The Big Short and the Microsoft Windows Laptop Mystery

Last time it was laptops from the Friends sitcom. Now we’re stepping into something darker.

If you’re a tech geek and movie fan, The Big Short (2015) has some fun little oddities to catch. One of them? The laptops.

Let’s talk about those bright blue laptops used by Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley, played by John Magaro and Finn Wittrock. They’re working out of a garage in Boulder, Colorado, running their fund – the Brownfield Fund (based on the real Cornwall Capital). It’s supposed to be 2007. But their laptops? They’re running Windows with big, shiny logos. And they’re definitely not from 2007.

Same with Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt). He’s seen using a black laptop with the same bold Microsoft branding. That style didn’t exist back then either.

So what are they?

That’s the thing – they don’t seem to match any real laptop model from that time. They actually don’t seem to match any real model. The closest guess? Custom-made for the movie. Most likely as part of a product placement deal with Microsoft.

If you’re wondering who makes them or where to get one – you can’t. They’re not on Amazon or eBay. You won’t find them in a store. They look like Surface-style shells but with no clear match to any Surface model, past or present. Just clean props that happen to show off that Windows logo nice and clearly.

It’s kind of fun to spot this stuff. IMDb even mentions it in their goofs section.

Update: July 15, 2025

I’ve found more examples of these mystery Windows laptops. Same clean look, oversized logo, not tied to any clear model. These pop up in other movies and TV shows too. Seems like Microsoft wanted those logos front and center for quite a while.

The A-Team (2010) – Yul Vazquez uses a Windows laptop with a big Microsoft logo on it.