10 Surprisingly Realistic Movie Scenes Nobody Saw Coming
4. Rich People Don't Have Liquid Cash - Richie Rich
Nobody expected much in the way of realism from a Richie Rich movie, yet the otherwise cartoonish climax does offer up one hilariously down-to-Earth moment regarding the mores of the rich.
The villain, Laurence Van Dough (John Larroquette), plots to kill Richie's parents and steal the fortune apparently contained within their vault. He eventually reaches the vault at the end of the movie, only to find that it's actually full of "junk" - that is, sentimental items and family heirlooms.
Van Dough asks the Riches where their gold bars, diamonds, bearer bonds, and money are, only for Richie's (Macaulay Culkin) father Richie Sr. (Edward Herrmann) to tell him it's all in banks or tied up in the stock market and real estate.
After all, in reality most extremely wealthy people don't simply have millions of dollars lying around in their home - some of it's held in a fancy-pants bank and the rest is typically spread across a series of investments.
The vast majority of the super-rich have limited liquidity at any given time - a fact that Van Dough was an abject idiot for failing to realise.