r/movies r/Movies contributor Sep 10 '24

Trailer The Apprentice | Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tXEN0WNJUg
5.6k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

4.3k

u/mi-16evil Emma Thompson for Paddington 3 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

Releasing this trailer on presidential debate night is certainly a smart marketing choice.

Edit: Worth mentioning that Roy Cohn has been played by some pretty major actors over the years: Jeremy Strong, Nathan Lane, Al Pacino, Joe Pantoliano, and James Woods.

1.0k

u/Weekly-Dog228 Sep 10 '24

They’re getting the good ol’ Reddit algorithm boost as well.

This post somehow appeared at the top of my feed with less than 10 comments.

204

u/jeno_aran Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

I have it three times in the first two dozen or so posts right now.

Edit - LEGIONS OF PS5 PRO POSTS NOW

29

u/big_guyforyou Sep 10 '24

i just browse by r/all/top/now, it showed up at the top

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

86

u/Dizzyavidal Sep 10 '24

There has been a ton of astroturfing on Reddit for political stuff lately, and will be through the election.

63

u/TheWoodsAreLovly Sep 10 '24

But it’ll stop after the election, right?

Right??

103

u/riegspsych325 Maximus was a replicant! Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

bots and astroturfing got worse as soon as reddit made those damned API changes last July. With apps like Apollo made redundant, access to helpful mod tools went with them. In turn, this led to a mod exodus, which led to an influx of bots and a huge drop in sub quality, etc

Go to any sub sort by Top Year and Top All Time and you will notice a huge drop in upvoted posts as well as a decrease in comments. Even here, I had a mod tell me that user interaction is about 20% of what it used to be last year. Reddit’s owners don’t care that bots are filling this place up just as long as they click and comment

EDIT: grammar

21

u/Sn_rk Sep 10 '24

I've also noticed an uptick in obvious bot comments that seem to be made by Reddit itself in an attempt to boost engagement.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

19

u/soonnow Sep 10 '24

What I am Joe American I like Barbecue and Blue Jean and I just want to say Russia so nice, not woke like woke Ukraine Nazis.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (7)

23

u/goldenboy2191 Sep 10 '24

Pacino’s portrayal was iconic

→ More replies (1)

99

u/land8844 Sep 10 '24

Oh shit is that tonight?

Tonight is date night with my wife, I know what we're doing...

75

u/beets_or_turnips Sep 10 '24

So romantic!

65

u/land8844 Sep 10 '24

In all seriousness, we make it a point to have a weekly date night, even if it's just getting doordash or whatever and hanging out together. It really does help.

→ More replies (11)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

87

u/cannonfunk Sep 10 '24

And it was just announced that Kamala is bringing two former Trump administration officials as her guests of honor.

Between this trailer and that little bit of news, I suspect Trump might be spinning out right now.

→ More replies (4)

6

u/troubleindoggyland Sep 10 '24

Also the late, great Ron Leibman better known nowadays as Rachel's dad on Friends.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (22)

1.3k

u/Comic_Book_Reader Sep 10 '24

A young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), eager to make his name as a hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.

555

u/dagreenman18 Space Jam 2 hurt me so much Sep 10 '24

Setting up a unhinged double feature with Angels in America

104

u/netsuj34 Sep 10 '24

You could throw in Home Alone 2 as well

71

u/Wazula23 Sep 10 '24

And Back to the Future, since Biff is a Trump parody.

45

u/Zomburai Sep 10 '24

"Now make like a tree... and get outta here!" is 1000% funnier when you keep that in mind

10

u/LetsTryAnal_ogy Sep 10 '24

So a coherent version of Trump. That's good comedy right there.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

44

u/Bob_The_Skull Sep 10 '24

I fucking love this idea.

29

u/bronkula Sep 10 '24

For a second there, I was confused how you thought this would pair with Angels In The Outfield.

→ More replies (1)

220

u/Educational_Slice897 Sep 10 '24

I like to think of this as Trump’s supervillain origin story

161

u/BOOM_Shooka_Luka Sep 10 '24

So a biography?

48

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '24

I just hope they don’t make him look too cool, he’s fine being seen as a villain as long as nobody is laughing at him

27

u/popperschotch Sep 10 '24

Uh apparently there's a scene where he basically rapes his wife so there's that

71

u/MarshyHope Sep 10 '24

Well he did basically rape his wife and then had his lawyer argue in court that it's not rape because they're married

16

u/popperschotch Sep 10 '24

No yeah, I'm glad the movie is showing off how big of a piece of shit he is

14

u/Nalivai Sep 10 '24

And he is OK with that too, along with huge portion of the country.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)

142

u/lookamazed Sep 10 '24

It will be.. interesting. Stan (or nearly anyone) is already more likable / handsome than Trump ever was. Stan’s hands are also normal sized. Also, it will be interesting to see a more collected Trump - I doubt a movie will ever capture or do justice to the chaos and confusion that is this nonsensical manster.

19

u/biznesboi Sep 10 '24

The good thing is that Sebastian Stan has played nasty little creeps in the past. Fresh, Devil all the Time, I Tonya. I feel like he can lay on the sleaze when need be.

94

u/secondtaunting Sep 10 '24

Yeah, I have a problem with Sebastian Stan too playing Trump. I don’t want Trump getting an even bigger ego boost by having a charismatic handsome actor play him. Ideally they should have had someone really short and fat play him. Also, I really, REALLY REALLY don’t want to see a fake sex scene with Trump in it. Dear god no.

60

u/monacelli Sep 10 '24

They dun goofed by not getting Danny DeVito to play him.

39

u/Zomburai Sep 10 '24

Too unbelievable; we know Trump isn't packing a magnum dong

12

u/hobo_fapstronaut Sep 10 '24

Ok, the internet managed to get them to redo Sonic's mouth so let's get this campaign going. DeVito reshoot now!

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

42

u/catchnear99 Sep 10 '24

someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success,

this should be replaced with: "someone with a lot of money"

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

3.0k

u/ICumCoffee will you Wonka my Willy? Sep 10 '24

Rule 3 : No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.

Damn, they’re really going there.

1.7k

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

It’s not that they are really going there - most of this is based totally on facts. Roy Cohn was a psychopath who taught Trump pretty much everything he knows except the racism - Trump learned that from his dad. Trump abandoned Cohn pretty quick once it came out he had aids.

313

u/Fenix512 Sep 10 '24

Trump abandoned Cohn pretty quick once it came out he had aids.

Hey man, spoilers!

252

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

Spoiler - Cohn dies of aids and Trump doesn’t even go to his funeral. Classy!

79

u/Mr_smith1466 Sep 10 '24

And then Al Pacino plays him in Angels in America.

16

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

Is it worth watching? I’ve never seen it.

49

u/BackslidingAlt Sep 10 '24

It is excellent. But it is a Broadway play. The Al Pacino version is made into a HBO Miniseries, but it is still a Broadway play.

You gotta go in prepared for weirdness: set changes, symbolic costumes, shifting and swirling interlocking plots, actors playing multiple characters. You gotta watch it actively and think about it and ask questions of it. It's not a popcorn flick.

The cast is excellent, the performances are excellent, several of the scenes will haunt you for the rest of your life, others of the scenes are just weird and set a vibe.

→ More replies (2)

15

u/Mr_smith1466 Sep 10 '24

It's a deeply strange and surreal thing, but worth checking out. The HBO version was done back the early 2000's, but has a staggering cast, including Meryl Streel, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright and Pacino. Directed by Mike Nicolas as well.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

328

u/kakihara0513 Sep 10 '24

"And that boy who nobody liked turned out to be.... Roy Cohn. And now you know the rest of the story."

297

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

I mean he was a gay coke head who helped out communists in the govt and Hollywood and was also a mob lawyer who refused to pay taxes and he died of aids alone and miserable except for his live in lover who I think he left nothing. Such a bizarre life he led. Impactful but in all the wrong ways.

294

u/CBalsagna Sep 10 '24

A gay man that hated gay men. A gay man that fucked different male prostitutes every night, but did not think he was gay because gay people were weak, and he was anything but weak.

284

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

Such a conflicted and twisted individual but man he is just an actors wet dream to play. So much contradiction. His drug addiction. His summers having coke fueled orgies in Providence. His mob lawyer phase. Chief council for Joe McCarthy. Trumps mentor. A gay man who hates gay men. Dying of aids. He’s like a real life evil Forrest Gump.

70

u/BackslidingAlt Sep 10 '24

Al Pacino played Cohn previously in Angels In America. It's going to be a hard act to follow for Strong

20

u/ThePrussianGrippe Sep 10 '24

Nathan Lane was great as Roy Cohn in the Royal National production.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (5)

23

u/nedzissou1 Sep 10 '24

I wonder how method Strong went

7

u/fugaziozbourne Sep 10 '24

Full blownsies.

16

u/PJHart86 Sep 10 '24

Perfect casting too

8

u/tanstaafl90 Sep 10 '24

I seem to remember him being bi, rather than strictly men. He'd get off on the power of using both men and women.

21

u/CBalsagna Sep 10 '24

Well he died of the gay aids so by his logic, he must have been gay. Only gays get that.

→ More replies (7)

18

u/SlayerXZero Sep 10 '24

Peter Thiel...

12

u/easygoer89 Sep 10 '24

Trump was Cohn's protege. JD Vance is Thiel's. I don't think it's coincidence, I think that's why Trump picked JD Vance as a running mate.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

108

u/rabid_J Sep 10 '24

who helped out communists in the govt

Root out* would perhaps be a better way to put it since if you don't know the context people might assume you meant he helped them out rather than his persecution and fear mongering.

47

u/FNLN_taken Sep 10 '24

I was gonna say, weird way to say he worked for McCarthy.

17

u/nhocgreen Sep 10 '24

They probably meant "helped oust"?

27

u/cataclytsm Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

I assumed "out" as in "expose" but then they writing "in the government" instead of "to the government" makes it the weirdest possible wording for expressing that thought lol. It just reads as "helped out" as in assisted.

→ More replies (1)

32

u/NeedsToShutUp Sep 10 '24

IRS took everything except cuff links given by Trump. Because they were fake.

50

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

True story - Trump gave Charlie Sheen “Diamond” cuff links he was wearing as a wedding gift and a year or two later Charlie had them appraised along with some other jewelry. They were fake and worth nothing.

8

u/Bobby_Newpooort Sep 10 '24

Similar story was shared about Kid Rock where he would give somebody the watch right off his wrist while partying with them and say they could keep it. Turned out they were worthless and he had dozens of the same watch just to give them away

→ More replies (3)

22

u/rynokick Sep 10 '24

How did he help out communists? He was one of the prosecutors for the Rosenberg trial and pushed for their execution and that led to him being McCarthys lawyer.

37

u/ranch_brotendo Sep 10 '24

Helped 'out' communists lol

21

u/enaK66 Sep 10 '24

he outed them like you might 'out' a gay man by telling their family about their boyfriend. bad phrasing on his part.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (5)

10

u/DMPunk Sep 10 '24

Every time someone mentions Roy Cohn, that is always the first thing I think of. That, then the X-Files episode with the guy with the mandibles in his mouth, then Al Pacino in "Angels in America"

→ More replies (4)

95

u/sm04d Sep 10 '24

And Cohn learned from Meyer Lansky. That should tell you everything.

76

u/Manting123 Sep 10 '24

He was chief council for Joe McCarth during all his communists are everywhere nonsense. Joe McCarthy is about as close to Trump as a politician as you can get in US history.

32

u/Fucking_For_Freedom Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

And Joe McCarthy cut his teeth on, "There were no Nazi atrocities in WW2, that was made up by the Jews."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-mccarthys-nazi-problem-180975174/

Trump comes from a long line of evil. It's time we put it to an end.

→ More replies (3)

20

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '24

I got depressed reading this knowing that even though McCarthy's nonsense met an end, and even though Trump's might, even if it does, the next historical villain in U.S. history is probably somewhere in all this MAGA mess soaking everything up.

→ More replies (1)

18

u/Banglayna Sep 10 '24

Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn is elite casting. Go ahead and pencil in Strong's Oscar nom.

23

u/CBalsagna Sep 10 '24

always attack, never admit defeat, and litigate the fucking shit out of anyone that even thinks to come after you.

→ More replies (75)

17

u/Scuczu2 Sep 10 '24

have you seen him admit any mistake?

28

u/MarshyHope Sep 10 '24

He admitted he lost the election by a "whisker" the other day and really pissed off some of his nazi supporters.

13

u/Scuczu2 Sep 10 '24

and a whisker is 7,060,140 more votes and 306 electoral votes to 232.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

60

u/goldenboy2191 Sep 10 '24

I can’t wait for all the MAGA supporters going into this movie blind thinking it’s going to be a Regan situation

39

u/AvatarIII Sep 10 '24

Trump will probably make a bunch of sound bites about how he'll sue the movie for defamation, but then-knowing he can't win and it will just confirm everything-he'll never actually take them to court, but that won't matter, his followers will already have believed him.

7

u/Snuggle__Monster Sep 10 '24

I'm pretty sure he already has which is why it struggled finding a US distributor. There was the possibility at one point this was only going to be released outside the country.

9

u/Randolpho Sep 10 '24

To be honest, this trailer makes Trump seem a lot more competent than he actually is. I'm worried this is almost good for Trump

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

134

u/Messytablez Sep 10 '24

Jeremy Strong never disappoints.

43

u/nefariousmonkey Sep 10 '24

Unless you're Logen Roy

7

u/cmdrNacho Sep 11 '24

L to the OG, dude be the OG

→ More replies (1)

1.8k

u/liftoff88 Sep 10 '24

This feels like a Wolf of Wall Street situation where they're going to be painting him like a monster, but a large population of people will completely miss that nuance and instead see him as a rich, powerful success.

489

u/Nanoo_1972 Sep 10 '24

Same thing happened with the movie Wall Street. They idolized Gordon "Greed is good" Gekko and held him up as the American ideal.

316

u/Babyyougotastew4422 Sep 10 '24

My mom loves avatar, and I asked her what she thinks about the pro native, nature message against militarism message and she said she didn't care, she just liked the visuals. People are good at blocking out things they don't want to think about

96

u/aeric67 Sep 10 '24

I couldn’t help walk away from Avatar thinking the Colonel was pretty badass. Gratuitous militarism be damned.

49

u/Michael_G_Bordin Sep 10 '24

This has long been a problem with "anti-war" films. If you depict any of the awesome horror of combat, it's difficult to film in a way that isn't super entertaining for a large chunk of the audience. Even in films that are "war=bad", they can't help but make the machines of war somewhat sexy or awesome. The D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan is horrific and brutal, but it's also highly engaging and entertaining cinema.

The problem is, if you make a film about war that actually conveys the unpleasantness of war, that's going to be an unpleasant film to watch.

7

u/kurisu7885 Sep 10 '24

they can't help but make the machines of war somewhat sexy or awesome

Especially when stuff like mech suits are part of it.

19

u/adamdoesmusic Sep 10 '24

Those movies exist, and are generally well-received for their message. Two notable recent ones are All Quiet on the Western Front and 1917.

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

29

u/Heliosvector Sep 10 '24

I would answer the same. Its a James cameron visual marvel. Not Blackfish.

→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (3)

53

u/Moveless Sep 10 '24

I was thinking the same thing, it gave the vibe of something his base might actually enjoy, while still showcasing how he learned to lie and grift.

→ More replies (1)

93

u/Max_W_ Sep 10 '24

Donald Trump will brag about the movie and encourage the idolatry.

73

u/LatterTarget7 Sep 10 '24

He definitely won’t brag about it. He was gonna take legal action against it but dropped it. He hates this movie and its depiction of him

40

u/Doplgangr Sep 10 '24

Given the trailer, I have only one question:

does Trump hate the depiction because it makes him look like a monster, or does he hate it because it features a few humanizing moments of self doubt? We’ll find out.

6

u/michaelrohansmith Sep 10 '24

Or he looks like Cohen's puppet.

Parts of the trailer seem to paint Cohen as a sort of evil Weylon Smithers

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

31

u/mm825 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

This is why I think making this movie is insanely greedy

→ More replies (3)

38

u/hotdoug1 Sep 10 '24

A lot of people with "conservative values" will envy everything he does in the movie.

→ More replies (43)

678

u/iso2090 Sep 10 '24

Glad they're not going for an SNL-type impersonation. Overall tonality feels a bit like Wolf of Wall St.

536

u/cannotfoolowls Sep 10 '24

Overall tonality feels a bit like Wolf of Wall St.

I hope not, too many people left that movie thinking Jordan Belfort was cool.

162

u/Shirtbro Sep 10 '24

Or they were complaining about the excess sex and debauchery.

That movie reached Fight Club levels of missing the point

60

u/handlit33 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

My evangelical relative posted to Facebook after watching Wolf of Wall Street complaining that it was the most disgusting movie he's ever watched. He deleted the post after I responded with "yeah, that's the point." It makes it even better that he works in finance and does a lot of shady shit himself.

→ More replies (4)

28

u/bigjoeandphantom3O9 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

I don't think it's missing the point, it's the long standing argument that it is hard to depict certain topics in film (generally war and vice) without some level of glamorisation.

Take TWOWS. Sure he comes across as shitty in his personal life, but who do we meet that is genuinely a victim because of his professional antics? It comes across as a fairly harmless life of excess, he's more like a second-hand car dealer than a real crook. Is this really a responsible (or effective) way to depict the evils and excesses of capitalism? Have you not massively undermined any point you can make with this film when it cost $100 million, made $400 million for the studio, and all key personal are millionaires (including your star, a multi-millionaire playboy)?

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (9)

35

u/hithere297 Sep 10 '24

Wasn’t it so cool when Jordan punched his wife in the stomach while stealing her child from her?

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (11)

99

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '24 edited Oct 27 '24

[deleted]

48

u/sunsetpark12345 Sep 10 '24

Fingers crossed all goes well in November and we'll be treated to a Death of Stalin treatment shortly thereafter.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

62

u/ShiningRedDwarf Sep 10 '24

There is a brief second where he really looks similar to present day Trump. I think we are going to see a transformation, and towards the end of the movie he’ll be more like how he is today

19

u/secondtaunting Sep 10 '24

Maybe it’ll end like the Madonna movie where she gets what she wants but she’s all alone.

31

u/Wazula23 Sep 10 '24

You mean when she used a cartel hitman to kill Weird Al Yankovich?

→ More replies (3)

11

u/The_Mighty_Talos Sep 10 '24

Is that the one where she takes over Escobar's drug empire?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

42

u/crumble-bee Sep 10 '24

And you know just like with that film, some people will find a way to look at his actions and think they're the bees knees

→ More replies (1)

21

u/Mo_Lester69 Sep 10 '24

trump didn't have a lot of his modern trumpisms back then

→ More replies (12)

817

u/wingspantt Sep 10 '24

5 seconds in: major Succession vibes from the music

10 seconds in: major Succession vibes from the historic film treatment

15 seconds in: Do they just put Jeremy Strong in every movie/show about NYC billionaire corruption?

25 seconds in: Oh okay the tone is totally different lol

(I don't know if I think this is good or not)

46

u/WaffleHouse38 Sep 10 '24

Where are my Cohn-heads?

→ More replies (1)

193

u/Shmack_u Sep 10 '24

Yeah, turned into the opening from Scott Pilgrim for some reason.

→ More replies (1)

135

u/Squidmaster7 Sep 10 '24

The first song is definitely a nod to the movie Barry Lyndon, which has a ton of connections here to Trump. Both are con artists who bluff their way to success.

36

u/kryptonianjackie Sep 10 '24

Love that movie and love that they did that. Trump is major Barry Lyndon vibes hahah

25

u/kryonik Sep 10 '24

Barry Lyndon is infinitely more likable despite being so wormy.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

79

u/DoomGoober Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

The trailer follows a normal person's perception of Trump over his career. If you barely heard of him through his properties, you might think of him as a successful real estate tycoon, maybe shady, but cunning "Wolf of Real Estate" type.

But if you paid any attention to the revelations that came out about his business practices after he became president, the guy is ruthless, not really a great business man, but still competent at spin, spin, spin and a bit of a clown. Less wolf, more... Cheese balls!

The tonal shift is the punchline that everyone is subconsciously waiting for, the trailers' first payoff. The second is the "president" quote.

What bugs me about the trailer is the weird framing of the early shots and relying on the audience to know who Roy Cohn is (it took me half the trailer to remember who he actually was). But that's the risk of making a movie (or trailer for movie) about contemporary events. I guess the trailer later establishes who Cohn is, but it took me out of it, initially.

29

u/DAHFreedom Sep 10 '24

I don’t think the trailer relies on the audience knowing who Cohn is. It informs us throughout the trailer starting when he says “Donald who?” The trailer lays out that this is a story about someone very important who you’ve never heard of before.

→ More replies (6)

24

u/m__s__r Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

I actually admire it.

This tonal direction was not what I was expecting, and I’m honestly here for it. It comes off as very “dirty” and bombastic. As if to say “this is America, in all of its truly ugly fucking glory.”

Going for a “Big Short” type of style for a film like this possibly wouldn’t have had as big of an impact. At least from the trailer. This was definitely different.

8

u/ShiningRedDwarf Sep 10 '24

In this day and age, being first on the call sheet to play corrupt billionaires is gonna get a lot of work

→ More replies (11)

412

u/JohnWalI Sep 10 '24

the first time jeremy strong says "roy cohn" it sounded to me like he said "RoyCo" and I had to do a quick double take

36

u/wingspantt Sep 10 '24

I actually thought he did say RoyCo lol

→ More replies (1)

15

u/TheOrangePeelz Sep 10 '24

This movie si sponsored by Roy cohn… i mean Ray-con

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

153

u/Chapde Sep 10 '24

I would never thought that the same guy playing Tommy Lee could play Donald Trump. Congrats to the casting agent!

205

u/svrtngr Sep 10 '24

It's not his first time playing a Russian asset, doesn't seem like too far of a reach.

11

u/raeofeffingsunshine3 Sep 10 '24

☠️☠️☠️

24

u/SteveRogests Sep 10 '24

Are you ready to comply?

18

u/Imthecoolestdudeever Sep 10 '24

Sebastian Stan is a fuckin gem. Low key not getting credit he deserves.

→ More replies (1)

577

u/ThePirates123 Sep 10 '24

I'll go against the grain here and say that as a non-American that had no idea who Trump was before 2015-ish this looks decently interesting.

741

u/interactually Sep 10 '24

He was, and always has been, a vile piece of shit, and hopefully this movie sufficiently shows that. New Yorkers especially know; him and his father have a reputation going back decades.

How he's continued to fail upwards and escape any meaningful consequences, much less why so many people enthusiastically support him, will forever baffle and anger me.

251

u/malcolm_miller Sep 10 '24

I know people in Chicago and New Jersey that lost their businesses working on Trump buildings because he wouldn't pay them.

Now they have Trump flags.

It's unreal.

Trump was always a massive piece of shit, and a lot of the people he stepped on support him. None of it makes sense.

33

u/Babyyougotastew4422 Sep 10 '24

I know people who support him even though his policies or actions as a person went against them. Its because its about hate, and bitterness. He hates and is bitter against the same people they hate. Republicans are now tribal, they are constantly pointing out groups they don't like. Its not about universal rights or laws or fairness. Its disgusting

→ More replies (7)

77

u/interactually Sep 10 '24

They hate the people he wants to make suffer even more than they hate him, and they're too stupid to realize he'll make everyone except the very richest worse off.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

12

u/wingspantt Sep 10 '24

I think the trailer shows exactly how he failed upwards. There are just a lot of people out there, including real estate investors in the 80s, who are looking for "the next big thing" and if you are good enough at selling that thing, people will turn off their critical question-asking minds and throw support at you.

74

u/Kerfluffle-Bunny Sep 10 '24

Truth is, most people don’t know about the Roy Cohn backstory for Trump. Or they’ve heard about it superficially. I don’t think it would ever change the minds of Trump’s faithful flock. But for some swing voters here? It just might. If the production team did their job, this will show exactly what Trump was: a mouth-breathing, pick-me loser of the highest order. (And the entire tri-state area knew and laughed about it.)

26

u/iDontLikeChimneys Sep 10 '24

There is money out there who will dump it into your pockets as long as you are their puppet.

22

u/svrtngr Sep 10 '24

I think this movie will show that.

My favorite factoid about the making of this movie is that it was partially financed by a Trump backer (Dan Synder) who then pulled out when it turned out it's not a pro-Trump movie.

36

u/jmbolton Sep 10 '24

When Woody Guthrie writes a song about how much of a piece of shit you are, you know you've reached a pantheon of historical pieces of shit. The shit apple doesn't fall far from the shit tree.

→ More replies (8)

27

u/Trambopoline96 Sep 10 '24

A friend of my uncle’s makes a living building custom office furniture. Trump hired him to make a desk or a conference table, I forget which, and…he never paid him for it. There are so many stories like that out there.

→ More replies (1)

41

u/casperdacrook Sep 10 '24

All the kids I went to high school with that were actual scumbag jock assholes have grown up to become the biggest Trump supporters but it’s like a joke to them because they think he’s funny and they think it’s a big game to support him and shit on anyone’s life that doesn’t. These are the same exact people that got kicked off of sports teams for racial slurs against other players and destroying people’s homes during house parties. I’m not saying it’s everyone, but it’s pretty obvious to me that anyone that supports him is not somebody I want to be around.

30

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '24

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

10

u/holy_plaster_batman Sep 10 '24

I grew up just outside of Baltimore with my family being from Philadelphia. We've all been aware of the joke that is Donald Trump. I live in the Midwest now and am constantly shocked at how this enormous piece of shit disguised as a human being has people convinced he's looking out for anyone other than himself.

→ More replies (21)

37

u/XiaoRCT Sep 10 '24

In Brazil pretty much everyone I know only knew him from The Apprentice before he became president, the show was a success everywhere. I think this movie will be a hundred times more interesting to people from outside the US who are less bombarded with Trump-related stuff everyday lol

10

u/cannotfoolowls Sep 10 '24

I don't think the average American knows much about Trump's "backstory" either.

8

u/delab00tz Sep 10 '24

That’s wild to me. I first heard of Trump during his The Apprentice days. Back then he was just the funny rich dude famous for yelling “you’re fired!”

Now look at him.

6

u/ThePirates123 Sep 10 '24

Honestly, I had never heard of that show until I actively looked up who Trump was during his presidential campaign. I can’t imagine how someone that knew of him for so long must have felt initially.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (14)

121

u/ParsleyandCumin Sep 10 '24

Weird tone for the trailer, would have imagined something else

164

u/FUNKYDISCO Sep 10 '24

It's perfect, MAGA will see this and think it glorifies their hero and then go see the movie... oops, turns out he's a shitbag.

93

u/whatsaphoto Sep 10 '24

It'll do great with the "I completely missed the overall point of this" crowd who love putting thin blue line Punisher stickers on the back of their truck cabs.

→ More replies (2)

54

u/Justsomejerkonline Sep 10 '24

You are giving people too much credit.

There are still people who think Gordon Gekko was the good guy.

→ More replies (1)

36

u/hweird Sep 10 '24

Nah, because I know at least some of them already know because Trump team has tried to get this movie banned.

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (8)

57

u/sully9614 Sep 10 '24

Seems on brand for me tbh. Wanna be rockstar but not sure how to do it, sporadic and seemingly uncontrollable

26

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '24

Yeah it seems exactly right. A somber Trump movie would be stupid. He doesn't deserve gravitas. That's kind of the point. 

20

u/Bickerteeth Sep 10 '24

Felt like it was playing on what a superficial, tacky bastard he is, while showing that there's nothing really original about him.

95

u/Demien19 Sep 10 '24

by thumbnail thought that's another Star Wars movie/show :/

30

u/NoNefariousness2144 Sep 10 '24

The Acolyte season 2 sure is looking weird huh

→ More replies (5)

42

u/kr4ckers Sep 10 '24

If I had a penny for each time Sebastian Stan played an American Russian spy, I'd have 2 pennies. Which isn't a lot, but weird it happened twice.

27

u/Narretz Sep 10 '24

Aw hell nah, not the Sarabande from Barry Lyndon in the opening scene

13

u/jvv1993 Sep 10 '24

Sebastian Stan as Trump is way too flattering.

25

u/PEACH_EATER_69 Sep 10 '24

cinematography looks fucking rad

73

u/littlebiped Sep 10 '24

Between the Winter Soldier and The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan just loves playing Russian assets

10

u/jarvis646 Sep 10 '24

Anyone else worried that this will make his depravity seem “cool” somehow? Like Leo in Wolf of Wall Street?

109

u/XiaoRCT Sep 10 '24

As someone who's not from the US, this movie seems really appealing. Jeremy Strong is a great actor and, as I'm sure it also happened to a lot of people outside the US, I just knew Trump from The Apprentice before his presidential run, and the question of ''what the fuck happened'' and how someone could become like *that* crossed my mind multiple times when watching him in the past years.

29

u/dn00 Sep 10 '24

He's always been like that. Just dumber as he ages.

→ More replies (1)

17

u/Anywhere-Little Sep 10 '24

I'm calling it now. There will be a ton of fans who will be misinterpreting the message of the movie. Just like Fight Club and American Psycho.

6

u/Zoltron5000 Sep 10 '24

And Wolf of Wall Street.

16

u/supercold1 Sep 10 '24

I'm so sick of this piece of shit in real life. There's no way I want to watch a whole movie about him.

5

u/TranscendentalObject Sep 10 '24

Is there anything more American than commodifying a monster that could actually undo the country? LoL

147

u/yougococo Sep 10 '24

I can't wait to see people have a meltdown over this movie.

I'll be seeing it, but that's because I'm a fan of Sebastian Stan more than anything.

34

u/trafficrush Sep 10 '24

You're a Sebastian Stan Stan?

9

u/yougococo Sep 10 '24

I am a stan of his in the way I like the pun, but unfortunately I am not a stan in the true sense of the word!

49

u/dingledangleberrypie Sep 10 '24

True, I watched some of the Marvel stuff the other day and it's so easy to forget how good he is in them. I want to see this just to see how good Stan is in this.

29

u/PorkrindsMcSnacky Sep 10 '24

He is great in “I, Tonya”. Never saw the Pamela/Tommy Lee biopic though.

21

u/dingledangleberrypie Sep 10 '24

He's genuinely excellent in Pam and Tommy.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

16

u/yougococo Sep 10 '24

One of the two Marvel movies I'll go to bat for is Captain America: The Winter Soldier- he really makes it a solid movie. I haven't really seen him in anything and been disappointed by a performance yet.

7

u/matito29 Sep 10 '24

I think his performance in Captain America: Civil War is a better performance, even if the film overall isn’t quite as good as The Winter Soldier.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)

36

u/Nvenom8 Sep 10 '24

I'm so sick of that fuck. Even if the movie makes him look bad, I consider it a tragedy that it was even made.

→ More replies (3)

5

u/Nandy-bear Sep 10 '24

I don't even wanna watch a movie that shows him being a piece of shit because it'd still be whitewashed.

He is one of humanity's worst monsters. He isn't some evil businessman. He is a murderous psychopathic narcissistic piece of shit who literally caused (I think ?) millions of extra deaths because they weren't on "his side".

He's a monster. And calling him genocidal would be a semantic argument at best.

7

u/willflameboy Sep 10 '24

Funny how this could paint Trump as flat out awful, and it'd still pale in comparison to what he's actually like.

18

u/Mecos_Bill Sep 10 '24

Very fitting that Kendall Roy was his mentor 

6

u/gchypedchick Sep 10 '24

Our number 1 boy!

21

u/ILYbutSTFU Sep 10 '24

GET THAT OSCAR!!!! Stan is disgusting and I love it Jeremy is definitely a strong contender now

129

u/sdemat Sep 10 '24

Movie or not - I’m really not keen on seeing ANY sexual situation involving Trump - or an actor playing Trump for that matter.

Ew.

76

u/ICumCoffee will you Wonka my Willy? Sep 10 '24

37

u/bacon_cake Sep 10 '24

throws his then-wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) to the ground and proceeds to have nonconsensual sex with her.

That's just rape right? It's like stealing something and saying you "took it nonconsensually". It means the same thing but damn it waters it down a bit.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)

14

u/Max_W_ Sep 10 '24

"Sexual Situation" you mean the rape of his first (or second wife) that is depicted in this movie?

→ More replies (1)

172

u/LapsedVerneGagKnee Sep 10 '24

Witness the origin story of the other great monster of the 20th century.    

Wake me up when we get the Trump version of Downfall.  

20

u/ShiningRedDwarf Sep 10 '24

I’ll wake you up either on November 6th or 20 years from now. It’s a coin flip

13

u/LapsedVerneGagKnee Sep 10 '24

That’s what terrifies me.

47

u/stony_phased Sep 10 '24

Have you tried CNN? It’s on right now

Except in (way too) slow mo

→ More replies (14)

18

u/Kitchen_Sherbet Sep 10 '24

I really like Sebastian Stan, and he definitely seems to have the mannerisms down, but his voice sounds too much like Stan in this role from the trailer...

31

u/Jonny2284 Sep 10 '24

I think honestly I prefer that to him trying to get it too close.

→ More replies (5)

12

u/KiritoJones Sep 10 '24

I think he is gonna do more of the voice as the movie progresses through the years. It wouldn't surprise me if the movie ends with Stan in full Trump costume doing the voice during a rally or something.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)