History YMMV / WallStreet

** All of this being said, a line later on reveals that Gekko's solution to Teldar's problems ''doesn't work''. Firing most of management has not turned the company around. It's possible that his two months of study was not enough for him to truly understand the workings of the company, and the loss of all that institutional knowledge was damaging after all...issues that have only become more relevant as executives inspired by Gekko have come to power. This could be seen as Stone's rebuttal to Gekko's point.

* BrokenAesop: We know Bud comes from blue collar roots. Gordon makes it very clear that he too comes from humble roots (went to city college and resents Ivy Leaguers, thought $800,000 was all the money in the world when he started, etc.) It’s strongly implied that Darien also comes from limited means. So the only way you can get ahead without having a legacy and connections is to break the law?

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/TerenceStamp as Lawrence Wildman, the British financial mogul. Although he technically appears in two scenes.

** Soviet audiences became one of these for Gekko in the last years of the Soviet Union, at least according to David Remnick's "Lenin's Tomb.". The USSR had allowed the film in for limited screenings to Communist students at the Higher Party School in Moscow, believing that Stone's vision of capitalists like Gekko aligned with their own propaganda concerning the West. However, those same students, fed up with years of stagnant growth and economic privation in a failed command economy, actually cheered him on and considered him a hero.

** Perhaps the biggest point people agree with Gordon on was his casually mentioning how all of the C.E.Os who were fighting his takeover had very little to lose, as they had minimal investment in the company itself - as in, if the company sank, they'd have an escape-route, while the average worker (or shareholder) wouldn't. On top of this, he points out that the company in question (Teldar Paper) has ''thirty-three'' Vice-Presidents, each one drawing a $200,000/yr salary in a time when the company had posted a $110,000,000 loss the year before[[note]] 200K x 33 = 6.6 Million, meaning 6% of that debt wouldn't have been there[[/note]], and even though he's been researching the company for two months, he still doesn't know what they actually ''do''.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In particular, technology and the lifestyles of the wealthy seem to change more noticeably than other things do. Arguably, this is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the first scene of the sequel, when Gekko gets back his [[TechnologyMarchesOn enormous cell phone]].

* AwardSnub: Inverted. Creator/DarylHannah "won" the [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward "Razzie"]] for Worst Supporting Actress, making this the only film to win both an Oscar and a Razzie.

* {{Anvilicious}}: There is only one reason and one reason alone Gordon Gekko gives the "Zero Sum Game" and "Richest One Percent" speeches in the scene where Bud finally confronts him: Stone really seemed to feel the need to lecture the audience about the disturbing power and influence of corporate raiders like Gekko. Story-wise, there's no reason at all Gekko would suddenly lecture Bud on the subject. [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped Of course]], given Gekko's MisaimedFandom...

* MeaningfulName: The name "Bud Fox" can be interpreted as "Small/New (flower bud) and Crafty/Sneaky (like a fox)".
** Bud's name also sounds very similar to the phrase "b_tt f_cks", which is what [[spoiler:Bud does to Gekko]] in the last quarter of the film, and what [[spoiler:The SEC does to Bud]] in the end.

** [[Series/{{Scrubs}} Dr. Cox]] works with Bud Fox.

** [[Film/KillBill Elle Driver]] as Bud's girlfriend.
** [[Film/AceVenturaPetDetective Lois Einhorn/Ray Finkle]] (or alternatively, [[Film/BladeRunner Rachael]]) as Gekko's wife.

** For the comic book fans, we have [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan Uncle Ben]] as Bud's father, [[Film/AvengersAgeofUltron Ultron]] as Roger Barnes and [[Film/AntMan Hank Pym]] as Gordon Gekko.

* HarsherInHindsight: In October 1987, stock markets around the world suffered a devastating crash, in what would come to be known as “Black Monday”. This threw a spotlight onto the greed and corruption rife amongst Wall Street traders, and a week after the film was released in December, a Gordon Gekko-like figure named Ivan Boesky was sentencing and fined for insider trading.

* HilariousInHindsight: Creator/MichaelDouglas and Creator/JamesSpader would later join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Douglas as Hank Pym and Spader as Ultron. Partially averted in that Pym builds Ultron in the comics, but not in the movies. The OurFounder portrait of Pym in a suit is particularly amusing.

* EvilIsCool: Gordon Gekko isn't the protagonist, he's the ''villain'', but he's easily the film's most famous character.

** Perhaps the biggest point people agree with Gordon on was his casually mentioning how all of the C.E.Os who were fighting his takeover had very little to lose, as they had minimal investment in the company itself - as in, if the company sank, they'd have an escape-route, while the average worker (or shareholder) wouldn't. On top of this, he points out that the company in question (Teldar Paper) has ''thirty-three'' Vice-Presidents, each one drawing a $200,000/yr salary in a time when the company had posted a $110,000,000 loss the year before[[note]] 200K x 33 = 6.6 Million, meaning 6% of that debt wouldn't have been there[[/note]], and even though he's been researching the company for a year, he still doesn't know what they actually ''do''.