The Bank is a 2001 Australian thriller/drama film directed by Robert Connolly and starring David Wenham and Anthony LaPaglia.
Jim Doyle (Wenham) is a mathematical prodigy trying to concoct a way of foreseeing stock market collapses. He's approached by Centabank CEO Simon O'Reilly (LaPaglia), who is eager to co-opt Doyle's potential breakthrough. As an employee of Centabank, Jim works toward his goal, while Simon is under pressure from the board of directors. Meanwhile, a working class couple with a vendetta pursues legal action against the bank. Inevitably, corruption soon rears its ugly head.
Tropes:
- Driven to Suicide: One of the last reveals in the movie is that Jim's father committed suicide after Centabank foreclosed on the family farm. Young Jim found his father's body hanging in the shed.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Pretty much every senior executive at Centabank, but especially Simon O'Rielly; the self-proclaimed 'swinging dick'. The board members are not satisfied with O’Reilly’s results as managing director. In the last year he has closed 1,100 bank branches and sacked one third of the bank’s employees but the board still wants more growth in profit.
- Take a Third Option: Towards the end, Wayne, who blames the bank's CEO Simon for his son's death, bursts into Simon's office with a shotgun with the intention of killing him. Simon tells Wayne that while his son's death was tragic, he doesn't consider himself responsible, but to go ahead and do what he thinks he has to do. As Wayne contemplates whether to go through with it and spend the rest of his life in prison or forgo his revenge and possibly still do some time, the phone rings. Simon insists on answering it. Wayne realises Simon would rather die than miss the call, so he shoots the phone, then goes outside and shoots the fuse box.
