margin call

Director: j.c. chandor

Actor: zachary quinto,stanley tucci,kevin spacey,paul bettany

Data Published: Thu Sep 29 2011

Genres: Drama,Thriller

Key Words: financial crisis,financial disaster,capital management,investment fraud,21st century

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615147/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_Call_(film)

Description: Margin Call is a movie starring Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, and Kevin Spacey. Follows the key people at an investment bank, over a 24-hour period, during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.

Plot: An unnamed investment bank begins a mass layoff on the trading floor during a normal business day. Among those let go is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), head of risk management for the trading floor. Dale tries to speak about his current, unfinished project, first with human resources staff and then with desk head Will Emerson (Paul Bettany), but is told that his work is no longer his concern. While being escorted out of the building he meets one of his risk analysts, Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), and gives him a USB drive-stick to look at with a vague instruction to "be careful." Sullivan works late that night to finish Dale's project, and discovers that current volatility in the firm's portfolio of mortgage-backed securities has exceeded the historical volatility levels of the positions. Because of excessive leverage, if the firm's assets decrease by 25%, the loss will be greater than the value of the firm itself and the firm will go bankrupt. Sullivan and his colleague, junior analyst Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley), tell Emerson about the situation. Emerson alerts floor head Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), who also returns to the office. They attempt to contact Dale, but the company shut off his phone and he hadn't yet returned home. Through the night, they have meetings with division head Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), chief risk management officer Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), and finally CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Cohen's plan is for the firm to quickly dump all of the toxic assets in a fire sale before the market learns of their worthlessness, thereby limiting the firm's exposure, a plan favored by Tuld. Rogers protests that dumping the firm's toxic assets will spread the risk throughout the financial sector and destroy the firm's relationships with its counterparties. He also warns Cohen that their customers will quickly learn of the firm's plans once they realize that the firm is only selling the toxic securities, but is not buying any new ones. They finally locate Dale back at his home in Brooklyn, and Will is able to convince him to return to the office, informing him that the firm will not pay him his severance and other benefits unless he agrees to participate in their plan. Will also tells Seth he'll probably lose his job in the crisis, but will get a large severance, while explaining to him the corrupt, cyclical nature of the markets. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Robertson, Cohen, and Tuld were aware of the risks in the weeks leading up to the crisis. Tuld offers Robertson up as the scapegoat, putting the blame of the crisis on her and forcing her resignation. Both Dale and Robertson are instructed to remain in the office all day and do nothing in return for an increase to their severance packages. Robertson expresses regret for not doing more to stop the crisis. Before morning, Tuld is able to convince Rogers to go along with Cohen's plan. In a speech to his traders in preparation for the fire sale, Rogers warns them that, by participating, they are effectively ruining their reputations and ending their careers in the industry. The firm successfully pulls off the sale despite growing suspicion from their buyers, as the firm takes tremendous losses while dumping positions for cents on the dollar. After trading hours end, Cohen tells Rogers there will be another round of layoffs, but Rogers will keep his job. Angry that he was retained, Rogers confronts Tuld, but Tuld dismisses his protests, claiming that the current crisis is no different from various Financial crisis and bear markets of the past, and that sharp gains and losses are simply part of the economic cycle. He persuades 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. Tuld also informs Rogers he will promote Sullivan. Rogers says he will accept the deal, but only because he needs the money. In a final scene, Rogers buries his beloved dog that has passed away in his ex-wife's front yard in the middle of the night, and learns from her that their son's financial firm took a big hit but survived the day's trading.