“The Social Network”: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

A look at the story structure of the 2010 Oscar winning movie.

One of the best things screenwriters can do to elevate their understanding of the craft is to create a scene-by-scene breakdown of an existing movie. The value of this exercise:

Today: The Social Network, screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, book by Ben Mezrich.

IMDb plot summary: Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.

The Social Network
Scene By Scene Breakdown
By Nick Dykal
GoIntoTheStory.com

1–9: Mark is on a date with Erica. He expresses his discontent with the system, bitter that despite his superior intelligence he would never be invited to join the Harvard elite. He insults Erica with his arrogance and she leaves, dumping him for good.

10–22: Rebuffed, Mark goes back to his dorm where he simultaneously drinks beer, blogs disparaging remarks about Erica, and hacks the Harvard network to obtain photos of all the women on campus. He recruits his roommates and his friend Eduardo to develop Facemash, a website to compare the attractiveness of Harvard’s women. It’s a huge hit and crashes the network in hours. This is all juxtaposed against various scenes of Harvard’s night-life at the elite clubs Mark is jealous of.

22–24: Flash-forward to a deposition room. Eduardo and Mark are flanked by their respective attorneys. The lawyers are going through the events of the Facemash story but Mark is hung up on the details of his interaction with Erica.

24–26: The Winklevoss twins, two wealthy jocks that epitomize the Harvard elite, discuss Facemash with their business partner and decide to recruit Mark for their website idea. Flash-forward and we get a glimpse of the twins across from Mark in a second deposition.

27–29: Mark is at an administrative hearing where he is berated about hacking and crashing the network. Mark displays his arrogance by stating the board should thank him for exposing the weaknesses of their system. Outside, Mark explains to Eduardo he got put on probation.

29–35: The Winklevoss twins are waiting for Mark outside his programming class and invite him to discuss their idea. Back at their elite club, they describe Harvard Connection, pointing out the unique thing about their site is exclusivity — only people at Harvard can join. This piques Mark’s interest.

35–36: Flash-forward and cutting between the two depositions. Eduardo’s lawyers are asking Mark when he decided to involve Eduardo. The twins’ lawyer is trying to get Mark to admit he agreed to make their website. Mark is deflecting all questions by arguing semantics.

37–42: Mark meets Eduardo at a decidedly non-elite college party. Mark pulls him aside to discuss the website idea. Eduardo tells Mark he has been “punched” to join an elite club. Intercut with the first deposition where Eduardo’s lawyers are going through the details of their early arrangement.

42–44: Eduardo at the second deposition answering questions from the twins’ lawyer. We get an idea of Eduardo’s opinion about Mark’s jealousy of clubs.

44–50: Montage sequence. Shots of the website being outlined on a white board. Mark programming. Mark discussing the business with Eduardo. Intercut with Eduardo pledging to the club. Intercut with the second deposition of the twins’ lawyer reading Mark’s emails misrepresenting his availability and progress with their website. Sequence ends in the deposition room with Mark defending that the code is his and he didn’t steal anything.

50–55: Mark is programming in a lab, being pestered by a friend about whether a girl he likes is single or not — Mark gets an idea. He runs back to his dorm and meets Eduardo there, he begins putting the final touches on the site and Eduardo sees it for the first time, impressed. The site goes live. Mark convinces Eduardo to send the link to the members of his club.

55–62: The twins’ partner is out with his girlfriend and sees theFacebook for the first time. He storms out and interrupts the twins at rowing practice. They call their dad and his lawyer to decide what to do. They argue over how to handle it. One twin wants to keep things civil.

62–65: Cut between depositions. The twins’ lawyer tries to pin Mark as resentful of the twins’ status and family wealth. The early success of the site is described.

65–72: While attending a guest lecture, a couple girls notice Mark and Eduardo and want to meet up later. Guys stop them on the street congratulating them on theFacebook — they are campus celebrities. Back in Mark’s room, Eduardo wants to capitalize on their success with advertising. Mark is against it, he wants to continue to build. Eduardo notices the cease-and-desist letter from the twins’ lawyer. Mark shrugs it off.

73–74: Second deposition. The twins’ lawyer drills Mark about his deceptive emails before cutting ties with the project. Mark is distant, dismissive and arrogant.

75–80: Mark and Eduardo are getting it on with their new groupies in the men’s room of a bar. Mark exits the bathroom and notices Erica at a table with friends. He goes over to apologize for his blog/brag about his new creation. Erica is not impressed. She berates Mark for his childish and insulting behavior. Rejected once again, Mark decides to expand — Yale, Columbia and Stanford.

80–83: The twins learn of Mark’s plan to expand. They debate once again on what to do about it. They decide to take it up with the school.

83–88: Sean Parker, infamous creator of Napster, learns about theFacebook after hooking up with a Stanford coed. He wants to meet Mark.

88–95: The twins meet with the president of Harvard. He is dismissive of their complaints. He doesn’t consider it a school matter and underestimates the value of the website. Once he learns they got the meeting through their dad’s connections, he cuts it short.

95–97: First deposition. Eduardo is describing his attempts to secure advertising for the site and how Mark sabotaged these efforts with his disinterest and arrogance. But Mark was excited for one meeting…

97–106: Mark and Eduardo are in a trendy New York club. Sean Parker walks in and works the room like a rock star. Parker describes his experiences with Napster, highlighting his ups and downs, projecting his arrogance and paranoia. They all discuss Mark’s strategy for his site and the potential if they play it smart. Mark is enamored with Parker.

107–111: First deposition. Mark’s lawyer brings up an article from the school newspaper in the early days of Facebook charging Eduardo with animal cruelty. We learn it was part of Eduardo’s pledge to join the club. In the deposition, Eduardo takes it as a personal attack from Mark.

111–113: Mark tells Eduardo of his plans to move to Silicon Valley for the summer and secure funds from venture capitalists. Eduardo disagrees. He knows Parker is behind it and he wants to handle the business end. Mark uses Eduardo’s recent embarrassment to manipulate him into it.

113–117: Mark is holding interviews for interns to take with him to California. The “interview” consists of an alcohol-fueled hacking competition. Eduardo is baffled by the display but gives Mark the money to fund his summer operation. At the deposition, Eduardo says he just wanted to be a team player.

117–124: The gang is partying in the new Palo Alto house. Parker shows up, Mark gives him the tour and explains that Eduardo stayed back east. Parker takes Mark out to a trendy club in San Francisco. He once again works his magic on Mark, convincing him that listening to Eduardo and selling out early would be a huge mistake.

124–129: The Winklevoss twins are at a rowing competition in England. After narrowly losing the race, they learn that Facebook has spread to the UK. Now they agree to go after Mark.

129–136: Eduardo shows up at the Palo Alto house to find Parker there. He learns Parker has been setting up meetings all over town. Mark tells Eduardo things are moving so fast, he needs to move to California or get left behind. Incredulous, Eduardo goes to the bank and freezes the company’s accounts.

136–143: Mark and Parker secure $500,000 from an investor. In New York, Eduardo is in the middle of a fight with his crazy girlfriend when Mark calls. Mark berates him for freezing the account, but tells him the good news and to come back to California for the transition.

143–146: At the new offices, Eduardo signs the legal documents and learns of the new arrangement. At the deposition, we learn this was Eduardo’s undoing. He admits his mistake but claims he couldn’t believe his best friend would do that to him. Parker recruits Mark to use his new-found status to get back at an old enemy.

147–154: Eduardo returns to California for the millionth-member party and a mysterious business meeting. At the office, he is greeted by lawyers and taken to a conference room where he learns his stock in Facebook has been rendered valueless. He storms out to confront Mark, who ignores him. Eduardo causes a scene and threatens to sue. Parker has him removed by security. Parker and Mark watch as Facebook membership hits a million.

154–160: Parker is partying hard at a sorority house. He is in a bedroom with some girls, drinking and doing cocaine. Parker won’t shut up about the future of Facebook, but the cops show up and catch him white-handed. Parker calls Mark to tell him the news, paranoid that someone set him up. Mark is calm, explains he will come up with a plan to deal with the fallout.

160–164: Mark is alone with his lawyer in the deposition room. She tells Mark he needs to settle for the good of the company. Given the events, she explains it won’t be hard to paint Mark as a cut-throat villain who intentionally sabotaged the Winklevoss twins, Eduardo and Sean Parker. She leaves Mark alone. He goes on Facebook to send a friend request to Erica and waits for her response.