Summary
Highlights
Mark Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright. In a fit of anger and fueled by alcohol, he creates a website called 'FaceMash' by hacking into Harvard's student databases to pull photos of female students, allowing users to rate their attractiveness. This act quickly gains viral attention but also leads to disciplinary action from Harvard.
The Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra approach Mark Zuckerberg with their idea for a social networking site called 'Harvard Connection.' They want Mark to program the site for them, believing his programming skills are exactly what they need. Mark agrees to help but secretly begins working on his own idea, which would become 'The Facebook.'
Mark Zuckerberg, with the financial backing of his best friend Eduardo Saverin, launches 'The Facebook.' The site quickly gains popularity within Harvard and then expands to other universities. The immediate success draws significant attention and users, leading to rapid growth.
The Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra discover 'The Facebook' and realize Mark has launched a site remarkably similar to their 'Harvard Connection' idea. They accuse him of stealing their intellectual property and begin legal proceedings. Their legal counsel, and later their father's lawyer, advise them on pursuing their claims against Mark.
Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, learns about 'The Facebook' and meets Mark. Parker's vision of 'The Facebook' as a billion-dollar company and his connections in Silicon Valley heavily influence Mark's decisions, leading to aggressive expansion plans and a move to California.
Eduardo Saverin, as CFO, travels to New York to secure advertising deals while Mark and Sean move the company to Palo Alto. While Eduardo is away, Sean orchestrates a restructuring of the company that dilutes Eduardo's ownership stake significantly, effectively forcing him out of the company. Eduardo discovers this upon his return and confronts Mark.
The legal cases, both from the Winklevoss twins and Eduardo Saverin, continue. The film intertwines scenes from the depositions with events leading up to Facebook's explosive growth and the personal conflicts among the founders. The final scenes show Facebook's continued success and Mark Zuckerberg's isolation despite his creation.