We see Bud at his apartment at night, having just slept with a woman. Carl notices that Bud has a mischievous smile on his face, the same one he used to have as a kid when he was sleeping. Carl, a foreman at a failing airline, Bluestar Airlines, tells Bud about the fact that the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) recently cleared Bluestar's record for a major accident. There is no nobility in poverty anymore."īud asks his father for $300, then asks him how work is going. When his father presses him about why he doesn't move home if he wants to save some money, Bud insists, "I gotta live in Manhattan if I want to be a top player, Dad. "50K does not get you to first base in the Big Apple, not anymore," says Bud, defensively. Carl scolds Bud for having made so much money in the stock market, but remaining unable to pay off his student loans. Bud tells his father that he had a bad day and is going to have to pay up, and Carl tells him he should never have gotten involved in the stock market and calls him a salesman, even though Bud insists that he's an account executive. He tells his father to stop smoking and Carl orders him a beer. Meanwhile, Gekko goes into his office with a group of men.īud visits a small dive bar at an airport and greets his father, Carl. We see his secretary on the phone with Bud, telling him that Gekko only deals with investment bankers, not traders.
Bud calls Gordon Gekko, a renowned businessman, and demands to speak with him. He then advises his friend that he has to be more ambitious and ruthless if he wants to ascend the corporate ladder. When Harry leaves, Marvin laughs at Bud, but hands him some money to help out. "I don't think you're being fair, sir," says Bud, "You assigned me to this guy, you know he has a history of this kind of bullshit." Harry manages to calm the caller down, and when he hangs up, threatens Bud that if the client doesn't pay him tomorrow, he will charge Bud. Marvin yells at someone on the phone, as Bud speaks in a tense whisper to one of his customers, before handing the phone over to a sales manager, Harry Lynch. Bud speaks to a caller about "the extraordinary opportunities presently emerging in the international debt market," and the caller promptly hangs up.
A man makes announcements about the stock market over a loudspeaker, and as the clock hits 9:30, the market opens.Ī supertitle tells us it is 1985, and we see the stock market, as traders make high pressure phone calls in the office. "I came here one day, I sat down, and look at me now," Dan says.īud greets some more coworkers, telling one of them that he has a feeling they're "going to make a killing today." An older man, Lou, comes in and complains about the economy, that it's all gone downhill since "we let Nixon get off the gold standard." He tells Bud and another stockbroker, Marvin, to check out a new drug company, advising them that it will have success in the stock market.
He greets the secretary, then goes down the hall and greets an older man named Dan, who warns him to get out of the business while he can. Bud Fox, a young stockbroker, arrives at work, and rides a crowded elevator up to his floor. We see throngs of people arriving to work on Wall Street, the financial capital of the United States. The film opens in the early morning in New York City as Frank Sinatra's version of "Fly Me to the Moon" plays.