Directed by:
Adam McKayCinematography:
Barry AckroydComposer:
Nicholas BritellCast:
Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Finn Wittrock, Max Greenfield, Melissa Leo, Rafe Spall, Hamish Linklater, Byron Mann (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
In 2005, eccentric San Jose-based money manager and heavy-metal music enthusiast Michael Burry (Christian Bale) studies thousands of individual loans bundled into highly rated mortgage bonds and makes a startling discovery: The financial products are loaded with delinquent home loans certain to default over the next few years. While Wall Street bankers and government regulatory agencies ignore this ticking time bomb, Burry invents a financial instrument called the credit default swap in order to "short" the booming housing market — much to the dismay of his hedge fund's owners and investors. When slick young Wall Street banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) catches wind of Burry's strategy, he uses a tower of tumbling Jenga blocks to persuade hot-tempered hedge-fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell) that he too should invest millions in credit default swaps. Initially skeptical, Baum and his contentious team of wise-cracking young analysts (Jeremy Strong, Hamish Linklater and Rafe Spall) undertake their own investigation. Researching the housing market in Florida, they interview glib mortgage brokers who routinely obtain loans for grossly under-qualified home buyers and a strip-club dancer who's made zero-down-payment purchases of multiple properties. Meanwhile, 20-something money managers Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro) also stumble upon the housing-market bubble. Hoping to break into the financial big leagues, they're distressed to find their $30 million fund falls almost $1.5 billion short of the requirements needed for a seat at the grownups' table. So they enlist banker-turned-environmental-doomsayer Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), who uses his connections to help them make their own bet against Wall Street. By the time the market finally crashes in 2008, these contrarian investors will make billions yet will be forever changed by their experience. But while the financial institutions whose reckless behavior caused the problem are bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, millions of Americans lose their homes, their jobs and their retirement savings in an economic catastrophe whose effects are still being felt today. (Paramount Pictures)
(more)Cast
Christian Bale
UK
Best movies:
The Dark Knight (2008)
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
The Prestige (2006)
Steve Carell
USA
Best movies:
Despicable Me (2010)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
Ryan Gosling
Canada
Best movies:
The Notebook (2004)
Drive (2011)
Remember the Titans (2000)
Brad Pitt
USA
Best movies:
Se7en (1995)
Fight Club (1999)
Snatch (2000)
Marisa Tomei
USA
Best movies:
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Chaplin (1992)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Finn Wittrock
USA
Best movies:
My All-American (2015)
The Big Short (2015)
La La Land (2016)
Max Greenfield
USA
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
Shot Caller (2017)
The Glass Castle (2017)
Melissa Leo
USA
Best movies:
Prisoners (2013)
21 Grams (2003)
Mildred Pierce (2011) (series)
Rafe Spall
UK
Best movies:
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Green Street Hooligans (2005)
A Good Year (2006)
Hamish Linklater
USA
Best movies:
42 (2013)
Groove (2000)
The Big Short (2015)
Byron Mann
Hong Kong
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
Rise of the Legend (2014)
Red Corner (1997)
Jeremy Strong
USA
Best movies:
The Gentlemen (2019)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
The Judge (2014)
John Magaro
USA
Best movies:
Captain Phillips (2013)
Past Lives (2023)
The Big Short (2015)
Brandon Stacy
USA
Best movies:
Roots (2016) (series)
The Big Short (2015)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Billy Slaughter
USA
Best movies:
Trumbo (2015)
Richard Jewell (2019)
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Nazeema Bartek
Best movies:
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
The Big Short (2015)
Jurassic World (2015)
Andrea Vittoria Alvarado
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
21 Jump Street (2012)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Karen Gillan
UK
Best movies:
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Margot Robbie
Australia
Best movies:
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
About Time (2013)
Babylon (2022)
Selena Gomez
USA
Best movies:
Taylor Swift: The 1989 World Tour Live (2015) (concert)
Rudderless (2014)
The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)