fired.
@@apurugganan staring at your desk for an hour is completely accurate too. Counting dots in the ceiling tiles. When we figured out the admin password and unlocked solitaire that was the highlight of my 5 months there.
@@dalethelander3781 I got the end cubicle at the far end of the row in exchange for taking on a new responsibility that I was able to whittle down to half an hour per week. Small price to pay. No one could see my screen so I could alt-tab if someone walked up. I got really good at solitare and pinball.
I work in a bank corp office, and all of this says so much. Our office is a former call center office so LOW cubes (with NO PRIVACY) as far as the eye can see. Lots of middle management types. All to do low level, low pay, grindingly dull stuff on a daily basis. 🙄
You didn't give Gary Cole his props. He is a versitle actor who can do any role. Lumberg is an iconic character that Cole made delightfully loathsome. Everybody on the planet has a Lumburg in their life.
A lot of that is because of who the movie pokes fun at. Corporate America is a large percentage of the country. When I first started working in an office I recommended the movie to many people there, most came back and said the movie wasn't funny. Then it hit me: if you don't like the movie - IT'S ABOUT YOU.
The face that Michael Bolton makes when he's sitting down after that woman waves at him during the virus scene is a face that I adopted and have used my whole life since that movie came out.
I saw this in the cinema, when I was a software engineer working in a cubicle, and was literally stunned that no-one else seemed to have seen it, and that it did so poorly. It's not like there weren't many of us living that cubicle life! Pure gold.
They spent the marketing budget on Jennifer. The movie is perfection - right down to the logo - square peg round hole. (ty to my sister noticing it immediately)
Mike Judge is the master of making monotonous conformity into deep comedic commentaries that age better than wine. This and King of the Hill are truly masterpiece shows that challenge the status quo through non-abrasive comedy. He represents creativity in a world of distractions.
Office Space is a perfect movie. Saw it everyday for a month over a winter break in college. I can honestly say it solidified my understanding that the office is not for me.
TPS Reports were used in the horror video game F.E.A.R. When going through offices in the game all the paper laying around says "TPS Report" on the top.
They also got a small nod in the closed superhero mmorpg 'City of Heroes' where human-android replicants talk about needing to get their T.P.S. reports.
"They sent him a copy of the original British version with some reviews that praised the show for succeeding in capturing the everyday work environment where the movie failed to do so" Which is funny since Office Space does a much, *much* better job of capturing the everyday work environment than either the British or American versions of The Office ever did.
Definitely agree. There's a massive difference between an office where you can see everyone, and one where you are an insignificant body in a vast sea of despair. Office Space takes the win on that one.
I saw it at a theatre when it first came out. One of those decisions you make and find out later it was one of the best in your life. Balanced out by going to Showgirls. Brain. Bleach.
As a long-term office drone, I cannot endorse Office Space more than to say along with Terry Gilliam's Brazil, it sums up the soul-sucking feeling of office life extremely accurately. Who hasn't wanted to beat the crap out of a malfunctioning printer? I know I have.
Loved Office Space, but unfair to compare. Office Space was 90 minutes long, but "The Office" kept up that quality of comedy for over 7,000 minutes over 9 years.
@@kdogg6781 Compared to other sitcoms, The Office, seasons 1-7, were a 10/10. Seasons 8 and 9, though, I would rate a solid 8/10. Even though Michael Scott was obviously vital, it is a slight to the incredible ensemble cast of The Office to dismiss those two seasons.
I like Office Space better than The Office because it's more realistic. You have crude, dark humor, your have profanity, you have people genuinely not giving a shit about their jobs in the most relatable ways. Whereas in The Office, with the ever-lovable Jim and Pam, it's like everything is coated in a family friendly filter that leaves a void in my stomach. I liked The Office in the 2000s, and not even as much as Scrubs. Office Space, however, only gets more entertaining AND funny as I get older. Truly the king of the office job played out in a comedy.
It would have been interesting to see what Mike Judge could do with the premise. I like the US Office, but it really is pretty brainless middle of the road dogshit.
I respect your view, but I didn't see any kind of filter on the Office, it's kind of the point. Michael as the "what not to do" kind of boss. Just look at the shit he says, way worse than Lunberg, however maybe not as close to reality. Still would like to see a Mike Judge show based on his movie. With plenty of 90s gangsta rap ;)
Office Space is the film equivalent to fine wine. The longer you work a job, especially a job you hate, and even better a corporate job, you can relate to different parts of this film in different ways. For instance, I always thought the printer murder scene was funny… but didn’t understand it until I worked a job with terrible technology that negatively impacted me.. and was also something my company didn’t care to ever fix. I literally said I would murder these technological devices if I could.. then I instantly thought of this scene and BUSTED out laughing. It was a completely different experience the next time I watched this movie. Also, I ended up getting move to a new department where both of my bosses were named “Bob”. Everyone called them “the two Bobs”.
My wife and I actually lived in Austin when they were filming a scene from the movie!! It was the scene where Jennifer and Peter were in the car that was on metric blvd..the marroon blur in the scene going by is my car!!
I had a Lumberg boss in a small firm. He turned an open plan environment into a grey hellscape - the cubicle walls were 7feet high, you couldn't even stand up to look at or talk to a colleague. There was also the kitchenette that was through the women's toilet door - it's as weird and awkward as it sounded. The Lumberg wouldn't use it, but he told us it was not a problem.
#8... The line where Milton refers to the squirrels outside his window as "married" (his idiosyncratic way of saying they were fucking) was improvised by Stephen Root on the spur of the moment. It totally cracked up the entire crew and that was the take they used in the film.
I listened to an interview with Mike Judge on the Nerdist (now called 1D10T) podcast where he told a slightly different version of the red stapler story than what this video says (although the general themes are still the same). Mike Judge first went to a company that I believe was called the Boston Stapler company asking them for a red stapler for the movie, but the company didn’t want to partake in the sponsorship deal. Judge then went to Swingliner and asked if he could use their staplers for the movie. Swingliner didn’t have a red stapler at the time but said that he could use their brand, so they either produced a one-off batch of red ones (or the crew painted one red as the video states, I can’t remember which it was) and they used it for the movie. After the movie came out the company really did get so many calls for this non-existent red stapler that they started producing one right away. To this day, the red stapler is still the highest selling product for Swingliner!
I thought "Office Space" captured the '90s office world quite well, albeit a specific segment. It rings most true to people who worked in tech from the late 80s to early 2000s. Which, not coincidentally, is precisely where I spent most of my career. :-)
Not to mention Hot Topic sold t-shirts and other memorabilia. This movie flopped originally but found a huge audience later. It's my favorite comedy. A masterpiece from Mike Judge.
I can’t believe he got this made and all the actors fully embraced the vision and after all it didn’t do well. Only later did it receive the respect due. This is how art gets made
I actually worked at a law firm where a J.D. grad who didnt pass the bar was moved around like Milton. The first time they moved him, I was new and found it funny/ironic. 3 moves later I realized how disrespectful it was lol
Its amazing that Mike judge created two cult classics, beavis and butthead, king of the hill and silicon valley. Silicon valley is very much similar to office space if you haven't seen it.
8) put the dvd in your pc and you can play a few games made about the movie. One is where you’re in traffic and you’re racing the old guy with his walker. 9)”he was a quiet man” movie with Christian Slater follows the similar story but focuses on the milton character. Another gem
I worked in a factory, as controls support, where the management engaged in a mostly fraudulent data collection and decision making scheme. They were not competent in running the plant. They wouldn't engage with the people doing the real work. The people doing the real work had to make it work, despite the decisions of management. After being tasked with the collection of said data, I finally figured out their scheme. It was done to give the plant manager's boss, that was never in the plant, the idea that the situation was well understood and well in hand. It wasn't. Mike Judge has successfully captured this essence of this with the TPS report scheme.
5:33 Greg Daniels did not produce Office Space, it's not credited on his Wikipedia, his IMDb nor the credits of the film. He did co-created King of the Hill with Mike Judge, which was probably how he discovered about NBC's proposing Judge to create an Americanization of The Office.
You probably didn't know that the building where I once worked was in the opening scenes of "Office Space", and that working there was very, very similar to the movie.
Office Space is my favorite Comedy because it’s relatable to any one who hates or can’t stand their job and the film has quotes that are hilarious and the cast is great plus Lawrence is my favorite Character
What made me mad about the Cake incident was the lady beside Milton stopped him from eating it and told him to “Just Pass”. So when she got the last piece, she was to ‘Just Pass” onto Milton but she didn’t. So ya it was her to be screwed out of the cake and not Milton.
Wait, he said Judge worked for an engineering company where he got inspiration for the movie? I worked for an eng. company in the 90's and our boss was the spitting image of Bill Lumberg with the hair, suspenders, white-collar shirts.....the whole thing. Such a funny movie!
Every time I hear about the stapler I look at the red swingline stapler I've had since childhood. they absolutely made red staplers before this movie. maybe they stopped for a long time, but the proof is sitting right in front of me.
I've already seen a ton of comments from people asking what flair was. All those poor waitstaff, and their suffering, forgotten. How they have the other overly-enthusiastic waiter act is pretty on the nose: tons of pins and chatckes on the uniform top, OTT fake-friendliness and energy, and intrusive banter while people were trying to eat. It wasn't just Fridays that forced the trend, it was truly systemic for a while. And it very often meant that waitstaff who did not behave in an appropriately outrageous manner for the length of every shift got shafted some of their tip percentages. It was a dark time in dining. It was a dark time, indeed.
