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Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.
1985 · Directed by Terry Gilliam · 143 min · Comedy · Science Fiction · Screenplay in the scene database · 58 frames
Tagline
It's only a state of mind.
Plot
In a dystopian, polluted, hyper-consumerist, overbearing, bureaucratic, totalitarian future based on elements of the 20th century, Sam Lowry is a low-level government employee who frequently dreams of himself as a winged warrior saving a damsel in distress. One day, shortly before Christmas, an insect becomes jammed in a teleprinter, which misprints a copy of an arrest warrant it was receiving. This leads to the arrest and death during interrogation of cobbler Archibald Buttle instead of suspected terrorist Archibald Tuttle.
Sam discovers the mistake when he finds that the wrong bank account has been debited for the arrest. He visits Buttle's widow to give her the refund where he catches a glimpse of her upstairs neighbour Jill Layton, a truck driver, and is astonished to discover that she resembles the woman from his dreams. He frantically tries to approach Jill, but she disappears before he can find her. Jill has been trying to help Mrs Buttle establish what happened to her husband, but her efforts have been obstructed by bureaucracy. Unbeknownst to her, she is now considered a terrorist accomplice of Tuttle for attempting to report the wrongful arrest of Buttle.
Meanwhile, Sam reports a fault in his apartment's air conditioning. Central Services are uncooperative, but Tuttle unexpectedly comes to his assistance. Tuttle explains that he used to work for Central Services but left because of his dislike of the tedious and repetitive paperwork, and now illegally works as a freelance heating engineer. Tuttle repairs Sam's air conditioning, but when two Central Services workers, Spoor and Dowser, arrive, Sam has to stall to allow Tuttle to escape.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown, Terry Gilliam
- Cinematography: Roger Pratt
- Edited by: Julian Doyle
- Music: Michael Kamen
- Production design: Norman Garwood
- Produced by: Arnon Milchan, Patrick Cassavetti
Cast
- Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry
- Robert De Niro as Harry Tuttle
- Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Ida Lowry
- Ian Holm as Mr. Kurtzmann
- Bob Hoskins as Spoor
- Michael Palin as Jack Lint
- Ian Richardson as Mr. Warrenn
- Peter Vaughan as Mr. Helpmann
- Kim Greist as Jill Layton
- Jim Broadbent as Dr. Jaffe
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Embassy International Pictures
- Budget: $15,000,000
- Box office: $9,953,708
- Themes: dreams, government, bureaucracy, police state, great britain, technology, dystopia, office, dark comedy, satire
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