[ I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night

As the film ends, we see other members of Joel’s Future Enterprisers club deliver their final presentations, telling us how much their product cost and how many hundreds of dollars in profit they made over the course of the semester. Then, over the final shot of Joel and Lana, we hear Joel in voiceover: “My name is Joel Goodson. 

I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night.” It’s the perfect note to end not just one of Hollywood’s greatest films of the 1980s, but also one of its greatest films about that oft-maligned decade. You are the product you deal in, and your worth is the profit you generate. Well, as long as you’re the affluent kid who looks and acts like Tom Cruise.