By Brian Meier, Georgia Tech University
Nearly 23 years after the now classic film Wall Street was released, its sequel is set to debut. This movie is older than a large portion of our readers, but it’s likely that many have seen it.
From the first movie, Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, was desperate to work for Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas. Gekko is a corporate raider who takes Fox into his firm after receiving insider information provided by Fox’s father, Carl, played by Martin Sheen. Gekko and Fox begin to make money by taking over companies. Bud has an idea to take over his father’s company and to get union concessions to save costs. Gekko and Fox end up buying the airline company Fox’s father works for, but Fox learns that Gekko will sell off the airline to make a greater profit. This makes Fox change his opinion on the deal, and he wants to stop it. To get Gekko to sell off his shares, Fox found a way to alter the price of the airline stock. Once the price began to plummet, Gekko got out and another corporate raider, Sir Lawrence Wildman, bought in. Gekko finds out about this manipulation and reports Fox to the SEC. After some time, Fox approached Gekko in Central Park. Fox gets Gekko to discuss some of their previous illegal transactions. Fox was wearing a wire and he turned this over to the authorities to receive a lighter sentence for himself.
The sequel resumes with Gekko being released from prison. Michael Douglas is returning to play his character, Gordon Gekko. Gekko will not be a villain anymore, but rather someone trying to warn Wall Street. No one will listen to him because of his previous crimes and subsequent jail time. Gekko also tries to rebuild a relationship with his daughter, Winnie. A new character, Jacob Moore, played by Shia LaBeouf, is introduced and is engaged to Winnie. The mentor of Jake, a young Wall Street trader, dies, and Jake suspects there is foul play involved. Jake wants to find out who is responsible for this and get revenge. Jake teams up with Gekko so that they can help each other. Gekko will help Jake find out more about his mentor’s death and Jake will help Gekko with his relations with Winnie.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps takes its cues from the original while creating a new plotline. Gekko even is quoted in the trailer saying, “Greed is good. But now it seems it’s legal.” The new movie is sure to be a hit with many stars returning, including a cameo appearance from Charlie Sheen. The budget of the original movie was approximately $15 Million, and its revenue was just shy of $44 Million. Those numbers are certainly going to be a lot larger for the sequel. Since the second movie was filmed so many years after the original, it does not have the expectations of many other series.
It will be interesting to see if this movie has as much anticipation as the original, and if it will be as popular. Obviously Fox wants it to be a hit, but it definitely has potential to make a large amount of revenue. The release date for the movie is April 23, 2010 and expectations are high. The biggest question is whether the new story line engages the new audience while bringing back the older generation of the original movie.
