Office Space

Office Space (1999)

27 corrected entries

(7 votes)

Corrected entry: When Peter goes to Joanna's restaurant to ask her out, her long hair is down. Some is pulled back, but there is still a lot of her hair hanging down in front of her. This mistake keeps getting removed (not corrected) from the site, but most restaurants do require waitresses to tie all of their hair back. Many don't allow waitresses to have any of their hair touching the collar of their shirt.

Correction: It's still not a mistake. Just because 'many' restaurants don't allow this, doesn't mean that this one doesn't. It's not exactly a five star establishment.

wizard_of_gore

Correction: I worked at a restaurant that was quite similar to this place - casual sit-down, "bar and grill" - and there were female servers who got away with this. And maybe Joanna's manager did speak to her about her hair (considering his dissatisfaction with her performance) at some point, off-screen.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Peter and the boys go for the coffee break, you will notice that all Samir does is add sugar to his coffee. Throughout the scene, he does not drink it, he only adds sugar.

Correction: It's Michael who adds the sugar, not Samir.

Corrected entry: On the way to Tom's BBQ, as Peter is explaining to Joanna about their money stealing scheme, he calls her "Leona."

Correction: I watched the scene a few times and even read the transcript. He never says "Leona", he doesn't even mention her name. The closest thing I can think the person misheard was "you know the Nazis..."

Bishop73

Corrected entry: The "Salami Slicing" technique Michael Bolton has created with his virus will never work on modern banks. currency banking transactions are only conducted using integer-only functions. So there are no roundings that they can take away and put in a different account. Also, if the transactions would round the "fractions of a cent" off they would actually be creating money instead of stealing it, since the "fractions of a cent" normally disappear.

lionhead

Correction: Firstly the movie takes place with banking and computer systems prior to 2000, not modern technology. Secondly, the whole point of using the virus is they thought that since they were updating all the programs for Y2K, they'd get away with it. Finally, the virus didn't work, which is the whole reason the amount of money in the account after only a day or two was so much higher than what they expected. As Michael says: "I suck at math."

rswarrior

Corrected entry: Michael says he was "about 12 years old" when his namesake started winning Grammys. In fact Michael Bolton the singer won his first Grammy in 1990, which would make Michael Bolton the software engineer aged 21 in 1999. But he must be older than this because he's worked at Initech for five years, according to Peter.

Correction: Simple (and understandable) character mistake, since he hates the fact that everyone associates him with the other Michael Bolton.

Corrected entry: Its next to impossible for a new-style building like Innatech to burn to the ground. Fire codes are now put in place such as firewalls and sprinkler systems in all buildings where many people work because of catastrophes in the past. This makes it impossible for one man to burn it as completely as Milton did.

geoffrey schick 1

Correction: Milton has worked there for a very long time so he knows all of the fire protection systems and could easily disable them. Remember, he's been talking about doing this for years, so he's had lots of time to plan.

Corrected entry: Just because the Initech building burnt down, Peter, Michael and Samir think that they are in the clear. Surely they would know, a big company like Initech, would have an off site mainframe or backup facility in case of situations like this. Anyone in the I.T industry would know this.

Correction: Peter is relieved because his confession is gone. And there is also not necessarily a server off-site. It's made abundantly clear during the movie that Initech is cutting a lot of corners in their business practices. I, for one, have worked in places that refused to implement a backup solution due to cost.

Corrected entry: When the two Bobs are going through files, discussing who to fire with Lumbergh, Bob Slydell mispronounces Tom's surname. It's "SMYkowski" throughout the film, but here he pronounces it "SYMkowski" in this scene.

Chris Blower

Correction: This could be done intentionally to reinforce the fact that the Bobs are jerks who don't give a crap about the people they're firing. They can't pronounce Samir's last name either, and they laugh about it.

Krista

Corrected entry: In the scene where Michael is downloading the virus into the computer there's a shot of the mouse from below, the desktop is clear. When the shot changes, the desk is solid.

Correction: It is not the intention of the filmmaker to have us believe that Michael's desktop is glass. The glass desktop is used just to allow a new camera angle and shot. This is done in a number of movies using glass floors, ground, or table tops and by no means a mistake.

Corrected entry: Peter has a roll of kitchen tissue paper mounted on his fridge. In some scenes it is mounted vertically, in others horizontally.

jle

Correction: It's most likely attached by magnet, in which case I've had one like that and it tends to come off when you pull for a towel, so different positions in different scenes is possible.

Ral0618

Corrected entry: At the end of the movie when Peter is cleaning up the debris he sees Milton's stapler and says he knows someone who might want this. The camera switches angles and the stapler disappears. Where did it go?

Correction: You can see it hooked on to his tool belt.

Piemanmoo

Corrected entry: In the scene where Peter, Zamir and Michael are at Chotchkie's having coffee, Michael continually pours sugar into his coffee. When they show Michael from the front at Peter is talking to him, he puts down a package of sugar, but the next shot shows him from behind and he is again holding the same pack of sugar that he has already emptied and put down.

Correction: Right as the angle is switching you can see Michael reaching for another sugar packet. Therefore he uses multiple packets not just one.

Corrected entry: When Tom is having the party at his home, Samir & Michael are talking to his lawyer. The lawyer says he has a client in Minimum Security Prison. If he was Tom's lawyer in the case where he was hit by a drunk driver, wouldn't that make him a Prosecuting Attorney, not a Defender? I realise lawyers can switch sides, but how often does it really happen?

Correction: The "mistake" confuses a state prosecutor or district attorney with a private attorney. State prosecutors are government employees and (while they are employed by the government) can only prosecute criminal defendants. Private attorneys (like Tom's lawyer) represent defendants in criminal courts and plaintiffs and defendants in civil courts. Most private attorneys who have individuals as clients represent all of these parties all the time. Tom's lawyer clearly represented Tom in a civil case and the other defendant in a criminal case.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Peter, Michael and Samir are talking about Joanna sleeping with Lumbergh, Peter realizes that he had the wrong Lumbergh and says, "you mean Ron Lumbergh, the Innatrode guy, the young guy?" But if you watch his lips, he does not say Innatrode. (01:10:50)

Correction: Watching the line over and over, it's clear he says "Innatrode" and his lips are in sync.

Bishop73

Corrected entry: Drew tells Peter about Tom Smykowski's attempted suicide, change of heart, and subsequent car accident. But how could Drew know that? Tom attempted to kill himself with carbon monoxide, changed his mind when his wife arrived home, and was later hit by a drunk driver. It seems extremely unlikely, even absurd, to think that Tom would then share the entire story with anybody, let alone Drew.

Correction: Well not really. You know how Tom throws a party because he banked about 7 digits because of his car accident? I am sure that Drew asked why he was throwing a party and the audience should assume that Tom told Drew of what happened.

Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie, when we see Peter talking to Lumburgh, he has a clip on his computer monitor which has some writing on it (I believe it actually reads "Initech"). Later in the movie, when he's trying to shut off his computer and get away from Lumburgh, the clip has no writing on it.

Correction: Clips are removable. Peter easily could have moved it at any time from the beginning to the end of the movie.

Corrected entry: In the scene toward the beginning of the movie, Peter comes home from work and is sitting on the sofa, talking to Lawrence, who is standing. Watch Lawrence's beer closely. It moves from the right hand to the left hand over and over again in this scene. In fact, in one shot, he switches from the right hand to the left hand and a second later, it is back in his right hand.

Correction: Not really a mistake, since we see him transfer the can at least once, we know he is passing the can back and forth. It doesn't take long to switch hands, and while the camera is on Peter there is plenty of time to be switching back and forth.

Corrected entry: When Peter and the guys are walking back from the restaurant, we see he has his ID card on the left side of his pants (our right). When he gets back and is talking to the guys and Tom, we see his ID card is now on his right side of his pants.

Correction: There was plenty of time for him to have switched the position of his ID tag during the walk into the building. Perhaps he had to swipe the card into a reader, and he refastened it to the right side of his pants.

Corrected entry: When Peter and Michael are in Peter's house talking about how Michael is about to get fired, Michael is sitting on the couch holding a beer with two red X's on it. All through the scene the X's keep changing location on the bottle, from facing Peter to facing Michael.

Correction: It's not impossible for a person holding a beer to move it or roll it in his hands. It's quite common actually.

Correction: The Milton character actually comes from the short animation Mike Judge created himself (Office Space (the animated short by Mike Judge) - aka 'Milton series of shorts'). It originally aired on MTV's 'Liquid Television'.

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)

More mistakes in Office Space

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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