History Film / TheSocialNetwork

** 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 than than asking the university president to do something about it. The most he can do is to expel Mark, which wouldn't in any way help the Winklevosses recoup their losses.

** 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. The most he can do is to expel Mark, which wouldn't in any way help the Winklevosses recoup their losses.

* AudienceSurrogate: Marilyn, the junior lawyer, as the one party who is least familiar with the details of the lawsuits.

* AnAesop: InUniverse, Sean relates the tragic story of Roy Raymond, the Victoria's Secret co-founder who sold the company for $4 million, only for it to be worth ''$500 million'' only a few years later, which drove Raymond to suicide on August 26, 1993.[[note]]Raymond's ex-wife and fellow Victoria's Secret co-founder Gaye believed he had also been suffering from depression after their follow-up business ventures had all failed.[[/note]] An obvious message that Mark understands that Facebook will be worth a billion dollars, and trying to seek commercialization at this point is absolutely wrong.

* AllMenArePerverts: The principle Facemash operates on in the film. In real life, however, Facemash featured comparison of male faces as well as female ones.

* DeathGlare: Downplayed; in the opening scene, Erica's eyes progressively turn into a more and more incensed dagger-staring glare as Mark unwittingly insults her more and more.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Downplayed. In most scenes with the Winklevoss twins, usually one or both of them will be wearing a specific color so the audience can tell them apart (green for Cameron, red for Tyler.) This is best seen during their meeting with Harvard president Larry Summers, where they they are wearing green and red ties, respectively. This also connects to their differing personalities; Tyler (red) is the more hotheaded and snarky of the brothers, whereas Cameron (green) is more calm and reserved.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Downplayed. In most scenes with the Winklevoss twins, usually one or both of them will be wearing a specific color so the audience can tell them apart (green for Cameron, red for Tyler.) This is best seen during their meeting wit Harvard president Larry Summers, where they they are wearing green and red ties, respectively. This also connects to their differing personalities; Tyler (red) is the more hotheaded and snarky of the brothers, whereas Cameron (green) is more calm and reserved.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Downplayed. In most scenes with the Winklevoss twins, usually one or both of them will be wearing a specific color so the audience can tell them apart (green for Cameron, red for Tyler.) This is best seen during their meeting wit Harvard Dean Larry Summers, where they they are wearing green and red ties, respectively. This also connects to their differing personalities; Tyler (red) is the more hotheaded and snarky of the brothers, whereas Cameron (green) is more calm and reserved.

* AnAesop: InUniverse, Sean relates the tragic story of Roy Raymond, the Victoria's Secret co-founder who sold the company for $4 million, only for it to be worth $500 million only a few years later, which drove Raymond to suicide on August 26, 1993.[[note]]Raymond's ex-wife and fellow Victoria's Secret co-founder Gaye believed he had also been suffering from depression after their follow-up business ventures had all failed.[[/note]] An obvious message that Mark understands that Facebook will be worth a billion dollars, and trying to seek commercialization at this point is absolutely wrong.

* AnAesop: InUniverse, Sean relates the tragic story of Roy Raymond, the Victoria's Secret co-founder who sold the company for $4 million, only for it to be worth $500 million only a few years later, which drove Raymond to suicide.[[note]]Raymond's ex-wife and fellow Victoria's Secret co-founder Gaye believed he had also been suffering from depression after their follow-up business ventures had all failed.[[/note]] An obvious message that Mark understands that Facebook will be worth a billion dollars, and trying to seek commercialization at this point is absolutely wrong.

** 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.]] [=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.
** As noted under RashomonStyle, the second example may be justified considering Eduardo (who knows little about computers) is recounting the story.

* BollywoodNerd: Divya Narendra.

* {{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, likely to preserve the PG-13 rating. The Blu-ray version restores the expletive.

* AnAesop: InUniverse, Sean relates the tragic story of Roy Raymond, the man who sold the company for $4 Million dollars only for it to be worth $500 only a few years later which drove Raymond to suicide. An obvious message that Mark understands that Facebook will be worth a billion dollars, and trying to seek commercialization at this point is absolutely wrong.

-->'''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. \\

* InNameOnly: The film was marketed as an adaptation of Ben Mezrich's ''The Accidental Billionaires''. However, Mezrich received a publishing deal based on a 14-page treatment he'd written before even starting work on the book, on the basis of which his publisher also sold the film rights. Sorkin expected that he would be asked to wait until the book's completion before starting work on the screenplay, but the film studio urged him to start work on it immediately, so the book and the screenplay were written concurrently and largely independently of one another, with occasional meetings between Mezrich and Sorkin (Sorkin himself only saw the final version of Mezrich's book after having nearly finished his screenplay). As such, the book and the film are very different from one another in terms of tone, style and pacing, and while both take [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory significant liberties with the truth]] [[RuleOfDrama for dramatic effect]], the liberties in question are very different in each case. Sorkin included a handful of direct references to Mezrich's book however (such as Cameron's reference to ''The Karate Kid'', a direct quote).

-->'''Dustin:''' I'm developing an algorithm to define the connection between Jewish guys and Asian girls.
-->'''Eduardo:''' I don't think it's that complicated. They're hot, they're smart, they're not Jewish and they can't dance.

* TechBro: Sean Parker, founder of Napster, as depicted in this film. While he's a nerd in that he's a self-taught programmer and tech entrepreneur, he's also portrayed by Creator/JustinTimberlake, and is suitably suave, charming, well-dressed and TheCasanova. His real-life counterpart was asked for comment on the portrayal, and observed "I ''wish'' I was that cool."

** ButtMonkey: The Winklevoss twins have nothing go right for them the entire film and are largely treated as a joke by everyone. For starters Mark steals their website idea and while he doesn't use any of their code and Facebook would extend beyond just Harvard, he still wouldn't have gotten that far without using them as a springboard. Every appeal the twins make to try and have the matter settled internally is shot down and mocked by the institution they so admire and they even lose a major rowing race near the end of the film. Somewhat subverted as we learn that they received a settlement in the end, but the Winklevoss twins will always be known as the guys who Mark Zuckerberg stole Facebook from.

* 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 $65 million settlement under a non-disclosure agreement, rowed in the Olympics in Beijing placing 6th, Eduardo received an unknown settlement and was restored as a co-founder of Facebook.]]

* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: Downplayed with Sean labeling himself an entrepreneur and Amy swiftly translating it as being unemployed, to Sean's slight chagrin.

** Eduardo is introduced arriving at Mark's dorm while he's creating Facemash because he wants to give him support after Erica dumped him. Then when Mark informs him what it is the group is doing and ask him for his help, he shows hesitance at the idea before ultimately lending his assistance because he wants to be a team player.

* {{Cyberbullying}}: Mark's blog after Erica dumps him indulges in this, as it's a place for him to spill all his feelings towards her in the moment, repercussions be damned. This comes back to haunt him when he tries apologizing to her later in the film and she doesn't bite, noting a fundamental aspect of the very platform his blog was on.

* {{Cyberbullying}}: Mentioned:a

* SpiritualSuccessor: The comparisons to ''Film/CitizenKane'' fit in that some critics noted that both films are about the tragic rise of the most powerful media mogul of their time (Kane being a [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed thinly-veiled]] version of William Randolph Hearst).

* IResembleThatRemark: In a SignatureScene, 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).

* {{Identical Twin ID Tag}}s: The Winklevoss twin's hairstyle.

** Upon hearing exactly how much Eduardo's ownership share of Facebook was diluted down whilst everyone else's remained the same, the two lawyers defending Mark, even if their job is to help him win the lawsuit, can't help but look at him with faces that clearly say "that was a pretty messed up thing to do".