Essay Questions

Who is Player X?

Played by Michael Cera in the film, Player X is a big-spending actor who likes to both win money and humiliate people. Player X is also the antagonist of the film -- and he's a unique antagonist at that. He helps Molly by making her more money by luring more players into her game. However, he is a bigger bane to her. He toys with her and eventually causes her to completely retool her business.

Player X, however, is a real person based on an amalgamation of famous actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Ben Affleck. (Maguire, though, was the biggest source of inspiration for the character.) A number of the scenes in the film involving Player X happened in real life. For example, Maguire once offered Bloom $1,000 to get on the ground and "bark like a seal."

How and why does Molly become addicted to drugs?

At first, Molly's eponymous game was a small-time operation without a lot of money behind it. As she grew her business and attracted more famous and wealthy players, she felt that she needed drugs to stay up for her games. In other words, she needs to be up all the time to run her games and continue to rake in cash -- if she's not up, she can't be working.

As with most addicts, Molly struggles to get off drugs. She feels like she needs them to continue to perform, but after she is caught and arrested by the FBI, she stops taking drugs.