Plot summary

In January 2000, Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) has been promoted to VP of Communication for his company, Globodyne. Soon after, he is 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. As they speak, the company's stock goes into a free-fall and is soon worthless, along with all the employees' pensions, which are in Globodyne's stock.Dick arrives home to find his excited wife Jane (Tea Leoni), who informs him that she took his advice and quit her job in order to spend more time with their son 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 the next couple of months due to their assets being made up entirely of now-worthless Globodyne stock.After coming to terms with the prospect of being poor, Dick and Jane both apply for low-paying jobs. After being fired from all local businesses, and finding out that they have 24 hours before being evicted from their home, they both decide to turn to crime. Dick borrows Billy's squirt gun and decides to rob a local convenience store but loses his nerve and merely gets away with a slushy. After several failed attempts, they finally rob a head shop. Realizing that they get a thrill out of stealing, they begin going on nightly robbing sprees. They climb their way up the crime ladder, becoming more professional with each passing night, and eventually steal enough money to redeem the loans on their house and car, both of which were on the verge of repossession.Dick and Jane's last "job" is to rob a local bank by going undercover as corporate security personnel. All goes as planned, until another couple who used to work for Globodyne, Oz (Carlos Jacott) and Debbie Peterson (Stephanie Weir) make an amateurish attempt to rob the bank at gunpoint. The Petersons are arrested almost as soon as they appear, while Dick and Jane escape, unharmed, though without any money.Sobered by the Petersons' fate, the Harpers decide to give up their life of crime, but Dick panics when he sees on the news that he's about to be indicted for his unwitting role in Globodyne's demise. While drowning his sorrows at the local bar, Dick encounters a drunk Frank Bascombe (Richard Jenkins), the former CFO of Globodyne, who reveals that the company's crooked CEO, Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin) siphoned off all of Globodyne's assets, then dumped the entire stock, thus ruining the company while getting away Scott-free with a $400 million fortune. Bascombe, who is going to jail for his role in the collapse, got a $10 million bribe from McCallister to keep his mouth shut.After learning about McCallister's scheme, Dick and Jane decide to get revenge, with Frank's help. He tells them that McCallister plans to transfer his $400 million in bearer bonds to an offshore account in the Caymans. All Dick and Jane have to do is intercept the transfer from inside the bank and substitute a fake, transferring the funds to another account.The plan falls apart, and Dick, in anger, confronts McCallister and demands that he sign a blank check. Knowing that Dick's threats are empty, McCallister mockingly cuts him a check for $100 and leaves the bank. But Dick reveals to Jane that he planned the whole thing: now that he has McCallister's signature, Jane (an art major in college) can forge it.The next day, as McCallister leaves his mansion, he is mobbed by reporters and former Globodyne employees, all praising him for his generosity. Dick appears and hands him a prepared statement. Reading it on live television, McCallister is shocked to announce that "he" transferred $400 million to a trust fund to support Globodyne's defunct pension plan, in gratitude to all his former employees. As Dick and Jane lead the cheers from the crowd, there is nothing McCallister can say without revealing his own fraud. A news report later shows Dick and Jane delivering pension fund checks to former Globodyne employees (including the now-imprisoned Oz and Debbie), while reporting that McCallister's net worth has been reduced to just over $2,000.The film ends with the wealthy Harper family driving along the highway in a Volkswagen and into the sunset. While Billy is teaching his parents Spanish words, a Bentley drives up to them. In the car is Dick's friend Garth (John Michael Higgins), who tells Dick he's got a great new job at a company called Enron.