4. Risky Business
There's a conversation near the start of this quintessentially 80s movie where the group of friends agree that they want to make money. Lots of money. Joel (a very young Tom Cruise) on the other hand want to "serve his fellow man kind". This turns out to be nonsense. He too enjoys making money, not to mention driving around in his dad's Porsche and having sex with beautiful women. What an oddball. He's also into this free enterprise thing. That's the only high Joel needs. That and marijuana. The free enterprise that Joel eventually puts his efforts into is probably not what the teacher had in mind. He carelessly allows his dad's Porsche to fall into Lake Michigan, a useful plot device that means Joel has to acquire a significant amount of money in a couple of days. Luckily he has befriended a couple of prostitutes. But don't worry, these are good prostitutes, sort of like 1980s American versions of Billie Piper with business acumen and cashmere sweaters. The one Joel has fallen for (played by Rebecca De Mornay) has a taste for the "shameless pursuit of immediate material gratification" that he finds particularly endearing. Joel then turns into the yuppie-era Tom Cruise from Rain Man and sets up a sort of frat party/brothel in his parent's home. If you swallow your morals for a moment, it is pretty enterprising. To top it all off, he only goes and gets into Princeton. Moral of the story - prostitution and bribery get you an Ivy League education. True 80s capitalism.