Meet Michael Ruppert, a former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, who predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness. Accomplishing this at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial. Director Chris Smith has shown an affinity for outsiders in films like American Movie and The Yes Men. In Collapse, he departs stylistically from his past documentaries by interviewing Ruppert in a format that recalls the work of Errol Morris and Spalding Gray.