The Big Short (film)
The Big Short is a 2015 American biographical comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Adam McKay. It is based on the non-fiction 2010 book of the same name by Michael Lewis about the financial crisis of 2007–2008, which was triggered by the build-up of the housing market and the credit bubble. The film stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film began a limited release in the US on December 11, 2015, followed by a wide release on December 23, 2015.
The film is nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Bale, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Plot
In 2005, eccentric hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) discovers that the U.S. housing market is extremely unstable, being based on subprime loans that are high risk and providing fewer and fewer returns. Predicting that the market will collapse sometime in the second quarter of 2007, he realizes that he can profit from this situation by creating a credit default swap market, allowing him to bet against the housing market; he visits numerous banks with this idea, and the banks, believing that the housing market is secure, accept his proposal. This earns the ire of Burry's clients who believe that he is wasting their money and demand that he stop his activities, but he refuses. As the predicted time of the collapse approaches, his investors lose their confidence and consider pulling their money out, but Burry puts a moratorium on withdrawals, much to his investors' anger. However, the market collapses just as he predicted and he produces 489% profits from the plan.