We Judged Too Soon: Fantastic "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" Trailer Instantly Validates Sequel's Existence

By: Adam Quigley Posted: January 29, 2010 Filed under: Trailers

What makes a good trailer? I suspect most people would submit the obvious; it should make you want to see the movie. As far as I'm concerned, that's only one-third of the equation. Yes, it should (1) make you want to see the movie, but it should do so (2) without spoiling it, and (3) without misleading or deceiving the audience.

There's also a fourth, optional attribute, reserved for only the most artfully edited of trailers. That being, in addition to achieving the aforementioned qualities, the ability to actually complement the film itself. These are trailers that are so good, you continually return to them, solely to re-experience the brief sense of excitement or fervent emotion that they provide. Even if you've seen the film a dozen times, the mere act of watching the trailer is enough to reignite your desire to watch it once more. Some recent examples of trailers like this include Where the Wild Things Are, Up in the Air, A Serious Man, Watchmen, Pineapple Express, The Strangers, and both the teaser and second theatrical trailer for Star Trek. A less recent example, but one that continues to retain its spot as my all-time favorite, is the one for Little Children.

With the release of the trailer for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, we now have a new trailer worthy of being added to the list.

The trailer conveys everything we need to know without saying a word about the plot. A man collects his belongings as he's released from prison. What do we know about him? The items build our expectation: a silk handkerchief, followed by a ring, a watch, and... a gold money clip. Bingo. This guy was rich.

Then the punchline.

An '80s mobile phone.

Ha. Nice. The image is doubly effective in that tells us just how long this guy has been locked up.

Also comical and useful is the shot that comes immediately after, showing a hoodlum shuffle past Michael Douglas and drive off in a limousine with his buddies. Clearly, this isn't the world this man remembers. And intercut between it all is a contrast to that outside world, with the rockin' music providing a great rhythm for the editor to work off of. Not only do the shots provide quick and arresting visuals, they do so while establishing important story elements (the hustle and bustle of New York, Shia LaBeouf as a young go-getter, an extremely wealthy and prominent Josh Brolin, and even an appearance from Carey Mulligan).

The limited use of dialogue only enhances the impact of the trailer, playing off its relevance to the first film with the cheesy-but-good one-liner, "Someone reminded me I once said greed is good... Now it seems it's legal." And for the less film-literate, the end provides the reveal: "Why don't you start calling me Gordon?"

All of this is done within a time frame of 90 seconds. Beautiful.

As for the film itself, much has been said of the pointlessness of a sequel to Wall Street, a movie that came out in the '80s. Don't let the repellent subtitle fool you though, this sequel looks to be as respectable as they come. Consider other sequels that were made many years following the original's release, such as Before Sunset and Clerks II. Sunset was intentionally made 9 years after the first, so that it could find its characters having aged in real time. Clerks was a result of Kevin Smith's experiences in his 20's, and after his perspective on life evolved during his 30's, he decided a follow-up was in order. The point of both these sequels was to examine where the characters from the original ended up, and why. If the trailer for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is any indication, this film seems to be an attempt to achieve the same thing.

The topicality hasn't been lost either. Whereas Wall Street was a portrayal of '80s excess, Money Never Sleeps explores how the financial world has changed all these years later, revolving around the 2008 stock market crash.

As usual, there's no telling how successful the film will be at communicating these ideas & themes, but one thing is certain: That is one perfect trailer.

A final note: The title shot at the end of the trailer is clearly a play on the Twentieth Century Fox logo seen at the very beginning. I hope I'm not the only one to notice the comedy here. A sequel to a movie that condemned corporate greed is presented through the visual replication of a studio infamous for their money-whoring ways. Intentional?