Boiler Room (2000) on Netflix
Seth Davis runs an illegal casino from his apartment, to his father's disapproval. Greg Weinstein recruits him to J. T. Marlin, a brokerage firm just off the Long Island Expressway.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.0/1060,892 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes66%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1999, Seth Davis runs a casino out of his apartment for college students, and his father, federal judge Marty Davis, counts it as one more disappointment after Seth dropped out of Queens College. His cousin Adam introduces him to Greg Weinstein, who recruits Seth to J. T. Marlin, a brokerage firm just off the Long Island Expressway, with a promise of wealth. Co-founder Jim Young opens the group interview by laying out the work and the route to a million dollars in three years. Trainees cold call investors to sell stock, needing forty accounts closed and a passed Series 7 exam before they work independently, and the firm stages parties featuring women, gambling, drugs and alcohol to keep its brokers selling. Seth closes the accounts and starts courting Abbie Halpert, the secretary and Greg's former girlfriend.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Boiler Room (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ben Younger conceived the film when he interviewed for a job at the brokerage firm Sterling Foster: "I walked in and immediately realized, 'This is my movie.' I mean, you see these kids and know something is going on."
SPOILER
An alternate ending was shot in which Harry Reynard retrieves a gun from his garage after his family leaves him and pulls into the J.T. Marlin parking lot with it in a briefcase, instead of the FBI arriving.- Jordan Belfort, a former stockbroker and financial criminal who would write The Wolf of Wall Street, claimed that the movie was also loosely based on his rise and fall.
- Before writing the script, Younger spent two years interviewing stockbrokers at boiler rooms, where callers aggressively peddle often fraudulent investments to consumers.
- Artisan Entertainment initially backed the production and helped bring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel and Ben Affleck to the project, but later backed out, and New Line Cinema stepped in for distribution.
