Following the huge success of Basic Instinct, high-rolling production company Carolco again backed Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on an envelope-pushing erotic tale — this time getting an NC-17 rating (the ‘90s renaming of being X-rated) and losing money at the box office. Yet the movie has had an astonishing afterlife what with tributes (both derisive and sincere), memes, and quotable/questionable dialogue. Across all-access Vegas locations, Elizabeth Berkley bootstraps herself up from new-in-town to stripper to casino-revue star.