Working Girl

**Working Girl** is a 1988 film starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver, directed by Mike Nichols, written by Kevin Wade and produced by Douglas Wick.

## Plot

Tess McGill is a working-class girl from Staten Island with a bachelor's degree in business from evening classes. She works as a stockbroker's secretary, aspiring to reach an executive position. It's clear that Tess is smart, but she's treated like a bimbo by her boss and male coworkers. We find that after shabby treatment at several placements, Tess has gotten angry at her chauvinistic bosses and quit.

The staffing services representative chastises Tess for causing trouble, but gives her one last chance, assigning her as an administrative assistant to Katharine Parker, a young associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions department at a different company. Seemingly supportive, Katharine encourages Tess to share ideas. Tess suggests a merger she's been researching, but Katharine later tells Tess her idea isn't feasible.

When Katharine injures her leg skiing in Europe, she asks Tess to house-sit. While at Katharine's place, Tess discovers some meeting notes and realizes Katharine plans to pass off the merger idea as her own. Distraught, Tess returns home to find her boyfriend in bed with another woman. She returns to Katharine's apartment.

Tess decides to use her boss' absence, connections, and clothes to move ahead with her merger plans. She schedules a meeting with Jack Trainer, the man Katharine planned to give Tess's idea to. She plans on attending a party to casually "bump into" Jack before their meeting the next day. She cuts her hair and puts on one of Katharine's stylish dresses, but has a panic attack when she realizes how expensive it is. Her friend Cyn gives her one of Katharine's Valiums to calm her down.

At the party, Tess unknowingly meets Jack, who is fascinated by her. They have a couple of drinks, and the combined effect of Valium and alcohol causes Tess to black out in the cab. Trainer gently carries her upstairs to his apartment.

Tess wakes up the next morning in Jack's bed, and quickly leaves before he wakes. Later when she arrives at the meeting, she realizes the man she spent the night with is Jack Trainer. She pretends they are meeting for the first time, and makes her pitch for the merger. She leaves the meeting feeling the whole situation, including her pitch, was a disaster. Jack, however, arrives at her (Katherine’s) office, tells her nothing romantic happened the night before; he simply took care of her after she passed out. He also tells her that her merger idea has potential, and gives her a gift of a new briefcase.

Days later, Jack meets again with Tess, having secured a great radio network acquisition for Trask Industries. Tess tells Jack she has a meeting with Trask himself, but without Jack. Jack thinks Tess is trying to run the project solo (reminiscent of Katherine), and tells her she needs him at that meeting. Tess acquiesces, but when the day of the meeting arrives, Jack realizes Tess’ plan is to crash Trask's daughter's wedding in order to pitch the plan. Despite the crazy antics, the bold plan works: Trask is interested and a meeting is scheduled.

The duo spend the next few days closely together, preparing the financials to present the merger proposal to Trask Industries. The proposal is a success and, in the relief and excitement of it all, Tess and Jack give in to their attraction, and end up in bed. Tess wants to tell Jack the truth about her, Katherine, and the stolen idea, but keeps quiet after learning Jack was romantically involved with Katherine. Though he swears the relationship is over, Tess realizes just how complicated the situation is.

Katharine comes home on the day of the merger meeting between Trask and the owner of the radio station. Tess is forced to run errands for Katherine, who is still laid up because of her broken leg. Jack arrives while Tess is out, but when she returns, she overhears Katharine asking Jack to confirm his love for her, but he avoids her advances. Tess rushes off, accidentally leaving her appointment book with Katherine.

Katharine snoops through the appointments in the book, and discovers Tess’ meeting with Trask. She rushes to the meeting, storms in, outs Tess as her secretary, and accuses her of having stolen the idea. Tess begins to protest but feels nobody would believe her. She leaves, apologizing profusely.

Days later, Tess clears out her desk and then bumps into Jack, Katharine, and Trask at the lobby elevators. Katherine attempts to appear like the bigger person, telling Tess they should bury the hatchet, but in one of the more memorable lines of the movie, Tess replies, “You know where you can bury your hatchet? Now get your boney ass out of my sight.” Katharine tries to lead the group away, but Jack stays and says he believes Tess. Though Trask initially thinks Jack is blinded by love, his attention is piqued when Tess mentions a possible hole in the merger. He hops off the closing elevator, leaving Katharine still in the lift. He gets on another elevator with Jack and Tess, where Tess then gives her elevator pitch, explaining where she got the inspiration for the merger idea.

When they get to their floor, Trask confronts Katharine, asking if she can explain how she came up with the idea. She stumbles and balks and is unable to explain the idea's origin. She looks at Jack for help, but he refuses. Trask assures Katherine he will have her fired for her fraud. He then offers Tess an entry-level job with Trask Industries, which she happily accepts.

When Tess arrives for her first day at her new job at Trask, and is directed to her new office, she sees a woman in it, on the phone with her feet up. Tess assumes this is her new boss, and starts to settle in at the receptionist desk outside. The woman comes out of the office and identifies herself as Alice. There is confusion between the two until it finally dawns on Tess that Alice is, in fact, her secretary and that she is the new junior executive. Tess insists they work together as colleagues, showing she will be very different from Katharine. She then calls her best friend from her own office, to tell her she has finally made it.