A voice-over narrator explains that in the mid-1950s, a nuclear war and devastation of Earth gave rise to three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia, and East Asia. By 1984, London, with its bomb-proof ministry, is designated as the capital of Airstrip One, a province of Oceania, controlled by one all-powerful Party, embodied by the figurehead Big Brother. In the spring of 1984, Winston Smith, a member of the elite Outer Party, encounters Julia, a woman he suspects may be a member of the Thought Police. Winston returns to his apartment, where an electronic surveillance eye examines the contents of his briefcase. Smuggling a small black diary past the eye, Winston begins to write down the subversive thoughts he fears to say aloud. Winston's reverie is interrupted when Selina Parsons, a little girl who lives next door, enters his apartment to practice denouncing him as a traitor. Robert Parsons, Selina's father, invites Winston to join him for a drink at the local Chestnut Tree café. At the cafe, Winston and Parsons spot Rutherford and Jones, two Outer Party traitors who have been rehabilitated by the government's Ministry of Love. Afterwards, Winston goes to a junk shop to wonder at the objects of yesteryear that are now deemed worthless. Julia enters the shop, sending Winston scurrying into the street, where he is stopped by the police and ordered to report to Administration the next morning. At the Administration the next day, a party officer reprimands Winston for socializing with the common masses. Winston then proceeds to his job at the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth. When Winston discovers a photo that would prove Jones and Rutherford innocent, O'Connor, Winston's superior, instructs him to destroy it. That evening, at a political rally, Julia passes Winston a note professing her love to him. Later, they arrange to meet Sunday in a meadow outside London, far from the prying microphones and monitors of Big Brother. There, they touch each other, an act prohibited by the Anti-Sex League, and proceed to make love. Two weeks later, Winston proposes renting a room at the junk store, one of the few places free of the omnipresent monitors. In the sanctity of their quarters, Winston confides that he believes O'Connor may be a member of the Underground. One night, Winston finds a note written in O'Connor's handwriting that reads "down with Big Brother." Convinced that O'Connor represents their only hope to break free of the tyranny of Big Brother, Julia and Winston go to his apartment and declare that they want to join the Underground. O'Connor instructs Winston to carry an empty briefcase with him at all times. A few days later, during a rally to launch Hate Week, a man switches briefcases with Winston. When Winston opens the case, he finds a copy of a treatise by the alleged leader of the Underground. Back in their secret room, Julia muses that only love can defeat Big Brother. At that moment, a telescreen hidden behind a mirror condemns Julia's sentiments, after which, the police burst in to arrest them. At the Ministry of Love, Winston is confined in a pit-like room. Soon after, Parsons is thrown into the pit, his daughter having denounced him for muttering in his sleep "Down with Big Brother." After Parsons is taken away, O'Connor enters the room and reveals himself to be a covert agent of the state. Under O'Connor's direction, Winston is subjected to a brainwashing campaign. Still resistant after a series of electroshock treatments, Winston declares that the party will never eradicate his love for Julia. Having ascertained that Winston's worst fear is being eaten alive by rats, O'Connor confines him in a room filled with the squealing rodents, after which Winston breaks down and begs them to feed Julia to the rodents instead. After O'Connor authorizes his release, Winston mindlessly wanders through the streets, where he spots Julia. After they confess their mutual betrayal, Big Brother broadcasts that the Eurasian army has been routed in battle and that the war will be soon over. In the final shot, the rehabilitated and brainwashed Winston and Julia then fervently join the crowd in cheering "Long live Big Brother!"
The New York Times reviewer A.H. Weiler called this film adaptation a stark, sober and thoughtful, if not altogether persuasive, film." He said the film The "director and the scenarists have adapted the book 'freely.' But they have retained its essential spirit and ideas in the film." A Boston Globe reviewer said that "the film had the same sense of bleak horror and black apprehension that Orwell developed when freedom was allowed to die."
