Margin Call follows the employees of a large investment bank over a tension-filled 24-hour period as they discover their firm is on the brink of collapse. As junior analysts uncover devastating data, senior executives face impossible moral and financial choices that will affect the global economy. The film is a gripping character study exploring greed, responsibility, and survival in the cutthroat world of high finance.
A pivotal entry in this collection — Margin Call represents exactly what makes this theme essential viewing.
On the eve of the 2008 collapse, an investment bank decides to dump its toxic assets on the market and survive. Jeremy Irons explains, with chilling calm, that there are only three ways to make money — and the third is "we’re first, smarter, or we cheat." The film admits, quietly, that everyone in the room is correct.
