Milo (Ryan Phillippe) is a Stanford graduate who along with his best friend Teddy (Yee Jee Tso) is poised for a killer career in the computer world. They are techno wizards who want to make their mark in the field of digital convergence — a fancy term for the linking of all forms of digital communications, such as telephone, television, computers, and wireless, from one super-powerful feed.
Milo is incredibly impressed when Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), head of N.U.R.V., a multi-billion dollar software corporation, calls him up and invites the two of them to an interview. Teddy, who is opposed to any one corporation having a monopoly on this new technology, refuses to have anything to do with Winston. He reminds his friend that the mega-rich CEO is being investigated by the Justice Department.
Winston sees himself as an innovative entrepreneur who has taken risks and through creativity conquered a lion's share of the software market. His motto "Never Underestimate Radical Vision" is indicative of his gung-ho energy and enthusiasm. Winston is, underneath his cocky and competent facade, a rapacious capitalist who believes in beating the competition into the ground.
"It's not every day that we have a genius in the house," Winston says to Milo when he arrives at the corporate headquarters. Realizing that he has been selected to play a major role in the digital convergence project, which must be completed in 42 days, this wizard signs on the dotted line and brings along his girl friend Alice (Claire Forlani). When a Hollywood wheeler dealer at a party says: "The only art left in America is business," we realize it's only a matter of time before Milo discovers he's a pawn in a high stakes game that has gone out of control leading to murder, electronic surveillance, infiltration of the Justice Department, and even a major invasion of his private life.
Peter Howitt directs from a screenplay by Howard Franklin (The Name of the Rose). This is a corker of a screenplay that compels us to consider the wrong-headedness of one corporation controlling digital convergence and global communications. Antitrust joins Matrix and The Net as a trilogy of thought-provoking films about some of the dangers surrounding computer technology.