‘Arbitrage’ ending explained

Arbitrage, dividends, profit share, fraud. Can anyone really say what these finance terms mean? Actually yes, and one is a devious crime, one that Richard Gere’s character in Arbitrage is well acquainted with. But what happened at the end? All this explained.

The books, and the goose, are cooked

Arbitrage is about a hedge fund manager named Robert Miller who just can’t stop committing crimes. Seriously, you’d think he’d slow down with his retirement coming up, and he’d simply abscond to some mansion on Long Island, but nope! This guy doesn’t know when to give it up. So, early in the moving, the “happily married” Miller ends up killing his mistress in a fatal car crash and calling in his colleague Jimmy to help him cover it up. At the same time, there’s a 400 million dollar hole in Miller’s hedge fund assets, and the feds smell fraud. The stink is coming from Miller, considering he cooked the company’s books to borrow exactly 400 million dollars to save himself from financial ruin. Essentially, this man’s professional and personal life are both on the verge of well deserved collapse.

After discussing the “hypothetical” details of both situations with his attorney, the lawyer attempts to persuade Miller to hypothetically turn himself in. He doesn’t. Instead, through a series of financial shenanigans, he is able to orchestrate the sale of his company before the authorities can audit the hedge fund and pin him for fraud. Meanwhile, he’s also able to convince a grand jury, through similar wheeling and dealing, that neither he nor his colleague Jimmy were culpable in the death of Miller’s mistress, or the subsequent cover up of what would have amounted to a manslaughter charge.

Despite the authorities never having been able to pin him with a crime, Miller’s wife Ellen gets wise about his affair. She gives him an ultimatum: either sign a separation agreement that gives his assets to his daughter’s nonprofit, or refuse and Ellen tell the truth about the accident to the police, sending Miller to jail. Miller signs the agreement.

At the end of the film, a banquet it held in Miller’s honor. No one seems to notice the tension between his wife and daughter, and no one seems to care. Just before Miller can begin a speech at the podium, the screen cuts to black. Why? Because it’ll just be more bullshit, but Miller will get away with saying it anyway. That’s the point of the film: that powerful figures in the financial sector are able to get away, quite literally, with murder, and not face the consequences for their actions. Miller is simply the face of a larger problem, one that won’t go away so long as the select few have all the money to spend.