The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Based on the 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, the film portrays the founding of the social networking website Facebook. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, Armie Hammer as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Max Minghella as Divya Narendra. Neither Zuckerberg nor any other Facebook staff were involved with the project, although Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book.
Production began when Sorkin signed on to write the screenplay. Principal photography began that same year in October in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lasted until November. Additional scenes were shot in California, in the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails composed the film's award-winning score, which was released on September 28, 2010.
The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on September 24, 2010, and was released theatrically in the United States on October 1, by Sony Pictures Releasing. A major commercial success, the film grossed $224 million on a $40 million budget and was widely acclaimed by critics. It was named one of the best films of the year by 447 critics, and named the best by 110 critics, the most of any film that year. It was also chosen by the National Board of Review as the best film of 2010. At the 83rd Academy Awards, it received eight nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Eisenberg, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing. It also received awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score at the 68th Golden Globe Awards.
The Social Network has maintained a strong reputation since its initial release, and is commonly ranked by critics as one of the best films of the 2010s and 21st century. The Writers Guild of America ranked Sorkin's screenplay the third greatest of the 21st century. The factual accuracy is, however, largely contested. In 2024, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A sequel titled The Social Reckoning with Sorkin writing and directing is scheduled for release on October 9, 2026.
Plot
In intercut frame stories, two ongoing depositions play out: in one, Mark Zuckerberg is being sued by his former friend Eduardo Saverin, and in the other he is sued by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.On October 28, 2003, Zuckerberg, a Harvard University sophomore, is dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright. Returning to his dorm, Zuckerberg writes an insulting post about her on his LiveJournal blog. Zuckerberg creates a campus website called Facemash by hacking and downloading photos of female students from house face books, then allowing site visitors to rate their attractiveness. After traffic to the site crashes parts of Harvard's computer network, Zuckerberg is given six months of academic probation.
Facemash's popularity attracts the attention of the Winklevoss twins and their business partner Divya Narendra. The trio invites Zuckerberg to work on Harvard Connection, a social network exclusive to Harvard students and aimed at dating. Soon after, Zuckerberg approaches Saverin with an idea for "TheFacebook", a social networking website that would be exclusive to Ivy League students. Saverin provides $1,000 in seed funding, allowing Zuckerberg to build the website, which quickly becomes popular. When they learn of TheFacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra are incensed, believing that Zuckerberg stole their idea while misleading them by stalling development on the Harvard Connection website. They raise their complaint with Harvard President Larry Summers, who is dismissive and sees no value in disciplinary action on TheFacebook or Zuckerberg.
Saverin and Zuckerberg meet fellow student Christy Lee, who asks them to "Facebook me," which impresses them. As TheFacebook grows in popularity, Zuckerberg expands the network to Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. Saverin begins dating Lee, who arranges for him and Zuckerberg to meet Napster co-founder Sean Parker. Parker presents a "billion-dollar" vision for the company, impressing Zuckerberg. Saverin dismisses Parker as paranoid and delusional outside of his suggestion to rename TheFacebook to Facebook. Zuckerberg relocates the company to Palo Alto based on Parker's advice; Saverin remains in New York to work on business development, while breaking up with Lee. Parker later moves into the house that Zuckerberg is using as a base of operations and becomes more involved with the company, much to Saverin's annoyance.
After narrowly losing in the 2004 Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard against the Hollandia Roeiclub, the Winklevoss twins discover that Facebook has expanded to Europe with Oxford, Cambridge and LSE, and decide to sue the company for intellectual property theft. Meanwhile, Saverin objects to Parker making business decisions for Facebook and freezes the company's bank account in the resulting dispute. He relents when Zuckerberg reveals that they have secured $500,000 from angel investor Peter Thiel.
Saverin is invited to the company's new headquarters on the pretense of attending a business meeting and "millionth user party," but is enraged when he discovers that the new investment deal dilutes his share of Facebook from 34% to 0.03%, without diluting the ownership percentage of any other owner. Furthermore, he has already been removed from the masthead as co-founder and CFO. He confronts Zuckerberg and Parker, vowing to sue as security removes him from the building. Shortly after, Parker is apprehended for cocaine possession with a minor at a party celebrating one million users. He attempts to blame Saverin, prompting Zuckerberg to cut ties with him.
Marylin Delpy, a junior lawyer for Zuckerberg, informs Zuckerberg that they will settle with Saverin since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Zuckerberg's callous attitude will make him unsympathetic to a jury. Alone, Zuckerberg sends a Facebook friend request to Albright and repeatedly refreshes the page. Closing text reveals both cases were settled out of court and Zuckerberg became the world's youngest billionaire.
Cast
is the body double for Hammer, whose likeness was digitally imposed onto Pence's body. He is listed in the end credits as playing Tyler Winklevoss alongside Hammer, though he also shot scenes as Cameron. He also appears in a cameo role as the man being detoured from the bathroom by Zuckerberg and Saverin.Production
Screenplay
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said, "What attracted me to had nothing to do with Facebook. The invention itself is as modern as it gets, but the story is as old as storytelling; the themes of friendship, loyalty, jealousy, class and power". He said he read an unfinished draft of Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires when the publisher began "shopping it around" for a film adaptation. Sorkin added, "I was reading it and somewhere on page three I said yes. It was the fastest I said yes to anything... They wanted me to start right away. Ben and I were kind of doing our research at the same time, sort of along parallel lines". In August 2008, Sorkin started a Facebook group for research purposes while he was working on the film. "I've just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page." He emphasized the role of the competing narratives at a Q&A screening hosted by Myspace: "If the same story was behind the invention of MySpace or Friendster, I would have written that. Two separate lawsuits were brought against Facebook at roughly the same time. Rather than pick one and decide that's the truth, or pick one and say that's the sexist , I like the idea that there are three conflicting stories."According to Sorkin, Mezrich did not send him material from his book as he wrote it: "Two or three times we'd get together. I'd go to Boston, or we'd meet in New York and kind of compare notes and share information, but I didn't see the book until he was done with it. By the time I saw the book, I was probably 80 percent done with the screenplay." Sorkin elaborated:
Casting
Casting began in mid-2009, with Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, and Andrew Garfield announced to star. Jonah Hill was in contention for Timberlake's role, but director David Fincher passed on him. In October 2009, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer, Shelby Young, and Josh Pence were cast. Max Minghella and Dakota Johnson were also confirmed. In a 2009 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Eisenberg said, "Even though I've gotten to be in some wonderful movies, this character seems so much more overtly insensitive in so many ways that seem more real to me in the best way. I don't often get cast as insensitive people, so it feels very comfortable: fresh and exciting, as if you never have to worry about the audience. Not that I worry about the audience anyway – it should be just the furthest thing from your mind. The Social Network is the biggest relief I've ever had in a movie". In 2010, it was announced that Rashida Jones would appear as Marylin Delpy.Filming
began in October 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Scenes were filmed around the campuses of two Massachusetts prep schools, Phillips Academy and Milton Academy. Additional scenes were filmed on the campus of Wheelock College, which was set up to be Harvard's campus, as well as locations on and around the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Filming took place on the Keyser and Wyman quadrangles in the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University from November 2–4, which also doubled for Harvard in the film. The first scene in the film, where Zuckerberg is with his girlfriend, took 99 takes to finish. The film was shot on the Red One digital cinema camera. The rowing scenes with the Winklevoss brothers were filmed at Community Rowing Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts and at the Henley Royal Regatta; miniature faking process was used in a sequence showing a rowing event at the latter. Although a significant portion of the latter half of the film is set in Silicon Valley, the filmmakers opted to shoot those scenes in Los Angeles and Pasadena.Armie Hammer, who portrayed the Winklevoss twins, acted alongside body double Josh Pence while his scenes were filmed. His face was later digitally grafted onto Pence's face during post-production, while other scenes used split-screen photography. Pence was concerned about having no face time during the role, but after considerable musing thought of the role as a "no-brainer". He also appears in a cameo role elsewhere in the film. Hammer states that director David Fincher "likes to push himself and likes to push technology" and is "one of the most technologically minded guys I've ever seen." This included sending the actors to "twin boot camp" for 10 months to learn everything about the Winklevosses.