Risky Business is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written by Paul Brickman in his directorial debut. It stars Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. The hit film launched Cruise to stardom.^[1]

Plot [link]

Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is a high school student who lives with his wealthy parents in the North Shore area of suburban Chicago. His father wants him to attend Princeton University, his alma mater,^[2] so Joel participates in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular activity in which students work in teams to create small businesses.

When his parents go away on a trip, Joel's friend, Miles (Curtis Armstrong), convinces him to take advantage of his newfound freedom to have some fun. ("Opportunity makes your future, Joel.") On the first night, he raids the liquor cabinet, plays the stereo loudly, and dances around the living room in his underwear, socks and pink dress shirt to "Old Time Rock and Roll". The following day, Miles calls a call girl named Jackie on Joel's behalf. Jackie (Bruce A. Young) turns out to be a tall, masculine transvestite. Joel pays Jackie to go away, but before she leaves, she gives Joel the number for Lana, another prostitute, promising that she's what "every white boy off the lake wants".

That night, Joel is unable to sleep and hesitantly calls Lana (Rebecca De Mornay). She turns out to be a gorgeous blonde and they have sex all night. The following morning, Lana asks Joel for $300 for her services. He goes to the bank, but when he returns, Lana is gone, along with his mother's expensive Orrefors crystal egg. Joel finds Lana and demands the egg back, but they are interrupted by Lana's pimp, Guido (Joe Pantoliano), who pulls a gun. Joel (in his father's Porsche 928^[3]) is chased by Guido, but eventually escapes.

The next morning, Lana tells Joel that the egg is with the rest of her stuff at Guido's. Joel lets Lana stay at his house while he goes to school. When he returns, his friends are over, and Lana has invited another prostitute, Vicki (Shera Danese), to stay. Later, Lana mentions to Joel that "we should get your friends and my friends together. We'd make a lot of money." Joel rejects the idea.

That night, Joel, Lana, Vicki, and Joel's friend, Barry (Bronson Pinchot), go out. They get stoned, and while Vicky and Barry wander away, Joel and Lana talk. Lana takes exception to something Joel says and leaves. While retrieving her purse from Joel's car, she inadvertently moves the shifter out of gear. Moments later, the car rolls down the hill and onto a pier, despite Joel's futile attempt to stop it. The pier collapses, dumping the Porsche into Lake Michigan.

When Joel takes the car to a repair shop, he is horrified to learn how much it will cost to fix it. He goes to see Lana. They decide to turn his parents' house into a brothel for a night; Joel's share of the profits will pay for the car repairs. The party is a huge success; the house is packed with Joel's friends and classmates and Lana's co-workers. However, Rutherford (Richard Masur) chooses that night to evaluate Joel for admission to Princeton. The interview is plagued by interruptions, and Rutherford is unimpressed by Joel's resume, telling him, "You've done some solid work, but it's just not Ivy League now, is it?" Afterwards, he stays at the party and becomes acquainted with Lana's friends. After the party, Joel and Lana go and have sex on the deserted Chicago 'L'.

The next morning, Joel finds his house has been burgled. When he tries to call Lana, Guido answers; after saying "Time a ya life, huh kid?" he tells Joel that he will let Joel buy back his furniture. Fortunately, Joel and his friends manage to get everything moved back in just as his parents walk in, though his mother notices a crack in her egg. Later, Joel's father congratulates him; the interviewer was very impressed and has indicated Joel will be accepted into Princeton.

Joel meets Lana at a restaurant, and they speculate about their future. She tells him that she wants to keep on seeing him; he jokes that it will cost her. In a final voiceover, Joel reveals that, for his Future Enterprises class, he "deals in human fulfillment" and it has turned quite a profit. He ends by quoting Guido: "Time of your life, huh kid?"

Alternate ending [link]

The newly remastered 25th-anniversary edition offers "both the upbeat studio ending and Mr. Brickman's original, more tentative and melancholic conclusion".^[4] In this ending, Joel is not accepted into Princeton and the film ends ambiguously with Joel pondering his future with Lana at his side.

Cast [link]

• Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson
• Rebecca De Mornay as Lana
• Joe Pantoliano as Guido
• Richard Masur as Rutherford
• Bronson Pinchot as Barry
• Curtis Armstrong as Miles
• Nicholas Pryor as Mr. Goodson
• Janet Carroll as Mrs. Goodson
• Shera Danese as Vicki
• Raphael Sbarge as Glenn
• Bruce A. Young as Jackie

Soundtrack [link]

The film score was by Tangerine Dream; their songs composed nearly half of the film soundtrack. Also included were songs by Muddy Waters, Prince, Jeff Beck, Journey, Phil Collins, and the song for which the film is best known, "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger.

The soundtrack album was released on Virgin Records, which was also Tangerine Dream's record company at the time the film was released.

The film also included "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen, "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, and "Swamp" by Talking Heads (which includes the words "risky business" in the lyrics). The LP and CD versions of the soundtrack included two different versions of "Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)," neither of which matched the version used in the film for the final love scene or closing credits.

Reception [link]

Risky Business was well received by critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1983.^[5][6][7][8] Janet Maslin, in her 1983 review of the film for The New York Times, called it "part satire, part would-be suburban poetry and part shameless showing off" and said the film "shows an abundance of style", though "you would be hard pressed to find a film whose hero's problems are of less concern to the world at large."^[9] She called De Mornay "disarming as a call girl who looks more like a college girl" and credits Cruise with making "Joel's transformation from straight arrow to entrepreneur about as credible as it can be made."^[10]

Roger Ebert was much more positive, calling it a film of "new faces and inspired insights and genuine laughs" and "one of the smartest, funniest, most perceptive satires in a long time" that "not only invites comparison with The Graduate, it earns it".^[11]

Ebert continued:^[11]

The very best thing about the movie is its dialogue. Paul Brickman, who wrote and directed, has an ear so good that he knows what to leave out. This is one of those movies where a few words or a single line says everything that needs to be said, implies everything that needs to be implied, and gets a laugh. When the hooker tells the kid, "Oh, Joel, go to school, go learn something," the precise inflection of those words defines their relationship for the next three scenes.

Variety said the film was like a "promising first novel, with all the pros and cons that come with that territory" and complimented Brickman on "the stylishness and talent of his direction."^[12]

In 2006, the film was #40 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies; the magazine called the film a "sharp satire of privileged suburban teens" about the "soul-crushing pressure to be perfect."^[1][13]

In the years since the film's release, the scene featuring Cruise's character dancing in his pink dress shirt and briefs to "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger has been referenced in episodes of many television series, films, and advertisements.

The film holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.^[14]

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Risky Business

• Risky Business at the Internet Movie Database
• Risky Business at AllRovi
• Risky Business at Box Office Mojo
• Risky Business at Rotten Tomatoes
• Risky Business at Metacritic