Money for Nothing (1993) on Netflix
Unemployed longshoreman Joey Coyle finds $1.2 million in $100 bills that fell from an armored van in South Philadelphia and decides the cash is his. Detective Pat Laurenzi works the case.
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- Netflix1.9/5
- IMDb5.7/104,756 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes20%
Trailer
Plot summary
Joey Coyle, an unemployed longshoreman, finds a cart holding $1.2 million in $100 bills after it falls from an armored van and decides to keep it. He tells his friend Kenny Kozlowski, then hides most of the cash at home, keeping it from his mother, his siblings Billy and Eleanor and his niece Katie. Detective Pat Laurenzi is assigned to the case and traces the loss to a faulty latch on the van, as news of the missing money draws attention. Joey turns to his former girlfriend Monica Russo, who works in investment banking, for advice on depositing a large sum without attracting the Internal Revenue Service. At his favorite bar he buys drinks for the patrons, claiming winnings from a horse race, and asks Dino Palladino, a bookmaker, for help with the cash.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Money for Nothing (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The real Joey Coyle consulted on the film and died by suicide on August 15, 1993, three weeks before its release; Disney dropped a planned worldwide press tour and quietly released the film with little marketing under its Hollywood Pictures label.
- On February 26, 1981 in Philadelphia, Joey Coyle, an unemployed longshoreman, found two canvas bags holding $1.2 million in $100 bills, which had fallen from a Purolator armored van after the driver hit a speed bump.
- Coyle was arrested by FBI agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 3, 1981, while checking in for a flight to Acapulco, and was carrying $105,000 in 21 envelopes stuffed inside the cowboy boots he was wearing.
- In 1983 Coyle sued Purolator for negligence, arguing its failure to secure the money caused his insanity, and asked for $20,000; a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling his mental injuries came from his own "weak" character.
- Because of budget restraints the Philadelphia-set film was shot mostly in Pittsburgh, where St. Kieran's Catholic School doubled for the South Philadelphia police department's interiors and Joey's discovery of the money was filmed at an inoperative steel mill in Duquesne.
- The filmmakers left out Coyle's drug addiction and bouts with depression from the story, and many of the film's characters were composites of real people.
