Dumb Money Plot Summary
In Dumb Money, Keith Gill (Paul Dano) is a working-class guy who puts his life savings into buying stock for GameStop. He moonlights as a YouTuber called Roaring Kitty, who gives his subscribers investment tips and encourages them to also invest in GameStop. The billionaire hedge fund companies find themselves losing money as the stock grows and Gill and his followers get richer, leading to the lives of both sides being turned upside down.
What is Dumb Money really about?
The theme of Dumb Money is that if a group of people work together, they can overthrow the greedy rich people of this world and gain a victory for “the little guy.”
It’s a David vs. Goliath story about courage and belief and how the financial system, especially in America, is broken almost beyond repair.
How does Dumb Money end?
The major players in the GameStop crisis testify in the congressional hearing. This includes YouTuber Keith Gill, Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) of Melvin Capital, Citadel chief Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman) and Robinhood crook Vlad Tenev (Sebastian Stan). Each of them testifies before the House Committee on Financial Services to discuss how they came to be involved in GameStop shares.
Keith Gill gives a rousing video link speech about his upbringing and how he innocently invested in stock in the gaming company. The others fare less well, with Gabe Plotkin being told by his advisors to set his video link away from the backdrop of his wine cabinet and Ken Griffin being asked how many people were in the room helping him during his testimony.
The movie ends with the revelations of the new net worth of the people who made and lost money in the GameStop investment. It’s revealed that Keith Gill’s net worth is now a staggering $34 million, while moderate investor Marcus Barcia now has a net worth of $181k, and Harmony and Riri each have a net worth that exceeds $100k.
It also shows that, despite the failures of the GameStop hedge fund guys, most of them kept their net worth, except for Vlad Tenev, whose $1 million net worth drastically declined due to what happened to his company, Robinhood.
The movie ends with a real-life YouTube video clip of Keith Gill, and it’s revealed that he doesn’t post videos anymore and has seemingly retired from public life.
Read More: Dumb Money Movie Review