History Film / Compliance

** He gives Sandra the generic description of a slim blonde female employee. Becky happens to fit the description.

During a busy evening shift at a typical fast food restaurant in Middle America, Sandra, the restaurant's manager (Creator/AnnDowd) receives a call from a police officer with a complaint that a young female employee has stolen from a customer. Trusting in the officer's authority, Sandra takes the employee, Becky (Creator/DreamaWalker), into a back office and follows instructions to question Becky about a crime she denies knowing anything about.

''Compliance'' is a 2012 film written and directed by Creator/CraigZobel based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam an actual crime]] that occurred in a fast food restaurant in 2004.

During a busy evening shift at a typical fast food restaurant in Middle America, Sandra, the restaurant's manager (Creator/AnnDowd) receives a call from a police officer with a complaint that a young female employee has stolen from a customer. Trusting in the officer's authority, Sandra takes Becky, the confused employee (Creator/DreamaWalker) into a back office and follows instructions to question Becky about a crime she denies knowing anything about. That's followed by an order to search Becky's purse. That's followed by an order to strip-search her.

What follows is a four-hour-long nightmare in which Becky is sexually humiliated by strangers she trusted, all of whom obey the increasingly perverse instructions of a mysterious voice at the other end of a phone line. By the time any of them stop to question the situation, the unthinkable has already occurred.

Creator/AshlieAtkinson appears as Marti, an older employee at the restaurant.

!!Tropes shown:

''Compliance'' is a 2012 film written and directed by Craig Zobel based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam an actual crime]] that occurred in a fast food restaurant in 2004.

During a busy morning shift at a typical fast food restaurant in Middle America, Sandra, the restaurant's manager (Creator/AnnDowd) receives a call from a police officer with a complaint that a young female employee has stolen from a customer. Trusting in the officer's authority, Sandra takes Becky, the confused employee (Creator/DreamaWalker) into a back office and follows instructions to question Becky about a crime she denies knowing anything about. That's followed by an order to search Becky's purse. That's followed by an order to strip-search her.

Creator/AshliAtkinson appears as Marti, an older employee at the restaurant.

During a busy morning shift at a typical fast food restaurant in Middle America, a manager receives a call from a police officer with a complaint that a young female employee has stolen from a customer. Trusting in the officer's authority, the manager takes a confused employee into a back office and follows instructions to question the employee about a crime she denies knowing anything about. That's followed by an order to search the employee's purse. That's followed by an order to strip-search her.

The employee has done nothing wrong. And the man on the phone is not a police officer.

What follows is a four-hour-long nightmare in which the young woman is sexually humiliated by strangers she trusted, all of whom obey the increasingly perverse instructions of a mysterious voice at the other end of a phone line. By the time any of them stop to question the situation, the unthinkable has already occurred.

* KarmaHoudini: We never see the caller getting convicted of anything, probably because the real perpetrator got away with it. The suspect who was eventually arrested and prosecuted for the crimes was found not guilty on all charges.[[note]]However, the [=McDonald=]'s manager in question got one year's probation, and her boyfriend, who sexually assaulted the girl, was sentenced to five years.[[/note]]

* KarmaHoudini: We never see the caller getting convicted of anything, probably because the real perpetrator got away with it. The suspect who was eventually arrested and prosecuted for the crimes was found not guilty on all charges.

During a busy morning shift at a typical fast food restaurant in Middle America, a manager receives from a police officer with a complaint that a young female employee has stolen from a customer. Trusting in the officer's authority, the manager takes a confused employee into a back office and follows instructions to question the employee about a crime she denies knowing anything about. That's followed by an order to search the employee's purse. That's followed by an order to strip-search her.

[[quoteright:338:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Compliance_Movie_Poster_1813.jpg]]

During a busy day, a call comes in for the manager from a man claiming to be a police officer who has a complaint that a young female employee has stolen from a customer. Without asking any meaningful questions about the caller's credentials or evidence, the manager takes a young woman into a backroom and follows his orders to strip search her completely. That proves to be first of a nightmare experience for the young woman who is sexually humiliated with increasing perversity with the unthinking cooperation of the senior staff of the restaurant and the manager's fiance.

* ColdReading: The caller does a little bit of cold reading by implying that he has knowledge to prompt people to volunteer information and then acting like he already had that information. He occasionally hits dead ends, such as when he threatens Becky with the police looking over her criminal history, but she counters that she has no criminal history.

* ColdReading: The caller does a little bit of cold reading by posing questions that get people to volunteer information and then acting like he already had that information. He occasionally hits dead ends, such as when he threatens Becky with the police looking over her criminal history, but she counters that she has no criminal history.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Sandra's first few scenes establish that she's a crummy manager. One of her employees leaves the freezer open and ruins the bacon, which gets her yelled at by the delivery man. All of her employees are lackadaisical at best and passively defiant at worst. After attempting to be chummy with them, she leaves and immediately overhears them mocking her behind her back.

'''''Compliance''''' is a 2012 film directed by Craig Zobel about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam an actual crime]] that occurred in a fast food restaurant in 2004.

During a busy day, a call came in for the manager from a man claiming to be a police officer who has a complaint that a young female employee had stolen from a customer. Without asking any meaningful questions about the caller's credentials or evidence, the manager takes a young woman into a backroom and follows his orders to strip search her completely. That proves to be first of a nightmare experience for the young woman who is sexually humiliated with increasing perversity with the unthinking cooperation of the senior staff of the restaurant and the manager's fiance.

Only when one last person is shoved into this situation does anyone fully realize this is all a twisted hoax and the real police have a challenge to solve a crime that in real life has happened over ''70 times!''

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: We get a very long shot in the final act of the real detective driving to the scene of the crime while smoking a cigarette. Given that the film is just under 90 minutes, including credits, this was probably included to fill out a little time.

* IdiotBall: An innocent girl is sexually humiliated and assaulted by people who are following the orders of a voice on the phone, without ''once'' asking him basic questions like "What is your badge number? What is your precinct? Who is your superior officer? What is your evidence for this accusation?" But [[BlindObedience then again,]] [[ObliviouslyEvil that is the whole point.]]

* {{Padding}}: We get a very long shot in the final act of the real detective driving to the scene of the crime while smoking a cigarette. Given that the film is just under 90 minutes, including credits, this was probably included to fill out a little time.

* BasedOnATrueStory: See the top of the poster above.

* HeelRealization: Right after [[spoiler:being told by the "officer" to spank Becky and then have her give him oral sex, Sandra's fiancee leaves the restaurant clearly shell-shocked at what just happened, calls his best friend, and says "I just did a horrible thing."]]

* JustFollowingOrders: The main excuse all these people have to abuse this girl.

* OnlySaneMan: The delivery guy for the restaurant is the only person who refuses to take part in the abuse.

* IdiotBall: An innocent girl is sexual humiliated and assaulted by people who are following the orders of a voice on the phone, without ''once'' asking him basic questions like "What is your badge number? What is your precinct? Who is your superior officer? What is your evidence for this accusation?" But [[BlindObedience then again,]] [[ObliviouslyEvil that is the whole point.]]

'''''Compliance''''' is a 2012 film directed by Craig Zobel about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam an actual crime that occurred in a fast food restaurant in 2004.]]