Margin Call
Encyclopedia
Margin Call is a 2011 American independent
drama film
, written and directed by J.C. Chandor
. The film has an ensemble cast
that includes Kevin Spacey
, Demi Moore
, Paul Bettany
, Jeremy Irons
, Zachary Quinto
, Stanley Tucci
, Simon Baker
, and Penn Badgley
. The film takes place over a 36-hour period at a large investment bank
(loosely modeled on Lehman Brothers
) and focuses on the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The film follows the actions taken by a group of employees during the financial collapse.
The film was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival
in January 2011 and opened on October 21, 2011 in the United States.
) and Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto
) and senior trader Will Emerson (Paul Bettany
) watch as a human resources team conducts mass layoffs on their trading floor. One of the fired employees is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci
), who works in risk management. Before leaving, Dale gives Peter a USB drive with a project he had been working on, telling him to "be careful." That night, Peter finishes the project, and discovers that trading will soon exceed the historical volatility levels
used by the firm to calculate risk. Because of excessive leverage
, if the firm's assets in mortgage backed securities decrease by 25%, the firm will suffer a loss greater than its market capitalization
. Sullivan alerts Emerson, who calls head of sales Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey
).
The employees remain at the firm all night for a series of meetings with more senior executives, including head of securities Jared Cohen (Simon Baker
) and head of risk Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore
), and finally CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons
). Tuld reveals that his plan is simply to sell off all of the toxic assets before the market can react to the news of their worthlessness, thereby limiting the firm's exposure. Rogers knows this will spread the risk throughout the financial sector and will destroy the firm's relationships with its counterparties, who will never trust them again. The characters finally locate Dale, who had been missing after his company phone was turned off. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Rogers, Robertson, Cohen, and Tuld were aware of the risks in the weeks leading up to the crisis. Tuld plans to offer Robertson's resignation to the board and employees as a sacrificial lamb.
Before the markets open, Rogers tells his traders they will receive seven figure bonuses if they achieve a 93% reduction in certain MBS asset classes. He admits that the traders are effectively ending their own jobs and careers by destroying their relationships with their clients. Meanwhile, Robertson and Dale sit in an office, being paid handsomely to do nothing for the day. Emerson manages to sell off his assets, but his counterparties become increasingly agitated and suspicious as the day wears on. Having successfully reached the 93% benchmark, Rogers watches the same human resources team begin another round of layoffs on his floor. He confronts Tuld, who remarks that the current crisis is really no different from other historical panics and recessions, and sharp gains and losses are simply part of the economic cycle. He wants Rogers to stay at the firm for another two years, promising that there will be a lot of money to be made from the coming crisis. Rogers sees Sullivan meeting with Cohen about his imminent promotion, while the fates of Emerson and Bregman are not mentioned.
In the final scene, Rogers digs a hole in his ex-wife's front yard to bury his cancer-ridden dog.
Throughout the film, one of the lower-tier employees constantly makes reference to pay packages and speculates about the salaries of higher-ranked members of the firm. As the crisis unfolds, junior traders wonder what it is like to be a "real person" who does not see the impending crisis, and condemn the public for their hypocrisy of blaming Wall Street in the bad times while enjoying the easy credit and benefits of financial industry that takes risks. Dale and Sullivan are both engineers, an allusion to Wall Street's practice of luring science and engineering specialists to build and run complex trading strategies. In a series of meetings, supervisors and managers betray their ignorance of the technical details of Dale/Sullivan's findings and ask them to explain as plainly as possible.
began on June 21, 2010 in New York City
. More than 80 percent of the action was shot on the 42nd floor of One Penn Plaza
, which had recently been vacated by a trading firm.
The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah
. The film also played In Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival
and was nominated for the Golden Bear
.
The film was produced by Zachary Quinto's production company, Before The Door Pictures, by Quinto and his two producing partners, Neal Dodson and Corey Moosa.
. The New Yorker
described the film as "easily the best Wall Street movie ever made".
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, written and directed by J.C. Chandor
J.C. Chandor
J.C. Chandor is an American writer/director, best known as the director of the film Margin Call released in 2011. He graduated in 1996 from The College of Wooster. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah...
. The film has an ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
that includes Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
, Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
, Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...
, Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
, Zachary Quinto
Zachary Quinto
Zachary John Quinto is an American actor and producer. Quinto grew up in Pennsylvania and was active in high school musical theater. In the early 2000s he guest starred in television series and appeared in a recurring role in the serial drama 24 from 2003 to 2004...
, Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
, Simon Baker
Simon Baker
Simon Baker is an Australian actor. Since 2008, he has starred in the CBS television series The Mentalist.-Early life:...
, and Penn Badgley
Penn Badgley
Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl. He has also starred in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, and Easy A....
. The film takes place over a 36-hour period at a large investment bank
Investment banking
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
(loosely modeled on Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
) and focuses on the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The film follows the actions taken by a group of employees during the financial collapse.
The film was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
in January 2011 and opened on October 21, 2011 in the United States.
Plot
Junior employees Seth Bregman (Penn BadgleyPenn Badgley
Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl. He has also starred in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, and Easy A....
) and Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto
Zachary Quinto
Zachary John Quinto is an American actor and producer. Quinto grew up in Pennsylvania and was active in high school musical theater. In the early 2000s he guest starred in television series and appeared in a recurring role in the serial drama 24 from 2003 to 2004...
) and senior trader Will Emerson (Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...
) watch as a human resources team conducts mass layoffs on their trading floor. One of the fired employees is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
), who works in risk management. Before leaving, Dale gives Peter a USB drive with a project he had been working on, telling him to "be careful." That night, Peter finishes the project, and discovers that trading will soon exceed the historical volatility levels
Value at risk
In financial mathematics and financial risk management, Value at Risk is a widely used risk measure of the risk of loss on a specific portfolio of financial assets...
used by the firm to calculate risk. Because of excessive leverage
Leverage (finance)
In finance, leverage is a general term for any technique to multiply gains and losses. Common ways to attain leverage are borrowing money, buying fixed assets and using derivatives. Important examples are:* A public corporation may leverage its equity by borrowing money...
, if the firm's assets in mortgage backed securities decrease by 25%, the firm will suffer a loss greater than its market capitalization
Market capitalization
Market capitalization is a measurement of the value of the ownership interest that shareholders hold in a business enterprise. It is equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a publicly traded company...
. Sullivan alerts Emerson, who calls head of sales Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
).
The employees remain at the firm all night for a series of meetings with more senior executives, including head of securities Jared Cohen (Simon Baker
Simon Baker
Simon Baker is an Australian actor. Since 2008, he has starred in the CBS television series The Mentalist.-Early life:...
) and head of risk Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
), and finally CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
). Tuld reveals that his plan is simply to sell off all of the toxic assets before the market can react to the news of their worthlessness, thereby limiting the firm's exposure. Rogers knows this will spread the risk throughout the financial sector and will destroy the firm's relationships with its counterparties, who will never trust them again. The characters finally locate Dale, who had been missing after his company phone was turned off. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Rogers, Robertson, Cohen, and Tuld were aware of the risks in the weeks leading up to the crisis. Tuld plans to offer Robertson's resignation to the board and employees as a sacrificial lamb.
Before the markets open, Rogers tells his traders they will receive seven figure bonuses if they achieve a 93% reduction in certain MBS asset classes. He admits that the traders are effectively ending their own jobs and careers by destroying their relationships with their clients. Meanwhile, Robertson and Dale sit in an office, being paid handsomely to do nothing for the day. Emerson manages to sell off his assets, but his counterparties become increasingly agitated and suspicious as the day wears on. Having successfully reached the 93% benchmark, Rogers watches the same human resources team begin another round of layoffs on his floor. He confronts Tuld, who remarks that the current crisis is really no different from other historical panics and recessions, and sharp gains and losses are simply part of the economic cycle. He wants Rogers to stay at the firm for another two years, promising that there will be a lot of money to be made from the coming crisis. Rogers sees Sullivan meeting with Cohen about his imminent promotion, while the fates of Emerson and Bregman are not mentioned.
In the final scene, Rogers digs a hole in his ex-wife's front yard to bury his cancer-ridden dog.
Throughout the film, one of the lower-tier employees constantly makes reference to pay packages and speculates about the salaries of higher-ranked members of the firm. As the crisis unfolds, junior traders wonder what it is like to be a "real person" who does not see the impending crisis, and condemn the public for their hypocrisy of blaming Wall Street in the bad times while enjoying the easy credit and benefits of financial industry that takes risks. Dale and Sullivan are both engineers, an allusion to Wall Street's practice of luring science and engineering specialists to build and run complex trading strategies. In a series of meetings, supervisors and managers betray their ignorance of the technical details of Dale/Sullivan's findings and ask them to explain as plainly as possible.
Cast
- Kevin SpaceyKevin SpaceyKevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
as Sam Rogers - Paul BettanyPaul BettanyPaul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...
as Will Emerson - Jeremy IronsJeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
as John Tuld - Zachary QuintoZachary QuintoZachary John Quinto is an American actor and producer. Quinto grew up in Pennsylvania and was active in high school musical theater. In the early 2000s he guest starred in television series and appeared in a recurring role in the serial drama 24 from 2003 to 2004...
as Peter Sullivan - Penn BadgleyPenn BadgleyPenn Dayton Badgley is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl. He has also starred in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, and Easy A....
as Seth Bregman - Simon BakerSimon BakerSimon Baker is an Australian actor. Since 2008, he has starred in the CBS television series The Mentalist.-Early life:...
as Jared Cohen - Mary McDonnellMary McDonnellMary Eileen McDonnell is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Stands With A Fist in Dances with Wolves, and she is also very well known for her performance as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, the President's wife...
as Mary Rogers - Stanley TucciStanley TucciStanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
as Eric Dale - Demi MooreDemi MooreDemi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
as Sarah Robertson - Aasif MandviAasif MandviAasif Hakim Mandviwala , known professionally as Aasif Mandvi , is an American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.-Early life and stage career:Mandvi...
as Ramesh Shah - Ashley Williams as Heather Burke
- Al SapienzaAl SapienzaAl Sapienza is a prolific American actor, who has had numerous roles in television, stage and film productions. He is most well known for his role as Mikey Palmice on the HBO series The Sopranos. He played the role of Dr...
as Louis Carmelo
Production
Principal photographyPrincipal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began on June 21, 2010 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. More than 80 percent of the action was shot on the 42nd floor of One Penn Plaza
One Penn Plaza
One Penn Plaza is a skyscraper in New York City, located between 33rd and 34th Streets, west of Seventh Avenue, and adjacent to Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. It is the tallest building in the Pennsylvania Plaza complex of office buildings, hotels, and entertainment facilities...
, which had recently been vacated by a trading firm.
The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah
Park City, Utah
Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...
. The film also played In Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival
61st Berlin International Film Festival
The 61st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to February 20, 2011, with actress Isabella Rossellini as the President of the Jury. The Coen Brothers film True Grit opened the festival. 300,000 tickets were sold in total during the event, to 20,000 attendees from 116...
and was nominated for the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
.
The film was produced by Zachary Quinto's production company, Before The Door Pictures, by Quinto and his two producing partners, Neal Dodson and Corey Moosa.
Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics, garnering an 86% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
described the film as "easily the best Wall Street movie ever made".