Wall Street

Marv:
Very nice. So what is it, *Mr.* Cocksucker now?

Gordon Gekko:
Lunch is for wimps.

Bud Fox:
I'm tapped out Marv. American Express' got a hit man lookin' for me.

Gordon Gekko:
When I get a hold of the son of a b*tch who leaked this, I'm gonna tear his eyeballs out and I'm gonna suck his f***ing skull.

Carl Fox:
Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

Gordon Gekko:
The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.

Gordon Gekko:
You're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.

Bud Fox:
How much is enough?

Gordon Gekko:
It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

Gordon Gekko:
Mixed emotions, buddy. Like Larry Wildman going off a cliff in my new Maserati.

Bud Fox:
Sun-tzu: If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight, and if not split and reevaluate.

Lou Mannheim:
Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.

Lou:
The main thing about money, Bud, is that it makes you do things you don't want to do.

Bud Fox:
If you step out that door, I'm changing the locks.

Bud Fox:
Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.

Gordon Gekko:
What's worth doing is worth doing for money.

Gordon Gekko:
I'm gonna make you rich, Bud Fox.

Gordon Gekko:
I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.

Gordon Gekko:
I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought.

Gordon Gekko:
If you need a friend, get a dog.

Gordon Gekko:
The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of it's forms - greed for life, for money, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you.

Gordon Gekko:
The most valuable commodity I know of is information.

Gordon Gekko:
Greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Gordon Gekko:
I look at a hundred deals a day. I pick one.

Gordon Gekko:
You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. It was better than sex. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it's a day's pay.

Bud Fox:
Why do you need to wreck this company?

Gordon Gekko:
Because it's wreckable, all right?

Gordon Gekko:
Ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? 'Cause they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered.

Bud Fox:
This is really a nice club, Mr. Gekko.

Gordon Gekko:
Yeah, not bad for a City College boy. I bought my way in, now all these Ivy league schmucks are sucking my kneecaps.

Gordon Gekko:
Hiya, Buddy

Gordon Gekko:
Sand bagged me on Bluestar huh? Thought you could teach the teacher a lesson that the tail can wag the dog huh? Well let me clue you in, pal. The ice is melting right underneath your feet. Did you think you could've gotten this far this fast with anyone else, huh? That you'd be out there dicking someone like Darien? Naw... you'd still be cold calling widows and dentists tryin' to sell 'em 20 shares of some dog sh*t stock. I took you in... a NOBODY. I opened the doors for you... showed you how the system works... the value of information... how to get it. Fulham oil, Brant resources, geodynamics and this is how you f***ing pay me back you cockroach. I gave you Darien. I gave you your manhood I gave you everything. You could've been one of the great ones buddy. I look at you and see myself... WHY?

Bud Fox:
I don't know. I guest I realized that I'm just Bud Fox... and as much as I wanted to be Gordon Gekko, I'll always be Bud Fox.

Carl Fox:
I don't go to bed with no whore, and I don't wake up with no whore. That's how I live with myself. What about you?

Gordon Gekko:
Well you take it, right in the ass you scumbag cocksucker.

Gordon Gekko:
This is the kid, calls me 59 days in a row, wants to be a player. There ought to be a picture of you in the dictionary under persistence kid.

Gordon Gekko:
It's not always the most popular person who gets the job done.

Bud Fox:
Blue Horse Shoe Loves Anacot Steel.

Marv:
You've been a real schmuck lately. So go thou and send no more.

Gordon Gekko:
You stop sending me information, and you start getting me some.

Carl Fox:
Money's only something you need in case you don't die tomorrow...

Gordon Gekko:
It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

Carl Fox:
He's using you, kid. He's got your prick in his back pocket, but you're too blind to see it.

Bud Fox:
No. What I see is a jealous old machinist who can't stand the fact that his son has become more successful than he has!

Carl Fox:
What you see is a guy who never measured a man's success by the size of his WALLET!

Bud Fox:
That's because you never had the guts to go out into the world and stake your own claim!

Carl Fox:
Boy, if that's the way you feel, I must have done a really lousy job as a father.

Gekko:
Money never sleeps, pal. I just made $800,000 in Hong Kong gold. It's been wired to you – play with it. You done good, but you gotta keep doing good. I showed you how the game works, now school's out.

Bud:
Mr. Gekko, I'm there for you 110%.

Gekko:
No, no, no, no, you don't understand. I want to be surprised. Astonish me, pal, new info, don't care where or how you get it, just get it. My wife tells me you made a move on Darien. Here's some inside info for ya. That Euroflash GQ type she's going with? He's got big bucks, but he's putting her feet to sleep. Exit visas are imminent. I don't want you to lose your place in line. [gazing at the surf] Oh, jeez, I wish you could see this … the lights coming up. I've never seen a painting that captures the beauty of the ocean in a moment like this. I'm going to make you rich, Bud Fox, rich enough you can afford a girl like Darien. This is your wake up call, pal. Go to work.

Bud:
Lou, I got a sure thing. Anacott Steel.

Mannheim:
No such thing except death and taxes. No fundamentals, not a good company any more. What's going on, Bud? You know something? Remember there are no shortcuts, son. Quick buck artists come and go with every bull market, but the steady players make it through the bear market. You're a part of something here, Bud. The money you make for people creates science and research jobs. Don't sell that out.

Bud:
You're right, Lou, you're right. But you gotta make it to the big time first, then you can be a pillar and do good things.

Mannheim:
You can't get a little bit pregnant, son.

Bud:
Lou, trust me, it's a winner. Buy it.

Gekko:
The rarest pistol in the world, Larry. A .45 Luger. Only six of them were ever manufactured.

Wildman:
Congratulations. Rarer still is your interest in Anacott Steel.

Gekko:
My interest is the same as yours, Larry. Money. I thought it'd be a good investment for my kid.

Wildman:
No. This time, I'm in for the long term; it's not a liquidation. I'm going to turn it around. You're getting a free ride on my tail, mate. With the dollars you're costing me to buy back the stock, I could modernize the plant. I'm not the only one who pays here, Gordon. We're talking about lives and jobs, three and four generations of steelworkers.

Gekko:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you acquired CNX Electronics you laid off, what, 6000 workers? Jemson Fruit, 4000? That airline you bought …

Wildman:
I could break you, mate, in two pieces over my knees. You know it, I know it. I could buy you six times over. I could dump the stock just to burn your arse. But I happen to want the company, and I want your block of shares.

Gekko:
Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock. He owns less than one percent. You own the company. That's right - you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their, their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell:
This is an outrage! You're out of line Gekko!

Gekko:
Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book, you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pre-tax profit of 12 billion dollars. [applause] Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms: greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much. Note: The bolded portion is ranked #57 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

Bud:
You f***ing used me!

Gekko:
Well, you're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.

Bud:
But why do you need to wreck this company...

Gekko:
Because it's WRECKABLE, all right?! I took another look at it and I changed my mind.

Bud:
Tell me, Gordon, when does it all end, huh? How many yachts can you water-ski behind? How much is enough?

Gekko:
It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a Zero Sum game – somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred – from one perception to another. Like magic. This painting here? I bought it ten years ago for sixty thousand dollars. I could sell it today for six hundred. The illusion has become real, and the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest.

Bud:
How much is enough, Gordon?

Gekko:
The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons – and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now, you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, Buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around, pal, I've still got a lot to teach you.

Carl:
You told the truth and gave the money back. All things considered in this cockamamie world, you're shooting par.

Mrs. Fox:
You helped saved the airline, and the airline people are gonna remember you for it.

Carl:
That's right. If I were you, I'd think about the job at Bluestar that Wildman offered you.

Bud:
Dad, I'm going to jail and you know it.

Carl:
Yeah, well, maybe that's the price, son. It's gonna be hard on you, that's for sure. But maybe in some kind of screwed-up way, it's the best thing that could've happened to you. Stop going for the easy buck and produce something with your life. Create instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

Money never sleeps pal!

Lou Mannheim:
"That's the thing about money; it makes you do things you don't want to do."

Carl:
"There came into Egypt a pharoah who did not know."

Gekko:
That's nice. Is that a proverb?

Carl:
No, a prophecy.

Bud:
Look Marv, I know I've been a bit of a schmuck lately, and I just want to apologize.

Marv:
You've been a real schmuck lately. So, go thou and sin no more!

Bud:
I want to make it up to you.[types on Marv's computer] Bluestar. Put all your clients in it.

Marv:
...Okay, Buddy-Buddy. We're back in business on Bluestar!

Gordon Gekko:
Lunch? Aw, you gotta be kidding. Lunch is for wimps.

Gordon Gekko:
The public's out there throwing darts at a board, sport. I don't throw darts at a board – I bet on sure things.

Gordon Gekko:
[Pointing to a homeless man and a businessman standing on a street corner] You gonna tell me the difference between that guy and this guy is luck?

Gordon Gekko:
Ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? 'Cause they're sheep—and the sheep get slaughtered. I been in the business since '69. Most of these Harvard MBA types, they don't add up to dog sh*t. Gimme guys who are poor, smart and hungry. And no feelings. You win some, you lose some, but you keep on fighting . . . and if you need a friend, get a dog.

Gordon Gekko:
Wake up, will ya, pal? If you're not inside, you're outside, okay? And I'm not talking a $400,000 a year working Wall Street stiff flying first class and being comfortable, I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player, or nothing. Now, you had what it took to get into my office; the real question is whether you got what it takes to stay.

Bud Fox:
[As the market opens] We're off and running!

Bud Fox:
You know what's my dream? To someday be on the other end of that phone.

Bud Fox:
[After Gekko buys stock from him] WOO! I JUST BAGGED THE ELEPHANT, BABY!!

Bud Fox:
There's no nobility in poverty.

Bud Fox:
[Walks in to SEC agents waiting in his office] I guess you're not here to open an IRA...

Lou Mannheim:
Kid, you're on a roll. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it never does.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
I wanted to explore the new Wall Street. When I was writing Scarface in Miami, there was so much coke around and so many lunatics, and I met so many kids from Wall Street who were millionaires. I thought older men were rich, but here were these kids, 25 or 28 or 35 years old, with millions of dollars playing the markets all over the world around the clock. My father would have been shocked by the new electronics that allowed it…. Dad was a stockbroker on Wall Street when there was more integrity and class.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
Wall Street was an extension of Scarface.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
This is about getting into a corporation, screwing it up, putting in poison pills so your competitor can’t swallow it…. Very intricate game played in the 1980’s…. Mike Milken did it with junks bonds, Drexel Burnham.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
I’m ambivalent. I like Gekko, which is partly why Michael Douglas did so well…. Gekko is despicable but kinda fun too.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
Money never sleeps.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
It’s funny to read articles about Gordon Gekko as if he exists…. If you really listen to Gekko’s speech, half of it makes sense…. But it’s the excess, losing moderation, that destroys all…. There is nothing inherently wrong with greed as a human motivator, greed motivating evolution…. But there’s a huge disconnect between the classes. It is very demoralizing to work for someone who makes a billion dollars a year while you make just barely enough to make it.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
Greed is good. Taken from Ivan Boesky’s speech saying ‘Greed is right.’… Gekko says he wrecks it ‘because it is wreckable.’ There is an impulse in Gekko to take, to rape…. Kirk Kerkorian destroyed MGM and UA…. Buy both companies and destroy both. And that was the end of the movie business. UA and MGM were two great film companies. Suddenly they were one lousy company. Kerkorian did it for the money, like Gekko. He didn’t care about film. Never. He sold it off in pieces. He cannibalized it. Just like Gekko. These guys do what suits their short-term.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
Zero sum game implies winners and losers. If somebody wins, somebody gotta lose…. I don’t agree with that. Because all boats can rise on a rising sea. Good films help other good films. Different psychology. If you’re overly competitive, you say it is exclusionary, a zero sum game: I must win so he must lose. That’s not true. We can all win without forcing the other guy to lose.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
Balzac was right…. There is tremendous jealousy about money.

Wall Street (Oliver Stone'S Commentary, 2000):
I leave Bud Fox in the canyons of Wall Street, just another ant, one of millions of ants…. We’re all absorbed in this system of capitalism…. You join the collective unconscious.