In the movie Brazil, Sam Lowry is a low-level bureaucrat working in a dystopian society where everything is controlled by a totalitarian government. Sam is dissatisfied with his life and escapes into his daydreams, where he imagines himself as a brave hero rescuing a beautiful woman from danger.
One day, Sam is assigned to investigate a mistake made by the government that led to the wrongful arrest and death of a man named Archibald Buttle. Instead of the real Harry Tuttle, a wanted terrorist, the government had mistakenly arrested Buttle, a man who had committed no crime. Sam becomes interested in the case and tries to uncover the truth behind the mistake.
In the process, Sam meets Jill Layton, the woman from his daydreams, who is trying to get a refund for the faulty heating system in her apartment. Sam is instantly attracted to Jill and becomes determined to help her. However, his efforts are obstructed by the bureaucracy and corruption of the government, which seems determined to cover up their mistakes.
As Sam and Jill become more deeply involved in the case, they face increasingly dangerous obstacles, including assassination attempts and imprisonment. They eventually learn that the government has been monitoring Sam's every move, and that they are in grave danger.
The film's climactic scene sees Sam escaping from his captors and going on a wild, surreal chase through the city, pursued by the police and government agents. In the end, Sam's fate is left ambiguous, and the audience is left to draw their own conclusions about the nature of the society in which he lives.