Rogue Trader (1999)

Ewan McGregor: Nick Leeson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Nick Leeson : [looking into the mirror]  I, Nicholas Leeson, have lost 50 million quid... IN ONE DAY!

• Nick Leeson : [voiceover]  My team were young, they were hungry, and they didn't have a clue.

  [in a cafe with his newly hired team] 

  Nick Leeson : A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a specified amount of a commodity at a specified price at a future date.

  [no one responds] 

  Nick Leeson : All right, um... it's like if I agree to sell you this cup of cappuccino, which I don't yet own, at 45 cents a month from now, if I can buy the cappuccino at say, 43 cents, I make a profit. If the price goes the other way, I have to pay more and I lose. It's timing, it's buying and selling at the right moment. Sometimes expresso might be the best deal, or salt or pepper.

  George Seow : So, we're running a supermarket, huh?

  [they laugh] 

• Nick Leeson : I'd never even heard of Barings before I started working for them. It's not like there's a Barings Bank in Watford.

  Lisa Leeson : Well, you're a big hero back in London, they think the sun shines out your arse.

  Nick Leeson : Really? I was beginning to feel like one of those Japanese soldiers, you know, still stuck out in the jungle 20 years after the war.

  Lisa Leeson : What's it like here? They tell it's not safe to go out at night.

  Nick Leeson : That's bollocks, the locals are great. Best thing about this place is it's not still full of pompous ex-colonials who think they were born to rule the world. That's what I love about Asia, anyone can make it, it doesn't matter which stupid school you went to.

  Lisa Leeson : When they told me I was going to Jakarta I had to look it up on a map.

  Nick Leeson : As a matter of fact, so did I.

• George Seow : [pulls up in a new red Porsche 911 convertible]  Get in, you bastard!

  Nick Leeson : [laughing]  What the fuck is that?

  George Seow : Sex on wheels. It's a Porsche, moron! Get in!

  Nick Leeson : [getting in]  I'll tell you what it is, it's disgusting.

  George Seow : I'll tell you what it is, it's a great big hard-on.

  [he speeds off] 

  George Seow : Gotta think of something to do with my bonus!

  Nick Leeson : Well, you keep your eyes on the road, you flash git!

• [Nick and Danny have mooned a group of women in a bar, and now they've returned with the police] 

  Nick Leeson : Oh, you've got to be joking.

  Policeman : No laughing matter. Outraging a lady's modesty, very serious crime in Singapore.

• Nick Leeson : [vomits in front of a Rolls-Royce then looks at his reflection in the grille]  Looking like shit, Nick. Looking like fucking shit, mate.

• Peter Norris : Now, we've had a lot of stick over funding. Brenda Granger tells me we're borrowing all over Japan to get the funds to you. People are beginning to talk, Nick.

  Nick Leeson : I understand. I understand completely.

  Peter Norris : Excellent. Good man.

  [he turns back to chat with the others] 

  Nick Leeson : [voiceover]  And that was it. That was apparently all he had to say on the subject of my enormous exposure that was causing so many ulcers throughout the Barings empire.

• Tony Hawes : You're down for 450, aren't you? Your bonus? Only a week to go.

  Nick Leeson : Sorry?

  Tony Hawes : Have you thought about what you're going to do with it? Only a week to go.

  Nick Leeson : [taps his glass and rises]  Excuse me, I have an announcement to make. I know that some of you are worried about our exposure in the market and you're probably wondering about the identity of our mystery customer X. Well, the fact is he doesn't exist. We are the customer, Barings. And if you look properly at the five eights account, which is not a client account at all, it's an errors account, you'll realise that it's concealing losses in the region of 200 million pounds. No, I tell a lie, it's more like 230 after today.

  [shocked, the executives abruptly vomit into their dinners. The picture fades back to a few moments earlier as Nick emerges from a daydream] 

  Tony Hawes : Only a week to go. What are you going to do with all that money?

  Nick Leeson : Well, I'm not going to spend it on futures and options.

  [everyone else laughs] 

• [Nick and Lisa are fleeing Asia on a flight to Frankfurt] 

  Nick Leeson : Did you say we stop at Abu Dhabi?

  Lisa Leeson : Yeah.

  Nick Leeson : That's where they cut your hands off.

  Lisa Leeson : Oh, don't be ridiculous. They'd just stone you.

  [they start laughing hysterically] 

  Nick Leeson : Poor old Barings, eh? That's what you get for hiring the wrong sort of person.

• German Policeman : [checking Lisa's passport]  Where is your man?

  Nick Leeson : [stepping foward]  I'm her man.

• [last lines] 

  Nick Leeson : [voiceover]  Despite rumours of secret bank accounts and hidden millions, I did not profit personally from my unlawful trading. To be absolutely honest, sometimes I wish I had.