He convinces his wife Jane to quit her job as a travel agent to spend more time with their son Billy, as Dick's salary would be able to cover their expenses.

However, during an interview on television on his first day, he discovers his CEO covertly sold 80 percent of his shares in the company; just then, Globodyne is accused of "perverting the American dream" by presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

Even worse, Jane discovers that, because their pension and all their savings and investments, were tied up in Globodyne's now-worthless stock, the family now has no assets and can no longer afford their mortgage payments.

Their utilities are soon cut off, and the couple have no choice but to pawn their valuables and take illegal off-the-books employment; this results in Dick being deported to Mexico by federal immigration officers and having to sneak back across the border while Jane has a severe allergic reaction that leaves her temporarily disfigured.

They go on to have a few nightly robbing sprees, becoming more comfortable and professional, even stealing from people who wronged them during their job search, and eventually retire their entire debt.

Watching a news report on the arrests of the Petersons and other former Globodyne employees who desperately turned to crime, the Harpers decide to cease their criminal lifestyle.

When he and Jane confront him, Frank remorsefully admits McCallister had planned everything from the beginning: during Dick's television interview, McCallister diverted all of Globodyne's assets and then dumped the entire stock, thus ruining the company and its employees and investors, and leaving Dick and Frank to take the blame, while embezzling a $400 million fortune and getting off scot-free.

A news report reveals the company's former employees (including the now-imprisoned Petersons) will get their pension checks from the fund, Dick's reputation is restored and he evades indictment, and McCallister's net worth has been reduced to a mere $2,238.04.

While Billy is teaching his parents Spanish, Dick's friend Garth drives up in a brand new Bentley Azure, excited to reveal that he has a new job with great benefits, at Enron.

It eventually earned $110,332,737 at the domestic box office, and $91,693,375 in international receipts, for a total, worldwide revenue of $202,026,112, against a production budget of $100 million.

[13] The high earnings despite the criticism were partially attributed to the scheduled trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and the film credited corporate scandals for inspiration.

[18] Justin Chang of Variety positively described the film as "the rare Hollywood remake that, by daring to reinterpret its source material within a fresh political context, actually has a reason to exist".

[19] Manohla Dargis of the New York Times commented that "... the film never settles into a groove, zigging and zagging from belly laughs to pathos ..."[20] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Recycles the 1977 comedy right down to repeating the same mistakes."