Sixteen years after The Social Network turned the creation of Facebook into one of the defining movies of its era, Aaron Sorkin is going back to that world. This time, he brought a couple of pretty notable names with him. Sorkin, Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White were together in Paris for a special screening of The Social Reckoning, giving audiences an early look at the new dramatic thriller before it arrives in theaters. And while the title makes the connection pretty clear, this is not simply The Social Network all over again.
The first movie looked at how Facebook began. The Social Reckoning is much more interested in what happened after it became impossible to ignore.
Aaron Sorkin returns to the world of The Social Network
Sorkin has a little history here. He wrote the screenplay for The Social Network, the 2010 David Fincher film starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. The movie became one of the most acclaimed films of that year, and Sorkin won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work.
Now he is doing more than writing. Sorkin both wrote and directed The Social Reckoning, which Sony describes as a companion piece to The Social Network rather than simply another chapter of the same story. And there is plenty of new territory to explore.
Social media looked very different when The Social Network arrived in theaters. Facebook was already enormous, but the conversation surrounding these platforms has changed dramatically in the years since. That is where the new movie comes in.
Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White take on a true story
The Social Reckoning is inspired by real events surrounding Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. Mikey Madison plays Haugen, a Facebook engineer who turns to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White, as they work to expose closely guarded information about the social network.
That puts two actors who have had pretty remarkable runs of their own at the center of Sorkin’s new story. Instead of focusing on Facebook’s creation, the movie follows people trying to understand what the platform had become and what was happening behind the scenes.
It is a very different kind of battle from the one audiences watched in 2010. But it is still very much a battle.
The Social Reckoning brings another major cast together
Madison and White are not alone. The cast also includes Jeremy Strong, Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen and Bill Burr. Strong takes on the role of Mark Zuckerberg this time around.
That means Sorkin is returning to familiar subject matter with an entirely different group of performers. And maybe that is what makes The Social Reckoning especially interesting.
It is connected to a movie audiences already know, but it is not trying to recreate it. The people have changed. The circumstances have changed. And the questions surrounding social media have gotten a whole lot bigger.
From The Social Network to The Social Reckoning
There is something fitting about seeing Sorkin standing alongside Madison and White at a screening 16 years after The Social Network. Back then, the story was about the people building something that would change how millions of people communicated.
Now the story is looking at people asking what that change actually did. That is a pretty big distance to travel in 16 years.
And for Sorkin, it means returning to the subject that earned him an Oscar, only this time from the director’s chair as well.
The Social Reckoning opens exclusively in theaters October 9.
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