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The Social Network: A Timeline
Because I have in my head a bunch of dates and times I've speculated, plus a framework of a bunch of other events' times based on real life dates that I know, for some reason. This is admittedly 6+ years late to the actual fandom so I don't know if it's actually helpful to anyone aside from me anymore. Is this even helpful? It was fun to compile, at the least, and make sense of everything.
Questions to how I reached certain conclusions that I didn't explain or cite in this post are welcome.
* It takes ~40 minutes to walk from the Thirsty Scholar to Kirkland, so probably around ~30 minutes to jog there
** This would make no sense in terms of storytelling, however, since all of the flashbacks seem to be told in a linear fashion. The consideration for 19 February comes from Cameron saying that Mark hasn't answered their emails/texts "for the past two weeks" during the Summers meeting, ambiguous if this was since Facebook's launch (thus the 19th of this instance occurring) or some time afterward as an initial marker.
*** Script says 'CONTINUOUS', indicating the same day
**** Mark's discussing it may have been a pre/beta-function that he wanted to show Eduardo before it went live
***** Sean makes continuous references to Thanksgiving in this scene ("We're gonna walk up there like it's the Macy's parade!" "That's life in the NFL"); however, Facebook achieved one million members in real life on 30th December
****** I feel like this is more likely, as this date was cited right before the exposition of this scene.
******* "It's been live for over 36 hours." (If it was live for closer to 48 hours he wouldn't have been this specific, so.)
******** For this to be possible, Eduardo would have had to set up an account under a branch that he knew was close enough to both Palo Alto and Harvard; so he would both be able to set it up here and freeze it in Palo Alto. It's not to say that it's impossible for Eduardo to have closed the account in New England as well, but that would've required his flight to leave at the latest 7AM PST (to consider the bank's closing time and also in-scene it was relatively light out, so if it were to occur later in the day it would've been 2PM PST/5PM EST [to account for disembark and travel time]), which would then bump the Thiel meeting to be past 2PM PST, which is also not impossible. It would just be way more convenient for Eduardo to close the account in a common bank branch locally in Palo Alto.
Sources:
Questions to how I reached certain conclusions that I didn't explain or cite in this post are welcome.
Key:
-- = event happens on the same day
~~ = event happens around the date
[] = off-screen, referred to or implicit
+ = dialogue interspersed between flashback/deposition scenes switching
date event = official dates that aren't necessarily explicit in movie canon
The ConnectU deposition spans only one day; Eduardo's deposition spans the course of two days. Neither of these three days coincide with one another, so they all took place on separate days.
Separation of days not supported by explicit canonical evidence is assumed/garnered from wardrobe switches, particularly Mark's.
Eduardo's depositions take place in Palo Alto. ("Sy and the others are getting a steak on University Avenue...") There are a lot of law firms around Palo Alto. Also, in the last scene Mark asks if anyone would mind if he stayed to use his computer for a bit, which I highly doubt he'd need to ask if he was in a conference room in the Facebook offices.
When the script cuts to the depositions (Eduardo's, Day 1), we get this description of the setting: The room is glass on two sides and through the windows we can see the behemoths of Silicon Valley--Oracle, SunMicrosystems, Google, etc.
-- approximately 7:40PM* when Mark leaves after Erica leaves him 8:10PM (Kirkland Suite) Mark 8:13PM Mark begins blogging 9:48PM "I need to do something to help me take my mind off her..." "So what if it's not even 10PM and it's a Tuesday night?" Billy Olson is in Mark's room 10:17PM Mark begins hacking [presumably spent the past 30 minutes registering the domain and getting it set up and such] 1:03AM hacks Eliot, Lowell, Adams, Quincy, Dunster, and Leverett [presumably spent the past 3 hours writing the script to hack and shit] 2:08AM Eduardo comes to the Kirkland suite, gives Mark the algorithm, they write it for Facemash ~4:00AM Facemash crashes the servers at Kirkland ~8:00AM Cox and campus security/systems tracks the source of Kirkland's crash to Mark's dorm | |
"Thousand." "What?" "Twenty-two thousand hits." | |
Morning Divya, Cameron, and Tyler are getting breakfast, Divya shows the Winklevoss brothers the Crimson article about Mark choking the switch at Kirkland | |
--"How do you do this thing where you manage to get all girls to hate us?" -- the Winklevosses ask to talk to him -- Mark and the Winklevosses discuss HarvardConnection in the Porcellian bike room | |
+ "Do you remember answering in the affirmative?" + "I'm currently in the middle of two different lawsuits." + "When did you come to Eduardo with the idea for Facebook?" + "The Jewish Fraternity. It was..." | |
[Saturday, Sunday, or Monday] -- "It'll be like a final club, except we're the president." -- "Maybe it was a diversity thing. But so what?" |
+ "I told him it sounded great. It was a great idea. There was nothing to hack." + "Did he offer terms?" + "I said, let's do it." + "Ma’am, I know you’ve done your homework and so you know that money isn’t a big part of my life, but at the moment I could buy Mount Auburn Street, take the Phoenix Club and turn it into my ping pong room." "... It really didn’t have much to do with the Winklevoss’s dating site--" |
~~ Mark writes on the whiteboard, "MySpace, "Friendster", "NewCo"; wearing a button-down ~~ Evening Mark is coding; dart in his mouth ~~ Eduardo goes to his first Phoenix punch party; drinking Jack Daniels ~~ Mark is coding during Art History Tuesday, December 9th, 2003 Harvard finals week begins ~~ Eduardo is on the phone in his dorm (a single), makes the second cut for the Phoenix -- Eduardo goes to Mark's dorm, Mark says that thefacebook needs another Linux box; Eduardo tells him that he made that second cut ~~ Evening Eduardo gets hazed by the Phoenix in front of the not!John Harvard statue Friday, December 19th, 2003 Harvard Finals week ends Saturday, December 20, 2003 Harvard winter recess begins; Mark meets up with his parents Sunday, January 4, 2004 Harvard winter recess ends | Gage cites the following emails... |
(Eduardo has gotten up to get water.) | |
-- Mark runs to the Kirkland dorm; Eduardo is sitting outside, waiting; on the whiteboard says "E.S. 9! you asshole" -- Mark adds Relationship Status -- Facebook is launched, gets 650 members -- Divya tells the Winklevosses who are practicing rowing -- The Winklevosses and Divya are calling the Winklevoss's in-house council, the Kirkland housemaster, and also investigating thefacebook By February 18, 2004 "Facebook me" has become a common expression on Harvard campus. | |
(Eduardo has left the room.) "Your best friend is suing you for 600-million dollars." "I didn’t know that, tell me more." "Not anymore." | |
-- Mark and Eduardo go back to Kirkland; Eduardo wants to put advertising for revenue; Eduardo finds the Winklevosses' cease and desist letter |
-- Break for lunch; presumably come back at 2:30PM; this is the last scene of the ConnectU lawsuit |
| Same night Mark and Eduardo go out for drinks with Christy and Alice; joined bathroom stall wall blowjobs -- Mark tries to talk to Erica -- Mark recruits Chris and Dustin; begins to expand thefacebook -- Eduardo suggests Palo Alto | |
Friday, March 19th, 2004 Eduardo's 21st birthday | |
| Saturday, March 20th, 2004 Harvard spring break begins Mark and Eduardo go on a number of ad exec meetings set up by Eduardo. ~~Mark and Eduardo go to a meeting with Sean Parker set up by Christy. -- "That's gotta be some kind of land speed record for talking." Sunday, March 28th, 2004 Harvard spring break ends |
+ "There was one more meeting set up for the New York trip." + "I honestly wasn't jealous. I was nervous." + "From that point on, it was a Sean-a-thon." + "And then he went on to his second business venture, which was an online rolodex that he got thrown out of by Case Equity." + "I’m not a psychiatrist, but--" + "And delusional." + "And then he got around to theFacebook." + "A billion dollars." + "He owned Mark after that dinner." |
FB is registered in Florida; shares are split 65/30/5 over M/E/D and May 22nd, 2004 [Eduardo gets into the Phoenix -- has to keep a chicken alive for a week -- during that week, Eduardo feeds his chicken chicken in the Kirkland dining hall -- shortly thereafter an article in the Crimson about it is published] Day (same week) "It's better to be accused of necrophilia." -- Mark is cheating on his "Postwar and Contemporary Art" essay, because he has a final exam for it coming up -- Mark has already decided to go to California from the summer, has found a house 2 blocks away from Stanford campus |
+ Eduardo deposes the chicken scene + "Oops." |
~~ Eduardo sets up a bank account in Palo Alto and puts $18,000 in it******** | |
| Thursday, May 13th, 2004 Harvard finals week begins Friday, May 14th, 2004 - Mark's 20th birthday Saturday, May 22nd, 2004 Harvard finals week ends -- Zipline; Mark is in basketball shorts; chimney collapses; Sean and Mark coincidentally run into each other; we are told that Eduardo has an internship in New York (factually, yes, with the Lehman Brothers) -- Same evening***; Mark and Sean go to a club, Sean promises to get FB overseas; Mark says that Sean should stay in their house in Palo Alto] ON OR BEFORE**** WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2004 Eduardo visits Palo Alto, presumably for the first time during the length of the summer, due to being surprised at Sean's presence -- 2:30PM EST (approx) Eduardo leaves for JFK airport -- 4-5PM EST (approx) Flight scheduled for takeoff -- "Long wait at the tarmac on JFK;" can go from one to two hours, so presumably -- 6:30PM EST ... his flight actually taking off -- 12:30AM EST (9:30PM PST) Lands in SFO -- 1:30AM EST (10:30PM PST) "Long wait at the passenger loading/unloading zone" - disembarks properly -- 1:30AM-2:30AM EST (10:30PM-11:30PM PST) Eduardo waits at the airport for Mark -- 2:30AM EST (11:30PM PST) Eduardo takes a taxicab -- 3:00AM EST (12:00AM PST) Eduardo arrives at the Palo Alto house -- Hallway fight and whatnot Morning (~9:30AM-10:00AM PST) Eduardo flies back to New York Day (~11:00AM PST - 1:00PM PST; after Eduardo has left) Sean and Mark attend their meeting with Peter Thiel -- Mark tries to cash Thiel's check, gets denied -- Mark and Sean open another account for FB Evening (~3:30PM-4:00PM PST; 6:30PM-7:00PM EST) Eduardo arrives in New York Evening (~7:00PM-8:00PM EST) Eduardo gets back to his apartment, presumably passes out Night (~10:00PM EST; ~7:00PM PST) Christy breaks into Eduardo's apartment; Mark calls Eduardo to yell at him for freezing the account | |
-- Mark had already told Eduardo that he wouldn't come back to school for at least a semester at this point -- Mark tells Eduardo to come back for the millionth member party Thursday, September 2nd, 2004 ConnectU (Winklevosses & Narendra) file a formal lawsuit against all main FB officers (Mark, Eduardo, Dustin, Chris, Tuesday, September 7th, 2004 Harvard fall semester starts |
|
November 25-28 Harvard Thanksgiving break December 24th, 2004 - January 2nd, 2005 Harvard winter recess |
Eduardo deposes his dilution. |
-- Mark stayed in the offices for the evening | |
-- Mark sends Erica Albright a friend request. |
|
... & then extra for meta timeline reasons 2006 Eduardo graduates magna cum laude from Harvard in a degree in economics. Chris graduates magna cum laude from Harvard with a B.A. in history and literature. 2007 Chris leaves Facebook to volunteer at Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Summer 2008 Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss row for the men's US team in the Beijing Summer Olympics, placing sixth. February 2008 ConnectU and Facebook reach a settlement agreement. October 3, 2008 Dustin leaves Facebook for his own company. January 2009 Mark and Eduardo's case is settled. 2009 Eduardo moves to Singapore. June 2009 The Accidental Billionaires is published. October 2009 Principal filming of The Social Network begins. May 2010 ConnectU files another lawsuit against Facebook on the basis of security fraud for the settlement stock (and it continues; see here.) October 2010 The Social Network is released. January 16, 2011 The Social Network wins "Best Motion Picture - Drama" at the Golden Globes. February 27, 2011 The Social Network wins "Best Adapted Screenplay," "Best Original Score," and "Best Film Editing" at the Academy Awards. June 2011 ConnectU puts its allegations against Facebook to rest. | |
* It takes ~40 minutes to walk from the Thirsty Scholar to Kirkland, so probably around ~30 minutes to jog there
** This would make no sense in terms of storytelling, however, since all of the flashbacks seem to be told in a linear fashion. The consideration for 19 February comes from Cameron saying that Mark hasn't answered their emails/texts "for the past two weeks" during the Summers meeting, ambiguous if this was since Facebook's launch (thus the 19th of this instance occurring) or some time afterward as an initial marker.
*** Script says 'CONTINUOUS', indicating the same day
**** Mark's discussing it may have been a pre/beta-function that he wanted to show Eduardo before it went live
***** Sean makes continuous references to Thanksgiving in this scene ("We're gonna walk up there like it's the Macy's parade!" "That's life in the NFL"); however, Facebook achieved one million members in real life on 30th December
****** I feel like this is more likely, as this date was cited right before the exposition of this scene.
******* "It's been live for over 36 hours." (If it was live for closer to 48 hours he wouldn't have been this specific, so.)
******** For this to be possible, Eduardo would have had to set up an account under a branch that he knew was close enough to both Palo Alto and Harvard; so he would both be able to set it up here and freeze it in Palo Alto. It's not to say that it's impossible for Eduardo to have closed the account in New England as well, but that would've required his flight to leave at the latest 7AM PST (to consider the bank's closing time and also in-scene it was relatively light out, so if it were to occur later in the day it would've been 2PM PST/5PM EST [to account for disembark and travel time]), which would then bump the Thiel meeting to be past 2PM PST, which is also not impossible. It would just be way more convenient for Eduardo to close the account in a common bank branch locally in Palo Alto.
Sources:
- Harvard's Registrar Archive: 2003-2004, 2004-2005; present academic calendar (and present final week schedule) for reference of finals week patterns
- 2003 & 2004 calendars
- The Social Network Screenplay
- The Diaries of Facebook's Founder
- November 2003 weather calendar ("it's 20 degrees out")
- Dropout Gates Drops In To Talk
- Launch of the Facebook Wall (September 1, 2004)
- Lawsuit threatens to close Facebook
- Archive.org's Wayback Machine of Facebook's past layouts matches the one shown in the last scene where Mark sends Erica Albright a friend request matches the Facebook layout between April and October 2007 [currently blocked by facebook's robots.txt, but I checked this a while ago]
- Weather source for Palo Alto in 2004 is currently unavailable :(
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oh nah I feel you, if I google any of their names I can’t stay on the webpage for too long... not just bc weirdness but like, honestly, Andrew and Jesse are much better looking than their irl counterparts lololol
god I SHALL after I rewatch... I love sufféring
YES please write tsn fic! when I come back I am going back to marathon reading every piece I can come across ahahaha. and goddamn yeah fairy-tale-echo’s the one with the Dropbox right? me and another friend compiled I think a good chunk of the deleted fics there (we have hunted... all over the fucking internet for them. lord)
honestly I keep thinking about how m*rk is a Taurus and I’m not Too Fond of taurus men but also I probably wouldn’t like tsn m*rk if I had to meet him irl. Pisces Eduardo though... pure (Also I think Erica is a Leo, you can see her bday is early August super briefly at the end of the movie when mark is being Weird)
yes I do have a discord!! I’m pasta cheval#7934 :3