Written and directed by Peter Weir, The Plumber was originally made and broadcast as a television film in Australia in 1979 but was subsequently released to theatres in several countries beginning with the United States in 1981.

[2] The film stars Judy Morris, Ivar Kants, and Robert Coleby, all of them being most notable at the time as actors in Australian soap operas.

[3] Dr. Brian Cowper takes a shower in the flat he shares with his wife Jill, who is a masters student in anthropology.

As he exits the building's lift on his way to work, an ominous character is seen entering and randomly choosing the button for the ninth floor.

As a television film project "made from one end to the other" and "was done very quickly and with no fuss," written "mostly because I needed the money, which is sometimes a good way of doing things.

"[5] Weir also revealed that during production he videotaped each cut so that he could review and screen them at home before the final version would be edited.

Drawing attention to Jill's role as an anthropology student, Maslin contends that "Mr. Weir's point here, as it has been in other films, is that the line dividing civilized behavior from more primitive kinds is so thin as to be nonexistent.

Comparing Weir's production to Michael Haneke's Funny Games, Felicia Feaster calls The Plumber "a skin-crawling examination of the quiet subterranean struggle for power that can unfold between two people.