A gullible one-dollar bill languishing in a cash register defends himself from humans and currency when he sets out to find his long-lost family who live in a local bank vault.

SYNOPSIS:

KALEN, an innocent one-dollar bill, often daydreams about life outside the wax museum’s cash register where he resides. Lathering up and cleaning more expensive bills day in and day out will not cut it for him in the long run. One night after work, Kalen discovers from a shifty fifty-dollar bill that his long-lost family may be living in a local bank’s vault. Excitement in his heart and desiring to learn the truth, Kalen hatches a plan to escape the outdated cash register.

Kalen meets up with WANDA, a caregiving ten-dollar bill whom he befriends, and discusses his plan. She decides to ask EXCALIBUR, an aristocratic twenty-dollar bill, if he would like to tag along on the escapade as she doesn’t want Kalen to attempt anything singlehandedly. Wanda pursues how to be more sophisticated from Excalibur, and Excalibur relishes the attention. Excalibur insists they bring another partner in on the plan, which ends up being none other than ZILCH, a one cent coin prone to selfish temper tantrums at the drop of a hat. Zilch joins the group for the sheer pleasure to watch them fail as he doesn’t believe in currency having family.

All seems ordinary with the currency community until Zilch incites a riot in the main area using a protest sign. Everyone else around and security personnel dimes who monitor the video feeds take in the chaotic distraction. Other coins and dollars join in on the protest that advocates for stopping public surveillance. Inside a lounge area, Kalen and the two rig a tool to open the top edge of the register enough for them to slip through. At the same time, a tourist couple approaches the cash register wanting to buy souvenir t-shirts!

Zilch joins the team in the lounge. Security nickel guards are within reach of the team just as the door to the cash register flies open, sending the four out of the register haphazardly. The team manages to conceal themselves from the humans and escape outside the museum through the entrance door. All seems well, that is until a teen girl picks up the money from the sidewalk and stashes them in her pocket. She enters a gas station to buy snacks.

Led by Kalen, the four jump onto a nearby aisle shelf. They maneuver from shelf to shelf down to the ground and then dodge human feet like a video game. When they reach the outside they are taken up again! This time it is an elderly lady with a pocketbook. She transports them to the post office. The four escape the clutches of the elderly woman, jumping onto a cardboard box a clerk carries into the back room. They dive off into a sea of letters in a crate near an exit.

Reaching the outside through a side door, the four gather themselves. But it is short lived since a ferocious little dog with an appetite for expensive paper targets them! They race underneath a dumpster and wait for the dog to leave. As if to add insult to injury, when they find the sidewalk path again a young couple picks them up. The couple enters a bakery shop where they exchange the four for yummy food.

Zilch decides to stay behind in the bakery cash register after arguing with Kalen. The three quickly exit the cash register when it opens. They dodge behind standing menus, a tip jar, and display cases, making it onto the ground. They exit outside where they find their morale is poor. A young girl blindsides them, bringing them to her car. Her mother puts them in her purse before the two step into the car.

The three rescue themselves from the purse. They jump out of a halfway open car window. A car almost flattens Excalibur, if that is even possible. Meanwhile, Zilch hears pessimistic stories from currency in the bakery cash register. The temperamental cent opens up about his own experiences with the other three, but the bakery currency don’t validate him.

Almost to the bank, Kalen, Excalibur, and Wanda encounter a homeless man who lingers outside a store front. He grabs Excalibur, who sacrifices himself allowing the other two to run away. Kalen and Wanda catch a ride on a Segway as it passes by. They jump off the machine, arriving at the bank’s entrance doors.

The duo slips inside the vault right before a clerk closes the vault door. Kalen and Wanda come upon a large stack of one-hundred dollar bills on a table. One of the vault bills tears through the plastic wrap imprisoning him. After explaining why they are in the vault, the bill gives Kalen terrible news: His family is nowhere to be found as one-dollar bills are nonexistent in the vault. Kalen realizes that Wanda kept this from him the whole time, and with anger and hurt in his heart, he parts ways with her. Before they separate, the vault bill tells of zombie currency who lurk in the vault and prey on bills of lesser value.

Kalen wishes to be alone, and Wanda, in sadness, leaves him. In the homeless man’s cowboy hat, Excalibur becomes accustomed with the other depressed bills held captive. Wanda decides to head back to Excalibur, but she must renegotiate maneuvering past laser beams in a cross-stitch pattern on the vault floor. She does so successfully, albeit with one close call.

Zombie bills break out of their wrapping and pursue after Kalen. He evades them, fending them off. While flying off the table, Kalen’s legs touch the laser beam. A warning bell rings off. Meanwhile, Wanda returns to the cowboy hat with Excalibur inside. Excalibur, after a debate, escapes from the hat. Wanda and him jump onto a little girl’s bicycle, heading for the bank.

Kalen and the vault bill defend themselves from an overwhelming amount of zombie bills. They rush to the vault door to evade. Wanda and Excalibur enter the vault through the vent. A serious as a flytrap security guard awakens her sleeping comrade. The two guards march for the vault.

The team darts away from the zombies en route to the vent. Wanda trips, landing on the ground. Kalen veers from heading for the air vent upon seeing Wanda on the floor surrounded by zombie bills. Excalibur joins him in the fight to help Wanda. The three watch as the zombie bills move in closer and closer. All hope seems lost. A red light blinks near the vault door to motion it is going to open. The zombies grab onto the team, biting at them, when out of a floor drain…

Zilch emerges! He decks himself with two toothpicks, a paperclip, and a rubber band used for securing the items. He rescues the other three, knocking the zombie bills left and right. The four escape through the vault door that opens, bypassing the security guards.

Outside the bank, Zilch reconciles with Kalen and the others. His selfishness takes a large hit. Excalibur makes the decision to return to the cowboy hat; maybe not the sophisticated thing to do, but the most honourable and walking by faith is new for him. The three return to the museum cash register. Kalen lets the fifty-dollar bill know he found his family. In the cafeteria, they notice a rubber band and toothpick on two of their lunch trays.

The newfound family laughs, reminiscing of their recent adventure.

DOLLAROGRAPHY