One to remember remember: “Show me the money! Show me the money! Show me the money!” The famous line screamed out repeatedly by Tom Cruise while on the phone to Cuba Gooding Jr. in the hit movie Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996) is one of the most iconic lines in cinema history. Now replace the word “money” with “cryptocurrency” or “crypto.” “Show me the cryptocurrency!” It does not quite have the same ring to it does it? But imagine a world or a society where cryptocurrency is the one form of currency, a world that could well exist in the future. The movie scene would certainly be different.
There are a whole host of movies where money plays a prominent role in a scene, whether it is a bribe, a show of power, a target for a heist or simply featuring in camera shot. Here are a couple of scenes that would have played out a lot differently if cryptocurrency was the only existing form of currency in the world.
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1. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006):
Daniel Craig plays James Bond in Casino Royale and goes up against Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) in a tense high-stake poker match. The initial stake is a whopping $10 million, which Bond loses after Le Chiffre is tipped off abut Bond’s tell. At most poker matches, particularly those of the high-stake variety, a player has the possibility to buy back in. But not everyone has access to an easy $10 million. More casino payment options like at an online casino would have come in handy for Bond at this point and were Bond to receive cryptocurrency as a deposit at the click of a button, filmmakers could have saved themselves a bunch of time in filming and the costs involved.
The rapid transfer of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron or Dogecoin would have been quite slick, but then again, we would not have had the same pivotal encounter with Felix Leiter, where the CIA agent offers to stake him. Instead, Leiter’s words might have gone something like: “Let me transfer you some coin”.
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2. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2004):
The hilarious film based around the game of dodgeball starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn contains a scene where White Goodman (Stiller) tries to bribe Peter LaFleur (Vaughn) with a briefcase containing $100,000 (albeit in the smallest single stack that barely fills the briefcase) in cash. However, the cash is symbolic here, and with Goodman hoping to buy out his rival with this cash, this is a pivotal scene in the movie. Perhaps Peter was not impressed by the single stack, but he would have been less impressed if Me’Shell (Jamal Duff), Goodman’s personal coach, had unveiled a QR code for a cryptocurrency transfer.
There are plenty of other movies that could have an unusual look if cryptocurrency replaced cash, like Wolf of Wall Street, Catch Me If You Can, and Glengarry Glen Ross. There might have been no vault to rob in Ocean’s Eleven either. Despite the influence of cryptocurrency in the real world, the movie world is make-belief and themes of money and cash can continue for decades or centuries to come. But do not be surprised if more movies about crypto are released, glorifying the digital currency in the same way The Social Network did for Facebook.