10 Movies Like Mountainhead You Must See

Jesse Armstrong made his directorial debut with the television film ‘Mountainhead’ that chronicles four mega-rich tech company owners on a secluded weekend retreat in the mountains at a time when the world is going through a major turmoil as a result of AI-generated disinformation. Among them are three billionaires — Venis “Ven” Parish (Cory Michael Smith), owner of the fictional social media platform Traam that pushes misinformation, Jeffrey “Jeff” Abredazi (Ramy Youssef), owner of AI-specializing company Bilter, and Randall Garrett (Steve Carell), the older member and mentor of the group as well as one of Traam’s biggest investors.

The fourth member, Hugo “Souper” Van Yalk, is yet to hit the billionaire status despite his millions, and is keen on getting others to invest in his lifestyle “super-app” Slowzo. As the world turns ever more chaotic and governments start to falter as a result of their ventures, the four friends become desperate to protect their net worth and consider bringing about a technocratic dictatorship in areas of the global south. A scathing yet comical satire on the current state of global power dynamics, the HBO production is also a cautionary tale on the growing reliance on techs created and controlled by entities seeking profit above all else. In case you’re looking for more films similar to ‘Mountainhead,’ the following list of films will satiate your cravings.

10. Margin Call (2011)

The story of ‘Margin Call’ takes place at a Wall Street investment bank within a 24-hour period at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Head of risk management Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) loses his job in a mass lay-off while he was working on a model that was showing troubling signs. Before leaving the building, he hands over his unfinished work to an analyst in his department, who completes the model and discovers the dire situation the market is in. In his feature directorial debut, JC Chandor creates a film that shows the bigwigs of a Wall Street firm scrambling in the face of impending collapse, much like the panicked tech billionaires in ‘Mountainhead.’

9. Greed (2019)

Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Greed’ revolves around billionaire fashion mogul Sir Richard McCreadie (Steve Coogan), who faces investigation for financial and ethical abuse in his company ahead of his 60th birthday celebration. The events unfold as Richard makes questionable choices under pressure and soon falls prey to a trap of his own design. The situation mirrors the state of the billionaires in ‘Mountainhead’ who struggle with the volatility of the global markets while they are on vacation.

8. The Billionaire (2011)

Originally titled ‘Top Secret: Wai roon pun lan,’ ‘The Billionaire’ by Songyos Sugmakanan is a biographical drama based on the life of one of Thailand’s youngest billionaires, Itthipat Kulapongvanich. After making money in an online game, Itthipat (Pachara Chirathivat) drops out of college against his parents’ wishes to dabble in businesses, before hitting on the idea that leads him to his billions. The drive of the young entrepreneur to climb the wealth ladder is similar to what the young tech billionaires in ‘Mountainhead’ demonstrate.

7. Cosmopolis (2012)

Directed by David Cronenberg, ‘Cosmopolis’ tells about a day in the life of 28-year-old multibillionaire Wall Street trader Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson), when he takes a limo to get a haircut from his father’s old barber. Throughout the day, he meets people who are important to him as well as faces those who cannot stand his presence, as he senses his world crumbling down around him. Like the resort in ‘Mountainhead,’ Eric considers his Limo as his place of solitude that effectively keeps him protected from the turbulent world outside.

6. Billionaire Boys Club (2018)

‘Billionaire Boys Club’ is a biographical crime drama inspired by the real-life story of a group created by rich teenagers in Southern California in the 1980s. What started off as a Ponzi scheme led by Joe Hunt (Ansel Elgort) quickly turned sour for all and even deadly for one. The James Cox directorial mirrors ‘Mountainhead’ in showing the obsession of rich people to hound wealth no matter the cost to society at large, or even their personal relationships.

5. In The Loop (2009)

In Armando Iannucci’s dark political comedy ‘In the Loop,’ British Cabinet Minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) casually states in an interview that war in the Middle East is unforeseeable, even as the UK and US are actively contemplating such a measure. While the Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), does his best to cover up the offhand remark, it gets picked up by a US official and reaches Washington. Politicians of both countries engage in a war of words and ideas to manipulate each other as the time to vote on military action at the UN swiftly approaches. While the film does not concern private capitalist elites like those in ‘Mountainheads,’ it does concern the ruling class trying to dictate the fate of the world in a way that would suit their narratives.

4. Dumb Money (2023)

Based on the book ‘The Antisocial Network’ by Ben Mezrich, ‘Dumb Money’ shares an account of the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021 when everyday people turned the tables on Wall Street and made the mall videogame store into the most sought-after company in the market. The phenomenon is started by Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a struggling financial analyst from Massachusetts. Noticing the dropping stock price of GameStop, he sinks his life savings to buy shares in the company and posts about it on social media, which soon goes viral. The financial earthquake that the trend causes and how Wall Street scrambles to put an end to it in the Craig Gillespie film is similar to the disruption that the tech billionaires face in ‘Mountainhead.’

3. The Big Short (2015)

Michael Lewis’ book ‘The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine’ formed the basis of the Adam McKay film that explains how the US Housing Bubble triggered the 2008 financial crisis. When Wall Street expert Michael Burry (Christian Bale) realizes a number of subprime home loans are about to default, he bets against the market by putting more than $1 billion into credit default swaps. The action draws the attention of opportunists such as banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) and hedge-fund specialist Mark Baum (Steve Carell), who scramble to utilize the disaster to make a fortune for themselves. Both ‘The Big Short’ and ‘Mountainhead’ have Steve Carell leading a group of motivated young men to sail through a financial disaster and come out profitable at the end.

2. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Based on Jordan Belfort’s eponymous memoir, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ by Martin Scorsese chronicles the rise and fall of Jordan (Leonardo DiCaprio) as one of the most successful stockbrokers in New York City. His meteoric rise begins in 1987, when he takes an entry-level job at a brokerage firm. By the early 1990s, he had established Stratton Oakmont. Along with his trusted lieutenants and ambitious young financiers on staff, he proceeds to make an enormous fortune by defrauding investors out of millions following a pump and dump scheme.

With his rising power, Jordan engages in a hedonistic lifestyle and comes under the investigation of the SEC and the FBI. Many parallels can be drawn between ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘Mountainhead,’ with both films revolving around young, ambitious men with money trying to leverage the market for more profit for themselves. They also demonstrate the lengths they go to to protect their interests in the face of challenges.

1. The Social Network (2010)

‘The Social Network’ is a biographical drama by David Fincher that revolves around the tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of the social networking platform Facebook. In 2003, Mark (Jesse Eisenberg) comes up with the concept of Facebook as a student at Harvard. Within six years, he becomes one of the youngest billionaires in the world. The meteoric rise experienced by Mark comes with complications, including being sued by his former friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).

Based on the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich, ‘The Social Network’ can be considered a precursor to ‘Mountainhead.’ The social media platform Traam that Venis Parish owns in the latter film is very similar to Facebook, which Mark owns. The involvement of AI in Traam is also comparable to the work of Facebook’s current parent company, Meta, which is also owned by real-life Mark Zuckerberg.