A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for commodities brokerage firm of Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now they bicker over the most trivial of matters and what they are bickering about is whether it's a person's environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. When Winthorpe bumps into Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler and assumes he is trying to rob him, he has him arrested. Upon seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine was given Winthorpe's job. So they proceed to have Winthorpe arrested and to be placed in a compromising position in front of his girlfriend. So all he has to rely on is the hooker who was hired to ruin him.—[email protected]
Philadelphia based Louis Winthorpe III was born into and has solely lived a life of privilege. He is Harvard educated, is successful at his job, has a lavish home paid for by his employers, and is wealthy. The children he will probably have with his fiancée Penelope will most likely also know nothing but privilege. But he and his friends, who all have similar backgrounds, are pompous and snobbish. His job is as managing director at Duke & Duke, a commodities brokerage house owned by brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke. The Duke brothers often disagree with each other and make wagers on the outcome of these disagreements. Their latest wager is about "nature versus nurture": the importance environment plays versus one's natural bloodline in determining how one's life will turn out. The guinea pigs in their experiment are Winthorpe, whose life they will attempt to ruin to see how he reacts, and Billy Ray Valentine, a black hustler/crook who the Dukes and Winthorpe encountered in one of his scams. Like Winthorpe, Valentine was born into and has lived the only life he has ever known. They will attempt to place Valentine into every aspect of Winthorpe's life to see how he functions. Without either knowing of anyone else involved, Coleman, Winthorpe's manservant who is officially employed by the Dukes in his day-to-day job, and a streetwise hooker named Ophelia each play a role in the Duke's plan. Also deeply involved in their plan is a private detective the Dukes often use, Clarence Beeks. Beyond the outcome of the Dukes' experiment, can either Winthorpe or Valentine change the course of the new life set out for them by the Dukes, even if they knew what the Dukes were doing? Regardless, this experience will fundamentally change the lives of both Winthorpe and Valentine, but not at without the expense of others as well.—Huggo
Endowed with inexhaustible wealth, unscrupulous Wall Street brothers Mortimer and Randolph think they know all about human nature. Eager to prove their radical theories, the stuck-up tycoons wager a bet on whether proper surroundings or strong genes define a person's life. With this in mind, they heap a mountain of misfortune on blissfully unsuspecting stockbroker Louis Winthorpe III, forcing him to trade places with Billy Ray Valentine, a streetwise nobody with no future. But as the cold manipulators pit heredity against environment for their perverse pleasure, pressing questions arise. Can Valentine become Winthorpe overnight? Will disgraced Louis turn to crime like a duck takes to water?—Nick Riganas
Mortimer and Randolph Duke are commodity brokers who enjoy a little wager now and then. For the latest bet, Randolph believes they can take a common criminal and make him a successful businessman in the company. The criminal, Billy Ray, is to be given the job and home of Louis, who in turn is set up for crimes he didn't commit, to see if he resorts to crime once he's lost his rich environment and friends.—Rob Hartill
Duke brothers Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche) own Duke & Duke, a successful commodities brokerage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Holding opposing views on the issue of nature versus nurture, they make a wager and agree to conduct an experiment switching the lives of two people at opposite sides of the social hierarchy and observing the results. They witness an encounter between their managing director-the well-mannered and educated Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), engaged to the Dukes' grand-niece Penelope (Kristin Holby)-and a poor street hustler named Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy); Valentine is arrested at Winthorpe's insistence because of a suspected robbery attempt. The Dukes decide to use the two men for their experiment.
Winthorpe is publicly framed as a thief and drugs are planted on him when he is arrested. He is fired from his job, his bank accounts are frozen, and he is denied entry to the Duke-owned town-house where he resides. He befriends a prostitute named Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) who allows him to stay at her apartment on the condition of receiving a reward once he re-establishes himself in society. Winthorpe soon finds himself ostracized and abandoned by Penelope and his former friends. Meanwhile, claiming to operate an assistance program for the underprivileged, the Dukes bail Valentine out of jail, install him in Winthorpe's position at the company and give him use of Winthorpe's home. Valentine quickly becomes well-versed in the business and acts well-mannered, even applying his street smarts to the job.
During the firm's Christmas party, Winthorpe is caught planting drugs in Valentine's desk in a desperate attempt to get his job back. After Winthorpe flees, Valentine hides in a bathroom stall to smoke a joint he took from the desk. The Dukes enter the bathroom and, unaware of Valentine's presence, discuss in detail the outcome of their experiment and settle their wager for $1. Valentine overhears this exchange and seeks out Winthorpe.
Winthorpe attempts suicide by overdosing on pills. Valentine, Ophelia and Winthorpe's former butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott) nurse him back to health and inform him of the Dukes' experiment. On television, they learn of a Clarence Beeks (Paul Gleason) transporting a secret report on orange crop forecasts. Winthorpe and Valentine recall large payments made to Beeks by Duke & Duke and realize that the Dukes are planning to obtain this report to corner the market on frozen orange juice. The group agrees to disrupt their plan as revenge.
Learning of Beeks' travel plans, the four get aboard his train to switch the report in Beeks' possession with a forgery. Beeks uncovers their scheme and attempts to kill them. He fails and is subdued, and the group dress him in a gorilla costume and lock him in a cage with a real gorilla. The forgery is then delivered to the Dukes.
On the commodities trading floor, the Dukes commit all their holdings to buying frozen concentrated orange-juice futures contracts; other traders follow their lead, inflating the price. Before the real crop report is broadcast, Valentine and Winthorpe sell futures heavily at the increased price. After the forecast that the orange crop will be normal, the price of orange-juice futures plummets. Valentine and Winthorpe successfully cover their short sales, turning a large profit. The Dukes fail to meet a margin call, being left owing $394 million. Valentine and Winthorpe explain to the Dukes that they had made a wager on whether they could get rich while making the Dukes poor simultaneously.Valentine collects $1 from Winthorpe while Randolph collapses holding his chest and Mortimer shouts angrily at his brother about their failed plan.
Beeks and the gorilla are loaded onto a ship heading for Africa. Meanwhile, Valentine, Winthorpe, Ophelia, and Coleman vacation on a luxurious tropical beach.
