It must be fun to come up with the names of fake businesses in movies. Trying to nail the right vibe for the company is tricky and when you don’t have a lot of time to explain it, the name means a lot. TV shows have a lot of fake businesses, and so do movies. Here is a list of some of the fake businesses in movies that tell audiences what they need to know.
Nakatomi – Die Hard
They say that Christmas doesn’t start until Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Tower in Die Hard and they aren’t wrong, whether you think it’s a Christmas movie or not. Nakatomi Corporation is some sort of investment company, one that negotiates million-dollar deals for breakfast, but it’s all rather vague. It does seem like a nice place to work, in a cool building and a great Christmas party, until the bad guys arrive, of course.
Bob’s Country Bunker – The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brother Rhythm & Blues Review starts their mission from God by conning their way into a gig at an old roadhouse called Bob’s Country Bunker, which has both kinds of music – country, and western. It works out great until they have to pay their bar tab and the Good Ole Boys show up. They prove their versatility by playing country tunes like the theme to “Rawhide” and “Stand By Your Man.”
Cyberdyne Systems – Terminator Series
A lot of great post-apocalyptic events in movies happen because of an evil corporation doing things that can do, rather than what they should do, as Patton Oswald once said. Cyberdyne Systems is the poster child for this kind of recklessness, as their development of Skynet essentially ended the world for humans. They probably made a lot of money bringing down civilization too.
Initech – Office Space
Initech in Office Space has more people in middle management than any reasonable company should have. Poor Peter (Ron Livingstone) has to deal with three bosses and two consultants named Bob. That’s a lot of people trying to generate TPS reports in the correct format. Other than those reports and vaguely created software, it’s kinda unclear what Initech actually does with that software.
Brawndo – Idiocracy
Brawndo. It’s what plants crave, it’s in every drinking fountain, and it seemingly is the only thing anyone drinks in the disturbing future of Idiocracy. One thing that always seemed weird about Idiocracy, is that with a world full of idiots, who is running the company that owns Brawndo (and the Food and Drug Administration)? I guess its best not to ask questions.
Wonka Industries – Willy Wonka
It’s rare that a candy company like Wonka Industries would occupy such a major place in society, unless you live in Hershey, PA. Willy Wonka is like the Howard Hughes of confectioners, so after he handed off the reigns of the company to Charlie, things had to change, right?
Duke & Duke – Trading Places
Duke & Duke in Trading Places represents the worst of capitalism. Driven purely by greed and willing to do anything to get ahead. The Duke brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) have absolutely no morals and it’s so satisfying that they get what they deserved at the end. We don’t know the fate of the company though, jus that the brothers end up on street, as we learn in Coming To America.
Championship Vinyl – High Fidelity
There’s an old joke, “How many record store employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? It’s a rare number, you’ve probably never heard of it before.”
That pretty much sums up the employees at Championship Vinyl in High Fidelity. They are exactly the kind of lovable snobs that you would expect at a record store. They have a disdain for customers, whose opinions on music mean less than nothing to them.
Ollivander’s Wand Shop – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Mr. Ollivander (John Hurt) has a magical shop, literally. His wand shop is the go-to place for all your magic wand needs. He’s got stacks and stacks of wands, and he’s surely got the exact correct one for every budding wizard, like Harry Potter. You might to try a few one, like any bespoke shop, but you’ll leave happy.
InGen – Jurassic Park
John Hammond’s company, InGen, really messes with the wrong forces in the Universe. For Hammond (Richard Attenborough), his curiosity drives all the wrong decisions, aided by equally well-meaning, but misguided scientists. He should also do a better job vetting his employees, lest they try to sneak out the company’s intellectual property and sell it to a competitor.
Omni Consumer Products – RoboCop
Omni Consumer Products, or OCP, is evil to its core. Sure, it cloaks itself in the veneer of trying to “clean up our cities,” but when profits are the main motivation, they should just be honest about that. Any company with a president names Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) can’t be trusted.
Wayne Enterprises – Batman
Over the history of Batman across media, Wayne Enterprises has changed, but it’s always been a huge company with its fingers in a lot of pies. The head of the company, Bruce Wayne, has also evolved as a leader in different ways, sometimes hands on, sometimes less so. One thing is for sure, it’s always there to suit Bruce’s needs as Batman.
Umbrella – Resident Evil
The Umbrella Corporation in the Resident Evil series might just be the most…evil… on this list. It’s a huge conglomerate owning business across many different sectors, but it’s true purpose is eugenics and crime. All of the world’s problems in the series can pretty much be traced back to it.
Stark Industries – Iron Man
Stark Industries, like Wayne Enterprises in the DCU, pretty much creates every thing in the world, it seems. Sure, on the surface it’s a military contractor and has been since Tony Stark’s father, Howard, started it around World War II. Howard is hero to some, and a war profiteer to others, but Tony is pretty much just a hero these days.
Czervik Construction – Caddyshack
Czervik Construction is the source of Al Czervik’s money and Judge Smails’ consternation in Caddyshack. Al (Rodney Dangerfield) and his construction company are not only the source of the mole infestation at Bushwood Country Club but they also want bu-bu-bu-buy Bushwood. That makes Smails (Ted Knight) apoplectically mad.
Mooby’s – Clerks II
When Dante finally leaves his job at the Quick Stop in Clerks II, he ends up working at Mooby’s, a fast food restaurant. It’s a pretty typical burger joint with a very atypical group of employees who love to fight with customers, especially over Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Mooby’s has continued to appear in director Kevin Smith‘s ViewAskew universe and even as a real-life pop-up before Clerks III
Weyland-Yutani – Alien
Like a lot of sci-fi franchises, the Alien series has an evil corporation at its core. Weyland-Yutani is often referred to as just “The Company” because everyone knows who the company is. It’s got it’s tentacles in just about everything from mining to spacecrafts to weapons and more. Like a lot of classic evil companies, it doesn’t think much past profit, and that causes a lot of problems for a lot of people.
The Ghostbusters – Ghostbusters
Starting with a mortgage on the childhood home of Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd), The Ghostbusters are New York City’s only paranormal investigators and exterminators. They occupied an old firehouse that should be condemned and drive to calls in a 1959 Cadillac that is barely street legal, but they always get the job done.
The Daily Planet – Superman
The world has lost many of its big city newspapers, but there was a time when the top papers were major companies in the cities they reported on. The Daily Planet in the Superman franchise is a great example, and one of its reporters, Clark Kent, makes as much news as Superman as he writes about for the paper.
Warbucks Industries – Annie
Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks is the leader of Warbucks Industry, a conglomerate that, depending on the story being told, is sometimes a benevolent corporation led by a benevolent leader, and sometimes quite the opposite. How it started is right there in its name, as a war profiting enterprise.
Big Kahuna Burger – Pulp Fiction
Big Kahuna Burger is a Hawaiian burger joint that is the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast. It’s most notable in Pulp Fiction when Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) tries one of Brett’s tasty burgers but was first referenced in Reservoir Dogs. It’s been seen or mentioned in a number of other movies by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, including Four Rooms and From Dust ‘Til Dawn.
Tyrell Corporation – Blade Runner
The Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner is the company that developed and produced the replicants that Deckard (Harrison Ford) is charged with hunting down and “retiring” when they go rogue or are past their due date. It plays a prominent role in the Blade Runner universe.
Pizza Planet – Toy Story
Every kid loves pizza, including Andy from Toy Story especially Pizza Planet, the out-of-this-world space-themed pizza joint that is featured in multiple installments of the franchise. Think of it as a sci-fi version of Chuck E. Cheese. Hopefully with better-tasting pizza.
Capitol Pictures – Barton Fink
The Coen Brothers don’t really have a shared universe throughout their films like other filmmakers or franchises, but there is some overlap. Capitol Pictures is first seen in Barton Fink and the movie studio Fink (John Turturro) is writing a movie for. It returned in Hail, Caesar! as the company making the movie in the movie.
Flynn’s Arcade – Tron
Video game arcades are a bygone relic of the ’70s and ’80s, but they live on in Tron where Flynn (Jeff Bridges) lives, works, programs, and games. In its heyday, in the first Tron movie, it’s a bustling, popular place for kids and adults, but after Flynn disappears, it’s closed down and the machines are just collecting dust, as seen in Tron: Legacy.
Soylent Industries – Soylent Green
The year is 2022 and the world has been ravashed by global warming overpopulation. Food shortages mean only the rich have access to real food, leaving the rest of us to subsist on a food product made by Soylent Industries. We don’t know what they are made from, but it can’t be that bad, right? Soylent Green sure makes a case that the future could be rough, even if it was off by a few years.
McDowell’s – Coming To America
Be careful and don’t confuse the Big Mic with the Big Mac, and don’t confuse McDowell’s for McDonald’s. They might look similar, but as any fan of Eddie Murphy’s classic Coming To America will tell you, they are nothing alike. McDowell’s did inspire a pop-up in Brooklyn when the sequel Coming 2 America was released in 2021.
Elsinore Brewery – Strange Brew
If you can’t tell by the plot that the cult classic Strange Brew was (very) loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the name of the brewery, Elsinore Brewery, has the same name as Hamlet’s castle in the classic play. It’s led by the evil Brewmeister Smith, played by the great Max Von Sydow. They also put mice in their beer, so stay away.
Zorg Industries – The Fifth Element
In The Fifth Element, there seems to be only one company at the heart of everything, Zorg Industries, led by the terrible Jean-Baptiste Zorg (Gary Oldman). Zorg, both the man and the company, have an insatiable appetite for money and power and it seems almost no one can stop him, except the fifth element herself.
Universal Exports – James Bond Series
Universal Exports may just be the most famous fake company, and it’s a fake, fake company on top of that! It’s used throughout the James Bond franchise as a cover for MI6 in all the exotic locations that Bond travels to. Just know that if you see the name in a list of companies on a building directory, there is espionage afoot.
Paper St. Soap Company – Fight Club
Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) eschews all the trappings of a modern consumerist lifestyle, forming a fight club to reclaim a past lifestyle he thinks has been lost. He’s also a top salesman for the Paper St. Soap Company. Or is he?
Consumer Recreation Services – The Game
The Game is one a movie by director David Fincher that doesn’t get talked about enough. It’s a fantastic movie with one company pulling all the strings for the titular game, played by Michael Douglas’ character. How they have such reach is a mystery, but it’s something that some wish would explored further.