Gold: The Real Story

In “Gold,” Matthew McConaughey plays Kenny Wells, who, with Mike Acosta, finds a rich gold mine with deposits worth billions of dollars, and then has to cope with financial, corporate, and political predators to keep them from stealing it.

It is inspired by a real story that is even wilder than the one in the movie. SPOILER ALERT: The following gives away important plot details of the film that are best enjoyed as a surprise, so read this only after you’ve seen the movie.

Wells is based on David Walsh. In the film, Wells is proud of being a third generation prospector, who grew up in a family with a heritage of seeking — and finding gold. Walsh was an investor who tried various ventures before he went looking for gold in Indonesia, with the help of geologist John Felderhof. They had an exploration manager who was later found to be a bigamist with four families, but that’s another story. After many close calls and escapades they were shutting down when they hit gold, or at least it looked like it. The company, Bre-X, became a Wall Street darling. It was valued at billions of dollars, which attracted the attention of the Indonesian government, which came in to take a big piece of the action and force partnership with their favored corporation. But then things got worse — a suicide (or maybe a murder, or maybe a cleverly orchestrated escape), and then the uncovering of a massive fraud. For more information, see the documentary below.