Margin Call (2011, dir. J.C. Chandor) captures the moment Wall Street decided to torch the world economy to save itself.

This scene between Jeremy irons and Kevin Spacey shows how a single decision—to dump toxic assets overnight—turned fear into collapse.

What they’re selling: CDOs.  Mortgage debt repackaged together and dumped to clear space on the balance sheet. The model: lend → bundle → sell → repeat. It works—until the loans are worthless.  Then, the bundle’s worthless. So?  Sell before anyone smells the smoke.

“It’s just money. Made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on them.” This isn’t strategy. It’s survival. Margin Call doesn’t show collapse. It shows how the system saves itself—by setting fire to everything else.