Working Girl is a 1988 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Mike Nichols, written by Kevin Wade, and starring Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, and Melanie Griffith. Its plot follows an ambitious secretary from Staten Island working in mergers and acquisitions. The secretary, who has been going to business night school, pitches a profitable idea, only to have her new boss attempt to take credit. When her boss is laid up with a broken leg, she secretly takes over her boss's role to prove her capabilities in the corporate world.

The film's opening sequence follows Manhattan-bound commuters on the Staten Island Ferry accompanied by Carly Simon's song "Let the River Run", for which she received the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, making her the first artist to win this trio of awards for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist. The film was met with critical acclaim, and was a major box office success, grossing a worldwide total of $103 million.

Working Girl was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Griffith, while both Weaver and Joan Cusack were nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film won four Golden Globes (from six nominations), including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Griffith, and Best Supporting Actress for Weaver. It also received three BAFTA nominations: Best Actress for Griffith, Best Supporting Actress for Weaver, and Best Original Score for Simon.

Tess McGill is a working-class woman from Staten Island who dreams of climbing the corporate ladder to an executive position. Despite her holding a business degree earned through evening classes, her boss and male co-workers at the stockbroker firm in lower Manhattan where she works as a secretary treat her like a bimbo, even though they benefit from her intelligence and business instincts. After reaching her limit with her boss's humiliations, Tess dramatically quits.

Tess then lands a job as an administrative assistant to Katharine Parker, an associate partner at mergers and acquisitions firm Petty Marsh. At first, Katharine seems supportive of Tess, encouraging her to share ideas, but eventually tells Tess her proposed purchase of a radio network by Trask Industries would not work out.

When Katharine breaks her leg skiing, she asks Tess to house-sit. While there, Tess discovers meeting notes that reveal Katharine plans to pass off the Trask Industries idea as her own. She later returns home to find her live-in boyfriend having sex with another woman. He later attempts to reconcile and proposes marriage, but she responds ambivalently, and they end things. With her boss away, Tess decides to use Katharine's connections and clothes to move ahead with her proposal for Trask. With the help of her friend Cyn, Tess cuts her hair and borrows Katherine's stylish clothing to look more professional.

Tess schedules a meeting with Jack Trainer, a mergers and acquisitions associate from another company. The night before, she attends on Katharine's behalf a dinner hosted by Trainer's firm, in an attempt to get to know him prior to their meeting. Trainer is attracted to and approaches Tess at the bar but does not reveal his name, even after she inquires whether he knows a Jack Trainer. Tess eventually leaves, and he follows, taking her back to his apartment after she passes out in a cab from a combination of Valium and alcohol.

Tess leaves early the next day, believing that they slept together, to attend her meeting with Trainer and is surprised to see he is the man from the previous night. They both feign non-recognition. Although Tess leaves the meeting with Trainer and his associates thinking it was a failure, Jack soon arrives at her office, telling her they did not sleep together and that he wants to move forward with her idea. Together, they prepare the financials for the merger proposal and present them to Trask. After the successful presentation, they give in to their attraction, ending up in bed. But when Tess is tempted to confess the truth about her position and the idea's origins, she demurs after discovering Jack has been involved with Katharine and planned to break up with her before her injury.