At a time when the United Kingdom and the United States are contemplating military intervention in the Middle East, the UK Minister for International Development, Simon Foster, offhandedly states during an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that war in the region is "unforeseeable".
The Prime Minister's Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker, castigates Simon and warns him to toe the line.
Back in Washington, DC, hawkish US Assistant Secretary of State for Policy, Linton Barwick, is concerned that his secret war committee was mentioned during the Foreign Office meeting; Karen and Liza deduce that it is named the Future Planning Committee.
Karen teams up with Lieutenant General George Miller, who opposes the war because he believes the US has insufficient troops available, and invites Simon to the upcoming meeting of the Future Planning Committee to "internationalize the dissent".
Toby thoughtlessly leaks the true nature of the committee to a friend at CNN, and then meets up with Liza, who he knows from university, at a bar, and they end up sleeping together.
Suzy finds out about Toby's one-night stand with Liza and breaks up with him, but as he is moving out of their apartment, he leaves her a copy of PWPPIP, asking her to leak it; she chastises him for not doing it himself.
Simon tells his Director of Communications, Judy Molloy, to hint that he will resign as minister if the resolution is passed.
George informs Karen that, as a soldier, he cannot go through with their plan to resign together in protest now that the country is at war, and Simon's intention to make a statement by resigning is thwarted when Malcolm fires him, ostensibly over the collapsing wall story (which Malcolm has seeded to the BBC to preempt coverage of PWPPIP).
A new Minister for International Development is appointed, with her own special advisor, and Simon is left to deal with his constituents in Northampton.
Chlumsky and Woods went on to portray characters similar to the ones they played in the film in Iannucci's American television series Veep (2012–19).
Time Out London noted that the filmmaking style they observed during a set visit was very similar to that employed when filming The Thick of It: The similarities are everywhere, down to the docu-style, handheld camerawork evident on the monitors (it's the same director of photography) and the anti-West Wing production design that eliminates all notions of political glamour.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on reviews from 179 critics, with an average score of 7.8/10; the site summarizes: "In the Loop is an uncommonly funny political satire that blends Dr. Strangelove with Spinal Tap for the Iraq war era.
[21] Damon Wise of The Times gave the film five stars out of five and stated: "It's hard to settle on a standout element because it's all so outstanding, from the performances to the one-liners to the plot.
"[22] David D'Arcy of Screen International was complimentary, but noted that the release of the film may have been poorly timed, given the new presidency of Barack Obama, and said that "its exuberant, boundless cynicism will test the demand for political satire in an Obama-infatuated America.