The Big Short: why the comedy film is being compared to the Gamestop stock saga - and where to watch it

The 2015 comedy drama’s cast includes Christian Bale as Michael Burry and a cameo appearance from Margot Robbie

Comedy drama The Big Short is seeing a rise in popularity as people attempt to understand what's going on with US company GameStop.

The video game retailer's stock skyrocketed by more than 700% in the last week after Reddit users bought shares and exchanged tips online.

It led to many investors on Wall Street, who had bet the company's share price would continue to fall in value, to lose large sums of money.

And, in an attempt to understand the inner workings of the stock market, many have turned to Adam McKay's 2015 film in search of answers.

Is The Big Short a true story?

The film is based on a non-fictional book by Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, which reflected on the financial crash of 2007-08.

Christian Bale takes on the role of Michael Burry in The Big Short. (Pic: PA)

The story was adapted for the big screen and details how a hedge fund manager, Michael Burry, decided to exploit a weakness in the US housing market in the early 2000s.

It adopted unconventional and often humourous techniques to explain complicated financial terms and situations to the audience.

A data journalist, David McCandless, found that the film's storyline was more than 90% accurate when compared to real-life events.

While the film was generally well received by critics, highlighting its impressive attention to detail, and scored 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Who stars in The Big Short?

A star-studded cast assembled for the making of this film which was produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and distributed by Paramount.

It stars Christian Bale (Burry), Steve Carell (Mark Baum), Ryan Gosling (Jared Vennett), Pitt (Ben Rickert) as well as John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong and Marisa Tomei.

The film also features Anthony Bourdain, Richard Thaler, Selena Gomez and Margot Robbie in cameo roles as themselves, speaking to the audience to explain some of the financial jargon used in the plot.

Robbie's explanation of "subprime mortgages" while drinking champagne in a bubble bath has drawn attention from many Twitter users looking for similar help in deepening their understanding of the GameStop saga.

Is The Big Short on Netflix in the UK?

The Big Short is not currently part of any streaming service available in the UK, including Netflix and Amazon Prime.

However, it is available to buy or rent on most on demand film platforms, as well as on DVDs.

How did GameStop's share price skyrocket?

It is thought that speculation surrounding GameStop's value increasing on sub-reddits like WallStreetBets moved the stock price upwards.

It led to amateur investors buying shares and swapping tips on social media sites, including Reddit, which saw the share price rise further.

GameStop had previously been losing money which led to Wall Street investors betting its shares would continue to fall in value.

The sharp rise in GameStock's value has seen pro traders lose large sums of money and made shareholders millionaires overnight.

The stock activity is known as short squeeze.

The situation triggered a White House alert and caused the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading nine times.