Movie Quote Them Duke Brothers Are at It Again

"Information technology occurs to me that the all-time way to hurt rich people is past turning them into poor people."

— Billy Ray Valentine

Trading Places, a 1983 one-act film directed by John Landis, stars Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Louis Winthorpe Iii (Aykroyd), a privileged commodities broker in Philadelphia, has a virtually-perfect life: he lives in a big house owned past his rich employers, has a beautiful rich fiancée, and exclusive country club memberships. During the opening minutes of the film, Winthorpe runs afoul of supposedly homeless con human Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy), and an unfortunate mixup gets Valentine arrested for trying to steal Winthorpe's briefcase.

Winthorpe's bosses, financial tycoons Randolph and Mortimer Knuckles (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche), debate "nature vs. nurture" afterwards witnessing Valentine'due south arrest. Mortimer believes good convenance makes a man a success, no affair how much opportunity the world provides to him, while Randolph believes a rich human will deteriorate and a poor human volition succeed if placed in the right surround. The Dukes make up one's mind to run a social experiment by ruining a rich homo's life, putting a poor homo in the rich human's place, and seeing what happens. Winthorpe and Valentine get the Dukes' "exam subjects", and the brothers brand a bet on the outcome for "the usual amount".

The Dukes frame Winthorpe for embezzlement and possession of drugs and use a hooker named Ophelia (Curtis) to further humiliate him in front of his fiancée; Winthorpe loses his task, his firm, and his fiancée in short order, and he ends upwardly living with Ophelia, who takes pity on him. Subsequently ruining Winthorpe's life, the Dukes arrange for Valentine's release from jail, then give him Winthorpe's job and house. Randolph's prediction comes truthful: Winthorpe's life spirals out of control while Valentine becomes a success (even though he gains some of the same attitudes confronting the poor that Winthorpe held).

Valentine eventually finds out almost the experiment every bit well as the brothers' plans to undo all the success he's been having just for their own entertainment, then befriends Winthorpe in order to turn the tables on the Dukes. The duo plans appropriate revenge involving a frozen-concentrated-orange-juice crop report, a train to New York, a commodities commutation floor, and the assist of Ophelia and Winthorpe/Valentine's butler, Coleman.

---

This moving picture provides examples of:

• Player Allusion: When Louis is arrested, ane of the cops individually inspects each of his possessions, states what it is aloud, and then places it in a cardboard box. The cop is played by Frank Oz, who did the exact opposite (taking items out of the box and returning them to the protagonist) in The Blues Brothers.
• Appreciating Nickname: Ophelia calls Louis "Louie".

• Beast Disguise: Done involuntarily to Agent Beeks after the heroes knock him out and take his place equally part of their revenge scheme. He'due south put within a (apparently sealed) gorilla accommodate and left in a cage with an bodily gorilla that'southward being shipped back to Africa. Worse nonetheless, the disguise is so effective, and Beeks has been gagged nether the mask to kick, that the gorilla handlers retrieve Beeks is a real gorilla, opting to exit him with the amorous real i. This does not end well for the antagonistic amanuensis.
• An Aesop: Four of them.
  • Winthorpe: Learns his preconceived notions about the lower class (Billy Ray and Ophelia) were wrong and misguided.
  • Baton Ray: That when yous feel like you've worked hard for what you've got, it'southward a lot easier to care about what happens to it. He also learns to be less of a lout and more than professional in his manners.
  • Mortimer: Learns that Randolph was right about people being able to overcome their lot in life. Still, the lesson doesn't get any further than that and he's still both a miser and a racist.
  • Course separates usa more than race does. When Valentine encounters the at present-disgraced Winthorpe at the Christmas party, he reacts to him the same way Winthorpe reacted to him towards the start of the movie, and makes the same sort of classist statements with the Dukes afterwards. Withal, when he learns that the Dukes were manipulating them both, he tracks down Winthorpe and they set aside their differences to become back at the Dukes.
• Angry Black Man: Billy Ray to a certain extent.
  • The two thugs who accost Billy Ray in jail, merely later befriend him at the political party.
• Anonymous Public Phone Phone call: Having secured the advance copy of the orangish crop estimates, Clarence Beeks calls the Duke Brothers from a pay phone outside the Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C., disclosing where and when he'll give information technology to them, with Billy Ray Valentine listening in on the conversation, too.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Winthorpe's descent into criminality is summarized as "pilfering in our club, embezzling funds, selling drugs, and at present he's dressing up like Santa Claus."
  • Also, when Valentine gets Winthorpe's job, exiles him from his house, and basically takes over his life, Winthorpe seems most upset by Valentine wearing Winthorpe's Harvard necktie.
• Creative License – Cars: Coleman starts Winthorpe'south Mercedes 600 Grosser and immediately drives it away. The 600 has a complex hydraulic system that operates everything from the windows and seats to the intermission. It would have to idle for some time to build up sufficient hydraulic pressure.
• Creative License – Economic science: Largely averted except in the scene when Billy Ray is discussing pork bellies with the Dukes. The cost is shown changing as though information technology were a stock, with prices sliding down constantly and consistently, with Billy Ray suggesting that they wait until the price gets to a certain signal before buying. Bolt don't trade like that: there's no "marketplace toll" per se, but rather each trader sells their contracts at a specific price that they make up one's mind themselves, which is strongly afflicted by what anybody else is selling for, but not strictly determined the fashion stock issues are.
• Creative License – Geography: Washington Wedlock Station is depicted as having level platforms. It didn't in 1983, simply level platforms were installed in 1988.
• Aside Glance: It'due south a John Landis film, and so this is to be expected. Billy Ray does information technology twice.
  • When Randolph Duke explains to him what a B.50.T. is., he looks right into the camera as if to say, "These guys must think I'm a consummate idiot."
• As You lot Know:
  • Mortimer reminds Louis that his fiancee Penelope is his and Randolph's grandniece.
  • During the Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults, Randolph explains their program to his brother who already knew all the details (while Valentine didn't):

  We took a perfectly useless psychopath like Valentine, and turned him into a successful executive. And during the same time, we turned an honest, difficult-working human into a violently deranged would-be killer.

• Author Catchphrase: John Landis always sticks "See You Side by side Wed" somewhere in his movies. In this film, information technology's on a movie affiche in Ophelia's flat.
• Badass Boast: Billy Ray in prison. Information technology nearly ends in tears.

  Baton Ray: A karate human being bruises on the within! They don't bear witness their weakness. But you don't know that because you're a big Barry White looking motherfucker! So go outta my face!

• Bad "Bad Interim": Winthorpe , Valentine, Coleman and Ophelia practice an absolutely awful job pretending to exist a Jamaican Rastafari, Strange Commutation Student from Republic of cameroon, a drunk Irish priest and a Dumb Blonde tourist from Sweden respectively. Beeks sees right through them.
• Bad Boss: The Dukes spend an entire movie destroying a loyal employee all over a i dollar bet, and make up one's mind non to help him.
• Bad Santa: Winthorpe as Drunken Santa with a Gun.
• Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: The Duke Brothers conclude their bet in the executive washroom. When they reveal their ploy, Billy Ray is in a stall smoking a joint, listening in on the Dukes declaring Winthorpe as damaged goods after his Santa rampage and that they volition get rid of Valentine himself considering he is a negro, revealing the brothers to be not simply scumbags, merely racist scumbags.
• Batman Gambit: Winthorpe and Valentine give the Dukes a faux crop report, expecting that they'll use information technology to try to go an advantage on the commodities market. They program their own investment scheme based on the real crop report and their predictions of how the Dukes will human action on the fake one. Past the end of the day, Winthorpe and Valentine have made a fortune and the Dukes are out $394 1000000.
• Shell Them at Their Own Game: Winthorpe and Valentine effort this against the Dukes and succeed on a massive scale. Humorously, Winthorpe'south get-go program sounds like it's going to entail this, equally he says "if that's the way they desire it", but then he brings out his shotgun immediately afterwards and has to be calmed down.

  Louis: My God. The Dukes are going to corner the entire frozen orange juice market!

  Ophelia: Unless somebody STOPS them.

  Coleman: Or beats them to information technology!

  (Anybody turns and look at him)

  Coleman: ...Eggnog?

• Condign the Mask:
  • Ophelia is introduced pretending to be Louis Winthorpe'south lover. By the end, she actually falls in honey with him.
  • Billy Ray pretends to be a typical bolt brokerage employee merely soon takes a liking to his new life, and by the point Winthorpe breaks into his function and tries to plant drugs on him, his reaction is exactly what Louis' would be.
• Beneath Suspicion: Louis infiltrates the Dukes & Dukes Christmas political party dressed up every bit Santa which allows him to move around without raising suspicion.
• The Bet: Also drives the plot, for the mere sum of one dollar (as it was less about the money than pride — too, the Knuckles brothers are just that stingy). Winthorpe and Valentine give it a mocking Ironic Echo at the end of the movie.
• Beware the Dainty Ones: Coleman is none too happy nigh having to lock Louis out, thinking that it's one of the Dukes' practical jokes. All the same, as soon he finds out the truth, he decides to join the programme for the brothers' downfall.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Duke Brothers are a pair of siblings who miserly oversee an manor and decide to ruin the lives of a pair of strangers for fun.
• Big Damn Kiss: Between Louis and Ophelia before the last showdown at the Earth Trade Center.
• Bitch in Sheep'southward Clothing: Penelope seems like a dainty lady. When Louis gets into a lick of trouble, she reveals herself to be an incredibly self-centered woman, and all but ditches him.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The Dukes, Clarence Beeks, and Louis' close ones in full general are outright vile people. Billy Ray was a homeless human being who wasn't above stolen valor, Louis was a snobbish and casually racist man, and Ophelia was a hooker. They, however, meliorate over the course of the motion picture.
• Black Belt in Origami: In jail, Valentine proclaims he is a chain belt in Kung Fu and goes on to perform his Quart of Blood technique.
• Black Comedy Rape: Information technology's heavily unsaid that this is what happens to Beeks, past a gorilla.
  • Winthorpe claims that some men tried to "bend him over" something in prison.
• Blackface: Done very badly for Louis's disguise on the train.
• Blind People Habiliment Sunglasses: Exploited by scam artist Billy Ray Valentine when he is first introduced, posing as a crippled, blinded Vietnam veteran complete with sunglasses. Due to his sunglasses he tin can hide the fact that he can see because his optics would follow whatever got his attending.
• Volume Dumb: Valentine, despite being an educated homeless man, manages to predict the price of commodities using his ain street smarts.
• Break the Haughty: What happens to Winthorpe and the Dukes.
• The Cameo:
  • Music fable Bo Diddley plays the pawnbroker.
  • Al Franken and Tom Davis of Saturday Night Live fame play the Amtrak baggage handlers. Stephen Stucker, the goofy guy from Airplane! ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel!") is their supervisor.
  • Jamie Lee Curtis's sister Kelly is Penelope's friend Muffy.
  • James Belushi is the guy in (and later out of) the gorilla costume on the railroad train.
  • Coincidentally, two original Muppet performers have small roles: Richard Hunt plays the Dukes' trader, Wilson, and Frank Oz plays the Dirty Cop.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Winthorpe gives a petty spiel to Penelope in the beginning near how he can't come to her political party on Jan. 2 because that's the day the Secretary of Agriculture releases the ingather report.
  • The Dukes utilize orangish juice as an instance when they brainstorm teaching Valentine near the commodities markets.
  • The joint that Valentine pockets after Winthorpe tries to constitute a bunch of drugs in his desk. Ultimately, that's the reason Valentine discovers the Dukes' master plan.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Clarence Beeks, whom both Winthorpe and Valentine notice amid the company files, and both are told by the Dukes that he is just an old employee. This sets upwards the Coincidental Broadcast where Winthorpe and Valentine (subsequently making peace) learn that Beeks will be carrying the crop study the Dukes plan to use in their program to corner the frozen concentrated orange juice market.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Valentine and Winthorpe have finally gotten on the same page as they want revenge on the Duke Brothers. Every bit they mull over their options, Ophelia is watching the news and points out the man who bribed her as part of the plan to ruin Louis. The circulate discusses how this is Beeks, assigned to be security for a ingather report earlier information technology goes public. Valentine and Winthorpe instantly recognize the proper name from records and realize the Dukes' plot to corner the market by getting the study early.
• Comically Serious: Beeks in some situations.

  Beeks: And no more than goddamn hasty beef.

• The Con: The elaborate plot to ruin the Dukes past giving them a fake ingather report that leads the Dukes to bet big on rise prices for frozen concentrated orange juice.
• Contrived Coincidence: By pure chance, Louis and Valentine bump into another in the busy streets of Philadelphia.
• Cue the Rain: When Louis hits Stone Bottom, the rain starts pouring hard.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Clarence Beeks utters this line on the train:

  "I'll rip out your eyes and piss on your brain!"

• Death Cry Echo: At the terminate of the climactic market scene.

  Mortimer: Plow those machines back on! Turn those machines back on! (on, on, on...)

• Defrosting Ice Queen: Ophelia'due south relationship with Louis starts off all business concern; every scene after he moves in with her is a gradual progression of her condign warmer and warmer with him until she'due south eventually in dearest with him.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "This is a Persian rug! From Persia!!"
• Did I Mention It'due south Christmas?: The master plot is fix around Christmas only the Christmas spirit has no begetting on the plot.
  • Notwithstanding, Winthorp is able to infiltrate the Dukes' Christmas party because he's dressed equally Santa, which leads to Valentine realizing that he'southward been duped, which in turns leads to Winthorp and Valentine allying to overthrow the Dukes.
• Muddy Cop: Played by Frank Oz, this is part of the scheme to ruin Winthorpe'south life.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The brokers running out of the bathroom stalls when the bell goes off is very reminiscent of racehorses.
• Double-Pregnant Championship: It's near two people who trade places. It'southward also about the bolt market.
  • The people who trade places can also exist read in two means: either every bit Winthorpe and Valentine trading places, or every bit the two of them trading places with Randolph and Mortimer at the stop.
• The Dragon: Clarence Beeks acts as the courier and muscle for the Dukes.
• Dramatic Drop: Randolph drops a stack of notes when seeing Winthorp and Valentine together at the trader market.
• Driven to Suicide: Winthorpe makes 2 dorsum-to-dorsum suicide attempts when he thinks his life is ruined beyond repair. The first (which happened just after he literally got peed on by a dog and it began to pelting on him) fails due to the gun jamming, and he's saved from the 2nd attempt of trying to OD on pills by Valentine and Ophelia.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Louis is put through hell by the Dukes, just he learns his presumptions of the lower classes were wrong, making his retribution much sweeter.
• Easily Forgiven: While he was absolutely Just Following Orders, Winthorpe seems to concur nothing against his butler Coleman for his involvement in the Dukes' scheme that completely destroyed his life and acquired him almost suicide-inducing hell for the by month. Information technology probably helps that Coleman was disgusted by it and helps Winthorpe put his life back together.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The opening credits testify early '80s Philadelphia, featuring landmarks such equally the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. This is later truthful of New York City, where the at present-fallen Earth Trade Centre is gloriously displayed.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Winthorpe is right when he deduces that somebody orchestrated his downfall. However, he believes Billy Ray was responsible when, in fact, they are both pawns of the Duke brothers' bet.
  • Valentine is right to be suspicious of the Dukes suddenly giving him a loftier paying chore and fancy identify to live after they had him arrested the day earlier. He but thinks it'due south some kind of prank rather than role of a social experiment they're conducting for a bet.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene, Clarence Beeks accidentally bumps into someone walking downwardly the street, and forcefully throws him to the side.
  • The Dukes and Winthorpe each go one in the opening which prove the wealth they have spent their life surrounded by and how cold it has made them. Yet, a key stardom is shown in that Winthorpe is capable of being somewhat cordial to employees and Coleman while the Dukes don't say a word to whatever of their servants every bit they ritually greet them, in a mode which heavily implies they have been forced to do and so, or even await any of them in the eye. This shows that Winthorpe isn't totally a bad guy, just bossy and cut off from the world, while showing how awful the Dukes are.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Baton Ray realizes during his political party that he's only being used, and his guests just like him because he'due south now wealthy.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. At first, it seems like the Dukes were genuinely saddened past how Winthorpe has deteriorated after losing his wealth. Simply then, they admit that neither one is interested in actually helping him.
• Everyone Has Standards: While the Securities Exchange President doesn't seem to similar the Dukes, given how gleeful he seems when the Dukes lose everything, he seems concerned when Randolph has a heart set on and is taken ashamed past Mortimer's indifference.
• Evil Is Trivial: The Knuckles brothers enact a bet between themselves that causes their all-time employee to suffer utter, deadline suicide-inducing homeless hell and would have gotten the homo they hired to replace him (as one of the steps to cause the same hell) fired for no better reason that an statement nearly the value of nature vs. nurture and racism. And that bet? One dollar! .
• Exact Eavesdropping: Valentine hears the Dukes' sinister deal and all the of import details.
• Fair Weather Friend: When Winthorpe is framed for drug employ and beingness with a hooker, he instantly is turned on by all his friends. He doesn't grasp it until he comes to the guild to ask them to be character witnesses at his upcoming trial simply to exist coldly told by all of them (including his ex-fiance) that they want nothing to do with him anymore and bear witness him the door.
• Fanservice Extra: Several women at Baton Ray's start party accept their shirts off.
• Faux Affably Evil: The Dukes. Randolph seems Affably Evil, simply he'south simply playing a function. In spite of his argument that Valentine could be only as productive a member of lodge equally Winthorpe if given the take chances, he ultimately reveals that he'southward only as racist as his brother and fully intends to kick Valentine to the curb when their experiment is over and leave Winthorpe there also.
• Fauxreigner: Half of the gang's disguises on the train, complete with the wrong emphasis and costume from Ophelia.
• Fingertip Drug Analysis: Performed by the cops looking over Winthorpe. However, since it was a scam and they knew it was fake, it's possible information technology was all for show.
• Burn down-Forged Friends: Winthorpe and Valentine start off of adversaries, but they team up once they learn they were prepare by the Dukes and are good friends enjoying each other'south company by the end.
• Flames of Dearest: Winthorpe and Penelope get intimate in front of a cozy fireplace.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The opening music is the theme to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart'southward The Union of Figaro, a comedy nearly a servant who gets the better of his master.
  • The Dukes' main trader mentions feet problems, which afterwards kick in during the concluding plan, preventing him from stopping it.
  • Valentine, in the scene where Winthorpe stands exterior the social club in the pelting, mentions the Russian winter not affecting their crop harvests as badly as they thought kinda mirrors the eventual event of the crop reports in America.
  • During the opening credits, when Coleman makes Winthorpe's breakfast, the offset particular he prepares is orange juice. Later, during Winthorpe's dinner with Penelope, Coleman prepares Crêpes Suzette, and we meet him squeezing an orange for flambéeing.
  • As well during the opening credits, a freight train is shown moving on a railroad overpass. The cars are all lettered for Tropicana Orange Juice, from their "Juice train" that travels northward from Florida carrying oranges.
• Foil: Penelope and Ophelia could non be more than different from 1 another.
  • Penelope is an upper-class with a silver spoon in her rima oris, while Ophelia is a hooker living in the crude part of town.
  • Penelope ditches Louis as soon as his life goes downwards the bleed, while Ophelia takes care of him and enjoys his visitor despite him being broke and not knowing a thing about him.
  • Penelope makes the incorrect assumptions about Louis and is superficial, while Ophelia figures out Louis just by looking at his hands.
  • Penelope was born with having everything handed to her, while Ophelia is an contained adult female who has struggled through life.
• Frame-Up: Winthorpe is framed for drug use and dealing with drugs.
• From Bad to Worse: Winthorpe'southward life has been ruined, his suicide attempt backfires, and he finds out information technology's all been for a bet. Then he finds out the bet was only ane dollar. His revenge for that is sweetness.
• Gaslighting: Happens to Winthorpe. When he shows upwards at his home with Ophelia, he finds that somebody has changed the locks, and when he knocks on the door, Coleman pretends he doesn't know him.
• Go out!: Valentine to the freeloaders in his new business firm, consummate with a Precision F-Strike in the non-Television set version.
• Gratuitous French: When Valentine is confronted in a bar and is called a motherfucker, he responds with "Motherfucker? Moi?"
• Hard Truth Aesop: Once Winthorpe gets himself into hot water, he turns to his friends and fiance for help...simply for them to coldly wash their easily of him. The lesson is that sometimes the people calling you "friend" volition upward and ditch yous once times become tough.
• Heroism Incentive: Louis offers Ophelia a financial reward to help him regain his wealth and skillful name.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: While not very heroic in the beginning, Winthorpe is publicly framed as a thief, drug dealer and philanderer, as a part of the Dukes' program to ruin his life.
• Hidden Depths: Ophelia happens to be well-versed in Shakespeare.
  • Billy Ray turns out to non just be very adept at both his work and instantly takes to high society life merely also proves himself to exist very professional and difficult-working in his new position.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Randolph suffers one when the Dukes realize they're bankrupted.
• Hooker with a Middle of Gilt: Ophelia to a T. She didn't accept to intendance for this stranger whose life she ruined. Merely she felt bad and took him in.
• Promise Spot: After leaving jail with Penelope, Louis tries to explain everything to her, and although she's unsure about what he's said, she's withal willing to trust him. That is, until Ophelia steps in pretending he's her mistress, which enrages Penelope and makes her swear him off.
• Hourglass Plot: Drives the whole movie.
• Humiliation Conga: How the Dukes ruin Winthorpe's reputation and unabridged life. You lot tin't assist but experience sorry for the guy.
• Hypocrite: Randolph Knuckles ultimately shows himself to be this during his chat with Mortimer in the men'southward room. Despite him supposedly being a proponent of "nurture over nature", he turns out to exist only as racist as his brother, and plans on taking everything from Valentine later on their experiment is over. And what'southward more, despite chastising Mortimer for being greedy, maxim "Money isn't everything...", information technology turns out it was his idea to invest their entire family fortune into trying to corner the frozen orange juice market, and once it backfires, it drives them into bankruptcy.
• Hypocritical Humor: "The Heritage Gild — With Liberty And Justice For all — (members just)"
• I Need a Freaking Drink: During Billy Ray's party, Coleman takes a big swig out of one of the glasses he'south picking upward.
• Ignore the Fanservice: When Valentine regrets throwing the party at the Winthorpe estate, he goes upstairs to check on some people Coleman told him were up there. When he goes into the chamber, a naked girl in the bad tells him she "wants" him, Valentine just tells her to get dressed and leave.
• Insistent Terminology: Several people think Louis has been dealing heroin. While denying dealing whatever drugs, he can't help clarifying:

  Louis: It wasn't heroin, information technology was angel dust — PCP.

• Impoverished Patrician: Louis loses his fortune considering of the Knuckles Brothers' bet. When the Dukes lose their wealth, it's said their family had seats at the NYSE ever since the NYSE was created.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: In Coming to America, which came out five years later on, Eddie Irish potato'southward graphic symbol Prince Akeem gives money to two bums on the street. Those bums are the Duke brothers, who neglect to notice Akeem'south resemblance to Valentine, but are really happy about the loads of cash they just got.
• Intimate Healing: Ophelia gets into bed with Louis in guild to warm him.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: When trying to play a joke on Beeks, Ophelia dresses in High german leiderhosen, but acts Swedish.
• Irish gaelic Priest: Coleman's disguise on the train.
• Ironic Proper name: Ophelia from the Shakespeare play was a disturbed woman consumed by despair. Ophelia is a self-reliant and hardy woman.
• It Amused Me: The Duke brothers decided to do their "social experiment" out of boredom and for a $1 bet, and completely ruined Louis'southward lives. They did help Valentine, simply that was really only out of boredom likewise; they didn't give a damn virtually him, and were planning to ruin him afterwards as well.
• The Jeeves: Coleman, played to a T by Denholm Elliott.
• Jerkass:
  • Mortimer. Randolph is a pretty nasty slice of work too, but tin at least better hide it within a docile, amiable front end. It's unsaid both of the brothers aren't well-liked, since the NYSE gleefully sells their seats. Coleman, after receiving orders to change the locks and bar Winthorpe from the house, ruefully refers to them as "scumbags."
  • Winthorpe wasn't peculiarly overnice to begin with, either. He gets better.
  • Clarence Beeks wears his asshole-ness on his sleeve at all times.
• Jerk-to-Nice-Guy Plot: Louis starts the movie as a classist and racist jerk who has a homeless man arrested over a misunderstanding. The Duke brothers, wanting to settle a bet over Nature vs. Nurture, bundled for the two men to swap circumstances, which involves ruining Louis' career, kicking him out of his habitation, and turning all his friends confronting him. Spending some time bankrupt, homeless and friendless finally breaks down some of Louis' airs, and he starts becoming noticeably less hateful.
• Karmic Rape: The fate of Clarence Beeks, thanks to catastrophe up in a gorilla suit that a existent gorilla finds bonny.
• Kick the Dog: Nearly everything the Knuckles brothers practise and every word that comes out of their mouths. Seriously. Then there'south Beeks, who physically harasses random passers-by.

• Landline Eavesdropping: Billy Valentine listens in on the Knuckles brothers' call to their minion, Clarence Beaks, and finds out where Beaks will be after stealing a re-create of the annual crop study.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Let's face information technology, the Dukes really had it coming, and they'd at least have to wait until Coming to America for things to unintentionally look up for them.

    Mortimer: How could you do this to us subsequently everything we've done for y'all?
    Valentine: (false amiable) Oh, come across, I made Louis a bet here. Meet, Louis bet me that nosotros couldn't both become rich and put y'all in the poor house at the aforementioned time. He didn't recollect we could exercise it. I won.
    Winthorpe: (grinning) I lost... 1 dollar.
    (Produces a one dollar ball, and makes a testify of giving it to Valentine)
    Valentine: (smile) Thank yous, Louis.

  • Winthorpe got a human arrested for giving him his briefcase dorsum (although to be fair, Winthorpe honestly thought he was beingness attacked). He's spoiled, proud, uppity, racist (come across his offset encounter with Billy Ray), and doesn't know anything just a lavish, carefree lifestyle. His life was ruined easily merely because the Dukes saw him as an piece of cake target.
  • In a case of positive karma, Ophelia and Coleman take pity on Winthorpe and Valentine for what the Dukes did to them and puddle their life savings together so the duo can enact their short selling programme. When the program succeeds, the 2 of them get to share in the massive profits the two fabricated from the trades and live lives of luxury themselves.
• Last-Second Word Bandy: Valentine every few minutes after he's hired by the Dukes, in an endeavor to seem more swish.
  • Later on becoming a successful commodity broker when describing his thoughts on why they should allow prices drop a bit more.

    Baton Ray: Which means that the people who own the pork belly contracts are saying, "Hey, we're losing all our damn money, and Christmas is around the corner, and I own't gonna have no money to buy my son the Chiliad.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip! And my wife ain't gonna wanna f- own't gonna wanna brand love to me if I ain't got no money, correct?

  • Then:

    Billy Ray: [on phone] Security?
    [Winthorpe pulls a gun on him]
    Billy Ray: [college pitch] Merry Christmas! [hangs upwards]

  • Later, as Louis briefs him on trading:

    Winthorpe: You make no friends in the pits and y'all take no prisoners. Ane infinitesimal yous're upwards one-half a million in soybeans and the side by side, nail, your kids don't become to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?
    Baton Ray: Aye, nosotros gotta impale the motherf-... we gotta impale 'em!

• Layman's Terms: Afterwards the Dukes explicate the commodities brokerage concern to Valentine, they ask if he understands.

  Valentine: Sounds to me like you guys are a couple of bookies.
  Randolph: (to Mortimer) I told you he'd understand.

• Similar a Duck Takes to Water: Valentine surprises the Dukes with how easily he took to understanding the business, despite his unconventional methods. They still plan on getting rid of him afterwards the bet, though.
  • Randolph says this phrase near give-and-take for give-and-take when he describes how he would ruin Winthorpe and how swiftly Winthorpe would degenerate:

  Yes, I'm certain he'd take to crime similar a fish to h2o.

• Lyrical Dissonance: Listen to the lovely a cappella song that the Admirer Snarkers perform for Penelope and the other girls in the scene where Louis tries to borrow money. Ready to the tune of "Laura Lee" (or "Beloved Me, Tender"), the song's about how all the girls are complete sluts. The lyrics;
• Meaningful Echo: When arriving at the gentlemen's club, Louis's friend greets him with "Looking good, Louis", to which he says "Feeling expert, Todd." In the stop, subsequently his friends shunned him, Louis has bounced back and is vacationing at a tropical island with his new friend Billy Ray, and they share the concluding lines "Looking good, Billy Ray!", "Feeling adept, Louis!".
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Ruining Louis Winthorpe's life over a i dollar bet —> Attempt at cornering the frozen concentrate orange juice marketplace.
• Mistaken for Adulterous: Invoked by Clarence Beeks who pays Ophelia to act like she's involved with Louis while he'southward reconciling with his fiancee Penelope, to further sabotage his life. Withal, Ophelia soon takes pity on Louis, then she takes him in and later falls in dearest with him for existent.
• Mistaken for Thief: Billy Ray was running away from some cops when he bumps into Louis leaving the gentlemen'southward gild and ends up holding Louis's briefcase. Louis' panic attracts the police's attention, which, in turn, attracts the Dukes' attending and makes them start thinking nigh a bet involving the two dissimilar men.
• Mistaken from Behind: Valentine mistakes a Santa on the street for Louis and only realises the mistake when turning the dude around and ripping off his bristles.
• The Mistress: Information technology's a bit part, but the hot blonde who whispers into Valentine's ear at a fancy dinner is billed as "President'south Mistress".
• Money to Throw Abroad: Valentine throws coin around at the bar once he gets rich.
• Mood Whiplash: While more often than not a slapstick comedy, Winthorpe's descent into bankruptcy and depression comes off as poignant, and strikes difficult when he attempts suicide past overdose. Swings back to light-hearted when information technology cuts to reveal a Bungled Suicide. A short nearly-fatal face off with Beeks aside, the rest of the film is a comedic revenge scenario.
• Morn Routine: The opening sequence shows Louis morn routine, establishing him every bit an upper-class citizen.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Ophelia's topless scenes. Ophelia'southward Swedish lederhosen outfit. Ophelia's tiny cord bikini. If you want to see about all of Jamie Lee's skin, this is the picture show to watch.
  • Winthorpe'due south fiancee stripping to her skivvies then they tin screw in the living room counts, as well.
• Mugshot Montage: Louis gets i when being jailed for drug dealing.
• Murder Is the All-time Solution: Or extreme violence, anyway; upon learning of the programme to ruin his life, Winthorpe initially decides that the nearly appropriate grade of activeness is to kneecap both of the Duke brothers with a shotgun, earlier Valentine and the others suggest a more than artistic way of getting dorsum at them.
• Nature Versus Nurture: The unabridged plot begins when the Duke brothers place a bet on whether success in life is In the Blood or a product of good environs. The film makes a example for circumstances being more important than genes. Despite his upper-class groundwork, hit Rock Bottom turns Winthorpe into a gun-toting maniac and Wrong Side of the Tracks Valentine becomes a mannerly bolt banker who provides his own street smarts.
  • Actually, it's a subversion. Valentine was not that bad of a guy when he was a down on his luck grifter (he apologised and tried to give Louis' briefcase back after he ran into him), and Louis was not that much of a good guy (existence a jerkass smug snob) when he was a rich trader.
• Never Heard That I Before: Ophelia knows very well she shares the name of Village's girlfriend and her tragic fate.
• New Year Has Come: The railroad train party on New Year'south Eve, where the grouping attempts to steal Beeks' reports.
• Squeamish Guy: Coleman. When Valentine expresses self-doubt virtually being a good businessman, Coleman reassures him that he tin succeed. While he plays a function in destroying Louis' life, he's actually remorseful about it and turns on the Dukes when he sees they've gone too far.
• Nice to the Waiter: The Duke Brothers don't treat their hired help well, offering just $5 bonuses (total, $ii.5 from each) during the holidays and not acknowledging or even making eye contact with whatever of them in the opening. Louis himself doesn't care for hired help, except Coleman, particularly well. While arriving at work, he doesn't even look his helpers in the eye. Until after having lost his wealth, that is. After arriving with Billy Ray at the World Merchandise Center, he specifically tells their taxi driver to keep his alter upon paying him.
• Noble Bigot: Randolph is just as condescending and prejudiced as his brother, merely dissimilar his brother, he shows genuine compassion for Valentine'due south plight and the setbacks he suffered and believes Valentine could become successful with a trivial bit of help. Subverted later on, when fifty-fifty after Valentine proves he's more than capable of commodity trading, Randolph is very happy to leave Valentine in the poor house.
• Noodle Incident: The dialogue of the Dukes when they talk about ruining Winthorpe suggests it's not the starting time fourth dimension they've washed something like this.
• Norse By Norse Due west / Yodel Land: Ophelia's costume when portraying "Inga from Sveden."
• No Sympathy: Despite Louis looking like he's had a horrific day, Penelope just berates him, accuses him of being a criminal, and says he smells. Louis is incredulous to say the least.
• Obfuscating Disability: Baton Ray starts out equally this, pretending to exist a legless and bullheaded Vietnam veteran to enhance his begging revenue.
• Oh, Crap!: As Louis and Billy Ray put their plan in motion:

  Mortimer: That'southward not right. How can the toll be going down?
  [Mortimer sees Louis and Billy Ray in the trading pit]
  Mortimer: What are they doing here?
  Randolph: They're selling, Mortimer!
  Mortimer: Well, that'south ridiculous! Unless that crop report...
  Randolph: God help the states!

• One Phone Phone call: At the law station, Louis notes that he is permitted two phone calls. The law refuse his asking.
• Ane-Give-and-take Vocabulary: The "Even Bigger Black Guy" (see Scary Black Human being, below) just ever says "Yep!" in response to what the "Big Black Guy" says.
• Operation: [Bare]: The Duke Brothers' plan to corner the frozen concentrate orange juice market place is chosen "Operation Foreign Fruit".
• Paper-Sparse Disguise:
  • No one seems to notice that Beeks is wearing an obviously faux gorilla costume. Then again, most everybody at the New Yr'due south party was boozer every bit skunks (including the baggage handlers).
  • Subverted with the good guys in the train automobile with Beeks. Their disguises are so sad and Beeks already knows what they all look like — specially Winthorpe and Ophelia — from prior encounters, so he figures them out almost immediately.
  • Valentine poses as Clarence Beeks using simply a trench coat, chapeau, and the darkness of the parking garage to obscure his identity.
• Parking Garage: The substitution of money against the crop report goes down in a poorly lit parkade. Poorly lit indeed. Then poor in fact, the Dukes can't tell that "Beeks" is actually Valentine.
• Percussive Pickpocket: Beeks intentionally bumps into Louis in social club to found evidence into his pocket.
• Persona Not Grata: Thanks to the Dukes, this is what happens to Louis. He's fired from his job, arrested on fake drug charges and his fiancee is made to believe he slept with Ophelia. It doesn't truly sink in for Louis until he shows upwardly at the local club to ask for the help of his friends as graphic symbol witnesses (and a loan for legal fees) and they coldly make it clear they want nothing to do with him.
• Phony Veteran: Billy Ray's con scheme at the beginning of the motion-picture show. Blown to smithereens when the 2 cops who approach him turn out to be real Vietnam War veterans.
• Pimp Duds:
  • Some of the guys at Billy Ray'due south party conspicuously clothes like pimps.
  • Afterward being stripped from his preppy clothes, Winthorpe is forced to use an outfit left behind past the previous tenant at Ophelia's apartment — A huge tie, a checkered conform and a fur coat. This makes him no favors when he tries to regain his friends' favor.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: When Valentine goes into the bedroom, a naked girl tells him she "wants" him, he tells her to "put your clothes dorsum on, and get outta' hither."
• Politically Wrong Hero:
  • Early in the picture show, Winthorpe had Valentine arrested for attempted robbery after accidentally bumping into one another, and even subsequently Valentine apologized for it. While coming to after his suicide effort, Winthorpe briefly lapses back into his quondam persona by blaming everything that happened to him on "that terrible, awful negro" (Valentine.)
  • Billy Ray's liberal use of the discussion "faggot" in the earlier portion of the flick.
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • The Knuckles brothers:

    Mortimer: Do you really believe I would allow a nigger run our family business concern, Randolph?
    Randolph: Of grade not. Neither would I. ^note This completely contradicts the portrayal of Randolph existence "pro-nurture".

  • Before:

    Mortimer Knuckles: Of grade at that place's something wrong with him. He's a negro. Probably been stealing since he could crawl.

  • Randolph also makes a annotate about how "they're very musical people" (referring to African Americans).
• Pre Ass Kicking I Liner: "Now." ^note Billy Ray and Winthrop choosing the exact moment to undermine the Dukes on the trade floor, knowing they gave the Dukes bad info.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Mortimer Duke. And so precise that role player Don Ameche didn't even want to say information technology, as he abhorred swearing, and did only one take of the shot (and even then, Eddie Tater needed to explicitly tell him it was okay, he was just playing a part).

    Exchange President: Mortimer, your blood brother'southward non well. We improve call an ambulance.
    Mortimer: Fuck him!

  • As well a precision North-strike in the Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults. Tying into the higher up, Don Ameche also hated using racial slurs and apologized profusely to Murphy for the racial slurs his graphic symbol used; the accent he puts on those words in the picture could've been down to his real-life distaste for those slurs.
• Preppy Name: Louis Winthorpe III, Penelope Witherspoon, and their country club friends.
• Pretty in Mink: Ophelia wears a fur jacket.
• Priceless Ming Vase: Valentine, assuming that the Duke Brothers are scamming him when they tell him they're giving him a richly furnished town house, tosses a vase around, accidentally not bad it. The Duke Brothers put a proficient face on it, saying that even though it was extremely valuable, it was insured for rather more than information technology was appraised at, so he's technically fabricated them money by breaking it.

  Eddie: Y'all want me to break something else?

  The Dukes: NO!

• Prison Rape: Discussed. Louis tells Penelope that some men wanted to have sex with him while in jail.
• Punctuated Pounding: Well, punctuated strangling, merely Louis pulls this on Valentine. "It! Was! The! Dukes! It! Was! The! Dukes!"
• Pygmalion Plot: Half of the Dukes' bet, this is the transformation they put Billy Ray through to make him an upper course admirer. They have a Pygmalion Snap Back planned as soon equally they're done with him, though.
• Rags to Riches:
  • Billy Ray was hustling change on the streets and Ophelia was a hooker. Not by the motion-picture show'southward end.
  • To actually bring the point abode, information technology looks like Coleman is withal the butler taking orders from Winthorpe; until he turns to his own butler and places the order.
• Set up for Lovemaking: Valentine finds one of the barflies from his old haunt waiting for him in his new firm's bedroom, obviously there just because he now has coin.

  Girl: [rolling out of bed naked] I've been waiting for yous, Billy Ray.
  Billy Ray: Go your clothes on and Get Out!.

• Record Needle Scratch: When Billy Ray kills the music at the party to tell everyone to become out of the firm.
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: Winthorpe tries to impale himself with a Filly .45 automated that he just purchased from a pawn store; the gun fails to fire. Disgusted, Winthorp throws the gun abroad. It promptly discharges when it hits the footing.
• Revenge Before Reason: Louis' initial programme to go back at the Dukes shoot both of their kneecaps off with a shotgun. Billy Ray casually reminds him that would certainly get him a long prison judgement, and something subtler would be more damaging.
• Riches to Rags: Happens to Louis at the beginning, and to Randolph and Mortimer at the end.
• The Rich Want to Be Richer: The Knuckles Brothers already have seats on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and clearly have lives of wealth and leisure. Notwithstanding, they hatch an Evil Program to corner the market on orange juice futures, just so they can be obscenely rich. And that's not even getting into the fact that they ruined the life of one of their best employees (and put a lot of endeavour into replacing him with a street hustler) over a wager where the winner received a single dollar...
• Ripped from the Headlines: The Dukes' attempt at cornering the frozen concentrated orange juice market was inspired by the "Argent Thursday" crash of March 27, 1980. ^annotation This is when the Hunt brothers of Texas tried to corner the argent market and failed to run into a $100 million margin call.
• Rousing Speech: Louis gives ane to Billy Ray when they get in at the Earth Trade Middle.

  Louis: Call up big, remember positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the pharynx. Purchase low, sell high. Fearfulness? That'southward the other guy's problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare yous for the unlimited carnage you are about to witness. Superbowl, Globe Series - they don't know what pressure is. In this building, it'southward either impale or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. 1 moment you're up one-half a mil in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don't go to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are yous with me?
  Billy Ray: Yeah, we gotta kill the motherfu-, we gotta kill 'em!

• Salt and Pepper: Winthorpe and Valentine. The working title was even "Black and White".
• Say My Proper noun: "CLARENCE BEEKS?!", simultaneously by Winthorpe and Valentine when they see him on a news written report and piece it all together.
• Scary Black Man: "Big Black Guy" and "Fifty-fifty Bigger Black Guy." They're less scary after getting drunk at his house party.
• The Scrooge: The billionaire Dukes hand out $five Christmas bonuses, and ruin an employee'southward life for a one dollar bet.
• Servile Snarker: Coleman is a dutiful butler but isn't afraid of being a smartass. Such every bit when he gets a phone call from the Dukes and they tell him the details of their program.

  Coleman: Scumbags.

• Sexy Scandinavian: Ophelia disguises herself as this. Merely doesn't realize lederhosen are Bavarian/Austrian.
• Shameful Strip: Louis is ordered to strip at the police station.
• Shout-Out: Bunny at the country club delivers the Orphaned Punchline "... and she stepped on the ball!" This is a reference to an anecdote told by Gloria Upson in Auntie Mame in which she relates playing in a doubles ping pong tournament with Bunny Bixler and stepped on the brawl, ruining the tournament. Bunny in this motion picture was apparently Gloria's partner. Amusingly, Bunny's Orphaned Punchline has itself been referenced several times, such as in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Billions.
  • The scene where everyone in a eating place shuts upwardly at the same time and strains to hear as Billy Ray starts giving advice to a fellow broker is a reference to this commercial for the defunct brokerage firm EF Hutton, whose famous advertizement slogan was: "When EF Hutton talks, people listen."
• Silent Whisper: When Beeks picks out Ophelia at the police force station and whispers something in her ear which we don't go to hear. We later see his plan in action when Ophelia makes a scene in front of Penelope.
  • Baton Ray is on the receiving end of one at the dinner political party afterward in the movie, when the hot blonde whispers something almost likely very salacious in his ear.
• Unproblematic-Minded Wisdom: Valentine adepts well to the world of commodities trading past using what he knows well-nigh how people bear to predict when market place prices will rise and fall.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: By the climax, it'southward substantially a battle betwixt flat-bankrupt protagonists and decadent rich men.
• Smoky Gentlemen'due south Club: Louis, all his friends and coworkers, and the Duke brothers are all members of the same ane. The Dukes get Louis kicked out by framing him for stealing cash from the coat closet.
• Smug Ophidian: The Duke Brothers, for the near office. It'south quite obvious that for all their talk of how slap-up they are, they would be nothing without their insider knowledge and connections - Billy Ray outsmarts them on commodity market trends with nothing but basic street smarts, they toss aside valuable assets based on childish bets or racism, and they endeavour to stay ahead of the commodity market place with insider crop reports in the climax. When they go broke, they have a meltdown even worse than Louis'.
• Something We Forgot: Every bit Randolph Duke is beingness wheeled past Winthorpe and Valentine, he yells, "Where in hell is Beeks?" "Beeks!" Valentine muses "Yeah, I forgot all about that guy!" Cut to a muzzle beingness loaded onto a ship leap for Africa, containing the dotty gorilla and Beeks, who'south all the same in the ape costume Winthorpe and Valentine put him in when they locked him in the cage.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Ophelia'south unexpected kindness to Louis helped him change his means and helped in the Laser-Guided Karma Louis would requite dorsum to the Dukes.
  • The guy in the gorilla suit and the real gorilla. The guy in the gorilla conform follows Beeks hoping to get some tail and the real gorilla, seeing Beeks attack what seems to exist a gorilla, beats the crap out of him, saving them from Beeks.
  • Billy Ray was one himself. If it weren't for Louis overreacting to bumping into him, he wouldn't have gotten the Duke's attention and thus starting the bet bringing both of them together to accept them downwards.
• Spoiled Deviling: Louis, nearly of his school friends, and his fiancée. Louis gets meliorate, though.
• Spoiler Embrace: The cover makes it pretty clear that eventually Winthorpe gets dorsum on his anxiety and works with Valentine.
• Stealth Pun: When trading time begins at the World Trade Center, the traders who were in the toilets immediately become going without washing their hands. And so, that's becoming dirty money.
• Stereotype Flip: While most of the wealthy chief characters are practiced caricatures of rich, blase, arrogant rich people, Baton Ray and Ophelia prove to be more than than just a street hustler and hooker, respectively. Quite against Mortimer's predictions, Billy Ray proves just as expert at beingness a commodities broker as Winthorpe. Ophelia makes no bones about beingness a hooker, but she's remarkably bright and business savvy for i, going and so far as to have a retirement plan from her life on the street and completely avoiding drugs, booze or a pimp controlling her life.
• Stupid Evil: The Dukes are willing to throw the street smart Baton Ray back into the street for no other reason than the color of his skin.
• Suicide by Pills: Subsequently Louis doesn't get his job back, or his fortune, he drunkenly leaves the Christmas party and staggers off to Ophelia'south flat, where he locks himself in the bathroom, climbs into the bathtub and passes out after swallowing a handful of pills. Luckily, Baton Ray followed him, and busts open the door, and when Louis comes to in his mansion, Billy Ray explains that the Duke brothers turned their lives upside downwards to settle their Nature Versus Nurture contend with Mortimer getting 1 dollar, equally he won the bet.
• Tap on the Head: From an angry gorilla, still.
• A Taste of Their Ain Medicine: Virtually everything the Dukes come up up with winds up beingness used to bring them downwards, from the 2 men whose lives they make up one's mind to mess with to their own 'foolproof' programme to corner the market. Even the prostitute they go to assistance the program winds up working confronting them. If you look at how they train Valentine to exist a successful broker, and likely trained Winthrope when he was younger, you lot could say they literally trained the gentlemen who destroyed them.
• That Was Not a Dream: Winthorpe nearly strangles Billy Ray later this trope kicks in.
• This Bed of Rose's: Winthorpe ends upwardly on one of these.
• This Is Reality: When Louis gets to know Ophelia.

  Louis: Ophelia, you realize that'south the name...
  Ophelia: I know, Hamlet'due south girlfriend. He went crazy, she killed herself. This is not Shakespeare, Louis.

• Those 2 Bad Guys: The credits refer to the ii characters Valentine runs into while in a jail prison cell equally Big Black Guy and Even Bigger Black Guy.
• Tropical Epilogue: Using the money invested past Coleman and Ophelia to fund their side of the plan, Billy Ray, Coleman, Ophelia, and Louis become so rich they are spending a lazy twenty-four hour period on some tropical beach ordering lobster and croaky crab for anybody every bit a lunch.
• Unbuilt Trope: The 90s and 2000s would later characteristic lots of comedies where a Jive Turkey of a blackness man is made part of a white world and 'shakes things upwardly'. In this pic, at that place'due south less making fun of 'stuffy white people' and the black character really proves to be a good man of affairs - fitting very well into the globe.
• Uncle Tom Foolery: The movie subtly deconstructs this grapheme dynamic.
• Unflinching Walk: Winthorpe and Valentine walk slowly and confidently to the trading flooring later on the harried brokers race to information technology.
• Unproblematic Prostitution: Ophelia gives a brusk rundown of the reasons why it's a safe and profitable venture for her.
• Unspoken Programme Guarantee:
  • The Caper at the train goes downwardly almost every bit planned considering nothing about it was revealed beforehand.
  • Our heroes don't go into the details of their commodity trading program with their friends whom they had just given their life's savings, but the heroes are 100% confident their programme is going to piece of work.

  Coleman: [to Louis] My life savings, sir. Try not to lose them.
  Billy Ray: Lose it? Coleman, in a couple of hours, you're going to be the richest butler that always lived!

• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Louis, cleaning and loading a shotgun in preparation for an imagined showdown with the Dukes. Billy Ray, concerned, trying to talk him out of information technology. Ophelia...cheerfully eating a salad and watching TV, paying the whole exchange just the slightest bit of attention.
• Upper-Grade Twit: It's clear the Duke Brothers have only maintained their wealthy status due to being born into the upper-class and having insider noesis and connections that permit them to cheat the system. Louis, on the other hand, is proven to be a genuinely skilled broker.
• Urine Trouble: A dog lifts his leg on a drunken Winthorpe in his Santa arrange.
• Video Credits: The stop credits shows each major actor, most of them laughing — except Beeks.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: The movie does not give a long-winded explanation every bit to how the catastrophe scheme at the Commodities Commutation works, trusting that the audience could follow what happens, or at to the lowest degree figure out that things are going well for the heroes. The scheme works like this:
  • The Dukes receive an advance copy of a crop report predicting rising prices for frozen orange juice; they commit to buying large quantities of frozen OJ before the study becomes public. Other traders detect their big button and follow their lead, which causes the price of frozen OJ to ascension. The buyers are comfy with the higher price as they believe per the Dukes' moves that the crop reports will raise the price further.
  • Winthorpe and Valentine — who saw the real ingather report and bundled for the Dukes to get a imitation one — know the price of frozen OJ volition become down when the crop written report hits. When the price rises loftier enough, they brainstorm brusque-selling at the inflated price, essentially betting that the price will go down, as they will after need to purchase the frozen OJ that they brusque-sold.
  • When the crop report becomes public, the price plummets. Winthorpe and Valentine consummate their short-sell commitment, buying when the price reaches stone-bottom, locking in huge profits for both men ^note the uncomplicated explanation of short-selling is that Winthorpe and Valentine say that they will sell OJ to anyone that wants to purchase at a high price, almost $1.43 per unit of measurement. Many people accept them up on the offering, fifty-fifty though they don't have any OJ to sell yet. Afterward, when the toll of OJ bottoms out, Winthorpe and Valentine buy OJ from other people who do have OJ and are now selling at incredibly low prices, nearly $0.29 per unit of measurement. They then turn around and employ this OJ that they just bought to fulfill the contracts that they had sold at $one.43 per unit. This earns them $i.04 profit per unit, and they bought millions of units, netting them a massive turn a profit. And as an added irony, considering of the way short-selling works, they got most of that money from the Dukes .
  • The Dukes, having committed to buy a lot of frozen OJ at what turned out to be the highest prices of the day, badly try to unload before their huge loss gets whatsoever worse, but their trader faints before getting very far. To get in worse, they bought the frozen OJ on margin, significant they bought more frozen OJ than they could afford on the condition that they're forced to sell ("margin call") if their real money can't cover the electric current losses. The margin call occurs, the New York Mercantile Substitution officials need payment from the Dukes, and since they don't have plenty capital, they end upwardly bankrupted.
• Villainous Breakup: Randolph has a heart-set on and Mortimer loses his mind (with a bonus Precision F-Strike) after Winthorpe and Valentine bankrupt them.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The corrupt and ruthless Duke Brothers are the respectable owners of a successful commodities brokerage.
• Wham Line:
  • "Do yous really believe I would let a nigger run our family business concern, Randolph?" cements the thought that both of the Knuckles Brothers want nothing to practise with Valentine after the experiment (and makes Valentine aware of this fact). After this line, the plot changes from "let's watch this hilarious swapping of lifestyles" to "let's watch them have those miserable SOBs down!" The fact that both brothers also now consider Winthorpe damaged appurtenances later his rampage sets up the terminal team-upwardly betwixt him and Valentine.
  • "Ane dollar." from the aforementioned scene. When they brand the bet, they just say "the usual amount", but this line reveals how much their bet is actually worth. The fact they ruin people's lives over just one dollar brand them more vile and picayune than ever. This is mockingly used against them at the end of the movie.
• White-Collar Crime: Technically wasn't at the time, but what the Duke brothers attempted comes beyond as i and in mod times is now considered one.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The Dukes don't feel like restoring Winthrop's job and status because he disgusted them — even though they engineered it.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Louis begs Ophelia to believe him when he claims that somebody is trying to ruin his life.

---

josephssweves.blogspot.com

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TradingPlaces

Share this post