Margin Call
Margin Call
Follows the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.
Tanalien reviewedAugust 9, 2025
Within Margin Call lies an insight into the other landmark films about Wall Street: 2010’s Inside Job, 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street and 2015’s The Big Short. It is short-sighted to say that the defining motivation behind these onscreen bankers is greed. By making as much money possible by any means necessary, they are desperately trying to keep their sense of status alive at any cost. These bankers learn to live by a code: There are only two outcomes. I win or I lose. And I will not lose.
Do we really live in a world where a few individuals’ decisions, based on personal ambition, can turn our world upside-down? Margin Call is dramatic evidence to the affirmative: Yes, we do.
When these characters were faced with the consequences of their decisions, they doubled down - knowing that their actions could end the very financial games they devoted their lives to. Margin Call is a film that helps you deeply understand why. Would we have done any differently?