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Through the warm reassurance of well written propaganda, the bureaucracy promises citizens at every opportunity that every facet of existence is well in hand. Regardless, the people seem content to go about their lives in relative apathy; as long as there is food, shelter and the convenience of entertainment and shopping, nobody seems to mind the lack of basic freedoms and reliable civil services. Against this backdrop, Sam’s workday seems remarkably similar to what many of us might see on any given afternoon in a typical office. Half attentive employees slog through dull, repetitive work like dutiful bees, breaking up the tedium by occasionally stealing a look at old television shows on their computer terminals.

Sam’s life outside work consists of intermittent dinners with his mother (Katherine Helmond), a vain, self absorbed socialite who is intent upon using her government connections to help her listless son get a leg up in his career. But Sam isn’t interested in advancement. He is a dreamer, discontent with life in a society as grimly well ordered as an ant colony - where the people, their lives, their identities and even the very food they eat have been reduced to numbers and statistics. Yet, lacking any real motivation to do anything about it, Sam is content to while away his time absorbed in fantastic daydreams where he alone has the power to save a beautiful woman from the hands of a great unseen menace.

Sam also seems alone in that unlike most citizens, he’s subconsciously aware of the hollowness of life. But lacking a constructive outlet for his angst, he bleakly drifts from one task to another, his existence a dreary series of duties and obligations to be endured rather than enjoyed. Afraid of adding to his emotional burden, he adamantly resists every avenue for career advancement, until a unique opportunity finally presents itself.

It would seem that the Government has a bit of a problem with domestic terrorism. A group of renegade city engineers, dismayed with the monolithic government bureaucracy that stands between them and their work, has resorted to acts of sabotage in order to change the system. Thanks to a rather comical filing error, the Government’s search for the insurgent ringleader (Robert DeNiro), results in the wrong man being interrogated and accidentally killed. Through an intricate string of purely coincidental events, poor Sam is reluctantly assigned to the case.

Despite his desire to avoid success, his intelligence and skill – and his mother’s glad handing – have unwittingly singled him out as the best man for the job. But eventually Sam ends up becoming the focus of the investigation when he tries to clear the dead man’s name with the help of an activist neighbor named Jill, (Kim Greist) who just happens to resemble his Dream Woman. Smitten with her, and even after realizing that he’s in over his head, Sam accepts a series of promotions in order to be closer to her, and to find a way for both of them to escape the government’s suspicion.

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