By Jasmin Aline Persch, contributor
Introduction
Greed. Scandal. Revenge.
These are themes that can bring down big companies, as captured by Hollywood. Wall Street scandals of the past, from insider trading in the 1980s to Enron in this decade, have inspired some fine films about firms that went kaput.
Will the current massive meltdown on Wall Street someday be memorialized on the silver screen?
Click \"next\" for our choice of the best business meltdown movies. Spoiler alert: Key plot points will be revealed. ";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Wall Street'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-wallst.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "20th Century Fox", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Wall Street'
Released: 1987
Director: Oilver Stone
Stars: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Hal Holbrook, Terence Stamp, John C. McGinley, James Spader.
Quote: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” (Gordon Gekko)
Synopsis: Rookie stockbroker Bud Fox seeks out Gordon Gekko, a Wall Street lion whom he idolizes. Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, naively spills sensitive details about his father’s small airline to Gekko, a role that won Michael Douglas (pictured) the Oscar for best actor. The insider information eventually makes the novice his protégé - propelling Fox’s career on Wall Street. Finally reaching his dream of becoming a rich man, Fox snags a luxury condo and a gorgeous blonde girlfriend, played by Daryl Hannah. Fox later learns that success comes at a cost: Gekko forces him to jeopardize his father’s company. Fox picks family over fortune, but not before it’s too late: The small airline still falls into Gekko’s hands. ";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Trading Places'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-tradingplaces.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Paramount Pictures", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Trading Places'
Released: 1983
Director: John Landis
Stars: Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Quote: “When I was growing up, if we wanted a Jacuzzi, we had to fart in the tub.” (Billy Ray Valentine)
Synopsis: For a $1 bet, owners of commodities brokerage Duke & Duke swap lives of a street hustler and a successful commodities trader. After Mortimer and Randolph Duke frame a top employee at their firm, Louis Winthorpe III, played by Dan Aykroyd (right), gets jailed for petty theft -- beginning his downward spiral. Meanwhile, the brothers arrange for Billy Ray Valentine, played by Eddie Murphy (left), to live in Winthorpe’s home and work at the brokerage. Valentine's street smarts help him keenly predict commodity movements. After the lowlife rises in society when given the chance, Randolph wins the wager. But the victims get the last laugh - joining forces to ruin the Dukes.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'It's a Wonderful Life'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-itsawonderfullife.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "RKO Radio Pictures", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'It's a Wonderful Life'
Released: 1946
Director: Frank Capra
Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Jimmy Hawkins.
Quote: \"The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house ... And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house.\" (George Bailey)
Synopsis: When the Bailey Building & Loan Association owner dies, greedy George Potter forces a takeover. But the company directors decide George Bailey, who knows that Bedford Falls relies on the bank for mortgages, should run his father’s business. After townspeople, spooked by the Great Depression, make a run on the bank, Bailey and his new wife lend their honeymoon money to save the company. The bank faces an $8,000 shortfall on Christmas Eve, and Bailey hits bottom - attempting suicide on a bridge. A guardian angel appears to show him that without him, the town would be a slum called Pottersville. Bailey runs home to find the town had pooled money to save the bank, and realizes his is a wonderful life.
"; bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Office Space'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-officespace.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "20th Century Fox", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", ""); bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Office Space'
Released: 1999
Director: Mike Judge
Stars: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Diedrich Bader, Gary Cole, Stephen Root.
Quote: \"Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.\"
Synopsis: Peter Gibbons couldn’t stand his manager pestering about FTP reports and lingering at his cubicle saying little but \"Uhhh, K.\" After Ron Livingston’s character (above left) reveals that he does little at work to the downsizing consultants hired by his employer, he gets promoted, while his buddies, Initech’s best programmers, get axed. In revenge, the friends try to siphon money from Initech’s accounting system into their bank accounts over a period of years. But the plan goes awry when a computer bug sends $300,000 in three days instead. Feeling guilty, Gibbons slips a confession letter with travelers’ checks under his manager’s door. Luckily, Initech’s most marginalized worker (who has a soft spot for his stapler) burns down the office building.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Boiler Room'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-boilerroom.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "New Line Productions", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Boiler Room'
Released: 2000
Director: Ben Younger
Stars: Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Nicky Katt, Ron Rifkin, Ben Affleck, Tom Everett Scott, Scott Caan.
Quote:\"I had a very strong work ethic. The problem was my ethics in work.\" (Seth Davis)
Synopsis: In this drama based on a true story, a college dropout joins a \"boiler room\" brokerage. The disapproval of his father, a federal judge, only pushes Seth Davis, played by Giovanni Ribisi (right), deeper into the underbelly of investment scams like \"pump and dump\": Setting artificially high prices on stocks that are then sold at a profit by investors who are in on the scheme. But even Davis, who previously ran an illegal casino, has limits, and eventually wants out of the business. So he teams up with the FBI to take down the sham firm but only saves one investor, who couldn’t afford to be scammed, while casting out the “whales,” wealthy clients.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'The Firm'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-thefirm.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Paramount Pictures", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'The Firm'
Released: 1993
Director: Sydney Pollack
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn.
Quote: \"I won my life back. You don't run me, and they don't run me.\" (Mitch McDeere)
Synopsis: Mitch McDeere moves with his wife, Abby, to Memphis, Tenn., so the young lawyer, played by Tom Cruise (right), can join a prestigious law firm. He sees no harm in accepting money and gifts from \"The Firm,\" but is otherwise a straight arrow. When two associates turn up dead and the FBI confronts him about the law firm's mob connection, McDeere realizes his law license and his life are on the line. After cheating on his wife on a business trip, McDeere later confesses his adultery and the firm’s tie to the mafia to Abby. He decides to go after “The Firm” alone, exposing its overbilling sham – and making the mob furious at the law firm. McDeere escapes Memphis with his license and marriage intact, but barely.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-enron.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Magnolia Pictures", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room'
Released: 2005
Director: Alex Gibney
Stars: Andrew Fastow, Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay, Peter Coyote, Gray Davis.
Quote: \"I would like to know if you are on crack ... If so, that would explain a lot. If not, you may want to start because it's going to be a long time before we trust you again.” (Kenneth Lay)
Synopsis: Based on a best-selling book by Fortune magazine reporters, this documentary focuses on the players in one of America's biggest business scandals. The film shows how Enron Corp.'s former CEO Jeff Skilling established a Darwinian culture among his employees. Kenneth Lay, the last CEO, is seen proclaiming ignorance about the schemes that brought down the country’s seventh-largest company, which he founded. Tape recordings reveal that Enron employees triggered blackouts across California after purposefully shipping energy out of the state to boost electricity prices – thereby scoring huge profits. Also shown: The average workers and investors who trusted the Houston-based energy company and lost their life savings.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Rogue Trader'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-rogue.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Cinemax", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Rogue Trader'
Released: 1999
Director: James Dearden
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel.
Quote: \"I, Nicholas Leeson, have just lost 50 million quid, in one day!\"
Synopsis: This drama is based on the true story of Nick Leeson, who wrote a book by the same title, and how his reckless trading led to the 1995 meltdown of Barings Bank. Ewan McGregor (pictured) plays Leeson, who first trades for the bank in Indonesia, where he meets his wife. Barings taps the promising employee for a job in Singapore, where he rises to become a key trader on the floor of the Singapore monetary exchange. Little does the bank know that Leeson, who appears to be winning big, is concealing even bigger losses, breaking trading rules along the way. Barings trusts Leeson with more money, which the trader tries to turn into gains, but his losses just snowball. His wife’s miscarriage triggers Leeson to take even greater risks with investors' money – ultimately forcing Barings to declare bankruptcy.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Barbarians at the Gate'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-barbarians.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "HBO", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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'Barbarians at the Gate'
Released: 1993
Director: Glenn Jordan
Stars: James Garner, Jonathan Pryce, Peter Riegert, Joanna Cassidy, Fred Dalton Thompson.
Quote: \"“Every penny you think I'm pissing away here, comes back to us dressed up like a nickel.”(F. Ross Johnson)
Synopsis: Based on the book “Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco” by reporters of The Wall Street Journal, this HBO movie tells the true story of an attempt by RJR Nabisco CEO F. Ross Johnson to take over his own company. Johnson, played by James Garner (pictured), doesn’t want to face his stockholders when a smokeless cigarette product flops. His solution: A leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. That way, nobody can hold Johnson accountable. But buyout king Henry Kravis (Jonathan Pryce) also has eyes for the company. That sets off a bidding war, which Johnson ultimately loses - and the inflated buyout price creates a swelling debt for RJR Nabisco.";
bizmeltdownmovies[i++] = new Array("","'Michael Clayton'","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/080924-biz-brill-michael-clayton.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Warner Bros.", "273", "366", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
bizmeltdownmovies[i-1].body = "
'Michael Clayton'
Released: 2007
Director: Tony Gilroy
Stars: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack.
Quote: \"I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy!\" (Michael Clayton)
Synopsis: George Clooney (pictured) plays a \"fixer\": A lawyer who cleans up dirty messes made by corporate clients. When an old friend at his law firm suffers a mental breakdown while working on an important case, Michael Clayton is called upon to \"fix\" the problem. But he soon realizes this isn’t any ordinary problem: Clayton’s car is blown up, after he spontaneously gets out to look at horses. His old friend, once a highly esteemed lawyer, loses his mind, stripping naked during a deposition – and later ends his life. His friend's death sparks Clayton's curiosity in the case: He uncovers a massive corporate scandal at U-North, the corporate client, and eventually confronts the company's general counsel, who tries to buy his silence for $10 million. He declines. After patching his relationship with his brother, a police detective, he agrees to record the conversation so authorities hear everything.";
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