Wall Street

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

- Gordon Gekko

Wall Street is a 1987 movie directed by Oliver Stone and starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen.

A stockbroker named Bud Fox (Sheen) wants to become top of the world. He becomes involved with his idol, Gordon Gekko (Douglas), a ruthless Wall Street player who has a conflict with Bud's father, Carl (Martin Sheen).

A sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (also directed by Stone) starring Douglas and Shia La Beouf was released on September 24, 2010.

Not to be confused with the actual Wall Street. ...there is no such article on that here yet.

Tropes included in the original film:

 * Alliterative Name: Gordon Gekko.
 * Anachronism Stew: A trader mentions the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster which happened in 1986, however the film takes place in 1985.
 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: Gekko doesn't exactly say "greed is good", he says: "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good." This is because the theatrical trailers cut off the "excess" words and showed Gekko saying, "Greed is good. Greed works."
 * Better Than Sex: Gordon Gekko relates that when he made an $800,000 profit on his first business real-estate purchase, he thought making all that money was "better than sex," but years later, he only sees it as a day's pay.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Broken Pedestal: Bud's attitude to Gekko after he.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gordon
 * Cynical Mentor: Gekko to Bud
 * Deal With the Devil: Bud
 * Did Not Do the Research: Due to taking place a couple years before it was filmed, some of the supposed crimes that Gekko committed during the movie were not illegal when the movie takes place, but were illegal when the movie was filmed.
 * A character makes reference to the 1986 Challenger disaster, despite the movie being set in '85.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: If you were to go by the earlier scenes in the movie, you would think that none of Bud's coworkers have any semblance of morality.
 * Greed
 * Ham to Ham Combat: The confrontation between both Sheens. Martin even said "the size of your WALLET!" was inspired by another ham, George C. Scott, in The Hustler.
 * Hey It's That Guy:
 * Deep Throat continues to dispense advice about the money.
 * Perry Cox is one of Bud Fox's co-workers in the movie.
 * Alan Shore is one of Bud's friends, and funnily enough a Lawyer as well.
 * Ironic Echo: Early in the movie, Gordon advises against getting emotional about stock. Later in the movie, Bud repeats this back to Gordon.
 * Lonely At the Top
 * The Man Is Sticking It to The Man: This is an anti-corporate, anti-capitalist movie produced by a major movie studio using corporate finance with the ultimate aim of making a profit.
 * Actually, Word of God states that the film is neither pro- nor anti- Wall Street. It was made to paint a picture of that world (the director's father was a stock broker himself), and leave viewers to form their own opinions. Given the many, many different views of the film, he's succeeded. There is probably a very high correlation between one's opinion of the film and one's economic views.
 * Naive Newcomer: At first, Gordon Gekko dismisses Bud Fox as naive about the stock exchange.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: No one with the last name Gekko is likely to be an upstanding guy.
 * New Era Speech: Three words: "Greed is good." Also the movie's Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Terrence Stamp as the British financial mogul. Although he technically appears in two scenes.
 * The Oner: A great piece of acting by Sheen, as
 * Pop Star Composer: Stewart Copeland.
 * Real Life Relative: Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen, as Bud and Carl Fox.
 * Reality Subtext: Charlie said his inspiration on the hospital scene was remembering how he felt when Martin had a heart attack during Apocalypse Now.
 * Sequel Gap
 * Shallow Love Interest: Darien Taylor. The role earned Daryl Hannah that year's Golden Raspberry Award.
 * Oliver Stone even said he considered trading her with Sean Young, who plays Gekko's wife.
 * Smug Snake: Gordon Gekko is clearly in love with himself, but also remembers to Pet the Dog.
 * Unintentional Period Piece: In particular, technology and the lifestyles of the wealthy seem to change more noticeably than other things do. Arguably, this is Lampshaded in the first scene of the sequel, when Gekko gets back his enormous cell phone.
 * Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Gordon is inspired by several corporate raiders during the 1980s, and in fact the famous speech was based on one given by Ivan Boesky who like Gordon, got arrested for his financial activities.
 * Villain Protagonist: Gordon
 * Maybe not an outright protagonist, but certainly what most people remember about the movie.
 * Nor even, perhaps, an outright villain.
 * You Fail Economics Forever: Apparently, Gordon's entire motivation stems from a childhood experience where he watches his mother cut up a pie into slices and he is told he has to get ahold of as much of the pie as he could. This not only falls under the "wealth is zero-sum" fallacy, but it conflicts with the fact that Gekko is a corporate raider and his entire business model is based on the premise that more efficient use of resources increases wealth. The infamous "Greed is Good" speech is about how more efficient use of resources increases wealth.
 * The pie-cutting was his inspiration, but he got into corporate raiding as a means to an end- if you grow the pie, people won't care that you take a big slice for yourself, as long as what's left is bigger than what they had before.
 * Real Life: There's a reason there was a depression - and history proves that every 30 years or so, businessmen think they can "game" the system.
 * The pie-cutting was his inspiration, but he got into corporate raiding as a means to an end- if you grow the pie, people won't care that you take a big slice for yourself, as long as what's left is bigger than what they had before.
 * Real Life: There's a reason there was a depression - and history proves that every 30 years or so, businessmen think they can "game" the system.

Tropes included in the sequel:
"Gordon Gekko:It's not about the money - It's about the game."
 * Actor Allusion: Jake's cellphone ringtone is the theme from The Good the Bad And The Ugly, which starred in a prominent role....Eli Wallach. Guess who plays Julie in this movie.
 * Anti-Hero: Gordon morphs into this the sequel.
 * As Himself: The movie features not only famous person lookalikes, but also several people playing themselves, including Warren Buffet.
 * Batman Gambit: Gorgon Gekko's plans
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the characters wear suits in morally ambiguous shades of grey. The villain, Bretton James, wears a demonic red suit.
 * Dead Guy Junior: Happy Birthday,
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Gordon spent over 11 years in prison for a "victimless" crime. That's twice as long as what most rapists get!
 * This is questionable, given the far-reaching consequences of white collar crime. Yes, its punished as a light offense, but in the real world the implications can be staggering.
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Dyeing for Your Art: Josh Brolin lost 30 pounds of weight for his role, and Shia La Beouf did a lot of research on stock trading and even got a broker's license.
 * Enemy Mine: Gordon Gekko and Jake Moore team up against Bretton James, a thoroughly despicable stock gambler who has wronged them both.
 * Expy: Churchill Schwartz is a very, very obvious Expy of Goldman Sachs, right down to the article Jake Moore writes about them, the excerpt of which we see is literally taken word-for-word from Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone now-classic article about Goldman Sachs with only the names changed. Bretton James is also pretty obviously heavily influenced by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, although going so far as to call him an Expy is probably stretching it.
 * Fake American: Carey Mulligan (English) as Winnie Gekko.
 * For the Evulz: For some viewers, half of Gordon Gekko's motivation. Another interpretation is that he simply holds 'the game' up as a moral imperative. See True Neutral above.


 * Heel Face Revolving Door: Gekko goes 360 degrees in his hero-or-villain status.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Gordon Gekko, who else?
 * Notable Commercial Campaigns: During the original airing of the pilot of Shit My Dad Says (Written as "$#*! My Dad Says"), special ads for Money Never Sleeps - which would open the next day - were headlined "$#*! Gordon Gekko Says".
 * Never a Self-Made Woman: One of the more extreme examples, where neither Jake nor Gekko take any of Winnie's values or opinions into consideration - her only purpose it to serve as a leverage for their "trading".
 * One-Scene Wonder: Charlee Sheen's cameo as Bud Fox. Also, Eli Wallach as "Julie", the nonagenarian centennial banker.
 * Playing Against Type/WTH Casting Agency: Shia La Beouf's attempt to get out of his Typecasting was at first received by thundering cries of "WTF???". When the movie got into theaters, most critics seem to agree that he gave an overall solid performance.
 * Sequel Gap
 * Sir Not Appearing in This Trailer: Josh Brolin. The trailers give off the impression that Gordon is once again the Big Bad, rather than the Anti-Villain he has become.
 * Susan Sarandon plays Jake's mother, with a subplot devoted to Jake bailing out her failing real estate business.
 * Shout Out: The subplot with the Cracker Jack ring references Breakfast At Tiffany's.
 * The Social Darwinist: Gordon Gekko
 * Smug Snake: Bretton James, who gives even a guy called Gordon Gekko a run for his money.
 * Technology Marches On: There's a gag when Gordon, leaving prison, is given his old brick-sized cell phone back.
 * Also, when one considers that 'Wall Street' itself no longer exists, as it has traditionally been understood. Trading is no longer the province of a few stock brokers in New York City, but is considerably decentralized and personal, thanks to the Internet. So, Finance Marches On, perhaps.