Directed by Oliver Stone • 1987 • United States
Starring Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen
The ultimate portrait of ’80s corporate excess, Oliver Stone’s hard-hitting, brilliantly entertaining look at the moral emptiness behind the era’s “greed is good” mentality features an iconically sleazy performance from an Academy Award–winning Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, a ruthless Wall Street power player whose high-rolling lifestyle makes him an idol to Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), an ambitious up-and-coming broker from a working-class background. Desperate to win Gekko’s approval, Fox engages him in a shady insider trading deal—selling his soul in a Faustian bargain that will have shattering personal consequences.
Up Next in Corporate Thriller
-
The Firm
Directed by Sydney Pollack • 1993 • United States
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Hal HolbrookThe first of what would become a virtual microgenre unto itself—the John Grisham adaptation—remains one of the best legal thrillers of the 1990s thanks to the intelligent direction of veteran ...
-
Disclosure
Directed by Barry Levinson • 1994 • United States
Starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald SutherlandA best-selling novel by Michael Crichton provides the basis for this heated thriller about sexual politics in a high-tech corporation. After Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas), a married executiv...
-
Primal Fear
Directed by Gregory Hoblit • 1996 • United States
Starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward NortonA high-profile slaying becomes the case of an ambitious attorney’s career in this smash-hit legal thriller boasting shocking twists and compelling performances from Richard Gere and an Academy Aw...