9 To 5 (film) - Plot

Plot

Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda) is forced to find work after her husband, Dick (Lawrence Pressman), squanders their savings, loses his job and runs off with his secretary. Judy finds employment as a secretary at Consolidated Companies, a very large corporation. The senior office supervisor is the feisty widow, Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin). Violet shows Judy the place, whilst warning her about the two higher-ups. The first is the sleazy, selfish Franklin Hart, Jr. (Dabney Coleman); the latter is the crisp but equally obnoxious Roz Keith (Elizabeth Wilson), Hart's executive assistant and resident snitch. Violet reveals to Judy that Hart is supposedly involved with his buxom secretary, Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton); in reality the married Doralee refuses his advances, but Hart nonetheless has circulated a false rumor that they are having an affair.

Hart exploits and mistreats his subordinates regularly. He takes credit for Violet's efficiency proposals, whilst refusing to promote her on the basis that, "clients prefer to deal with men when it comes to figures". He cruely yells at and threatens Judy on her first day after an equipment malfunction. He sexually harasses Doralee, and spreads false rumors that they are having an affair, damaging her credibility with coworkers. Finally, Hart casually fires a worker named Maria over an overheard discussion on salaries.

When Violet discovers that another promotion she was hoping for has instead gone to a man, she angrily calls Hart on his manipulations and sexism. She then references Hart's claims of his purported affair with Doralee (which Doralee enters the room just in time to hear) before storming out. Doralee, previously unaware of the rumors and now realizing why her coworkers have been cold to her, informs Hart that she keeps a gun in her purse and warns him that if he ever makes another indecent reference about her, she will change him "from a rooster to a hen with one shot". She also angrily leaves the office.

Judy, upset that Maria has just been fired over a trivial infraction, wants to inform Violet and is told that Violet is at a local bar "getting drunk". She joins Violet and Doralee, and the three women drown their sorrows together before going to Doralee's house. There, the beginning of the their friendship forms over dinner and smoking some marijuana that belongs to Violet's son. During which they fantasize about getting revenge on Mr. Hart, with Judy wanting to shoot him execution style, Doralee wanting to rope him, and Violet wanting to poison him.

The following day, a mix-up leads Violet to accidentally spike Hart's coffee with rat poison (a nod to her fantasy the previous night). However, before he can drink any of the tainted coffee, Hart accidentally knocks himself unconscious by falling from a faulty office chair. On hearing he has been rushed to the hospital, Violet, realizing her error, panics, thinking it's due to the poison. After they arrive at the hospital, the three mistake a dead police witness for their boss. Violet, in a state of panic and desperation, steals the body of the deceased man and stashes it in the trunk of her car, convinces Doralee and Judy to join her, and the three drive off, planning to somehow dispose of the body. After a car accident, they discover they've stolen the wrong body, so they smuggle it back into the hospital.

Hart turns up alive the next morning, much to the shock of Violet, Doralee and Judy. During a break in the ladies room, the three speculate on what could have happened and then vow to forget the night's troubles, but Roz, hiding in one of the stalls, overhears them and relates the conversation to Hart. He confronts Doralee with the information he has just learned, and demands that she spend the night at his house or he'll have all three of them prosecuted for attempted murder. Hart refuses to believe it was an accident, so the three kidnap Hart, with Judy firing at Hart with Doralee's gun (much as she had done in her fantasy), and Doralee tying Hart's hands and legs with a phone cord (similarly to what she had done in her fantasy). Unsure of how to prevent Hart from alerting authorities, the three bring Hart to his Tudor-style mansion, keeping him prisoner in his bedroom while the three decide to try to find something on which to blackmail him so that he won't have them arrested. The ladies discover that he's been selling Consolidated property behind their backs and keeping the profits for himself. To prove the crime, they need to wait several weeks for the accounting documents to arrive. In the meantime, the women fashion a special bondage device to allow Hart to move around, but keep him confined to his home.

Since Doralee is able to forge Hart's signature without difficulty, the three women use the occasion of their boss' absence to effect numerous changes around the office, in his name. These include allowing flexible hours, a job-sharing program that allows people to work part-time, and a daycare center in the building (and Maria, the woman Hart had fired, is allowed to return). All the while, they conceal the true reason for his disappearance. As it turns out, Hart is so feared and/or hated around the office that nobody questions his absence, with the exception of Roz, whom Violet, under the pretext of the company, sends to language school.

One night, Judy discovers a prowler outside Hart's home. It turns out to be her ex-husband Dick, whose marriage to Liza lasted only a week. He tries to get Judy to come back to him until he finds Hart bound and gagged in the upstairs bedroom. He believes, erroneously, that Judy has gotten into perverted sex games. Judy sends him away, admitting that she's into everything, even smoking pot, and that his departure was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Hart's adoring wife (the feeling is clearly one-sided) Missy (Marian Mercer) returns from vacation early, putting the ladies' plan in jeopardy. While still pretending to be the women's prisoner, Hart scrambles to replace the property he stole from Consolidated. He then takes Doralee's gun and directs the three women back to the office at gunpoint. Hart is appalled by the changes which have been made in his absence, even though all his employees are delighted with them. Before he can have the three women arrested, Hart receives an unexpected visit from Russell Tinsworthy (Sterling Hayden), the Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Tinsworthy has arrived to congratulate Hart for increases in productivity, which is due to the changes the three women had instituted in his name. Hart is only too happy to take credit for everything the ladies have done. Tinsworthy is so impressed that he recruits Hart to work at Consolidated's Brazilian operation for the next few years. Hart is not pleased by this development, but has no choice in the matter. Moments after Tinsworthy and Hart depart, Roz returns from language school and is stunned to discover Violet, Judy and Doralee celebrating in Hart's office, and realizing that she has to report to them.

A post-credits montage reveals the fate of the major characters. Violet was promoted to Vice President. Judy fell in love and married the Xerox representative. Doralee left Consolidated and became a country and western singer. Hart was abducted by a tribe of Amazons in the Brazilian jungle and was never heard from again.