DO THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS?
LOGLINE:
By day, Elliot is a brilliant but socially awkward cyber security company employee. By night, he uses his unique talents to settle the score as a vigilante hacker. He also believes he’s being followed by a shadowy group of billionaires who secretly run the world without anyone’s knowledge. When he helps stop a hacking attack on his company’s biggest clients, Elliot inadvertently stumbles on a plan to destroy an evil mega-corporation, cripple global economies, and reset everyone’s debt masterminded by Mr. Robot. Will Elliot help bring down the company that may have been responsible for his father’s death? Better question, is any of this real? Or is it all in Elliot’s head?
COMMENT SUMMARY:
Mr. Robot is a fresh take on the techno thriller genre unlike anything else on television. Elliot is a singular character, who resonates as both anti-hero and wounded bunny rabbit. CONSIDER.
SYNOPSIS:
We meet Elliot first as voice over, over black and to the sound of chaotic jazz. Speaking directly to the audience Elliot admits several things–he doesn’t believe in dinosaurs, he suffers from chronic insomnia, thinks aliens are real and believes there is a shadowy group of rich people who secretly run the world. A group of 10-15 zillionaires who “play God without permission”.
We see the group Elliot is describing assembled in a conference room in a Manhattan skyscraper. Shadowy figures fill the room, sitting and standing the large conference table. Elliot thinks this group is following him.
Elliot (late 20’s, hoodied, hacker) commutes to work on the New York City subway. Looking over his shoulder he sees two suspicious Men in Black. Elliot’s first reaction is to think he’s being followed. Elliot is curious if the reason is because he didn’t go to his friend’s birthday party last night.
FLASHBACK TO LAST NIGHT. Phil’s Coffee, Elliot sits at a coffee shop intently watching the owner, Phil (mustachioed, Indian man in his 50’s). Elliot confronts Phil, saying he knows Phil’s real name is actually: Rohit Pathak. Elliot goes on explaining he knows a lot about Phil the number and location of every franchise he owns, the name of Phil’s wife and kids.
Elliot explains he used to come to this particular coffee shop came because the WIFI was fast and didn’t drop out. In fact, it was suspiciously good. Elliot confess to hacking Phil’s network and tells he found some pretty damning evidence of illegal activity. “Phil” runs an illegal child pornography website called Lolita City off his servers. Phil hides it by rerouting network traffic – trying to make it untraceable. Elliot is an incredible hacker who used the public information he found about Phil – birthdays, anniversaries, pet’s names, etc. – to hack the password to Phil’s servers in only 3 minutes.
Elliot admits being nervous in confronting Phil. This is the first time eh has confronted someone like this face-to-face. Phil threatens to call the FBI. Elliot goads him on explaining he already downloaded all the files, pics, etc. and would love to share that evidence with the FBI – 100 gigs of kiddie porn Phil serves up to 400k users.
Phil is aghast. He tries to stand up to Elliot reminding him intimidation and extortion is equally illegal. Phil justifies his part, saying he never hurt anyone – that this information if his own business and personal life. Elliot sympathizes with Phil, he also knows what it’s like to be different. Elliot was close with his father who died of leukemia a side effect of the radiation levels at the company he worked at. Elliot has no evidence to prove this and resent his father is dead but the company is still in good health. Elliot offers not to turn Phil in if, Phil will do what Elliot asks and pay what he asks. Elliot does not want to involve the authorities.
Phil feels like he’s being shaken down. Criminal or not, Elliot is also breaking the law now by trying to extort money from him. Elliot quiets Phil by explaining he knew to be at this Phil’s at this particular time because Elliot has access to Phil’s calendar. Elliot was aware that tonight was the night he would do a monthly check-in on each of his franchise locations. Elliot was staking him out, waiting, stalking him. Elliot explains he usually does this kind of thing AFK. A super graphic comes, explaining the hacker lingo. AFK means “away from keyboard”.
Elliot tells Phil he confronted him in person as a way of working on his social anxiety – and that the police are already on their way because he tipped them off in advance. Phil tries to throw cash at the situation, hoping to make Elliot go away, but Elliot corrects Phil saying that’s where Phil was wrong. Elliot wasn’t actually going to ask for any money. Elliot exits the coffee shop just as FBI agents execute a raid on the coffee shop.
The next morning on the NYC SUBWAY, Elliot snaps awake and finds the Men in Black from before are still following him. Elliot briefly contemplates what he did to Phil – destroying his life in 3 minutes, deleting him.
Surveying his surroundings, Elliot notices a blonde, beach-bummy, disheveled, possibly homeless man in his 40’s at the other end of the subway car. This is MR ROBOT. Mr. Robot shouts to Elliot from across the car. Elliot ignores him, looking away.
Elliot, in hoodie and with huge hacker backpack travels to work, navigating a packed NYC morning commute. Elliot is compulsively careful to avoid touching of other people.
Elliot arrives at work – ALL SAFE CYBERSECURITY. In a stream of consciousness aside, Elliot admits that even though he’s a vigilante hacker at night, by day he works on the corporate side of things as a cyber security engineer, employee #0652.
Elliot is immediately called into his boss’ office. GIDEON NORTON (Elliot’s boss, 40’s bearded metro-sexual with adult braces) and ANGELA (co-worker, 20’s, blonde, girl-next-door, prim proper, private school) are in the middle of heated discussion. Gideon informs Elliot there was a RUDY hack at the company the night before. A super comes up on-screen explaining: “RUDY Attack - Also known as R-U-Dead-Yet? This tool attacks by starving available sessions on the web server until they die”.
As a hacker, Elliot geeks out on the nature of the attack. This perturbs his boss. Angela continues to push Gideon for his permission to lead the inquiry on the attack. Gideon pushes Angela off, saying they’ll wait to see the effect of a client meeting this afternoon. Their client is coming into the office for an emergency meeting about the hacking situation. Gideon reminds Elliot about the corporate dress code. In response, Elliot sheds his hoodie, painfully revealing a button-down shirt. Gideon gives Elliot a file to review and asks he be ready to discuss its contents in the meeting that afternoon.
Elliot and Angela walk out of the office. Angela asks Ellion if he received the 13 texts she sent him the night before about her birthday party. Elliot had promised he would attend, but ghosted on her instead.
FLASHBACK to the night before - Elliot stands outside the bar where Angela’s birthday party is being held. He sees his laughing co-workers through the window. Elliot wants to join the party - going as far as his hand on the door, but turn choose instead to turn away. Social situations are hard for him – he avoids them frequently, isolating himself.
Angela snaps Elliot back to the here and now at the office. “Stop thinking about something else, I hate it when you do that.” Elliot feigns being lost in thought about work. Angela chastises him for being such a kiss-ass. She explains their boss, Gideon is thankful she brought Elliot to work at the company – even though she knows Elliot secretly hates it there.
In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot explains he likes the people at his job, but doesn’t like the business of cyber security – he hates using his talents as a hacker to protect mega-corporations.
Angela apologizes for her bad mood, explaining she’s been late on her last student loan payments and is eager to impress Gideon in order to garner herself a raise. ALI (slick, good-looking Persian, 20’s) walks up, kisses Angela and greets Elliot. Elliot bugs out and dismisses himself from the conversation and disappears into the maze of cubicles.
Ali encourages Angela to confront Elliot about his awkward behavior and suggest Elliot dislikes him because he is dating Angela now. Awkward jealousy?
LATER in the day, Gideon speaks internally to a conference room full of account execs, programmers and VP’s in an attempt to rally his employees. He encourages them to be on their A-game moving forward, it’s an important time for the company. He also acknowledges Angela’s birthday. Everyone eats cake.
Elliot sits removed, off by himself, not paying attention – he’s watching a clip on of Leon Panetta explaining the “next Pearl Harbor we confront could very well be a cyber attack.” It is a scenario where computer engineers with hacking expertise (the kind of expertise Elliot has in spades) would essentially be front lines as a new intelligence soldier in a cyber war. Elliot is fascinated. He turns to discuss it with co-worker LLOYD (20’s, Chinese engineer with a fro), who is talking with his mouth open while eating cake. Elliot catches himself, forcing only a weak smile instead.
LATER with ear buds firmly in his ears Elliot codes furiously and eats French fries at his vanilla, Spartan desk. Ali swings by and asks Elliot to lunch. Elliot tries to avoid the invitation, but Ali confronts him explaining he doesn’t want there to be an awkwardness between them. Ali tells Elliot to meet him at Sharon’s Deli for lunch at 1:15. In a gesture of kindness, he even offers to pay. Elliot hesitantly accepts.
Elliot navigates NYC streets urban landscape on his way to his therapy appointment with his psychologist, KRISTA (40’s, overweight, African-American woman trying a little too hard to hold onto her youth with a short skirt). In session, Krista reminisces about the first time Elliot came to therapy.
In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot explains these sessions he has with Krista are not by choice. Even so, he likes her – perhaps because he knows she is a good person. Elliot has already hacked her life and knows she’s not a threat to him.
In FLASHBACK - Elliot gains access to Krista’s email and social media by determining her password. He gains deep access to Krista’s personal life. Elliot knows everything. Krista’s divorce four years ago, the parade of losers she’s dated on E-harmony since. Elliot looks at Krista’s most recent match: Michael Hansen (salt & pepper handsome, pudgy, friendly mustache, welcoming smile). He seems fine, and yet…Elliot thinks there is something off about him. Elliot is genuinely concerned for Krista. She’s a great psychologist, but also happens to be terrible at reading the people she dates. Elliot is good at reading people because he looks for the worst in them.
Back in session, Krista reminds Elliot how far he’s come in their work together. In the beginning, Elliot was angry person and hated everyone. Even though he is improving - and no longer yells - Krista encourages him to continue to confront his anger issues. She suggests Elliot’s anger is unhealthy, asking, “what it is about society that disappoints” you so much?
In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot explains his deep disdain for today’s society. “Our heroes are counterfeit, the whole world itself just one big hoax.” Elliot rails against the current state of civilization; the insincerity of social media, the falseness of rigged elections, the hypocrisy of consumerism. Disgusted, Elliot posits society as a whole to be comprised of cowards who want to nothing more than to be sedated.
In reality, Elliot responds to Krista question evasively: “Nothing.” Elliot acknowledges Krista’s frustrations saying she is different, that unlike most other people Krista at least tries to understand what it’s like to feel alone and that she has respect for other people’s pain. Krista asks why he would think that?
In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot realizes that, having read Krista’s emails he knows way more about her than he should. Elliot is mortified he’s accidentally let something he shouldn’t know slip. He clams up. Krista changes the subject to Angela’s birthday party the night before.
In FLASHBACK - Elliot trembles on the threshold = about to enter the bar, attempting to overcome his first instinct which is to flee. Elliot sees Angela happy, surrounded by friends, which is nice, but seeing Angela kiss Ali bug him out. Elliot puts up his hoodie up and leaves.
In session - Elliot lies to Krista, saying: Angela’s birthday party was nice and that he got a girl’s number. Krista knows Eliot well enough to call him out for lying. She challenges him to stop hiding his feelings, warning his delusions will return. It’s a slippery slope. Krista asks about the Men in Black Elliot thinks are following him. Elliot explains they’re gone thanks to the medication Krista gave him. Krista doesn’t believe Elliot’s story and remains suspicious of him.
Elliot, followed by two Men in Black, navigates the streets of New York on his way home. Elliot is so distracted by being followed that he runs into Ali on the street. Ali is angry because Elliot ghosted on the lunch date they’d arranged earlier. Ali goes off. “You don’t just tell people you’re going to be somewhere and then not show up – it’s not normal. Ali makes him go to lunch with him immediately. Elliot protests and tries to squirm out of it, but Ali refuses to take no for an answer.
Inside Sharon’s Deli – Welcome to Sharon’s Deli – a typical Manhattan, dine and dash, buzzing with lunchtime bustle. Ali drones on and on talking, Elliot is miserable. Ali says the Beatles are overrated. Elliot makes it a personal point to disagree. Suggesting they agree to disagree, Ali attempts to put a brotherly-arm around Elliot – he shrinks from Ali’s touch. Ali apologizes, having forgotten Elliot really hates being touched. Ali explains he loves Angela and wants for the two of them to get along for Angela’s sake.
In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot justifies his disdain for Ali. Ali’s Facebook likes include: George Bush, Transformers 2, Josh Groban music. Ugh! Ali was the easiest to hack and has Elliot has been watching his activity online for a long time. Elliot has witnessed their first “I love you” via message. He’s also digitally witnessed Ali flirting with another woman named Stella B – which is not cool. Elliot’s reluctant to tell Angela because he doesn’t want to hasten the couple breaking up just yet.
Back at the diner, Ali drones on. Ali explains he likes Elliot, and how important it is for him that Elliot like him back. It’s not quite an apology, but Elliot says he understands and promises to try harder. Ali encourages Elliot to relax. Their conversation is interrupted by Elliot’s phone blowing up – they’re both needed urgently back at the office. The clients have arrived for the afternoon meeting.
Back at the office, in a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot feels bad about disliking Ali. Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all. He’s not smart enough to be bad. Angela greets the clients and steers them towards the conference room. The client is a company Elliot calls: EVIL CORP. In a stream of consciousness aside-VO, Elliot admits that is not their actual name, that he has ingrained that name for them in his own head. Elliot calls them a conglomerate of evil indirectly responsible for killing or injuring close to a million people in the last 10 years. They have no conscience; they are the perfect monster. And now, it’s Elliot’s job to help the very embodiment of corporate evil he despises so much. Dilemmas.
In a stream of consciousness aside- VO, Elliot introduces TERRY COLBY (chief technology officer at one of the biggest companies in the world – but a guy who owns a Blackberry). By Elliot’s estimation, he’s an arrogant luddite and a moron.
In the conference room, TYRELL WELLICK (30’s sharp dresser, rock-star smile, thick Swedish accent) introduces himself to Elliot who accepts the handshake sheepishly. Elliot introduces himself as “just a tech”. Tyrell corrects Elliot’s humility. Tyrell used to be “just a tech” too. He confesses having much respect for the grunt work and expertise of Elliot’s position. Tyrell looks forward to working with Elliot. Impressed by Tyrell’s humility and candor, Elliot warms to him.
In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot confesses he dreams of saving “everyone from the invisible hand that forces us to work for them.” Elliot is obsessed with the shadowy group he thinks controls our mundane lives – and without the public’s knowledge. If it weren’t for his beloved pet cat – QWERTY – Elliot would be completely alone and he knows it. Elliot bursts into hysterical tears, confessing anger and concern for his own emotional state. He’s been crying more often, things are getting out of control. Normal people rely on friends and family, but Elliot has no friends. And doesn’t know how to make them. And he can’t rely on his family. Elliot snorts crushed morphine pills to dull the pain.
In FLASHBACK - an 8 year-old Elliot is physically abused by his MOTHER (a pretty woman in her 30’s, but cold -emotionally distant, short haircut, a tightly wound, expressionless smoker). Elliot is truly alone, family is not an option.
Back in the present, Elliot snorts another line of crushed morphine and reflects via VO about allowing himself only 30 mgs of morphine a day. His is a cerebral/techie approach to drug addiction.
Elliot suddenly realizes he’s out of morphine and calls his connect, SHAYLA (30’s, inked-up hipster, downstairs neighbor). When Shayla arrives she offers Elliot the drugs for free. Elliot tries to keep things professional insisting this is merely a business transaction. Shayla inquires what Elliot is up to that evening – she would have reached out to Elliot on Facebook, but Elliot is not on Facebook. He hates it. Hitting on Elliot, Shayla offers to do pure Molly with Elliot. Elliot’s immediately interest.
Later in the evening, at Elliot’s loft - Shayla and Elliot lie together, naked, in bed. In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot tells us he regrets the decision to sleep together, and blames it on the morphine. Elliot receives a Foursquare check-in alert on his phone. His therapist - Krista - is on a date with that weird, E-harmony guy Michael Hansen. Elliot leaves Shayla in bed and heads to the bar where Krista checked in.
Elliot stakes out Bar None, using his cell phone to zoom in on Krista and Michael, observing through the windows of the bar. They’re having a good time, dancing. Michael is a goof. After watching Krista and Michael conclude their date with a kiss goodnight, Elliot follows Michael who jumps in a cab home. Being resourceful, Elliot calls the cab company and gets Michael’s address so he can continue his surveillance there.
While on the phone with the cab company, Elliot sees two Men in Black having coffee at a late night diner across the street. Elliot hides behind the bus stop and observes them. Suddenly Mr. Robot –the subway bum – begging for spare change interrupts them. Hanging up with the cab company, Elliot realizes Mr. Robot is nowhere to be seen.
Outside Michael’s house - Elliot watches Michael walk his dog. Michael smokes a cigarette and berates the animal, eventually kicking it. Elliot intervenes, pretending not to know Michael and asking to use his cell phone to call his mom. Michael unlocks his password and gives the device to Elliot to use. Elliot memorizes all the apps on the home screen, specifically the Wells Fargo App. Elliot uses Michael’s phone to call himself, get his own voicemail, hang up, delete the call from Michael’s phone and hands it back to Michael. Elliot feigns there being no answer, thanks Michael and leaves.
Elliot exits the NYC subway, smoking a joint. He receives a call from Angela who is back at the office even though it is 3AM. She has been desperately trying to call Elliot while his cell was underground in the subway. Angela needs Elliot in the office immediately, there’s been another hack into Evil Corp’s servers – a super DoS hack. A super comes up, explaining: “DoS Attack - A Denial of Service attack, an attempt to make a machine or network unavailable to its intended users”. Angela is freaking out. The entire Evil Corp network has been offline for almost an hour. This is bad, she needs Elliot’s help immediately.
Elliot arrives at the Allsafe offices where the servers have been down for an hour and a half – or roughly 13 million dollars in revenue. Angela’s called Gideon, Elliot reassures Angela, he’s got this and takes over the situation from overwhelmed coworker Lloyd. This is Elliot gets down to business, trying to set things right in a bad-ass hacking montage.
Gideon arrives at the office and takes a hand at fixing things himself. Nothing his team is doing can stop the on-going attack; the networks are still down! Elliot thinks the attackers might have installed a root kit, explained in super as: “Rootkit - A set of software tools with administrator- level access to a computer or network”. A root kit would allow the attacker to delete files or install anything it wants in your system with a virus or worm and it would be impossible to trace.
Tyrell is awakened at home by the emergency phone call. The Evil Corp hack is on the news. This is big.
Back at the office, Gideon and Elliot are fighting the cyber attack. Elliot’s solution is to deliberately crash the entire system. Understanding the gravity and repercussions of doing that, Gideon freaks out, smashing a printer through a glass wall.
At Evil Corp, Terry Colby and Tyrell Wellick discuss the best response to the server outage. Tyrell admits he does not trust their team in Virginia and insisting instead that Allsafe fly out two of their cybersecurity engineers in person to the stacks.
Ali receives a Google headline about the “crippling hacker attack” that’s bringing down Evil Corp.
Elliot arrives at the server farm with Gideon via private jet. Together they start ripping out cables to shut down the network. It’s the only choice.
Interspersed with this tense cyber attack situation, we see Michael and Krista hooking up and eventually having sex.
Elliot tries desperately to repair the damage he had to cause in order to stop the hack. Finally, Elliot solves it and everything is back online! Gideon claps him on the shoulder -Elliot instinctively shies away. While everyone celebrates, Elliot continues to tie up the loose ends of the solution. In doing so, he finds a suspicious rootkit file from someone named “fsociety”. Curiously, the file is called “leavemehere”. Elliot thinks it was left there for him to find on purpose.
On the flight back, Gideon loosens up with a glass of wine and shares a vulnerable moment with Elliot by confiding in him he is gay. Gideon further confides their client Evil Corp is thinking about taking their business away from Allsafe. There will be layoffs, that account alone represents 70% of their business. Gideon admits that he feels he can speak candidly with Elliot who, in turn promises to track down the hacker who perpetrated the cyber attacks on the Evil Corp servers.
The next day, on his commute to work, Elliot sees Mr. Robot in the subway car again. Mr. Robot invites Elliot to exit at the next stop and follow him – but only if Elliot didn’t delete the fsociety “leavemehere” file. Confused, Elliot choose to get off when Mr. Robot does.
Elliot sits next to Mr. Robot on the subway platform bench. Mr. Robot explains they’re going to take the Q line to Coney Island – but that he can’t tell Elliot anything else until they get there. Mr. Robot pulls out a cigarette and smokes inside the subway car. Elliot accuses Mr. Robot of following him. Mr. Robot explains with a story about his ne’er do well, petty criminal father who used to rob convenience stores. It was his father’s adopted his own version of the social contract in which he said to himself – “if you can catch me, I’ll go to jail. If you cant then I earn the money.” Mr. Robot explains that as a child he thought that was cool, but eventually the behavior caught up to his father and it was his two other siblings and mother who paid the price when Mr. Robot’s father went away to jail. Five years later, he died in prison. Mr Robot likens the prison his father was in to Elliot’s state right now, suggesting he is here to “break him out”.
Mr. Robot and Elliot get off at Coney Island – an iconic boardwalk complete with Ferris wheel and arcade games. MR. Robot leads Elliot to a door to the FUN SOCIETY ARCADE (fsociety). Inside, the abandoned video game arcade we meet the other hacker members of fsociety: MOBLEY (30s, obese, shaggy hair) TRENTON (16, Ramen-eating nerd), MARLENE (20s, badass, chain-smoking hipster, fur coat and Ray Bans) and ROMERO (50s, gray-haired, fanny packing hippie). Elliot doesn’t understand why the fsociety would meet IRL. A super graphic comes up explaining: “IRL – In Real Life”. Mr. Robot explains the term central point failure to Elliot, using a story about another hacker group that was outed by their own leader to the FBI resulting in 6 of their own hackers going to prison. The FBI tracked their messages, emails and texts back and forth. By meeting in real life the hackers’ entire data trail is erased because they are in the same room. Meeting this way requires everyone in the fsociety trust one another. And, in order to be trusted, each member is put to a test before being accepted into the group. The Evil Corp hack was Elliot’s test. And, having passed, all that’s left is for Elliot to meet the other members and bring in his own CPU to work on next time he comes to the arcade.
The next day - Elliot walks the NYC streets coming home from work. In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, he contemplates his own sanity. Is he crazy? Is what he witnessed last night with Mr. Robot even real? Is Elliot talking to an imaginary person, right now?
Elliot returns home to find Angela waiting outside his door. She offers to watch Back to the Future II together and get high. Angela wants to thank Elliot for helping bail her out of hot water with Gideon. Inside Elliot’s apartment, they run into Shayla – still naked and hung over in Elliot’s bed from before. Elliot tries to set the record straight with Angela – a “this is not what it seems” moment between them. Angela scolds Elliot for always looking sad.
In FLASHBACK, Elliot - age 14 - wears black at his father’s funeral. A younger Angela, also in mourning, comforts him They’ve been close ever since.
Back in the present day, Angela leaves and Elliot throws Shayla out. Eliot surfs the net looking for mention of Mr. Robot. In a stream of consciousness VO-aside, Elliot explains the property records he found. The Fun Society Arcade Amusement LLC company owned it for 13 years, a year and a half ago the owner was shot and killed. Elliot concludes that what fsociety is doing is illegal and he’s got enough evidence to turn them in - but he chooses not to.
Later, Elliot returns to the Coney Island arcade with his own computer gear. He introduces himself to the members of fsociety. Immediately Marlene gets rubbed the wrong way by Elliot and she storms off. Mr. Robot asks Elliot to join him for a ride on the Ferris Wheel – where they can chat.
On the Ferris Wheel, Mr. Robot explains why Elliot was really asked to join fsociety. Mr. Robot senses in Elliot a terrible feeling. The feeling there is something inexplicably wrong with the world; that money has become its operating system controlling you and everyone you care about, turning them into slaves. Those with less of it are forever under the thumb of those who have more of it. Elliot, condescendingly asks Mr. Robot if the fsociety is about stealing money. Mr. Robot explains the fsociety is about freedom, not trust. It’s in no one’s interest to inform on the group because they’re close to taking down this virtual reality. Mr. Robot explains how fsociety intends to disrupt one of those mega-conglomerate, too-big-to-fail pillars of the world economy. The group’s plan is to engineer a global financial meltdown what wipes out 70% of the world’s consumer debt in the biggest single instance of wealth redistribution in history. Mr. Robot explain to Elliot that tomorrow, his company - Allsafe – will be visited by FBI agents and US Cyber Command. Mr. Robot needs Elliot’s help to frame Terry Colby (the dumber of the two Evil Corp guys) – to make it look like Colby facilitated the hacks by giving someone inside access to Evil Corp’s servers. The plan is to take the big conglomerate down piece by piece in order to create a domino effect, culminating in the biggest revolution the world will ever see.
Elliot asks why Mr. Robot thinks he would be interested in taking down Evil Corp in the first place? Mr. Robot explains he shares in Elliot’s loneliness. Mr. Robot also feels sad and on edge. Mr. Robot starts to cry, appearing to weigh thoughts of suicide by flinging himself from the Ferris Wheel. At the height of Mr. Robot’s episode, Elliot reaches out, grabs his hand and returns him to the safety of the car. It is an important moment for Elliot; it is human contact he has always avoided. Mr. Robot knows Elliot is angry about Evil Corp. because he feels they’re responsible for his father’s death. Mr. Robot tells Elliot to do the right thing and help him tomorrow in setting up Terry Colby.
Elliot leaves Coney Island ecstatic, alive with purpose. He now has the opportunity to help put the people potentially responsible for his father’s death behind bars.
At home in his loft, Elliot educates himself about global growth inequality; it’s highest it’s been in 20 years. Elliot hacks into Angela’s student loan bank account and sees she owes a staggering $200k.
Elliot gets to work – hacking. He prepares a diagnostic report that incriminates Colby and puts it in a red manila folder envelope. He heads to work.
At work, Evil Corp execs and FBI agents swarm the office. Gideon wants answers. The conference room is packed with various parties - Gideon, Allsafe account execs, FBI, Evil Corp execs, Tyrell and Terry Colby. Elliot sits with the red manila folder in front him, sweating profusely. Elliot rethinks his actions and switches the folder – putting the red one back into his bag and swapping it for the blue one. Elliot is disappointed in himself. Tyrell Wellick sees Elliot switch the colored file folders.
Terry Colby commends Elliot on a job well done shutting down the servers in Virginia. Gideon introduces Angela as the woman in charge of the incident and the one who will take them through the analysis of the hacking attack. Colby and Angela instantly quibble over the time of the attack with Colby correcting Angela that the attack technically took place on Saturday morning. Terry Colby is immediately unimpressed by Angela. Colby drills her about handling of security protocol, but Elliot chimes in backing her up. In a clear sign Colby has no faith in Angela’s abilities, he asks Gideon to have Angela wait outside. Elliot asks why Angela was removed from the meeting for not being tech savvy enough. Angry and emboldened by Colby’s arrogance, Elliot swaps the blue file once again for the red one and offers it to Colby as the firm’s official report of the incident.
Elliot watches from his cubicle as the FBI talks to Colby. Angela hugs Gideon and leaves the office. Elliot inquires about Angela. Gideon gave her the rest of the afternoon off and has decided to move her off the Evil Corp account. Ali will replace her. Elliot shudders to think.
Over the next few days, Angela dyes her hair jet black and gives Elliot the cold shoulder at work. Elliot doesn’t see Mr. Robot on the subway. He returns to the fsociety arcade and finds it abandoned.
Elliot prank calls Michael Hansen (the doofy white guy dating his therapist – the one he doesn’t have a good feeling about) pretending to be a security fraud agent from Wells Fargo. He asks Michael to verify simple information – mother’s maiden name, social security number, etc. Now Elliot can successfully hack the shit out of Michael. Thanks, Michael!
That night at his loft - Elliot browses Angela’s Facebook, etc. In a stream of consciousness aside- VO, Elliot laments feeling so abnormal. Elliot also looks at Krista, his therapist’s social media accounts while continues trying to crack Michael’s accounts. Elliot realizes Michael Hansen is not this man’s real name. In an effort to protect one of the few people he truly cares about, Elliot has inadvertently stumbled onto something here.
At Michael Hansen’s home – Michael, holds a screaming baby (his!) and is confronted by an angry Elliot who demands he break up with Krista and promise never to see her again. Michael recognizes Elliot as the guy who asked to use his phone when he was taking his dog for a whizz. Elliot threatens Michael with digital proof that he is cheating on his wife if Michael doesn’t break up with Krista that very night, Elliot will contact Michael’s wife and the police about Michael’s habit of cheating on his wife, often with escorts. Michael agrees to break up with Krista. Further, Elliot demands Michael explain that he is actually married and has children, that he cheats on his wife with prostitutes, and never had intention of being in a serious relationship with Angela. Elliot wants to make sure Angela is completely turned off by “dickheads like” Michael “in the future”. Skip a single detail and Elliot spills everything over email.
Later that night, Elliot introduces a dog to his cat, Qwerty. It is Michael’s dog - the one Michael was kicking outside his house. Now he’s Elliot’s dog. Qwerty, the cat is understandably pissed with the new addition to the house.
Elliot backs up all his files on Michael Hansen and burns them to a disc labeled: Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here. He puts that CD goes in a case with other CD’s, and stores that case on a shelf with other cases. Elliot has a lot of information on people. Elliot then deletes everything regarding Michael Hansen from his computer.
The next day in the psychologist’s office, Elliot waits to talk to Krista. Krista looks completely disheveled and out of it – after all Michael broke up with her last night just like he promised Elliot he would. In the session, Krista gives Elliot advice on how to handle Angela’s cold shoulder treatment. Talk to her. Elliot says she won’t respond to any of his emails. Krista reiterates Elliot try real human interaction. It’s a groundbreaking idea for Elliot, who warms to it.
Elliot visits Angela at her apartment. They discuss their fight and the state of their friendship. It’s been three weeks and Angela is still embarrassed to be around Elliot because of the Evil Corp meeting. Angela snaps at Elliot, insisting she didn’t need his protection. Immediately, Angela regrets snapping at Elliot. There’s a moment of connection between them, we think Elliot and Angela are going to kiss, but it’s interrupted by a news report: “CTO of Evil Corp, Terry Colby, has been arrested for his alleged role in Evil’s high-profile hacking.”
The next morning, Elliot is enlivened and fresh. This is it. He’s done something good; Evil Corp stock is down, bad guys are under investigation, his actions are really affecting the system. Things are looking up – until a limo screeches to a halt in front of Elliot. A Man in Black jumps out, ordering him into the car.
Elliot is taken via high-speed elevator to the top floor of a Manhattan skyrise where the elevator doors open to the sounds of loud arguing. A number of silhouetted men stand around a grand conference table. Realizing Elliot is there, they hush and turn to face him. This is the shadow society Elliot fears. “Please tell me you’re seeing this too…”
GENERAL COMMENTS:
The entire appeal of this show centers around Elliot’s character. He is the modern, techno-version of Salinger’s Holden Caulfield. A portrait of an individual;’s dissociation from society and embodiment of modern angst. He represents a very unique render of a potentially mentally ill character. In that ambiguity is where the character’s intrigue also lies. Elliot is an anti-hero we root for against a giant faceless mega company. He is profoundly flawed and ripe for story. CONSIDER
STRENGTHS OF MATERIAL:
Mr. Robot is a techno thriller that relies entirely on Elliot’s character to generate intrigue. The story moves along, building intrigue and introducing characters with strong internal and external dilemmas. The topic of cyber security is very current events relevant right as are the other technology oriented themes presented here, including: faceless mega corps, vs regular people. humanity vs technology, technological deception. Mr. Robot is provides an interesting take on the intersection of technology and millennial mental health. Elliot’s character embodies both the potential for technology to help make the world a better place (which Elliot does by being a vigilante hacker) and also the negative effects of technology’s ability to heighten feelings of loneliness, social awkwardness, and isolation. Presenting tech as both savior and barrier is thought-provoking and challenging angle.
Elliot’s character walks the line between cool and techno savvy vs creepy hacker know-it-all. Is he mentally ill or super woke? The ambiguity creates a tension that is heightened and sustained throughout the episode. Elliot’s charm is in his shy humility and selflessness in helping others.
The script and story-telling techniques are fresh and quirky. The use of supers is a good example of unique stylistic choices in this script. Elliot is constantly breaking the 4th wall in order to speak directly to the audience. The script also makes good use of flashback, non-linear storytelling technique.
WEAKNESSES OF MATERIAL:
Shows whose premise is centered on technology often become dated very quickly. I think there is an inherent challenge with this script in that you must figure out a way to show the Internet – something basically invisible - look cool. How do you make searching Google for information look exciting? The reality is that hacking is a mundane and time-consuming pursuit that involves hours of sitting in front of a computer, typing or coding.
This is a complicated script. Lots of locations. Lots of cutting. I would encourage the writer to take another pass through, looking for ways to economize the number of characters and simplify action over the course of a single episode.
Some audiences might find the story too jumpy and have a hard time following the non-linear storytelling style. It takes intelligence to follow – which could also be used to great positive effect and appeal. Don’t pander to the audience. Make them work it out. Don’t spoon-feed. It’s fair to make them work.
POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT/IMPROVEMENT:
Elliot is obviously gifted with incredible hacking ability. He is also a little off. Be careful moving forward that these two character traits remain mutually exclusive so that Elliot’s mental illness does not become his superpower. It’s a terrible trope that ‘s come into vogue in TV again recently with shows like The Good Doctor, but began with Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of an autistic man in Rain Man.
Avoid stereotyping Fsociety as a collection of technology/hacker geek squad supporting cast. It is easy to let them become super powered nerd brat pack/comic relief. Do not let them
Technology is tough to bring to life. It is recommended to engage a world-class motion graphics company as a partner in order to bring the Internet to life. Shows like CSI do motion graphics in to order to hyper-dramatize something. Because many of these hacking concepts are very technical and require explanation, they must be brought to life in a way the audience can follow. Don’t dumb it down; make it easy to understand/ bite-sized and digestible.
“Elliot memorizes all the apps on the homescreen, specifically the Wells Fargo App.” These kinds of moments could benefit from some sort of art direction/design similar to Guy Ritchie’s interpretation of Holmes’ powers of deduction that became part of the series’ iconic charm. These moments can have a look and feel.
Because the success of this shows hinges almost entirely on the actor playing Elliot, it is important to cast someone who is dynamic and fresh. This could be a breakout role for the right actor. Likeably strange, relatably human.
The discrepancies between what we see and what we hear in Elliot’s inner monologue can make the script hard to follow on paper, but on screen will work as a great source of friction and can be used to amplify a feeling of being unsettled for viewers.
Consider revisiting character names for Terry Colby and Tyrell Wellick – both first names start with T and sound similar.
Finally, much of this story’s appeal will come from stylistic choices made in how it is told. Though scripted as live action, Mr. Robot’s premise could also be brought to life in other ways. For example, I could see this story easily be conceived as an adult anime film because of its use of unreliable narrator, the suggestion of magical realism and prominent bent reality elements.
