Our group ascends 75 stories up an elevator tucked away in a lavish lobby, views of a skyline stretch out in front of me. It is hard to believe that only five minutes ago the students in our finance club had arrived from Cornell and were standing on the streets of New York City. As we rise above Central Park, we wear the uniform of investment bankers - black suits, black belts, dress shoes. I find myself in awe of the beautiful offices. Entering the lobby, the glamor and glitz of Wall Street are apparent to those of us who have not yet entered the workforce. But I am reminded of a time when all of this high above the streets of New York almost toppled to the ground. The whole experience makes me feel like I have walked onto the set of one of my favorite movies, The Big Short.

In an office much like the one above Central Park, Adam McKay, the director of The Big Short brings his film to the FrontPoint Partners office in New York City. Jared Vannet, dressed in a clean suit and oozing swagger, pulls a block from a Jenga tower as Mark Baum looks onward from his seat in a conference room, his investment team surrounding him. Vannet pulls another block and another and another and the tower topples. “And then that happens,” Vannet says to the investment team. Baum asks, “What is that?” to which Gosling replies “That's America's housing market.” The room goes silent. The faces of the investment team are contorted in disbelief after the demonstration.

In the film, The Big Short, Gosling's pitch is all about a group of underdogs, going against the grain, facing off with the United States Government, the housing market, and most importantly Wall Street. With a star-studded cast filled with the likes of Steve Carrell, playing Mark Baum, Ryan Gosling as Jared Vannet, Christian Bale as Michael Burry, and Brad Pitt playing Ben Rickert, the movie does not disappoint from an acting perspective. Based on the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine written by Michael Lewis, Adam McKay’s adaptation of The Big Short follows three investing teams who reaped immense profits by exposing deceit and greed in the unchecked banking system. In the movie, McKay effectively delves into the complexities of the financial world and unrestrained capitalism through a combination of dark comedy and critique. With distinct characters and a standout narrative style combined with strong underlying themes, he brings this drama-comedy to special heights. His ability to explain and educate the average viewer on the complex systems that led to the downfall of the world economy entertainingly and enjoyably is part of what makes this movie so unique.

It is a radical undertaking to explain the Great Recession in a 2-hour and 10-minute movie, but McKay does it. Using a compelling and motley group of outsiders to tell the story of the winners and losers in the 2007 financial crisis, he skillfully works with each character's personality. With the Great Recession unfolding at the center of each investor's world we see their personalities illuminated with their short positions, industry pressure, and moral reasoning. We begin with the first storyline following Dr. Michael Burry, who in 2005 deduced the downfall of the subprime loan-based housing market. Burry did this through an analysis of the mortgage bond market. Upon identifying so-called “reputable” bonds backed with loans that would eventually default, Burry created his own investment vehicle to counter the biggest banks on Wall Street. Investing $1.3 billion against the US housing market at his firm Scion Capital, Christian Bale’s performance represents the perfect illustration of the genius of Burry, showing his unwavering focus and mannerisms in a high-pressure environment. Burry was a man ahead of his time and was met with ridicule from investors and colleagues alike. His social awkwardness and dress are not like your typical Wall Street banker. Bale is seen wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and no shoes in the office all while having quirky interactions with employees. In multiple scenes we see his character mashing drums to blow off steam. The instrument represents a critical stress reliever for Burry. The strong performance demonstrated the impact he had on the audience as it garnered Bale an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Another one of the main narrators of the film, Jared Vannet is based on Greg Lippman, the then global head of asset-backed securities trading at Deutsche Bank. Vannet’s character is always looking for opportunity and he smells “money” after getting wind of Burry’s investment. Vannet is extremely confident and full of self-interest. Kicking into action he buys Burry’s short position until realizing he could make more money himself if he advertises Burry’s investment as his own. Cue the scene of the falling Jenga tower leading to his successful pitch to Mark Baum, real-life hedge fund manager Steve Eisman. A dynamic between both investment teams develops with Baum being attracted to the investment because he has an “amazing nose for bullsh*t.” Baum founded FrontPoint Partners based on his belief that big banks were corrupt, lazy, and did not have their client’s best interests at heart. Baum, however, is also manic, and intense and has unresolved anger after the loss of his brother. He serves as the moral compass for the movie realizing that his newfound opportunity for success will negatively affect millions of lives. This opportunity is solidified when FrontPoint invests $50 million with Vannet while he is doing pull-ups in the gym. Hilariously, after getting off the phone with FrontPoint Vannet high-fives each person running on a treadmill as he exclaims with childlike joy.

The final investor presented in the movie is Ben Ricket who assists in running the Brownfield Fund. Based on the Cornwall Firm in real life, Rickert is a retired banker and now doomsday enthusiast helping young investors Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley make trades after they also discover Burry's short trade. Brad Pitt shows his versatility as an actor with each scene, displaying his understated intensity combined with the enigmatic mystique of a man wrestling with making money from the downfall of American homeowners. Although the storylines never all merge, McKay wonderfully fills his cast with gifted actors who brilliantly expose the flaws in our financial system. Each character faces backlash in their efforts to go against conventional wisdom, with the financial industry insisting they are dead wrong. McKay portrays these characters as underdogs and visionaries which adds to the entertainment value of the film. Emotionally charged perspectives weigh the moral grounds of their investments as each short position believes the whole world is “asleep at the wheel.” Viewers are consistently engaged by watching the incompetence and ignorance displayed on all levels of the financial world that our protagonists deal with. The eventual housing bubble burst leads to the teams’ investment success but carries global consequences.

So what caused the Great Recession? A great cast is a strong first step toward making the movie entertaining, but with one of the movie's central themes being financial complexity, there has to be some way of explaining what caused the world to go up in flames. The truth is it is very complicated. It would even seem too complicated to explain in a movie and at the same time entertain an audience. Nevertheless, McKay does a superb job of incorporating a digestible narrative style through his use of cameos and breaking the fourth wall. The movie's often incomprehensible financial instruments are untangled by the likes of Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez, and Vannet himself in an almost satirical way. Filmed early in the movie Robbie can be seen sipping champagne in a bubble bath. She calmly lays out how banks became greedy and began putting subprime mortgages, known for their low credit scores and higher default risk, into mortgage bonds which were rated as safe investments. This initial subprime problem is compounded when later in the movie the fourth wall is broken by Gosling. He introduces the audience to Bourdain to explain the concept of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs). Bourdain draws comparisons to how CDOs are like a fish stew. Created from bad fish no one eats one day, mortgage bonds that do not sell, he throws them into the stew and resells it as a new dish. This is the big banks repackaging the bad bonds Robbie mentioned instead as CDOs which are then stamped with approval and thus seen as respectable investment options. These explanations are just bits and pieces of what led to the Great Recession as Vannet echoes a resounding sentiment, “Wall Street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do.” The truth was that those on Wall Street did not exactly know what they were doing. By using narrators in funny situations to talk directly to the audience and cultural icons breaking down these complexities, the viewer stays engaged while receiving a little education and is interested in learning more about the root causes of the Great Recession.

The Big Short also tackles the theme of greed and corruption distinctively and powerfully. Many experts turned blind eyes from an oversight perspective regarding the actions of Wall Street, rating agencies, and bad actors. The creation of faulty instruments led to bigger paydays for any party wanting a piece of the housing market. The movie gives a strong visual and narrative image when before investing with Vannet, Baum’s team visits Florida to investigate the pitch further. On the trip, FrontPoint and the audience come face to face with the reality of a housing bubble: newly built houses are vacant, real estate agents are shelling out houses like a game of hot potato, and mortgage underwriters reap hefty commissions underwriting “ninja” loans, “no income, no job” loans. Their visit shows the disconnect between the real world and Wall Street, as we see the truth of a system that has little regulation combined with individuals looking to make money through improperly regulated practices. The Big Short illustrates that without regulation and in the face of greed and corruption the “American dream,” is over-realized.

Not only were the lower barriers to the housing industry acting in bad faith but when the housing market started to turn for the worst, FrontPoint and Brownfield visited Las Vegas for the American Securitization Forum. Here, they met the greedy bankers who continued to advertise the corrupt financial instruments Robbie and Bourdain mention. McKay takes the viewer on an immersive journey to see these bad players at work. Baum meets with a CDO manager at Harding Advisors and throughout a sushi dinner learns that he is selecting the bonds to go into CDOs. The manager is paid off by different banks to put their bad bonds into the CDOs. He sells them so that both he and the banks can make extra profits, further feeding into the corruption scandal. To Baum’s disgust, he leaves the dinner after the manager asks to compare net worths. Brownfield also has a similar meeting with traders who bring the hedge fund to a gun range. After trying to ask questions about the faulty bonds, the trader replies that they were only brought out so that they register the ammo used as a business expense. This is when the audience begins to see the real-life shady architects of the recession. Leaving Vegas both teams expanded their short positions against the housing market.

It is not until we see the true effects of The Great Recession at the end of the movie that the final theme of human cost emerges. Having been too young to fully experience it myself, I still felt emotional seeing b-roll footage reveal the devastating losses of houses and jobs and increases in homelessness as the Recession set in. There is a stark dichotomy between the investors in The Big Short receiving the profits of their investments and seeing the total wipeout of families’ assets leading some into poverty. The investors should not feel at fault after being mocked for their investment and instead should carry pride for being correct in their bet against faulty institutions. However, one also feels sympathy for the average person who got swept up in “herd mentality,” a common investor saying relating to the tendency of individuals to follow a group without doing proper research and analysis. But, this is why The Big Short is so successful, making you see these two experiences play out in front of you. Feeling joy for the guys who saw the bubble when no one listened, but also the realization of the Recession and its far-reaching effects on everyone's life. In the end, it is Carrel’s character who refuses to sell because he knows the banks are going to get bailed out. Baum feels like Wall Street will never bear the consequences and his predictions prove quite accurate. None of the big bankers faced any jail time and instead accepted a safety net from the federal government. The movie threads a very difficult needle, leaving the audience entertained but also upset at the real-life injustices. In the aftermath, the poverty rate reached 15% in 2010 with American households losing $16 trillion in net worth. Everyone was affected but not everyone paid the same price.

The Big Short perfectly depicts why Wall Street is not thought of positively in the eyes of the public. Bankers are not firefighters or humanitarian aid workers. They are getting paid tons of money to work in glamorous buildings above the rest of the world. As I reckon with my passions in finance I am trying to see a world outside of banking and its impact on our country and the world. Watching The Big Short made me realize that there are real consequences to what Wall Street does. Increasingly I have shifted my passion to venture capital, a space where investors are seen helping the entrepreneurs of America realize their dreams. With our country being built on the contributions of ordinary individuals and their inventions, venture capital focuses on strong analysis of investments through due diligence. Similar to the work of Dr. Burry, venture capitalists are digging to find opportunities that do not pull out blocks from under the Jenga tower, but instead build it up from the first block into a strong and steady company ready to serve America.