The Social Network (Scene 2)

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Harvard University
Fall 2003

INT. KIRKLAND HOUSE/LOBBY - NIGHT

As the MUSIC CONTINUES and MARK busts into the lobby of his
dorm. He doesn’t look at anyone as he heads up the stairs and
we.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

A bedroom that’s part of a three-bedroom suite. The MUSIC
CONTINUES as MARK walks in, flicks his lap-top on without
looking at it and walks out of frame as we follow MARK to his
mini-frigde where he pulls out a Beck’s beer.

MARK’s fingers dance easily on the keyboard--like a Juilliard
pianist warming up. The website he’s just called up gets
loaded onto the screen.

Zuckonit.com

This is the only place he’s comfortable.

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8:13 PM

He begins blogging.

MARK (V.O.): Erica Albright’s a bitch. Do you think that’s because her family changed their name from Albrecht or do you think it’s because all B.U. girls are bitches?

He takes a good gulp of his drink. We see the words we’re
hearing filling up his computer screen--

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): For the record, she may look like a 34C but she’s getting all kinds of help from our friends at Victoria’s Secret. She’s a 34B, as in barely anything there. False advertising.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

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9:48 PM

MARK (V.O.): The truth is she has a nice face. I need to do something to help me take my mind off her. Easy enough, except I need an idea.

MARK takes out a keyboard for his desktop computer takes a
drink from his beer.

BILLY OLSON walks into the room carrying a six pack. He sits
on the bed behind MARK and opens one for himself.

MARK has moved his mouse to an icon on his desktop labeled
“Kirkland Facebook”. He clicks and opens it. A menu of photos
appear. He blogs again.

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): I’m a little intoxicated, I’m not gonna lie. So what if it’s not even 10PM and it’s a Tuesday night? The Kirkland facebook is open on my desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous
facebook pics.

(MORE): Billy Olson’s sitting here and had the idea of putting some of these next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on who’s hotter.

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INT. A BUS - NIGHT

It resembles the kind of bus that would take you to the rental
car place but on board are two-dozen COLLEGE GIRLS who are
dressed for a party. Last minute make-up touch-ups are being
done and a joint is being passed.

MARK (V.O.): I think he’s on to something.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

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10:17 PM

MARK: Yea, it’s on. I’m not gonna do the farm animals but I like the idea of comparing two people together. It gives the whole thing a very “Turing” feel since people’s ratings of the pictures--

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EXT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

A bouncer--a townie in a tuxedo and a headset--is manning the
velvet rope that guards the thick, wooden, red double-doors
that lead to, believe it or not, one of the most exclusive
clubs in the world.

Four college girls are already waiting in line but that
number’s about to grow as the bus pulls up and opens its
doors.

MARK (VO): --will be more implicit than, say, choosing a number to represent each person’s hotness like they do on hotornot.com. The first thing we’re going to need is a lot of pictures.

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): Unfortunately, Harvard doesn’t keep a public centralized facebook so I’m going to have to get all the images from the individual houses that people are in. Let the hacking begin.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

There are two more kids in the room with MARK--DUSTIN
MOSKOVITZ and CHRIS HUGHES.

MARK (V.O.): First up is Kirkland. They keep everything open and allow indexes in their Apache configuration, so a little WGET magic is all that’s necessary to download the entire Kirkland facebook. Kids’ stuff.

On the computer screen, we’ve been seeing him download picture
after picture of Harvard girls.

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EXT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

THREE COEDS are talking to the BOUNCER. The BOUNCER looks up
at TWO HANDSOME CLUB MEMBERS. The MEMBERS give him the nod and
the FIVE COEDS are let past the velvet rope.

They’re led up a half flight of red-carpeted stairs to a party
that’s about a half-hour away from being in full swing.

The CLUB PRESIDENT is addressing the GUESTS from the top of
the stairs--

CLUB PRESIDENT: Excuse me everybody, you are at one of the oldest, one of the most exclusive clubs--not just at Harvard but in the world--and I want to welcome you all to Phoenix Club’s first party of the fall semester.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

MARK finishes another drink and gets back to his work.

TITLE:

1:03 AM

MARK (V.O.): Next is Elliot. They’re also open but with no indexes on Apache. I can run an empty search and it returns all of the images in the database in a single page. Then I can save the page and Mozilla will save all the images for me. Excellent. Moving right along.

Flying by at super-speed on MARK’s computer screen have been
commands and images that the rest of us can’t possibly
understand.

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INT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

The best and the brightest are checking out the hottest and
the easiest.

We see a shot of uniformed FEMALE BARTENDERS making a couple
of drinks with top-shelf bottles, a DJ working the highest end
equipment and 20 year old guys, some of whom look 15, in
blazers, khakis and club ties.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

MARK (V.O): Lowell has some security. They require a username/password combo and I’m going to go ahead and say they don’t have access to main FAS user database, so they have no way of detecting an intrusion.

11B INT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

It’s on. Body shots. A couple making out in the corner. A
matchbox gets slid open by perfectly manicured fingers that
take out a few white pills. Two girls are dancing with each
other and move into a kiss.

MARK’s voiceovers are starting to overlap and cascade into
each other--

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): Adams has no security but limits the number of results to twenty a page. All I need to do is break out the same script I used on Lowell and we’re set.

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): Quincy has no online facebook, what a sham. Nothing I can do about that.

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MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

Instructions and images fly across MARK’s screen--

MARK (V.O.): Dunster is intense. Not only is there no public directory but there’s no--

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): Leverett is a little better. It’s slightly obnoxious that they only let you view one picture at a time and I’m not about to--

MARK (V.O.) (CONT’D): --definitely necessary to break out the emacs and modify that perl script with--

INT. KIRKLAND HOUSE/STAIRWAY - NIGHT

EDUARDO SAVERIN, a sweet-looking Brazilian sophomore wearing a
three-piece suit is rushing up the stairs two at a time.

TITLE:

2:08 AM

MARK (V.O.): Done.

EDUARDO gets to the top of the stairs and hurries into--

INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - CONTINUOUS

EDUARDO: What’s going on?

MARK (V.O.): Perfect timing. Eduardo’s here and he’s going to have the key ingredient.

EDUARDO: Mark.

MARK: Wardo.

EDUARDO: You and Erica split up?

MARK: How did you know that?

EDUARDO: It’s on your blog.

MARK: Yeah.

EDUARDO: Are you alright?

MARK: I need you.

EDUARDO: I’m here for you.

MARK: No, I need the algorithm you use to rank chess players.

EDUARDO: Are you okay?

MARK: We’re ranking girls.

EDUARDO: You mean other students?

MARK: Yeah.

EDUARDO: You think this is such a good idea?

MARK: I need the algorithm.

EDUARDO: Mark--

MARK: I need the algorithm.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

EDUARDO is writing an equation with a grease marker on the
window. When the equation’s done it looks like this:

Girl A:

Ea =      1
_____________________
1 + 10(Rb - Ra) / 400

Girl B:

Eb =      1
_____________________
1 + 10(Ra - Rb) / 400

EDUARDO: Give each girl a base rating of 1400. At any given time “Girl A” has a rating R-a and “Girl B” has a rating R-b.

MARK: When any two girls are matched up there’s an expectation of which will win based on their current rating, right?

EDUARDO(tapping the window): Yes. And those expectations are expressed this way.

MARK: Let’s write it.

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INT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

The two girls who we just saw get let in are now dancing on a
table in their underwear.

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INT. MARK’S ROOM - NIGHT

MARK makes a few last key strokes and a new website comes up
on the screen.

FACEMASH

MARK makes a few more keystrokes and two pictures of two
Harvard girls come up on the screen.

After a moment...

ALL: The one on the left.

MARK clicks the girl on the left and another picture takes the
place of the girl on the right.

ALL (CONT’D): On the right.

MARK clicks the girl on the right while another picture takes
the place of the girl on the left.

ALL (CONT’D): Still the right.

EDUARDO: It works.

DUSTIN: Who should we send it to first?

EDUARDO: Dwyer.

CHRIS: Neal.

EDUARDO: Who are you gonna send it to?

MARK’s made the link to e-mail and hits send.

MARK: Just a couple of people. The question is, who are they gonna send it to?

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INT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

We move to a room where there’s a co-ed poker game underway
with the girls smoking cigars. A bra and a couple of pairs of
stockings are out on the table. As we move through the poker
room, we see a computer behind one of the players. The
computer is indicating that there’s e-mail.

A PLAYER turns around and opens the e-mail as the poker game
and the party go on behind him.

He hits a link and FACEMASH opens. He looks at it, then--

PLAYER (to another player): Check this out.

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INT. ANOTHER DORM ROOM - NIGHT

TWO MALE STUDENTS at a laptop.

STUDENT: The one on the left.

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17.INT. ANOTHER DORM ROOM - NIGHT

THREE MALE STUDENTS AT A COMPUTER

ALL: On the right.

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INT. ALL NIGHT DINER - NIGHT

A bunch of STUDENTS around a computer.

ALL: The right.

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INT. FINAL CLUB - NIGHT

Dozens of partiers are around the computer.

FEMALE STUDENT: That’s my roommate.

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INT. CYBER CAFE - NIGHT

A bunch of students around the computer--

FEMALE STUDENT: This is pathetic.

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INT. ANOTHER DORM ROOM - NIGHT

A FEW STUDENTS gathered at a computer--

ALL: On the left.

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INT. ANOTHER DORM ROOM - NIGHT

Another computer--

ALL: On the right.

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INT. ANOTHER DORM ROOM - NIGHT

This time just a single student in his pajamas as he looks at
two pictures of girls side by side.

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INT. ANOTHER DORM ROOM - NIGHT

And another single student voting and

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INT. DORM ROOM - NIGHT

We should instantly know that this dorm room is different.
It’s more modern and with less character and history than the
others.

In the background a GIRL is at her computer and in the
foreground ERICA is sitting in bed taking notes from a
textbook.

GIRL (ERICA’S ROOMMATE): Oh shit.

(to the other GIRL): Albright?

ERICA’S ROOMMATE: He blogged about you.

ERICA looks at her for a moment, then gets up to look at her
roommates computer--

ERICA’S ROOMMATE (CONT’D): You don’t want to read it.

ERICA ignores her roommate. We see her mortification as she
reads, and at that moment THREE GUYS appear in her open
doorway. They’re baked and smiling and one of them is holding
a bra.

COLLEGE GUY: Erica.

ERICA looks over at the guys--

COLLEGE GUY (CONT’D): Is this yours? I stole it from a tranny.

ERICA’S ROOMMATE: Get the hell out of here!

The three guys go on their drunken way as we SLOWLY PUSH IN on
ERICA who’s frozen in her humiliation and then

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19.INT. HARVARD DORM ROOM - NIGHT

STUDENTS: The left!

INT. COFFEE HOUSE - NIGHT

STUDENTS: The right!

INT. DINING HALL - NIGHT

STUDENTS: The left!

INT. GIRLS’ DORM ROOM - NIGHT

STUDENTS: The right!

INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

As sets of photos go flying by on his computer screen.
MARK is staring at the chaos of activity he’s created in the
middle of the night.

EDUARDO: This is an awful lot of traffic. (beat) Think maybe we should shut it down before we get into trouble.

MARK ignores him as we pre-lap a PHONE RINGING and

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INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

A man named COX is asleep next to his wife. It’s his phone
that’s RINGING. COX wakes up and answers it--

COX (into phone): Hello? (listens) Wait, what? (listens) At 4 in the morning?

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INT. HARVARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE - SAME TIME

A tired GRAD STUDENT who spends the night monitoring the
campus computer system is looking at his computer.

GRAD STUDENT (into phone): Well there’s a very unusual amount of traffic to the switch at Kirkland.

COX: You’re saying it’s unusual for 4 in the morning?

GRAD STUDENT: No, this’d be unusual for halftime at the Super Bowl.

COX: Alright.

COX hangs up the phone.

COX (CONT’D): I have to go in.

COX’S WIFE: What’s going on?

COX: Harvard’s network’s about to crash.

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INT. MARK’S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

Pictures are flying by on Mark’s computer when suddenly they
freeze.

Then an icon comes up telling him he’s no longer connected to
the internet.

Everyone is frozen silent for a moment...

EDUARDO: You don’t think--

MARK: I do.

EDUARDO: Go see if it’s everybody.

DUSTIN, CHRIS and EDUARDO head out of the room. MARK waits as
the guys start coming back in the room.

CHRIS: Can’t connect.

DUSTIN: The network’s down.

EDUARDO: Unless it’s a coincidence I think this is us.

MARK: It’s not a coincidence.

EDUARDO (bad): Holy shit.

And we stay on MARK a moment before we

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