MovieChat Forums > Leverage (2008) Discussion > Are all the jobs pro-bono?

Are all the jobs pro-bono?

posted 7 years ago by nightowl30350
3 replies | jump to latest

I just discovered this series and bought seasons 1 and 2; and I plan to order the rest. I'm half way through S2. So they got a huge payoff in the pilot; $32M each as I recall. Maybe one or two episodes early in S1 they found some extra funds after the client got "justice". After that (so far) I don't recall any profits, except for what Nate is paying Sophie's grifter pal stand-in, which appears to be out his own pocket. Is this how it is for the rest of the series? Shouldn't they get some kind of back door payoff once in a while? I mean if they are going to bring down a corrupt company, how about buying some stock options so they can short-sell (i.e. betting the price will go down)?

[–] Teach417 7 years ago

The assumption is that they are always working on an "alternative revenue stream." In other words, they're getting their cut when they're helping the client, one way or another.

We provide ... Leverage.

[–] seldon913 7 years ago

They at least tell the client they have an alternate revenue stream. In the pilot they sell short on the stock of their target's company. There's no reason they couldn't continue doing that on other jobs.

[–] slackersmom 7 years ago

At the end of the pilot, Hardison shows them that through clever playing of the international markets, each member of the crew now has more money than they could spend. ANd of course Nate gives all his money away.

I think on the regular jobs, Hardison gets creative with the mark's accounts and that's how they pay for expenses in that job. (He also reimburses their client in this way, as is stated in a number of episodes.) So I don't think they "make" any money per job, since they all have their own secret accounts. As you mentioned, they did have to pay Tara when she filled in for Sophie. Again, I assume her cut came out of whatever money they 'liberated' from their mark.