Margin call eric dale returns

Rocha, Grande, Greenland 1

Michael Rocha, Dybra Grande, Jeremy Greenland

Professor Watnik

Management 306

March 19,2013

Margin Call

Margin Call depicts a dramatization of a financial firm's crisis as events start to unfold

during a thirty-six hour window. The fiIm was brilliantly written in a way to not disagree nor

agree with the financial firms or employees' actions, but to leave it up to the viewers as to what

their opinion was. The movie begins when Peter, a Senior Risk Analyst, discovers that his

company is going to go underwater when his former boss, Eric, hands him a flash drive and tells

him to be careful. After working for several hours and figuring out that the formula they base

trades off of is bad, Peter tries to get ahold of Eric with no luck. He then calls his friend, Seth,

who is having drinks with Will, who is Head of Trading, and urgently states they should return to

the office. After showing Will, word travels quickly to the Chief Executive Officer, Tuld, who

calls a board meeting at 3 A.M. After hours of discussion, it is decided that the company will sell

off all the mortgages at a discount, eventually to little value, to survive and sink their

competitors. Although some characters are conflicted about what to do, in the end they decide to

help the company and make the sales. Once the sale is completed, the company tries to save their

reputation by stating they were not warned or given enough information to prevent this type of

event from happening, which leads to the dismissal of Sarah Robertson.

Peter Sullivan is a physicist who switched careers to eam a lucrative salary as a Senior

Risk Analyst. Peter, who figures out what Eric was trying to finish before he was fired,

discovered the company will crash and bum unless they took quick action with the fire sale.

Peter's motivation and world view is not as straight forward as some of the other characters' are,

but are easily contrasted against his friend's, Seth. Although they have both seemingly worked

for the company for the same amount of time, Peter is both smarter and older. As Seth is worried

about what he will do if he is fired, Peter is more concerned about the bigger picture: if the fire

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sale is executed and what its implications are for society. For example, Peter was motivated to

look through the flash drive handed to him, and wamed his bosses about what was going to

happen, not to save himself, but to help the company. This falls in line with his worldview of a

general concern for his peers and country. Although Peter's options are not explicitly clear, he

does have a few to which he can take. His choices included either, taking the information he

learned to his bosses and warning them of the coming catastrophe or taking the information to

the media or a rival firm for an exchange of a massive sum of money.

Seth is the youngest employee of the group and is included into the situation when Peter

calls him to help look for his boss. He is a Junior Risk Analyst, who is more concemed with the

amount of money he makes and whether or not he is getting fired. This is evident several times

throughout the movie. For example, he asks his friend, Peter, how much he thinks his bosses

make each year. Additionally, he asks several times whether they think he will be fired once the

fire sale ends the following day. Although Seth does not make any critical decisions, his world

view is evident with his actions throughout the movie. For example, his selfishness is noted

when he tells peter to come down from the office and have a few celebratory drinks, instead of

working to find out why Eric told Peter to oobe careful." Additionally, I believe Seth would have

chosen to do what was more beneficial to help his own bank account, rather than having a

concem for his company or societY.

Jared Cohen, the Investment Division Head, is the individual who comes up with the idea

of ,,selling it all." Simon's world view is evident when he implants the idea of selling their

product to save their own skin. Furtherrnore, it is shown during the scene when he is shaving and

Seth comes out of the bathroom stall crying, Seth states "this is all I wanted to do;" and Jared

replies back with an uninterested look and response of "really." Additionally, during the scene

with Jared and Sarah in the elevator, Sarah is trying to create a strategy with Jared to deal with

Tuld. However, Jared replies o'I'm not sure we need one, that's not the way I do things." His

response states that he does not care if Sarah is thrown under the bus in regards to who gets to

keep their job. Furthermore, Jared knew that there might have been a problem for about ayear

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yet failed to act on it. This shows that he does not care what happens to his work industry or

reputation, only that he wants more money in his pocket and job security. Jared's options could

have impacted society if he decided not to sell. He could have come up with a different idea

which would have not created the start of an economic recession. For example, Jared could have

gone with what Sam had mentioned: the ethical route. Additionally, Jared could have prevented

this entire catastrophe if he had actually listened to Sarah and caught the problem the year prior

when he was first told, rather than letting it grow into what it did in the movie.

Sam Rogers, the Investment Floor Head played by Kevin Spacey, is my favorite

character for a very specific reason. You're first introduced to him after he's been informed that

the firings for the day are finally over with. He goes out to give them an inspirational speech,

calling them "survivors". In my opinion, he comes off as somewhat callous; almost as if he's

insensitive to the situation. You're left wondering if he truly cares for his employees, but over

the course of the movie you see that he doesl even when he's shown to be numb towards certain

situations. The reason for him being my favorite character is the juxtaposition between his work

persona and his personal life. Throughout the movie we're given glimpses of his personal life.

You find out his dog is dying and that he's going through a divorce. It personalizes him; makes

him more than a faceless corporate stooge. Eventually you realize that he is in fact the conscious

of the movie. He points out the unethical decisions being made and tries to offer a moral

viewpoint on the situation by asking Mr. Tuld, o'Yes, but at what cost?" in regards to selling off

the mortgage backed securities. Towards the end of the movie,I see him as a reflection of the

average good person. He wants to be above that kind ofjob and doesn't want to be influenced to

make unethical decisions; but the realities of his life, paying bills, paying alimony, etc, bring him

back to reality. As he tells Mr. Tuld, near the end of the movier "believe it or not, I need the

monej", Sam wants out but the stresses of real life pull him back in'

My analysis of Sam segues nicely into Will Emerson, Head of Trading and played by

Paul Bettany. Will is, in a lot of ways, Sam's disciple, with maybe a smidge more indifference

towards the average worker. I believe Will has very nicely rationalized what people might