Plot

In 1985, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a junior stockbroker at Jackson Steinem & Co., is desperate to get to the top. He wants to become involved with his hero, the corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a ruthless and legendary Wall Street player, whose values could not conflict more with those of Bud's father Carl (Martin Sheen), a blue-collar maintenance foreman at Bluestar Airlines and president of Bluestar's machinists' union, who believes success is achieved through work and actually providing something of value, not speculating on the goods and services of others.

Bud visits Gekko on his birthday and, granted a brief interview, pitches him stocks, but Gekko is unimpressed. Realizing that Gekko may not do business with him, a desperate Bud provides him some inside information about Bluestar, which Bud learned in a casual conversation from his father. Gekko tells him he will think about it. A dejected Bud returns to his office where Gekko places an order for Bluestar stock and becomes one of Bud's clients. Gekko gives Bud some capital to manage, but the stocks Bud selects-by honest research-lose money. Instead, Gekko takes Bud under his wing but compels him to unearth new information by any means necessary. One of his first assignments is to spy on British corporate raider Sir Lawrence Wildman (Terence Stamp) and discern the Brit's next move. Bud learns that Wildman is making a bid for a steel company. Through Bud's spying, Gekko makes big money, and Wildman is forced to buy Gekko's shares off him to complete his takeover.

Bud becomes wealthy, enjoying Gekko's promised perks, including a penthouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side and a trophy blonde girlfriend, interior decorator Darien (Daryl Hannah). Bud is promoted as a result of the large commission fees he is bringing in from Gekko's trading, and is given a corner office with a view. He continues to maximize insider information and use friends as straw buyers to get rich. Unknown to Bud, several of his trades attract the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bud pitches a new idea to Gekko--buy Bluestar Airlines and expand the company, with Bud as president, using savings achieved by union concessions. Bud persuades his father, who dislikes Gekko, to get union support for the plan and push for the deal. Things change when Bud learns that Gekko, in fact, plans to dissolve the company and sell off Bluestar's assets in order to access cash in the company's over-funded pension plan, leaving Carl and the entire Bluestar staff unemployed. Although this would leave Bud very rich, he is angered by Gekko's deceit, and racked with the guilt of being an accessory to Bluestar's destruction, especially after his father suffers a heart attack. Bud chooses his father over his mentor and resolves to disrupt Gekko's plans. He angrily breaks up with Darien, who refuses to plot against Gekko, her former lover and the architect of her career.

Bud creates a plan to drive up Bluestar's stock before manipulating it back down. He and the other union presidents then secretly meet with Wildman and arrange for him to buy controlling interest in Bluestar at a significant discount. Gekko, realizing that his stock is plummeting, finally dumps his remaining interest in the company on Bud's advice. However, when Gekko learns on the evening news that Wildman is buying Bluestar, he realizes that Bud engineered the entire scheme. Bud triumphantly goes back to work at Jackson Steinem the following day, where he is confronted by the police and the SEC and arrested for insider trading.

Sometime later, Bud confronts Gekko in Central Park. Gekko berates him for his role with Bluestar. He then strikes Bud, accusing him of ingratitude for several of their illicit trades. Following the confrontation, it is revealed that Bud was wearing a wire to record his encounter with Gekko. He turns the wire tapes over to the authorities, who suggest that his sentence will be lightened in exchange for helping them make a case against Gekko. Later on, Bud's parents drive him to the courthouse, and Carl tells him he did right in saving the airline, although he will most likely still go to prison. The film ends with Bud going up the steps of the courthouse to face justice for his crimes, albeit now with a clear conscience.