History Film / TheWolfOfWallStreet

* {{Corpsing}}: Jon Bernthal covers his mouth trying not to laugh when Jonah Hill calls him the "mayor of Fucksville."

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:Jordan punching Naomi when she announces she wants a divorce, and trying to drive away with Skyler while high on cocaine. They don't get any farther than the driveway but that's just because they crash. Luckily, she's only shaken up a bit, but it's still terrifying to watch Naomi desperately try to stop them from driving off.]]

** Pplayed straight in one of the movie's most audacious scenes. [[spoiler: When Donnie is choking to death after both he and him take Quaaludes, Belfort, in order to perform CPR while impaired on motor skills, takes a whiff of cocaine. The film cutting contrasts that with a WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} cartoon of the sailor taking spinach.]]

The movie was released on December 25, 2013. The trailer can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=idAVRvQeYAE&NR=1 here.]]

* DirtyCoward / NoHonorAmongThieves:

* DisproportionateRetribution: Jordan and Donnie fire one stockbroker right before the Steve Madden [=IPO=] because he was wearing a dorky-looking outfit (including a bowtie) and cleaning his fishbowl, suggesting his mind may not have been 100% focused on new issue day. Not only that, Donnie screams at him, throws a cigarette on his shirt, and grabs him by the collar, eats the live goldfish straight from the bowl (much to everyone's disgust -- and amusement), and does nothing as the broker's now-former coworkers ridicule him and throw stuff at him.

* DrugsAreGood / DrugsAreBad: DrugsAreGood at the start, right from the opening scene, where Belfort goes on at length about all the drugs he takes and how much he enjoys them, and the movie shows all the awesome drug-fueled parties at Stratton Oakmont. Veers to DrugsAreBad later in the film when Jordan admits he's a drug addict and goes straight, but he still never faces any direct consequences for his drug use.
** DrugsAreGood is played straight in one of the movie's most audacious scenes. [[spoiler: When Donnie is choking to death after both he and him take Quaaludes, Belfort, in order to perform CPR while impaired on motor skills, takes a whiff of cocaine. The film cutting contrasts that with a WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} cartoon of the sailor taking spinach.]]

--->''"I ain't going nowhere!"

--->''"For a brief fleeting moment, I had forgotten [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I was rich]] and lived in a place where [[LuxuryPrisonSuite everything]] is for sale."''

--->''"Two years later...[[spoiler:he killed himself]]...[[LackOfEmpathy Anyway]]..."''

-->'''Mark Hanna''': ''"Cause they're fucking addicted. And then you just keep doing this, again, and again, and again. Meanwhile, he thinks he's getting shit rich, which he is, on paper. But you and me, the brokers?"''\\
'''Jordan Belfort''': ''"Right"''.\\
'''Mark Hanna''': ''"We're taking home cold hard cash via commission, motherfucker."''

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Belfort's life philosophy, most dramatically illustrated when he refuses to take a deal with the SEC that probably would have allowed him to get off scot-free.
** From his speech when [[spoiler: he's about to leave Stratton Oakmount but then decides not to at the last second]]:
--->''SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS WITH MONEY!!''

-->"Was all this legal? Absolutely fucking ''not!''"

--->''It's an interesting dilemma for Sam and Nicky. They both buy into a situation and both overstep the line so badly that the destroy everything for everybody. And eventually a whole new city comes rising out of the ashes of what they've destroyed. Who knows the reality of UsefulNotes/LasVegas now, where you've gone from [[DevilInPlainSight a Nicky Santoro]] to [[TheManBehindTheMan Michael Milken]] [[TakeThat or a Donald Trump]]? Who knows [[CorruptCorporateExecutive where the money's going?]] But I'm sure it's got to be worth it, somehow, for those entrepreneurs to come in with the money. You'll probably see a film in fifteen years exposing what they're doing now."''

-->''"Stratton Oakmont was rising out of the primordial ooze. Pond scum no more!"''

* {{Futureshadowing}}: The movie is set in the late-1980s and 90s, but has many echoes of the post-recession climate. Jordan {{Lampshades}} this when he offers to tell Denham that he can give information on the greater fraud happening in Wall Street at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

* SurroundedByIdiots: While Jordan is not really better and in some cases worse, he acknowledges Donnie and the other staff at Stratton Oakmont are not that bright and full hedonists, and would much preferred the smarter and composed Brad to work for him who in turn doesn't want to join Jordan's firm for that exact reason.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: One shows up in the Stratford Oakmont offices in one scene, apparently delivering mail.

* BeingGoodSucks: The scene at the end [[spoiler: where Denham, a honest upstanding agent, rides a subway with other low-income middle-class passengers shows this. Belfort goes to a fancy country club prison and infamy while honest upstanding citizens will continue to take the subway.]]

-->'''Jordan:''' BENI-FUCKING-HANA!

* CameraAbuse: When Jordan is filming his infomercial, [[spoiler:he is interrupted by Denham and several FBI agents, and Denham shoves the camera over.]]

* CatchPhrase: Belfort has a specific putdown to people who look at him as TheHedonist and a {{Jerkass}} (which he is) -- "If you don't like me or how I do things [or words to that affect]...go work in fucking [=McDonald's=]." In an infomercial about his seminars, one of the people offering testimonials uses the same catchphrase, obviously being fed his lines by Belfort.

** Under the influence of Quaaludes, Donny openly masturbates to Naomi in front of a large group. [[MaleFrontalNudity We even get a brief shot of his half-erect penis,]] though it's PlayedForLaughs [[FanDisservice given the context.]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: It is rather brief, but the film does not try to hide the attitudes towards gay people in the 1980's and 1990's in America. While Jordan, Donny, and a couple of the other main characters don't have an issue with the gay butler, they are very much the exception, and once the butler starts testing the patience of some of the investors, they openly call him the f word openly and with no sense of shame. While it is debatable what exactly Jordan told the cops, they are shown hitting the butler with a billy club, as being homosexual, while no longer a crime in New York by the eighties, was still looked at with scorn and suspicion. Donnie's rather severe reaction to being accused of being gay also highlighted the fact that being accused of being gay in the 80's and 90's often resulted in social mistrust.

** In the end, [[spoiler:Jordan who tries to warn Donnie not to incriminate himself discovers that ''he'' had already made a deal with the FBI to rat everyone and Jordan out too.]]

** DrugsAreGood is played straight in one of the movie's most audacious scenes. [[spoiler: When Donnie is choking to death after both he and him take Quaaludes, Belfort, in order to perform CPR while impaired on motor skills, takes a whiff of cocaine. The film cutting contrasts that with a WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} cartoon of the sailor taking spinach. ]]

* HookersAndBlow: Mark Hanna tells Jordan these are the ''sole'' reasons he's a stock broker. Jordan takes it to literal levels of [[spoiler: shooting blow off a hooker's ass.]]

-->''"I ain't going nowhere!"

--> ''"For a brief fleeting moment, I had forgotten [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I was rich]] and lived in a place where [[LuxuryPrisonSuite everything]] is for sale."''

** A poor SexyStewardess is groped by a very high Jordan, with Donnie playing along at first. Belfort goes as far as dry humping her, which gets him restrained and tied to his seat. The scene is something to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj9pv_SqARE behold]].

* MissFanservice: Margot Robbie as Naomi has many scenes where she's topless or in lingerie or a bikini. However, the scene of her teasing Jordan by flashing him is framed so the audience doesn't see anything except her legs.

** When Jordan is discussing the crazy sex in the office and talks about Pam, one of the salesgirls who was the [[VillageBicycle Office Bicycle]] who Jordan states had a threesome with him and Donny. One of their colleagues married her despite knowing this. We see a montage of their wedding, [[spoiler:which cuts to shot of the guy in a bath-tub of blood with his bloody arm sticking out.]]
--> ''"Two years later...[[spoiler:he killed himself]]...[[LackOfEmpathy Anyway]]..."''

* RousingSpeech: Jordan's speech where he welshes on his deal with the SEC to leave the firm and the securities business in exchange for pleading guilty to a few violations of their regulations. Indeed this seems to be his real talent and in the end [[spoiler: he decides to CutLexLuthorACheck and work as a motivational speaker which is his present day real life self's real occupation.]]

--> '''Mark Hanna''': ''"Cause they're fucking addicted. And then you just keep doing this, again, and again, and again. Meanwhile, he thinks he's getting shit rich, which he is, on paper. But you and me, the brokers?"''
--> '''Jordan Belfort''': ''"Right"''.
--> '''Mark Hanna''': ''"We're taking home cold hard cash via commission, motherfucker."''

** Like ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', to which it's a SpiritualSuccessor, the film's ending incorporates an up-tempo cover of a classic song (in this case, the Lemonheads' version of "[[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel Mrs. Robinson.)"]]

** "[[Film/{{Freaks}} ONE OF US, ONE OF US,]] ONE OF US"

* ShowDontTell: Administrivia/TropesAreTools, and we are shown how Jordan's lifestyle tears his life apart rather than given AnAesop. Though (see DoNotDoThisCoolThing above) it may have been too subtle a message for [[MisaimedFandom some moviegoers]].

* TheSociopath: Jordan; Impulsive, anti-Social, violent, hedonistic, views everything and everyone as a possession. He [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation may or may not have wised up to his sins by the end.]]

--> ''It's an interesting dilemma for Sam and Nicky. They both buy into a situation and both overstep the line so badly that the destroy everything for everybody. And eventually a whole new city comes rising out of the ashes of what they've destroyed. Who knows the reality of UsefulNotes/LasVegas now, where you've gone from [[DevilInPlainSight a Nicky Santoro]] to [[TheManBehindTheMan Michael Milken]] [[TakeThat or a Donald Trump]]? Who knows [[CorruptCorporateExecutive where the money's going?]] But I'm sure it's got to be worth it, somehow, for those entrepreneurs to come in with the money. You'll probably see a film in fifteen years exposing what they're doing now."''
-->-- ''Scorsese on Scorsese'' Page 202-203, 1996 Edition.

--> ''"Stratton Oakmont was rising out of the primordial ooze. Pond scum no more!"''

* ThisLoserIsYou: While not explicitly following this trope, the tone of the ending certainly follows this. The ending, consisting of [[spoiler:Jordan Belfort giving a motivational speech to his audience, ends with a shot of the audience starting at Belfort with interest. WordOfGod dictates that the audience is meant to represent American society as a whole, and that the reason people like Belfort get away relatively easily is because we have the innate desire to have this same wealth and luxury. In other words, we let people like Belfort win because we secretly want the same thing.]]

* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler: When his wife tells him she wants a divorce and custody of their children Jordan punches her in the face and stomach in order to get to his daughter.]]

* AppropriatedAppellation: Belfort hates the Forbes article that calls him "The Wolf of Wall Street," but his first wife points out that there's [invoked] NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity, and it seems to have been his work nickname (and sexual safe word). After some hesitation, he starts BecomingTheMask and acts more like a stereotypical CorruptCorporateExecutive.

* AppropriatedAppellation: Belfort hates the Forbes article that calls him "The Wolf of Wall Street," but his first wife points out that there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity, and it seems to have been his work nickname (and sexual safe word). After some hesitation, he starts BecomingTheMask and acts more like a stereotypical CorruptCorporateExecutive.

* AnAesop: Needless pursuit of excess is a bad thing, [[ViewersAreGeniuses and audiences]] ''[[ViewersAreGeniuses are]]'' [[ViewersAreGeniuses smart enough]] [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing to figure that out for themselves]].

[[caption-width-right:300:[[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll Sex, drugs]] and [[WhiteCollarCrime securities fraud.]]]]

* RealPersonCameo: Jordan Belfort appears near the end of the movie as the person introducing [=DiCaprio=]'s Jordan Belfort at a seminar.

A New York stockbroker recounts to the audience how he made his fortune through shady (and outright illegal) stock manipulations, and the hedonistic drug/sex-fueled lifestyle he built with that fortune. His downfall begins when he is investigated by the SEC and FBI, but he refuses to leave the life he has built.

* {{Manchild}}: Jordan gets called this by Naomi, who denigrates him for acting like an infant when he needs to be a responsible father and role model for their baby girl Skyler.

* HumansAreBastards: Almost everybody is a selfish, greedy, or bastardly JerkAss. Not everyone, but most of the characters in this movie are.

* AbsurdlyLongStairway: Invoked. While tripping very heavily and discovering a botched emergency, Jordan Belfort has to get back to his car, at the entrance to a country club. In long shots, you can see it is only about six steps, but in close-up shots (from Jordan's perspective), it's much, much longer than that.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: In the film, Jordan frequently does drugs because he's a hedonist who loves getting high. In his biography, he states that the real reason he did so many drugs was because he suffered from severe back pain due to an injury (which gets a brief nod in the film) and used drugs as a way to cope with it.

* CasualKink: Belfort is into bondage where [[spoiler:a dominatrix lights a candle in his ass and abuses him by calling him "Wolfie!"]]

[[caption-width-right:300:[[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll Sex, Drugs]] and [[WhiteCollarCrime securities fraud.]]]]

* RemarriedToTheMistress: After Jordan's affair with Naomi leads to Jordan and his wife Teresa divorcing, Jordan marries Naomi instead.

* Understatement: During the bedroom argument, Naomi complains about Jordan once flying back home on his helicopter at 3 AM and inadvertently waking up Skylar doing so. The scene cuts to a flashback of a completely intoxicated Jordan downright ''stumbling'' out of his helicopter and falling into his pool, triggering an alarm so loud that ''that'' woke up Skylar. Naomi doesn't even bring up that Jordan would have risked drowning due to his wasted state at the time.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Jordan clearly loves his daughter, [[spoiler:enough to attempt to kidnap her when things go wrong for him]]

* FrenchJerk: Played with. Jordan thinks that Jean-Jacques, the French ''Swiss'' banker who aids him in laundering the profits from his securities frauds is a "Swiss dick" and he in turn thinks of him as an "American shit." Their mutual greed leads to a cordial relationship until a key element of their scheme falls apart, whereupon they hang up on each other saying exactly what the other thought they thought of them.

* HeroAntagonist: Denham, the FBI agent pursuing Belford, the Wall Street crook and TheProtagonist.