A Harvard dorm-room website becomes a global giant — told through two lawsuits from the friends who say they were cut out. Most of it really happened.
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Work through the four short activities. Each word is shown in a situation that gives its meaning away — no need to know the film yet. Say your answer out loud first, then reveal.
David Fincher's The Social Network (2010), written by Aaron Sorkin. Read each part, try the quick check from memory, then discuss. (There are spoilers ahead — that's the point; we're here to talk about it.)
It's the autumn of 2003 at Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg is a brilliant, sharp-tongued computer science student, obsessed with the university's exclusive social hierarchy — the elite "final clubs" that decide who matters and who doesn't. One night, over a drink, his girlfriend Erica ends things, stung by his condescending remarks about her and her school. Furious and humiliated, Mark storms back to his dorm room and, fuelled by anger and beer, builds a website in a single night: Facemash. It puts pairs of female students' photos side by side and asks visitors to vote on who is more attractive. The site is a sensation and a scandal — it crashes Harvard's network, provokes outrage from student groups, and gets Mark hauled before the disciplinary board. It also makes him briefly, notoriously famous.
Around the same time, twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — tall, wealthy, Olympic-calibre rowers — and their business partner Divya Narendra approach Mark with an idea: an exclusive social network just for Harvard students, called Harvard Connection. They need a programmer. Mark says yes, seems enthusiastic, and strings them along with excuses for weeks.
1. What does Mark build the night Erica breaks up with him, and why does it cause trouble?
2. What do the Winklevoss twins ask Mark to help them build?
1. Facemash, a site that rates female students' attractiveness; it crashes Harvard's network and causes a disciplinary scandal.
2. Harvard Connection, an exclusive social network for Harvard students only.
While stringing the twins along, Mark is quietly building something of his own: thefacebook.com, a site limited at first to verified Harvard students, where people can post a profile and see who else is single, whose friends are whose, and what everyone is doing. His best friend, Eduardo Saverin, believes in it enough to put in the seed money and take on the business side as CFO. Launched in February 2004, the site is an overnight sensation on campus, and within weeks it spreads to Yale, Columbia, Stanford, and beyond.
The Winklevoss twins realise, with fury, that the site Mark has launched looks very much like the one they hired him to build for them — except it's entirely his. They see themselves as victims of a calculated theft, not a missed opportunity. Meanwhile, a charismatic, hard-partying entrepreneur named Sean Parker — the co-founder of Napster — talks his way into Mark's inner circle. He pushes Mark to think bigger: drop the "the," move to Silicon Valley, chase real investors, and stop worrying about small advertising deals. Eduardo, more cautious and increasingly sidelined, distrusts Sean and tries to bring in advertisers the traditional way. The friendship between Mark and Eduardo starts to fray.
1. What is thefacebook.com at first, and who provides the money to start it?
2. Why does Sean Parker's arrival create tension with Eduardo?
1. A social network limited to verified Harvard students at first; Eduardo Saverin provides the seed money.
2. Sean pushes Mark toward bigger, riskier ambitions and sidelines Eduardo's more cautious, advertising-based approach.
As the company grows and takes on investment, Mark — pushed by Sean — restructures it, issuing a huge number of new shares. On paper, Eduardo's stake quietly shrinks from around a third of the company to a sliver worth almost nothing, while everyone else's holdings barely move. When Eduardo finally understands what has happened, he is devastated: this isn't a business decision, it's a betrayal by his closest friend. In retaliation, he freezes the company's bank account, and the friendship collapses for good in a furious confrontation in the Facebook offices.
Meanwhile, the Winklevoss twins have taken their grievance to lawyers, convinced Mark stole Harvard Connection outright. Facebook itself keeps growing, racing past a million users and then far beyond, as Mark becomes the youngest self-made billionaire in history. The film closes not with triumph but with Mark alone in a conference room at night, having just been warned by his own lawyer that both lawsuits will likely settle for large sums. Left by himself, he does the one small, human thing he can: he refreshes a page, again and again, waiting to see if Erica — the girlfriend from the very first scene — will accept his friend request.
1. What happens to Eduardo's shares, and how does he react when he finds out?
2. How does the film end?
1. They are diluted to almost nothing; Eduardo is devastated, calls it a betrayal, and freezes the company's account.
2. Mark, warned both lawsuits will settle, sits alone refreshing the page to see if Erica will accept his friend request.
No story needs these patterns more than this one — it's built almost entirely out of people accusing, denying, admitting and refusing. Each reporting verb below takes its own fixed pattern; get the pattern wrong and the sentence breaks.
Put each reporting verb into the correct pattern.
1. The Winklevoss twins accused Mark (steal) their idea for a Harvard-only social network.
2. Mark always denied (copy) anything from Harvard Connection.
3. In the deposition, Eduardo admitted (feel) completely humiliated when he saw the new shareholder paperwork.
1. of stealing (accuse someone of + -ing)
2. copying (deny + -ing, no person)
3. to feeling (admit to + -ing)
Each sentence needs a different reporting verb pattern. Complete it correctly.
1. Eduardo refused (sign) away his shares without seeing a full explanation.
2. Mark blamed Eduardo (fail) to bring in advertisers quickly enough.
3. The board refused (intervene) in what it called "a personal dispute" between the founders.
1. to sign (refuse + to)
2. for failing (blame someone for + -ing)
3. to intervene (refuse + to)
Fill each gap with the correct pattern. Read it aloud when you're done.
"When the lawsuit finally reached court, the two sides told very different stories. The twins insisted (the idea had always been theirs) and accused Mark (steal) it outright. Mark, in turn, denied (do) anything dishonest, while Eduardo refused (accept) that the new shares were fair."
that the idea had always been theirs · of stealing · doing · to accept
Notice the pattern: insist takes that; accuse needs a person + of + -ing; deny takes -ing alone; refuse takes to + infinitive.
Carry these into the Speak tab — one lawsuit is built entirely from people accusing, denying, admitting and refusing; you'll need every one of these patterns to tell it properly.
Here's what makes The Social Network unusual: its two harshest, most dramatic betrayals are matters of public legal record. Both lawsuits really happened, and both really settled for real money. What the film invents is smaller, and more personal, than you'd expect.
The headline facts are true. Mark Zuckerberg did launch Facebook from his Harvard dorm room in February 2004, with fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra really did sue, claiming Zuckerberg stole their idea for a Harvard-only social network — a site they had hired him, as a fellow student, to help program. The case dragged on for years and was finally settled in 2008 for a package worth about $65 million, roughly $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock, which later made the twins worth well over a billion dollars each.
Saverin's ownership stake really was diluted through a company restructuring in 2005, dropping from around a third of the company to under 10%, while other shareholdings barely moved — exactly the kind of dilution the film dramatises as a betrayal. Saverin sued, and the case was settled out of court in 2009 under confidential terms. As part of that settlement, Facebook officially restored his title as a co-founder — something the company had previously downplayed — and agreed a stake reported to be around 4–5%. When Facebook went public in 2012, that stake alone made him a multi-billionaire.
The famous opening scene — Mark getting dumped by a girlfriend called Erica, and building the insulting Facemash site purely out of wounded pride — is invented. Zuckerberg has said flatly that the whole premise involves "a girl who doesn't exist in real life," and that he was already in a relationship with Priscilla Chan, whom he'd met in 2003 and would go on to marry, throughout this period. Sorkin created Erica Albright as a device to give Mark a clean, dramatic motive.
The script is based on Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, and Saverin — freshly settled with the company and no longer bound by silence — was Mezrich's main behind-the-scenes source, which pushes the story's sympathies toward him. Aaron Sorkin has been open about choosing drama over documentary neutrality: he has said he never met Zuckerberg, and that where witnesses gave conflicting sworn testimony about the same events, he simply picked the version that made the best scene, rather than trying to adjudicate what "really" happened.
This is the heart of the lesson — do it all out loud. The timer keeps you going; fill the time with detail.
Tell the story of The Social Network in your own words, as if to someone who has never seen it. Move through the arc: the break-up and Facemash → the Winklevoss twins' idea and Mark's own site → Eduardo's money and Sean Parker's arrival → the diluted shares and the two lawsuits → Mark alone at the end.
Work in at least five key words (exclusive, prestigious, covet, dilute, ruthless, audacious, exploit, underhand, vindictive, take credit for), and use today's reporting patterns when you reach the lawsuits: "the twins accused him of stealing their idea"; "he always denied copying anything."
Mark ends the film wildly rich but essentially alone, having lost his two closest allies. Was building something world-changing worth that personal cost? Build an argument: does genuinely great success almost always require burning some bridges — or is that just an excuse ambitious people use to justify how they treat people?
The film's whole plot is a fight over who really deserves credit — and money — for a good idea. Whose claim do you find most convincing: Mark's (he built it), the twins' (it was their concept), or Eduardo's (he funded and ran it)? Make your case.
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: