Blank Check (released in Europe as
Blank Cheque) is a 1994 live-action movie directed by Rupert Wainwright, starring Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Miguel Ferrer, Tone Lōc, Michael Lerner and James Rebhorn and released by Walt Disney Pictures.
The story begins when bank robber Carl Quigley escapes from jail. Soon after his prison break, Quigley enters a warehouse and recovers $1,000,000 he had hidden there sometime before his arrest. After that introduction the plot switches to Preston Waters, a 12 year old boy tormented by his brothers and ignored by his hyper capitalist dad. He goes to a bank and gets laughed out, while at the same time Quigley is exchanging the bills through a corrupt bank employee using checks. After the meeting, Quigley runs over Prestons bicycle while he was riding it in the bank's parking lot. Pressed for time as he sees a police car patrolling the area, Quigley gives Preston a signed blank check and tells him to give it to his dad so they can buy him a new bike. Instead, Preston writes himself a check for $1,000,000, cashes it with the inadvertent help of the corrupt bank employee and uses the money to go on a spending spree and romance a 30 year old bank teller- until Quigley finds out what has been done and comes after him.
Not to be confused with the Art James
Game Show of the same name that ran on
NBC for 26 weeks in 1975.
Tropes associated with this work:
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Preston ends up spending most of his acquired fortune in less than a month.
- Butt Monkey: Quigley escaped from prison, gave his stolen money to a trusted accomplice only for him to give it all to a 12-year-old boy who promptly spent it all. He tries to exact revenge (and get some of the money back), but just gets humiliated and sent to prison again with charges of laundry, forgeries and everything else that said 12-year-old boy did.
- Fanservice: Shay Stanley for the boys and their dads in the audience.
- Karma Houdini: Preston misused the blank check Quigley gave him, spent all of the money Quigley had stolen in a week, and possibly forged the signature for the castle deed. In the end Quigley returns to jail on his charges, but also gets any of Prestons possible crimes pinned to him. Preston gets to go home and return to quite suburban life, even though a FBI Agent knows everything.
- Inflation Negation:
- Preston is given just $1 to spend at the carnival. He ends up finding only one ride worth that little.
- Quigley is genuinely shocked by how Preston was able to spend a million dollars in a week, despite having just chased the kid through his privately-owned castle and around the private amusement park/arcade he had installed throughout it.
- Invented Individual: Preston's alter ego "Mr. Macintosh".
- The Jail Bait Wait: At least Preston thinks so.
- Jerkass: Preston's father and, to a lesser extent, his mother. Dad's a capitalist douchebag who only cares about his sons as long as they're trying to earn money, hence he essentially lets Preston's older brothers be complete assholes to him simply because they're starting up their own business and he isn't. Never mind the fact that Preston is approximately 12. The most jaw-dropping moment, however, is probably when Preston's bike is run over by a car and his parents are more concerned with the fact that he "didn't take care of his property" than, you know, the fact that their son was almost hit by a car. They then proceed to ground him for saying that the way they treat him compared to his brothers is unfair, totally unaware that they just proved him right.
- The bitchy party organizer who steals money from Preston without letting him get a word in.
- Quigley, but he's a criminal and Preston took 'his' money.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being a capitalist douchebag, Preston's father's assessment of his son turns out to be correct. His son lacks an ounce of responsibility, even for a 12-year-old. Over the course of the movie his son was given a million dollars and he wasted the money away on junk food that he cannot possibly consume and a castle he cannot possibly make use of in about a week without realizing it. That being said, the father certainly didn't help him learn responsibility. A kid who's only given a pittance to spend at a carnival is going to have trouble realizing just how fast you can blow large amounts of money. Besides, such squandering is Truth in Television even amongst adults who have a sudden windfall (like Jackie Coogan's parents
and people squandering lottery winnings). - Line-of-Sight Name: Preston comes up with "Mr. Macintosh" because he has a Macintosh computer.
- Mock Millionaire: Preston essentially gets to play kid millionaire for a week before Quigley comes after him and the FBI shuts him down.
- Most Writers Are Adults: While Preston does buy childish things with his money, they're glossed over with montages and the plot focuses on significantly more adult uses of his money.
- Motor Mouth: The party organizer.
- Product Placement: Two words: Mr. Macintosh.
- Shotacon: A rare Western example with Shay Stanley, though it turns out she was an undercover FBI Agent that knew Preston was tied to the stolen money.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Preston's computer has a voice synthesizer, which he uses to purchase the castle without giving himself away as a kid.
- The Unfavorite: It's clear that Preston is this.
- “Well Done Son” Guy: Preston, which is strange considering his dad is a complete jerkass.
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