Paul Dano Shorts GameStop's Stock in Trailer for 'Dumb Money' Based on Real-Life Events

Paul Dano has come into quite a bit of Dumb Money.

The award-winning actor leads a star-studded cast in the upcoming dramedy, which an official release describes as "the ultimate David vs. Goliath tale" based on the 2021 GameStop stock short squeeze.

The film, whose trailer was released Thursday, will center on the battle between hedge funds and the amateur Reddit traders who caused GameStop stock to skyrocket to more than 1700% through investing apps like Robinhood.

"In the middle of everything is regular guy Keith Gill (Dano, 39), who starts it all by sinking his life savings into the stock and posting about it," the synopsis continues.

"When his social posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets rich — until the billionaires fight back, and both sides find their worlds turned upside down."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

In trailer for Dumb Money, Keith is shown riding the high of telling his wife (played by Shailene Woodley) he has made millions of dollars, only to subsequently lose "a billion."

"Eleven f---ing million dollars?!" Keith's brother Kevin (Pete Davidson) tells him over the phone at one point, encouraging him to buy a Ferrari.

Soon, Steve Cohen (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) connects with fellow real-life hedge-fund CEOs Gabe Plotkin (Dano's Fabelmans costar Seth Rogen) and Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman) about the phenomenon, and things start going south quickly.

Based on Ben Mezrich's 2021 book The Antisocial Network, Dumb Money is directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) from a script by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo.

The film also stars America Ferrera, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Ramos and more.

In January 2021, Redditors encouraged each other to buy stock in the beloved video game store, which drove up the price of the company's stocks. Hedge-fund companies were betting the stock would go down, but then regular investors' interest in the stocks caused prices to surge, meaning hedge funds lost billions of dollars.

Similar situations happened with individual traders buying stocks in other struggling companies such as AMC movie theaters, Blackberry and Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Dumb Money is in theaters Sept. 22.