Seattle technology company DigiCom is about to merge with a publishing company, and company founder and president Bob Garvin (Donald Sutherland) plans to retire. Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas), head of manufacturing, expects to be promoted to run DigiCom after the merger. However, he learns that the post instead has gone to operations executive Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore), a former girlfriend. Garvin introduces Meredith to her new subordinates. Co-workers like Mark Lewyn (Dennis Miller) comment to Tom on how attractive Meredith is. Others like chief financial officer Stephanie Kaplan (Rosemary Forsyth) seem to be aware that Tom and Meredith had a relationship in the past.
Late that evening, Meredith calls Tom into her office, ostensibly to discuss problems with DigiCom's new advanced CD-ROM drive, being manufactured in Malaysia. Instead, Meredith aggressively tries to resume her romantic relationship with him. Tom resists (with difficulty) as he is now a married family man. Although he repeatedly turns her down, Meredith ignores Tom, forcing herself on him. Tom initially is tempted, but after catching a glimpse of himself in a mirror, he regains control and pushes Meredith to the ground. As he leaves, Meredith screams a threat to make him pay for spurning her.
The next day, Tom discovers that Meredith has alleged sexual harassment against him to DigiCom. Colleagues refuse to believe his protestations of innocence and the company pressures him to accept reassignment to the company's Austin office. Tom does not want to do this, as he would lose his stock options, ruining his career and family. However, since no one believes his story and Meredith is now his boss, he appears to have no choice.
Just as all seems hopeless, Tom receives an e-mail from someone identified only as "A Friend". It directs him to Seattle attorney Catherine Alvarez (Roma Maffia), who specializes in sexual harassment cases. Tom counter-sues, alleging that Meredith is the one who harassed him. Evidence is produced that supports Tom's story and refutes Meredith's testimony before a court mediator.
The company backs down and reinstates him with a large pay raise. Tom is celebrating his apparent victory, but then receives another e-mail from "A Friend" warning him that all is not what it seems.
It turns out that Meredith and Garvin's assistant, Philip Blackburn (Dylan Baker), had weakened the quality control specifications at the Malaysian plant to cut costs. The changes resulted in severe defects in the drive, and Meredith and Phil are planning to make Tom the scapegoat. At a conference the next day announcing the merger, they will make Tom look incompetent, thereby giving them a valid reason to fire him.
Tom is unable to access the company computer to seek confirmation because Meredith has locked him out of the system. He spends a tense and frantic night before getting the information through a virtual reality demonstration machine left in the hotel room of executives from the merging company, but not before Meredith deletes the information. Tom however, receives help from a colleague who owes him a favor. Armed with the incriminating memos, he manages to again turn the tables on Meredith, exposing her involvement and getting her fired instead. As she is escorted out, she shrilly proclaims that Tom is actually to blame and that the evidence is a last-ditch effort of revenge for trying to fire him.
Tom thinks this puts him back in the running to helm DigiCom, but Garvin instead names Stephanie Kaplan as his successor. Faced with the inevitable, Tom heartily approves. It occurs to him that her son Spencer, a research assistant to professor Arthur Friend—to whose computer Tom traced his 'Friend'—could very well be the "friend" responsible for helping him via e-mail. Spencer gives him a knowing look.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Disclosure_(film)", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
