wolf of wall street yacht party scene

Iconic Scenes: The Wolf of Wall Street – The Yacht Bribe

I love The Wolf of Wall Street . I think it is a spectacular film that seems to grow more relevant as time passes. I also think that the central character and narrator, Jordan Belfort, is not the most important or key character – that is Agent Denham. So I’m looking at the brilliant scene where Belfort and Denham first meet.

What Happens

Multi-millionaire and thoroughly corrupt stockbroker Jordan Belfort invites two FBI agents to his luxury yacht after he learns that they are investigating him. Agent Denham, and a virtually silent partner, arrive for what starts as a very friendly meeting. Belfort hands over some of the information the FBI has been trying to get while constantly trying to impress them with his wealth and insisting he’s done nothing wrong. Belfort draws Denham into a conversation and it seems the FBI agent is not happy at being given the case and would be willing to play ball with Belfort. At which point, Belfort tries to bribe Denham, and then the tone changes. It’s immediately obvious that Denham is not willing to play ball and is determined to bring Belfort down. The conversation gets increasingly acrimonious and ends with Belfort literally throwing lobsters and handfuls of cash at the departing FBI agents.

When you sail on a yacht fit for a Bond villain, sometimes you gotta act the part

DiCaprio is sensational in this scene. Despite getting very good advice not to contact the FBI and try some scheming, this is exactly what Belfort does. They meet on his insanely luxurious yacht, where Belfort has beautiful women lounging on chairs, he is dressed in bright white “yacht clothes” and constantly turning on his beaming smile. He offers them lobsters and drinks. It does not seem to occur to Belfort that showing off his immense, and ill-gotten wealth, might not be the best idea when you’re being investigated for crimes in the stock market.

Belfort’s attempt at bribery is fantastic. Basically detailing a story where he advised someone in need of money in what stocks to invest in and that person making a fortune and how Belfort “would be willing to do that for anyone”. When challenged about this being a bribe Belfort reveals he researched what legally constitutes a bribe and that wouldn’t count. Again, it’s a little suspicious for someone to be able to recite the criminal code of a crime if they’re not a lawyer.

Good for you, Little Man

Oh, Agent Denham, you film stealing hero. Denham is played by Kyle Chandler who, and this is important for the Denham role, is your go-to guy for American decency (if you need someone younger than Tom Hanks), he is probably best known for his role in Friday Night Lights where he played an honourable, upstanding and inspirational football coach. Denham’s casual chatting with Belfort seems to suggest he is not interested in the case and possibly dissatisfied with his job, the attempted bribe being when he flips to his real character.

As Belfort becomes more aggressive Denham responds in kind and leads to one of the all-time best deliveries, “Good for you, little man,” when sarcastically congratulating Belfort on becoming a Wall Street douchebag without any help from anyone else. Belfort is stunned by this comment but mainly in that he can’t understand it…he’s rich, really rich, how can he be a “little man”, he’s a giant. A colossus. The embodiment of the American Dream. The thing is, of course, Denham is right.

Fun Coupons

A lot of this scene is purely about status. Of all the places Belfort could have met with the FBI agents he chooses his insanely expensive yacht. He is obsessed with money and how much the FBI agents make, originally pretending to be sympathetic but quickly changing to just mocking them. Belfort assumes that because Denham works for the FBI for what to him is an insignificant amount of money he is a loser. The idea that Denham might believe in what he’s doing is either inconceivable or at best a pitiable weakness. To me, this is the best and most interesting scene in the whole film – not the drug-filled hedonistic parties, not the cult-like team talks Belfort gives his employees, not the incredibly charismatic phone calls Belfort makes when selling stocks but this scene where Denham sizes up Belfort and sees right through him.

Years ago David Cross and Bob Odenkirk made a sketch show called Mr. Show , which contained a sketch based on the premise “someone who makes more money than you is better than you”, so Van Gogh, Einstein and Galileo are actually pretty unsuccessful people. This is Jordan Belfort’s philosophy – he is better than just about everyone he meets because he is richer.

The Hero I’m Going To Be Back At The Office, When The Bureau seizes this boat!

All Belfort manages to do in this scene is upset the FBI and probably convince them that yes, he is absolutely breaking the law. It’s an interesting look at the dynamic of power in America (and indeed the whole world) – who is the more powerful person? Belfort with his huge personal wealth or Denham as a federal officer, a representative of the most powerful country on Earth. There was a lot of discussion at the time about if people actually saw Belfort as the hero of this film, that people liked him and wanted him to win. I saw this as Goodfellas but for white-collar crime. In this scene Belfort helps further his own downfall, antagonising the FBI. In the final moments of this scene, Belfort has just finished throwing money at Denham and his arrogance and deluded grandeur fade as he realises he has just made a terrible mistake.

Also Read: Iconic Scenes: American Psycho – Business Card Scene

Richard Norton

Gentleman, podcaster and pop culture nerd, I love talking and writing about pretty much all pop culture.

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How Jordan Belfort's 37m superyacht Nadine sank off the coast of Sardinia

Related articles.

Coco Chanel was famously outspoken on many things, but yachting, in particular, attracted her ire. “As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom,” she was once quoted as saying.

Her solution was to buy her own yacht. A 37m with a steel hull, built by the Dutch yard Witsen & Vis of Alkmaar. The yacht passed through many hands, finally ending up belonging to the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, on whose watch she foundered and sank in 1996.

The yacht was originally built for a Frenchman under the name Mathilde , but he backed out and she caught Chanel’s eye instead. With a narrow beam, a high bow and the long, low superstructure typical of Dutch yachts of her era, she was certainly a beautiful boat. But she was also well equipped, with five staterooms in dark teak panelling, magnificent dining facilities, room for big tenders and, later, a helipad. A frequent sight along the Florida coast, she caught the eye of a young skipper called Mark Elliott.

“In those days, she was the biggest yacht on the East Coast,” he remembers. “Nobody had ever seen anything like it. I needed a wrench once and went up to the boat - Captain Norm Dahl was really friendly.” He didn’t know it then, but Elliott was destined to become the skipper of the boat himself and was at the helm when the storm of the century took her to the bottom off Sardinia.

Coco Chanel died in 1971 and sometime thereafter the yacht was renamed Jan Pamela under the new ownership of Melvin Lane Powers. He was a flamboyant Houston real estate developer, fond of crocodile skin cowboy boots and acquitted of murder in a trial that gripped the nation.

Powers sent Jan Pamela to Merrill Stevens yard in Miami, where a mammoth seven-metre section was added amidships. “We made templates for the boat where we were going to cut her in half, then she went out for another charter season,” remembers Whit Kirtland, son of the yard owner. “When the boat came back in, we cut it just forward of the engine room, rolled the two sections apart and welded it in.”

He remembers how the sun’s heat made the bare and painted metal expand at different rates. “You had to weld during certain time periods – early in the morning or late at night,” says Kirtland.

The result of the extension was a huge new seven-metre full-beam master stateroom, an extra salon and one further cabin – pushing the charter capacity to seven staterooms. During this refit, the boat’s colour was also changed from white to taupe. “No one had really done it before and it was gorgeous,” says Elliott. By 1983, Powers was bankrupt and the yacht was sold on again. She next shows up named Edgewater .

Elliott’s chance came in 1989. He was working for the established yacht owner Bernie Little, who ran a hugely profitable distribution business for Bud brewer Anheuser-Busch. “Bernie Little had always wanted to own the boat,” Elliott says. “He loved it. He bought it sight unseen – and I started a huge restoration programme, including another extension to put three metres in the cockpit.”

It was a massive task, undertaken at Miami Ship. “We pulled out all the windows, re-chromed everything, repainted – brought it back to life,” says Elliott. They also cut out old twin diesels from GM and replaced them with bigger CAT engines, doubling her horsepower to 800. “Repowered, she could cruise at up to 20 knots. She was long and skinny, like a destroyer.”

A smart hydraulic feature was also brought to life for the first time. Under two of the sofas in the main stateroom were hidden 3.6m x 1.2m glass panels giving a view of the sea under the boat. At the push of a button, the sofas lifted up and mirrors above allowed you to gaze at the seabed – from the actual bed.

Now called Big Eagle , like all of Little’s boats, she was a charter hit and her top client was a certain New York financier named Jordan Belfort. He fell in love with her and begged Little to sell to him. But he needed to secure financing, and in 1995, Little agreed to hold a note on the boat for a year if Mark Elliott stayed on as skipper.

With the boat rechristened Nadine after his wife, Belfort set about another round of refit work, restyling the interior with vintage deco and lots of mirrors, extending the upper deck this time, and fitting a crane capable of raising and stowing the Turbine Seawind seaplane.

Nadine also carried a helicopter, a 10m Intrepid tender, two 6m dinghies on the bow, four motorbikes, six jetskis, state-of-the-art dive gear. “You pretty much needed an air traffic controller when all these things were in the water,” says Elliott.

Belfort’s partying was legendary and Elliott clearly saw eye-watering things on board, but as far as he was concerned, he was there to safeguard the boat. “When Jordan Belfort became the owner, he could do whatever he wanted. I was there to protect the note,” says Elliott. “He is a brilliant mind and a lovely person. It was just when he was in his party mode, he was out of control.”

Nadine and her huge cohort of toys and vehicles plied all the usual yachting haunts on both sides of the Atlantic. But Belfort’s love story was to be short-lived. Disaster struck with the boss and guests on board during an 85-mile crossing between Civitavecchia in Italy and Calle de Volpe on Sardinia.

What was forecast to be a 20-knot blow and moderate seas degenerated into a violent 70-knot storm with crests towering above 10.6m, according to Elliott. Wave after wave pounded the superstructure, stoving in hatches and windows so that water poured below and made the boat sluggish. By a miracle the engine room remained dry and they could maintain steerage way, motoring slowly through the black of the night as rescue attempt after rescue attempt was called off.

Nadine eventually sank at dawn in over 1000m of water just 20 miles from the coast of Sardinia. Everyone had been taken off by helicopter, and there was no loss of life. Captain Mark Elliott was roundly congratulated for his handling of the incident. “The insurance paid immediately because it was the storm of the century,” he says. “I took the whole crew but one with me to [Little’s next boat] Star Ship . That was my way to come back.”

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Script Analysis: “The Wolf of Wall Street” — Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown

Scott Myers

Go Into The Story

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Characters Thursday: Themes Friday: Takeaways

Today: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown. Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay :

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire. For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

* We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.

* By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.

* A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: The Wolf of Wall Street . You may download a PDF of the script — free and legal — here .

Screenplay by Terence Winter, book by Jordan Belfort.

IMDb plot summary: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.

The Wolf of Wall Street Scene by Scene Breakdown By Paul Graunke GoIntoTheStory.com Pages 1–5: The story opens with an ad portraying a sober, mature, staid prudent stock trading firm. Cut to Jordan leading a riotous morale building session that involves throwing a dwarf at a target. Follow up with a V.O. montage of his drug-fueled, reckless, and obscene rich lifestyle. Pages 6–11: Flash back to the beginning: Jordan’s first day working on Wall Street. He’s ambitious but relatively naïve. A cocaine-fueled broker, Mark Hanna, expounds to the Wall Street novitiate a cynical, ruthless, f**ck-the-client ethos. For six months, Jordan gets initiated into the ways of Wall Street, passes the Series 7 exam to become a licensed stock broker — just in time to become unemployed when the flash crash of October 1987 wipes out the stock firm where he works. Pages 12–13: Jordan answers an ad for a sleazy, storefront operation selling penny stocks. Pages 14–15: Jordan is a natural born salesman, quickly becomes the best huckster, er broker, the one everyone wants to mimic. Pages 16–17: Impressed by his car and paycheck, Donnie Azoff, quits his job and goes to work for Jordan. He’s also a drug fiend, introduces Jordan to crack. Pages 18–19: Jordan stars his own firm, recruits his own crew. Pages 20–28: A minor league player with major league ambitions, Jordan morphs his firm into a classier operation, Stratton Oakmont, movies into a classier digs. Stratton Oakmont becomes hugely, insanely lucrative. Pages 28–30: Jordan becomes so successful, he’s interviewed for a cover story in Forbes. Which turns out to be a hatchet job; the story gives him the sobriquet “The Wolf of Wall Street”. But, as his wife points out, there’s no such thing as bad publicity: wanna-be brokers mob him for a job at his firm. The Forbes article also brings Jordan to the attention of the FBI in the person of agent Patrick Denham. Pages 30–39: Meanwhile, the firm revels, wallows in more insane success. To bring some sanity and order to the firm, Jordan hires his dad, Max, to be chief financial officer. Two Pages of absurd discussion over dwarfs is interrupted by the arrival of his father who is outraged at the wanton “business expenses” for entertainment. Max warns him that “one of these days the chickens will come home to roost.” Pages 40–44 : During a party at his South Hampton beach house, Jordan’s story pivots in 3 fateful ways: 1] Jordan announces his plan to up Stratton Oakmont’s game by doing IPO’s, initial public stock offerings; 2] Donnie introduces Quaaludes into Jordan’s already extensive pharmacopeia; and 3] Jordan meets the super-glamorous Naomi. It’s lust at first sight. Pages 40–48: Jordan’s besotted affair with Naomi ends his marriage to his first wife, Teresa. Pages 49–51: After Naomi moves into Jordan’s apartment, he has to deal with a scandal when they return unexpectedly from a trip to discover the seemingly staid butler throwing an orgy for his gay friends. And someone has stolen $50 thousand in cash and jewelry. Pages 52–54: Jordan uses Brad, and other ‘ratholes’, to hide money and illegal transactions. The SEC sniffs around the books, but can’t find any actionable evidence to prosecute. Jordan continues to make more money than he knows how to spend or hide from the government. Pages 54–57: Jordan gives Naomi an enormous engagement ring, and after an orgiastic bachelor party in Vegas, the couple marries. Naomi makes a fateful introduction to Jordan, Aunt Emma, her British aunt. Jordan presents her with her wedding present, a 150 foot yacht. After a 3 week cruise in the Caribbean, they settle into a luxurious estate. Heaven on earth. Pages 58–63: Until it isn’t. Eighteen months later, they are fighting over his chronic, compulsive infidelities and reckless drug-induced behavior. He tries, in vain, to make up to her. Pages 64–70: The day of the firm’s biggest IPO for Steve Madden’s shoe company. After an awkward introduction of Madden to the troops, Jordan sends them to the phones with a rousing pep talk. Pages 71–72: Bad news arrives as Jordan and Donnie celebrate the success of the IPO with champagne and ludes: the FBI wants a copy of the wedding video. Pages 73–79: Jordan invites FBI agent Denham and his partner to talk on his yacht, makes a barely subtle attempt to buy him off. But Denham is immune to Jordan’s charm and cash; his integrity is not for sale. Pages 79–81: Realizing he can’t shake off Denham, Jordan makes plans to hide his money in Switzerland. He flies to Zurich while flying high under the influence of ludes. Pages 82–85: Jordan meets with the Swiss banker Saurel who explains that to avoid the long arm of the American government, he needs launder the money through an account — a foreign rathole — under someone else’s name. Pages 85–88: In London, Jordan recruits Aunt Emma to manage the Zurich rathole and addled by drugs tries to seduce her. She’s wise enough to launder the money and wise enough to not succumb to his charms. Pages 88–91: But the problem is there is more cash to move overseas than be taped to any one body. They need lots of bodies. Brad recruits his wife and her extensive family. In the process of figuring out how to move the money, animosity builds between Donnie and Brad. Pages 92–93: The animosity between Donnie and Brad climaxes in an altercation in a strip mall that catches the attention of the cops. Brad is busted with a suitcase of cash. Pages 94–95: In desperation, Donnie distracts Jordan with his cache of the most potent ludes before breaking the bad news about Brad. Pages 95–96: They pop the ludes — but the high doesn’t kick in. They pop some more, exercise to ramp up their metabolism, get the ludes to kick in. Pages 96–100: Jordan’s lawyer calls, frantic but afraid to talk on Jordan’s home phone for fear it’s bugged. Jordan drives to a local country club to use the pay phone. Where, as he receives the bad news about Brad’s arrest, the ludes kick in. He literally crawls his way back to his car and miraculously seems to get back home without a mishap. Pages 100–103: Jordan frantically stops an equally stoned out Donnie from calling Zurich on a home phone about the money. Donnie shoves food down his throat in order to sober up — and chokes as Jordan takes consolation with cocaine. Jordan finally comes to his rescue and must perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save Donnie. Pages 103–104: Come to find out the morning after, Jordan totally wrecked the car while driving home. But since there’s no witness to prove he was driving, he’s not arrested. But Brad serves a few months for contempt for refusing to testify before finally getting out. His luck seems to be holding. Pages 104–105: Jordan’s financial lawyer advises him to cut a deal with the SEC before his luck runs out. Which will require him to surrender control of Stratton Oakmont. Pages 105–108: Jordan announces his retirement to his troops — and then defiantly changes his mind. FBI agent Denham relishes the opportunity to take Jordan down. Brad is welcomed back with (another) wild party. Pages 109–110: The subpoenas drop, the SEC investigates, but Jordan’s entourage loyally refuse to rat. Jordan and Donnie are instructed not to leave the country — which is exactly what they do, to Italy. Pages 110–112: The caca keeps hitting the fan: Steve Madden dumps his stock and Aunt Emma dies. Jordan has three business days to get to Geneva to forge a document in Aunt Emma’s name transferring the Swiss rathole account to him. Pages 113–117: Jordan orders the boat captain to steer for Monaco despite a stormy weather forecast. The yacht sinks in a “perfect storm”, but the passengers manage to be rescued. Page 117–121: Two years later, Jordan is arrested by FBI agent Denham while filming an infomercial for his newest business venture, financial seminars. He’s been ratted out by his ex-partner Rugrat and his ex-banker Saurel after they get busted for another money laundering scheme. He’s indicted for money laundering, securities fraud and a long list of other charges. Pages 122–126: Donnie consoles Jordan as he faces long jail time and financial ruin. But Jordan learns he can get a reduced sentence if he agrees to wear a wire. Which he agrees to do. Pages 126–130: It’s too late to salvage his marriage. Naomi informs him she is filing for divorce and custody of the kids. Pages 131–133: Jordan meets Donnie, passes him a note warning him he’s wired — don’t say anything incriminating. Only to find out later that Donnie has passed the paper to the FBI — ratted on his partner. Denham arrests Jordan again. Pages 134–135: Jordan is sentenced to four years — in a comfy prison for white collar criminals. Pages 135–137: Years later, after he’s released, he’s back on his feet, raking in the dough as a motivational speaker.

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

Major kudos to Paul Graunke for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown, go here .

Tomorrow: We zero in on the major plot points in The Wolf of Wall Street .

REQUEST: We have some incredible scripts in the GITS library which we have yet to analyze including 12 Years a Slave , The Way Way Back , and many more.

NOTE: We have new scripts from 2015 movies including Trainwreck and Ex Machina .

I am looking for volunteers to read a script and provide a scene-by-scene breakdown for it to be used as part of our weekly series. What do you get? Beyond your name being noted here, my thanks, and some creative juju, hopefully you will learn something about story structure and develop another skill set which is super helpful in learning and practicing the craft.

The latest volunteers:

Birdman — Doc Kane Dallas Buyers Club — Devin Dingler Frozen — Doc Kane Gone Girl — Ashley Looper — Michael Perkins Nebraska — David Joyner Nightcrawler — Marija Wild — Jacqui Corcoran The Wolf of Wall Street — Paul Graunke

Thanks, all!

To see examples of scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here . Part of the goal is to create a library of breakdowns for writers to have at their disposal for research and learning.

You may see the scripts we can use for the series — free and legal — by going here .

To date, we have analyzed 47 movie scripts , a great resource for screenwriters. To see those analyses, go here .

Thanks to any of you who will rise to the occasion and take on a scene-by-scene breakdown.

And for those of you who have volunteered, please send me your scene-by-scene breakdown as soon as possible!

Circling back to where we started, reading scripts is hugely important. Analyzing them even more so. If you want to work in Hollywood as a writer, you need to develop your critical analytical skills. This is one way to do that.

So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation!

I hope to see you in comments about this week’s script: The Wolf of Wall Street . Comment Archive

Written by Scott Myers

More from scott myers and go into the story.

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The Wolf of Wall Street Soundtrack [ 2013 ]

List of songs.

Stratton Oakmont

Theodore Shapiro

Opening score music.

Dust My Broom

Elmore James

Jordan narrates his life at the start of the movie. He talks about his white Ferrari and his model wife.

Dust My Blues

Song as Jordan is trying to land his helicopter while high at the start of the movie.

Howlin' Wolf

Jordan talks about the all the drugs he use.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans

Jordan arrives at Wall Street on his first day.

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

Jordan is at the strip club doing cocaine after 6 months on wall street.

Bang! Bang!

Jordan sells his first penny stock, he meets Donnie at the diner.

Tear It Down

Clyde McCoy

Jordan and Donnie smoke crack.

Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

Jordan brings together his sale friends to introduce them to his brokerage idea.

Surrey With the Fringe On Top

Ahmad Jamal Trio

Jordan buys his wife a diamond necklace.

Road Runner

Stratton Oakfield start expanding and selling penny stocks to rich people.

Stars and Stripes Forever

John Philip Sousa

The marching band and strippers parade through Stratton Oakfield to celebrate their week.

Smokestack LIghtning

They all celebrate their end of week profits. They roll around with strippers as the DEA starts to investigate their firm.

Double Dutch

Malcolm McLaren

After the Forbes article, hundreds of kids rock up trying to get a job with them. Jordan also hires the enforcer, Mad Max.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

Jordan talks about the different types of hookers the office use.

Insane in the Brain

Cypress Hill

First song at Jordans huge house party.

King Arthur, Act 3: What Power Art Thou

The Monteverdi Choir

Donnie is high on Quaaludes at the party. Slow motion shot as he leans over Jordans shoulder as they play beer pong.

Never Say Never

Naomi arrives at Jordan's party and they are introduced for the first time.

There Is No Greater Love

Jordan and Naomi have dinner together.

John Lee Hooker

Noami tells Jordan they're not going to be friends. They drive home together after their dinner.

C'est Si Bon

Eartha Kitt

Jordan is doing cocaine off of Naomi in the limo before his wife catches him.

Give Me Luv

Noami walks in on the gay orgy in her house.

Uncontrollable Urge

Jordan describes how a rat hole works as they play golf. The SEC visits.

Moonlight In Vermont

Jordan asks Naomi to marry him.

Pretty Thing

Jordans bachelor party at the mirage and continues onto the plane. Again at his wedding as they dance.

In the Bush

Second song on the plane as they have sex with hookers and do drugs.

Can't Help Falling In Love

Elvis Presley & The Jordanaires

A version of this song can be heard at the wedding reception on the beach.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Live song at the wedding.

Baby Got Back

Sir Mix-A-Lot

Dancing to this song at the wedding.

Foo Fighters

After Jordan buys Naomi a yacht for her wedding present.

Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Calling You

Jimmy Castor

Song after Jordans speech to his brokers, they start selling Steve Maddens stock.

Sloop John B

Me First and The Gimme Gimmes

Jordan kicks the agents of his boat. He talks about taking drugs so he can make the flight to Switzerland.

Boom Boom Boom

The Outhere Brothers

Jordan is dancing at a club during the drool phase of taking his ludes.

I Need You Baby (Mona)

Jordan goes to his aunt to ask if he can use her name for a swiss bank account.

Meth Lab Zoso Sticker

They strap their cash to the Swiss hooker. They start smuggling the cash into Switzerland.

Flying High (from Family Matters)

Bennett Salvay & Jesse Frederick

Belfort and Azoff watch an episode of Family Matters, waiting for the Quaaludes to kick in.

Dream Lover (from Popeye meets Hercules)

Clifford Grey & Victor Schertzinger

Azoff is on the phone while the show is playing in the background

Score from Popeye meets Hercules

Winston Sharples

Belfort and Azoff get into a fight while the sow is playing in the background

Popeye the Sailor Man (Remastered)

Sammy Lerner

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Martin Scorsese ‘Kept Fighting’ for ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Yacht Scene to Be in Final Cut

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Martin Scorsese was determined that “ The Wolf of Wall Street ” would have a sinking ship onscreen.

The blockbuster, Oscar-nominated 2013 film which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort, was originally a whopping four hours long. While the film was eventually trimmed down to 180 minutes, screenwriter Terence Winter revealed that Scorsese refused to cut an expensive yacht sequence.

“Because [the script] was so long, you know, the fear was there were going be things that we were gonna have to cut — like the sequence where the boat sinks and they get rescued at sea,” Winter told The Hollywood Reporter . “It was on the chopping block for the longest time because it was so wild and so expensive. To his credit, Marty just kept fighting and said, ‘We have to have that. I have to have that.'”

The scene involves Belfort (DiCaprio) and his wife Naomi ( Margot Robbie ) having to be rescued by helicopter when sailing from Italy to Monaco in a desperate attempt to stop federal investigators from accessing bank accounts.

“There was actually a four-hour cut of that movie initially and it was just a lot more insanity — if you can believe there was room for any,” Emmy winner Winter continued. “But I was absolutely thrilled that everything got in there. Every possible thing… including the kitchen sink… is in that movie. I could not have been more happy with it.”

Acclaimed editor and longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker previously told IndieWire that the four-hour cut is beloved by those who had seen it, and Scorsese even considered releasing it in two parts. “Well, we thought about it,” Schoonmaker said. “But the film doesn’t work split in half. It has to have a certain arc.”

Actress Robbie recently revealed that the overnight success of “The Wolf of Wall Street” was overwhelming at times, saying, “Something was happening in those early stages and it was all pretty awful. I remember saying to my mom, ‘I don’t think I want to do this.’ And she just looked at me, completely straight-faced, and was like, ‘Darling, I think it’s too late not to.’ That’s when I realized the only way was forward.”

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Real footage of the beach party from the Wolf of Wall Street shows how accurate the movie is

The 2013 martin scorsese hit has been a firm-favourite among movie buffs for over a decade.

Rhianna Benson

Hollywood has long been know to sometimes bend the truth, even when telling 'real life' stories, for the purpose of entertaining its viewers.

One blockbuster hit, however - which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year - has received global acclaim for its ability to been fans riveted by its jaw-dropping content, while also majorly following the true story on which it's based.

The star-studded movie - featuring the likes of Hollywood legends Leonardo DiCaprio , Margot Robbie and Jonah Hill - first premiered in cinemas back in 2013 and has remained a firm-favourite among movie buffs ever since.

We are, of course, talking about The Wolf of Wall Street.

And it's absolutely true - amid the drugs, sex and money laundering that make this black-crime comedy - which centres on the corrupt brokers working the New York stock market - so iconic, however, is that it is based on a true story.

There really was a former Wall Street mogul-turned financial criminal named Jordan Belfort, who pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock manipulation.

Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison, though he only served 22 months.

And last year, a clip resurfaced of one of Belfort’s actual epic beach parties, which indicates just how accurate The Wolf of Wall Street film was.

Despite being released nearly 30 years later, Martin Scorsese's flick includes an insane amount of details from the actual beach party.

The movie version sees the fraudster standing on the balcony of a packed-out Westhampton beach house and giving one of his famous pep talks.

To an eager crowd, he screams: "We're going to take this company into the f***ing stratosphere."

Similarly, in the real footage, you can see Belfort standing on the balcony of his beachfront mansion and getting his guests riled up in similar fashion.

OK, so he's not screaming as enthusiastically as DiCaprio, and the quality of the recording is terrible - but the spirit and the setting are pretty damn close.

The clip was shared on the YouTube page Comp Guy, who wrote: "Here's the REAL Wolf of Wall Street Beach House party, from the summer of 1991.

"It was taken a few months BEFORE the infamous Forbes Magazine article."

They went on to explain that in 1990: "The Wolf hosts one of many of his parties at his Westhampton beach house. It is like a Great Gatsby party, where anyone good-looking can crash.

"Nadine and her companion drive up in a banana-yellow Ferrari. The Wolf is entranced."

The video description adds that someone began purposely masturbating in front of Nadine Macaluso - who in the movie is played by bombshell actor Margot Robbie (but under the name Naomi).

Speaking of the 'masturbating' moment, the scene was depicted in graphic detail in the film, showing Hill performing the lewd act in the middle of a party.

And as is said in the YouTube description, this actually happened in real life, something which was confirmed by Macaluso in a TikTok video .

"So you guys have been asking how did I meet Jordan, the Wolf of Wall Street," she said.

"Well, it's actually pretty similar to the movie. I was, I guess, 22 years old and modelling and my boyfriend at the time, said, 'You want to go to this party in Westhampton in this house on the beach?', and I was like, 'Sure'.

"And so we pulled up, and I remember walking into the house, and there were all these people acting really weird. Little did I know that they were all Quaaluded out, I had no idea."

Macaluso continued: "That scene where someone actually exposes himself to me was true. And I actually got terrified by that.

"I'm 22. And I said to my boyfriend at the time, 'We have to leave this party,' and we left right away."

Topics:  Celebrity , TV and Film , Leonardo DiCaprio , Margot Robbie

Rhianna is an Entertainment Journalist at LADbible Group, working across LADbible, UNILAD and Tyla. She has a Masters in News Journalism from the University of Salford and a Masters in Ancient History from the University of Edinburgh. She previously worked as a Celebrity Reporter for OK! and New Magazines, and as a TV Writer for Reach PLC.

@ rhiannaBjourno

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Footage of Jordan Belfort's 'insane' party that inspired 'Wolf of Wall Street’ scene resurfaces

Footage of one of Jordan Belfort’s actual house parties that inspired a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ scene has resurfaced online.

In the video posted to YouTube by Comp Guy , Belfort can be seen standing on a balcony giving a speech about the success of his business. It’s a cocky speech to a crowd that’s ready to applaud the man that is no doubt funding their wild drug habits.

In the description of the video, Mr Guy writes that the video was taken in “the summer of 1991 - a few months before the infamous Forbes Magazine article " - one that criticised Belfort for his wild ways, but also shot him to a new level of fame. 

Martin Scorsese's 2013 film recreated one of Belfort’s lavish beach house parties in one memorable scene. It starts with Leonardo Dicaprio’s Belfort screaming to the crowd - far more intensely than the real-life footage, but just as confidently - before he eventually meets his second wife, Naomi (played by Margot Robbie). 

In the real-life footage, Belfort is already with his second wife, whose real name is Nadine. She can be seen at the four-minute and fourteen seconds mark of the video, quickly appearing to receive a kiss on the cheek from her multi-millionaire husband.

So apart from the intensity of the speech and the identity of Belfort's wife, the movie scene is pretty true to life (including not being suitable for younger audiences). 

Commenters on the resurfaced footage are full of people commending DiCaprio’s portrayal of Belfort, as well as a couple of people claiming that were at the party. 

“This party was friggin awesome,” wrote one person. “I was there and can say that the descriptions in Jordan's book of these parties were pretty spot on from my hazy recollections.”

“Leo should’ve won that Oscar!” said another. 

“The accent from Leo DiCaprio is spot on!” a third added. 

Despite definitely being sensationalised for the sake of cinema, it is pretty nuts to see actual footage of one of the world's most infamous party animals before it all came tumbling down. 

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The Wolf of Wall Street: History vs. Hollywood

Did Jordan Belfort really meet his future business partner in a restaurant?

What was the name of Belfort's brokerage house?

The Wolf of Wall Street true story confirms that, like in the movie, Stratton Oakmont was the name of the real Jordan Belfort's Long Island, New York brokerage house. Belfort and co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie) chose the name because it sounded prestigious ( NYTimes.com ). The firm would later be accused of manipulating the IPOs of at least 34 companies, including Steve Madden Ltd. (their biggest deal), Dualstar Technologies, Paramount Financial, D.V.I. Financial, M. H. Meyerson & Co., Czech Industries, M.V.S.I. Technology, Questron Technologies, and Etel Communications.

What exactly did Jordan Belfort do that was illegal?

Belfort's Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm ran a classic "pump and dump" operation. Belfort and several of his executives would buy up a particular company's stock and then have an army of brokers (following a script he had prepared) sell it to unsuspecting investors. This would cause the stock to rise, pretty much guaranteeing Belfort and his associates a substantial profit. Soon, the stock would fall back to reality, with the investors bearing a significant loss. -NYTimes.com

How many employees worked for Jordan Belfort's brokerage firm?

At its peak in the 1990s, Stratton Oakmont, Belfort's firm that he co-founded with Danny Porush, employed more than 1,000 brokers. -TheDailyBeast.com

Danny Porush says the movie's dwarf-tossing scene (above) never happened. Even Belfort's book only discusses it as a possibility. Did Jordan Belfort really host an in-office dwarf-tossing competition?

No. "We never abused [or threw] the midgets in the office; we were friendly to them," Danny Porush (the real Donnie Azoff) says. "There was no physical abuse." Porush does admit that the firm hired little people to attend at least one party. Jordan Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street only discusses the tossing of little people as a possibility, not something that actually happened. -MotherJones.com

During what years did the events in the movie take place?

The events in The Wolf of Wall Street movie took place during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush founded the brokerage firm of Stratton Oakmont in the late 1980s. The securities fraud and money laundering charges brought against the firm involved companies that Stratton Oakmont helped raise money for in public stock offerings from 1990 through 1997. In 1996, Stratton Oakmont was banned from the brokerage industry, which eventually forced the company to close its doors. -NYTimes.com

Was Jordan Belfort really known as the "wolf" of Wall Street?

No, at least not according to the former co-founder and president of the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm, Danny Porush (portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie). The real Porush says that he is not aware of anyone at the firm calling Jordan the "wolf." Porush says that it's just one of a number of exaggerations and inventions in both Belfort's book and the movie. -MotherJones.com

Is Matthew McConaughey's character, Mark Hanna, based on a real person?

Yes. In exploring The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we learned that Jordan Belfort claims to have met Matthew McConaughey's character's real-life counterpart, Mark Hanna, in 1987 when he was working at the old-money trading firm of L.F. Rothschild. His new acquaintance was an uproarious senior broker at the firm and introduced Belfort to the excess and debauchery that Belfort would later make a daily staple at Stratton Oakmont. Like in the movie, the real Mark Hanna behind McConaughey's character told Belfort that the key to success was masturbation, cocaine and hookers, in addition to making your customers reinvest their winnings so you can collect the commissions. -TheDailyBeast.com

Did Jordan Belfort really abuse cocaine and other drugs?

Yes. In The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is shown snorting cocaine off a prostitute's backside and nearly crashing his private helicopter while high on a cocktail of prescription drugs, including Quaaludes, morphine and Xanax. In researching The Wolf of Wall Street true story, it quickly became clear that Belfort used drugs heavily in real life too. In his memoir, he states that at times he had enough "running through my circulatory system to sedate Guatemala."

Jordan Belfort did give speeches like DiCaprio in the movie (left). Right: The real Belfort speaks at a 1994 Stratton Oakmont Christmas party (right). Did Belfort really stand in front of his employees and give riling speeches with a microphone?

Yes. Belfort was known to stir his troops into action by belting out words of motivation through a microphone. However, his speeches were often filled with more self-adulation than DiCaprio's speeches in the movie.

Did a female employee really let them shave her head for $10,000 to pay for breast implants?

The real Jordan Belfort claims this is true in his memoir. The female employee let them shave off her blonde hair for $10,000, which she used to pay for D-cup breast implants. Co-founder Danny Porush also says that the shaving took place, "...the worst we ever did was shave somebody's head and then pay 'em ten grand for it," says Porush. -MotherJones.com

Was Jordan Belfort's Quaalude dealer in the movie, Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), based on a real person?

Yes. The character in the movie, Brad Bodnick, who has a goatee and is portrayed by The Walking Dead 's Jon Bernthal, is based on Jordan Belfort's real-life Quaalude supplier, Todd Garret. In his memoir, the real Jordan Belfort claims that Garret sold him approximately 10,000 Quaaludes.

Was there ever a chimpanzee in the office?

No. According to co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie), the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio's character pals around with a chimp is pure monkey business. "There was never a chimpanzee in the office," says Porush. "There were no animals in the office...I would also never abuse an animal in any way" (though he does admit to eating the goldfish, see below). -MotherJones.com

Did he really almost crash his helicopter in his yard?

Did Danny Porush really marry his own first cousin?

Yes. According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the real Donnie Azoff (whose actual name is Danny Porush) did marry his first cousin Nancy "because she was a real piece of ass." After twelve years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1998 after Danny told Nancy that he was in love with another woman ( NYPost.com ). Danny and his ex-wife share three children together.

Did Belfort and his colleagues really have drug-addled nights and sexcapades with prostitutes on a near daily basis?

Though the movie and Belfort's memoir might seem like gross exaggerations of the truth, depicting heavy drug use and sexcapades in the office during trading hours, they're not exaggerations at all says the F.B.I. agent who finally took Belfort into custody, "I tracked this guy for ten years, and everything he wrote is true." Kyle Chandler portrays the agent in the Martin Scorsese movie. -NYTimes.com

Was Belfort really arrested for crashing his Lamborghini while high on expired Quaaludes?

Yes, but according to Belfort the car wasn't a Lamborghini like in the movie, it was a Mercedes. He was so high in a drug daze that he couldn't remember causing several different accidents as he tried to make his way home. In real life, one of the accidents was a head-on collision that actually sent a woman to the hospital. -TheDailyBeast.com

The real Donnie Azoff, Daniel Porush, says that he really did swallow a goldfish like Jonah Hill (pictured). Did Danny Porush really swallow a goldfish?

Yes. According to the real Donnie Azoff, whose actual name is Danny Porush, the scene where Jonah Hill's character eats a goldfish is based on a true story. "I said to one of the brokers, 'If you don't do more business, I'm gonna eat your goldfish!'" Porush recalls. "So I did." -MotherJones.com

Did they really tape money to a woman's body?

In one scene of The Wolf of Wall Street movie, bricks of cash are taped to a Swiss woman's body. "[I] never taped money to boobs," the real Danny Porush says (played by Jonah Hill in the movie). According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the event did happen but his partner Porush wasn't there. -MotherJones.com

Was footwear mogul Steve Madden really involved in Belfort's scheme?

Yes. As shown in The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Steve Madden had been a childhood friend of Belfort's partner Danny Porush (renamed Donnie Azoff in the movie and portrayed by actor Jonah Hill). Their fondness for drugs and alcohol reunited the two of them. During the initial public offering of his footwear company, Steve Madden Ltd., Madden acquired a large number of shares of his company, which were actually being controlled by Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont. Once shares became available to the public, Stratton Oakmont got down to the business of selling them to unsuspecting suckers. Billing Madden's company as the hottest issue on Wall Street, Belfort's brokers in turn drove up the price. Eventually, Steve Madden was to sell off his shares when the hype was at its peak, just before the stock began its inevitable decline. Similar to what is seen in the movie, Belfort still maintains that Steve Madden tried to steal his Steve Madden shares from him. However, Jordan Belfort did make approximately $23 million in two hours as part of the deal with Steve Madden, who would later be charged as an accomplice to Belfort's scheme. -NYTimes.com For his part, Steve Madden was sentenced to 41 months in prison and was forced to resign as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd. He also resigned from the company's board of directors. However, he did not leave the company entirely. He kept his foot (or shoe) in the door by giving himself the title of creative consultant, for which he was well-compensated even while he was in prison. -Slate.com

Did Jordan Belfort really name his yacht after his wife?

Did Belfort's yacht really sink in a Mediterranean storm?

Yes. In real life, Belfort's 167-foot yacht, which was originally owned by Coco Chanel, sunk off the coast of Italy when Belfort, who was high on drugs at the time, insisted that the captain take the boat through a storm ( TheDailyBeast.com ). Listen to Belfort tell the story during The Room Live 's Jordan Belfort interview . As he states in the interview, his helicopter didn't fall off the boat during the storm like in the movie. Instead, they had to push the helicopter off of the top deck of the boat to make room for the rescue chopper to drop down an Italian Navy commando.

How long did FBI agent Gregory Coleman spend tracking Jordan Belfort and his firm?

FBI agent Gregory Coleman, renamed Patrick Denham for the film and portrayed by actor Kyle Chandler, made tracking Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont, a top priority for six years. In an interview ( watch here ), Coleman says that the factors that drew his attention to the firm were "the flashiness, the brashness of their activities, the blatantness of the way they were soliciting people and cold calling people, and the number of victims that were complaining on a daily basis." -CNBC

Did Jordan really strike his wife?

Yes. The Wolf of Wall Street movie shows Jordan (Leonardo DiCaprio) hitting his wife (Margot Robbie) with his hand and fist. According to his memoir, he actually kicked his wife Nadine down the stairs while he was holding his daughter. She landed on her right side with "tremendous force."

Did Belfort really endanger his 3-year-old daughter's life by crashing his car through the garage door?

Yes. In real life, he put his daughter Chandler in the front seat of the car without a seat belt on, before crashing it through the garage door and then driving full speed into a six-foot-high limestone pillar at the edge of the driveway. Like in the movie, he was high at the time.

Tommy Chong was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison and encouraged him to write the book. What was Jordan Belfort's punishment?

When he was finally arrested in 1998 for money laundering and securities fraud, Jordan Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison. This was after agreeing to wear a wire and provide the FBI with information to help prosecute various friends and associates. In the end, the true story reveals that he served only 22 months in a California federal prison. His cellmate in prison was Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, who was serving a nine month sentence for selling bongs. -TheDailyBeast.com

What inspired Jordan Belfort to write his memoir?

It wasn't so much a what as it was a who. Tommy Chong (one half of "Cheech and Chong") was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison. After laughing at some of Belfort's stories from his days running the firm, Chong encouraged him to write a book. -TheDailyBeast.com

Why is Jordan Belfort's memoir filled with so many exclamations?

Jordan Belfort attempted to model his writing after Hunter S. Thompson ( Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ), who was known for using plenty of exclamation points.

What happened to Belfort's partner, Danny Porush, portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie?

Danny Porush, renamed Donnie Azoff for the movie and played by actor Jonah Hill, served 39 months in prison for his part in the corrupt dealings of Stratton Oakmont, the firm that he co-founded with Jordan Belfort. Porush currently runs a medical supply business in Florida, where he lives with his second wife Lisa in a $4 million mansion. A 2008 Forbes article pointed out his company's fraudulent tactics, which included trying to persuade people to order diabetic supplies and getting them to provide information about their physicians that could be used to bill Medicare. A number of complaints surfaced accusing Porush's company of sending unsolicited packages that were accompanied by unexpected Medicare charges. Back in 2001, Porush was arrested in connection to a fraud scheme surrounding Noble & Perrault Collectibles, a company that sold commemorative coins over the phone. Victims saw their credit cards charged repeatedly, at times for thousands of dollars, while often never receiving any merchandise for purchases that were largely unauthorized to begin with. -Sun Sentinel Enjoying a well-to-do life in Florida, Daniel Porush and his wife drive matching Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles. With regard to The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Porush said, "I really have no comment other than to say I would never try to profit from a crime I'm so remorseful for." -NYPost.com

I heard that Jordan Belfort is a motivational speaker, is that true?

How much did Jordan Belfort earn from his books and the movie?

Catching the Wolf of Wall Street includes more of Belfort's outrageous stories that were not included in his first book. As we investigated The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we discovered that Jordan's books, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street , netted him a $1 million advance from Random House. He also earned $1 million for the film rights to his story ( TheDailyBeast.com ). In a response to criticism over these profits and future profits from the movie, Jordan Belfort said the following via his Facebook page, "I am not turning over 50% of the profits of the books and the movie, which was what the government had wanted me to do. Instead, I insisted on turning over 100% of the profits of both books and the movie, which is to say, I am not making a single dime on any of this." According to Jordan, the money is being used to pay back the millions still owed to those who were scammed by his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont.

Does Jordan Belfort have a cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street movie?

Yes, the real Jordan Belfort appears at the end of the movie as the person who introduces Leonardo DiCaprio's character before he takes the stage at his Straight Line seminar.

Have any other movies been based on Jordan Belfort's story?

Yes, but only loosely. The brokerage firm in the movie Boiler Room , released in 2000, was inspired by the illegal practices of Jordan Belfort's Stratton Oakmont firm. In the movie, actor Ben Affleck portrays Jim Young, the Belfort-esque co-founder of the firm, who, like Jordan Belfort, trains his brokers in the "pump and dump" scheme. -NYTimes.com

Watch The Wolf of Wall Street movie trailer. Also, view Jordan Belfort interviews and home video footage of him speaking at a Stratton Oakmont party in the 1990s.

• Jordan Belfort's Website
• Danny Porush's Website (played by Jonah Hill)
• Mark Hanna's Website (played by Matthew McConaughey)
• The Wolf of Wall Street Official Paramount Movie Site