''Rogue Trader'' is a 1999 British
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film written and directed by
James Dearden
James Dearden (born 14 September 1949) is an English film director and screenwriter, the son of Scottish actress Melissa Stribling and English film director Basil Dearden. He directed nine films between 1977 and 2018. His film '' Pascali's Isl ...
and starring
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...
and
Anna Friel
Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she has been acting professionally since age 13. Friel achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache on the British soap opera ''Brookside'' ( ...
. The film centers on the life of former derivatives broker
Nick Leeson
Nicholas William Leeson (born 25 February 1967) is an English former derivatives trader whose fraudulent, unauthorized and speculative trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest merchant bank. Leeson was ...
and the 1995 collapse of
Barings Bank
Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's List of oldest banks in continuous operation, oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 ...
. It was based on Leeson's 1996 book ''
Rogue Trader: How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World''.
Plot
''Rogue Trader'' tells the true story of
Nick Leeson
Nicholas William Leeson (born 25 February 1967) is an English former derivatives trader whose fraudulent, unauthorized and speculative trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest merchant bank. Leeson was ...
, a young employee of
Barings Bank
Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's List of oldest banks in continuous operation, oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 ...
who after a successful spell working for the firm's office in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
is sent to
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
as General Manager of the Trading Floor on the
SIMEX exchange. The movie follows Leeson's rise as he soon becomes one of Barings' key traders. However, everything isn't as it appears – through the 88888 error account, Nick is hiding huge losses as he gambles away Barings' money with little more than the bat of an eyelid from the powers-that-be back in London.
Eventually the losses mount up to well over £800 million and Nick, along with his wife Lisa, decide to leave Singapore and escape to
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
. Nick doesn't realise the severity of his losses until he reads in the newspaper that Barings has gone bankrupt. They then decide to return to London but Nick is arrested en route in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. Nick is extradited to Singapore where he is sentenced to six and a half years in jail and is diagnosed with
colon cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...
. Because of this, he did not complete his sentence.
Cast
*
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...
as
Nick Leeson
Nicholas William Leeson (born 25 February 1967) is an English former derivatives trader whose fraudulent, unauthorized and speculative trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest merchant bank. Leeson was ...
*
Anna Friel
Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she has been acting professionally since age 13. Friel achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache on the British soap opera ''Brookside'' ( ...
as Lisa Leeson
*
Pip Torrens
Philip D'Oyly "Pip" Torrens (born 2 June 1960) is an English actor.
Known for playing urbane, authoritative figures, Torrens portrayed courtier Tommy Lascelles in the Netflix drama ''The Crown'', aristocrat Lord Massen in the HBO series ''The ...
as Simon Jones
*
Tim McInnerny
Tim McInnerny ( ; born 18 September 1956) is an English actor. He is known for his many roles on stage and television, including as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the 1980s British sitcom ''Blackadder''.
Early life
McInnerny was born ...
as Tony Hawes
*
Nigel Lindsay
Nigel Lindsay (born 17 January 1969) is an English actor. He is best known on television for his roles as Sir Robert Peel in the first two seasons of ''Victoria'', Jo Jo Marshall in the Netflix series '' Safe'' and as Barry in the BAFTA-winnin ...
as Ron Baker
*
John Standing
Sir John Ronald Leon, 4th Baronet (born 16 August 1934) is an English actor and baronet who is known as John Standing. He is the stepson of John Clements.
Early life
Standing was born in London, the son of Kay Hammond (née Dorothy Katherin ...
as Peter Baring
*
Lee Ross
Lee David Ross (August 25, 1942 – May 14, 2021) was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist wh ...
as Danny Argyropoulos
*
Yves Beneyton
Yves Beneyton (born 3 August 1946) is a French actor.
Filmography
External links
*
French male film actors
French male television actors
French male stage actors
French male voice actors
1946 births
Living people
{{France- ...
as Pierre Beaumarchais
*
Betsy Brantley
Betsy Brantley is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, plays, and television shows since the early 1980s. Her breakout role was in the 1982 film '' Five Days One Summer'' with Sean Connery.
Early years
Betsy Brantley was ...
as Brenda Granger
*
Caroline Langrishe
Caroline Langrishe (born 10 January 1958) is an English actress.
Early life
Born in London, Langrishe is the elder daughter of Patrick Nicholas Langrishe (1932–2022), of The Manor House, Sellindge, Kent, a Lieutenant in the 11th Hussars, late ...
as Ash Lewis
*
Ivan Heng
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
as The Bartender
* Rob Lemming as Trader #3
Release and distribution
''Rogue Trader'' was released on 25 June 1999 in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was distributed by
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
in the United Kingdom and
Cinemax
Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent net ...
in the United States. It flopped at the box office, gaining less than 1 million sterling in the UK.
Music
During a bar scene, the
Blur song "
Song 2
"Song 2" is a song by English rock band Blur. The song is the second song on their eponymous fifth studio album. Released on 7 April 1997, "Song 2" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Char ...
" is heard playing. This is an
anachronism
An anachronism (from the Ancient Greek, Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronology, chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time per ...
as the song was not released until three years after the scene was set.
Reception
''Rogue Trader'' was poorly received by critics, and the film holds a 30% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 23 reviews.
Rare Porsche Appearance
35 minutes into the film, a rare Porsche 911 Speedster (964) is driven through the streets of Singapore with Nick Leeson (Ewan McGregor) as the passenger. This is a rare 1993 964 Speedster. Only an estimated 27 of these vehicles were produced as right hand drive. Only 4 were originally delivered by Porsche to Singapore, 2 yellow, 1 white and the guards red vehicle tha
appears in the movie
References
External links
*
*
*
{{James Dearden
1999 films
1990s biographical drama films
1999 crime drama films
British biographical drama films
British crime drama films
1990s business films
Trading films
Films based on non-fiction books
Films directed by James Dearden
Films set in Singapore
Films shot in Singapore
Films shot in Indonesia
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
Wall Street films
Crime films based on actual events
Drama films based on actual events
Films set in 1995
1990s English-language films
1990s British films