"The Yanks have colonised our subconscious..."
opening quote by Wim Wenders.
Silicon Docks is a 2022 Irish animated film, written and directed by Graham Jones.
It's Autumn of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic is in full swing. Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, summons the following tech moguls for an emergency meeting in Dublin:
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin - co-founders of Google.
- Mark Zuckerberg - creator of Facebook.
- Jack Dorsey - creator of Twitter.
- Susan Wojcicki - CEO of YouTube.
- Elon Musk - CEO of Tesla Inc
- Evan Spiegel - co-founder and CEO of Snapchat.
- Reed Hastings - CEO of Netflix.
- Jeff Bezos - CEO of Amazon.
Marissa has wrangled everyone to meet in Dublin of all places to get them to sign the EU Voluntary Containment Guidelines Pact. Much drunkenness and Hilarity Ensues. The animation is done by Kasia Wiśniewska, and the film can be viewed here
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"You're overthinking the tropes...":
- Actually Pretty Funny: After Elon taunts Jeff about how underpaid Amazon workers are, Jeff asks if he can respond to that in Irish. When the response is just "fuck off", Elon laughs genuinely.
- Affectionate Nickname: Jeff calls Reed "Brother Reed". Jack eventually gets in on it too.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Everyone gets drunker and drunker, and therefore the stupidity increases.
- And Starring: Matthew McMahon is given the 'and' in the opening credits for playing Jeff.
- Appropriated Appelation: When Mark tries to claim that YouTube is worse for misinformation than Facebook, Jack angrily responds that Twitter already has that crown.
- As You Know: Larry reminds Marissa, and by extension the audience, that they have a history too.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Jack behaves like a Granola Guy - being introduced meditating on the docks, convinced animals are drawn to him and comparing everyone to the beat poets of the 60s. You'd almost forget he was a fortysomething billionaire.
- Brick Joke: In an early scene, Elon jokes that he wouldn't be surprised if one of the others was behind the pandemic. Later, Sergey produces a Twitter post about their presence in Dublin with the caption "did these people invent Covid?"
- Butt-Monkey: Everyone loves to make fun of Mark, and he does end up in some rather compromising situations throughout the day.
- Call-Back: Early on, Evan is told that in Ireland they like to say 'shite' instead of 'shit'. At the end, when summarizing the disaster that was the trip, he decides that declaring it 'shite' is very appropriate.
- Catchphrase:
- Evan Spiegel - "you're overthinking the internet".
- Mark will occasionally say "like!" followed by a thumbs up.
- Closed Circle: Due to COVID quarantine and isolation rules, the protagonists must stay together at all times.
- Comically Missing the Point: Evan's speech "Mark tried to fuck Evan" is mistaken by the latter to be literal.
- Compliment Backfire: Larry assures Marissa that "your fingerprints are all over Google" is meant as a compliment.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Sergey briefly worries that it might be illegal to drink in public in Ireland like it is back home.
- Despair Event Horizon: Jack crosses his very early on when he discovers all the pubs in Dublin are closed - the only reason he came being for a pub crawl.
- Disney Acid Sequence: As the protagonists start drinking in Stephen's Green, we get a surreal sequence involving giant pennies, falling through the Twitter feed, interactive maps...
- Drowning My Sorrows: Jack is dead set on it. As Evan puts it.Evan: "For someone with such a serious health regimen, you seem very intent on getting fucked."Jack: "It's hard enough being around you guys. I'm not going to be sober at the same time."
- End of an Era: Graham Jones specifically set the film in Autumn of 2020 to capture the "dying days" of the Trump administration, and how the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2010s culturally.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire film happens over less than twelve hours.
- Fake Irish: In-universe. Elon rigs his voice with technology to sound like a Dublin Skanger.
- Fan Nickname: In-universe. Jack calls his the 'Jack-offs', and Elon calls his the 'Musketeers' (which is actually true).
- Friend to All Living Things: Jack thinks he's this. A couple of pigeons land next to him, and he says "I'm not your king", and later claims that birds "gravitate towards me".
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: When most of the others are dropping f-bombs, Marissa chooses to say "flipping".
- Gray Rain of Depression: Once it starts raining, it also coincides with the characters either having heart-to-hearts or sadder moments.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Elon accuses Jeff of being jealous of him.
- Hearing Voices: Susan appears to repeatedly hear voices telling her to delete her videos.
- Historical Domain Character: A whole cast full of tech moguls.
- History with Celebrity: Reed insists he knows where Bono lives and has his cell number.
- Iconic Outfit: Jack is of course wearing his black hoodie and beanie combination.
- In Vino Veritas: Mark's humanizing moment comes about after he's got so drunk he's sitting alone in the rain and Evan comforts him.
- Insult Backfire: Marissa seems flattered when Evan calls her "the spanner in the works" and responds with "groovy".
- It Will Never Catch On: Mark jokes about Trump supporters staging some kind of insurrection if he doesn't win the election. Likewise most of the characters seem convinced Trump will win.
- Irony: Lampshaded that in Dublin - capital city of the country with the stereotype of heavy drinkers - all the pubs are closed.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Jack mistakes a heron for a stork, which are extremely rare in Ireland.
- Monochrome Casting: Lampshaded by Marissa that she's wrangling "a bunch of white men" for the plot to happen.
- Nature Tinkling: Jeff and Elon have a moment where they're pissing against Parliament Row. Space rockets serve as a Scenery Censor.
- The One That Got Away: Larry and Marissa had dated previously in the 2000s when Marissa was working at Google, and he seems to be wistful about how their relationship ended.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Susan describes Sergey being voted "the second craziest person in my family".
- Recognition Failure: Elon apparently doesn't know who Bono or U2 are.
- The Rival:
- Mark and Evan, stemming from Mark's resentment at not being allowed into the same clubs as Evan in college, and the latter turning down his offer to buy Snapchat.
- Jeff and Elon, due to both competing for the slot of richest person in the world.
- There's also a scene where Reed brags about eventually doing things with Netflix that Susan counters they're already doing on YouTube. They're however more passive aggressive than the others.
- Running Gag:
- Mark keeps trying to get someone to sell their empire because "the interface is not that different to Facebook".
- Reed keeps trying to convince everyone to go to Bono's house.
- Scenery Porn: Contemporary Dublin is depicted truly beautifully in handdrawn animation.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Elon thinks he can leave as early as when they're sitting by the canals, saying he has "another planet" to be on.
- Evan nearly books a taxi to the airport, before being stopped by Marissa; convincing him he needs to make peace with Mark.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Mark would be the sensitive guy - with his polite and finicky way of speaking, and his introverted ways. Evan would be the manly man - much more extroverted and cool.
- Separated by a Common Language: The Americans are occasionally baffled by Irish slang. Mark has to double check that "sick" is being used in a good way. Marissa also doesn't know what an Off Licence is (the American equivalent would a liquor store).
- Sophisticated as Hell: As Evan is lecturing him on how to improve Facebook, Mark screeches back "I'm CEO, bitch!"
- Speech-Centric Work: Most of the film is the characters having Snark-to-Snark Combat while wandering around Dublin.
- Suddenly Shouting: A lot of characters will suddenly start shouting, particularly in the first two acts.
- Take That!: When a random Dub in the street accuses Jack of letting Twitter be full of racists, Jack tries to counter that they de-platformed Gemma O'Doherty, an infamous Irish right winger.
- Think of the Children!: Marissa trolls Mark for disappointing all the little girls who'd hoped the 2016 election would result in a woman becoming US president.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Sergey says early on "the probability of this being a good day is low."
- Those Two Guys: Larry and Sergey are often treated as one entity and are usually together.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Evan spends most of his screentime making fun of Mark, but is eventually compelled to empathise with him and rebuild their friendship.
- Two Girls to a Team: Marissa and Susan are the only prominent females in the story.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Marissa is non-plussed at Evan and Mark having a fight in front of her.
- Volleying Insults: About 60% of Mark and Evan's interactions are exchanging insults about the other's respective app.
- Women Are Wiser: Marissa and Susan behave much more responsibly than the men.
