The Big Picture

• The Big Short explores the flawed and corrupt U.S. mortgage market through a group of investors in 2006-2007.
• Christian Bale's character is the only main character whose name stays unchanged in the movie, based on the book by Michael Lewis.
• Differences between the movie and the book include name changes, events leading to the crash, and a more pessimistic ending tone.

The 2015 Academy Award Best Picture nominee The Big Short is a financial cautionary tale — which also happens to be didactically hilarious —based on true-life events. Adam McKay and Charles Randolph adapted (with McKay also directing) the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by financial journalist Michael Lewis, chronicling the events that led to the late 2000s financial crisis. Condensing a narrative that focuses on three investment firms as key players, it boasts a stellar cast that includes Steve Carell, Christian Bale, and Ryan Gosling. Surprisingly, The Big Short is a very faithful recounting of what happened before the housing crisis downfall but, as with every big screen adaptation, there are bound to be differences that depart from what really happened — or, at least, from what’s said in the book.

Which Names Were Changed in ‘The Big Short’?

Christian Bale’s Michael Burry is the only main character whose name goes unchanged. The faithfulness of his portrayal goes all the way to hearing hard rock at high volume and using an actual T-shirt and cargo shorts that belonged to Burry. Still, there are some differences in his character, for he didn’t disclose his life details to the person he’s interviewing at the beginning of the film, rather than to some friends through an email. The names of the rest of the main cast members were changed for personal reasons. McKay states he made some concessions on this topic, and that's how The Big Short ends by renaming Gosling’s Greg Lippmann to Jared Vennett, with the last names of Brad Pitt’s, John Magaro’s, and Finn Wittrock’s characters also changing. That’s how Ben Hockett, Charlie Ledley, and James Mai were changed to Ben Rickert, Charlie Geller, and Jamie Shipley. The latter two’s investment venture, Cornwall Capital, was also changed to Brownfield Fund.

The Big Short largely focuses on the moral dilemma of Carell’s character, Mark Baum, on whether or not to take advantage and make a profit from the impending financial downfall. Baum is an alias for businessman and investor Steve Eisman. Given the focus both the book and the movie place on Eisman, he’s the one with more backstory. The book details the painful loss of Eisman’s son due to an accident. The family specifically requested to have this omitted from the film, for the agony of reliving this incident would be too much. Instead, to be able to tell his story in a faithful but respectful way, Baum's loss is reinterpreted through having a brother who committed suicide – hence the name change from Eisman to Baum. Still, Carell was characterized as Eisman and even was visited by him on set once filming began. Lewis, the book’s author, recalls being shocked by how well the actors got into their characters, saying everyone performed exactly like their counterparts. Even their hairdos and clothes were pretty much what he remembers each individual wearing, so kudos to the costume and hair and makeup departments as well.

'The Big Short' Changed Events Leading to the Crash

Comparing what the movie shows to what the book says, some understandable creative differences can be spotted here and there for the sake of storytelling. For instance, the movie shows Wittrock’s Jamie and Magaro’s Charlie, the heads of Brownfield Fund, having encountered Vennett’s housing bubble pitch in the lobby of a bank they wanted to get into business with. In reality, a friend sent it to them instead. This even allows for a meta moment when they explain what really happened while breaking the fourth wall. The whole Miami visit has both real and made-up moments. While Eisman’s team did travel to Miami to see what the situation was over there, Eisman himself didn’t go to Florida’s second most populated city. And a bit added for dramatic (and hilarious) effect is the crocodile that Porter (Hamish Linklater) and Danny (Rafe Spall) find inside the pool of an abandoned house. To condense the team’s conversations and encounters with several mortgage brokers, the characters of Max Greenfield and Billy Magnussen are included, exposing how they were incentivized to keep placing a high volume of high-rate loans – regardless if people were qualified to pay them.

In the book, it’s Vinny (Jeremy Strong in the film) and not Baum/Eisman, who meets and interviews the stripper with six loans with low down payments. Also, the book mentions the stripper had five loans. But the book does indeed mention a person who has six loans on her properties: Eisman’s baby nurse. Some years earlier, she bought a townhouse in Queens along with her sister. With the prices of their neighborhood rising, their lender advised them to refinance. This allowed them to buy another home, then another, and so on, up to the point that they now owned six townhouses and were unable to pay their mortgages. In the movies, long, drawn-out processes are usually sped-up. When Jamie and Charlie pick up Ben to go sign a swap agreement, it’s a pretty simple deal, going in to sign and then going out. The book explains how this process took ten days in reality, but dragging it out didn't serve the quick-paced narrative. There’s also a scene involving Jamie and a fictional character called Evie (Karen Gillan), his brother’s ex-girlfriend – who also happens to be an SEC employee who gives further information about the lack of oversight on mortgages. In reality, this bit of information was dug up by Eisman through several analysts from different agencies. Another fictional character is Adepero Oduye’s Kathy Tao, who isn’t mentioned in the book, but thankfully represents a strong female figure in a movie filled with dudes getting their way.

Name changes and altered events are the summary of the differences between the movie and the book. One obvious additional variance is what makes the movie so great: in real life, we don’t have stars like Margot Robbie (telling us to eff off with her Australian accent!), Selena Gomez, or Anthony Bourdain pop up to explain the complicated financial terms in for-dummies language. But perhaps the greatest difference in The Big Short relies on the film’s ending tone. Warning about how this will happen again and the people at the top will continue amassing and increasing their fortunes is a bit pessimistic and gloomy (but very real nonetheless). Still, some of the real people involved in the book’s events, like Greg Lippmann, argue that might not be the case, as the government is currently enforcing policies that help the working class, particularly in fighting inflation. Truth is, the wrongdoing of a few went on to affect the American and global economy as a whole. Though not enough punishment was given to those responsible, hope remains for nothing like this to ever happen again.

The Big Short is now available to watch on Amazon Prime in the U.S.

Watch on Prime