10 Ways To Get Stupidly Rich (That We Learnt From Movies)

2. Turn Your Parents' Home Into A Brothel - Risky Business

The film which launched Tom Cruise towards international stardom, Risky Business is a coming-of-age movie which seems to epitomise some of the key concerns of the 1980s - the decade of greed, decadence and the mighty god of capitalism. Echoing many movies which would follow (not least Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Risky Business is a sharp and witty commentary on materialism and greed. Cruise plays high school student Joel Goodson who not only defies his father's instructions to not use the stereo or the Porsche while his parents go away, but takes things more than a few steps further, raiding the drinks cabinet and hiring a call girl who steals his mother's prize Steuben crystal egg. If ever anyone needed a get rich quick scheme urgently it's a situation like this, and the ironically named Goodson pools together his entrepreneurial resources and converts his parents' home into a brothel for the night. While the venture makes more than enough cash to cover his predicament and on paper the movie could sound like an endorsement for prostitution, Risky Business is one of the best satires on excess and irresponsibility to have emerged from the 80s - it's a stark contrast to the privileged suburban teens of today, with the recent shootings by Elliot Rodger, the son of the assistant director of The Hunger Games, a reflection of a far more chilling reality.