History Film / TheSocialNetwork

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Mark succeeds in creating Facebook and becomes the world's youngest billionaire, but he's lost his best friend, his hero, and everyone else important to him. At least he's realized the consequences of his actions... maybe. The Winklevoss twins received a $60 million settlement, rowed in the Olympics in Beijing placing 6th, Eduardo received an unknown settlement and was restored as a co-founder of Facebook.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Mark succeeds in creating Facebook and turning it into a company, but he's lost his best friend, his hero, and everyone else important to him. At least he's realized the consequences of his actions... maybe.]]

"The Facebook" becomes an instant hit, with neither Mark nor Eduardo knowing exactly where to go from there. Along comes Napster legend Sean Parker (Timberlake), who wiggles himself into the business and outlines how big this project is going to end up. Mark is enraptured by Parker's vision, but Eduardo is constantly worried that Parker is leading his friend and their company in the wrong direction. On another front, the Winklevoss twins are enraged that Mark effectively "stole" their idea, and begin a legal pursuit of him which raises the questions of how closely The Facebook matches their original idea and the validity of intellectual property.

The film stars Creator/JesseEisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Creator/AndrewGarfield as Eduardo Saverin (a Facebook co-founder and friend of Mark's), with a [[AllStarCast stacked supporting cast]] including Creator/ArmieHammer, Creator/JustinTimberlake, Creator/MaxMinghella, Creator/RooneyMara, Creator/RashidaJones, Creator/BrendaSong and Creator/DakotaJohnson. None of the Facebook staff, including Mark, were involved with the project, although Eduardo Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book.

''The Social Network'' is a 2010 film directed by Creator/DavidFincher and written by Creator/AaronSorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book ''The Accidental Billionaires'', it tells the story (largely in {{flashback}}) of the founding of the phenomenally successful {{friending network}} Website/{{Facebook}} and the rise of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to the status of the youngest billionaire in history (with [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory some artistic liberties]]).

* IResembleThatRemark: In a famous scene, Mark answers a subjectively demeaning question (whether or not the Winklevoss' attorney deserves his attention) with an objectively demeaning response (no, he doesn't, since he's too busy thinking about the ideas at Facebook that are intellectually beyond everyone else in the room).

* RuleOfDrama: Yes, the filmmakers have freely admitted to making scenes up and playing around with the date of events, but their purpose was to make a ''Film/CitizenKane''-esque story of success-with-tragedy. The screenwriter's [[Film/CharlieWilsonsWar done this before]].

* {{Bowdlerise}}: When Cameron finally caves to Tyler and Divya's pressing him to pursue Mark, he says, "Let's gut the ''friggin''' nerd." While the line appears as such in the script, Armie Hammer clearly mouths "''fucking''" and was overdubbed to preserve the PG-13 rating. The Blu-ray version restores the expletive.

** Or possibly earlier, when [[spoiler:Sean helped force out Eduardo: it's implied that Mark may have been responsible for the arrest]].

* {{Cyberbullying}}: Mentioned:

* DemandOverload: In-universe. The early incarnation of Website/{{Facebook}} was Facemash, a basic "attractiveness rating" website piggybacking on Harvard servers which was so unexpectedly popular it crashed the servers. Mark at one point states that it got 22,000 hits in 2 hours, and the volume of traffic he produced is summarized elsewhere with an apt analogy: it's not just "unusual for 4 in the morning", it's "unusual for halftime at the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl."

* EverythingIsOnline: Played with: in the beginning of the movie, Mark specifically mentions that because a certain college house's database isn't online, he can't access any of the photos for Facemash. But this is a movie about Facebook, so one of the major themes is, of course, everything (from angry drunken break-up rants to the dreaded relationship status) becoming available online.

** It is hypothesised by Marilyn regarding Mark in the final line of the film: She thinks he's not an asshole, but "[tries] so hard to be"). The audience, meanwhile, is left to reach their own conclusions.

* {{Narcissist}}: Mark is a living dictionary definition.

* {{Narcissist}}: Mark.

** Beginning and ending scenes feature Zuckerberg being assessed by a more grounded female character; specifically whether he is an "asshole."
** Also, an IronicEcho version -- the movie begins with Mark working with Eduardo on Facemash after being dumped by Erica. The movie ends with Mark trying to friend Erica on Facebook after seeing just how much of a chasm is now between him and Eduardo.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: True, it's based on real events, but multiple events from the final act ([[spoiler:the party; Eduardo's last scene; reaching 1,000,000 members on the website]]) are featured prominently as money shots in the trailer. It can leave a "that's it?" effect when the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue begins.

* NiceHat: Inverted. The hat that [[http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/4854/vlcsnap2011022612h45m48.jpg Eduardo wears]] during the "Caribbean Night" party was specifically chosen to be the dumbest hat the costume designers could find.

** The Winklevoss twins. Some suggest the real twins were not quite like the ones the film put in a sympathetic light. Larry Summers has said that the two of them acted a lot more entitled during their real-life meeting with him and his hostility towards them was more of a response to their attitudes. However, the film does show some of their subtle {{Jerkass}} tendencies.

* ArtisticLicense: Aaron Sorkin has gone on record that "I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling", and just about every important person depicted on the movie has commented on how it strays from the actual events, with varying levels of approval.

** Larry Summers is openly dismissive and condescending of the Winklevoss twins during their meeting, but he's right that another student stealing their business idea is more suited for suing him in court rather than asking the university president to do something about it.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Christy. Made evident when she questions Eduardo having his [[OhCrap Facebook relationship status as "single"]] and then [[{{Yandere}} sets his gift for her -- a silk scarf -- on fire in a trash bin and drops it on his bed]]. And then she has the audacity to ask him if he's going back already -- with a pouty face and great big puppy-dog eyes. ''Yikes.''

** When he is accused of animal cruelty, he only casually notes having to resolve things with various animal rights groups and ''the associate dean of Harvard'', but speaks about having to explain the situation to his father with a great anxiety.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Presented in text only over the final shot, disclosing what became of the Winkelvoss twins, Eduardo, and Mark, as well as detailing Facebook's growth since the events depicted in the movie.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: The Winklevoss twins' father to them, who have [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers gotten pretty salty after finishing second in a high-profile boat race by inches]].
--> "No, don't apologize to me after losing a race like that. Don't ever apologize to ANYONE after losing a race like THAT."
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Mark may or may not have pulled this on [[spoiler:Sean]], by [[spoiler:possibly calling the cops on Sean's party, thus creating a situation where Sean would have to be fired to avoid embarassing the company.]]

--> '''Eduardo:''' '''''[[SuddenlyShouting SORRY!]]''''' MY PRADA'S AT THE CLEANERS! Along with my hoodie and my ''[[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]]-YOU'' FLIP-FLOPS! YOU PRETENTIOUS DOUCHEBAG! \\
'''Eduardo:''' And I'll bet what you hated the most is that they identified me as a co-founder of Facebook -- ''which I am.'' [[ColdHam You better lawyer up, asshole, 'cause I'm not coming back for 30%, I'm coming back for EVERYTHING.]]

* DemandOverload: In-universe. The early incarnation of Website/{{Facebook}} was Facemash, a basic "attractiveness rating" website piggybacking on Harvard servers which was so unexpectedly popular it crashed the servers. Mark at one point states that it got 22,000 hits in 2 hours, and the volume of traffic he produced is summarized elsewhere with an apt metaphor: it's not just "unusual for 4 in the morning", it's "unusual for halftime at the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl."

* InternetJerk:
** Erica accuses Mark of becoming this with his immature drunken blog rant about her.

** Mark, absolutely. While obnoxious enough in person, he becomes even worse behind a computer screen.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Erica Albright is a stand-in for Jessica Alona. Whether they were dating or or just friends has never been revealed.
* NoSocialSkills: Mark. According to Marilyn the only reason they most likely can't win the case if they go to court is because Mark is just too mean and arrogant for the jury to sympathize with him.

** A similarly effective line comes when, upon hearing of Mark's expanding Facebook, Divya says that he wants Series/{{the Sopranos}} to "beat the ''shit'' out of him with a hammer."

** Not to mention the final exchange between Mark and Marilyn casts doubt on the authenticity of the testimonies concerning Mark's alleged wrongdoings. The film is not trying to be a just-the-facts story of the minds behind Facebook, because some of those minds may not be telling the truth.

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: The Winklevoss twins get pretty miffed when they lose the boat race by a few inches. When they see the winning team celebrate their victory, they just go "Whatever" and turn back towards the doors into the main hall to apologize to their father for having to witness that, only for him to [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre tell them never to "apologize for losing a race like that"]].

* SexSells: Obviously, the "Stanford" [[{{Fanservice}} butt shot]] just ''had'' to be in the trailer. Even if Amy (the girl the butt belongs to) is only in the movie for about three minutes.
* SexyDiscretionShot: After Facebook starts taking off, Mark and Eduardo manage to hook up with two girls -- essentially groupies -- that end up fellating them in bathroom stalls. The most visual aid we receive is a shot of the stall doors gently rocking.

* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: The French Literature major who sleeps with Sean Parker speaks grammatically correct French, but her pronunciation is preeeeetty rocky ([[JustifiedTrope which may be simply indicative of her inexperience, considering she's an undergrad]]).

* FreezeFrameBonus: During the millionth member party, the screen is refreshed to show 1,000,046 people have joined Facebook. This is at exactly 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 46 seconds into the movie.
* FreudianTrio: Tyler Winklevoss (Id), Cameron Winklevoss (Superego), and Divya Narendra (Ego)

** The Winklevoss twins. Some suggest the real twins were not quite like the ones the film put in a sympathetic light. Larry Summers has said that the two of them acted a lot more entitled during their real life meeting with him and his hostility towards them was more of a response to their attitudes. However, the film does show some of their subtle {{Jerkass}} tendencies.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Possibly being made a VillainProtagonist, Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed in the movie as obnoxious, condescending and ridiculously arrogant. In reality, Mark was said to be quite the opposite; often regarded as "shy" and "relatively modest" despite the handful of claims of him occasionally holding a JerkassBall ("facemash.com" comes to mind).

* HollywoodHacking: Largely averted, with some lapses. The hacking shown in-film is, as in real life, a process of reading code and trying out strategies based off of the security settings of the target. The character's progress through the Harvard databases is even shown through on-screen time markers to match up with [[http://techcrunch.com/2008/05/13/facemash-returns-as-what-else-a-facebook-app-uliken/ what really happened in 2003]]. This sequence is lifted verbatim from Zuckerberg's diary and is thus very accurate. However, later in the film Zuckerberg tests potential interns with a hacking challenge, described with a burst of incoherent jargon, and to be performed while drinking shots in front of a cheering audience.
** Zuckerberg's real diary was not on Website/LiveJournal, but is depicted there in the film. [[http://twitter.com/bradfitz/status/26518065945 Brad was amused.]] Website/LiveJournal is depicted with a derivative of the Xcolibur site scheme, which [[http://news.livejournal.com/65335.html did exist in 2003]], although the default was still Dystopia. The page closely resembles the actual light version of update.bml though the movie version lacked LJ's actual automatic timestamping.

* ICantFeelMyLegs: Played for laughs when Mark drags Eduardo outside in the freezing cold to talk about his early ideas for Facebook. When Eduardo says the line verbatim, [[NoSocialSkills Mark]] obliviously replies, "I know, I'm totally psyched about this, too."

-->'''Sean''': I brought down the record companies with Napster, and Case'll suffer for their sins too.
-->'''Eduardo:''' Sorry, you didn't bring down the record companies. They won.
-->'''Sean:''' In court.
-->'''Eduardo:''' Yeah.
-->'''Sean:''' You wanna buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?

--> '''Eduardo:''' ''SORRY!'' MY PRADA'S AT THE CLEANERS! ALONG WITH MY HOODIE AND MY ''[[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]]-YOU'' FLIP-FLOPS! YOU PRETENTIOUS DOUCHEBAG! \\

*** During their dinner, Eduardo refutes Sean's claim that he beat the record companies with Napster, pointing out that the record companies successfully sued Napster and shut down the website. Sean asks Eduardo whether he'd be willing to invest in a Tower Records store nowadays[[note]]Tower Records went bankrupt in 2004, 2 years after Napster shut down[[/note]]. Eduardo concedes the point.

** Eduardo is wary of Sean being involved with Facebook because of things he's researched and read about the latter in articles and voices his concerns to Mark. Mark points out that people could do research about Eduardo and come to the conclusion that he tortures birds because of the ''Crimson'' article.
** While his dislike is largely personal, Eduardo is also right that Sean's illicit habits do not make him a great business partner and he could easily end up being a liability to the company which later turns out to be true.

->''"You're not an asshole, Mark. You just try so hard to be."''

-->''"You're not an asshole, Mark. You just try so hard to be."''

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Despite their best efforts to maintain their professional composure, Sy and Marilyn have this reaction to several of Mark's snarky comments.

* PyrrhicVictory: Sean Parker considers his past with Napster and the music industry to be this. Yes, they successfully sued him and got Napster shut down, but Napster's popularity caused a seismic shift in the music industry that led to consumers adopting online music stores and file sharing sites at the expense of the traditional record stores that were far more profitable for the music companies.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Eduardo makes a very distinct emphasis when he reveals that he was [[spoiler:negotiated out of Facebook.]]
--> '''Gretchen:''' And what was your ownership share diluted down to? \\
'''Eduardo:''' [[spoiler:Point zero. Three. Percent.]]

The film stars Creator/JesseEisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Creator/AndrewGarfield as Eduardo Saverin (a Facebook co-founder and friend of Mark's), with a [[AllStarCast stacked supporting cast]] including Creator/ArmieHammer, Creator/JustinTimberlake, Creator/MaxMinghella, Creator/RooneyMara, Creator/BrendaSong and Creator/DakotaJohnson. None of the Facebook staff, including Mark, were involved with the project, although Eduardo Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book.

* DemandOverload: In universe. The early incarnation of Website/{{Facebook}} was a basic "Attractiveness Rating" web site piggybacking on Harvard servers, which was so unexpectedly popular it crashed the servers.
* DemotedToExtra: Chris Hughes. To a lesser extent Dustin Moskovitz.

* ICantFeelMyLegs: Played for laughs when Mark drags Eduardo outside in the freezing cold to talk about his early ideas for Facebook. When Eduardo says the line, [[NoSocialSkills Mark]] obliviously replies, "I know, I'm totally psyched about this, too."

* RedOniBlueOni: The main defining factor of the Winklevoss twins' dynamic. Tyler wants to take action to sue Mark immediately, while Cameron consistently has cold feet regarding the idea, being too concerned about their image as Harvard gentlemen.

* SelfServingMemory: See RashomonStyle- Mark, Eduardo, and the Winklevosses all offer testimony that is based more on how they felt and thought about events than what anyone could prove actually transpired. Lampshaded by Marilyn.

** The unidentified movie star at Harvard in 2003 was Natalie Portman, who was a consultant on the film.

** Once Creator/DavidFincher discovered in his own research that Mark was actually drinking a specific brand of beer when he created Facemash, Fincher insisted on changing the drink for the movie (over Sorkin's protests). Of course, given Fincher's reputation as a perfectionist, this is to be expected.
** Also, for a completely different campus dressed up using set decoration (a majority of filming for the Harvard scenes took place at Johns Hopkins University, due to Harvard's refusal to allow much filming on campus), they spent much care in trying to replicate the look and feel of Harvard.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Released in 2010 but set mostly in 2003; watch for clunkier old laptops, out of date web interfaces and operating systems, and way too many North Face jackets.

In the fall of 2003 at Harvard, a 19-year-old Mark develops a student "hotness" rating website (using illegally obtained pictures) that becomes so popular that it crashes the school's servers. His resulting publicity catches the attention of twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss ([[ActingForTwo both played by Hammer]][[note]]The effect was achieved through a mix of split-screen photography and Hammer acting alongside body double Josh Pence, whose face was then changed to Hammer's in post via DigitalHeadSwap[[/note]]) conscribe him to develop a Harvard-exclusive networking website. Mark takes that idea and works out a related networking website with his close friend Eduardo, who fronts the money for the start-up costs.

It won three [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscars]] -- Best Adapted Screenplay (for Creator/AaronSorkin), Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score ([[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross]]) -- but lost Best Picture and Director to ''Film/TheKingsSpeech.''

--> '''Eduardo:''' ''SORRY!!'' MY PRADA'S AT THE CLEANERS!! ALONG WITH MY HOODIE AND MY ''[[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]]-YOU'' FLIP-FLOPS! YOU PRETENTIOUS DOUCHEBAG! \\
'''Eduardo:''' And I'll bet what you hated the most is that they identified me as a co-founder of Facebook, ''which I am!'' [[ColdHam You better lawyer up, asshole, 'cause I'm not coming back for 30%, I'm coming back for EVERYTHING.]]

** Sean instructs Mark to say this to a music executive he once crossed paths with.

** While his dislike is largely personal, Eduardo is also right that Sean is not a great business partner and could easily end up being a liability to the company which later turns out to be true.

The film stars Creator/JesseEisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Creator/AndrewGarfield as Eduardo Saverin (a Facebook co-founder and friend of Mark's), with a [[AllStarCast stacked supporting cast]] including Creator/ArmieHammer, Creator/JustinTimberlake, Creator/MaxMinghella, Creator/RooneyMara, Creator/BrendaSong and Creator/DakotaJohnson. None of the Facebook staff, including Zuckerberg, were involved with the project, although Eduardo Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book.