Original subtitles

(Arthur C. Clarke): I'm thinking of the incredible breakthrough

which has been made possible

by developments in communications.

Particularly, the transistor

and above all, the communications satellite.

These things will make possible

a world in which we can be in instant contact

with each other wherever we may be.

It will be possible in that age,

perhaps only 50 years from now,

for a man to conduct his business from Tahiti or Bali

just as well as he could from London.

In fact, if it proves worthwhile,

almost any executive skill,

any administrative skill, even any physical skill

could be made independent of distance.

When that time comes,

the whole world will have shrunk to a point

and the traditional role of the city as a meeting place for man

would have ceased to make any sense.

In fact, men will no longer commute.

They will communicate.

(punk rock music)

(tires squealing)

(Doug): For fuck's sake. (Mike): We're not late!

(Doug): I know but I'm gonna throw up.

- Okay!

- I got it. I got it.

Shit.

(indistinct muttering)

- It's good.

(radio): ...that forward Mats Sundin

is the sleepiest of all out there.

He's a proven NHL talent,

but not scoring like the Leafs need him...

(receptionist): Your 9 o'clock is here.

- Where's Brock? - His office.

- Mr. Balsillie, you wanted to see this report. - Talk to Shelley.

(whispering indistinctly)

- I finally understand that quote.

"When you grow up, your heart dies."

That's from Breakfast Club. John Hughes.

- Do you hear that?

(distant hum)

- Ah, yeah. Are you talking about that buzzing?

- Mm-hmm. - Uh-huh. It's an office.

I'm sure they've got a million little buzzes.

- Mm. - It's a subtle buzzing.

- There. - You've identified it.

- Uh... - What?

"Made in China." The mark of the beast.

(clicking)

- Uh, uh... Um.

Mike? - I can't concentrate.

- And so what? You're going to fix this?

- I'm going to fix it.

- Uh. Now... now's not the time.

The meeting starts in like two minutes.

Now's not the time. Now's not the time!

- Um... I need like a, uh, paperclip.

- That's a guy's thing. That's a guy's fucking thing.

(Mike): There's no off switch. I mean, it's just always on,

so it's just always buzzing. - Uh-huh. Yeah.

Um. Well...

(whispering): Okay. Yeah, go fast.

(Rick): You can tell him, he's not... He's not gonna get steel.

Alloys, Harry. (chuckles)

I'll call you back.

- They're outside.

- These guys really are Dutch, huh?

(scoffs)

- Uh, listen, Rick, I've thought about this a lot.

And if these guys take the deal,

I wanna run the new division.

- Think you can run this place?

- Yes. Yes.

- Me too.

Just so we're clear.

If this thing doesn't go, we never had this conversation.

- Great. Um...

Thank you.

- Uh, there's one adjustment.

Apparently, the Americans offered them

some fancy tax splitting plan.

So we need to show them the Canadian version.

- I don't have that. - I know.

Callaghan worked something up last minute.

We're gonna bring him in to explain it.

- Callaghan?

Uh... You know what, I think that's a bad idea.

- Why is that?

- I'll tell you what, Rick.

Why don't you have Callaghan explain the tax thing to me.

And I'll just... I'll work it into my pitch. I think that's better.

- Callaghan was up all night

putting this together as a favor to me.

- Okay... - He gets to present.

- Rick, I mean...

You're gonna have this guy present to Stork?

I mean, he looks like a...

(scoffs) A fuckin'...

A total goof.

- Jim... I'm not asking.

(dramatic music)

- Okay, great.

- Um... okay, bald, scary-looking guy

walking towards us right now.

- Ah! Goddamn it!

- Mike... (buzzing)

- Yeah, got it...

- Watch the fuck out! - Oh, shit!

Sit down, sit down!

- Much better.

(Jim sighs)

- Yeah. What can I do for ya?

- Yes. Hi. Uh, I'm Mike Lazaridis,

CEO of Research in Motion.

Um, we create various computer hardware systems

using both custom-designed integrated circuits,

as well as off-the-shelf components

provided by major hardware vendors

such as Intel, American Micro Devices, and Cyrix.

Our clients have included:

U.S. Robotics, Rogers Can Tel,

RAM Mobile Data... - Just a second.

Hey, you're on Callaghan's desk, right?

Okay, great. This is Jim Balsillie.

Brock wanted me to do a quick proof of that tax stuff before the meeting.

Could you bring me a...

Exactly. Okay, great. Thanks.

Okay, uh... what is this?

- So... We, we had a shop teacher...

- Fuck!

- ...who told us...

We had a shop teacher in high school named Mr. Micsinszki

who told us, "The person who puts a computer

inside a phone will change the world."

(clears throat) Well, we have a plan to piggyback

on the unused bandwidth of the UHF spectrum

to create an all-in-one mobile device.

(beeping) - Um, Callaghan's assistant is here to see you?

(Jim): Send him in.

Great.

- Sorry, Mr. Balsillie. No one, uh...

I didn't realize you needed a copy of this tax report...

- Yeah, I'm in a meeting right now.

(Jim sighs)

- So, basically,

there is a free wireless internet signal

all across North America

and nobody has figured out how to use it.

There's free internet in this room right now.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's like the Force.

Sorry, have you seen Star Wars?

- No.

- So, okay, picture a pager,

a cell phone and an e-mail machine all in one thing.

- Uh, we call it, uh... Pocket Link.

- Okay. Uh, listen, we don't do anything like that here.

We are a commercial manufacturing company.

You want to talk to a VC guy.

And you need a better name.

(door closes)

- You're going to cry? Mike.

Oh, it's just disappointment?

- Yeah. - You did great!

(Jim clears throat)

- Well, I saw that Rick sent the limo to pick you guys up.

We must need this merger worse than I thought.

(men chuckling)

So I know we have a lot to cover, but um...

I thought we should start with our tax strategy.

Now, I'm sure you heard it from the Americans,

but let me assure you, we also know

how to cheat on our taxes here in Canada.

Okay? (chuckles dryly)

Here's what we can do.

We run payroll out of Ontario.

But we pay all our vendors from the Netherlands.

We split that fucker right in half.

The left won't know what the right is doing.

Plus, we get a nice little provincial kickback

on manufacturing labour.

We get a massive federal tax credit

because they don't know whether we're private or public.

(rock music plays)

(♪ Connection ♪ by Elastica)

- Beam me aboard.

(screams)

- Taken prisoner and held captive

within the digital world of the computer itself.

- Hello? - Hello!

- So what you're saying is that you just touch and talk.

- You can use your cellular phone to order me a pizza.

(announcer): And that includes 50 minutes of airtime.

- We'll page you!

- It's very hip to be on the internet right now.

- Hack the planet! - Hack the planet!

(Steve Jobs): I still think Apple has a future.

The way out is not to slash and burn. It's to innovate.

- Okay, here's what I think. Mike, super simple,

hit them with the "good news, bad news" routine.

"Good news, bad news" routine. Right? They're going to say...

Mike! Wait!

Everything's gonna be fine,

we still have the U.S. Robotics deal.

We're like a... What did the cave say about Aladdin?

Diamond in the rough.

Fuck! - What?

- I forgot the easel. (Mike sighs)

- We need a new name. The phone needs a new name.

- You're giving that guy way too much credit, man.

He hasn't seen Star Wars. He's bald.

How much you wanna bet they don't even mention the phone?

(laughs)

(Pranay): Are you "Office-Dad"?

Dude, I can't even... Make a, make a, make a thing.

- I can't. I can't. I can't.

That's why I'm using your computer.

- "21 Boy Canada."

(Ethan): That's me.

Uh, this guy's telling me about sniffing his...

sniffing his... (door opens)

- Did they buy the phone?

- So, we got good news and bad news.

The... okay... The bad news is that...

Yeah, the presentation... We were not heard.

And they did not understand the product.

And so, they did not buy the phone.

- What was the good news? - What's the good news?

- Emergency movie night. Right now.

Stephen Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Letterboxed...

- Oh yes. - Oh yeah.

- No way! - Shotgun! Shotgun! Shotgun!

- I got it. - Shotgun!

(Indiana Jones): You said their headpiece only had markings on one side.

Are you absolutely sure?

Belloq's staff is too long.

(all): They're digging in the wrong place.

(guys chuckling)

- Bad dates.

- Bad dates.

- A couple of bad dates.

Couple of bad dates! Couple of bad dates!

If that was there, why'd they go the other way?

(guys laughing)

(Doug): Mike, you're missing your favourite movie, man!

(Belloq): I told you not to be premature in your communique to Berlin!

Archeology is not an exact science.

(slow dramatic music)

(sighs)

(Steve): Are they top or bottom left? Send, send everything.

Top left, let's take a gamble. (indistinct chatter)

- Anyone have a Type-C Coax?

- They don't even know. I'm not even top left.

- Scott, you're attacking me! - What?!

(Doug): You're attacking me. - Oh, I'm sorry.

(Steve): Send the dogs in. Send the dogs in. They're rushing.

- Bottom Right. They got rockets!

- Anyone have a Type-C Coax cables?

- Oh, the plunger's moving! The plunger's moving, dude!

(cheering) - No!

- Oh, shit! (crashing)

(all shouting)

- I'm sorry, boys, but it's back!

It's back!

It's back!

(Jim clears his throat.)

(Doug): Thank you. (Mike): Thank you so much.

(Jim): Nothing for me, thanks.

So, I know how to sell your phone.

I know how to market it, and I know who we can sell it to.

- Who?

- What do you mean "we"?

- Here's the deal.

I will leave my job at Sutherland-Schultz

if you make me CEO of Research in Motion.

- Are you serious?

- That was the worst product pitch I've ever seen in my life.

You guys don't stand a chance out there. You need me.

- Sorry... I don't know who you think you are,

but we are just fine.

We have a 16-million dollar deal with U.S. Robotics.

- Sixteen million? - That's right.

- Wow. Okay and what did they buy?

- Modems. Ever heard of 'em?

- Are they like the Force in Star Wars?

- Very funny. You know, your logo is literally S.S.?

- And how much have they paid you on that 16 million?

- Yeah, nothing. - Zero?

- Nothing yet. We haven't delivered the modems.

- Well, we shipped them product samples months ago and...

Their accounting department won't even return our phone calls.

- Yeah, but... They are going to pay us.

We have a 16-million dollar deal with U.S. Robotics.

- Yeah, so, uh, you guys are getting fucked.

- Why would you... Why do think? Why do you say that?

- Well, because I would do the same thing.

Little operation like yours...

They know they can withhold payment

until the last possible second and then crush you.

These guys, they're pirates.

- Uh-huh. P...

We got it. Thank you. Um...

How do you know anything...

What the fuck do I care. How much money do you got?

- Okay. Guys. - Two... Two fifty.

- Here's what I'm going to do.

I will give you $20,000 cash, today.

I'll sell the phone, I'll work out this problem with USR,

but I want 50% of the company.

And I've gotta be CEO.

- Fuck. - That's... I...

- Are you joking? No. Obviously... Obviously, no. No!

- We should digest it. - Mike!

- Okay. Okay. - Who is in charge here?

- Oh, I mean, technically... - Mike is in charge,

and he says no.

- I am in charge

and I say...

...sorry.

- You don't need to do what this guy says!

We just met him! He's not your dad.

- Okay. (scoffs)

(Mike) Thanks.

Thank you.

- Very sassy man, wouldn't you say?

He had a...

He had a sass...

- Modems, ever heard of those or whatever?

- Oh, no, I sassed him too, but he sassed me back.

(sighs)

And what's he trying to say, like,

we don't have our modem deal. (laughs)

(phone ringing)

(receptionist): U.S. Robotics, how may I direct your call?

(Mike): Yeah, it's Mike Lazaridis from Research in Motion.

We're actually building some circuit boards for you guys.

(receptionist): One moment please. (phone beeping)

(Casey): Mike! Is that you?

(Mike): Yes. Hi. Um, yeah, I was just wondering if...

...if it would, if it would be at all possible for us to...

invoice you for the first half,

or, uh, third of our... of your order from us. If...

Can we... can we invoice you for some of our... your order?

(Casey laughs)

(Casey): What? What?

(Mike): If that's okay.

(Casey): Did you not get my fax?

- We don't have a fax machine.

(Casey): Mike...

Those modems you sent us back in March.

They were defective.

- I'm sorry, what?

(Casey): Yeah. They didn't work.

We had to cancel the whole order.

But this was months ago, buddy.

I really thought you guys had a fax machine.

Hey, I'll tell you what, why don't you let me make it up to you?

I'll have USR send you one, free of charge. On me. Okay?

- Um. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.

(Casey): Great, okay. Well, good luck, Mike.

- Yeah. - Bye-bye.

- Bye.

(shooting in the video game)

(video game beeps)

- What?

Here's what you gotta do. You got to call him back.

You gotta Glengarry Glen Ross this guy. You gotta grind him!

- Yeah. I don't think I can grind him.

- This is exactly what that Rolex Guy said was gonna happen, right?

He predicted it. What did he say?

He said U.S. Robotics are pirates.

He was fucking dead on.

(phone interference)

(groans, hangs up)

- Hey. Steve! - Yeah?

- I need the phone line.

- Some guy is trying to say Noonian Soong is a O...

- Yep, thanks. - Alright!

- What are you doing?

- I think we should take this deal.

- No. No... (mumbles)

So, you don't get into business with people like this.

That guy is sketchy.

- I think he's... I don't think he's sketchy.

- His business card is literally sketched out!

The guy's a shark.

- Okay, do you know... you know who's afraid of sharks?

Pirates.

(sighs)

- Oh, fuck.

- Um. So uh... um...

we've been talking here and we, we, uh...

We would like to make a counter offer.

- You came crawling back. Like bugs. Like grubs.

- Yeah, um, so, we would like to offer you...

- Low.

- Ten percent for...

500,000 dollars.

- Are you out of your fucking mind?!

I look at a hundred thousand deals a day. I pick one!

- Is that the quote?

- No. I look at 100 deals a day. I pick one!

Wall Street.

- Uh, okay. Uh... um...

Uh... 25% for $250,000.

- 50% for 50 bucks!

- 33% for $125,000

and you can run the company with me.

- Mike! No! No! Yes, deal. Deal!

Easy. Dude.

It's going to be totally fine.

You're gonna negotiate this guy to death.

(hockey announcer on TV)

(announcer): Scores! He fooled everybody!

(phone rings)

(Jim): Yeah? - Hi, Jim!

It's Mike Lazaridis from Research in Motion.

We met at the office the other day.

(crowd on TV cheering)

So, we'd like to offer you...

33% of our company for $125,000

and you and I would be co-CEOs.

(indistinct play-by-play on TV)

- Sure.

(hangs up)

- Deal.

- Awesome! Awesome!

Dude! Mike!

Scott! Scott! He did it!

(Scott): What do you mean?

- Have you not heard anything that's been going on in this room?

(loud upbeat music)

(muffled music)

- Maybe you should tell him about the modems.

- Oh! Where do you want to put him?

- What the fuck is this?

- That's uh, yeah, everyone builds their own desk. That's a tradition.

- Yeah. I'm not doing that.

- Um, U.S. Robotics pulled out of the deal.

- Told ya. What's our exposure?

- Exposure?

- How much money did you spend on the modems?

- Oh. 1.6 million.

- One point what? - What?

- We've spent 1.6 in materials and labour.

- Where did you get 1.6 million dollars?

- I got a loan from the Bank of Montreal.

(Doug): Mike, come on...

- Get me U.S. Robotics!

(sighs)

- Sorry, who are you talking to? - Yeah.

(phone interference)

- What the fuck is that?

- Oh. That's called a carrier wave.

The calling modem is, uh...

- Leave it. (internet signal noises)

- Hey! Get off the fucking internet!

- Mike?

- I think it's Casey. - Uh-huh.

(Doug): It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine.

What?

(line ringing)

You don't get to talk to our team like that...

He doesn't get to... - Shh!

(Casey): Mike! - Hi, actually no,

this is Jim Balsillie. I'm CEO here now.

- Co-CEO.

(Casey): Okay, Jim, what can I do for ya?

- I wanna talk about these modems.

(Casey): Well, there's nothing to talk about, sadly.

We can't accept a defective product.

- Let's cut the bullshit here.

2.5 million all in for the entire order.

(Casey): Yeah, no. Can't do it, Jim.

- Then, I'll decimate it for you. 1.6 million.

And if you don't take that,

I'll turn around and sell them to Rockwell for even less.

(whispering): Nice negotiation.

(Casey): Okay. How about this?

We'll take the modems

if you throw in the patent on Mike's phone.

- What phone?

(Casey): I thought we weren't bullshitting each other, Jim.

We've been building our own for a year. We want...

- How long to build a prototype of the phone?

- Pocket Link? Yeah, um, a year.

- No, no, a prototype, Mike.

A shell I can wave around at a meeting.

It can be a complete piece of shit.

- No, it can't... We're not doing that.

- No. Mike's not doing that.

- Listen to me. U.S. Robotics is building their own phone.

We're now in a race

to get this thing to market and we're a year behind.

So I don't care what you need to do,

get these fucking nerds to drop everything

and build this fucking phone!

What?!

- Sorry, guys. Um... uh...

My girlfriend tried to cash my cheque this morning

and it bounced.

And she said I'm not supposed to come in here...

I shouldn't come in here anymore.

And, uh, she agreed

I won't be coming in here any longer until I'm getting paid.

(crashing)

(clattering)

(Mike): I can fix this.

(banker): Okay, Research in Motion.

Looks like your account has exceeded its overdraft balance.

- Didn't they just deposit a cheque for $125,000 from me?

(banker): Yes.

- Okay... Alright. Um...

I have a mortgage with you guys. Can we pull that up please?

(banker): Spell your last name please?

- B-a-I-s-i-I-I-i-e.

- Balsillie? - Balsillie.

- Anybody going to miss this red chair?

- No. - No, you're good.

(indistinct chatter)

- Alright, everybody! Listen up!

From now on, cheques will be coming every two weeks.

You will come get them from Shelley. This is Shelley.

- Hi.

(loud scraping) (Jim grunts)

- Alright. That's you, Shel.

Mike!

- Me too? - Yeah, sure.

- Um, sorry, who... who is Shelley?

(phone beeping) - Shelley?

- Oh, dude. That thing's haunting you.

(Jim): No, I'm motivating you.

And don't call me "that thing", I'm your boss.

- No, you're not. (Shelley): Yeah?

- Get me John Woodman at Bell Atlantic.

- You got it. - Wait, um... What are you doing?

- We're selling the phone. Mike, I need a prototype.

- I told you, I don't, I... - Mike.

(Shelley): Connecting you.

- Guys. We are over a million dollars in debt with no assets,

no contracts, and no products.

(receptionist): John Woodman's office.

- Hi. This is Jim Balsillie, CEO of Research in Motion.

- Co-CEO. - One moment, please.

- Okay?

- Yeah, uh...

- No! He said there's no phone! - I'm not asking you!

Mike...

- Okay.

- Okay? Well, what do you mean "okay"?

No. No. No. Wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

(John): John Woodman!

- Mr. Woodman, I am about to make you insanely rich.

(phone clicking, dead tone)

- Mike does not agree with this. - He just fucking did!

- That was duress. Okay?

You're manipulating him! It's obvious.

What do you want me to do? - Uh...

- What?

- So, there's a reason why

your intercom is emitting white noise.

It's because it was manufactured in China

by engineers who didn't care.

And now every office in the world

has to suffer an annoying hiss,

a blinking red light,

15 different power cords

that are utterly incompatible with one another.

So, uh... We're not doing that.

We are not just adding to the hiss.

I will build a prototype,

but I'll do it perfectly or I don't do it.

- Mike, are you familiar with the saying

"Perfect is the enemy of good?"

- Well, "good enough" is the enemy of humanity.

(Jim sighs)

- Shelley, get John Woodman back on, please.

- So I reach out, hang up the phone.

- What?

- He looks up at me like, "Are you ready to die?" (guys chuckle)

No, no, no, I'm prepared to die on it, right?

Mike steps in between us,

brings the glasses down and goes

"Bitch, I tell you when we set the goddamn meeting."

And he backs off. (laughing)

- Alright. Woodman wants to see it.

We're going to Bell Atlantic tomorrow.

- What? What?

- New York City. Tomorrow.

- But. He said... - You've got until 8 a.m.

- To do what?

(door creaking, banging shut)

- So you didn't call him a bitch, did you?

(sighs)

(Doug): Okay, uh, new plan everybody,

we are all going to chip in and build this thing tonight, okay?

(brakes screeching)

- Alright. Give me a Fillmore toggle switch,

give me a 33 PF. - Yeah.

- Uh, I think it's like,

something kind of like a hybrid of one. So I like the...

- We're back!

(all chatting)

(plastic cracking)

- What feels better?

Huh!

- That's why to me, like, remote controls,

things that people are used to touching,

and the buttons need to be small enough that...

(uptempo electro music)

(indistinct chatter)

- Connection's lost, it's... - Taking off?

- Yeah. I'll see you guys tomorrow?

- Uh, yeah.

- So add in the lithium ion...

- Still hot. Still hot. You're good.

(snoring)

(horn honks)

(snoring, grunting)

(horn honks)

(Doug): I had a dream we were rich.

(long horn honk)

(horn honks)

"And sometimes my dreams occur exactly as I dreamt them."

- Mike! Let's go!

- What's that from?

- Dune.

(grunts and sniffs)

- Ah-ha!

- You'll get dressed at the airport.

- Thank you. Um...

Should Doug come with us or...?

- No.

- 'Cause... He has a lot to do with this.

- He's a goof. Get in the car.

- I think he really wants to come.

- Let me tell you the best advice I ever got at Harvard.

If you want to be great, you need to sacrifice.

And the more painful the sacrifice,

the greater you'll be.

- He... he's my best friend.

- Okay, great, I saw him put a toilet plunger on a computer.

(car door slams shut, engine revs)

♪♪♪

(PA): Attention passengers on flight AC42 to New York.

Your flight is now boarding.

- Mike.

Oh, Mike.

(soft rock music on the radio)

- Oh, come on...

So, if you hear me crinkling a piece of paper,

that means stop talking.

- Like, in general or...?

- No. In... (sighs)

...in the pitch.

- Oh. Yeah. Gotcha.

- Hey, we gotta move here, man! My wife's in labour. Let's go.

- May... may I ask why your business card had the phone number crossed out?

- I have no idea what you're talking about.

- Hey, let's make a deal, okay?

You and I never lie to each other.

(sighs)

- Sure.

I didn't quit my job. I was fired.

And I just mortgaged my house to pay our staff.

So, if this doesn't work out, I'm fucked.

- Why did they fire you?

- 'Cause they're idiots.

(elevator dinging)

(receptionist): Hi. Research in Motion?

- How are ya? - Fantastic.

Can I get you anything? Coffee? Water?

- We're good. We're good. - Okay.

- They'll be with you shortly. - Okay, thank you.

- Alright. - Great.

- Jim... - No. No. Never take the drinks.

Thirst is a display of weakness.

- No. I may have forgotten the phone...

- Please tell me you're joking.

- No, I'm completely serious.

- Fuck!

Alright, here's what we're gonna do.

I need you to draw out a little sketch.

- Okay. - Okay?

Something that shows the keyboard

just like you did in my office. Okay?

- Yeah, okay. - Excuse me, miss,

could I trouble you for a pen and paper, please?

- They're ready for you.

- Great.

(door opens, indistinct chatter)

- Oh wait, wait. Here he is. Hey.

- Hi - Hi.

- How are you? - Good.

- We, uh... Are we waiting for anyone?

- I'm alone.

- Okay.

- Good. (sighs)

Alright, guys. Here's how I see it.

Right, now... I know your marketing team tells you

that you sell togetherness -

family, or "staying connected" whatever.

But, let's be honest,

you sell minutes.

Period. I mean, your market is minutes.

So your biggest competitor isn't other cell phone companies,

it's home phones and office phones.

Those are free minutes. Those are wasted minutes.

So, how do we get those minutes back?

We reinvent the cell phone.

We put a computer in it. We put the internet in it.

We make your cell phone so fucking useful

that you never have to come to the office again. (man chuckles)

Does e-mail, text messaging, however you want to communicate.

Total individualism all-in-one device

that fits in your fist.

So, you can tell your marketing team

you're not selling togetherness anymore.

You're selling self-reliance.

- Uh... (chuckles)

You are not a tech guy, are ya?

- I'm not a...

- The whole world, the whole fucking world

is trying to do e-mails on cell phone.

We had an entire division working on it for,

I don't know, eight months or so?

You know how many phones they got to work at the same time?

Eleven.

It's a network that's built for pagers. That's all it can do.

You're in La La Land on this one, kiddo.

I think, you know, some nerds took you for a ride.

- Okay.

Mike. - What happened?

- It won't work.

- What do you mean it won't work?

- Mike. They tried it already.

- How did you try this already?

- You guys, I think the meeting is over.

- Did you just put your devices directly on the network

as though they were clients?

- Uh, that's right.

- Yeah. Right, and so, what'd that get you, like...

ten phones working at the same time?

- Uh... yeah... - Yeah, okay.

Here, just hold this a second. Okay, so, here's your issue:

When you use a phone as a client, what's it doing?

It's just sitting on your network,

constantly asking the same question,

"Did I get an e-mail? Did I get an e-mail? Did I get an e-mail?"

So it is forever pulling on your servers

whether you got an e-mail or not. We have a fix, okay?

So we are going to build... a giant computer

that will act as a sort of massive client,

that is hard-wired directly to the internet

with our phone as server.

Okay? So when a user gets an e-mail,

Waterloo pulls it in, packages it, and then...

...sends it.

We engage with your network, maybe a split second, like...

(fingers snapping) Like, less time than that.

- So how much, I'm sorry, how many...

- A month's worth of traffic

would be less bandwidth than a local phone call.

So you could have half a million devices working simultaneously.

- Can we see it?

- Yeah, so it's a prototype. It's a long way off from, uh...

Oh, it's just a long way off.

It's a prototype.

(scoffs)

- Well, it's definitely the world's largest pager. (men chuckling)

- No, it's actually the world's smallest e-mail terminal.

- Oh.

(hiccups)

- Sorry.

(John): I see. And this is, uh... Oh, this...

Huh...

Yeah.

- Uh, so, try it with your thumbs.

Try typing with your thumbs.

- Oh, yeah.

(John): What do you call it?

(indie rock plays)

(crowd cheering)

- It's called a BlackBerry.

It sends and receives e-mail messages.

It is also a cell phone.

(♪ Someday ♪ The Strokes)

♪ In many ways they'll miss the good old days ♪

♪ Someday Someday ♪

♪ Yeah, it hurts to say but I want you to stay ♪

♪ Sometimes Sometimes ♪

♪ When we was young oh man, did we have fun ♪

♪ Always Always ♪

♪ Promises they break before they're made ♪

♪ Sometimes Sometimes... ♪

- Good morning, Mr. Balsillie.

♪ Oh, Maya says I'm lacking in depth ♪

♪ I will do my best ♪

♪ You say you want to stand by my side... ♪♪ (turns off car)

- Good Morning, Mr. Balsillie. - Mike's here before me?

- He didn't leave last night.

You are mentioned on page nine.

Uh, Carl Yankowski from Palm Pilot keeps calling.

- Yeah, well, tell him if he wants to talk to me, he can come to Waterloo.

- That's what I said.

Ted Rogers wants to have lunch in the city. He booked Canoe.

- No. I'm not going to fucking Toronto unless there's a game.

Oh, and call Gary Bettman's office about those Leafs tickets.

Fucker tried to stick me in the third row.

(Shelley): Fucker, third row, got it.

(Mike): Alright. Try 1 -14 and 1 -14!

- Okay. Go for 1 -1 -4.

- Okay. Sending.

(ringing, cheering)

(Doug): Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Mike. Oh, my God.

Boys! Oh, my God!

Done! Done! Yes! Yes! Come on!

(Mike): Hey, Jim, yeah, we, uh...

We built a messenger.

Fully encrypted two-way messaging

that is absolutely inaccessible by anyone including us.

It is un-trackable. Untraceable.

Un-hackable.

- It's texting.

- No. Do you know how much it costs to send a text message?

- Yeah. Ten cents and the network gets every penny.

We're never going to see that money.

- Right, but these texts are sent via data.

So, behind the network's back.

Which means...

- Unlimited free texting. Only on BlackBerry.

Fuck yes!

(all cheer)

Fuck yes!

- I sent the message that Alexander Graham Bell sent to his assistant,

"Watson, come here." That's what...

- Let's just, let's just...

(♪ Return of the Mack ♪ Mark Morrison)

(laughing)

- What the hell are you guys doing?

(music stops)

- Sorry, who are you?

- You said if I wanted to talk, I had to come to Waterloo.

So, here I am.

- Gentlemen. Meet Carl Yankowski of Palm Pilot.

- Oh. Really?

- Boo!

- Doug.

- How're you doing?

- So I just said three words.

"Two. Litre. Bottle." And you know what they said?

They said...

(laughs)

"Carl, nobody drinks two litres of Mountain Dew."

I mean, they didn't see what I saw:

Large pizza, big soda, complete dinner.

We sold a billion litres in a month.

You playing with yourself under there, Mikey?

(laughs)

Alright. Let's clear the air here.

I had nothing to do

with U.S. Robotics trying to bankrupt you back in 96.

Defective modems, working modems... Were they defective?

It was 100 years ago. Who's to say?

- Me.

- Exactly.

Here's what we do.

Combine BlackBerry and Palm Pilot.

One product.

It's the two-litre-bottle of smartphones.

- Would I still have complete control

over every aspect of engineering and design?

- No.

- Okay, well then, it's going to...

We won't be able to move ahead with this.

I'm, I'm... sorry. Sorry.

- You guys love saying "sorry," don't you?

Okay. Let's see what you closed at?

$4,50. Oh, God, is that Canadian?

U.S. Robotics? 83$.

Now, that gives us a market cap of about... 45 billion.

So what would happen if I just...

I don't know, bought up all your shares?

Oh, what's the word for that again, sport?

Hostile takeover.

- Hostile takeover? What the fuck? What is happening?

We would just say... We could just say no.

We... we own the company.

(paper crinkling)

- You know, Carl.

You've got a deal. - Yeah?

- Yeah. Give us a couple months to get our people taken care of,

and then we'll, uh, we'll agree to a private sale.

- Wait, just uh...

- Mike. It's okay. It's okay.

It's better to get rich now

than fight this guy in court for the next five years.

(chuckles) - That's right. You know, I like you.

- You like hockey?

- God, no. It's moronic.

You?

- Hate it.

- I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...

And I'm all out of bubble gum.

- Oh. They based Duke Nukem on this guy.

Like, that is Duke Nukem for real.

(exclaim disappointedly)

- Okay. Party's over.

- What? - Listen up.

Turn that thing off, please.

- Wait.

- Turn it off.

- Allan, can you slide it? - Yeah.

- You guys having fun?

Because we are about to lose our fucking company.

- What the hell happened at this lunch?

- Hold, hold... - Turn that fucking thing off!

Okay?

Yeah. Doug.

(Doug): So, my question's actually for Mike.

How are we supposed to sell another 500,000 phones

when we're already maxed on every network we're on?

- You guys will figure it out.

- How? If we put more phones on these networks,

they are going to crash, period.

We are not allowed to sell more phones. Mike?

- You don't worry about what's allowed. I say what's allowed.

(Doug): I don't even understand what the problem is here.

Who cares if this guy wants to buy our company, isn't that good?

- I fucking care! That's who cares. I care.

I'm trying to keep this company together, you fuck.

- I'm sorry. Do you even know what a network limit load is?

- Doug, just...

- Talk to me outside for a second?

What's a network limit load?

- Um... this is impossible.

- Well, what are we supposed to fucking do, Mike?

Either we jack our stock to the moon or Yankowski fucks us.

- Doug is right.

Unless the carriers rebuild their entire networks,

there's nothing we can do. The phones use too much data.

- Well, then fucking shrink it.

- Yeah. Okay. Um... We, we looked into that...

- Uh-huh?

- These guys can't do it.

(cheering and laughing)

- What do you mean, they can't do it?

You said they were the best engineers in the world.

- I said they're the best engineers in Canada.

(scoffs)

(sighs) - Well, okay, alright...

Who could do it?

- Maybe top guys from Motorola or Microsoft or Google...

(Jim): Okay.

- What, what, what are you doing?

- Who else? Where else?

(Doug): John Carmack.

Get John Carmack! From id.

Can you guys hear me?

The guy who made Doom.

- What's Doom?

- Have you played Wolfenstein?

Please, just don't sell any more phones. Okay?

- Can you hear me? - Yes! Yes!

- Oh. Shit. (door opens)

(rock music) - What the fuck!

- Look at this. I'm on fire.

Lefty. Lefty. Lefty.

- Alright! Listen up, you dead-eyed dumb fucks.

Sorry to cut your little vacation short here,

but we got some product to move.

- What product can we move? - I'm sorry. What's that?

- Well, I thought the engineers said that we maxed out, uh, the networks?

- Yeah. They did, yeah.

And that's their fucking problem, okay?

Your problem is you need to sell a million BlackBerries before Q3.

(laughter)

- Uh, that's... - Uh! Uh!

Uh.

(laughs)

I'm not fucking joking.

I want 'em gone.

(phone notification)

(sighs)

- We're actually talking about banning these.

- Banning?

- Nobody pays attention to meetings anymore.

They're crouched over.

- Tell them to stop. (Paul chuckles)

- Okay. We call them Crack Berries.

- Come work for me.

(scoffs) - I can't.

- Why?

- Because I am under contract here.

- How much to break it?

- Excuse me?

- How much money do you want

to break your contract with Google?

(clears throat)

I'll give you a million dollars if you sign right now.

- I am not moving to Canada.

We are not having this conversation.

- Two million. - Stop.

- Three million. - I need you to leave.

- 10 million.

- Well, you don't have 10 million dollars.

- This is a million-dollar option deal.

I will backdate that to when RIM was trading at a dollar.

Merrill just gave us a target of 13.

- Is this legal?

(♪ Honey ♪ Moby)

(phone rings)

(Jim): Carl. (Cari): PalmBerry!

(Jim): Yeah. Eh, listen, I can barely hear you, buddy!

(Carl): I said, PalmBerry! Isn't that great?

- Listen, uh, I'm getting some static on the line.

Can I, uh... can I call you back?

(Carl): Jim, I can barely hear you. Jim!

- What? Carl?

- Jim, speak up. - Okay, I'll call you later.

♪♪♪

(Paul): Mike? Mike Lazaridis? - Uh...

If Jim fired you, I can't undo it! I'm sorry. I've tried.

- No, No. I just got hired. It's Paul.

- How ya doing? Welcome! Where are ya coming from?

- Uh, Google. - Nice!

What'd, what'd you do?

- I was the, uh, Head of Physical Engineering.

(Jim): You are not salesmen anymore, you're male models.

I want you in every country club, yacht club, tennis club.

Wherever the elite go, you go.

I want them to see you using it.

Be big, be loud.

(laughs)

Have them thinking, who is this annoying prick?

And how can I be more like him?

- What is that? (Jim): And when they ask you,

don't say it's a phone that does e-mail.

It's not a cell phone, it's a status symbol.

- Anybody else? Anybody else? Alright.

(Austin): Hi. I'm calling on behalf of BlackBerry.

I heard that you're interested

in buying some of the Ouarks for your corporation.

(trilling)

♪♪♪

(trilling)

(phone notifications)

(computer buzzes)

- It's 7:55. We are back with Fox 5 Consumer news.

A global BlackBerry crisis this morning.

The company says

it's experiencing massive service interruptions.

The company's help line says that users can expect delays

in sending and receiving messages.

- Yes. Yes. We are aware of the problem, and uh, we are...

We are sorting it out right now. I'll call you back.

(overlapping chatter) What's happening, man?

It's all down there! - Are we totally fucked?

- Hey! Quiet!

- Let's just keep it down out here, guys... for a second.

- Phew!

How many are down?

- Maybe 10,000.

- Oh, Jesus. Okay. Okay... Okay...

(phone rings) Okay...

Yeah, hello?

(operator): You have a collect call from...

(Jim): What the fuck is happening?

(operator): Will you accept the charges?

Are you still there?

- Yes, I accept.

(operator): Thank you.

- Mike. - Hi.

- There are three reasons why people buy our phones.

Do you know what they are? - E-mail?

- They! Fucking! Work!

- Yeah. Okay. It's not us, Jim. It's the carrier.

Verizon is doing something weird.

- Well, I'm about to do something weird if you don't fix this.

Now! - Um...

The deal was I get the engineers, you shrink the data!

- Are you selling more phones?

- What the hell do you think I've been doing over here, Mike?

We're in the middle of a hostile fucking takeover!

Do I need to have somebody babysit you dorks?

- Okay, okay. So that's... Okay.

Uh... yeah, the entire system is crashing.

He's selling more phones.

- Hey, goddammit! - Yeah. Yeah. So... Okay...

You know, maybe just hold off selling more until we...

- I'm gonna fuck...

- Okay, sorry, is this technically legal?

(Charles): Ritchie!

(Richie): I'm actually in a personal meeting, Charles.

- And I personally don't give a flying fuck!

Engineering can't do a goddamn thing until you send that fax!

Now take a "meeting" when the union isn't ripping my guts out.

Do you hear me?

Get it done.

Son of a bitch.

(slams door)

- You said you were located in Waterloo?

- What is that guy's name?

(loud, indistinct chatting)

- Okay. Okay. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Research in Motion!

I know this is a bit disorganized.

I promise we will get everybody settled.

So um, in the meantime, we are having a bit of a network issue.

So, put up your hand if you understand Mobitex architecture?

Two people.

Okay. Um, that's fine.

You two, you're with Mike.

The rest of you, I don't know what you do, but follow me.

We are taking a tour! Let's go.

It's going to be a little bit like Sam Rockwell

in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the Foot Clan.

- Can I talk to you for a second?

What is Charles Purdy doing here?

- What... what are you talking about?

- The man standing in the hallway

directly over my left shoulder.

(Mike): Oh, Jesus.

- Listen to me. That guy will fuck you up.

Do not let that man anywhere near

your engineering department.

Trust me.

- Yeah. Okay. Alright.

- I'm serious.

He will fuck your shit up.

- Can I help you?

(Charles): You're Mike, aren't you?

- Y-yes. I'm Mike. What are you doing here?

(Charles): Charles Purdy. I'm your new COO.

- Oh.

Jim hired you to be the Chief...

- I'm here to get this ship under control.

- We are under control.

- Oh, really?

Whose?

Hm?

(Paul): Okay. So, then let's trying something different.

Instead of shrinking the data, maybe, we spread it out?

Thank you.

(Richie): Well, why not take multiple towers

in the same zone and split the packet between them?

We can put it back together at the server.

- We tried that. Here's the problem.

The towers don't recognize one another.

Each one has no idea which piece of the signal

they're receiving and the whole process just keeps...

- Maybe we reprogram the towers?

- They're not our towers. We don't control them.

- That's okay. At Naughty Dog, we had to hack the Play Station

to get Crash Bandicoot running.

- Okay. So, if each exchange is triangulated,

we could divide the signal three ways?

- No. No. We could actually do way, way more.

Every BlackBerry is a server.

- We could divide the signal between every user in the same grid.

- Divide it by thousands. So, it will be like Napster.

Distributed network of your own users.

(Richie): And it's gotta be in the terms of service.

Hackers would be on it so fast.

(Paul): They encrypt everything server side, right?

Mike?

I mean, everything is already encrypted. So...

(Richie): Mike?

- Mike?

- Excuse me.

You can have my bacon.

- What are they paying you?

- I shouldn't say.

- They're paying me 10 million dollars.

- Yeah. Me too.

(panting)

(employees shouting happily in the distance)

(excited chatter)

- Higher on that side. Let's get a chair over there.

- Oh, yeah.

Here you go, buddy.

(knock at door)

- Yes. Come in.

- Mr. Purdy?

Yeah, uh... So...

First of all, sorry about before.

(excited chatter)

(Charles): Allan Lewis?

Which one of you is Allan Lewis?!

- Ah. - Hello.

- Michael's had a breakthrough.

Now, I want these tested.

And I want the report on my desk, Friday.

- When? Sorry?

- Friday.

- This looks like a whole new relay system.

(Charles): Uh-huh.

- Testing this will probably take me a month.

- Well, then you best get started, hadn't you?

- It's bad luck to work on movie night.

(employee): Can't work on movie night.

- You're all children. Is that it?

(scoffs) - Sorry, who are you?

- You think this is funny, is it?

- Just wondering, who are you?

- I'm Charles Purdy.

From this moment on, you will all work for me.

And if that work is not done at a pace that I expect,

you'll be fired.

And I'll keep firing until this room is full of men,

and not little boys playing with their little penises.

Now, are there any questions?

- Um...

Where's Doug?

(rap rock music plays)

(rap rock music plays)

- Doug! Let's go, bro.

- Movie night tonight. Movie night.

(muffled music through earphones)

Have you seen this?

- No.

- Have you been out there? - No.

- Dude. Jim killed Movie Night.

Actually, what am I saying, he didn't have the guts to do it himself.

Apparently, he got this 300-pound dude

to go in there and start screaming at everybody!

Said he was going to fire Allan.

Mike?

- We do need... We do need to get back to work.

- Yeah...

Do you not ever wonder why

these guys are willing to work 80 hours a week?

Never see their families?

Never get any credit?

- Yeah, it's because they get to work

on the best phone in the world, Doug.

- Yeah...

That must be it.

(phone rings)

(Jim): Hello?

(Carl): You're making a big mistake, sport.

(Jim): Yeah, uh, sorry, Carl. I am going to have to call you back.

I'm stepping into a meeting. (Carl): Don't hang up on me.

Don't you fucking... - How's everybody doing?

- Jim, I know this isn't exactly what you want to hear,

but this board feels that

in order to avoid further disruptions,

it's best we end our relationship with BlackBerry.

(chuckles) - John, we're just getting started.

- Jim, I'm serious.

We're willing to take the hit on users

and let them go crash somebody else's fucking network.

It's over.

- No.

What's "over" is your bullshit limit of 500,000 users.

We quadrupled it.

(John): Okay, Jim...

- Our engineers reprogrammed your towers.

As of right now, Verizon is capable

of carrying two million BlackBerries at the same time.

And we've already sold half of those.

- Bullshit.

- Try me.

(rock song)

(♪ Hello Operator ♪ The White Stripes)

♪ Hello operator ♪

♪ Can you give me number nine ♪

♪ Can I see you later ♪

♪ Will you give me back my dime ♪

♪ Turn the oscillator ♪

♪ Twist it with a dollar bill ♪

♪ Mail man bring the paper ♪

♪ Leave it on my window sill... ♪♪

- How'd you do it, Mike?

(rock song continues)

- We're number one in handset sales,

subscriptions, customer retention,

attracting new smartphone users, and brand recognition.

We control 30% of the North American market

and with the upcoming release of the BlackBerry Bold,

we're on track to control 50% of the global market...

Now our numbers are a bit below our estimates right now,

but we are expecting a nice bump

when the 8310 comes out in March.

- Now is probably a good time to talk about...

Moving some of the assembly and construction to China.

- No. No. Take people off of Onyx

if you need more bodies, hire more people.

We're not moving to fucking China.

- Alright. - Alright.

- Oh, my God.

What?

Ah, that's a good spot to leave it for today, guys. Thank you.

- Hey. Where's Jim?

- Why?

- He's not answering my e-mails.

- We're pitching the trackpad to Verizon on Friday.

So he's probably working on that.

(Don Cherry): And I really believe that, Balsillie,

is that how you say it, or something like that.

He was in there, he says,

"I've heard guys screw up my name worse than you."

Anyhow, he's a patriot, he really does.

He's a hockey guy that really wants...

There's no "make money, that doesn't mean anything."

He's a hockey guy. He really wants hockey here.

(phone rings)

- No, don't! (sighs)

- Hello?

(Jack): Hand the phone to Jim.

- Who's this?

(Jack): It's Jack Manishen in marketing. It's important.

- Jack Manishen, marketing.

- Yeah, Mike can handle it.

- Maybe you could speak to Mr. Lazaridis.

(Jack): He does not want me going to Mike with this.

At least tell me where you're going.

- He wants to know where we're going.

- Hang up.

(Steve Jobs): So. Three things.

A widescreen I Pod with touch controls.

A revolutionary mobile phone

and a breakthrough internet communications device.

An I Pod...

a phone...

and an Internet communicator.

An I Pod.

A phone.

(crowd cheers)

Are you getting it?!

These are not three separate devices.

(crowd cheers) This is one device.

And we are calling it: iPhone.

Here's four smartphones, right?

The Motorola Q, the BlackBerry, Palm Treo,

Nokia E62... The usual suspects.

They all have these keyboards that are there

whether you need them or not to be there.

And they all have these control buttons

that are fixed in plastic.

- Why would anybody want a phone without a keyboard?

- What we're going to do is get rid of all these buttons

and just make a giant screen.

A giant screen.

When we start shipping in June,

we'll be selling iPhones through our own stores

and through Cingular stores.

And it's my pleasure to introduce the CEO of Cingular...

Stan Sigman.

- Are you fucking kidding me?

- What?

- That's Stan Sigman. That's the CEO of AT&T.

- You know, Steve and I first met

about two years ago in New York City

when he shared with me this vision

that he had for this product.

- This fucking guy.

Alright, everybody. That's it!

Fun time's over. Back to work.

I need a prototype of the Bold

in my hand by Friday with a working trackpad.

Thank you.

- Okay...

(phone ringing)

- That's crazy.

(Doug): Okay, yeah, guys, let's get back to work.

(indistinct chatter)

- Yello?

(Dara): Hi, is this Douglas?

- Uh, yeah.

(Dara): I'm from the Securities and Exchange Commission

and I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me?

- Sure, okay. - Has anyone seen Allan?

- Check the NOC!

(Dara): Were you involved in the hiring of a Mr. Paul Stannos?

- Sorry, you're from where?

(Dara): I'm from the SEC.

- Is this a serious call?

(Dara): Yes.

- Yeah. You called the wrong person.

I can't help you with anything like that.

(Dara): Is this Douglas Fregin?

- Yes, ma'am.

(Dara): Sorry. I have you listed here

as one of the founders of the company.

- Yeah, I guess I am. Uh...

(Mike): Doug?

- I gotta go.

(phone rings)

- Sorry. Unknown number.

- No.

- Mr. Balsillie?

- Yes?

- Welcome to the NHL.

- Thanks for having me.

- Nice to meet you, just this way.

- Okay, great.

- Right in here.

- Jim? Gary.

Good to see you, thank you for taking the time.

- Oh, I've always got time for you guys.

Get me on the phone with Copps Coliseum.

- Is that the arena in Hamilton?

- Yeah. Tell them I want to buy it.

- Okay. Sir, I thought you were buying the Pittsburgh Penguins.

- Yes, I am. Let's go.

- Okay. We gotta go! - One sec.

- It's good enough. Good enough.

- This is good enough? - Yeah.

- Apple is launching a marketplace for applications.

It's going to be third-party developers. Anyone, anyone...

(Doug): Bad time. Bad time.

- Here, man.

It's laggy as hell! - Good enough. Good enough.

- Okay, now! - Yeah. We got it.

(Mike): Doug. Come on.

- They are launching an application marketplace.

- Okay, so the touchpad is working,

I don't know if I would say that it's "working" working.

(sighs)

What?

- Do you have a suit?

2.4 inches, 480 by 360 HVGA screen,

and to top it all off,

the world's first trackpad,

which we believe will be the dominant navigational device

for all mobile devices within the next two years.

The BlackBerry Bold.

- That's it?

- Uh-huh.

- That's...

that's what you've got for us? A trackpad?

You guys see Apple's thing?

- Any reaction to that? - Plenty. Yeah.

It's an over-designed, trying-to-do-too-much toy

that will crash any network gullible enough to take it on.

It is by every metric the exact opposite

of everything we do at Research in Motion.

Less data, no frills,

reliable network. Okay, that's BlackBerry.

- Sexy slogan, Mike.

(laughs)

- So, I guess you just want to kill your whole network

'cause that's what it would do.

- Yeah. The iPhone, they put a keyboard right on the screen?

- And it's the stupidest thing I've ever seen

in my entire life.

Ask anyone what they love most about their BlackBerry,

and you will get the same answer every single time.

The keyboard, the click. Okay?

This enti... - Well... Yeah. Yeah.

- This entire market was born of our innovation,

our idea to put "a keyboard on a phone,"

we did that, we build that from a pile of garbage in 1996.

- Yeah. There's another slogan. (scarce chuckling)

I don't know, Mike.

AT&T's got Apple.

We were kind of hoping you'd come in here

with an iPhone killer.

- I... I don't need to kill it

because it's going to commit suicide

and it's gonna take down the whole fucking

Cingular network with it.

Um, I'm giving you gold

and I think you are all misunderstanding it. Uh...

I created this entire product class.

I created this entire fucking market.

I created this entire product class.

So listen to me.

The trackpad is a mousepad...

Built into the phone.

(John): Yeah.

And...

Right. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Good enough.

Uh, thanks, guys, for coming down.

Tell you what, let us...

We'll talk about this internally, we'll get back to you, okay?

Tell Jim we missed him.

(whispering): Let's go.

- He's back,

back in Waterloo working because...

So, he promised me not to mention... the other thing.

We're not quite there yet, um...

but we're working on something pretty top secret.

Uh, he made me promise not to mention it.

Um...

Prototype, we're still a few weeks out.

Uh... but I, you know...

I can demo it with our Bold prototype.

So, it's still a BlackBerry. It's our BlackBerry.

Except for where we have keys here... screen.

The whole thing's a screen.

Uh, except...

Ours, when you press it, you will get that...

That satisfying click.

That BlackBerry click. Our trademark... click.

So. Screen.

Keyboard. Phone.

Screen. Keyboard. Phone.

Screen. Keyboard. Phone.

Are you getting it?

- Mike? - Stop.

- What was that? - Shut up.

(Doug): Mike. Mike. What the fuck was that, dude?

(Mike): Where is this fucking limo?

(building manager): Capacity maxes at 17,000

but we could enhance it to 19 without too much trouble.

(Jim): Alright. I want all this basketball shit gone.

From now on, this place is a permanent rink.

- We can't do that. - Why?

- We have active contracts with a dozen clients.

- Cancel them.

- Yeah, but there's going to be fines.

- I'll pay the fines. And I want that...

to be my personal box.

(phone notification) - That's not a box.

That's not a box.

- No, no, no. Okay. So, it's a screen,

but it needs a raised hinge or actuator as I wrote,

between it and the body,

so the entire device clicks when you press on it.

(whispering)

Wait, what?

- I'm just wondering why we want to do that?

- That... That is not the question you ask me here.

I don't...

"Why" does not matter to you! Okay?

Because I said so! Because that's what I sold! Okay?

Who are you, by the way?

- Easy, Mike. (phone rings)

(Mike): Oh, come on, guys. Please.

Silent mode! When we're at the office! Charles?

- Phones off!

- Sorry. Sorry, Mike. Sorry, buddy.

- Okay. So, you know what? I think, all this is,

is we are trying to do the old BlackBerry click

while embracing the new iPhone screen. That's all.

- No! No! No.

We're not "embracing" anything to do with Apple.

Guys.

It's really not hard. Okay?

We pay you a lot of money. This is really not hard.

It's a keyboard, on a screen, on a keyboard.

And I don't care what you think of it.

- Mike...

(door opens)

- What the fuck is Doug talking about?

Embracing what Apple is doing? I don't understand.

- You come back from New York talking about a brand new phone.

Alright? Prototype in a week? What are we doing here?

- Can I talk to you? - It's a prototype, Charles!

I could build the fucking thing myself in one night if I had to.

- Yes, yes! But we still gotta ship the goddamn thing.

- I said use the Onyx team. - I did!

On Curve.

(exhales sharply)

Alright, China.

It's the only way this gets done.

I'm sorry, China.

(sighs) - Yeah. Fuck it. Do it.

China.

China. Let's do it.

(Doug): Wait. Wait. No. He doesn't mean that.

(Mike): Hey. Hey. Don't speak for me.

- Mike, what are you doing? - What am I doing?

I'm trying to keep our biggest fucking customer.

What the fuck are you doing?

- Mike, I'm trying to help you.

- You're not, though. You're not. You're not helping me.

This doesn't help me. If you could help me,

we wouldn't be here. I don't need your fucking help anymore.

Okay? You're fucking useless.

- Okay.

(sighs)

- Figure out China.

Figure out China.

And I'll build the fucking thing myself.

(uptempo electro music)

Fuck.

(phone rings)

What? (Dara): Is this Mike Lazaridis?

- Yeah. Who is this?

(Dara): My name is Dara Frankel, I'm from the SEC.

Do you have a second?

- Not really. Not right now. What is this about?

(Dara): I'm trying to track down some information

on some stock options your company issued.

- Well, that's not... I wouldn't know anything about that.

I think you want to talk to Jim.

(Dara): Okay.

Would there be a good time to come in and talk about this?

- No. I don't. No.

(Jim): Okay. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.

- Jack Manishen says he needs to see you.

- Okay. Yeah. Where is he?

(Shelley): Camped outside your office.

- Great.

Shel, do me a favor,

reach out to Carl Yankowski's office and let him know

that Jim Balsillie's got opening night tickets

to the Hamilton Penguins for him.

I know how much he loves hockey.

Alright. Alright. Relax. You got me.

- That same woman from the SEC keeps calling.

Can I give her your number? - No.

- Okay, so... First quarter...

Second quarter...

Third quarter...

fourth quarter.

This is us.

- Whose numbers are these? - Apple's internal projections.

They released the numbers on Friday.

- 500 dollars? Fully subsidized?

This is the most expensive phone in the world.

- It has the highest consumer interest

of any product in history.

We are going to go from "number one phone in the world"

to "that phone that people had before they bought an iPhone."

- It's gonna be fine. Mike will figure it out.

(knock on the door)

What?

(knock continues)

- Hey, um...

Why is the SEC looking at us?

- They called you? - Yeah.

Something... something about stock options.

- I'm sure it's nothing. Yeah.

- It... it's nothing?

- Yeah. What's with this Apple thing?

- What... what about it?

- Are we worried? - No.

- Okay. Why?

- Because one of them uses as much data as 5000 BlackBerries.

Because it has no keyboard. Because the thing is a joke.

- So why are people telling me that they're about to kill us?

- Because they're idiots.

(sighs)

- Get me a meeting with Stan Sigman at AT&T.

- What are you doing?

(Austin): Okay, the soonest I can get is next month.

His office said he's leaving for vacation today.

- Tell them I'm coming to Atlanta. Right now.

Let's go! Let's go!

Tell them we'll be there in an hour.

- It's the NHL.

- Gary! How are ya?

(Bettman): Good. We're ready to go over here.

How soon can you get to New York?

- Great! Uh... Anytime tomorrow.

(Bettman): How about today?

- Uh... That might be a little tight for me.

(Bettman): I've got the board here now and I don't know when

they're all going to be together again.

If you want to wait, up to you. It's your deal.

- Yeah. No. That works, Gary. I'll... yep. I'll be there.

(Bettman): Looking forward to it.

- Okay. Alright. Bye.

Change of plans. We're going to JFK.

(pilot): We're dialed in.

- Listen to me, you mouthy fuck,

if I say we are going to JFK,

we are going to JFK. You understand?

- So we're, we're not meeting with Sigman then?

- I'm doing it all.

- Ah!

Fuck!

(grunts)

- Where's Jim? - I have no idea.

- Come on, we gotta get you outta here.

- What? Why? - SEC is raiding us.

- Wait, what? - Give me your phone.

Where's your goddamn phone? (knocking)

(Dara): Michael Lazaridis? - Can you handle this?

Who are you?

- We spoke on the phone.

Wanna come and answer some questions?

- Sure. Sure.

After me, is it? Okay.

- Okay.

- Okay, what? What are they doing?

That's... No, no. They can't touch any of that stuff.

- Passwords on everything.

- Oh. What's the password, Mike?

- Am I required to give that to you?

- No. Are you hiding something?

- Um, should I not have a lawyer or something with me for this?

- Do you think you need a lawyer?

- Jim.

- Gary. What's going on? You got me waiting out here.

- Jim, look, we're not going to waste your time here, okay?

It's not going to happen with you and the Penguins.

- What?

- We held a vote with the other owners, and unfortunately,

it went against you 26-0.

- Hold on a sec. Hold on. Hold on. I thought we had a deal.

When did the other owners even...

I'm sorry, what changed here, man?

- The owners did not find you to be

of "good character and integrity."

- I don't know what the hell that means.

Gary, what the fuck is this?

- You know, it's funny.

It's one thing to have a secret plan to fuck over the NHL

and move a team to Canada.

It's another thing to brag to your rich friends

before you actually do it.

(scoffs)

- Oh, you guys are so fucking stupid.

You know what? Maybe I'll buy this whole fucking league, huh?

How about that?

- Dawn, can we see that Mr. Bald-Silly

gets safely back to Canada?

- Oh, fuck all you people!

Fuck you!

Get ready for a hostile takeover

of this entire fucking league, okay?

You fuck!

You think I won't fucking do it?

I'm from Waterloo, where the vampires hang out!

Go! Go! Go! Go!

- We'll never make it.

- I said let's go!

Delay Sigman. - I called.

They said he's already left for vacation.

- Where?

- They just said he's going to the airport.

- Great. So are we.

- And is this your signature?

- Yeah.

- And this?

- I don't know what you're looking for.

These are standard employment contracts.

- I'm just wondering how

you convinced all these engineers from around the world

to come all the way to Canada.

Doesn't make sense.

- It's because they get to work on the best phone in the world.

- Mike. - Hm?

- Each of these contracts offers backdated stock options.

You were illegally pricing your own shares

so you could hire engineers with money you didn't have.

Do you know what the sentence is

for multimillion-dollar stock fraud?

- Okay. I swear I had no idea about any of what you just said.

(Dara): Do you expect me to believe that?

You're CEO.

- Co-CEO.

(Sigman): Tell me why this can't wait another few weeks?

- I'm telling you, Stan.

I'm headed for the terminal right now.

- What? - Hold up.

I'm at Gate... 7. Uh, where are ya?

(Sigman): Are you runnin'?

- No. Stan. No. I'm good.

I'm telling ya. Just give me the gate.

(Sigman): I'm getting on a plane here, Jim.

- Okay. Listen, uh... Stan. Alright.

Here's the headline:

half a million BlackBerries for AT&T, for zero dollars.

(Sigman): What's the catch? - No! No catch. They're yours.

If you're willing to release them at a discount

one month before the iPhone.

(Sigman): Oh... (muttering)

- Stan, come on, you owe me.

You've sold a lot of minutes because of us.

(Sigman): Yeah, but you know what the problem

with selling minutes is?

- What?

(Sigman): There's only one minute in a minute.

(line ringing)

(Mike): Hey. - Okay, Mike, listen to me.

I think we've got a big problem here, I know what Apple's doing.

(Mike): We shouldn't talk on the phone.

- Why?

Why? - We're in trouble with the SEC.

But get back as soon as you can.

I have a way to get us out of this.

(sighs)

♪♪♪

- Okay, so, listen.

AT&T knows exactly what they're doing.

They wanted Apple to build them a data-guzzling monster

because that's where they're going to move the market.

They're not selling minutes anymore, Mike.

They're selling data.

- He's here.

- Uh... Who's that?

- They're waiting for you next door.

- Who's...

What, what did you do?

- I made a deal.

The SEC gets you, your board seat,

and our full cooperation in their criminal investigation.

And for that, they'll leave us alone.

And they want 83 million dollars.

(sighs)

(scoffs)

- You said next door?

(soft music plays)

(employees chattering)

(sighs)

(faint electrical hum)

(hum stops)

(sighs)

(faint electrical hum)

(upbeat music plays)

(♪ Waterloo Sunset ♪ The Kinks)

♪ Waterloo station every Friday night ♪

♪ But I am so lazy don't want to wander ♪

♪ I stay at home at night ♪

♪ But I don't feel afraid ♪

♪ As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset ♪

♪ I am in paradise... ♪