These characters are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore!
What scene takes the #1 spot?
20. Wanted (2008)
James McAvoy tells off his abrasive boss in front of the whole office in this scene from Timur Bekmambetov’s geeked-out action flick, an act of defiance that puts him on the path of embracing his destiny as the son of a professional assassin. Bekmambetov’s style is so over-the-top and undisciplined that the scene is more bizarre than cathartic, but McAvoy’s effortless likability keeps it at least somewhat grounded in something resembling reality. The cherry on top is a keyboard to Chris Pratt’s face; that’ll teach you to sleep with Charles Xavier’s girlfriend, pal.
19. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
There’s been a countless number of scenes where the person quitting their job is oh so calm, collected and witty as the boss — who usually deserves being told off and then some — gets all flustered and exasperated but remains powerless and is ultimately mega-humiliated, usually in front of the rest of the office. “Bridget Jones’ Diary” has one of those scenes, with Renee Zellweger never breaking a sweat (or her fake British accent) as she tells that sleazy lovable fop Hugh Grant that he can stick his six-weeks-notice policy where the sun don’t shine.
18. Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Yeah, after years of working 18-hour days, seven days a week for a lawyer who treats her more like a nanny than a colleague, let a girl have her stapler, would ya? Sandra Bullock tries to leave her job with quiet dignity, but all it takes is one person to challenge her about so-called “company property” for all of the anger and frustration involved with being overworked and unappreciated to explode all over the place. Wouldn’t you know it, Hugh Grant plays the boss in this, too, though he’s a little less of a jerk here than he was in “Bridget Jones’ Diary.” Anyway, let this be a lesson to anyone who ever sees someone taking office supplies on their last day — just look the other way.
17. Scarface (1983)
“I gotta protect my investment!” Oh, Tony — if you had just stayed at your greasy spoon job and at least tried to make an honest living like the rest of the Cuban refugees, maybe you wouldn’t have ended up riddled with bullets and done a belly-flop into your indoor pool-fountain thing. Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and his pal Manny (Steven Bauer) decide to commit to a life of crime full-time in this scene, literally throwing their towels into the face of their employer and leaving him to do all of the dirty dishes himself. One of the most epic rises to power and descents into hell will soon ensue.
16. Parenthood (1989)
Family comes before putting in overtime so clients can get laid in Ron Howard’s ensemble dramedy, with Steve Martin realizing that nothing he does at work is ever going to be good enough for his bosses as long as he’s got a wife and kids to steal his attention from the office. The former wild and crazy guy of “Saturday Night Live” can’t help but go a little over-the-top in this scene (he does a particular weird hand gesture with “Aren’t you dazzled?” that he doesn’t seem to think works himself), but his everyman charm keeps you rooting for him as he chooses being a husband and father over putting together deals for ungrateful suits with questionable priorities.
15. Jerry Maguire (1996)
Technically, sports agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) didn’t quit, he was fired, but this still makes for one of the best-ever “exit” scenes in the history of cinema. Upon turning 35, Jerry suddenly has a crisis of conscience about the corrupt industry he works in and writes a brutally honest article that ends up being a little too revelatory for the bosses’ comfort; Jerry gets canned, but he’s not going out without a rousing, Cameron Crowe-penned speech. Cruise is fantastic in this scene, as is his goldfish.
14. Out of Sight (1998)
Hell no, George Clooney’s not going to be a security guard for Albert Brooks! The ego of a career bank robber gets the better of Jack Foley (Clooney) when he’s offered a “lousy job with a lousy wage” by his former prison buddy in Steven Soderbergh’s ultra-hip adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s crime novel. Clooney’s not yet the seasoned film actor he is now in this flick (that random point to Brooks at the mention of “bank robbers with pension plans” is a little awkward), but he’s still super-cool George Clooney, with Brooks playing a sort of white collar version of his villain role in “Drive.”
13. Stripes (1981)
Being called a bum is the last straw for perpetual screw-up John (Bill Murray), who suddenly quits his job as a taxi driver by pulling over and abandoning the vehicle in the middle of a New York City bridge, leaving his mean-spirited passenger to find alternate transportation to the airport. The day’s only going to get worse (or, in retrospect, better) for John, as he’ll later get dumped by his girlfriend and lose his own car; this series of unfortunate (or, in retrospect, fortunate) events will inspire him to grab his best buddy (Harold Ramis) and join the U.S. Army. Sometimes all it takes is one irate taxi passenger to prompt a radical life change.
12. Working Girl (1988)
The best thing about this scene is Melanie Griffith actually seems to be laughing out of character as she sprays champagne all over Kevin Spacey. Her ditzy cackle brings a sense of realism to an otherwise completely contrived scene in which Spacey tries to seduce her by “accidentally” putting on a porn in the back of limo — it also distracts from lingering too long on Griffith’s appallingly awful ’80s hairdo (though it’s nothing compared to Joan Cusack’s, which you’re spared from witnessing here). Anyway, Melanie proves that she’s “hungry but not that hungry” when it comes to climbing the corporate ladder, thus embarking on one of the most beloved feminist journeys of ’80s cinema.
11. Office Space (1999) One of my personal faves!
“My, uh, flair?” Has anyone who’s worked at a restaurant in a movie ever been happy with their job? Movie restaurants are places of sheer misery, attracting the most condescending and obnoxiously passive-aggressive kinds of managers — and Jennifer Aniston doesn’t need it. Jennifer gets a chance to “express herself” and quits with “flair” in this scene from Mike Judge’s now-classic comedy, the unofficial companion piece to Kevin Smith’s “Clerks” as a spot-on portrait of the near-surreal day-to-day drudgery of the working stiff.
10. Network (1976)
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” So goes the battle cry of Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the mad prophet of the airwaves, a news anchor fired from his network due to declining ratings; he’s given a second career of sorts when the network starts to exploit his increasingly deranged rants and revelations about media and the state of the world in general. This classic scene isn’t so much a “quitting scene” in a traditional sense, but it’s a prime example of how one’s job can completely skew their world view — and their sanity (though, indeed, is he really “insane?”). If you gotta go, go out swinging — and swinging hard.
9. Mr. Mom (1983)
Jack (Michael Keaton) was technically laid off from his engineering job, but in this scene he’s given a chance to get it back if he backs up a lie conjured up by his superior (Jeffrey Tambor); as he refuses, it qualifies as quitting from a potential re-hire. Keaton displays the kind of twitchy, dangerous energy in this scene that would lead to him being the ideal choice to play Bruce Wayne in Tim Burton’s “Batman” movies; it’s a treat to watch him indignantly pace around the room, hands on his hips, pointing accusingly at the suits behind the desk and at his old boss. Why doesn’t this man work much anymore? Wasn’t there a part for him in Burton’s “Dark Shadows”?
8. Lost in America (1985)
No one can do upper-middle-class misery quite like Albert Brooks. He’s perfect at playing put-upon characters who just don’t know when to leave well enough alone, making uncomfortable scenes like this one almost completely unbearable as we watch him dig a deeper and deeper hole for himself. Brooks quitting his gig at an advertising agency (an industry often portrayed as a miserable place to work in movies, oddly enough) upon not receiving a long sought-after promotion prompts the entire journey (and point) of “Lost in America,” proving once again that sometimes you have to lose the job to find yourself.
7. Half-Baked (1998)
You know every single person that works or has worked in the fast food industry has fantasized about this scenario at one point or another — probably at least once a day, actually. Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) quits his flippin’-burgers gig in the underrated stoner comedy, “Half Baked,” letting it be known that the customers are just as responsible for his oppression as his boss and co-workers (not all of them, though — there’s one patron in particular that he relieves of any blame). Oh, what sweet, deep-fried catharsis.
6. Burn After Reading (2008)
“This doesn’t have to be unpleasant.” This clip ends before we actually see Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) quit his CIA analyst job in response to being demoted, but you can see where it’s heading. Malkovich gives his most spirited performance in years in the Coen Brothers’ dark comedy, obviously delighting in all of the anger and profanity he gets to throw around in almost every scene he’s in. The Coens try to bring their usual control-freak, ultra-mannered style to this scene, but Malkovich gives it an unpredictable, anarchic edge — you half-expect him to pull out a grenade and just blow everyone sky-high.
5. Breaking Away (1979)
Watch as a young Rorschach from “Watchman” literally punches the clock! People seem to have forgotten that Jackie Earle Haley was quite the renowned child actor, stealing bases (and scenes) as Kelly Leak in “The Bad News Bears” and coming of age as Moocher in “Breaking Away.” Mooch needs a job, but he doesn’t need a job where the boss calls him “Shorty” — quitting within 30 seconds of your first day has to be some sort of record, and Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid (looking considerably older than his co-stars) and Daniel Stern heartily approve.
4. The Apartment (1960)
“You dig?” Fred MacMurray dares condescend to Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder’s mischievous comedy. Lemmon plays an executive who tries to rise in the ranks of his company (all the way up to the 27th Floor, in fact) by letting the higher-ups use his apartment for trysts; things get complicated when he embarks on a romance of his own and starts to realize that the whole arrangement is rather, well, gross. If you want to be cynical about it, Lemmon’s C.C. Baxter could be seen as a younger version of Shelly ‘The Machine’ Levene, the washed-up salesman he played 32 years later in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” though we’d like to think Baxter went on to a lucrative career and never needed to rob his own office.
3. Reality Bites (1994)
John Mahoney makes for one of the worst movie bosses of all time as the host of an intolerably cheesy talk show, with Winona Ryder playing his emotionally abused assistant. When it comes time for Winona to instigate her own firing, director Ben Stiller can’t help but go a little too far with the wacky shenanigans (this is the guy behind the sketch comedy show, “The Ben Stiller Show,” after all) as Mahoney makes a fool (or, rather, a prick) of himself on television thanks to some tampered-with notecards (that cutaway shot to the aghast audience is especially wretched), but how can you not help but cheer when Winona Ryder gets her revenge against a big jerk? Hopelessly dated now, “Reality Bites” now serves as a historical piece documenting the trials and tribulations of employment-phobic Generation X.
2. American Beauty (1999) I love love LOVE this scene.
When Kevin Spacey takes on that smarmy, self-righteous tone he’s so good at, there’s no actor more intimidating — or scathingly funny. Spacey’s Lester Burnham is a put-upon suburban father and husband who suddenly has an epiphany of almost supernatural proportions that leads to a series of radical life changes, one of which is quitting his job at an advertising agency in the most satisfying way possible. Thank goodness we have the movies to fuel our fantasies of telling off our bosses so we don’t go around pulling this kind of crap ourselves.
And of course... 1. Fight Club (1999)
This is, for many, the best scene in David Fincher’s ode to masculinity in a hopelessly emasculated society, as the Narrator (Edward Norton) goes to physical extremes — on himself — in blackmailing his boss (Zach Grenier). “Fight Club” is usually at its best whenever Brad Pitt’s id-driven Tyler Durden is around, but Norton really shines in this tour-de-force moment of self-mutilation — it’s both funny and scary watching him punch himself in the face and crash through glass as the boss is too awestruck to realize just how screwed he is now. Jack’s Smirking Revenge, indeed.
This list isn't half bad! What do you think, ONTD? Agree or disagree?
So ONTD, any funny/awesome/awful/horrifying job quitting stories? I wish I had a fun story to tell aside from the time that I worked for the absolute worst mother/son duo on the planet at a restaurant. It's the only time I've ever given anyone the double finger IRL and it really felt great.
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