Blank Check (film) - Plot

Plot

The story begins when convicted bank robber Carl Quigley (Miguel Ferrer) escapes from prison. Soon after his prison break, Quigley enters a warehouse and recovers $1,000,000 he had hidden there sometime before his arrest (although it is unclear exactly how he illegally obtained the money). The film then cuts to 11-year-old Preston Waters (Brian Bonsall), whose father works as an investor for a living and is very frugal with money—so much so that when he is given a blank check from his grandmother for his birthday, his dad fills it out for only $11.00. Plus, when invited to a friend's birthday party at an amusement park, he only has enough tokens to go on the kiddie rides.

After Quigley visits corrupt bank president Edward Biderman (Michael Lerner) in his bank office to discuss his plan (along with threatening Biderman's family if he does not comply with it), Quigley explains that wisecracking Juice (Tone Loc) will be stopping by Biderman's office with a check to be cashed for $1,000,000 the next day at 1:00 P.M. After the meeting, Quigley runs over Preston's bicycle in a Jaguar XJ that he has presumably purchased with the stolen money, while Preston was riding out of 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 by printing it on his Apple Macintosh Performa 600 computer. Preston goes to the bank the next day and is directed to Biderman's office by a teller (as the teller could not cash a check that size herself). Thinking that Preston is Juice, Biderman cashes Preston's check with $1,000,000 from a safe behind a painting.

As Preston is leaving the bank, the real Juice enters Biderman's office with another check for $1,000,000. Realizing that Biderman mistook Preston for Juice, the trio begins a frantic search for Preston. Meanwhile, Preston embarks on an extreme shopping spree over the course of 6 days, buying a castle-style house (by outbidding Quigley using the voicebox on his computer over the phone) along with many other expensive items (limousine service, go-kart track, water slide, etc.). He spends $999,675.83 of the original $1,000,000. Preston covers himself by saying he is making these purchases for a millionaire known as "Macintosh" (named after Preston's computer) who lives in the castle house.

The entire time, Preston was being investigated by FBI agent Shay Stanley (working undercover as a teller at Biderman's bank and Preston's love interest) for money laundering as the bills Preston was using to make his purchases were Biderman's watermarked bills. At a birthday party Preston throws for Macintosh that forced Preston into debt (it was actually Preston's birthday), he is forced into a showdown with Quigley, Juice, and Biderman. After the trio manage to capture Preston and demand to know what happened with the money, he admits Macintosh is a fake, to which Biderman suggests that Quigley can use Preston's purchases and the Macintosh name to give himself a new identity. Then Preston takes off pursued by the trio. When he eludes them, they split up and Preston puts some virtuality goggles on Biderman and with a video game controller, makes him imagine he's in a jungle with the jungle sounds, watching a flock of sheep, butted by a bull, wrestling a donkey, waking up to the crowing of a rooster and sitting down to milk a cow to which he complains. Juice gets trapped in the batting cage and Preston pelts him with baseballs. Then he is caught in a final showdown with Quigley, but he climbs up a tree and with a bungee cord, he jumps down with giant boxing gloves and knocks Quigley into a cage ball and locks him in. Then he rolls him along the track with his go-kart and catapults him into the pool. Quigley plays dead when Preston comes to check on him and Quigley finally grabs him and calls the others out. When the trio is confronted by the FBI at Preston's castle house, Quigley claims to be Macintosh. However, with the FBI knowing that Macintosh had been using the watermarked bills, they arrest Quigley, Juice, and Biderman. After Preston gets home, his family throws him a birthday party. His father apologizes for being so harsh to him when it came to money, and his brothers congratulate him on pulling off the scheme. The movie ends with Preston looking at a picture of Shay, smiling and making a birthday wish. He actually wanted to marry her in 5 years, but they both agreed 6 years.