The festive greeting "Merry New Year!" derives from the '80s comedy film Trading Places, which follows successful commodity brokers and brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke. The duo stage an experiment to see if a street hustler and a top executive from their own firm can switch places, and survive living in the other person's shoes. The catch? They're carrying out the experiment without telling the subjects — Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) and Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) — anything about it. When Valentine and Winthorpe realise they're pawns in the Duke brothers' shady game, they join forces and hatch a plan for revenge.