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The Social Network · written by Aaron Sorkin · 2010
Scene 109 of 189 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act two
Mark Zuckerberg wants status and belonging Harvard's final clubs won't give him, so he builds a website that gives the world both — and loses his best friend and co-founder to the company he built to prove he mattered.
Mark at the campus bar: brilliant, status-obsessed, unable to read the room he's sitting in.
He wants to matter — to be let into the final clubs, to be exceptional enough that Erica's verdict is wrong — and Facemash is the first proof-of-concept.
He takes the Winklevoss pitch as a springboard, builds theFacebook in its place, and launches it into a world he can't control.
Gage grills Mark over the timing of his concerns about HarvardConnection, and Mark deflects with a non-answer about the weather before delivering a cold speech about where his real attention lies.
Mark, still preoccupied, finally gets from Eduardo the names of the girls from the lecture: Christy and Alice.
In a club bathroom stall, Eduardo hooks up with Christy while, in the next stall, he clocks Mark's flip-flops doing the same with someone else.
This scene
MARK and EDUARDO are standing guard outside the door. They’re silent but very happy.
A guy comes along to use the men’s room.
EDUARDO
Sorry. It’ll just be a minute. Some girls
are freshening up in there.
CLUB GUY
(nodding a little)
Sweet.
The guy goes off.
EDUARDO taps MARK...
EDUARDO
(beat)
We have groupies.
MARK can’t help a smile. Then he sees something...
MARK
I’ll be right back.
EDUARDO
Mark, where you going?
(beat)
Mark?
MARK makes his way through the crowd toward a round booth. A girl is sitting there and even though her back is to MARK he can recognize her. She’s with a girlfriend and three guys.
When he makes it to the booth he says--
MARK
Erica?
ERICA, from the opening scene, turns her head and looks up to see MARK. She’s looking sexy for her Friday night on the town and the three guys she’s with are studs. A few more friends of theirs are standing around at the edges of the booth.
ERICA
(pause)
Hi.
MARK
I saw you from over there. I didn’t know
you came to this club a lot.
ERICA
First time.
MARK
Mine too. Could I talk to you alone for a
second?
ERICA
I think I’m good right here.
MARK
I just--I’d love to talk to you alone. If
we could just go someplace--
ERICA
Right here’s fine.
MARK is aware of everyone else around the booth...
MARK
(beat)
I don’t know if you heard about this new
website I launched.
ERICA
No.
MARK
TheFacebook?
ERICA
You called me a bitch on the internet,
Mark.
MARK
That’s why I wanted to talk to you. If we
could just--
ERICA
On the internet.
MARK
That’s why I came over.
ERICA
Comparing women to farm animals?
MARK
I didn’t end up doing that.
ERICA
It didn’t stop you from writing it. As if
every thought that tumbles through your
head is so clever it would be a crime for
it not to be shared. The internet’s not
written in pencil, Mark, it’s written in
ink and you published that Erica Albright
was a bitch right before you made some
ignorant crack about my family’s name, my
bra size and then rated women based on
their “hotness”.
REGGIE (A FRIEND OF ERICA’S)
Erica, is there a problem?
ERICA
No, there’s no problem.
(pause)
You write your snide bullshit from a dark
room because that’s what the angry do
nowadays. I was nice to you. Don’t
torture me for it.
MARK glances at the table of Erica’s friends--
MARK
(pause)
If we could just go somewhere for a
minute--
ERICA
No, I don’t want to be rude to my
friends.
MARK
Okay.
ERICA
Okay. Good luck with your video game.
It was an honest mistake on ERICA’s part but a kidney punch to MARK.
MARK turns and goes and sees that EDUARDO has been standing and watching from a distance with CHRISTY.
EDUARDO
Hey, that was great. That was the right
thing to do. You apologized, right?
MARK
(ignoring him)
We have to expand.
EDUARDO
(over the music)
What?
And MARK heads out the door.
EDUARDO watches MARK and then looks back at the girls...
ALICE
Is he mad about something?
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