Office Space

Office Space (1999)

33 mistakes - chronological order

(7 votes)

Continuity mistake: When Peter is on the freeway thinking of changing into the left lane, the vehicles are different between the shots of his face and the shots looking ahead. Then when he changes lanes there was a Mitsubishi Mirage in front of him and a blue Dakota truck a few cars ahead, yet both are gone when we see the lane he left begin to move. Then when he changes back into the right lane, we see a motorcycle up ahead in the lane he left, yet in the next forward shot, the motorbike is gone. (00:01:05)

Office Space mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Bill Lumbergh pulls into his parking space at Initech, the sign reads "Reserved for Bill Lumbergh, Division V.P." When Peter later pulls into the same space the sign only reads "Reserved for Bill Lumbergh." (00:02:50 - 00:41:05)

princesskelli

Continuity mistake: In the scene with Samir, Michael, Peter, and Tom in the office talking about Tom's 'jump to conclusions' mat, the army men in the background on Peter's cubicle change positions. Shots of Michael show the kneeling man with the bazooka on one side of the minesweeper, shots of Peter show them in reversed positions. (00:12:30)

Factual error: All of the computers show a Mac OS when they're booted up. However, when Peter is shutting his computer down to try to escape his boss, the computer shuts down to a C: prompt. For those not technically minded, a C: prompt is only seen on IBM-compatible PCs, never on Macs. (00:19:20)

Other mistake: Peter is playing "Tetris for Windows". We saw earlier that the computer's UI was Mac-like. (00:19:20 - 00:43:45)

jle

Continuity mistake: When Peter goes to see the Bobs for the first time, he comes in, there's the Bobs sitting on the right side of the desk, and the row of empty chairs on the left. One of the chairs is not pushed in and turned left but when Peter comes back to sit down after getting his water it is pushed in and straight. (00:34:55)

Office Space mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During Tom's BBQ when Michael Bolton and Samir are asking Tom's lawyer about prison you see Michael lose grip and drop his cup with a piece of ice hitting Samir in the head. When the ice hits him he's holding the cup in his left hand but when the camera angle changes the cup shows up in his right hand. (01:01:30)

Continuity mistake: When Lumbergh is talking to Milton in the basement, he is finishing his piece of birthday cake. He throws the plate out in a nearby garbage can, then suddenly has a cup of coffee in his hand, when Dom comes running after him. (01:09:45)

Continuity mistake: In the scene near the end of the movie where Peter apologizes to Joanna, Joanna is shown either in her red shirt and holding her blue jacket, or wearing her blue jacket. For instance, as Joanna is moving in to kiss Peter, she is holding the jacket, but as they embrace, she is wearing it. In the blue jacket cuts, it is much less windy, and Joanna's hair is styled differently than it is in the red shirt cuts, where her hair is blowing due to the wind. (01:16:20)

Office Space mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene when Peter returns to the company and sees that it's on fire, his hair is coiffed and partially in his face. In the next shot, as he watches Milton skulk away, his hair is cut short and totally out of his face. (01:20:20)

Lisa 176

Continuity mistake: Toward the end of the scene where Michael, Peter and Samir are smashing the printer, the camera pulls back to show all the printer's parts around it on the grass, and its cover is off. When Michael goes back for one more blow, the printer's cover is still on it.

Lisa 176

Continuity mistake: In the restaurant scene the volume of the water in the glass in front of Jennifer Aniston continually changes from full to half-full depending upon whether Aniston or Livingston is talking.

Continuity mistake: When Peter is shutting his computer down to try to escape his boss, one of the cuts shows that it's an Optiquest monitor (us computer people will recognise this), then they cut back to Peter, back to the monitor and there's a piece of black electrical tape covering up the company logo on a completely different monitor.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Lumbergh is talking to Milton in the building basement, his ever-present cup of coffee switches hands between shots.

Continuity mistake: In addition to the mistake about Joanna's hair on the way back from the party: on the way TO the party, when the camera is on Joanna her window is up and her hair is still. But when the camera is on Peter, Joanna's window is obviously down, because her hair is blowing.

Krista

Continuity mistake: When Michael gets pulled away from beating the copier, he has a cord in his hand which he drops before going back. They pull him away again and the cord is gone, but in the last shot it in his hand again.

Continuity mistake: When the guys go to Flinger's for coffee, we see that the little cardboard triangle thing in the middle of the table advertising new additions to the menu (most restaurants have these) is facing the camera with 3 lines of text reading "Try our Jalapeno Poppers." In all the shots with that triangle thing in it after that, it has 5 lines of text facing the camera reading something different.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Michael and Peter are in Michael's apartment, sitting and talking, we see Michael has a blue shirt which is spot-free. Right before they cut to the scene at the bar, we see that he has 2 small stains on the upper right of his shirt.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where they are smashing the copier, they show a slow-motion of Samir lifting his right leg to smash the copier, the camera cuts away and then comes back showing him coming down with his left leg instead of his right.

Peter Gibbons: What would you do if you had a million dollars?
Lawrence: I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man.
Peter Gibbons: That's it? If you had a million dollars, you'd do two chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a million dollars I could hook that up, cause chicks dig a dude with money.
Peter Gibbons: Well, not all chicks.
Lawrence: Well the kind of chicks that'd double up on a dude like me do.
Peter Gibbons: Good point.
Lawrence: Well what about you now? what would you do?
Peter Gibbons: Besides two chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Well yeah.
Peter Gibbons: Nothing.
Lawrence: Nothing, huh?
Peter Gibbons: I'd relax, I would sit on my ass all day, I would do nothing.
Lawrence: Well you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Just take a look at my cousin, he's broke, don't do shit.

More quotes from Office Space

Trivia: The Mexican waiter at the end of the movie tells Milton 'Lo siento mucho, pinche gringo.' This translates as 'I'm very sorry, you f***ing gringo.'

More trivia for Office Space

Question: While recognizing that this film is entirely fictitious, how likely is it that an IT firm in 1999 would have allowed a former employee access to the premises after being laid off, never mind continue to send him a paycheck as with Milton Waddams? I myself was fired the following year and got the walk of shame treatment ("you have 5 minutes to clear your desk - the taxi's waiting outside") which at the time already seemed pretty standard.

Answer: Simply because he is basically invisible to them. Anyone can walk into that place, no guard outside, no key-card required. Nobody cared. At least you got a taxi.

lionhead

Exactly. These things can happen. It depends on the place and how they operate. As recently as January 2024, I read about one young woman who went into a Kroger grocery store and worked for six hours, as an experiment. She has also done this at Target and Walmart. She wears clothes that look like a real employee's.

Answer: They never told Milton he was fired, they just cruelly cut off his paycheck, figuring he'd eventually get fed up and leave (he'd actually been laid off years ago, but a payroll glitch kept him getting a paycheck). The management is hoping if they're cruel enough, he'll stop showing up.

Brian Katcher

This is actually the reverse of what happened. The glitch caused him to continue to receive a paycheck, even though he'd been laid off. The "Bobs" corrected the glitch, so he would no longer receive a paycheck. In an effort to avoid confrontation, they chose not to say anything to him, hoping he'd realise it and leave on his own.

More questions & answers from Office Space

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