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The Social Network · written by Aaron Sorkin · 2010
Scene 157 of 189 · ≈ 2 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.
Expansion to Yale, Columbia, Stanford; the move to Palo Alto; the costs mount — Eduardo sidelined, the twins circling, the company outgrowing its dorm-room shape.
Mark walks through the wrecked, geek-paradise interior of the summer house, greeting a coding-obsessed intern named Andrew, when Sean Parker turns up at the door with his girlfriend Sharon.
Sean tours the Palo Alto house, impressed by the setup, and asks after Eduardo, learning he stayed behind in New York.
At the Ruby Skye nightclub, Sean delivers a searing pitch to Mark about ambition, VCs, and never settling for a good idea when Facebook could be a billion-dollar one — and needles Mark about excluding Eduardo.
This scene
We’re looking at a stone bridge crossing a perfectly straight stretch of water against the backdrop of the medieval town of Henley, England--founded in 1179.
And after a moment of placid quiet--
--BOOSH!
Two razor thin skulls explode for the final, agonizing hundred- meter stretch of the ancient and prestigious Henley Royal Regatta.
The two boats are neck and neck. The port-side boat is being crewed by the two Dutch members of the Hollandia Roeiclub. The starboard boat is being crewed by a pair of identical twins wearing tank tops bearing the “H” of Harvard.
We HEAR the ROAR come up from the CROWD in the viewing section. The crowd is dressed as if for opening day at Ascot-- the women in flowing dresses and wide-brimmed hats, the men in blazers and brightly colored floral ties.
But the young men in the boats can barely hear the crowd. Just their own breathing as they pull against the longest natural straight stretch of water in the world--a mile and a half torture test against the best competition they’ve ever faced.
And they’re neck and neck. CAMERON and TYLER can’t shake the Dutch.
The CROWD is going crazy. Mixed in with the British crowd is a small contingent waving the flag of Holland and a slightly larger contingent of Americans.
We’ll notice a stoic man in a VIP viewing section and later we’ll be introduced to him as Cameron and Tyler’s father. Next to him is their mother, who can barely watch.
Back on the boats it’s just the breathing as the skulls slice through the water like jet-powered knives. 50 meters now and there’s still no daylight between them.
25 meters and the Dutch and American fans are going crazy-- even the British aristocracy can’t help but get caught up in
POP!
--the finish gun is fired into the air, the oars come out of the water and the bodies of the crewmen slump over.
CAMERON turns his head to the cheering crowd to see the Dutch group holding a giant flag and jumping up and down. The Americans bring their giant flag down and fold it up.
The two DUTCH CREW MEMBERS pump their fists in the air and hug as the two boats skim along to a gentle stop.
The MOTHER drops her head and looks down. The FATHER refuses to look away.
From CAMERON and TYLER, just the breathing.
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