Sam Lowry
Sam is an employee of the Ministry of Information, perfectly content with never advancing in his career. His mother has the ability to give him a promotion as she and Mr. Helpmann who is the Minister are very close. Sam dreams of a woman who turns out to be Jill in real life, and goes on a journey believing he is meant to save her from the oppression of the Ministry. In the end he is captured and tortured to the point that he loses his mind.
Harry Tuttle
Tuttle is the man whom all the fuss in the film revolves around. The Ministry is searching for him and when a bug falls into a typewriter and spells out Buttle an innocent man is taken in and killed. Harry is covertly operating in the city in order to help the people, but he is off the grid and can't be found by the Ministry. He appears to help Sam during his journey and Sam imagines him rescuing him from being tortured in the Ministry at the end of the film which does not happen.
Jill Layton
Jill is the girl in Sam's dreams. She is opposed to the Ministry and seeks to be a part of the resistance seeking to bring them down in order that society can truly change. She partners with Sam and they make love, but she is taken in by the Ministry and killed.
Mrs. Ida Lowry
Mrs. Lowry is a socialite and Sam's mother. She is very well off and pays no attention to anything other than status and trends. She is very close to the Minister, Mr. Helpmann and gets Sam a promotion at the Ministry. We see that she dies in Sam's vision at the end of the film so whether she is alive or dead at the end of the story is left up in the air as we see that Sam has gone mad.
Mr. Kurtzmann
Mr. Kurtzmann is Sam's boss in the Ministry of Information before he's promoted. He is a nervous, scared man who is only concerned with not making mistakes. When given the opportunity to do the right thing when it's discovered a man has been killed because of a Ministry error he passes off responsibility to Sam.
