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 (4)
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
Marcus Lyle Brown
Best movies:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Jason Bayle
Best movies:
Roots (2016) (series)
Trumbo (2015)
The Big Short (2015)
Blaine Kern III
Best movies:
The Dirt (2019)
The Big Short (2015)
Happy Death Day (2017)
Nicole Barré
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
99 Homes (2014)
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
Justin Lebrun
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
Jurassic World (2015)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Aiden Flowers
USA
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Sara Finley
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
The Debt Collector (2018)
Blackhat (2015)
Jae Suh Park
South Korea
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
Teacher's Pet (2000)
The Paper Tigers (2020)
Adepero Oduye
USA
Best movies:
When They See Us (2019) (series)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
The Big Short (2015)
Delia Sheppard
Denmark
Best movies:
Any Given Sunday (1999)
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
The Big Short (2015)
Jim Cramer (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Iron Man (2008)
The Big Short (2015) - a.f.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
George W. Bush (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Curveball (2020) - a.f.
Live Free or Die Hard (2007) - a.f.
The Big Short (2015) - a.f.
Tom Cruise (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Rain Man (1988)
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Ludacris (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Crash (2004)
Fast Five (2011)
RocknRolla (2008)
Tupac Shakur (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Tupac: Live at the House of Blues (2005) (concert)
Straight Outta Compton (2015) - a.f.
The Big Short (2015) - a.f.
Snoop Dogg (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
The Up In Smoke Tour (2000) (concert)
Tupac: Live at the House of Blues (2005) (concert)
Live 8 (2005) (concert)
Britney Spears (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
The Simpsons: Gone Wild (2004) (video compilation)
Madonna: Sticky & Sweet: Live in Buenos Aires (2009) (concert)
Britney Spears: The Onyx Hotel Tour (2004) (concert)
Pharrell Williams (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Sing 2 (2021)
The Big Short (2015) - a.f.
The College Dropout Video Anthology (2005) (video compilation)
Anthony Marble
Best movies:
The Dirt (2019)
Monster's Ball (2001)
The Big Short (2015)
Rajeev Jacob
Best movies:
The Big Short (2015)
All Eyez on Me (2017)
One Last Thing (2018)