FILM · 1987 · USA
Wall Street
- Directed by
- Oliver Stone
- Runtime
- 126 min
- Studio
- 20th Century Fox, Pressman Film
108 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider, who takes the youth under his wing.
108 Interesting Facts About Wall Street
Interesting Facts (10)
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Gordon Gekko's "Greed is good" speech was inspired by Ivan Boesky's speech at the University of California's commencement ceremony in 1986. Boesky was a Wall Street arbitrageur who paid a $100 million penalty to the SEC later that year to settle insider trading charges. In his speech, Boesky said "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."
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Production Story (29)
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Oliver Stone was already thinking about a film like this in 1981, inspired by his father, Lou Stone, who had been a broker at Hayden Stone during the Great Depression. His first pitch was about two investment partners drawn into shady financial dealings, using each other, with a prosecutor on their tail as in Crime and Punishment.
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Charlie Sheen got to choose who would play his father, Jack Lemmon or Martin Sheen; Oliver Stone left it to him, and Charlie went with his dad.
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Oliver Stone said the bosses at 20th Century Fox weren't keen on the film's release prospects, awards chances or hard-to-embrace subject, and put their energy into Broadcast News (1987) instead. Both came out in December 1987 and made similar profits (even though Wall Street had a more limited release), and both were Oscar-nominated: seven nominations for the James L. Brooks film, just one for Stone's. Broadcast News (1987) went home empty-handed, while this film won its only nomination.
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Michael Douglas recalls his first read of the screenplay: "I thought it was a great part. It was a long script, and there were some incredibly long and intense monologues to open with. I'd never seen a screenplay where there were two or three pages of single-spaced type for a monologue. I thought, whoa! I mean, it was unbelievable". He prepared by reading profiles of corporate raiders T. Boone Pickens and Carl Icahn.
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The film implies which university Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox attended, but neither of their academic degrees is mentioned. Gekko refers to himself as a 'City College boy', implying the City College of New York, while Bud's father mentions his son's student loans from NYU, pointing to New York University.
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Gordon Gekko's "Greed is good" speech was inspired by a speech Ivan Boesky gave at a University of California graduation ceremony in 1986. Boesky was a Wall Street arbitrageur who that year paid the SEC a $100 million fine to settle insider trading charges. In his speech he said, "By the way, greed is good. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."
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In an interview with Ain't It Cool News, James Woods revealed that he met with director Oliver Stone, with whom he had previously worked on Salvador, about an unspecified role in this film. He ultimately declined to take part and shortly afterward made his own personal project, Cop. Although it is unknown which role he would have played, it was most likely the role of Gordon Gekko.
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Behind the Scenes (24)
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Early in the shoot, Michael Douglas says, Oliver Stone tested him by stoking his "repressed anger". At one point Stone walked into Douglas' trailer and asked if he was on drugs, because "you look like you haven't acted before". Shaken, Douglas did more research and drilled his lines over and over, pushing himself harder than ever before, and all that work came to a head in the "Greed is good" speech.
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Oliver Stone also consulted Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, convicted inside trader David Brown, several government prosecutors and Wall Street investment bankers. Traders were brought on set to coach the actors on holding phones, writing tickets and talking to clients, and Stone asked Lipper to design a six-week course to expose Charlie Sheen to a cross section of young Wall Street professionals. Sheen said, "I was impressed and very, very respectful of the fact that they could maintain that kind of aggressiveness and drive".
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One of the technical advisers was "Mad Dog", a star investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert, who also plays the man speaking at the Bluestar breakup meeting. Kenneth Lipper, investment banker and former deputy mayor of New York for Finance and Economic Development, was hired as chief technical adviser after initially turning Oliver Stone down, fearing a one-sided attack. At Stone's urging he read the script and replied with a 13-page critique; it was unrealistic, he said, for all the characters to be "morally bankrupt". Lipper told Stone what computers traders used, how many women would really be at a business meeting, and what sort of extras belonged at the annual shareholders meeting where Gekko delivers his "Greed is good" speech. Stone agreed and had him rewrite the script, and that balance helped get permission to film on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during trading hours. Their one big disagreement was Lou Mannheim. Stone filmed the honest Mannheim succumbing to insider trading; Lipper warned that audiences would conclude all of Wall Street was corrupt and insisted on one unimpeachable character, and Stone cut the scene.
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With a speech instructor, Michael Douglas trained his breath control to keep up with the rapid-fire dialogue, all while smoking 40 cigarettes a day.
Wall Street (1987): Gordon Gekko, behind the scenesImage: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain - #051
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Daryl Hannah has never watched the film. She has called it a "rough experience" and said she and Oliver Stone had an "unhealthy working relationship"; during the shoot she accused him of misogyny. In her words: "film is a collaborate medium. Sometimes you hook up with people you don't collaborate well with."
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Oliver Stone originally wanted to make a film about the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. While exchanging ideas with his friend Stanley Weiser, the idea of making a film about Wall Street instead emerged. Weiser was initially hesitant because he knew little about financial markets. Stone suggested he read Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby so he could grasp the moral dimension he wanted to bring to the story, and Weiser threw himself into the world of finance over the following months. The pair spent three weeks visiting brokerage firms and meeting with investors.
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Oliver Stone stated that the studio executives at 20th Century Fox were not very enthusiastic about the film's release, its awards prospects or its theme, which was hard for audiences to embrace, and that they focused their attention on Broadcast News (1987) instead. Both were released the same month (December 1987), earned similar profits (Wall Street despite a more limited release than the other film) and were nominated for Oscars; James L. Brooks's film received seven nominations while Stone's film received only one. Broadcast News (1987) won no Oscars at all, while this film turned its single nomination into an award.
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Oliver Stone also consulted Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, convicted insider trader David Brown, various government prosecutors and Wall Street investment bankers. In addition, stockbrokers were brought in to coach the actors on how to talk on the phone, how to write trade slips and how to communicate with clients. Stone asked Lipper to design a six-week course to introduce Charlie Sheen to a cross-section of young Wall Street businessmen. The actor said, "I was impressed and had a lot, a lot of respect that they could maintain that kind of aggressiveness and ambition."
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Characters & Cast (14)
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Daryl Hannah never watched the film. In an interview, she said it was a 'difficult experience' and that she had an 'unhealthy working relationship' with director Oliver Stone. During filming, she accused Stone of being a misogynist. 'Filmmaking is a collaborative environment. Sometimes you end up with people you can't collaborate well with,' she said.
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In the scene where Bud first meets Gekko, there are three actors with famous fathers: Michael, son of Kirk Douglas; Charlie, son of Martin Sheen; and Josh Mostel, son of Zero Mostel.
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Easter Eggs & References (14)
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David Byrne/Talking Heads songs turn up several times on the soundtrack, and Bud Fox's secretary is Adelle Lutz, Byrne's former wife. Adele had also been Byrne's assistant director on the music video for Talking Heads: This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (1983), a song used in the film.
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At the meeting where Blue Star's breakup comes out, Gekko's man tells Bud he'll have the shortest career of any executive "since that pope who got poisoned." That's clearly John Paul I, who died in 1978 after just 33 days as pope. He died of natural causes, but assassination theories still linger.
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Pitching Bluestar Airlines in Gekko's office, Bud says it has 80 "Medium Body" Jets and 300 pilots. Most domestic airlines work on an average of 11 pilots per airframe (5.5 x 2 pilot "crews") to cover a full flying roster plus leave and days off, so Bluestar would realistically need about 880 pilots.
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Deeper Meaning (15)
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Oliver Stone said he was "making a movie about sharks, about feeding frenzies. Bob [director of photography Robert Richardson] and I wanted the camera to become a predator. There is no letup until you get to the fixed world of Charlie's father, where the stationary camera gives you a sense of immutable values." To him Wall Street was a battle zone, and he "filmed it as such": conversations shot like physical confrontations, and in group scenes a camera circling the actors "in a way that makes you feel you're in a pool with sharks."
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The film, Gordon Gekko especially, has a notorious fandom that drew all the wrong lessons from it. Michael Douglas says it makes him a little sad whenever a broker tells him he got into Wall Street after seeing him as Gordon Gekko. On the DVD, Douglas and Oliver Stone pin the 2008 financial crisis on Gordon Gekko wannabes and say people should have looked up to Bud Fox instead. Despite its explicitly anti-greed message, the film is often cited as an inspiration by people who went on to earn MBAs, and some fans don't even realize the villain is supposed to be the bad guy. Many white collar criminals have said they loved Gekko and were inspired by him.
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Oliver Stone wanted to make a film about the 1950s quiz show scandals. When he tossed around ideas with his friend Stanley Weiser, he hit on the notion of making a film about Wall Street instead. Weiser was reluctant because he knew very little about the financial markets. Stone encouraged Weiser to read "Crime and Punishment" and "The Great Gatsby" for an idea of the morality he wanted to put into the story, and Weiser spent the next few months immersing himself in the financial world. He and Stone spent three weeks visiting brokerage houses and interviewing investors.
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The film, and especially the character Gordon Gekko, has a notorious fan base that draws the wrong messages from it. Michael Douglas has stated that he feels a bit sad whenever he meets a stockbroker who says they went into Wall Street after watching Gordon Gekko. In the DVD commentary, Douglas and Oliver Stone say the 2008 financial crisis happened because of Gordon Gekko imitators, whereas people should have taken Bud Fox as their example. Despite its anti-greed message, the film is often cited as an inspiration for those who go on to pursue an MBA; in fact, fans sometimes fail to notice the villain and mistake Gekko for a hero. Many white-collar criminals have confessed that they loved Gekko and were inspired by him.
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The film's soundtrack includes several songs by David Byrne/Talking Heads. Bud Fox's secretary is played by Adelle Lutz, David Byrne's ex-wife. Adelle also served as assistant director on the music video for Byrne's song 'This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),' which also appears in this film.
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Career & Awards (2)
Related pages
- Born on the Fourth of July — Wall Street comes up in the facts on that page
- Oliver Stone — Wall Street comes up in the facts on that page
- Michael Douglas — Wall Street comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
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