We were a real business.
That's what you got to understand.
I know we were goddamn industry,
the kind that's the backbone of this country.
Don't take my word for it.
Go in the parking lot and look on the license of that brand new Mercedes 450.
Are you seeing this?
That's Furnace Creek. That picture's over 100 years old.
- You see the handsome devil right here? - Uh-huh.
He's a Wells.
Okay, so I know you're a mining company, but I pictured...
Well, I don't know what I pictured exactly.
I guess little carts going down along the train tracks.
- Right. - What is it that you do here?
What we do is we look for
the metals and the minerals, all right?
There's exploration there, there's engineering and production.
We're prospectors.
Not yet?
Okay, how about this?
So, let's say that this is the Earth.
My handbag?
Your handbag is Mother Earth
with all of her deep-filled mysteries and goodies
on the inside that she doesn't want to give up.
Me, I'm man.
I'm damn curious about what she's got inside.
So, I send down what's called an exploratory drill.
I go down inside and dig around, come across something.
I pull it out. It's nickel.
Nickel's actually 75 percent copper. And 25 percent nickel.
But there's a lot of nickel in the world and the world needs nickels.
I'm back down there getting my second core sample,
and I happen to pull up, say, silver.
The thing is, when you find a little bit of this,
that means there could be a lot of it.
So we start raising money.
We raise enough money to open a mine like the one in that picture right here.
Then...
We dig it all up.
Now, sometimes, not that often, but sometimes,
the prospecting gods are having a party at the pearly gates,
and we get real, real, really lucky.
We dig down in there, and we find a little metal called gold.
- Yes. - Kenny.
- You like it? - I love you.
I love you.
Old man wants to see you.
Afternoon, Maryann.
Hey, Pop.
Heard you want to see me?
Yeah, Kenny. Get your ass in here, would you?
Would you run through this...
...Persian County strategy again for me?
Right, um...
It's about the Southern part...
...of this Newmont property, right here.
Newmont just started drilling 140 meters
and found a whole lot of Magnesite.
If you remember, we still own the option on Relief Canyon, which is next door.
We're not finding squat, why? Not drilling deep enough.
Let's get back in there.
Drill deeper. Go to 140 if we need to,
and we got a damn good chance to get Relief back in production.
What about Jerritt Canyon.
That's your baby. You know more about it than I do.
The assays look promising. Could be fucking huge.
I want you to run point on this.
All in.
Scale it up.
Make it yours.
Yes, sir.
Clive Coleman's on board. Those boys will ride with you.
God, we work hard in this business.
Sometimes for nothing.
I wake up every morning.
I tell myself, "I don't have to do this, I get to do this."
And then it's just blue skies.
Blue skies, baby.
My old man, legend.
That was the last time I saw him alive.
- Hello, Mr. Kenny. - God bless you, Roy.
- Boys, to the mother lode. - Mother lode.
Today be the day.
The geological reports on this are highly encouraging.
We are taking a very aggressive... Prospectus?
Of course, I can have my secretary send you one out.
I got to tell you, on this offering, it's already oversubscribed.
We can always try and get you on the next one.
No, no. Yeah, I understand.
- Shit. - Watching the time?
- It's 11:15, Kenny. - Holy Christ.
Where would I be without you?
Mr. Wells?
- Yes. - Lloyd Stanton.
Hello, Lloyd.
This is my colleague, Henry Andrews.
- Nice to meet you. - Hey.
- Come on back. - Absolutely.
Thank you.
So, what can we do for you?
Why don't we wait for Clive?
Oh, Mr. Coleman got tied up in a meeting.
No offense, boys.
But I'm supposed to be meeting with Clive.
None taken, but if you were supposed to be meeting with Clive,
you would be meeting with Clive.
All right. Here is what we have.
We are developing some very exciting properties
that are spot on for your investor profile.
Low buy-in with a sizable upside.
The beautiful part is they are all only 12 to 18 months...
...and cash positive.
- Manitoba? - Yeah.
We picked up an option on a skip claim at an auction.
Right, but it's a 90-day option.
Yes, the window is narrow, but if you look at the Geo,
you'll see a very promising shell formation that hasn't been tapped yet.
Mr. Wells, Washoe has a practical value
hovering just above zero.
Your debt load is untenable,
and you bring us raw land with no infrastructure, no fungible assets.
You can't possibly expect us to underwrite this.
Yeah. I'm talking about a small offering here.
As I said at the beginning, a low buy-in.
Now, if you'll take a second look at the Geo, you will see what I see.
And that's money.
Not our money.
See, the thing is that the whole economy had turned,
particularly for commodities.
Close of the day...
Washoe was trading at four cents a share...
...if it was trading at all.
There's this great land lease,
because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Right. Washoe... Washoe money.
Carrying... Carrying on the business.
You know, there's still minerals out there.
We just got to find them, right?
Yeah, all right. Thank you for your time.
I could...
Twelve, eighteen months cash positive.
A deal.
Go and you fuck whatever time it is.
Washoe Mining, the company that my grandfather
literally scratched out of the side of the Nevada Mountain.
A company that my father made into a real player,
was almost gone.
Almost.
I had already lost my house, and I was...
I was living with Kay.
Had a half gallon of Seagram's in me.
Shit, most people would have been dead, but not me. No.
Instead, I had a dream.
I mean... I mean, literally, I... I had a dream.
Indonesia.
Gold.
Now, I'd been to Indonesia, five or six years earlier.
I still had a little money in my pocket.
You know, Indonesia was booming, and I was looking for a way to get in.
Back then if you wanted to put a hole in the ground in Indonesia,
you wanted Mike Acosta telling you where to dig.
He's what they call, a river walker.
A real hands-on geologist, real deal.
Oxford College, MIT.
His mom was Venezuelan. His dad was English.
See, he just discovered
the largest copper strike in southeast Asia,
and everybody wanted a piece of it, including me.
You got the Nazca plate, the Pacific plate.
Juan de Fuca, North American, South American.
Aleutian, Marianas, Tonga.
The plates rubbing and grinding up on each other.
Six trillion kilobytes of pressure.
Ten thousand degrees Celsius, kicking up geothermic hot spots
all along the Pacific rim.
He called it the, uh, the Ring of Fire theory.
He definitely had everyone's attention.
That's how I found the copper.
That's why I'll find the gold.
You're up early.
Hey.
You wanna talk about yesterday?
No. I gotta go right now, babe. I got a plan.
Oh, Kenny, listen.
Carl had an idea.
- American Home Carl? - Uh-huh.
He said he could get you on if you wanted.
Yeah...
I don't think that's going to be necessary, babe.
Yeah, but it'll be temporary until the market turns.
We could fool around in the warehouse.
When I get done with this trip. Shouldn't take more than a week.
What? Where you going?
If it doesn't work out, I'll give Carl a call.
- I'll call you from the airport. - What, what? Kenny!
It was like I was being called.
It was a gold calling.
That may sound crazy to you,
but if you knew that feeling, you'd know.
* We had a party *
* We had a band *
* And a thousand loving friends *
* He had his reason *
* Or so he thought *
* This should be where the story ends *
Kenny Wells.
I'm down here in the lobby of the Jakarta Palace.
Yeah, listen, we must have got the times mixed up.
Let me know. I'm down here.
I'm in the brown suit on a green couch.
I'm the good-looking guy, okay?
All right. Well, make it happen, captain.
Wells?
Mike.
Good to see you again.
I know a local place, a bit more color.
But they're not born here.
Good.
So, what are we talking about here, Wells?
Ring of Fire, Mike. Ring of Fire.
Playing my greatest hits.
Fire has gone out of that one.
What are you talking about?
It's the opinion of my fellow esteemed geologists,
that the whole thing, I'm quoting here, "Is a crock of shit."
Well, what the hell, you know? You called it wrong.
What are you going to do?
There's no right or wrong in this business.
There's only hits and misses.
There's gold here.
I'm glad you said that, Mike.
I truly am, because I... Believe you.
I hate to dash your hopes, but
others have come along before you,
with the same thought and from the looks of it...
Deeper pockets.
Ring of Fire is real, Mike.
I knew it the first time I heard.
It struck me like a fucking lightning bolt, I never forgot it.
Go ahead, laugh. I get that all the time.
But hear this.
I don't just believe...
I know.
- No, you don't. - I've seen it.
You don't understand.
- No one will back me. - I will.
You tell me where you want to dig, Mikey,
and I'll make goddamn sure the bills are paid.
No offense, Wells, but you look like you had to rob someone just to get here.
You know nothing about me.
You know it's still out there.
I know that.
I can see it in your eyes. You still believe.
I get it, and I was born on the side of a mountain too.
My father scratched everything he ever owned out of a fucking rock.
Died with dirt under his fingernails.
I intend to do the same.
This business wrote me off years ago.
Maybe you're not running the hottest hand of your career
right now either, so, let's prove them wrong.
You and me.
Let's prove them all wrong. You know why?
You do know why. Because of the Ring of Fire.
You're right, Mike. You called it.
Just haven't found it yet.
Tell me I'm crazy.
I'll be on the next plane.
You're crazy.
You have a hat, Wells?
Yeah, I got a hat.
Why, we going somewhere?
Up river.
What river is that, Mike?
You're late.
The only one that matters.
The Dayak have been panning this river
for over 5000 years.
That's how it got its name, "Dayak Kencana."
What's it mean?
Dayak means "Upstream".
Kencana means "Gold".
You got to be shitting me.
Wells.
We're here.
So listen, the Dayak are warrior people, probably best known for Ngayau...
Headhunting.
But it doesn't happen much anymore.
They might be thinking we're some traders, or someone's mother-in-law.
How long?
This jungle will... Will test you.
It will hold you up, weigh you, and decide your worth within an ounce.
You always talk like this, Mike?
Like a book on tape?
I suppose I do.
Where are we going?
Up.
Take a look.
Oh, my God.
It's my dream.
There have been a few folks up here tapping over the years,
but have all focused on the foothills far to the South.
But what interests me is the other way.
That small depression, like a giant left a footprint walking away.
Something happened there, Wells.
Something hardening.
That's where we'll finally face the bits.
My dream...
Is out there.
Damn right it is.
It's the big boys if you're thinking about investing,
unless you have a Harvard endowment or some pension fund.
I'm not your guy.
But the little guys, right, guys that you don't even know about.
The hustlers, the scrappers, the make it happen motherfuckers,
those are my guys.
How much do we need?
Seven... seven-fifty to start.
Okay.
How much do we need?
It isn't just a lease.
We're in Indonesia.
That means getting a permit and lining pockets.
Equipment.
You don't do this with some shovels and a pickax.
I'll get the money.
Whatever it takes.
- What's that? - It's a contract.
Read it. Sign it.
Keep it.
I could feel it in my bones.
I was selling something that I believed in.
Twenty K minimum buy in, and the shares are flying off the shelf.
No risk, no gain, right?
No, 'cause it's coming in right now.
No, Acosta. Michael Acosta.
It's the largest copper strike ever and that's the guy we have.
Get those shoes shined for dancing, baby.
We don't even have the exploration permits.
What are they selling?
What are we selling?
Mike, we're selling a story. Right now, the story is you.
Speaking of which, what the fuck are you doing?
I'm down in Kupang City, looking at coring equipment.
Acosta's in Kupang City, looking at coring equipment.
He's in Kupang City, as we speak.
- It's a fucking city. - Kupang City.
You're magic, Mike. Fucking magic.
You there, Mike?
Two hundred and sixty-seven thousand...
...four hundred and thirty-four dollars.
That's not exactly a number I had in mind, Wells.
Well, look, I may be able to borrow a little
to get... you know.
You know, the truth, Mike? That's it for now.
That's it. Can you make it work? Hmm?
I can make anything work.
You work out of a bar, Wells?
Keeping a lid on expenses, Mike. Making the dollar holler.
We're in!
That's classy. Am I paying for that?
Six men crews, twelve-hour shifts around the clock.
Tomorrow, start looking at core samples.
Then we'll send the most promising down river to the Assay Lab.
The mother lode, Mike.
You're out there, baby.
* Home is where I want to be *
* Pick me up and turn me round *
* I feel numb *
* Born with a weak heart *
* I guess I must be having fun *
* The less we say about it the better *
* Make it up as we go along *
* Feet on the ground *
* Head in the sky *
* It's okay I know nothing's wrong... nothing *
* Hi yo I got plenty of time *
Man that invented the hamburger was smart, Mike.
The man who invented the cheeseburger...
Now, that's the genius.
Don't ask where the meat came from.
Have you ever read Christopher Columbus' journals?
Of course not.
In his petition to the Queen of Spain,
he promised the conversion to her holy faith of a great number of people.
And he went on and mentioned God 26 times.
Gold, on the other hand... He mentioned 114 times.
Smart dago.
I've been wanting to ask you something, Wells.
Fire away, Mike.
What's the meaning of the tattoo on your arm?
Oh, it's a bird.
It's from a poem I read when I was a kid.
Bird with no feet...
Sleeps in the wind.
Assay!
Assay! Assay!
Mike, Mike!
Hey. These things, they look worse every time we get one.
Remember what I told you about patience?
Yeah.
Remember what I told you about money?
Yeah.
You said that it wasn't a problem.
It's a fucking problem now!
Hey!
Stay! Stay! Stay!
Stay!
Hey! Stay. Stay!
I got a bad case of malaria.
It kills, like, something like a million people a year, something like that.
Suddenly, I was on the list.
Maybe we were pushing them too hard.
Maybe we should take it easy, you know?
Cut them in. Give them some ownership.
Maybe they'll come back, you know?
Let them know that they got something at the end, you know,
and it all works out.
Give them a piece of the pie, you know?
Get up. Come on. Get up.
I'm freezing, Mike.
Don't let me die and have nothing, okay?
Rest now.
I'm pulling the plug.
No.
No, no, no. Don't pull the plug, Mike.
No, no. Can't do that, Mikey.
We have to get you out of here, Wells.
What's the plan, Mikey?
I know you got a plan, Mike. Hmm?
I know you got a plan.
What's the plan?
To get clean water.
If we get filter systems up here.
I think they might come back.
I got about $1800 on this Visa, right there.
Close to 500 on this Diner's Club.
Use it all.
Use it all, Mikey.
Damned if he didn't go to every single place
that every one of our workers lived.
Streams that had no name.
All feeding the great Kencana River.
Oh!
You know what? The workers came back.
I spent the next few weeks in a malarial haze.
Should have been dead.
Mike kept it all going.
What day is it?
I have no idea.
Month?
August.
You been sitting there this whole time?
Let's not get carried away.
What did the report say? What's the news?
We pulled 17 more cores.
What?
No good?
Not good.
More in the vicinity of great.
Mike, don't mess with me, man.
Eighth of an ounce per ton.
Eighth... Eighth of an ounce per what?
Eighth of an ounce per ton.
What are... What are you saying, Mike?
We got a strike in.
We got a gold mine?
- We got a gold mine? - We got a gold mine.
We got a gold mine, Mike!
We got a gold mine!
We got a goddamn gold mine!
We got a gold mine! We got a goddamn gold mine!
We got a gold mine!
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.
We got a goddamn gold mine!
Fuck you, mosquitoes.
That moment...
No way I could possibly describe the feeling.
It's amazing how a little gold dust can change everything.
For better or worse, the ride had begun and what a goddamn ride.
To the best goddamn team in the business.
Fucking-A.
You're a stand-up guy, Kenny.
Sharing the wealth.
- The mother lode. - The mother lode.
All right, baby. Do me a favor. Close your eyes.
- All right. - Cover them with your hands.
- Keep 'em closed. - Okay.
- I got you. I got you. - Okay.
One, two... three.
It's gonna be our place.
Away from it all, above it all, just like we always wanted.
You like it?
- Huh? - Yes. Yes.
Look, the house... Right here, all right?
The kitchen facing the great room over here.
Two fireplaces.
Can we afford this?
Almost, baby. Almost. We're almost there.
Look at this.
- A couple bedrooms on that end. - Okay.
Look at this playground for the kids, huh?
How many kids you want to have?
Kitchen has to stay over here. We gotta put it here...
- Yes! - ...for the morning light.
And a second kitchen over on this side.
A third one across the creek.
A fourth one up there with the elk.
Kenny, Kenny. It's Walt Kealer.
He publishes Gold Digger magazine.
We reach half a million subscribers, and they'd all love to know
what you got cooking over there in Indonesia.
Have a minute? I'll buy you a drink.
He's all yours, Walt.
Hell, I read Gold Digger magazine.
Come on over.
They say you bring this in you'll get the golden pickax.
What do you say about that?
I'd say you probably just jinxed it.
- How many ounces you guessing? - Hmm...
Millions, Walt. Absolutely millions.
Ask for money?
No. Hard rock. This is varsity ball.
- How's the infrastructure? - Building it from the ground up.
Any message you'd like to give
to the readers of Gold Digger magazine?
The last card you turn over is the only one that matters.
- Kenny, it's good to see you. - Good morning, Beverly.
Clive, how are you?
There he is.
- Good to see you, sir. - Good to see you, son.
You know, your father and I, we started together in this business.
Hell, I mean, he put me in the business.
I don't have to tell you that.
He always spoke very highly of you, Clive.
He's one of the best men I ever knew.
- Yeah. - Now!
You have gone from four to 23 cents
on your first assay results.
And you pulled in two more to confirm those findings?
Three more.
- Three more? - Um-hm.
That's fantastic.
Well, I would like to underwrite
a private placement of Washoe stock.
And I believe that we can raise
anywhere between eight and ten million dollars.
Capital is definitely at the top of our agenda right now.
Well, yes, it is.
And a lot of people are going to want to make this deal,
but history is on our side.
Uh-huh.
I just wish you'd brought this to me sooner.
I could have helped you from the get go.
- Well, here we are. - Here we are.
Lloyd, top that off for me, will you?
Straight black with a spicer chaser.
Mr. Wells, coffee?
There we are, Lloyd. Thank you.
Stanton, Mr. Wells has agreed to give us his business,
on one condition.
Lloyd, I want you to personally handle my account.
I need you to be available to me 24/7, 365,
as you will be riding shotgun in my jockstrap.
Absolutely. Yes. Thank you.
Let's quit standing around and go make some goddamn money.
Sounds good to me.
Kenny? Kenny? Did you read that last report?
Kenny, did you get the last report?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm looking at them right now.
- Holy shit! - Holy shit is right, my friend.
It's unbelievable.
Holy shit.
Bobby, I can hear your wife smiling from here.
Right back where you belong, Kenny.
It's a lot of ghosts in this building, boys.
Oh, nice work, Todd!
Woohoo!
All right, men.
This stock is going to start cooking.
Make sure you put a little bit away,
sell some of it along the way, just in case, especially you.
- What? - Put a little bit away.
For the first time in your life, think rainy day, Bobby.
- Okay? - Of course.
- Hey. - What?
- Okay? - Okay.
We're going to be so fucking rich.
At least look like you're working.
Yeah?
What do you got?
Wildcatters, basically.
This Mike Acosta has had some success.
Copper. Got taken over by Freeport Mack.
- It's all in there. - Yeah. I've heard of Acosta.
I like this.
I think we start with the good news,
which is that we are 50 percent allocated,
and we want to set aside 30 of the remaining 50 for you boys...
There's more food here. Don't drink through lunch.
Just eat something as well.
Kay!
- What? - Phone, please.
You want me to answer it?
Hello.
Washoe Mining. How may I direct your call?
- Kenneth Wells, please. - Please hold.
Kenny, you got a call!
- Thank you, dear. - Love you, baby.
All right.
Kenny Wells.
This is Brian Woolf at Brown Thomas in New York.
I'm with the Minerals and Oil Group.
No shit.
Uh-huh.
Well, that sounds outstanding, Brian.
Let me tell you something. I'm looking forward to it.
All right.
Fucking fly me out.
They're fucking flying me out.
Come on!
The way I see it, what banks do, who knows?
But what made this country, not tight asses in suits.
No offense, taking the easy way down, guys like me and Mike who jump.
What we have is a private placement in play here.
Already over 50 percent subscribed.
Now, if the numbers keep coming in good.
They're fucking going to...
The sky is the limit on this thing.
You don't have to sell us. We've done the math.
We believe you're sitting on the largest gold find of the decade.
Can I speak plainly, Mr. Wells?
Of course, Brian. That's the only way to speak.
Our clients are going to want to see
a serious plan to turn lab results in a volatile region,
into investment we can all stake our reputations on.
It's not gonna be a problem.
It's not a problem per se, but the fact remains
that neither of you have taken a find of this magnitude through production.
Wait just a minute there, Brian.
We... we found it. We can dig it up.
It's not that complicated.
Actually, historically we found it could be quite complicated,
and we'd like the opportunity to help you...
...formulate how you present the operation side.
What... What exactly does that mean?
I'd like you both to consider bringing on a strategic partner.
Oh.
All right.
Have any of you ever set one of your handmade loafers
down in a hole in the side of a mountain?
No. We have. Washoe has history.
We've done a fairly thorough analysis of Washoe.
Mr. Wells, and we feel like you need strategic help.
No. No way. No. This is a new day, all right?
And in Indonesia, it's goddamn different.
We can help you get off the side of that mountain.
I don't need any help getting off the side of the goddamn mountain.
I can land this plane. I can!
Wells came and found me.
I was at a low point, I have to admit.
It happens in this business, ups and downs.
But he backed me with his last cent and more than that,
he risked his life, almost lost it actually.
It was touch and go there for a bit.
And now we have the bull by its horns.
And, boys, they're big fucking horns.
I've worked with the best,
and I can tell you, Kenny Wells is up there with them.
We're not by any stretch of the imagination
suggesting at this moment that
anybody take a backseat. Just be open to a strategic alliance.
A dime out of every one of my dollars, not your dollars!
I said no a second ago. You wanna invest?
We got the gold. We can talk about it.
Don't need a fucking partner and...
There's something about... Finding gold...
That is so difficult to put into words.
It's really difficult.
Taste of it on your tongue.
You feel it between your fingers, it's electric.
It's like a drug, because it hooks you.
And it's precisely what you're missing here in the city...
Is what makes it so hard for us to have this conversation,
because you have never felt it.
So I have a proposal for you.
Put together your institutional players, the guys who rep the big money.
Whoever needs to kick the tires on this thing.
I will take them on a little trip up the river.
So it was Acosta who proposed the junket in Kencana?
Or did you cook that up together?
Jennings, you're not really getting it.
We didn't feel like we had to cook up anything.
I mean, I had people coming at me from all sides.
My neighbor, Hart Hubbard, he's a lawn care professional.
Usually only worried about Kay's mulberry tree
leaning over the back of his fence, but now, he's dropping mining terms.
"Hey, Kenny, how's the grade purity over there at Kencana?"
"I hear it's great. How about the core frequency?"
Hart fucking Hubbard. He mows grass for a living.
We interviewed Mr. Hubbard.
What I'm saying is we didn't need to cook up anything.
Everybody wanted in.
So it was Acosta who proposed the banker junket?
Yes.
And it was a genius move.
Now, when we get outside, get close to me and hang on to your wallets.
Come on... no, no... back, back... There he is.
Gentlemen, Mike Acosta.
Glenn.
Acosta.
- Bobby. - Acosta.
Jeff Jackson.
If any one of you wants to turn back, this is your chance.
What's that?
He's just messing with you. Welcome to Indo, boys.
When we got the hit, we stepped out in a radiating pattern.
We kept going until we had the definitive picture.
We're mapping beyond the lined geology.
The cores are cut into sections, and then crushed.
They're then bagged and sealed.
This cage is guarded 24/7.
Under guard, the samples are sent down river
to independent labs in Kalimantan.
If a seal is broken or damaged in any way,
the lab, by law, has to discard the entire sample.
Every safeguard has been put in place
to assure the security of the process.
Diamond tips, saw blades, rock crushers,
core samples being ripped from the guts of the Earth.
It all sounds great, but...
You boys want to see some gold.
No one's going to believe this shit.
So, what do you think?
Not sure. What about you?
Acosta seems to know what he's talking about,
but, uh, I don't know.
Hey, hey.
Come here. I think I got something.
See this?
Few more like this, you can pave Wall Street.
When Jackson pulled that nugget out, we had him.
Brown Thomas is proud to announce
the public offering of 27 million shares of
class A common stock and the initial listing of Washoe Mining
on the New York Stock Exchange!
We're all going to make a lot of fucking money!
Welcome to the Waldorf Astoria, Ma'am.
We'll get your bags right upstairs.
* If I could've held you I would've held you *
* Rip it up and start again *
* Rip it up and start again... *
Kenny? Are you here?
Baby? Where are you?
Huh.
- You surprised? - Yeah.
It's your favorite flower, right?
Babe.
You're beautiful, Kay.
Come here.
I have missed you so much. You have no idea.
Are these the softest sheets you've ever felt?
Yeah. I think they are.
Yeah.
- You wanna get under 'em? - Yeah.
* Rip it up and start again *
* I hope to God you're not as dumb as you make out *
* I hope to God *
- Hello, men. - Kenny.
Everyone, meet the lovely Kay.
- Brian. - Hi.
- Hollis. - Kay.
- Pleasure. - Stan, you know.
The only man in this business that sweats as much as I do.
Let's do this, huh? Ah, there he is.
Mike Acosta, the one and only. Mike, meet Kay.
Two of my favorite people in the world.
You know this one stole my watch to go meet you.
- You stole her watch? - No, I'm just teasing.
- She's teasing. - You're not.
- No, she's not. - No, I'm not.
I didn't know what time it was. I got to go.
It's so good to meet you, Mike.
- You should be very proud. - Never doubted for a second.
Woo!
We got five!
Four! Three!
Two!
One!
Ringing the bell, baby!
In the story we've been following very closely,
Washoe Mining may be the stock of the year.
On their first day on the New York Stock Exchange,...
...Washoe Mining turned into a rocket ship today.
- Hi. Nice to meet you. - Kenny.
No, no thanks.
This is the money.
- How are you? - Doing well.
True fucking story.
Who at this table wants to know
the secret to winning bets in Pro Football?
What's that?
Take the East Coast team every fucking time. You know why?
West Coast teams, to them, they're playing after midnight.
Rachel Hill.
- Giants fan? - Kenny Wells, Rachel.
What do you do, Rachel Hill?
Investor relations. Brown Thomas on the team.
And the best looking one on the team. I'll tell you that.
It's like a drunk raccoon
got a hold of the Hope Diamond.
You don't wanna get too close but you're not going to let it get away either.
It's your raccoon.
You let it run a multi-million-dollar company?
And lose you as a client and half the rest of my business?
There's risk and there's risk.
It's a good fucking day.
Now, who wants to buy me a drink?
Three double shots of Jack.
So, tell me, to go out into the wilderness with your bare hands
and discover something that everybody wants...
How does that feel?
I, uh, propose a toast.
Here, here.
To a small creature, often misunderstood...
To the raccoon.
Well, fuck me.
The thing is, you don't want gold to grow on you.
I can see that now.
I don't want to talk about it.
I wasn't doing anything.
I said I don't want to talk about it!
What the fuck should I have done, huh?
Bend her over the table and bang her in front of everybody?
You're too drunk to get it up anyway.
Fucking take that challenge, baby.
I don't care about you flirting with Miss Pneumatic 1988.
You think I haven't seen that shit before?
She had tiny, little fucking titties.
You don't think they were real?
None of this is real. None of it.
Why are you fucking... We made it!
Baby, what the fuck?
You know what your problem is, Kay?
- No. Why don't you tell me? - Not enough vision.
Right? Fucking vision.
Your vision starts right here, and it goes right here.
Here's the fucking kitchen sink
and right here's the goddamn parking lot at the furniture store.
You mean an actual job that would support a person in the place they live?
You mean that vision?
You know what? Fuck you.
- Kay, fuck me. Fuck you. - Fuck you.
Fuck... what, what?
Don't you see what's happening here?
Great. Go ahead. Yeah.
Pack your shit and run back to your shitty life.
You know what? I like my shitty life!
- It's mine! - Fucking giving this up?
You always wanted a broken bird, didn't you?
Said the right things, but in here, never fucking believed in me, did you?
You never believed in me, did you, Kay?
Hmm?
- You like me losing, don't you? - How can you even say that?
Makes you feel comfortable, doesn't it?
Does it feel comfortable?
These people are using you.
- They don't care about you. - I don't...
And they certainly don't believe in you.
They believe. I found gold.
Would you just let me have the win?
We're winning!
It ever occur to you that I know what I'm doing?
I hope you do.
Huh?
I do.
I love what's in there... More than you'll ever know.
These guys are going to tear you up.
Don't ask me to watch what happens next.
I know what I'm doing, Kay.
I know what I'm fucking doing.
What'd you do next, Wells?
What did I do?
I rode it.
I rode it, Jennings.
Another double? Seagram's on the rocks.
Yes, sir.
I'll have the same.
Goddamn. You don't have to impress me.
Reminds me of my childhood.
So how is everything in the very enchanted world of Kenny Wells?
Like a million bucks, only a few hundred times better.
That must be a very nice feeling.
Yeah. It looks like there's a few other people around here
with a similar feeling.
Well, maybe.
Maybe not.
How does someone like yourself end up here?
I know Tom.
Tom is a friend.
- I bet he is. - Now, now.
I stay with his cousin, Timmy, down the lane.
Timmy's really quite a character if you get to know him.
I don't know Timmy.
I don't really feel like talking.
Let's just focus.
Wells.
- Kenny Wells? - Aha.
Mark Hancock.
Seems I've caught you at a bit of a disadvantage, Mr. Wells.
Depends on how you look at it. Kenny "goddamn" Wells, Mark.
This is Rachel.
Oh, I know the lovely Rachel.
You know, this son of a bitch here,
he controls more gold than anybody on the goddamn planet.
Possible exception now, Mr. Wells.
This is how it happens, huh?
This is how it happens.
Goddamn.
What can I tell you? It's a generous offer.
- It's a fucking joke! - Let's take this...
This isn't a deal, Brian. This is goddamn rape!
- Listen to me. - No, this is mine!
This is mine! I... I found it!
Me and Mike!
We were the ones up to our ass in the mud
and the shit and the malaria!
And this little prick offers a minority partnership?
Let's keep some perspective. Whenever anyone offers
this amount of money, it's a good day!
You may say yes, you may say no,
but it's not like anybody's trying to offend you.
Mission Goddamn not accomplished!
Hancock and Newport Holdings have the expertise
and the experience to bring this home.
This is always there as a contingency.
- You know that. - No, no, no, no.
This is when Washoe Mining becomes a player,
right here, right fucking now.
Not Mark "fucking" Hancock and Newport Holdings.
I don't even see our name on here, Brian.
You took our fucking name... You took my name off it!
But if we take a step back here,
wouldn't it not be terrible to sit back and enjoy your success?
Would it not be terrible?
What the fuck? What kind of way of talking is that, Brian?
Would it not be terrible if I bend over and grab my ankles,
so you could fuck me up the ass?
You think you can buy me out and take my name?
Or just throw Kenny Wells to the fucking cornfield?
Fuck you, Brian!
If we hit pause for a second and consider without emotion,
I think you'll realize that this is one of those very rare moments
where with a stroke of a pen, no one in your family...
I'm talking your children's grandchildren...
...will ever have to worry about money again.
You see these hands, Brian?
These are my father's hands.
I've scratched and clawed through the hot Earth with these hands.
I will bury you with these hands.
Now, you will tell that silky sable, Mark Hancock...
He works for Kenny Wells.
My fucking day. My day!
You know, I almost respect this guy.
That was a pretty foolish business decision, wasn't it?
You're a foot away from living in your car.
You turn down $300 million? Over naming rights?
Yeah, I did.
Because 'Kencana' would become a Newport mine, right?
Mark "fucking" Hancock's Midas touch continues.
Me, Kenny Wells, the lucky bastard...
...who fell down drunk and woke up in a pile of cash. No.
It was my dream.
I dreamed it.
You sell your dream... What do you have left?
Good morning, Stacy. How are you? How's Ronnie?
Good?
- Kenny? - Hmm?
Come on!
Mike, hang on. Kenny's here.
It's Mike. It's a fucking shit storm.
Mikey, what's up?
- They're locking us out. - They're what?
They're locking us out!
Military is here taking over the mine.
What happened at your meeting with Hancock?
What happened at the meeting, Kenny?
Listen, Mike, they were trying to push us out.
Push us out? What do you mean push us out?
They took our names off, Mike.
Mine and yours. They took our fucking names off.
You fucking moron!
They can't just revoke the permit.
- They can't just steal it away. - Kenny, what?
Of course they can revoke the permit!
Suharto can do whatever the fuck he wants! Hey! Hey!
- Mike! - Kenny, what's going on?
- What the fuck is going on? - Shh!
Mike.
We lost the site, I told you, man.
You knew exactly who we're dealing with.
These people are killers.
Hancock first among them.
I told you, Kenny.
Now it's gone.
So, it turns out,
that in addition to having longstanding ties with Suharto,
Newport Holdings actually had on its board...
...a certain ex-president of the United States...
...who was also in one of Suharto's weddings as a groomsman.
So, the whole time they're telling me
how rich my grandkids are going to be, they got a backup plan.
They're going to pick my pockets and steal it all away.
Washoe stock was off nearly 50 points...
...at the opening bell this morning...
...on news of the Suharto government's revocation...
...of Washoe's exploration rights.
President and CEO, Kenny Wells, has...
What a fucking con-man. They stole it is what they did.
They goddamn stole it.
You're going to need to go home, Kenny.
Just pour me a goddamn drink, Roy.
Go home, Kenny.
This is us. We can't get to the phone...
This is us. We can't get to the phone right now.
You know what to do.
Hey, hey, Kay.
It's me. Uh...
I... I guess you're not home, you know, right now.
I'm just calling.
I just want to hear your voice.
I... I screwed up, Kay.
I wanted to build something...
Something real that would last, for you and me...
For Dad.
That's all I wanted to do.
You were right, you know? You were right...
Again.
I love you, Kay.
I'm... I'm going to stop now.
I'm... I'm not going to call.
I'm not going to call you anymore.
Where is he?
Here you are.
Get up!
Who's kicking me?
If I'd have known who it was so I didn't cockin' fuckin' talk.
Fucking moron!
You know what they say?
That you're a drunk.
A clown... out of your league.
Fuck them.
Fuck them. You know what? Fuck you, too.
You think I want to hear from the fucking golden boy...
...standing there in his golden glow, telling me how messed up everything is?
Go fucking back to your perch at the Jakarta Palace, huh?
You can use that instinct of yours
to find some new strike with some new people.
Is that what you think?
I know you, man. You're Mike "fucking" Acosta.
Prick.
Okay.
Let me tell you what really happened.
We're in North Sulawesi, monsoon season.
It's 1980.
Yeah. The famous copper strike.
All I was looking for bauxite.
On my way to where I'm planning to drill, I get us stuck.
Five feet of mud.
I'm just sitting in the rain day after day, watching the metal rust.
What'd you do?
Under the theory that it's better to
do something than nothing, I reported this was the spot.
Nowhere became somewhere.
The place you got stuck.
I got lucky.
I fucking love that.
You went looking for bauxite, and you found copper.
I went looking for gold and found a friend.
That is the single hokiest thing I've ever heard in my life.
You got a plan?
Don't you?
So, get this.
Turns out, Suharto had a son, his youngest, Darmati,...
...a.k.a. Danny.
A bit of a screw up, a real problem for the old man.
Safe to say, we understood each other.
So, Suharto had been trying to get Danny set up for years.
Everything Danny touched turned to shit.
Now, I figure if we can bring Danny on board as a partner,
maybe he can get Daddy to change his mind
and swing things back our way.
It was a Hail Mary from our own one-yard line,
but that's all we had.
It also didn't hurt that Danny had been regularly ignored
by a certain ex-president of the United States,
who was a groomsman at his father's third wedding,
and also happened to sit on the board at Newport Holdings.
This guy goes to a Cadillac dealership. Dealer comes out.
He says, "Sir, are you thinking about buying a Cadillac?"
He says, "No. I'm definitely buying a Cadillac...
What I'm thinking about... is pussy."
Holy shit.
Cadillac is...
Pussy magnet.
- You like Cadillacs. - Yeah.
- Heads up, right there. - Whoa!
I gotta ride shotgun.
President Gerald Ford, a tall man.
Um-hmm.
George H. W. Bush, a very tall man.
Hmm...
Mark Hancock, also tall man.
My father, small man.
Small in stature, but loves his family.
Mine, too.
Yeah.
Died in the driveway bringing in the groceries for my mother.
His heart.
Now it makes sense, huh?
To father of Wells.
"Eighty-five / fifteen" split, if you have the balls.
"Fifty / fifty", and I may consider.
It's a fucking deal.
That's a deal if you have the balls.
No balls, no deal.
Kenny... do you have balls?
- Do I got fucking balls? - Yeah.
- To, uh, go in there? - Um-hmm.
Fucking "Eighty-five / fifteen" split.
Um-hmm.
No balls, no deal.
Open it.
I'm touching a tiger!
I'll pull my cock out, we go 60/40.
Ah! Fuck you.
Mike, I'm touching a tiger right between the eyes.
Hollis, what's going on?
You haven't heard?
Wells cut a deal.
A deal? What are you talking about?
Who cut a deal with him?
Suharto, the Indonesian government.
What?
Washoe retains 15 percent
of the find and the other 85 goes to a company of...
...Suharto's choosing, which just so happens to be owned by his son.
Wells cut us off at the knees.
What about Hancock?
He's out. Can't compete at that number.
Deal's done, Brian.
Wells and Acosta are now the only outside partners
in the biggest gold strike in history.
We represent exactly none of it.
Fifteen percent is a terrible deal.
Is it?
What's 15 percent of $30 billion?
I can explain. You met him.
You'll be fine, Brian. You'll land on your feet.
You come home with a bone in your nose or some such shit.
- How we doing? - Okay.
- Hey, where's Kay? - You didn't hear?
Hear what?
She quit.
She got a promotion out at the store.
Assistant manager.
- Hey, Roy. Turn that up. - Kenny, it's right there!
It's on the news, man!
...massive gold strike
fending off the takeover by Newport Holdings.
Washoe shares are soaring...
Oh, yeah!
Soaring!
Kenny! Can I see you a minute?
What you got, Clive?
I just got a call.
The National Association of Prospectors
is going to honor you with the golden pickaxe.
You shitting me?
No, I'm not.
You are now the best miner in the world.
And I'm sure somewhere your daddy is smiling.
Goddamn if he's not, I'll smile for both of us.
Where are you going?
To find someone.
* Walk *
* In silence *
* Don't walk away *
* In silence *
* See the danger *
* Always danger *
* Endless talking *
* Life rebuilding *
* Don't walk away *
Yeah?
Mike, I didn't think you could make it.
Okay.
A thousand monkeys. A thousand horses...
Cross 'em round...
I'm nervous.
You're gonna be okay.
Every last one of us who calls the great state of Nevada home,
arrived here with a dream.
That was my great-granddad who came out here on a wagon.
He had a horse, and he had two mules...
When they finally stopped moving and said, "This is the place."
Too much?
That's good.
Our own Kenny Wells!
Get up here, Kenny!
Thank you.
My great-granddad... was one of us.
He came out here in a wagon with two horses and a mule.
He crossed six states before he slowed down,
and it was when he got here, that he finally pulled those reins back and said
"This is the place."
What is a prospector?
No, no. Seriously. What...
What is a prospector?
It's someone who believes it's out there...
And wakes up every morning again and again and again and again,
believing it's out there.
And then it's not.
Right? It's not.
And he's standing on the edge of the desert staring
a new day sunrise, right in the eye, and he hears that little voice,
the voice that says, "Go ahead. Keep walking."
And the sun gets higher and higher and shining down on him.
He's really hot and doesn't have any water to drink,
and everybody that came with him wants to turn back.
Eventually, they do turn back, and there he is.
He's all alone.
With the belief... That it's out there.
It's out there.
That's a prospector.
What a great speech. It was great.
To your daddy.
Yeah?
What?
No. Huh?
Say again.
I don't understand. What... What...
Kenny, what's going on?
- What happened? - I don't know.
I'm going to find out.
I don't know any news.
Back the fuck off!
Kenny, please, fix this!
What happened, huh? What happened?
The independent assayer, they couldn't reproduce Mike's findings.
There's no gold.
Kenny, there's no goddamn gold. There never was.
That's not possible.
The image on the left
is the type of gold found in the Washoe samples.
This is river gold.
Notice how the edges are rounded, worn smooth by the erosion of water.
What we should have found is flake gold, the sample on the right,
pulled directly from the rock, rough edged and angular.
That's a pretty darn big detail to overlook, wouldn't you say?
It's a big detail, but you have to understand.
Everything else about the Washoe samples was right.
But the gold was wrong!
It's called salting.
It literally means when someone sprinkles gold dust
into a rock sample, like you salt your steak.
It is the oldest trick in the book.
Oldest trick in the book?
And yet major mining corporations, investment banks,
auditors, everyone was fooled.
We weren't fooled.
We just didn't look.
By all appearances, Washoe's security protocol was iron clad,
but when the person administering the security is fraudulent,
the whole system goes down.
All right. We say...
Where we gonna meet?
We're gonna meet you in Jakarta.
I'll call you back.
The New York Stock Exchange just suspended trading.
They're taking Washoe off the board.
You sold some, right?
Yeah, of course.
Bobby.
I thought...
I thought it was just going to keep going up.
Dammit, Bobby. I told you from the beginning to put some a way,
save a little bit just in case.
How many times did I tell you that?
Kenny, did you know?
- Did you know, Kenny? - Did I know?
I can't believe you'd ask me that.
I'm asking you that.
No, I goddamn didn't know, Bobby.
Kenny.
- Kenny. - What?
I don't know how to tell you this. Just... look.
Acosta was dumping stock.
Shell companies, banks in the Philippines, the fucking Azores.
Gibraltar.
Multiple layers. All offshore.
How much?
A hundred-and-sixty-four million.
Okay, uh... What are we going to do?
Dammit!
I don't fucking believe this.
This is the FBI!
Step away from your desks!
Take two big steps away from your desks!
Do not touch anything!
How much money was lost in the fraud...
- ...that we know of? - Billions.
Large institutions, investors, lost billions of dollars.
So one or maybe both of them,
two outsiders took everybody on Wall Street for a ride?
Yeah, it really looks like they did.
And Acosta has vanished?
With hundreds of millions of dollars.
Kenny Wells has always maintained his innocence,
that he was duped along with everyone else.
Given that, what do you make of this?
Kenny Wells, a fool or a mastermind?
It's a very good question.
Um...
Mike Acosta was my friend, and, uh, partner.
He... he betrayed me.
I... I know as CEO of Washoe Mining,
it's my responsibility to know everything
that's going on, and I... I didn't.
It's not an excuse.
I sincerely apologize to everybody
and anybody that lost on their investments.
Mike, Mikey, come on in, man.
What happened, huh?
- Howard. - I saw you on TV.
Hey, man, can I talk to you for a minute, please?
I just want to know where my money went. Come on.
Mr. Wells. Mr. Wells. Exactly when will you be departing?
Uh, later, few days or so. I'll let you know.
We need to talk about your bill, sir.
I'll be down to settle it up.
* It's okay, It's all right *
* The promise of the times *
* Leaving them behind Tonight *
* But I guess it's time I'm doubled up *
* I'll double down again *
* I got no time to turn it around *
* Again *
* Hail to the thief *
* And you won't get left in line *
* Won't you hail to the thief *
* And we'll keep what's left tonight *
I need a lawyer?
Do you need a lawyer?
Right answer.
How did you meet Michael Acosta?
We... the first time or the second time?
How'd you meet him, Wells?
It was April of '88...
I was on the balls of my ass, scrambling.
Not exactly uncharted waters for me, but...
I was in deep...
I think it's pretty unlikely
we'll ever see your partner again.
What are you talking about?
A lot of very powerful people
are very angry at Michael Acosta.
What happened?
Seventeen billion dollars of value disappeared overnight.
Mike Acosta waves goodbye to you in the ballroom downstairs
and goes back to Indonesia on a jet chartered with Washoe funds.
Then, he does a disappearing act.
But this you know.
First, he's locked out of the assay lab in Kalimantan
by the Minister of the Interior.
So he goes back to Jakarta,...
...where he's immediately detained...
...by the Indonesian military, and they hold him.
They try to reproduce for themselves, the lab results claimed by Washoe...
Which, of course, they are unable to do.
Now, at this point, either he's being transferred to an actual prison,
or he bribed one of the officers.
Either way, he's on a military helicopter.
They fly North, loosely tracking the Kencana river.
A thousand feet up, over the Kencana...
Mike Acosta takes a header.
No way.
No fucking way.
He either faked it
or he paid to have this bullshit story put out.
One hundred sixty-four million dollars
goes a long way in Indonesia.
They found a body.
Hands and face were eaten away, probably by wild pigs.
Sure this is him?
I'm not sure of anything,
except Mike Acosta traded water filters for river gold.
But now the Indonesian government
have gone unusually quiet on the subject.
There was an autopsy
corroborating the identity of the body.
They then sealed the report...
Cremated the remains.
Interestingly, Danny Suharto, your friend
dumped a lot of stock as well.
So, the Suhartos are even richer now.
Mike Acosta is ostensibly dead and buried,
and $164 million is still missing.
And the only question I'm left with is, whether or not, you were in on it.
No.
- No. I can't believe it. - Can't believe what?
Look, this... this business.
They'd written Mike off years ago.
All right. They called his theories crap,
but there's no way. He wouldn't.
He fucking couldn't let this be the last word on him.
No fucking way.
You talking about Acosta or yourself?
Look, we... we were running out of money, right?
And I was practically dying from malaria,
I gave Mike the last dollar to my name.
I made him promise me something. I said, "Mike,...
...don't let me die out here for nothing."
A few weeks later, I came to, and Mike was there.
He said, "We got... we got a strike, Kenny."
We got a goddamn gold mine.
And there's no way that he set out this window
when he just needed to buy a little more time.
He didn't want to let me down.
- You're fucking lying. - Levine, sit down.
You want to talk about the truth?
Let's talk about the truth.
The only truth here is when everybody's getting rich,
nobody gives a shit about the truth.
Come the fuck on.
All anyone had to do was just look, open their eyes.
The gold was wrong. The find was too good.
There were red flags everywhere.
Why did no one look?
Because no one wanted to fucking know. We all wanted to believe.
Me, you, fucking everybody. Why?
Because we're all making so much fucking money.
That's the truth.
It's been going on for fucking centuries.
Fuck.
Were you aware Mike Acosta
was salting the Washoe core samples?
No.
You had no knowledge, Mike Acosta was perpetrating a fraud?
No.
You were not in collusion with Mike Acosta
on the Kencana gold strike?
No, man. I fucking thought I won the lottery.
Did you profit from the Kencana fraud?
- No. - Did anyone close to you profit?
My friends lost money.
My neighbors lost money.
Me... I lost everything.
You know the truth of it is...
I never really cared about money.
I cared about gold.
That's different, Jennings.
That's fucking different.
Interview terminated with Kenny Wells 6:45 a.m. October 17, 1988.
Interview conducted by myself, Paul K. Jennings, special agent.
Also present, agents Levine and Banks, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
District of Nevada, Reno.
Mr. Kenny Wells... You are free to go.
Well, lookie there...
Somebody believes me.
I wouldn't go overboard.
In fact, I wouldn't leave the state,
or start buying new stuff or chartering any new jets.
I gotta sneak by the guy at the front desk
because I can't pay the hotel bill.
I can't be a party to that information.
Good luck, Mr. Wells.
We'll be keeping an eye on you.
What are you going to do now, Wells?
Hey, Kenny.
I'm still worried about the mulberry over the back fence.
Yeah, I know, Hart. It's good to see you.
Good to see you too, Kenny.
Can I come in?
Do you want coffee?
Yeah, sure.
This place looks great.
So do you, Kay.
I made curtains from that fabric.
Some stuff came for you, some mail.
What? What is it?