wolf of wall street yacht fbi scene

Iconic Scenes: The Wolf of Wall Street – The Yacht Bribe

I love The Wolf of Wall Street . I think it is a spectacular film that seems to grow more relevant as time passes. I also think that the central character and narrator, Jordan Belfort, is not the most important or key character – that is Agent Denham. So I’m looking at the brilliant scene where Belfort and Denham first meet.

What Happens

Multi-millionaire and thoroughly corrupt stockbroker Jordan Belfort invites two FBI agents to his luxury yacht after he learns that they are investigating him. Agent Denham, and a virtually silent partner, arrive for what starts as a very friendly meeting. Belfort hands over some of the information the FBI has been trying to get while constantly trying to impress them with his wealth and insisting he’s done nothing wrong. Belfort draws Denham into a conversation and it seems the FBI agent is not happy at being given the case and would be willing to play ball with Belfort. At which point, Belfort tries to bribe Denham, and then the tone changes. It’s immediately obvious that Denham is not willing to play ball and is determined to bring Belfort down. The conversation gets increasingly acrimonious and ends with Belfort literally throwing lobsters and handfuls of cash at the departing FBI agents.

When you sail on a yacht fit for a Bond villain, sometimes you gotta act the part

DiCaprio is sensational in this scene. Despite getting very good advice not to contact the FBI and try some scheming, this is exactly what Belfort does. They meet on his insanely luxurious yacht, where Belfort has beautiful women lounging on chairs, he is dressed in bright white “yacht clothes” and constantly turning on his beaming smile. He offers them lobsters and drinks. It does not seem to occur to Belfort that showing off his immense, and ill-gotten wealth, might not be the best idea when you’re being investigated for crimes in the stock market.

Belfort’s attempt at bribery is fantastic. Basically detailing a story where he advised someone in need of money in what stocks to invest in and that person making a fortune and how Belfort “would be willing to do that for anyone”. When challenged about this being a bribe Belfort reveals he researched what legally constitutes a bribe and that wouldn’t count. Again, it’s a little suspicious for someone to be able to recite the criminal code of a crime if they’re not a lawyer.

Good for you, Little Man

Oh, Agent Denham, you film stealing hero. Denham is played by Kyle Chandler who, and this is important for the Denham role, is your go-to guy for American decency (if you need someone younger than Tom Hanks), he is probably best known for his role in Friday Night Lights where he played an honourable, upstanding and inspirational football coach. Denham’s casual chatting with Belfort seems to suggest he is not interested in the case and possibly dissatisfied with his job, the attempted bribe being when he flips to his real character.

As Belfort becomes more aggressive Denham responds in kind and leads to one of the all-time best deliveries, “Good for you, little man,” when sarcastically congratulating Belfort on becoming a Wall Street douchebag without any help from anyone else. Belfort is stunned by this comment but mainly in that he can’t understand it…he’s rich, really rich, how can he be a “little man”, he’s a giant. A colossus. The embodiment of the American Dream. The thing is, of course, Denham is right.

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A lot of this scene is purely about status. Of all the places Belfort could have met with the FBI agents he chooses his insanely expensive yacht. He is obsessed with money and how much the FBI agents make, originally pretending to be sympathetic but quickly changing to just mocking them. Belfort assumes that because Denham works for the FBI for what to him is an insignificant amount of money he is a loser. The idea that Denham might believe in what he’s doing is either inconceivable or at best a pitiable weakness. To me, this is the best and most interesting scene in the whole film – not the drug-filled hedonistic parties, not the cult-like team talks Belfort gives his employees, not the incredibly charismatic phone calls Belfort makes when selling stocks but this scene where Denham sizes up Belfort and sees right through him.

Years ago David Cross and Bob Odenkirk made a sketch show called Mr. Show , which contained a sketch based on the premise “someone who makes more money than you is better than you”, so Van Gogh, Einstein and Galileo are actually pretty unsuccessful people. This is Jordan Belfort’s philosophy – he is better than just about everyone he meets because he is richer.

The Hero I’m Going To Be Back At The Office, When The Bureau seizes this boat!

All Belfort manages to do in this scene is upset the FBI and probably convince them that yes, he is absolutely breaking the law. It’s an interesting look at the dynamic of power in America (and indeed the whole world) – who is the more powerful person? Belfort with his huge personal wealth or Denham as a federal officer, a representative of the most powerful country on Earth. There was a lot of discussion at the time about if people actually saw Belfort as the hero of this film, that people liked him and wanted him to win. I saw this as Goodfellas but for white-collar crime. In this scene Belfort helps further his own downfall, antagonising the FBI. In the final moments of this scene, Belfort has just finished throwing money at Denham and his arrogance and deluded grandeur fade as he realises he has just made a terrible mistake.

Also Read: Iconic Scenes: American Psycho – Business Card Scene

Richard Norton

Gentleman, podcaster and pop culture nerd, I love talking and writing about pretty much all pop culture.

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Martin Scorsese ‘Kept Fighting’ for ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Yacht Scene to Be in Final Cut

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Martin Scorsese was determined that “ The Wolf of Wall Street ” would have a sinking ship onscreen.

The blockbuster, Oscar-nominated 2013 film which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort, was originally a whopping four hours long. While the film was eventually trimmed down to 180 minutes, screenwriter Terence Winter revealed that Scorsese refused to cut an expensive yacht sequence.

“Because [the script] was so long, you know, the fear was there were going be things that we were gonna have to cut — like the sequence where the boat sinks and they get rescued at sea,” Winter told The Hollywood Reporter . “It was on the chopping block for the longest time because it was so wild and so expensive. To his credit, Marty just kept fighting and said, ‘We have to have that. I have to have that.'”

The scene involves Belfort (DiCaprio) and his wife Naomi ( Margot Robbie ) having to be rescued by helicopter when sailing from Italy to Monaco in a desperate attempt to stop federal investigators from accessing bank accounts.

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“There was actually a four-hour cut of that movie initially and it was just a lot more insanity — if you can believe there was room for any,” Emmy winner Winter continued. “But I was absolutely thrilled that everything got in there. Every possible thing… including the kitchen sink… is in that movie. I could not have been more happy with it.”

Acclaimed editor and longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker previously told IndieWire that the four-hour cut is beloved by those who had seen it, and Scorsese even considered releasing it in two parts. “Well, we thought about it,” Schoonmaker said. “But the film doesn’t work split in half. It has to have a certain arc.”

Actress Robbie recently revealed that the overnight success of “The Wolf of Wall Street” was overwhelming at times, saying, “Something was happening in those early stages and it was all pretty awful. I remember saying to my mom, ‘I don’t think I want to do this.’ And she just looked at me, completely straight-faced, and was like, ‘Darling, I think it’s too late not to.’ That’s when I realized the only way was forward.”

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The Real Story Behind the Yacht in The Wolf of Wall Street

Based on the eponymous memoir, the 2013 hit The Wolf of Wall Street told the story of Jordan Belfort, a former stockbroker who was convicted of securities fraud and money laundering. Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie was a smashing success through and through. Amongst its many impressionable scenes, one of the most memorable ones was the yacht party, where Belfort and his colleagues indulged in lavish excess. However, Belfort’s ex-wife, Nadine Caridi, has now spoken out about the real story behind the yacht.

Nadine Caridi, the Ex-Wife

Caridi, who was portrayed in the movie by Margot Robbie, gave an interview in which she revealed that the yacht scene was not entirely accurate. According to Caridi, the yacht that was shown in the movie was not the one that Belfort actually owned. Instead, it was rented for the filming of the scene. In reality, Belfort owned a different yacht called Nadine. Caridi claims that the yacht was named after her and that she played a significant role in its design and decoration. She says that the yacht was much smaller than the one shown in the movie, but it was still luxurious and served as a symbol of Belfort’s wealth.

The Sinking of the Nadine Yacht

Nadine Caridi recently spoke about the sinking of the yacht in June 1996, an event that inspired a scene in the movie. The yacht’s sinking during a storm off the coast of Italy was a terrifying experience for everyone on board. The waves were violent and relentless, hitting the yacht repeatedly. Rescue services had to be called in to rescue the passengers and crew, including Belfort and Caridi. In a recent TikTok video, Caridi shared real-life footage of the rescue, showing the fear and chaos that ensued during the storm, while expressing gratitude that everyone survived.

Can a Circle of Salt Paralyze a Self-Driving Car?

Autonomous vehicles are truly within the grasp of humankind. But the brain of a sci-fi geek can wonder whether it’ll bring an apocalyptic scene, where a troop of autonomous cars is pursuing human prey across a desolate landscape. Well, of course, it’s not going to happen, but luckily, if it did, there’s a strangely simple solution for that. And it involves nothing but salt!

The Salt Trap

Back in 2017, artist James Bridle demonstrated how an understanding of road markings using salt could paralyze a self-driving car midway by delivering confusing messages. You need to draw two circles of salt, one in a block line and the other in broken stripes. When the car comes to the middle of it, the markings will direct it to go right ahead and also not to cross, simultaneously. The result is the fabulous “Autonomous Trap 001.” Future models may be able to overcome this fun technological quirk, but it has surely raised a valid question about the possibility of the success of the trick. It’s astonishing to find out that there may be a simple way to manipulate the environment to disrupt the self-driving capacity of an autonomous car.

The Response

This salt circle trap has caught the attention of none other than Elon Musk, the Tesla boss and newly-appointed CEO of Twitter. As an avid enthusiast, Musk is known for dabbling in autonomous vehicles. Responding to the demonstration, he explained that the salt circle trick will probably be able to trap a Tesla car with the production Autopilot build. But he suspected that it won’t work its magic on the FSD models or the cars with Full Self-Driving capabilities. Musk further suggested that making a ring of traffic cones would be effective on the FSD cars. So, if you ever find yourself facing a murderous fleet of autonomous cars, all you need to do is just take your salt bags and traffic cones out! Easy-peasy, right?

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How Jordan Belfort's 37m superyacht Nadine sank off the coast of Sardinia

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Coco Chanel was famously outspoken on many things, but yachting, in particular, attracted her ire. “As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom,” she was once quoted as saying.

Her solution was to buy her own yacht. A 37m with a steel hull, built by the Dutch yard Witsen & Vis of Alkmaar. The yacht passed through many hands, finally ending up belonging to the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, on whose watch she foundered and sank in 1996.

The yacht was originally built for a Frenchman under the name Mathilde , but he backed out and she caught Chanel’s eye instead. With a narrow beam, a high bow and the long, low superstructure typical of Dutch yachts of her era, she was certainly a beautiful boat. But she was also well equipped, with five staterooms in dark teak panelling, magnificent dining facilities, room for big tenders and, later, a helipad. A frequent sight along the Florida coast, she caught the eye of a young skipper called Mark Elliott.

“In those days, she was the biggest yacht on the East Coast,” he remembers. “Nobody had ever seen anything like it. I needed a wrench once and went up to the boat - Captain Norm Dahl was really friendly.” He didn’t know it then, but Elliott was destined to become the skipper of the boat himself and was at the helm when the storm of the century took her to the bottom off Sardinia.

Coco Chanel died in 1971 and sometime thereafter the yacht was renamed Jan Pamela under the new ownership of Melvin Lane Powers. He was a flamboyant Houston real estate developer, fond of crocodile skin cowboy boots and acquitted of murder in a trial that gripped the nation.

Powers sent Jan Pamela to Merrill Stevens yard in Miami, where a mammoth seven-metre section was added amidships. “We made templates for the boat where we were going to cut her in half, then she went out for another charter season,” remembers Whit Kirtland, son of the yard owner. “When the boat came back in, we cut it just forward of the engine room, rolled the two sections apart and welded it in.”

He remembers how the sun’s heat made the bare and painted metal expand at different rates. “You had to weld during certain time periods – early in the morning or late at night,” says Kirtland.

The result of the extension was a huge new seven-metre full-beam master stateroom, an extra salon and one further cabin – pushing the charter capacity to seven staterooms. During this refit, the boat’s colour was also changed from white to taupe. “No one had really done it before and it was gorgeous,” says Elliott. By 1983, Powers was bankrupt and the yacht was sold on again. She next shows up named Edgewater .

Elliott’s chance came in 1989. He was working for the established yacht owner Bernie Little, who ran a hugely profitable distribution business for Bud brewer Anheuser-Busch. “Bernie Little had always wanted to own the boat,” Elliott says. “He loved it. He bought it sight unseen – and I started a huge restoration programme, including another extension to put three metres in the cockpit.”

It was a massive task, undertaken at Miami Ship. “We pulled out all the windows, re-chromed everything, repainted – brought it back to life,” says Elliott. They also cut out old twin diesels from GM and replaced them with bigger CAT engines, doubling her horsepower to 800. “Repowered, she could cruise at up to 20 knots. She was long and skinny, like a destroyer.”

A smart hydraulic feature was also brought to life for the first time. Under two of the sofas in the main stateroom were hidden 3.6m x 1.2m glass panels giving a view of the sea under the boat. At the push of a button, the sofas lifted up and mirrors above allowed you to gaze at the seabed – from the actual bed.

Now called Big Eagle , like all of Little’s boats, she was a charter hit and her top client was a certain New York financier named Jordan Belfort. He fell in love with her and begged Little to sell to him. But he needed to secure financing, and in 1995, Little agreed to hold a note on the boat for a year if Mark Elliott stayed on as skipper.

With the boat rechristened Nadine after his wife, Belfort set about another round of refit work, restyling the interior with vintage deco and lots of mirrors, extending the upper deck this time, and fitting a crane capable of raising and stowing the Turbine Seawind seaplane.

Nadine also carried a helicopter, a 10m Intrepid tender, two 6m dinghies on the bow, four motorbikes, six jetskis, state-of-the-art dive gear. “You pretty much needed an air traffic controller when all these things were in the water,” says Elliott.

Belfort’s partying was legendary and Elliott clearly saw eye-watering things on board, but as far as he was concerned, he was there to safeguard the boat. “When Jordan Belfort became the owner, he could do whatever he wanted. I was there to protect the note,” says Elliott. “He is a brilliant mind and a lovely person. It was just when he was in his party mode, he was out of control.”

Nadine and her huge cohort of toys and vehicles plied all the usual yachting haunts on both sides of the Atlantic. But Belfort’s love story was to be short-lived. Disaster struck with the boss and guests on board during an 85-mile crossing between Civitavecchia in Italy and Calle de Volpe on Sardinia.

What was forecast to be a 20-knot blow and moderate seas degenerated into a violent 70-knot storm with crests towering above 10.6m, according to Elliott. Wave after wave pounded the superstructure, stoving in hatches and windows so that water poured below and made the boat sluggish. By a miracle the engine room remained dry and they could maintain steerage way, motoring slowly through the black of the night as rescue attempt after rescue attempt was called off.

Nadine eventually sank at dawn in over 1000m of water just 20 miles from the coast of Sardinia. Everyone had been taken off by helicopter, and there was no loss of life. Captain Mark Elliott was roundly congratulated for his handling of the incident. “The insurance paid immediately because it was the storm of the century,” he says. “I took the whole crew but one with me to [Little’s next boat] Star Ship . That was my way to come back.”

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Script Analysis: “The Wolf of Wall Street” — Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown

Scott Myers

Go Into The Story

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Characters Thursday: Themes Friday: Takeaways

Today: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown. Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay :

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire. For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

* We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.

* By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.

* A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: The Wolf of Wall Street . You may download a PDF of the script — free and legal — here .

Screenplay by Terence Winter, book by Jordan Belfort.

IMDb plot summary: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.

The Wolf of Wall Street Scene by Scene Breakdown By Paul Graunke GoIntoTheStory.com Pages 1–5: The story opens with an ad portraying a sober, mature, staid prudent stock trading firm. Cut to Jordan leading a riotous morale building session that involves throwing a dwarf at a target. Follow up with a V.O. montage of his drug-fueled, reckless, and obscene rich lifestyle. Pages 6–11: Flash back to the beginning: Jordan’s first day working on Wall Street. He’s ambitious but relatively naïve. A cocaine-fueled broker, Mark Hanna, expounds to the Wall Street novitiate a cynical, ruthless, f**ck-the-client ethos. For six months, Jordan gets initiated into the ways of Wall Street, passes the Series 7 exam to become a licensed stock broker — just in time to become unemployed when the flash crash of October 1987 wipes out the stock firm where he works. Pages 12–13: Jordan answers an ad for a sleazy, storefront operation selling penny stocks. Pages 14–15: Jordan is a natural born salesman, quickly becomes the best huckster, er broker, the one everyone wants to mimic. Pages 16–17: Impressed by his car and paycheck, Donnie Azoff, quits his job and goes to work for Jordan. He’s also a drug fiend, introduces Jordan to crack. Pages 18–19: Jordan stars his own firm, recruits his own crew. Pages 20–28: A minor league player with major league ambitions, Jordan morphs his firm into a classier operation, Stratton Oakmont, movies into a classier digs. Stratton Oakmont becomes hugely, insanely lucrative. Pages 28–30: Jordan becomes so successful, he’s interviewed for a cover story in Forbes. Which turns out to be a hatchet job; the story gives him the sobriquet “The Wolf of Wall Street”. But, as his wife points out, there’s no such thing as bad publicity: wanna-be brokers mob him for a job at his firm. The Forbes article also brings Jordan to the attention of the FBI in the person of agent Patrick Denham. Pages 30–39: Meanwhile, the firm revels, wallows in more insane success. To bring some sanity and order to the firm, Jordan hires his dad, Max, to be chief financial officer. Two Pages of absurd discussion over dwarfs is interrupted by the arrival of his father who is outraged at the wanton “business expenses” for entertainment. Max warns him that “one of these days the chickens will come home to roost.” Pages 40–44 : During a party at his South Hampton beach house, Jordan’s story pivots in 3 fateful ways: 1] Jordan announces his plan to up Stratton Oakmont’s game by doing IPO’s, initial public stock offerings; 2] Donnie introduces Quaaludes into Jordan’s already extensive pharmacopeia; and 3] Jordan meets the super-glamorous Naomi. It’s lust at first sight. Pages 40–48: Jordan’s besotted affair with Naomi ends his marriage to his first wife, Teresa. Pages 49–51: After Naomi moves into Jordan’s apartment, he has to deal with a scandal when they return unexpectedly from a trip to discover the seemingly staid butler throwing an orgy for his gay friends. And someone has stolen $50 thousand in cash and jewelry. Pages 52–54: Jordan uses Brad, and other ‘ratholes’, to hide money and illegal transactions. The SEC sniffs around the books, but can’t find any actionable evidence to prosecute. Jordan continues to make more money than he knows how to spend or hide from the government. Pages 54–57: Jordan gives Naomi an enormous engagement ring, and after an orgiastic bachelor party in Vegas, the couple marries. Naomi makes a fateful introduction to Jordan, Aunt Emma, her British aunt. Jordan presents her with her wedding present, a 150 foot yacht. After a 3 week cruise in the Caribbean, they settle into a luxurious estate. Heaven on earth. Pages 58–63: Until it isn’t. Eighteen months later, they are fighting over his chronic, compulsive infidelities and reckless drug-induced behavior. He tries, in vain, to make up to her. Pages 64–70: The day of the firm’s biggest IPO for Steve Madden’s shoe company. After an awkward introduction of Madden to the troops, Jordan sends them to the phones with a rousing pep talk. Pages 71–72: Bad news arrives as Jordan and Donnie celebrate the success of the IPO with champagne and ludes: the FBI wants a copy of the wedding video. Pages 73–79: Jordan invites FBI agent Denham and his partner to talk on his yacht, makes a barely subtle attempt to buy him off. But Denham is immune to Jordan’s charm and cash; his integrity is not for sale. Pages 79–81: Realizing he can’t shake off Denham, Jordan makes plans to hide his money in Switzerland. He flies to Zurich while flying high under the influence of ludes. Pages 82–85: Jordan meets with the Swiss banker Saurel who explains that to avoid the long arm of the American government, he needs launder the money through an account — a foreign rathole — under someone else’s name. Pages 85–88: In London, Jordan recruits Aunt Emma to manage the Zurich rathole and addled by drugs tries to seduce her. She’s wise enough to launder the money and wise enough to not succumb to his charms. Pages 88–91: But the problem is there is more cash to move overseas than be taped to any one body. They need lots of bodies. Brad recruits his wife and her extensive family. In the process of figuring out how to move the money, animosity builds between Donnie and Brad. Pages 92–93: The animosity between Donnie and Brad climaxes in an altercation in a strip mall that catches the attention of the cops. Brad is busted with a suitcase of cash. Pages 94–95: In desperation, Donnie distracts Jordan with his cache of the most potent ludes before breaking the bad news about Brad. Pages 95–96: They pop the ludes — but the high doesn’t kick in. They pop some more, exercise to ramp up their metabolism, get the ludes to kick in. Pages 96–100: Jordan’s lawyer calls, frantic but afraid to talk on Jordan’s home phone for fear it’s bugged. Jordan drives to a local country club to use the pay phone. Where, as he receives the bad news about Brad’s arrest, the ludes kick in. He literally crawls his way back to his car and miraculously seems to get back home without a mishap. Pages 100–103: Jordan frantically stops an equally stoned out Donnie from calling Zurich on a home phone about the money. Donnie shoves food down his throat in order to sober up — and chokes as Jordan takes consolation with cocaine. Jordan finally comes to his rescue and must perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save Donnie. Pages 103–104: Come to find out the morning after, Jordan totally wrecked the car while driving home. But since there’s no witness to prove he was driving, he’s not arrested. But Brad serves a few months for contempt for refusing to testify before finally getting out. His luck seems to be holding. Pages 104–105: Jordan’s financial lawyer advises him to cut a deal with the SEC before his luck runs out. Which will require him to surrender control of Stratton Oakmont. Pages 105–108: Jordan announces his retirement to his troops — and then defiantly changes his mind. FBI agent Denham relishes the opportunity to take Jordan down. Brad is welcomed back with (another) wild party. Pages 109–110: The subpoenas drop, the SEC investigates, but Jordan’s entourage loyally refuse to rat. Jordan and Donnie are instructed not to leave the country — which is exactly what they do, to Italy. Pages 110–112: The caca keeps hitting the fan: Steve Madden dumps his stock and Aunt Emma dies. Jordan has three business days to get to Geneva to forge a document in Aunt Emma’s name transferring the Swiss rathole account to him. Pages 113–117: Jordan orders the boat captain to steer for Monaco despite a stormy weather forecast. The yacht sinks in a “perfect storm”, but the passengers manage to be rescued. Page 117–121: Two years later, Jordan is arrested by FBI agent Denham while filming an infomercial for his newest business venture, financial seminars. He’s been ratted out by his ex-partner Rugrat and his ex-banker Saurel after they get busted for another money laundering scheme. He’s indicted for money laundering, securities fraud and a long list of other charges. Pages 122–126: Donnie consoles Jordan as he faces long jail time and financial ruin. But Jordan learns he can get a reduced sentence if he agrees to wear a wire. Which he agrees to do. Pages 126–130: It’s too late to salvage his marriage. Naomi informs him she is filing for divorce and custody of the kids. Pages 131–133: Jordan meets Donnie, passes him a note warning him he’s wired — don’t say anything incriminating. Only to find out later that Donnie has passed the paper to the FBI — ratted on his partner. Denham arrests Jordan again. Pages 134–135: Jordan is sentenced to four years — in a comfy prison for white collar criminals. Pages 135–137: Years later, after he’s released, he’s back on his feet, raking in the dough as a motivational speaker.

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

Major kudos to Paul Graunke for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown, go here .

Tomorrow: We zero in on the major plot points in The Wolf of Wall Street .

REQUEST: We have some incredible scripts in the GITS library which we have yet to analyze including 12 Years a Slave , The Way Way Back , and many more.

NOTE: We have new scripts from 2015 movies including Trainwreck and Ex Machina .

I am looking for volunteers to read a script and provide a scene-by-scene breakdown for it to be used as part of our weekly series. What do you get? Beyond your name being noted here, my thanks, and some creative juju, hopefully you will learn something about story structure and develop another skill set which is super helpful in learning and practicing the craft.

The latest volunteers:

Birdman — Doc Kane Dallas Buyers Club — Devin Dingler Frozen — Doc Kane Gone Girl — Ashley Looper — Michael Perkins Nebraska — David Joyner Nightcrawler — Marija Wild — Jacqui Corcoran The Wolf of Wall Street — Paul Graunke

Thanks, all!

To see examples of scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here . Part of the goal is to create a library of breakdowns for writers to have at their disposal for research and learning.

You may see the scripts we can use for the series — free and legal — by going here .

To date, we have analyzed 47 movie scripts , a great resource for screenwriters. To see those analyses, go here .

Thanks to any of you who will rise to the occasion and take on a scene-by-scene breakdown.

And for those of you who have volunteered, please send me your scene-by-scene breakdown as soon as possible!

Circling back to where we started, reading scripts is hugely important. Analyzing them even more so. If you want to work in Hollywood as a writer, you need to develop your critical analytical skills. This is one way to do that.

So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation!

I hope to see you in comments about this week’s script: The Wolf of Wall Street . Comment Archive

Written by Scott Myers

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Daily Dialogue —March 1, 2017

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'Truth is stranger than fiction' says 'Wolf of Wall Street' agent

The lobster-throwing boat scene didn't happen. But "Wolf of Wall Street" Jordan Belfort sinking his yacht in the Mediterranean during a storm did.

Those were some of the stories former FBI Agent Gregory Coleman — who spent six years investigating Belfort — told Friday to members of the Central Bucks Chamber Chamber of Commerce.

"I spent hundreds of hours tracking down (Belfort's) plane, the boat, getting the financial documents," said Coleman, who retired in January after more than 25 years with the FBI. "I'm ready to have parties on that boat with the FBI. But it's gone. It's at the bottom of the ocean."

Coleman, now a speaker and consultant on financial crimes, spent more than an hour Friday regaling about 100 business leaders gathered at Spring Mill Manor in Northampton with tales of the Belfort investigation, which was made into the 2013 Martin Scorsese film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

"Truth is stranger than fiction, anything you can make up," Coleman said. "We go into Belfort's home, we arrest him, I have the agents take him away. I do my pitch to (Belfort's wife) Nadine, 'get on board the train that's leaving the station.' She agrees to speak with me. But first, [she says], 'I have to go put my PJs on.' We're putting her husband in handcuffs, and she goes up and puts her PJs on."

Coleman said the investigation into Belfort's crimes — using a system of "flippers" and "ratholes" to manipulate supply and demand for stocks, then pocketing the profits in cash — took six years of poring through financial records and working through a tight-knit group of brokers who were loyal to their boss.

"One of the biggest problems I had in cracking the case was getting through the loyalties of his employees," Coleman said. "Once I got them, it was a domino effect."

Eventually, the FBI would arrest such high-level players as Belfort's partner, Danny Porush, portrayed in the movie by Jonah Hill with the character name Donnie Azoff.

Belfort was smart, Coleman said. He targeted wealthy small-business owners who were less likely to complain about their losses. He adapted to changes in regulations to avoid detection. He spent millions in cash to create a false "perception of success" that would impress would-be investors.

"Belfort did not sell stocks," Coleman said. "He sold a story. If he told a good story, you would buy the stocks."

The scheme cost victims of Belfort's brokerage, Stratton Oakmont, $110 million. Today, Belfort is a motivational speaker. 

Coleman was portrayed in the movie by Kyle Chandler, whose character's name was changed to Agent Patrick Denham.

"I had no idea who Kyle Chandler was," Coleman said. "I knew I would be OK, though. The ladies would come up to me in the office and say, 'Who's playing you in the movie?' 'Kyle Chandler.' And they'd go, 'Ooooh.'"

Some scenes, Coleman said, are purely fictional, such as the bribery scene on the boat. Others are a mix of truth and fiction, such as the arrest of Belfort's drug dealer, Brad Bodnick [portrayed by Jon Bernthal]. While based on a real person, Todd Garret, the arrest itself was because of money laundering, not drugs, Coleman said. 

"Part of what they portrayed was absolutely correct and real," Coleman said. "On the other side of the spectrum, it was completely false. It was made up in Hollywood. They threw it in to spice it up. In the middle you have this mixture of truth."

The FBI never did get to seize Belfort's 175-foot yacht. But the agency did seize a beach house in tony Southampton, New York, which Belfort purchased with insurance money.

"The nice thing about money laundering," Coleman said, "is once it's tainted, it's always tainted."

Crissa Shoemaker DeBree: 215-345-3186; email: [email protected]; Twitter: @CrissaShoemaker

Home » Movie Soundtracks

The Wolf of Wall Street Soundtrack: Listen to all 42 songs with scene descriptions

Each song is provided with a scene description and timestamp, as well as a full-length audio playback.

Note: Below is a complete playlist of all 42 songs that can be heard in the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”. Some of these commercial songs are not included on the official soundtrack album but are used in the movie.

All 42 songs featured in “The Wolf of Wall Street”:

What’s the movie about? The film is set in the early 90s. Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) founds the brokerage firm “Stratton Oakmont” in his early 20s. He quickly rises to become a multimillionaire. He has a dissolute lifestyle characterized by alcohol, drugs, sex and decadence. Driven by insatiable greed and with a sense of invincibility behind him, he and his “wolf gang”, including his buddy Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), get involved in illegal business. This soon attracts the attention of the law, especially FBI agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) looking intently behind the facade of Belfort’s corporate web. As law enforcement slowly gets wise to Jordan, his entire house of cards threatens to collapse.

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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Did jordan belfort really meet his future business partner in a restaurant.

What was the name of Belfort's brokerage house?

The Wolf of Wall Street true story confirms that, like in the movie, Stratton Oakmont was the name of the real Jordan Belfort's Long Island, New York brokerage house. Belfort and co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie) chose the name because it sounded prestigious ( NYTimes.com ). The firm would later be accused of manipulating the IPOs of at least 34 companies, including Steve Madden Ltd. (their biggest deal), Dualstar Technologies, Paramount Financial, D.V.I. Financial, M. H. Meyerson & Co., Czech Industries, M.V.S.I. Technology, Questron Technologies, and Etel Communications.

What exactly did Jordan Belfort do that was illegal?

Belfort's Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm ran a classic "pump and dump" operation. Belfort and several of his executives would buy up a particular company's stock and then have an army of brokers (following a script he had prepared) sell it to unsuspecting investors. This would cause the stock to rise, pretty much guaranteeing Belfort and his associates a substantial profit. Soon, the stock would fall back to reality, with the investors bearing a significant loss. -NYTimes.com

How many employees worked for Jordan Belfort's brokerage firm?

At its peak in the 1990s, Stratton Oakmont, Belfort's firm that he co-founded with Danny Porush, employed more than 1,000 brokers. -TheDailyBeast.com

Danny Porush says the movie's dwarf-tossing scene (above) never happened. Even Belfort's book only discusses it as a possibility. Did Jordan Belfort really host an in-office dwarf-tossing competition?

No. "We never abused [or threw] the midgets in the office; we were friendly to them," Danny Porush (the real Donnie Azoff) says. "There was no physical abuse." Porush does admit that the firm hired little people to attend at least one party. Jordan Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street only discusses the tossing of little people as a possibility, not something that actually happened. -MotherJones.com

During what years did the events in the movie take place?

The events in The Wolf of Wall Street movie took place during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush founded the brokerage firm of Stratton Oakmont in the late 1980s. The securities fraud and money laundering charges brought against the firm involved companies that Stratton Oakmont helped raise money for in public stock offerings from 1990 through 1997. In 1996, Stratton Oakmont was banned from the brokerage industry, which eventually forced the company to close its doors. -NYTimes.com

Was Jordan Belfort really known as the "wolf" of Wall Street?

No, at least not according to the former co-founder and president of the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm, Danny Porush (portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie). The real Porush says that he is not aware of anyone at the firm calling Jordan the "wolf." Porush says that it's just one of a number of exaggerations and inventions in both Belfort's book and the movie. -MotherJones.com

Is Matthew McConaughey's character, Mark Hanna, based on a real person?

Yes. In exploring The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we learned that Jordan Belfort claims to have met Matthew McConaughey's character's real-life counterpart, Mark Hanna, in 1987 when he was working at the old-money trading firm of L.F. Rothschild. His new acquaintance was an uproarious senior broker at the firm and introduced Belfort to the excess and debauchery that Belfort would later make a daily staple at Stratton Oakmont. Like in the movie, the real Mark Hanna behind McConaughey's character told Belfort that the key to success was masturbation, cocaine and hookers, in addition to making your customers reinvest their winnings so you can collect the commissions. -TheDailyBeast.com

Did Jordan Belfort really abuse cocaine and other drugs?

Yes. In The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is shown snorting cocaine off a prostitute's backside and nearly crashing his private helicopter while high on a cocktail of prescription drugs, including Quaaludes, morphine and Xanax. In researching The Wolf of Wall Street true story, it quickly became clear that Belfort used drugs heavily in real life too. In his memoir, he states that at times he had enough "running through my circulatory system to sedate Guatemala."

Jordan Belfort did give speeches like DiCaprio in the movie (left). Right: The real Belfort speaks at a 1994 Stratton Oakmont Christmas party (right). Did Belfort really stand in front of his employees and give riling speeches with a microphone?

Yes. Belfort was known to stir his troops into action by belting out words of motivation through a microphone. However, his speeches were often filled with more self-adulation than DiCaprio's speeches in the movie.

Did a female employee really let them shave her head for $10,000 to pay for breast implants?

The real Jordan Belfort claims this is true in his memoir. The female employee let them shave off her blonde hair for $10,000, which she used to pay for D-cup breast implants. Co-founder Danny Porush also says that the shaving took place, "...the worst we ever did was shave somebody's head and then pay 'em ten grand for it," says Porush. -MotherJones.com

Was Jordan Belfort's Quaalude dealer in the movie, Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), based on a real person?

Yes. The character in the movie, Brad Bodnick, who has a goatee and is portrayed by The Walking Dead 's Jon Bernthal, is based on Jordan Belfort's real-life Quaalude supplier, Todd Garret. In his memoir, the real Jordan Belfort claims that Garret sold him approximately 10,000 Quaaludes.

Was there ever a chimpanzee in the office?

No. According to co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie), the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio's character pals around with a chimp is pure monkey business. "There was never a chimpanzee in the office," says Porush. "There were no animals in the office...I would also never abuse an animal in any way" (though he does admit to eating the goldfish, see below). -MotherJones.com

Did he really almost crash his helicopter in his yard?

Did Danny Porush really marry his own first cousin?

Yes. According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the real Donnie Azoff (whose actual name is Danny Porush) did marry his first cousin Nancy "because she was a real piece of ass." After twelve years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1998 after Danny told Nancy that he was in love with another woman ( NYPost.com ). Danny and his ex-wife share three children together.

Did Belfort and his colleagues really have drug-addled nights and sexcapades with prostitutes on a near daily basis?

Though the movie and Belfort's memoir might seem like gross exaggerations of the truth, depicting heavy drug use and sexcapades in the office during trading hours, they're not exaggerations at all says the F.B.I. agent who finally took Belfort into custody, "I tracked this guy for ten years, and everything he wrote is true." Kyle Chandler portrays the agent in the Martin Scorsese movie. -NYTimes.com

Was Belfort really arrested for crashing his Lamborghini while high on expired Quaaludes?

Yes, but according to Belfort the car wasn't a Lamborghini like in the movie, it was a Mercedes. He was so high in a drug daze that he couldn't remember causing several different accidents as he tried to make his way home. In real life, one of the accidents was a head-on collision that actually sent a woman to the hospital. -TheDailyBeast.com

The real Donnie Azoff, Daniel Porush, says that he really did swallow a goldfish like Jonah Hill (pictured). Did Danny Porush really swallow a goldfish?

Yes. According to the real Donnie Azoff, whose actual name is Danny Porush, the scene where Jonah Hill's character eats a goldfish is based on a true story. "I said to one of the brokers, 'If you don't do more business, I'm gonna eat your goldfish!'" Porush recalls. "So I did." -MotherJones.com

Did they really tape money to a woman's body?

In one scene of The Wolf of Wall Street movie, bricks of cash are taped to a Swiss woman's body. "[I] never taped money to boobs," the real Danny Porush says (played by Jonah Hill in the movie). According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the event did happen but his partner Porush wasn't there. -MotherJones.com

Was footwear mogul Steve Madden really involved in Belfort's scheme?

Yes. As shown in The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Steve Madden had been a childhood friend of Belfort's partner Danny Porush (renamed Donnie Azoff in the movie and portrayed by actor Jonah Hill). Their fondness for drugs and alcohol reunited the two of them. During the initial public offering of his footwear company, Steve Madden Ltd., Madden acquired a large number of shares of his company, which were actually being controlled by Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont. Once shares became available to the public, Stratton Oakmont got down to the business of selling them to unsuspecting suckers. Billing Madden's company as the hottest issue on Wall Street, Belfort's brokers in turn drove up the price. Eventually, Steve Madden was to sell off his shares when the hype was at its peak, just before the stock began its inevitable decline. Similar to what is seen in the movie, Belfort still maintains that Steve Madden tried to steal his Steve Madden shares from him. However, Jordan Belfort did make approximately $23 million in two hours as part of the deal with Steve Madden, who would later be charged as an accomplice to Belfort's scheme. -NYTimes.com For his part, Steve Madden was sentenced to 41 months in prison and was forced to resign as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd. He also resigned from the company's board of directors. However, he did not leave the company entirely. He kept his foot (or shoe) in the door by giving himself the title of creative consultant, for which he was well-compensated even while he was in prison. -Slate.com

Did Jordan Belfort really name his yacht after his wife?

Did Belfort's yacht really sink in a Mediterranean storm?

Yes. In real life, Belfort's 167-foot yacht, which was originally owned by Coco Chanel, sunk off the coast of Italy when Belfort, who was high on drugs at the time, insisted that the captain take the boat through a storm ( TheDailyBeast.com ). Listen to Belfort tell the story during The Room Live 's Jordan Belfort interview . As he states in the interview, his helicopter didn't fall off the boat during the storm like in the movie. Instead, they had to push the helicopter off of the top deck of the boat to make room for the rescue chopper to drop down an Italian Navy commando.

How long did FBI agent Gregory Coleman spend tracking Jordan Belfort and his firm?

FBI agent Gregory Coleman, renamed Patrick Denham for the film and portrayed by actor Kyle Chandler, made tracking Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont, a top priority for six years. In an interview ( watch here ), Coleman says that the factors that drew his attention to the firm were "the flashiness, the brashness of their activities, the blatantness of the way they were soliciting people and cold calling people, and the number of victims that were complaining on a daily basis." -CNBC

Did Jordan really strike his wife?

Yes. The Wolf of Wall Street movie shows Jordan (Leonardo DiCaprio) hitting his wife (Margot Robbie) with his hand and fist. According to his memoir, he actually kicked his wife Nadine down the stairs while he was holding his daughter. She landed on her right side with "tremendous force."

Did Belfort really endanger his 3-year-old daughter's life by crashing his car through the garage door?

Yes. In real life, he put his daughter Chandler in the front seat of the car without a seat belt on, before crashing it through the garage door and then driving full speed into a six-foot-high limestone pillar at the edge of the driveway. Like in the movie, he was high at the time.

Tommy Chong was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison and encouraged him to write the book. What was Jordan Belfort's punishment?

When he was finally arrested in 1998 for money laundering and securities fraud, Jordan Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison. This was after agreeing to wear a wire and provide the FBI with information to help prosecute various friends and associates. In the end, the true story reveals that he served only 22 months in a California federal prison. His cellmate in prison was Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, who was serving a nine month sentence for selling bongs. -TheDailyBeast.com

What inspired Jordan Belfort to write his memoir?

It wasn't so much a what as it was a who. Tommy Chong (one half of "Cheech and Chong") was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison. After laughing at some of Belfort's stories from his days running the firm, Chong encouraged him to write a book. -TheDailyBeast.com

Why is Jordan Belfort's memoir filled with so many exclamations?

Jordan Belfort attempted to model his writing after Hunter S. Thompson ( Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ), who was known for using plenty of exclamation points.

What happened to Belfort's partner, Danny Porush, portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie?

Danny Porush, renamed Donnie Azoff for the movie and played by actor Jonah Hill, served 39 months in prison for his part in the corrupt dealings of Stratton Oakmont, the firm that he co-founded with Jordan Belfort. Porush currently runs a medical supply business in Florida, where he lives with his second wife Lisa in a $4 million mansion. A 2008 Forbes article pointed out his company's fraudulent tactics, which included trying to persuade people to order diabetic supplies and getting them to provide information about their physicians that could be used to bill Medicare. A number of complaints surfaced accusing Porush's company of sending unsolicited packages that were accompanied by unexpected Medicare charges. Back in 2001, Porush was arrested in connection to a fraud scheme surrounding Noble & Perrault Collectibles, a company that sold commemorative coins over the phone. Victims saw their credit cards charged repeatedly, at times for thousands of dollars, while often never receiving any merchandise for purchases that were largely unauthorized to begin with. -Sun Sentinel Enjoying a well-to-do life in Florida, Daniel Porush and his wife drive matching Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles. With regard to The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Porush said, "I really have no comment other than to say I would never try to profit from a crime I'm so remorseful for." -NYPost.com

I heard that Jordan Belfort is a motivational speaker, is that true?

How much did Jordan Belfort earn from his books and the movie?

Catching the Wolf of Wall Street includes more of Belfort's outrageous stories that were not included in his first book. As we investigated The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we discovered that Jordan's books, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street , netted him a $1 million advance from Random House. He also earned $1 million for the film rights to his story ( TheDailyBeast.com ). In a response to criticism over these profits and future profits from the movie, Jordan Belfort said the following via his Facebook page, "I am not turning over 50% of the profits of the books and the movie, which was what the government had wanted me to do. Instead, I insisted on turning over 100% of the profits of both books and the movie, which is to say, I am not making a single dime on any of this." According to Jordan, the money is being used to pay back the millions still owed to those who were scammed by his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont.

Does Jordan Belfort have a cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street movie?

Yes, the real Jordan Belfort appears at the end of the movie as the person who introduces Leonardo DiCaprio's character before he takes the stage at his Straight Line seminar.

Have any other movies been based on Jordan Belfort's story?

Yes, but only loosely. The brokerage firm in the movie Boiler Room , released in 2000, was inspired by the illegal practices of Jordan Belfort's Stratton Oakmont firm. In the movie, actor Ben Affleck portrays Jim Young, the Belfort-esque co-founder of the firm, who, like Jordan Belfort, trains his brokers in the "pump and dump" scheme. -NYTimes.com

Watch The Wolf of Wall Street movie trailer. Also, view Jordan Belfort interviews and home video footage of him speaking at a Stratton Oakmont party in the 1990s.

• Jordan Belfort's Website
• Danny Porush's Website (played by Jonah Hill)
• Mark Hanna's Website (played by Matthew McConaughey)
• The Wolf of Wall Street Official Paramount Movie Site

Screen Rant

The wolf of wall street ending explained.

The ending of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street shows the fallout of Jordan Belfort’s financial fraud, teaching key lessons about greed.

• The Wolf of Wall Street is a black comedy that follows Jordan Belfort's rise and fall as a stockbroker involved in fraudulent practices.
• Belfort's marriage to Naomi deteriorates due to his illicit activity, affairs, and drug abuse, ultimately leading to divorce.
• The movie portrays Stratton Oakmont's illegal " pump-and-dump " scheme, resulting in the company's closure and Belfort's arrest, but highlights the key lesson of the intoxicating power of greed.

The Wolf of Wall Street is a Martin Scorsese black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's infamous tale of business fraud as a stockbroker. In The Wolf of Wall Street , Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) becomes a stockbroker and achieves a moderate level of financial success before losing his job in the 1988 Black Monday crash. He then founds the stock trading firm Stratton Oakmont, which quickly becomes a criminal enterprise as Belfort and his associates trick unsuspecting customers into investing in stocks without showing them the fine print.

Over its three-hour runtime, The Wolf of Wall Street follows the rise and fall of Stratton Oakmont and the wealth Jordan Belfort builds from it. It also chronicles Belfort's tumultuous romance with his wife, Naomi (Margot Robbie), and his increasingly out-of-control drug addiction. Belfort spends much of The Wolf of Wall Street barely keeping one step ahead of the FBI before finally being forced to turn himself and his company over in The Wolf of Wall Street 's ending.

RELATED: 20 Best Wolf Of Wall Street Quotes

Jordan Belfort's Arrest & Imprisonment Explained

As Belfort finally begins to break his drug addiction after a near-death experience aboard his yacht in Italy (which he himself causes by ordering the yacht to sail to Monaco during a storm), the authorities get the jump on him when his French banking associate Jean-Jacques Saurel (Jean Dujardin) is arrested. After Saurel sells out Belfort, he takes a plea deal to round up evidence on his Stratton Oakmont colleagues in exchange for a lesser sentence.

During a conversation with his partner in crime Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), Belfort tips his friend about the investigation. Unfortunately for Belfort, the FBI learns of his warning, which is a major breach of his plea deal. Nonetheless, Jordan receives a relatively light sentence of 36 months in a minimum-security prison, and he's released after just 22 months.

What Happens To Jordan & Naomi's Marriage

Belfort and his wife, Naomi, initially have a quite happy marriage. However, it soon devolves into the two regularly arguing and swearing at each other over Belfort's illicit activity, extramarital affairs, and drug abuse. This comes to a head when Belfort is caught by the SEC and FBI, with Naomi telling Jordan that she is divorcing him and taking custody of their two children.

The infuriated Belfort then swiftly relapses into his cocaine use. After punching Naomi in the stomach, he tries to leave the house with his young daughter. Belfort is in a warped rage and high on cocaine, so he doesn't get far and simply crashes his car while pulling out of the driveway. Fortunately, he does so without hurting his daughter. Naomi takes their daughter back, and Belfort is left to ponder how much he has ruined his own life.

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Stratton Oakmont's Future Explained

Stratton Oakmont's business model was based on what is known as a " pump-and-dump " scheme, in which Jordan and his fellow stock traders greatly exaggerate the value of stocks to sell them at higher prices. After the customer buys the stocks, the price of the stock drops, with the customer defrauded of their money and Stratton Oakmont making a large profit. Needless to say, this is a highly illegal form of stock trading, and Stratton Oakmont's unusually swift rise attracts the attention of both the SEC and the FBI.

As the authorities begin to close in on Stratton Oakmont in The Wolf of Wall Street , Belfort makes a barely disguised attempt to bribe the feds with " fun coupons, " his slang term for money. However, the ruse is up altogether by the time he is forced to become an FBI informant. After Belfort's testimony against his co-conspirators, the FBI shuts down Stratton Oakmont.

What Happens To The Real Characters After The Wolf Of Wall Street's Ending

The movie's ending raises questions about what happened to the real Belfort after The Wolf of Wall Street . After serving his 22-month sentence, the real Belfort was released from prison in 2006. He has since become a motivational speaker and written two books on his time running Stratton Oakmont, one of which — The Wolf of Wall Street — served as the basis for Scorsese's film. Additionally, Belfort has also become a cryptocurrency investor.

Jordan's ex-wife, Nadine Macaluso, who was the basis for Margot Robbie's Naomi, has since gone on to work as a therapist and marriage counselor. Macaluso has also spoken on abusive relationships, and she is the author of the book Run Like Hell: A Therapist’s Guide to Recognizing, Escaping, And Healing From Trauma Bonds . Additionally, Macaluso consulted with Margot Robbie and her accent coach for The Wolf of Wall Street to help develop Robbie's accent as Naomi.

Azoff is an analogue for Belfort's real-life Stratton Oakmont associate Danny Porush, who was convicted alongside Belfort and served 39 months in prison. After his release from prison, Porush went on to work for Med-Care Diabetic & Medical Supplies. Porush himself later faced further fraud allegations amid claims that Porush and others at Med-Care had tried to fraudulently sell medical supplies to companies, though Med-Care pushed back with a countersuit.

What Jordan Belfort's "Sell Me This Pen" Challenge Means

In The Wolf of Wall Street 's final scene, Belfort has begun a new career teaching seminars on sales techniques, with the real Belfort even making a cameo introducing his on-screen counterpart. Drawing upon an earlier scene in the movie, Belfort approaches each attendee holding a pen in his hand and simply demands, " Sell me this pen. " As each attendee makes a failed sales pitch to Belfort, he takes the pen back and poses the same question to the next audience member.

The earlier scene in the movie sees Belfort demonstrating the same trick by handing a pen to his friend, Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), who then asks Belfort to write his name down. When Belfort says he doesn't have a pen, Brad replies, " Exactly. Supply and demand. " The ending of The Wolf of Wall Street pays this off by showing, in a sly way, that the key to Belfort's success was all about enticing customers with something they didn't have, even if the sale itself was bogus. While the seminar attendees focus on making the pen itself look good, Belfort's sales methodology is both simple and elusive to all of them.

What The Wolf Of Wall Street's Ending Changes from Belfort's Real Life

With respect to the accuracy of The Wolf of Wall Street , Belfort has said that his drug addiction was significantly worse in real life. By Belfort's own account, he was addicted to up to 22 different drugs at one point. Additionally, per the real Belfort, the outrageous, drug-fueled shenanigans in the Stratton Oakmont office seen in The Wolf of Wall Street are also very accurate.

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Macaluso has also stated that the movie portrays her marriage to Belfort truthfully. However, both Belfort and Macaluso have given different descriptions of the scene in which Belfort assaults Naomi. Through her TikTok, (via Daily Mail UK ), Macaluso has claimed that, rather than punching her, Belfort burned her clothes and kicked her down a staircase after she insisted he go to rehab. She also said that she did not threaten to take their kids from him, but that Belfort instead said he was going to Florida with their daughter.

Belfort has provided a somewhat different account of this incident and also says he did not punch Macaluso. Jordan has stated (via The Guardian ) that " it was more of a struggle where she grabbed onto my leg and I kicked out, " while acknowledging that " it was awful what I did " and he was on " massive quantities of drugs." At any rate, Macaluso has said that she and her ex-husband are " all okay today." According to her, Belfort even paid her a visit on the day of The Wolf of Wall Street 's 2013 release.

The Real Meaning Of The Wolf Of Wall Street's Ending

Above all else, The Wolf of Wall Street is a cautionary tale against the intoxicating power of greed, though it delivers its message in the form of a hilarious black comedy. When Belfort begins his narration in the opening of The Wolf of Wall Street , he is a cocky, self-absorbed party animal barely concerned about the ramifications of his illegal activity. He's more perturbed that he only earned $49 million the previous year (" three shy of $1 million a week, " as he observes). With Belfort outright bragging about the number of drugs he takes in the movie's opening, excess also goes hand-in-hand with his avarice.

For all the wealth he accumulates through Stratton Oakmont, Belfort is never really happy unless he is high on drugs, and he also treats money in much the same way. His ultimate downfall — and that of Stratton Oakmont — are both a byproduct of the same impulse. Belfort and his cohorts are constantly chasing the high that both money and drugs give them, no matter the harm they cause to themselves or others. In the end, Belfort learns some valuable lessons about greed and excess in The Wolf of Wall Street , though he remains a master salesman, as his pen trick shows.

Source: Daily Mail UK , The Guardian

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Margot Robbie Steals the Spotlight in The Wolf of Wall Street

Margot Robbie’s breakout role came in 2013’s outrageous black comedy, The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese. Though the film centers on Leonardo DiCaprio’s hedonistic stockbroker Jordan Belfort, Robbie’s portrayal of his wife, Naomi Lapaglia, is nothing short of unforgettable.

From Newcomer to Hollywood A-Lister

At the time of her audition, Robbie was a fresh face in Hollywood, with only a few credits to her name. Her determination to land the part is well-documented. Legend has it that she improvised a scene where she slaps DiCaprio, showcasing the character’s fiery spirit and instantly impressing Scorsese.

Naomi Lapaglia: A Wife Entangled in Excess

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Naomi is a young woman drawn to Belfort’s flamboyant lifestyle. However, Robbie portrays her with surprising complexity. Naomi is not just a trophy wife. Beneath the designer clothes and luxurious lifestyle, she grapples with the moral ambiguity of her husband’s world. See the most epic and funny scene about this family below:

A Forceful Performance

Robbie holds her own opposite the powerhouse performance of DiCaprio. Her portrayal of Naomi is both glamorous and vulnerable. She delivers comedic timing alongside dramatic depth, showcasing her remarkable range as an actress.

A Scene-Stealing Role

Several of Robbie’s scenes in The Wolf of Wall Street have become iconic. From the unforgettable yacht introduction to the raw and emotional confrontations with Belfort, Robbie leaves a lasting impression.

Margot Robbie’s Rise to Stardom

The Wolf of Wall Street was a major turning point for Robbie’s career. Her captivating performance propelled her into the Hollywood A-list, leading to roles in blockbuster franchises like DC Comics and critically acclaimed films like I, Tonya .

Whether you’ve seen The Wolf of Wall Street or not, Margot Robbie ‘s performance as Naomi Lapaglia is a testament to her undeniable talent. It’s a captivating portrayal that continues to impress audiences and solidify her place as a Hollywood leading lady.

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