Tim Robbins plays software executive Gary Winston in the 2001 film Antitrust. Winston is the powerful head of the fictional technology company NURV, which recruits programmer Milo Hoffman.
Antitrust follows Milo as he joins NURV and begins to suspect that the company is hiding criminal methods behind its ambitious software projects. The film uses familiar concerns about corporate power, intellectual property and computer surveillance, but its company and central conspiracy are fictional.
Robbins was an established actor whose earlier films included Bull Durham, The Shawshank Redemption and Mystic River. In Antitrust, he plays Winston as a charismatic but threatening technology leader. Ryan Phillippe plays Milo Hoffman, while Rachael Leigh Cook plays Milo’s girlfriend, Lisa.
A common mistake is to identify NURV as a real company or to treat Winston as a direct portrait of one specific technology executive. The film was marketed as a cyber-thriller and was released during a period when public interest in internet companies and software startups was rapidly expanding.