The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen podcast – Trading Places

Best Movies You’ve Never Seen — Trading Places
Date: 26 June 2026
Hosts: Stephen Fenech & Trevor Long

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[00:01:43] Stephen: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, our podcast about movies. My name is Stephen Fenech, and the idea of this show is that I come up with a movie that I’ve seen many times. My name is Stephen Fenech, I’m the movie guy, and I show them for the very first time to my co-host Trevor Long.

[00:02:03] Trevor: I’m not the movie guy.

[00:02:04] Stephen: Then, uh, gives his opinion of the show and fresh eyes on a show that may have been released decades ago, which is in this case the case with Trading Places, released in 1983.

[00:02:16] Trevor: Wow. Okay.

[00:02:17] Stephen: And it was, of course, starring Eddie Murphy.

[00:02:20] Trevor: You were like 20, not quite.

[00:02:23] Stephen: Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, directed by John Landis. So yeah, big hit at the time, big stars. Now the film concept, so the idea behind the movie was a result of a tennis game, right? So there were two brothers who were doctors. This is the screenwriter explaining how he came up with the idea. Two brothers who were both doctors who I would play tennis with on a fairly regular basis, and they were incredibly irritating to play with because they had a major sibling rivalry going on all the time about everything. So the screenwriter then presented the idea his name was Timothy Harris, about brothers arguing the nature versus nurture debate. So he explained that to his writing partner, and they thought, you know what, they went to work and they came up with—

[00:03:17] Trevor: created. Yeah.

[00:03:18] Movie Audio: Wow.

[00:03:19] Stephen: Now the original title— I know we have By Any Other Name, which we’ll get to later— but the original title for this was Black and White.

[00:03:28] Trevor: You can see why you wouldn’t go with that. Yeah.

[00:03:30] Stephen: Well, John Landis naturally hated it.

[00:03:32] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:03:32] Stephen: And even went so far as in his— within production, pre-production, offered $1,000— no, $100 to anyone who could come up with a better title. And that’s, uh, Trading Places became that title.

[00:03:46] Trevor: Yeah, good move.

[00:03:47] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:03:48] Stephen: Uh, he later though directed— like, you know, he directed the music video for Thriller? John Landis.

[00:03:53] Trevor: Did he do Black and White as well?

[00:03:54] Stephen: He did Black and White as well. I was gonna say, he went on to do that in 1991.

[00:03:59] Trevor: Black and White, was that the one with Macaulay Culkin? Yes. Yeah, the boombox at the start.

[00:04:03] Stephen: Yes.

[00:04:03] Trevor: Great. One of the great video clips of all time.

[00:04:06] Stephen: Remember how it was using the morphing? Yeah, the morphing, you know, so the woman would morph into someone else and, you know.

[00:04:15] Trevor: I only remember the start and the end of it.

[00:04:16] Stephen: Okay, yeah, it’s when they’re banging on the door. Yeah, I remember whenever I used to listen to that, I thought someone was actually banging on my door. Yeah, it’s crazy.

[00:04:23] Trevor: Great song.

[00:04:25] Stephen: Now, one of the things that director John Landis explained, he said that this film was produced by Paramount, right? So they were the studio behind it. And he was trying to, he wanted Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie.

[00:04:40] Trevor: Yep.

[00:04:41] Stephen: And it was a tough sell for Paramount. They thought, you know what, is she, she was, you know, she’d done Halloween and those sort of horror films, but wasn’t really a known quantity when it came to comedy.

[00:04:52] Trevor: Okay, so this is early days, right?

[00:04:54] Stephen: But he admitted that she would be willing to perform topless. And boom, that changed the executive’s minds after they saw a photo of her in a bikini. They went, hire that woman! And that’s how she got it. Later on, I could say, but I won’t— she has got a response later, I’m pretty sure I’ve included it, of how coming— what it was like at the time. Is she proud of this? Should she have done it? I’ll explain that later.

[00:05:21] Trevor: Oh, I can’t wait.

[00:05:22] Stephen: Yeah, that— yeah. Um, but had you heard of this? Any idea of this?

[00:05:25] Trevor: I feel like the title rings a bell, but no, this, this is completely foreign to me.

[00:05:29] Stephen: Okay, there’s a perfect example of a movie movie you’ve never seen that everyone knows very well except me.

[00:05:33] Trevor: I think it’s also a perfect example of any, uh, a large part of this audience, you know, might not have been born in the ’80s, let alone—

[00:05:41] Stephen: I was still at school when this came out.

[00:05:43] Trevor: I was 7, so maybe 6 depending on the date. So yeah, you know, I think that there’s a lot of people who are my age, and we’re now 50, and might not have seen this movie.

[00:05:54] Stephen: Yeah, it could have slipped through the cracks.

[00:05:56] Trevor: Absolutely.

[00:05:56] Stephen: Uh, it was nominated for one Oscar. Best Music Original Score. Music score, Elmer Bernstein. Okay, now good old Roger Ebert, 3.5 out of 4 stars.

[00:06:11] Trevor: Huge.

[00:06:11] Stephen: It is. This is a good comedy. It’s especially good because it doesn’t stop with sitcom manipulations of its idea. It doesn’t go only for the obvious points about racial prejudice in America. Instead, it develops the quirks and peculiarities of its characters so that they’re funny because of who they are. This takes a whole additional level of writing on top of the plot manipulation we usually get in popular comedies, and it takes good direction too. But what’s most visible in the movie is the engaging acting. Murphy and Aykroyd are perfect foils for each other in Trading Places because they’re both capable of being so specifically eccentric that we’re never just— we’d never just look at a black and a white that would make the comedy unworkable. They both play characters with a lot of native intelligence to go along with their prejudices, peculiarities, and personal styles. Yeah, great alliteration there from Rog. It’s fun to watch them thinking. The supporting cast has also been given detailed attention instead of being assigned to stand around as stereotypes. Jamie Lee Curtis plays a hooker with a heart of gold and a lot of T-bills. Amici and Bellamy have a lot of fun with the Duke brothers, and Denham Elliott successfully plays butler to both Aykroyd and Murphy, which is a stretch. The movie’s invention extends all the way to the climactic scenes, which involved not the usual manic chase but a commodity scam, a New Year’s Eve party on a train and a gay gorilla. Boom! A ringing endorsement from our man Rog.

[00:07:41] Trevor: That is a good— that’s a great review.

[00:07:42] Stephen: Well, this is your last exit before the freeway. We’re going to do some trading of our own and dive right into Trading Places.

[00:07:48] Trevor: If you haven’t seen it, you can catch it on Fetch, because Fetch is your all-in-one entertainment service offering great value entertainment so you can enjoy more for less with flexible packs at simple monthly prices. More content in one place, so you’ve got all the live TV channels, monthly movies, streaming apps, and games in one easy menu. And of course, it’s smarter and easier to use. So find what you want to watch faster with an intuitive interface and universal voice search. There’s the movie box, the movie store, there’s thousands, tens of thousands of movies that you could be watching on any given day, some of them free, some of them to rent or buy, some of them part of your subscription existing services. It’s an all-in-one box for that reason, and it’s a great way to enjoy your entertainment no matter what format it is. You can get Fetch at major retailers, uh, you can get it as a Telstra customer, and of course you can find out more and buy it at fetchtv.com.au.

[00:08:37] Stephen: Righty-o, you’ve now watched Trading Places. Yep. Just give us your first impressions. Was it what you expected? What’s the go?

[00:08:47] Trevor: I had no idea what to expect. Okay.

[00:08:50] Stephen: Did the name give it away? What were you thinking of the name? What did this mean?

[00:08:54] Trevor: No, I hadn’t given it. And again, this is to people that are going, what are you talking about? You gotta remember, I don’t watch promos.

[00:09:00] Stephen: I don’t even pay attention to the poster board when it comes up.

[00:09:03] Trevor: Like I just get straight into it. And so I had nothing. And so it wasn’t until you— like, I’m left guessing until like the moment that they have that first conversation.

[00:09:13] Stephen: For some movies, that’s a good thing.

[00:09:14] Trevor: I think so.

[00:09:15] Stephen: Yeah, it just let it unfold.

[00:09:16] Trevor: I think it lets me enjoy every part of the opening too, because I’m trying to discover what it’s about.

[00:09:20] Stephen: And you have zero expectations about it either. None.

[00:09:23] Trevor: That’s right.

[00:09:23] Stephen: That’s good. Okay, well, what’s your social media post for this one?

[00:09:28] Trevor: On this one, it is: with a comedic twist, Trading Places takes a look at a moral issue and a question of life with money at the center of it all. It’s actually a fascinating story and funny all through it. Righto.

[00:09:40] Stephen: I did not see this at the movies.

[00:09:42] Movie Audio: No.

[00:09:42] Stephen: This is controversial.

[00:09:43] Trevor: Yes.

[00:09:44] Stephen: Because I was in year 10 at the time and I was grounded. I did something and I wasn’t allowed to go with my mates to see it.

[00:09:53] Trevor: Oh, what did you do?

[00:09:54] Stephen: I can’t remember what I did. I must have stayed out later than I should have. And I was only 15, I suppose. I was just sort of starting that part of my life. But yeah, I can remember my mates saw it, but I wasn’t— I couldn’t go with them because I was really grounded.

[00:10:07] Movie Audio: And I remember watching it on video for the first time when it came out on video.

[00:10:12] Stephen: Yeah, because at the time was Eddie Murphy was sort of was huge and yeah, and Dan Aykroyd, it was a massive—

[00:10:17] Trevor: How long were you grounded for if you didn’t get to see the cinemas?

[00:10:19] Stephen: I think a week, a week I think.

[00:10:20] Trevor: Yeah, wouldn’t have been— or when do you go back? I guess your mates didn’t want to go back to the movies.

[00:10:24] Stephen: No, fair enough. Yeah, anyway, but now I regular rewatch it. I now own it on 4K.

[00:10:29] Trevor: Of course you do.

[00:10:30] Stephen: So how do you like them apples, Albert? He’s always my dad’s grounded me. Yeah, I got it on 4K now. Righto, let’s look at the cast. Eddie Murphy plays Billy Ray Valentine, and we’ve, uh, we’ve seen him in Beverly Hills Cop 2, which we’ve done, Coming to America, which we’ve also done. Yeah, Dreamgirls and The Nutty Professor.

[00:10:52] Trevor: Wow.

[00:10:52] Stephen: Yeah, Dan Aykroyd plays Louis Winthorpe III, and he was in Blues Brothers, which we’re gonna do. That’s, that’s a good— have you seen—

[00:11:00] Trevor: I’ve not seen it.

[00:11:01] Stephen: Oh my God, no, that’s a great movie.

[00:11:03] Trevor: Like, I can— there’s bits that I know of. Yes, because it’s been unpacked in Mythbusters and stuff, but yes, I’ve got no idea.

[00:11:09] Stephen: Ghostbusters 1, which we’ve done. Ghostbusters 2, which is good, not great. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Ophelia.

[00:11:16] Trevor: Great.

[00:11:16] Stephen: She was in Halloween, which we’ve done. True Lies, which we’ve done. A Fish Called Wanda, which we’ve done. So we’re fan— we’re Jamie Lee Curtis fans. She was also in Everything Everywhere All at Once recently. Yeah, supporting actor Oscar she won. She’s an Oscar winner.

[00:11:35] Trevor: Wow, good.

[00:11:35] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:11:36] Stephen: Don Ameche plays Mortimer Duke. He was in Cocoon. Huh, you’ve seen that? We’re going to do that.

[00:11:43] Trevor: I’m absolutely aware of the movie. I think my mum watched it when Brian Dennehy was— when I was a kid, but I don’t—

[00:11:49] Stephen: yeah, he was in Cocoon, Heaven Can Wait. Uh, he died in 1993, age 85.

[00:11:54] Trevor: Only 10 years after this, right?

[00:11:55] Stephen: Ralph Bellamy plays Randolph Duke. He was in His Girl Friday. He was in The Wolfman, the original Wolfman movie. He died in 1991, age 87. Denham Elliott plays Coleman. Do you recognize him for any other movie? He was in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember, he was the head of the museum in the start.

[00:12:13] Trevor: He was too, right?

[00:12:14] Stephen: He was also in The Last Crusade, which was the third movie. He was also in A Room with a View. Uh, he passed away in 1992, age 70.

[00:12:22] Trevor: Wow.

[00:12:23] Stephen: So yeah, the legacy of their performances exists.

[00:12:27] Trevor: Yeah, that’s awesome.

[00:12:28] Stephen: Good on them. Them. Before we get to the top scenes and the run-through, let’s have a chat about Hisense. And you know what, they’ve just released their new RGB Mini LED TVs. Now these are the, the new technology on the market, and they’ve also— the, the UR9 range is actually still within consumers’ touch. There is plenty of new technology on board, and it’s available in 65, 75, and 85-inch. So if you’re wanting to enjoy the new tech without having to break the bank, their UR9 series is the one to look They’ve got the new RGB Mini LED technology, which is a new backlight technology that produces both the color and the brightness with amazing detail. Color accuracy is better than ever, and so giving you the amazing picture quality of all the movies that we’re talking about here. You can see them in full color, their full glory, on the Hisense TV. But also, these TVs sound great as well. Out of the box, you’re getting 4.1.2 multi-channel surround sound. There’s also anti-reflection and glare-free on board, so if you’re if you are watching this in our— in your typically bright open living area, you are not going to get distracted by reflections. You’re going to be able to focus on what you’re watching.

[00:13:38] Movie Audio: Yes.

[00:13:39] Stephen: And if you’re a gamer, 180Hz gaming mode as well. So why not ask for the best screen in the house to play your games as well? The Hisense Mini RGB Mini LED range is available now. As I said, 65, 75, and you know what, go for it, 85 inches. This is the one to look for. Check them out at hisense.com.au. Boom. Righty-o. We see an interesting little opening montage in the movie about giving you a little taste of Philadelphia. It’s set to the music, uh, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, showing the wealthy elite walking up, waking up in their mansions, and the workers.

[00:14:17] Trevor: I noticed an important statue in the montage.

[00:14:19] Stephen: I certainly did. Uh, that is in my Did You Notice? But yeah, we’ll talk about it right now. The Rocky statue.

[00:14:25] Trevor: I was so proud of myself. Oh my God, that’s a Rocky statue!

[00:14:28] Stephen: Which was, which was, uh, released the year before. Was it? Rocky III was 1982.

[00:14:34] Trevor: Wait, so— oh, Rocky III. Yes.

[00:14:37] Stephen: So what they did when they made Rocky III, uh, they had the statue at the top of the steps.

[00:14:42] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:14:43] Stephen: And then they put it down the bottom of the steps. But I think at this point it was still at the top of the steps. Right now it’s at the bottom of the steps to the right. Yeah, right. I’ve been there, it’s awesome.

[00:14:51] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:14:52] Stephen: Uh, we, we meet Louis Winthorpe III, played by Dan Aykroyd. He’s the managing director of a commodities brokerage firm, Duke and Duke.

[00:15:01] Trevor: And he’s—

[00:15:01] Stephen: I love the opening, he’s really— he’s snob, he’s pampered, he lives this extreme luxurious life managed by his loyal butler Coleman, who’s played by Denham Elliott. Then we meet at the opposite end of the scale, we see Billy Ray Valentine, and he’s in Rittenhouse Square, which is a popular square in Philadelphia. He’s like a beggar, and he’s a street hustler pretending to be a blind, legless Vietnam veteran who’s begging for money.

[00:15:32] Movie Audio: Hey baby, what’s happening? How you doing? You want to have a man with You never go back, baby. I know what you’re thinking. You seen Paul getting bit? We can make it, baby.

[00:15:43] Movie Audio: Me and you. You bitch! Who’s that?

[00:15:51] Movie Audio: Who’s that? What you want?

[00:15:52] Stephen: Police.

[00:15:53] Trevor: We’ve had some complaints about conduct, pretending to be blind and, uh, crippled.

[00:15:58] Movie Audio: Oh, I’d love to help you, man, but I ain’t seen nothing since I stepped on that landmine in Viet Cong back in ’72. It was rough, very painful.

[00:16:04] Stephen: You were in ‘Nam?

[00:16:05] Movie Audio: So were we.

[00:16:05] Movie Audio: Where?

[00:16:07] Movie Audio: Um, I was in, um, Sang Bang, Dang An. I was all over that place, basically. A lot of places. A lot of places. What unit were you in? Uh, I was with the Green Beret, uh, Special Unit Battalion, uh, Commando Airborne Tactics Specialist Tactics, uh, Unit Battalion. Yeah, it was real hush-hush. I was Agent Orange. That was my name. Agent Orange. Special Agent Orange. That was me.

[00:16:29] Trevor: Airborne, huh?

[00:16:31] Stephen: So then they lift him up and he goes, I could see, I could walk.

[00:16:36] Trevor: It’s funny, I realized how much I love Eddie Murphy during this movie because the kids weren’t watching it with me, but I think Vivi was in the room and I did an Eddie Murphy laugh. And Victoria goes, what are you doing? I went, oh, I can’t even begin to tell you, but you know, it’s just so— I just love him. He’s iconic.

[00:16:54] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:16:54] Stephen: Oh yeah. So he does the bolt from there and then as he’s running away, he bumps into Lewis outside the Heritage Club.

[00:17:01] Trevor: Literally bumps into him. Not intentional.

[00:17:02] Stephen: I remember he drops his bag and he says, don’t kill me, take the bag. Yeah, he’s like, here’s your bag. And then so he runs inside and ends up getting arrested. The elderly owners of the firm, Mortimer and Randolph Duke, that’s Don Amici and Ralph Bellamy, they see all this happening. And then back at their office, they have the debate, the nature v nurture.

[00:17:24] Trevor: Because one of them was reading the magazine.

[00:17:26] Stephen: Yeah, he goes out because remember he went— when it was like a Nobel Prize conversation, when Winthorpe came and with the checks, and he goes, oh, hang on, who’s this Meeks?

[00:17:34] Trevor: And, you know, there was a dodgy name.

[00:17:34] Stephen: He goes, no, I’ll look after that one, remember? And then, um, he goes, look, he goes, he’s doing a great job. He goes, yeah, we could train any monkey to run this company. He goes, we’ll prove it, you know. And this is the back of their office. They have this bet. The corporate criminal Mortimer believes success is strictly genetic, while Randolph believes it’s a product of environment.

[00:17:57] Movie Audio: That man is a product of a poor environment. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him.

[00:18:02] Movie Audio: I can prove it Of course there’s something wrong with him. He’s a Negro. Probably been stealing since he could crawl.

[00:18:12] Movie Audio: I’ll bet that that man could run our company as well as your young Winthorpe.

[00:18:18] Movie Audio: Are we talking about a wager, Randolph? I suppose you think Winthorpe, say if he were to lose his job, would resort to holding up people on the street?

[00:18:29] Movie Audio: No, I don’t think just losing his job would be enough for Winthorpe. I think we’d have to heap a little more misfortune on those narrow shoulders. If he lost his job and his home and his fiancée and his friends, if he were somehow disgraced and arrested by the police and thrown in jail even, yes, I’m sure he’d take to crime like a fish to water.

[00:18:56] Movie Audio: You’d have to put him in the wrong surroundings, of course, with the worst sort of people. I mean real scum, Randall.

[00:19:05] Movie Audio: We’ve done it before. This time it’s in a good cause. How much you want to bet?

[00:19:13] Movie Audio: The usual amount.

[00:19:14] Movie Audio: Why not?

[00:19:16] Trevor: So Harry was sitting with me on the couch for this moment. Yep. And, um, he looked at me, he goes, how much do you think? And I said, I said, how much do you think? He goes, oh, like 20. He said either $20,000 or $20 million. And I said, and I’m just bringing it up because it’s, it’s foreshadowing, but I said, mate, it’ll be something like $100.

[00:19:33] Stephen: Well, turns out to be a dollar. We can say that now.

[00:19:36] Trevor: Yeah, exactly.

[00:19:36] Stephen: Yeah. So they employ a corrupt official, Clarence Beeks. Remember, he had the mysterious check, uh, to ruin Lewis. Uh, during a company function, he secretly plants a bag of PCP angel dust in Lewis’s jacket. Lewis is searched and publicly humiliated and arrested. So Lewis is actually denied bail, stripped of all his assets, his bank accounts are frozen. The Dukes hire— well, Beeks hires a prostitute named Ophelia, which is Jamie Lee Curtis, to kiss him in front of his wealthy fiancée, instantly ruining their engagement.

[00:20:13] Trevor: Instantly.

[00:20:13] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:20:14] Stephen: So at the same time, the Dukes bail Billy Ray out of jail. And give him Lewis’s luxurious townhouse, his clothes, and tell him that it’s a philanthropic rehabilitation program.

[00:20:27] Movie Audio: Say, man, who are y’all?

[00:20:28] Stephen: What y’all want with me?

[00:20:29] Movie Audio: We want to help you, Mr. Valentine. My brother and I run a privately funded program to rehabilitate culturally disadvantaged people. We’d like to supply you with a home of your own, a car, a generous bank account, and employment with our company.

[00:20:46] Movie Audio: We’re gonna start you at $80,000 a year.

[00:20:52] Movie Audio: 80,000.

[00:20:54] Trevor: Excuse me, he leans over the driver.

[00:20:57] Movie Audio: This is a practical joke, right, Brian?

[00:21:00] Stephen: He says no.

[00:21:02] Movie Audio: And these dudes a couple of faggots then, huh? What’s my next move, man?

[00:21:08] Stephen: I’m good.

[00:21:10] Movie Audio: Thank you, you’ve been helpful. What about the police and the payroll?

[00:21:18] Movie Audio: We’ve had the charges dropped, Mr. Valentine. You’re a free man, Valentine.

[00:21:23] Movie Audio: We can stop right now and you can walk out on us forever.

[00:21:28] Movie Audio: No.

[00:21:29] Movie Audio: No, I believe I can hang out with you fellas for a little while.

[00:21:32] Stephen: Excellent.

[00:21:32] Movie Audio: I’m Randolph Duke.

[00:21:34] Movie Audio: How you doing, Randy? What’s happening?

[00:21:35] Movie Audio: My younger brother Mortimer.

[00:21:37] Movie Audio: Hey, Mortay.

[00:21:38] Stephen: What it is?

[00:21:39] Movie Audio: Hey, Mortay. Billy Ray Valentine. Capricorn. Randy, that’s like Randy Jackson from the Jackson 5, right?

[00:21:45] Movie Audio: Yes.

[00:21:49] Trevor: He’s great. Randy and Morty. So, uh, you notice he never calls him Billy either. He’s calling him William the whole time. Yeah.

[00:21:57] Stephen: And so initially he’s sort of in the house and he’s thinking everything’s yours, and they’re really struggling to convince him that, yes, yes, all this is yours. And when he breaks the vase, that was funny. He goes, oh, that was what we— I think we paid $30,000 for that. He goes, oh my God. He goes, but it was insured for $50,000, so he’s already making his money.

[00:22:15] Trevor: Round of applause, Morty.

[00:22:15] Stephen: So Billy Ray throws a wild party at the mansion but quickly becomes protective.

[00:22:21] Trevor: And this is like, well, this is like the first moment where he realizes that there’s a helicopter view of the life that he had and the people that he was with. And he realizes they’re all just, they’re just all trying to take advantage. Now they’re sponging off him. So he’s like, hang on a minute. And he just kicks them all out.

[00:22:34] Stephen: Yeah. At the office, he demonstrates a natural instinct for commodities trading and how the famously explaining how the price of pork bellies, for example, moves based on real world factors. Lewis, meanwhile, no money, no friends or family, is taken in by Ophelia. He— she recognizes that he’s been framed and says, look, you know what, I’ll help you to help you get back.

[00:22:58] Trevor: Because there’s a moment where she talks about there was a bloke across the road and he was paid to— yeah, so she kind of tells him and he starts to believe it. And so he’s like, now he needs help, and he goes and lives with her.

[00:23:08] Stephen: So he says, you know what, she says, I’m gonna take you in Come in, because I’ve got something in mind.

[00:23:14] Movie Audio: This place is a dump, but it’s cheap, it’s clean, and it’s all mine. I’ve saved $42,000, and it’s in T-bills earning interest. I figure I got 3 more years on my back. I’ll have enough to retire on.

[00:23:29] Movie Audio: You’re a prostitute.

[00:23:31] Movie Audio: I’m talking about a business proposition, Louie. I help you get yourself back on your feet, and you pay me in cash cash, 5 figures. That’s the deal, and it’s not subject to negotiation. Understood? By the way, food and rent are not the only things around here that cost money. You sleep on the couch.

[00:23:53] Stephen: See, at that point she took her top off, and you know, he’s— she— that’s when she said food and rent’s not the only thing that costs money. I had to replay that a couple of times.

[00:24:03] Trevor: She couldn’t have given him the view for free then as well. Yeah, well, yeah, the pause button on a few VHS tapes.

[00:24:10] Stephen: I had to just go back and hear what she said again a couple of times. Yeah, anyway, uh, Lewis, uh, now rock bottom. He’s unaccustomed to poverty.

[00:24:17] Movie Audio: He—

[00:24:18] Stephen: his reality check is pretty harsh here. Uh, while he’s sinking in his depression, meanwhile, Billy Ray is thriving and proving that Randolph Duke’s environmental theory is correct. The Dukes celebrate their successful experiment, completely unconcerned with the human wreckage they’ve left behind.

[00:24:38] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:24:38] Stephen: But at the Christmas party, a drunk, dirty, and dressed in a stolen filthy Santa Claus costume Luke— I love this, how he snuck into the Christmas party, started putting lobsters and crabs and food in his pockets, everything, like crazy stuff. So then what he does, he plants drugs in Billy Ray’s desk to frame him, but, but he gets caught.

[00:24:58] Trevor: Billy Ray walks in. Yeah, just what do you think you’re doing, Randolph?

[00:25:04] Movie Audio: Mortimer!

[00:25:04] Movie Audio: Officer, come in here quickly! I finally caught him!

[00:25:10] Movie Audio: Who are you?

[00:25:12] Movie Audio: I’ve caught him red-handed.

[00:25:13] Movie Audio: Winthorpe, is that you?

[00:25:15] Movie Audio: I’m making a citizen’s arrest. This man is a drug dealer. Look, look here in his office drawer. He’s got all the bad drugs here. Marijuana joints, pills, Quaalude, Valium, yellow ones, red ones, cocaine grinder, drug needles. He’s the You’re the pusher, not me.

[00:25:32] Movie Audio: Really? I just came in and caught this man planting this stuff in my desk. It’s obviously some primitive attempt to try to frame me.

[00:25:39] Movie Audio: Frame you? Boy, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black.

[00:25:44] Movie Audio: This man’s obviously a lunatic. I’m calling security.

[00:25:46] Movie Audio: Put that phone down.

[00:25:50] Movie Audio: Hello, security? Merry Christmas.

[00:25:54] Stephen: You guys got any—

[00:25:56] Movie Audio: Merry Christmas.

[00:25:58] Movie Audio: Plant drugs on me, steal my house, my car, my job. You know, I ought to kill him right now.

[00:26:03] Movie Audio: Hey, look, man, this is a big misunderstanding, all right? I don’t know nothing about your house and your car and your job. Really, can you put that gun away? Will you ask the dupes?

[00:26:09] Movie Audio: Put that gun away at once, Winthorpe! You lost your mind?

[00:26:14] Movie Audio: Freeze, slimeball!

[00:26:16] Movie Audio: Whoa! I realize this whole experience must have been rather unsettling for you.

[00:26:23] Movie Audio: Windhog, don’t leave! We can explain!

[00:26:26] Movie Audio: Yeah, you’ll be sorry.

[00:26:30] Stephen: So, uh, yeah, pretty dramatic scene, but my interjection is going to be called a market crash.

[00:26:35] Movie Audio: Okay, that’s fair.

[00:26:36] Stephen: Market crash. There are several moments in the movie, uh, that were— came about by accident, right? Do you remember when, uh, the Mortimers left their money clip on purpose?

[00:26:46] Trevor: Yes.

[00:26:47] Stephen: And he ran down and, and then when— remember he tossed it to him and he nearly dropped it?

[00:26:51] Trevor: Nearly dropped it. I thought that was awesome. That way he kept—

[00:26:52] Stephen: they kept that in.

[00:26:52] Movie Audio: That wasn’t supposed to happen.

[00:26:53] Stephen: That was but they just kept going without breaking character. Several things that happened in the movie that are like that, so they got that chance. Later that night, Billy Ray goes to the executive washroom at Duke and Duke, and he overhears Mortimer and Randolph. They’re discussing—

[00:27:09] Trevor: the best part of this, the best part of this is he was, he was just, he took a joint out of that drawer, so he’s just having a little joint. And when he, when he hears them, he, he puts it in his mouth, and so he’s stuffed because he’s basically got a lit joint in his mouth and he’s trying to listen to this whole engagement with that happening Pay up, Mortimer.

[00:27:28] Movie Audio: I’ve won the bet.

[00:27:32] Movie Audio: Here, $1.

[00:27:37] Movie Audio: We took a perfectly useless psychopath like Valentine and turned him into a successful executive. And during the same time, we turned an honest hardworking man into a violently deranged would-be killer. Now, what are we going to do about taking Winthorpe back and returning Valentine to the ghetto?

[00:28:06] Movie Audio: I don’t want Winthorpe back after what he’s done.

[00:28:10] Movie Audio: You mean keep Valentine on as managing director?

[00:28:15] Movie Audio: Do you really believe I would have a nigger run our family business, Randolph?

[00:28:20] Movie Audio: Of course not. Neither would I. I do think we should hold off on switching them back though until we get that crop report New Year’s Eve, don’t you?

[00:28:30] Movie Audio: Absolutely. No sense rocking the boat until then.

[00:28:34] Movie Audio: If Mr. Beeks does what we paid him to do, we should have a very happy New Year.

[00:28:41] Movie Audio: Indeed.

[00:28:44] Stephen: A lot to unpack there. Yeah, some of these quotes haven’t aged very well.

[00:28:49] Trevor: No, really, you think?

[00:28:50] Stephen: Yeah, earlier on he called him a negro.

[00:28:52] Trevor: Yeah, I think the— it’s interesting because ’83 feels recent, but it is such a long time ago, mate.

[00:28:58] Stephen: It was how many years ago now? It’s 40, 42, 43 years ago. Yeah, a long time. Anyway, Billy is— Billy Ray Valentine learns about the dollar bet and discovers the Dukes plan to dump him. And we heard them saying, while leaving Lewis to rot as well.

[00:29:15] Trevor: Yeah, so it’s the worst part is they’re going to let them both go, basically. Yes, just—

[00:29:18] Stephen: but, uh, Lewis, at his lowest ebb here, attempts suicide via overdose. But Billy Ray tracks him down to Ophelia’s apartment, nurses him through his withdrawal, and convinces him of the truth. And together with Ophelia and Coleman, who was also kept in the dark by the Dukes, they form an alliance.

[00:29:37] Trevor: Although, no, no, I remember Coleman was told about it. They phoned him and told him what they were going to do.

[00:29:43] Stephen: He just towed the line.

[00:29:44] Trevor: No, yes, but that’s the beautiful part is what I think is it’s about Coleman, you know, doing his job but then realizing it’s a disgrace and watching it happen. Would you remember he becomes part of the plan to fix it earlier?

[00:29:55] Stephen: I remember when Winthorpe came to the door, he goes, I’m sorry, I’ve never seen you before. If you don’t go, I’m going to call the police. Yeah.

[00:30:01] Trevor: So he’s thinking, what are you doing? His moral compass has come back in the line.

[00:30:04] Stephen: That’s what I thought. But they decide, you know what, we’re gonna get ours back.

[00:30:09] Movie Audio: Dukes ruined my life over a bet.

[00:30:14] Movie Audio: For how much? A dollar. $1.

[00:30:21] Movie Audio: Fine, that’s the way they want it. No problem.

[00:30:29] Movie Audio: You know, you can’t just go around and shoot people in the knee You can’t shoot cops with a double-barreled shotgun ’cause you pissed at ’em.

[00:30:35] Movie Audio: Why not?

[00:30:35] Movie Audio: It’s called assault with a deadly weapon. You get 20 years for that shit.

[00:30:40] Movie Audio: Listen, do you have any better ideas?

[00:30:43] Movie Audio: Yeah, you know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning ’em into poor people.

[00:30:49] Movie Audio: I have to admit, sir, you didn’t like it yourself a bit. And now for the news.

[00:30:54] Stephen: Under heavy security, the crop Estimates for next year’s orange crop are being delivered from Miami to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Louie, Louie, that’s him!

[00:31:06] Movie Audio: That’s the guy who paid me to talk dirty to you.

[00:31:08] Stephen: In charge of security is Mr. Clarence Beeks, head of Lindhurst Security.

[00:31:12] Movie Audio: Clarence Beeks? The Duke just gave that guy 10 grand.

[00:31:15] Movie Audio: 10 grand? I saw an outlay on the payroll to him for $50,000. Mortimer said it was for research.

[00:31:21] Movie Audio: Yeah, research, and I can get his hands on that top secret crop report 2 days before it goes public.

[00:31:26] Movie Audio: My God, the Dukes are going to corner the entire frozen orange juice market.

[00:31:32] Movie Audio: Unless somebody stops them.

[00:31:34] Stephen: Or beats them to it.

[00:31:36] Trevor: Boom!

[00:31:37] Stephen: So the plan starts to come together. The group discovers, as we heard, that they’ve paid Clarence Beeks to obtain an advance copy of the official crop report. Yes, on orange production. They plan to use this inside information to corner the market on frozen insider trading, basically. So the team follows Beeks onto a train bound for Philadelphia, and through an elaborate sequence of disguises, they try their best, but Beeks is on to them.

[00:32:09] Movie Audio: Now that we are all here, we will have a picnic. Yeah, yeah, you will help me get my rucksack down for the Swedish meatballs.

[00:32:21] Stephen: Remember the one we did?

[00:32:23] Movie Audio: Yeah!

[00:32:23] Stephen: Oh yeah, oh yeah, your memories all day long I can tell those stories good old days man there you are sweet pea thank you so the train will be pulling into Philadelphia soon will you be getting off at the City of Brotherly Love Mr B? Yeah, I will, but you won’t, Winthorpe.

[00:32:51] Movie Audio: See if this one’s empty.

[00:32:52] Movie Audio: Hey, back off!

[00:32:53] Stephen: I’ll rip out your eyes and piss on your brain.

[00:32:56] Trevor: Okay, cool.

[00:32:57] Movie Audio: Excuse me.

[00:32:58] Movie Audio: You got it.

[00:32:58] Trevor: So you’re correct.

[00:33:01] Stephen: All right, let’s go, bunch of fucking weirdos. We’re gonna take a little walk, and don’t try anything funny or the whore loses a kidney.

[00:33:09] Movie Audio: Let’s go.

[00:33:10] Stephen: Is that kind of backfired a little a little bit. Because remember, Eddie Murphy was dressed like a Cameroon guy for Cameroon. And I don’t know if you could get away with it today, but Dan Aykroyd had blackface on as a, as a, like a Rasta. That was wild.

[00:33:24] Trevor: Then definitely couldn’t get away with that.

[00:33:26] Stephen: Coleman was dressed up as a priest, an Irish priest.

[00:33:28] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:33:29] Stephen: So, and then my market crash here is that Jamie Lee Curtis, Ophelia, was— she was wearing lederhosen, but she had a— she says, I’m from Sweden.

[00:33:39] Trevor: Yeah, which is completely—

[00:33:39] Stephen: now the Swedish design, that came about because she couldn’t do the direct Austrian accent, but she says, I can do a Swedish accent. So they said, okay, do that.

[00:33:48] Trevor: Who’s judging, really? Exactly right.

[00:33:51] Stephen: So, um, but as they’re led into the cargo carriage, they overpower and drug Beeks and tie him up in a gorilla suit before stealing the real USDA report.

[00:34:02] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:34:03] Stephen: So they leave him in the cage. Remember, they had a gorilla on the train. There was another dude walk around with a gorilla suit on, and they— dude, isn’t that, um, Jim James?

[00:34:11] Trevor: Yeah, it was.

[00:34:12] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:34:13] Trevor: So I thought that’s essentially a cameo, right? That was a fantastic cameo. Blues Brothers was before this.

[00:34:18] Stephen: Well, that’s James Belushi, not John Belushi. Oh really? John is the one who died. He died. James Belushi is his brother.

[00:34:25] Trevor: Yeah, they look the same. They’re very similar. They’re brothers.

[00:34:27] Movie Audio: Wow.

[00:34:27] Stephen: They’re brothers.

[00:34:28] Trevor: They’re not all brothers. You don’t look the same as your brother. You look similar, but—

[00:34:30] Movie Audio: Okay.

[00:34:31] Stephen: Wow, I didn’t know that.

[00:34:32] Trevor: There you go.

[00:34:33] Stephen: Righto, they replaced the real report with the forged one.

[00:34:36] Trevor: Yep.

[00:34:37] Stephen: The fake report says the winter freeze was catastrophic and the orange crop was ruined, meaning supply will drop prices will go up. But they deliver the fake report to the Duke’s courier. So on the trading floor of the World Trade Center— yes, the Duke brothers believe the fake report and instruct their broker to buy FCOJ.

[00:35:01] Movie Audio: And, uh, nothing you have ever experienced can prepare you for the unbridled carnage you’re about to witness. Super Bowl, a World Series— they don’t know what pressure is. And In this building, it’s either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits, and you take no prisoners.

[00:35:13] Movie Audio: No prisoners.

[00:35:14] Movie Audio: One minute you’re up half a million in soybeans, and the next, boom, your kids don’t go to college, and they’ve repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?

[00:35:19] Movie Audio: Yeah, we gotta kill ’em, motherfucker!

[00:35:20] Stephen: We gotta kill ’em!

[00:35:23] Movie Audio: We want you to buy as much OJ as you can the instant trading starts.

[00:35:27] Movie Audio: Don’t worry if the price starts going up. Just keep buying.

[00:35:31] Stephen: But, gentlemen, they’re gonna broadcast the crop report in an hour.

[00:35:33] Movie Audio: What if they’re—

[00:35:34] Movie Audio: Let us worry about that. I thought that was it.

[00:35:36] Stephen: Haha, see?

[00:35:37] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:35:38] Stephen: So they go about buying. The massive buying frenzy drives up the price really high.

[00:35:44] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:35:44] Stephen: My other market crash here, the story behind them cornering the OJ market was inspired by the Silver Thursday market crash on March 27th, 1980. Now the Hunt brothers, I think one of ’em’s name was Mike, of Texas, tried to corner the silver market market and failed to meet a $100 million margin call. So he got done out of his cash. Yeah. So anyway, knowing the real report states the crop is perfectly fine, meaning the supply is stable and the price will actually drop, Lewis and Billy Ray wait until the price peaks, then they step in and aggressively sell. So they’re shorting the frozen concentrate orange juice futures contracts at the inflated price to the desperate Dukes and other traders.

[00:36:40] Trevor: Yeah, so I’ll be honest, yeah, didn’t understand this fully. I knew there was shorting and long.

[00:36:45] Stephen: Did that explain it to you?

[00:36:46] Trevor: Not really, no. Okay, I mean, I’ve got more.

[00:36:48] Stephen: Okay, the Agricultural Secretary reads the real report on live TV. The crop is normal. The market immediately panics and crashes. Hey, hey, the Dukes are trying to corner the market.

[00:37:00] Movie Audio: They know something.

[00:37:01] Movie Audio: I can feel it.

[00:37:02] Stephen: Let’s get in on it.

[00:37:04] Movie Audio: 200, take them! 130! 200, 200! Not yet, almost. 220, take them! 209! Yeah, yeah, got them! 139! 140! Hey, come here, come here!

[00:37:24] Movie Audio: Minneapolis!

[00:37:24] Movie Audio: No, South 8 below 142.

[00:37:43] Movie Audio: That’s not right.

[00:37:45] Movie Audio: How can the price be going down?

[00:37:46] Movie Audio: Something’s wrong.

[00:37:48] Movie Audio: Where’s Wilson?

[00:37:52] Movie Audio: What are they doing here?

[00:37:55] Movie Audio: They’re selling, Mortimer.

[00:37:56] Stephen: Why, that’s ridiculous.

[00:37:59] Movie Audio: Unless that crop report—

[00:38:05] Stephen: God help us! So the market, they panic, market crashes, Louie and Billy Ray buy back the contracts at rock-bottom prices. Legally securing a huge fortune. Now the Dukes realized they’ve been wiped out.

[00:38:27] Trevor: See, here’s what I’m trying to understand. So they buy back at a—

[00:38:32] Stephen: It’s like, you know what it’s like? It’s like, do you remember Kerry Packer and Alan Bond?

[00:38:38] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:38:38] Stephen: Remember he sold it for massive money?

[00:38:40] Trevor: Yeah, but what I don’t understand, the winter crop was bad, right?

[00:38:44] Stephen: No, the winter crop was good.

[00:38:45] Trevor: It was good.

[00:38:46] Stephen: So they said, so it won’t be, if the winter crop’s bad, it’ll be scarcer and more expensive. Expensive. The winter crop is good, so there’ll be plentiful supply, it’ll be cheaper. You get it?

[00:38:55] Trevor: Not really. Anyway, that’s why I don’t trade the stocks.

[00:38:57] Stephen: I like the Kerry Packer, Alan Bond. Remember when he bought Channel 9? He sold Alan Bond.

[00:39:02] Trevor: I understand that, but that’s just a business. Yeah, I don’t understand in this, in the sense of these.

[00:39:07] Stephen: Sell high, buy low. That’s what happened.

[00:39:09] Trevor: Okay, take your word for it.

[00:39:10] Stephen: Uh, so capitalism shit. The Dukes realize they’re being wiped out. Uh, Louie and Billy Ray confront them on the floor, and Louie formally closes the bet, handing him a single dollar bill. The Dukes are left facing a margin call of $394 million, giving Mortimer a heart attack.

[00:39:33] Movie Audio: Windsor Valentine!

[00:39:36] Movie Audio: Hey, how’d you make out today?

[00:39:38] Movie Audio: How could you do this to us after everything we’ve done for you?

[00:39:43] Movie Audio: Oh, see, I made Lewis a bet here. Lewis bet me that we couldn’t both get rich and put you on the poorhouse at the same time. You didn’t think we could do it. I won.

[00:39:53] Movie Audio: I lost. $1.

[00:39:58] Movie Audio: Thank you, Lewis.

[00:40:00] Movie Audio: After you.

[00:40:02] Stephen: Certainly.

[00:40:06] Movie Audio: Margin call, gentlemen.

[00:40:08] Movie Audio: Oh, you can’t expect us to know the rules of the exchange, Mr.

[00:40:11] Movie Audio: Duke. All accounts to be settled at the end of the day’s trading, without exception.

[00:40:16] Movie Audio: You know perfectly well we don’t have $394 million in cash.

[00:40:21] Stephen: I’m sorry, boys. Put the Duke Brothers’ seats on the exchange up for sale at once. Seize all assets of Duke and Duke Commodities Brokers, as well as all personal holdings of Randolph and Mortimer Duke.

[00:40:32] Movie Audio: My God, we’re ruined!

[00:40:36] Movie Audio: This is an outrage! I demand an investigation! You can’t sell our seats! Our Duke has been sitting on this exchange since it was founded! We founded this exchange!

[00:40:46] Stephen: It’s ours!

[00:40:47] Movie Audio: It belongs to us!

[00:40:48] Movie Audio: Oh my God.

[00:40:50] Stephen: Mortimer, your brother’s not well. We better call an ambulance.

[00:40:52] Movie Audio: Fuck him! Now you listen to me. I want trading reopened right now! Get those brokers back in here! Turn those machines back on! Turn those machines back on!

[00:41:03] Stephen: Why are the market crash here? Is Don Amici, who was just talking then, strong religious convictions, and he thought he was uncomfortable with the swearing. Oh, so he said, you know what, he did it. He goes, he had to shout out, you know, ‘F him,’ uh, to the group, to the Wall Street executives. He, when he did it, he did it once and he did it in one take, and then he refused to do a second one. He says, ‘You’ve got your take, I’m not doing it again.’ Fair call.

[00:41:29] Trevor: Yeah, man, it was pretty good, mate.

[00:41:31] Stephen: Why bother doing The final cutaway, you know, Beaks was in the carriage with the gorilla. They put him on a ship, trapped, being romanced by the actual gorilla. And then we cut to the tropical paradise where they’re on a sun-drenched beach. Lewis and Billy Ray, Ophelia and Coleman are living a life of extreme wealth and luxury.

[00:41:58] Movie Audio: Hey, Coleman. Yes?

[00:42:01] Movie Audio: What should we do about lunch? The lobster, the cracked crab?

[00:42:05] Movie Audio: What do you think?

[00:42:07] Trevor: Can’t we have both?

[00:42:09] Movie Audio: Why not?

[00:42:10] Movie Audio: Dimitri, sir, lobster and cracked crab for everyone. Extra primo good, Mr. Coleman, sir.

[00:42:25] Stephen: So, Louie and A feeler on the boat.

[00:42:27] Movie Audio: Looking good, Billy Ray. Feeling good, Lewis.

[00:42:39] Stephen: I don’t know how he could have heard him from like, you know, 100 meters out. I thought 100 meters out he heard him. He’s got super hearing. Okay. Did you catch the favorite lines? This is a good one. Remember when they’re in the club and they give the guys bonus?

[00:42:53] Movie Audio: Ah, Ezra, right on time. I bet you thought I’d forgotten your Christmas bonus. There you are. $5. Maybe I’ll go to the movies by myself.

[00:43:11] Movie Audio: Half of it is from me.

[00:43:13] Trevor: It’s actually really— it’s a good joke, but it’s also just a great, uh, plot point to let you realize how they value their money versus other people.

[00:43:23] Stephen: Yes, that’s why they’re rich, they’re tightasses. Yeah, uh, this is when Lewis was in jail for the very first time. You’ve been fighting it and you smell.

[00:43:37] Movie Audio: I smell? Penelope, do you realize where I’ve been since yesterday? They beat me up and stole my clothes.

[00:43:46] Movie Audio: Those men wanted to have sex with me.

[00:43:49] Trevor: That’s so good.

[00:43:50] Stephen: And then this is when, uh, one of the first times they were explaining the business.

[00:43:55] Trevor: Yeah, they laid out a bunch of things on the table to explain commodity trading to Billy Ray.

[00:44:00] Movie Audio: Now, some of our clients are speculating that the price of gold will rise in the future, and we have other clients who are speculating that the price of gold is going to fall. They place their orders with us and we We buy or sell their gold for them.

[00:44:18] Movie Audio: Tell them the good part.

[00:44:21] Movie Audio: The good part, William, is that no matter whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke and Duke get the commissions.

[00:44:32] Movie Audio: Well, what do you think, Valentine?

[00:44:37] Movie Audio: Well, it sounds to me like you guys are a couple of bookies.

[00:44:41] Movie Audio: I told you he’d understand.

[00:44:44] Trevor: Which is great because that’s like them just going, yep, that’s absolutely what we are.

[00:44:48] Stephen: Yeah. Now, how did that happen? But one plot hole here is that the Dukes went to all this trouble to ruin Winthorpe, like he was, uh, you know, facing 3 to 5 for the— I like how they said heroin. He goes, no, it’s not heroin, it’s PCP, it’s angel dust. He kept explaining that. Um, and so he was sort of framed for that. He gets bailed out. Then when he goes, he actually goes to the country club member to borrow money for his defense. But after this, no, his legal problems disappear. When he and Billy Ray get together, he’s not facing any charges. He seems to be— he’s got a pass. There’s no mention of his legal problems.

[00:45:25] Trevor: Well, it happened really quickly after that. He paid through his legal problems.

[00:45:28] Stephen: Maybe, maybe. All right, the speaker workout. I did love the opening montage, the music, very nice. The Party, do you wanna funk, you know, that during the, during the party. And I don’t know why, but the woman on the dance floor decided I’m going to take my top off.

[00:45:42] Trevor: Two of them did.

[00:45:42] Stephen: Yeah, yeah. Or one was waiting for him in the bedroom.

[00:45:44] Trevor: There’s two on the dance floor.

[00:45:45] Stephen: Oh, both with their tops off.

[00:45:47] Trevor: Yeah, I want to go to that party. I count them.

[00:45:49] Stephen: Uh, thank God I got a big screen. Some lovely shots of Philadelphia, uh, around at those, the early part there. Uh, inside the exclusive club was also very interesting, very nicely. Like, you can see how how posh it all looks.

[00:46:03] Trevor: Yeah, exactly.

[00:46:03] Stephen: But what got it for me was seeing the World Trade Center.

[00:46:08] Trevor: Yeah, they were sort of walking around. They were really nice shots.

[00:46:10] Stephen: Yeah, walking among the Trade Center.

[00:46:12] Trevor: It was like it was in HD, do you know what I mean? It was like, it was so crisp.

[00:46:15] Stephen: 4K, I mean.

[00:46:16] Trevor: But you know what I mean? Like, I mean, in our mind’s eye, you can’t remember it like that. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was interesting.

[00:46:21] Stephen: That was big. Righto, the business here, the, in, he’s just, this is a, like looking at the facts of what happened and what inspired, like the rules of Wall Street Wall Street, there’s now, as of 2010, there’s the Transparency and Accountability Act, which regulate— which is used to regulate the financial markets. The rule included, uh, it barred anyone from using secret inside information to corner markets, similar to what the Duke brothers tried to do in the movie. Since the movie inspired this rule, it has since become known as the Eddie Murphy rule.

[00:47:02] Movie Audio: No, in the—

[00:47:02] Trevor: on Wall Street, isn’t called insider trading.

[00:47:06] Stephen: In the— among them, it’s the Eddie Murphy rule. Now, how much money did they make? It isn’t— we don’t— they don’t tell us. But you remember when they were selling at $1.42 and buying at 29 cents? Means they multiplied their money by a factor of 4.9, if you do the math. Lewis mentioned earlier he had $150,000 in the bank. So times that by 4.9, 735 grand. Ophelia, remember she had, she had 42 in T-bills, that would come to $205,000 for a total of them together, $940k.

[00:47:46] Trevor: So pretty real life island lifestyle money, is it?

[00:47:50] Stephen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, if the movie was made today, well, there’s a few few moments that you need to change. Yeah, there’d be a few things you can’t say. I reckon it’d be if you make a mod— let’s say they remade this movie, it’d be like about cryptocurrency or something, you know, to be sort of more maybe crypto rather than sort of the commodity.

[00:48:11] Trevor: But the basic principle still stands.

[00:48:13] Stephen: Oh yeah, there’d be digital assets, you know, shares in tech companies, and you’d have Lewis’s— remember how they wanted to tarnish his reputation to have social media posts tarnishing him and You’d also see Lewis would also see Billy Ray’s rise on social media. I rather remember he was looking through the windows.

[00:48:30] Trevor: That’s right. At the restaurant.

[00:48:31] Stephen: He’d look online, think, “Oh, this is quite a shot.” ‘Cause he stood there for ages. Yeah. And just getting soaking wet.

[00:48:35] Trevor: And we’re in the rain.

[00:48:36] Stephen: Yeah. Every day’s a school day. Is it nature versus nurture? Is that the theme here?

[00:48:43] Trevor: 100%.

[00:48:43] Stephen: That it’ll be, you know, you don’t—

[00:48:45] Trevor: That’s the general principle of the movie.

[00:48:47] Stephen: It’s, or money don’t maketh the man or does maketh the man? The man.

[00:48:51] Trevor: Yeah, I don’t think you can argue that part of it because in some ways, you know, Billy Ray did pretty well as a wealthy man.

[00:48:58] Stephen: So I think it’s sort of also a class warfare sort of thing.

[00:49:00] Trevor: Yeah, I was going to say, I think the battle of the classes. Yeah, yeah, because the thing about Louis is, um, he, he maintains that upper class.

[00:49:09] Stephen: Yeah, you know, throughout the whole thing.

[00:49:11] Trevor: Yeah, vocab throughout the whole thing.

[00:49:14] Stephen: Okay, uh, best use of the pause button.

[00:49:16] Trevor: Well, there’s a couple, but the number—

[00:49:18] Stephen: okay, yeah, I know the one you’re talking about. The number given to Dan Aykroyd in his mugshot, 747-45058, is the same number given to John Belushi in The Blues Brothers. Yeah, 1980. Yeah, Aykroyd is a co-star, right? Yeah, he did this as a tribute to John Belushi who had died a year earlier.

[00:49:40] Trevor: Oh wow.

[00:49:41] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:49:41] Stephen: Okay, things you might not know No, this was Ralph Bellamy’s 99th film.

[00:49:48] Movie Audio: What?

[00:49:48] Stephen: Don Ameche’s 49th film. Eddie Murphy’s second film.

[00:49:54] Trevor: Wow.

[00:49:55] Stephen: So he said to them, between the three of us, we’ve made 150 movies. Typical Eddie Murphy, wouldn’t it? Righto, Jamie Lee Curtis.

[00:50:03] Trevor: Yes, hello.

[00:50:04] Stephen: She said she does not regret appearing topless in the movie. Here are her words. My breasts are beautiful, and I’m going to tell you, they’ve gotten a lot of attention for what is relatively short screen time, is what she told the Chicago Tribune. I make no excuses and have no regrets for my past works. I’m very proud of the work I did in Trading Places, and if my breasts have become the topic of dinner conversation at frat houses, God bless them. But in an interview in 2022, she admitted that she did have regrets Did I like doing it? No. Did I feel embarrassed that I was doing it?

[00:50:41] Trevor: Yes.

[00:50:42] Stephen: Did I look okay? Yeah. Did I know what I was doing? Yeah. Did I like it? No. Was I doing it because it was the job? Yes. And then she goes on to say that her role in Trading Places was the main reason why John Cleese wrote the part for her in A Fish Called Wanda. And had she not done A Fish Called Wanda, James Cameron wouldn’t have written a part for her in True Lies. So she says the grouping of movies is what made her career.

[00:51:11] Trevor: That’s interesting. That’s a more honest reflection.

[00:51:13] Stephen: Absolutely. Did you notice— you’re a fan of Breaking Bad?

[00:51:19] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:51:20] Stephen: Did you recognize a young Giancarlo Esposito in the cell with Eddie Murphy? Oh my God, I don’t know his character’s name in Breaking Bad, but remember the guy?

[00:51:31] Trevor: I know, I know who you’re talking about.

[00:51:33] Stephen: Really young.

[00:51:34] Trevor: I did not notice.

[00:51:35] Stephen: Giancarlo was— remember when he’s in there bragging about, he goes, I’m a karate man. Remember in the cell with the two sitting next to it? Yeah, he was the guy standing up, the young guy standing up against the bars. Giancarlo Esposito, credited as cellmate number 2.

[00:51:48] Trevor: There you go.

[00:51:48] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:51:49] Stephen: Did you also notice, remember when Lewis goes to pawn his watch? That was Bo Diddley, the singer, R&B legend. Bo Diddley, R&B champion. And did you also notice in the opening montage the Rocky statue, which you did?

[00:52:03] Trevor: I did notice one of his things. Yes.

[00:52:06] Stephen: Uh, what’s the meme? My favorite would be Eddie Murphy, “I can see, I got legs!” I do love the way that when Lewis finds out that she’s a prostitute, he goes, “You’re a prostitute!” He really just spits it out at her.

[00:52:22] Trevor: I, you know, there’s got to be a meme in the bloke in the gorilla suit in the, uh, in the cage.

[00:52:26] Stephen: Yeah, Yeah, and his eyes going, oh, it’s the eyes. This one’s the female.

[00:52:31] Trevor: He goes, whoa.

[00:52:32] Stephen: I do love that when he points back, goes, those men tried to have sex with me. Wouldn’t mind that one. Yeah. By Any Other Name. Now, Trading Places is awesome. Black and White was terrible. That wouldn’t have been right. I thought maybe The Switch.

[00:52:46] Trevor: Yeah, Switch works.

[00:52:47] Stephen: Uh, Natural Selection.

[00:52:49] Trevor: That’s more where I was going in my head. Yeah.

[00:52:52] Stephen: Money Talk. There’s some suggestions.

[00:52:56] Trevor: Yeah, Trading Places, because you could also just be like Money Games because it’s a $1 game, right?

[00:53:00] Stephen: Yeah, but Trading Places, so it’s trading and they trade places. Yeah, that’s how it works on two levels.

[00:53:07] Trevor: I’d never thought about that.

[00:53:08] Stephen: Yeah, it works on two levels. The one thing you want, uh, one of the dollar bills would be cool. Exactly what I said. Billy Ray’s suit, uh, with the blue, blue blazer and the red Ophelia’s week.

[00:53:21] Trevor: I didn’t know where you’re going there.

[00:53:24] Stephen: Lewis’s house.

[00:53:26] Trevor: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:53:26] Stephen: And the gorilla, Rolls-Royce, the gorilla mask. Yeah, that’d be a good one.

[00:53:30] Trevor: The car would be beautiful.

[00:53:32] Stephen: Car would be awesome. What sort of car was that? Did you know?

[00:53:33] Trevor: I think it was like a Rolls-Royce or something like that, old school. It’s called Ghost.

[00:53:36] Stephen: When are we driving one of those?

[00:53:38] Trevor: No, it’s not happening though.

[00:53:40] Stephen: All right, I have 3 questions for Trev.

[00:53:41] Trevor: Don’t hit me.

[00:53:42] Stephen: What happens to Lewis and Billy Ray? Do they retire retire, get married, or go back and try to make more money?

[00:53:49] Trevor: They go back and try and make more money.

[00:53:50] Stephen: Okay. They’re not just gonna sit on that island forever. They’re gonna go back and double it. We’re gonna go hard.

[00:53:54] Trevor: They’re doubling down on the bet to prove themselves.

[00:53:56] Stephen: Okay, well then my next question is sequel, prequel, or leave it alone?

[00:54:00] Trevor: I think you could have sequelled this.

[00:54:01] Stephen: Yeah, I reckon you could too. Yeah, I reckon you could as well. I would watch Trading Places 2.

[00:54:05] Trevor: I feel like they’re both alive, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could do it now. Jamie Lee.

[00:54:10] Movie Audio: Oh yeah.

[00:54:11] Trevor: Good, because the idea that they went on, because he did have a natural talent. He did.

[00:54:17] Stephen: Yeah, yeah, maybe he was talking about, he goes, now you can’t do that because oil, they’re gonna need oil for heaters, it’s winter.

[00:54:22] Trevor: And so, but the question is, what’s the story? Because it’s instead of Duke and Duke, it’s the two of them, right?

[00:54:26] Stephen: It’s the two of them running, uh, but trying to embrace crypto or something new, you know, like, yeah, like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not a, it’s not a Trading Places of a, of two different, um, moral classes or demographic classes.

[00:54:38] Trevor: It’s more about, you know, youth versus experience.

[00:54:41] Stephen: Yeah, you know, young young crypto dudes and they’re still dabbling in the other stuff. Yeah, that’d be great.

[00:54:47] Trevor: That’d be fun.

[00:54:48] Stephen: I’d watch that. I would watch that. Question 3: too long, too short, or just right?

[00:54:53] Trevor: I was okay with it.

[00:54:54] Stephen: I think it was good. About an hour 40, hour 45. Yeah, yeah, that’s the sweet spot, I think. Righto, that was Trading Places. Give us your wrap-up and rating.

[00:55:03] Trevor: I mean, it’s a fun movie. It’s got a good kind of moral, uh, back end to to it. Yeah, it’s quite enjoyable. Um, I love Eddie Murphy, he’s very good. Um, 7.5.

[00:55:16] Stephen: I’m an 8.

[00:55:17] Trevor: That’s, that’s fair.

[00:55:18] Stephen: That’s pretty good.

[00:55:19] Trevor: That’s, that’s where we should be.

[00:55:20] Stephen: Do you want to talk about next week?

[00:55:21] Trevor: I’d like to.

[00:55:22] Stephen: Next week we are going to Dunkirk.

[00:55:24] Trevor: Where the hell’s that?

[00:55:25] Stephen: Released in 2017, directed, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who, you know, Dark Knight, did all the great, you know, Tenet, genius.

[00:55:34] Trevor: I’ve heard the name.

[00:55:36] Stephen: Yeah, uh, starring Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, and Barry Keoghan. Morgan. Now your question, your millionaire question is this: one cast member is a former member of One Direction. Is it A, Louis Tomlinson, B, Niall Horan, C, Zayn Malik, or D, Harry Styles? Gotta be trick question.

[00:56:00] Trevor: This has got to be a none of the above.

[00:56:02] Stephen: Uh, no, one of them isn’t it?

[00:56:06] Trevor: I don’t even know the people.

[00:56:08] Stephen: Have a guess. Louis Tomlinson? Niall Horan?

[00:56:12] Movie Audio: Wrong.

[00:56:12] Stephen: It’s Harry Styles.

[00:56:13] Trevor: Really?

[00:56:13] Stephen: He’s in Dunkirk, speaking part and everything.

[00:56:16] Movie Audio: Wow.

[00:56:17] Movie Audio: Yeah.

[00:56:17] Trevor: I can’t wait to hear the story of that.

[00:56:19] Stephen: You will hear more next week, but I’m glad you enjoyed Trading Places. But we’ll see you next week for Dunkirk.

[00:56:24] Trevor: See you then.