The year is 2000, and we are introduced to the Harper family. The family members are Dick Harper, who works for a company in Los Angeles called Globodyne. Jane Harper works at a local travel agency and is often stressed at work. They have a son named Billy, who speaks mostly Spanish, as he is good friends with the family's young Hispanic housekeeper, Blanca. They also have a dog, who liked to bark until he was fitted with a shock collar. Dick is 'promoted' to Vice-President of Communications by company CEO Jack McCallister and company CFO Frank Bascombe. He is also asked to appear on the show Money Life, where host Sam Samuels and then independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader dub him and all the company's employees as "perverters of the American dream" and claim that Globodyne helps the super rich get even wealthier. The company's stock is soon worthless, along with all the employees' pensions, which are in Globodyne's stock.
Dick arrives home to find an excited Jane, who informs him that she took his advice and quit her job in order to spend more time with Billy. Dick has to break the news over dinner, instantly alarming Jane. Dick tries to think positively, and tries for a few months to get a Vice Presidency at other corporations. After getting no job anywhere, Jane reveals that they'll end up declaring bankruptcy in couple of months due to having everything in Globodyne stock.
Dick still tries to look on the bright side; stating that their house is worth $600,000. Jane then informs him that, since the fall of Globodyne, the local property market crashed, and that if they were to sell their house, they would owe the bank $150,000. After coming to terms with the prospect of being poor, Dick applies for low paying, dead-end jobs. After being fired from all local businesses, (with Dick being mistakenly deported to the Mexican border because of his slurring from getting punched in the mouth by an "illegal alien" trying to catch a painting job) and finding out that they have 24 hours before being evicted from their home, he decides that it's time for the couple to turn to crime. Dick borrows Billy's surprisingly realistic squirt gun and decides to rob a local convenience store. He emerges and orders Jane to burn rubber, as he stole a slushy, much to Jane's amusement. After several failed attempts, they finally rob a head shop. Realizing that they get a thrill out of stealing, they make a profession out of this, going on nightly robbing sprees.
They climb their way up the crime ladder, becoming more professional with each passing night. Their last "job" is to rob a local bank by going undercover. All goes as planned, until another crime spree couple enters the bank, wearing Clinton masks and armed with shotguns. They are revealed to be former employees of Globodyne; Dick's jealous co-worker Oz and his wife Debbie. Dick and Jane escape, unharmed. They decide to stop their "profession" but it's revealed that Dick is about to be indicted for his role in Globodyne's demise (as most of the other employees of Globodyne has also reverted to criminal lifestyles as they have have), thus he starts drowning his sorrows at the local bar. While there, he and Jane encounter a drunk Frank Bascombe, who tells them that the crooked Jack McCallister signed off all of Globodyne's assets (totaling $400 Million), dumped the entire stock, and that he paid Bascombe $10,000,000 to keep his mouth shut (as it was McCallister's plan from the beginning because he felt burnt-out).
After Frank sobers up, they make a team and, through a devious and well put together plan, dupe Jack McCallister into reimbursing all of his former employees' pensions.
Although McCallister catches them in the act, Dick is able to still reimburse all of the former employees because he got McCallister's signature. Thus his wife, an art major, was able to forge his signature. The next day, Dick informs McCallister of the act as the press flock to him. The film ends with the wealthy Harper family driving along the highway and into the sunset, as another car drives up to them. In the car is another former Globodyne employee who tells Dick he's got a great new job at a company called Enron.
Cast
Jim Carrey as Richard "Dick" Harper
Téa Leoni as Jane Harper
Alec Baldwin as Jack McCallister
Richard Jenkins as Frank Bascombe
Angie Harmon as Veronica Cleeman
John Michael Higgins as Garth
Richard Burgi as Joe Cleeman
Carlos Jacott as Oz Peterson
Stephanie Weir as Deborah "Debbie" Peterson
Aaron Michael Drozin as Billy Harper
Gloria Garayua as Blanca
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