Money men make a killing
Photos courtesy of M Pictures
Did you know
Selena Gomez appears in the film to explain some of the banking terms.
Directed by Adam McKay, The Big Short looks at the true story of four people at the heart of the 2008 American financial crash.
When the four men see what the big banks, media and government regulators refuse to — the impending collapse of the global economy — they have an idea. They invent a system called The Big Short to trick the banks and make a lot of money.
It begins in 2005, when money manager and heavy-rock fan Michael Burry (Christian Bale) invents the system. In New York, banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) hears about the scheme and recommends it to his colleagues.
The system makes them billions of dollars but leads them to question a financial market that the government is allowing to fail, destroying the lives of millions of people around the world.
Find out who wins and who loses when The Big Short opens in local cinemas on January 7.
Vocabulary
- crash (n): the occasion when a business or system fails
regulator (n): an organisation that officially controls an area of business and makes sure that it is operating fairly
impending (adj): that is going to happen very soon
