Boiler Room (film)

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Boiler Room
DVD cover
Directed by	Ben Younger
Produced by	Jennifer Todd Suzanne Todd
Written by	Ben Younger
Starring	Giovanni Ribisi Vin Diesel Nia Long Nicky Katt Ron Rifkin Ben Affleck Tom Everett Scott Scott Caan
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Running time	118 mins
Country	United States
Budget	US$9,000,000

Boiler Room is a 2000 U.S. drama, written and directed by Ben Younger, and starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel and Nia Long. Other characters in the film were played by Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott (who also starred in That Thing You Do! with Ribisi), Ron Rifkin and Jamie Kennedy. The film reunited Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel who both had supporting roles in Saving Private Ryan.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Analysis
4 Soundtrack
5 See also
6 External links

Plot

The film takes a look at the world of "boiler room" (seedy, dishonorable) brokerage firms. The film centers around college dropout Seth Davis (Ribisi), a budding underground casino owner in Queens whose life turns upside down when offered employment at J.T. Marlin, a less-than-reputable brokerage firm. Davis' opposition to his disapproving federal judge father drives the plot as Davis goes deeper into the operation at J.T. Marlin than he'd like, learning how the firm scams its clients. The company is a chop shop brokerage firm that runs a "pump and dump", using its brokers to create artificial demand in the stock of defunct companies by cold calling investors and selling them shares at prices set by the brokerage firm, which include a large commission to the brokers (up to three dollars a share for a penny stock). When the firm is done pumping the stock, the investors then have no one to sell their shares to in the market, and the price of the stock plummets. As Seth learns more about the firm, he realizes he needs to get out. When the FBI confronts him, he agrees to help them bring down the firm. Although he feels bad about the many affluent investors (whales) that he lied to and scammed, he only tries to help one client who could not afford to be scammed in the first place.

The DVD release includes an alternate ending that implies a rampage massacre in the final scene by the aforementioned financially disgruntled victim in the story, who was planning on buying a house with their lost money.

Cast

Giovanni Ribisi - Seth Davis
Vin Diesel - Chris Varick
Nia Long - Abbie Halpert
Nicky Katt - Greg Weinstein
Ron Rifkin - Judge Marty Davis
Ben Affleck - Jim Young
Tom Everett Scott - Michael Brantley
Scott Caan - Richie O'Flaherty
Jamie Kennedy - Adam

Analysis

The film is often compared to Glengarry Glen Ross and Wall Street, and both movies are quoted -- by name and with lines of dialogue -- by characters in the film, and in one instance a whole scene (from Wall Street) is recited by the characters as they watch it on video. Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry is often quoted by Ben Affleck's character.