The Laura and John Arnold Foundation, funded
by hedge fund manager John Arnold, has also pledged $ 20 million to Rhee's organization over five years.
The eccentrics extolled in the opening scene include Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a Northern California — based MD and money
manager who invents the credit default swap in the mid-Aughts, when the film's central action kicks off; Mark Baum (Steve Carell, also hideously coiffed), an obnoxious
hedge fund manager whose backstory involving a dead -
by - suicide brother somehow positions him as the film's most steadfast moral compass; and Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), a onetime trader for Chase turned secular eschatologist who advises two young, aspiring operators, Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (
John Magaro), how to bet against Wall Street.