A large number of people are fascinated with the financial world owing to characteristics such as high risks and volatility, complex operations and incredible stories portrayed in movies.
These best free finance movies which take a look into the core of finance are all about the tales behind the figures. It also stages a mix of learning and entertainment and conveys messages of virtues and vices, integrity and corruption, the consequences of greed and the effects of a decision made in the financial world.
Introduction to Finance in Cinema
films provide the necessary popular approach to revealing the intricacies and general features of the financial reality today. Personal dramatic situations and specific cases, using tools such as plot, characters, and increasing tension, are depicted by finance movies providing an understanding of this field and the ethical issues it raises.
They give one an inside view of financial houses, stock exchange and the world economy hence they can be considered as useful tools for perusing the effects of decisions made in the financial realm on the individual and society.
How Films Can Help With Financial Literacy
Fortunately, personal finance education has become more prevalent in today’s schools than it was in the past. Knowledge about all the functions of finance it is possible to mention, including investing, the stock exchange, and the causes and effects of financial crises puts people in a position where they can make choices that impact their lives for the better.
It means that although the films are rather dramatised, they can generate interest in the respective topics and make people watch other films and TV shows about finances to grasp the role of the financial systems that are at play in their day-to-day lives.
The Top 10 Finance Movies Ranked by IMDb Ratings
Here are SurfEden’s handpicked top 10 finance movies, ranked from 10 to 1 based on their IMDb ratings, with extended plot summaries to give you a taste of their narrative depth and thematic richness.
10. Boiler Room (2000)
IMDb Rating: 7.0/10
In “Boiler Room,” Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), a college dropout, finds a clerk’s job in a small brokerage firm where he buys and sells blue stockings and other illegitimate shares through a system that involves suborning of target customers. Finally, the film illustrates how the boiler room operates and the unethical practices that the employees employ, and Seth has to make some decisions concerning the law and the wholesomeness of the actions. It is an allegory of the dangerous and entailing path of quick money and the vices of materialism.
9. Margin Call (2011)
IMDb Rating: 7.1/10
“Margin Call” is an interesting movie that tells the story of various events that took place in a large investment bank, a Wall Street one to be precise during the period preceding the collapse of the financial market in 2008. The movie fast forwards to a young analyst portrayed by Zachary Quinto, who discovers a major weakness in the firm’s risk management model. This signifies that the company is on the edge of a major financial disaster based on its high-risk investment positions in toxic mortgage-backed securities.
Once the severity of the issue is revealed, the key managerial characters witnessed earlier played by Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons are summoned for an urgent board of directors’ meeting. Inexperienced individuals must often determine the possible consequences of the situation and decide within hours. The movie brilliantly captures the day-to-day stress and risk that these leaders are willing to take or face when choosing between right and wrong economic options.
Kevin Spacey can be seen as the conflicted leader of the sales division; Greig Fraser as the businessman who must weigh his company’s well-being against potentially catastrophic consequences on the economy. Scotts Harrison plays extremely well as another corporate beast, a classic CEO who cares very little about employees and the environment and only seeks to remain at the helm of his company. Other major actors also featured in this movie are Paul Bettany, Demi Moore Stanley Tucci among others, all of whom contribute to the creation of a picture of a firm in turmoil.
”Margin Call” addresses some of the issues recurrent in contemporary cinema and in the world as well; money greed, morality, and people’s prices all of which are illustrated in the film. But, it also gives an unvarnished view of how the financial system works at the executive level and how far people can go to safeguard their own and their organization’s interests. The ambience and the live performances along with well-written dialogues make the audiences sit on the edge of their seat and present a gripping view into the events and circumstances that led to one of the severest economic crises in history.
8. Too Big to Fail (2011)
IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
This HBO film entertainingly portrays the build-up to the catastrophe of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 with the key character of U. S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson played by William Hurt and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke played by Paul Giamatti.
In “Too Big to Fail,” Charles Prince provides an interesting insight into the government and Wall Street huge firms’ discussions and actions during one of the most disastrous situations in the world’s financial history, where ethics, finance and politics are constraints when the world is heading towards a great calamity.
7. Wall Street (1987)
IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
‘Wall Street’ can be described as an important portrayal of the theme of greed and power corruption in the world of finance. Bud Fox is an upcoming stock broker who is given a mentor in Gordon Gekko, a corporate raider with little regard for the company and its people.
The line from the movie ‘ greedy is good’ represents the complicated nature of the business realm of the 1980s. Finally, the question of ethical norms for business and the definition of the meaning of life begins to interest Bud, ascending to new positions.
6. Trading Places (1983)
IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
Being the comedy, ‘Trading Places,’ depicts the roles of the two main characters as it concerns the change of their status in the financial environment due to the switch of their role.
A manipulative tantric who subjects Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) a wealthy commodity broker, on a bet by two millionaires, swaps the soul of Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) a con artist.
The film also is great for the mockery of the society, revealing the unfairness of such division into the rich and the poor, and also for understanding of the work of the stock exchange and repurchase of the shares of the commodity producers.
5. American Psycho (2000)
IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis and filmed in the context of Wall Street of the eighties, the main character of “American Psycho” is Patrick Bateman, a successful yuppie-man who is secretly a murderous psychopath.
They capture the materialism that characterizes the corporate world and where people gather; nothing but pretence and questionable ethics lurk.
The show in this regard illustrates the degenerate state that Bateman gets into due to society’s obsession with power and money.
4. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
This Documentary takes a look at the case of one of the largest conglomerates in the United States of America that went bankrupt due to fraud and deception.
Through interviews, archival footage, and analysis, “Enron: The book “The Smartest Guys in the Room” looks at the lying and the manipulation which contributed to one of the biggest corporate frauds in history. It is one of the most interesting works that shows all the features of excessive egoism, avarice and negligence of the supervisors.
3. The Big Short (2015)
IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
‘The Big Short’ is a movie about a Wall Street outside looking in and a group of shareholders who saw the irregularities in the American Mortgage market and decided to invest against it before the crisis of 2007/2008.
Drawing on real life and real characters, the movie employs humour with a hint of serious acting to interpret the jargon of such Mayan financial tools as the CDO to evoke the reason behind the catastrophe. The program provides a good deal of serious information on the financial system as well as the personalities who have forecast the disaster even when it was not even foreseen by others.
2. Inside Job (2010)
IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
It is an extensive documentary that avails itself exclusively to understand why the financial crisis of 2008 occurred. In this documentary the audience is exposed to the information, interviews with influential people from the sphere of finance and politics, academic approach, emotion and the process of investigation in order to observe the specific examples of how the corruption, free-for-all approach and unethical behaviour in the sphere of finance led to the critical consequences on the international level.
It is quite informative and sheds light on the selfishness and sheer folly that led to one of the world’s most catastrophic economic meltdowns.
1. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
First on our list is “The Wolf of Wall Street,” of excess and greed; the true story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) a stockbroker who gets involved in fraudulent practices.
The film directed by Martin Scorsese is a vivid story filled with energy and reckless actions of the main characters, showing the audience the disastrous results of greed in the context of the finance sector in the 1990s. This is an Aesopic fable regarding the influence absolute power has over those in its grip, as well as about the lack of moral compass in many of the elite who surround themselves with luxuries.
Why These Movies Matter
These finance movies are not only entertaining but more importantly they are thought-provoking and help societies, organizations, and individuals to view the finance and monetary systems from certain perspectives by defining the values and ethics to be followed in the respective organizations and societies.
Thus, these movies raise awareness in viewers about the multiple aspects and issues that are connected with finances, about the necessity of an ethical and honest attitude to wealth and earnings.
Among the 10 finance movies with the highest rating provided by IMDb the spectrum of the possibilities of presenting the financial field is very broad – from spectacular action and bitter irony to the elaborate documentary study.
Interestingly, all the films act as a mirror to show that with the help of the cinema, one can try to shed light on the human aspect of many phenomena, including the world of finance which may often seem quite chaotic and enigmatic.
These films are equally valuable for actual financial specialists, students of the faculty of finance, and ordinary movie-goers who want to have a few hours of entertainment while learning about people’s relationships with money and power and thinking about the meaning of ethical work in the field of finance.
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