Tomb

There’s a moment in the film Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) in which a fistful of filthy $10 bills gets thrust into the title character’s face, and the audience suddenly realizes: “Wait a minute — those are Canadian banknotes. Old Canadian banknotes. Pre-Brian Mulroney $10 bills! I haven’t seen those in ages!”

It’s an inexplicably electrifying experience to recognize your nation’s currency on the big screen. Canadians (or at least, English-speaking Canadians) don’t seem to watch a lot of Canadian movies, but we love to see our loonies and toonies being handled by movie stars. Most of us grow up with American movies and television, in which people spend strange little green slips of paper that we eventually associate with money. It doesn’t really look like our money, but we get why the characters are supposed to be so excited when they find a briefcase full of the stuff. When some real Canadian currency appears, they’ve suddenly got our undivided attention. Hey, look! It’s money we can actually spend!

If you’re in the mood to spot some Canuck bucks in a cinematic context, check out these fascinating films:

· The Silent Partner (1978). This here is the motherlode of pre-1986 Canadian moolah, folks. (You know, before our money started looking like traveller’s cheques?) Huge fistfuls of the stuff, not just for window dressing, but actually driving the plot. And what a plot it is — Elliott Gould plays an underpaid Toronto bank employee, who figures out that a shifty mall Santa (Christopher Plummer!) is planning a bank robbery. Rather than attempting to prevent the robbery, he cashes in on it, stashing most of the till’s cash in his lunch box ahead of time, eventually handing over the meagre remnants to Plummer once he finally makes his move. Gould pockets the hidden money, and blames it on the robber. Later on, the robber realizes what’s happened, and demands his share. Suspense, violence and lashings of dark humour ensue. Watch for a young John Candy in a small role.

· Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001). When our lord and saviour Phil Caracas — er, Jesus Christ — isn’t kickboxing lesbian vampires, he enjoys donair sandwiches from Ottawa’s many fine eateries. For an extra 50 cents (two proudly Canadian quarters!) they’ll heap on some extra garlic sauce, which makes JC’s normally minty-fresh breath a potent anti-vampire weapon. Hhwwaaaah.

· Exotica (1994). Any film set in a Canadian strip club is going to flash a lot of... money. (What? What did you think I was going to say there?) We can clearly see Canuck 20s changing hands throughout the movie. New 20s. We see old 20s in a flashback, and the juxtaposition between the two sets up an inescapable sense of time and place; a poignant moment that completely changes the way we see the film and the characters. (I’m being vague on purpose to avoid spoiling the film. Go see it.)

· Weirdsville (2007). Here’s a movie as strange as the title suggests, and as marvellously Canadian as one could hope for. At one point, a safe opens up, spilling out bundles of purple 10s, blue fives, green 20s, pink 50s and brown 100 bank notes. The DVD has an audio commentary that points out to any non-Canadian viewers that yes, this is what our money actually looks like. It’s the biggest heap of new Canadian currency you’re likely to see on film, unless we’re talking coins, in which case you need to check out….

· Scott Pilgrim versus The World (2010). Loonies! Toonies! Mountains of them! Every time Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) defeats one of his girlfriend’s evil exes, they disintegrate into a clattering pile of Canadian coins, just like in a video game. It might sound insane out of context, but it’s one of the many joys in this unique film that countless viewers (myself included) cited as the best movie of 2010.