Office Space

Trivia: Director Mike Judge wanted the story to be able to take place anywhere, so the state is never specified. Even the license plates on the cars are stateless.

Krista

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.'

Trivia: Red staplers like Milton's weren't made in real life, so the prop department had one specially made for the film. After the film's release, however, so many people wanted red staplers the office supply company started producing them.

Krista

Trivia: To date, at least 5 different companies named Initech have been founded since the film's release.

Trivia: Director Mike Judge has a cameo in this movie. He is Stan, Joanna's boss at Chotchkie's. In the end credits, he is listed as "William King."

Trivia: Although the movie is written in a way that the story could take place anywhere in the US, the perceptive Dallasite can pickup on some local landmarks as well as the writers tossed in one indicator with the line by Diedrich Bader "I've got to haul my ass up to Las Colinas every day this week, I'm doing the drywall at the new McDonald's." Las Colinas is a suburb of Dallas where many films have been shot over the years.

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Mistakes

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)

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Quotes

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Questions

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: 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.

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.

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