The Big Short - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Big Short or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Big Short

[ruby]

This was Ryan Gosling's first appearance in a film after announcing his "break" from acting in March 2013.

[kyle]

Author Michael Lewis revealed in an interview that Paramount Pictures allowed director and screenwriter Adam McKay to make this film only if he agreed to make a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004).

[terry]

After Christian Bale met with the real Dr. Michael Burry, he asked to have Burry's cargo shorts and T-shirt, which he then wore in the movie. Bale later said he hoped Burry would make it to the film's L.A. premiere, "because I really want to sit next to him and see if he's going to punch me in the f****** face."

[jesus]

When Charlie and Jamie phone Ben on his holiday in England, the subtitles say that he is in the Black Horse Pub in Exmouth. The pub shown, however, is in Fulmer; a village outside of London and 170 miles from Exmouth.

[elmer]

Despite Adam McKay regular Will Ferrell not appearing in the film, there is a nod to him. During one of the earlier transition themes, there is a shot of a young girl saying 'I want my money'. This is taken from a Funnyordie sketch, 'the landlord' featuring Will Ferrell and his young daughter. The short film was written by Adam McKay.

[caroline]

This was Adam McKay's dramatic directorial debut.

[steve]

An assistant counsel for the Department of Financial Services played one of the extras in the scene.

[beth]

This was the first Adam McKay film not to feature regular collaborator Will Ferrell.

[jamie]

Jeffry Griffin was an extra on set for the day. He was pulled out of the crowd to play Jared Vennett's assistant, Chris. Later, his role was expanded to two weeks of filming, sharing every scene with Ryan Gosling.

[beth]

This film marked the second collaboration between Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei and Steve Carell. The three first starred together in Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011).

[ken]

At 1 hour and 30 minutes, two billboards for Canadian comedians, Martin Short and Kids in the Hall, are displayed in the background.

[ray]

According to Adam McKay, Christian Bale injured his knee badly just before filming started. McKay wanted to use a double for Bale's drumming and swimming scenes, but Bale insisted on doing the scenes himself. McKay eventually agreed, but when he shot the drumming scenes, he brought in two doctors for the duration of the shoot, ready to perform in case anything happened to Bale.

[jesse]

When Michael Burry looks at his e-mail inbox after informing his clients they can no longer make withdrawals from the fund, an e-mail from A. McKay Adam McKay with the Subject "Can I get some additional information?" is visible.

[veronica]

Christian Bale and Margot Robbie are both linked to Batman characters. Bale played Batman/Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012) and Robbie played Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016).

[gerald]

This was the second film based on a Michael Lewis book that Brad Pitt produced and appeared in. The first was Moneyball (2011).

[lena]

In "The Big Short," there are three types of mortgage bonds. Subprime mortgage bond (SMB) is the most basic of the three; it is only home loans. The next is Mortage-backed security (MBS), this is tranches of loans that is backed up and all the loans in it are given a triple A rating. This means if you short the bond, it has a very low risk of defaulting, you will get paid first, but not earn as much money. And the final one (known as MBS on steroids) is a bond called collateralised debt obligations (CDO), which are loads of loan-backed security (so not specifically home loans and mortgages).

[claude]

Richard Thaler played himself as the economist at the casino, who explains with Selena Gomez how derivatives can gear into each other and fail in sequence. Thaler is a well-known academic economist and is the author of "Nudge."

[albert]

Christian Bale does not share screen time with any of the other top-billed cast members.

[ronnie]

This film marked the second collaboration between John Magaro and Finn Wittrock, who both portrayed World War II soldiers in Unbroken (2014). They shared a considerable amount of screen time in this movie with Brad Pitt, whose second wife, Angelina Jolie, directed Unbroken.