History Film / TheFounder

** The [=McDonalds=] brothers are presented as the victims of Ray's predatory behavior, who eventually screwed them out of their stake in the company. In real life, the brothers were very happy with the huge nest egg they had for retirement. Their request for 1% of the annual profits as part of the buyout agreement has never been verified and the brothers never attempted to sue over it. Therefore, it's entirely possible that it's all just a rumor from some of their bitter descendants who would be billionaires today had that actually been signed. Likewise, while they certainly had some disagreements with Ray, their split was a mutual decision and they never expressed any regrets about it. In 1984, Dick even ate the ceremonial 50 billionth burger [=McDonald=]'s sold.

* NotIllegalJustification: Ray Kroc's maneuvers to take control of the McDonald's franchise from its founding brothers rely on careful exploitations of the law. As their subordinate, Ray can't make the changes to their menu that he claims would cut costs but the brothers claim would cut quality. But he can if he first buys the land that the restaurant is built on and then giving orders as its new landlord. When buying the company from them, Kroc is required to pay them for the purchase, but not if he disguises it as a handshake agreement of which there's no proof the brothers can point to as having occurred. The brothers even point out that it would've been simpler for Kroc to just do the scummy thing and rip off their restaurant with his own imitation. But Kroc defends his actions, saying that there was no substitute for the all-American name "McDonalds" and he had to own it for record-breaking success.

At the age of 52, Ray Kroc is an over-the-hill milkshake machine salesman. That is, until he learns of a small burger restaurant in Southern California called "[=McDonald's=]," which has ordered an unusually high number of mixers. Run by brothers Dick (Creator/NickOfferman) and Mac (Creator/JohnCarrollLynch), Ray is quickly captivated by their revolutionary method of food production, utilizing an assembly line to prepare meals in seconds rather than minutes. At his insistence, the restaurant begins to franchise and soon becomes one of the most recognized brands in the world.

''The Founder'' is a 2016 {{biopic}} starring Creator/MichaelKeaton as Ray Kroc, the [[{{BlatantLies}} alleged]] founder of UsefulNotes/McDonalds.

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Zig-zagged. The whole film is about how Ray went from a salesman with an admirable work ethic and drive to succeed into a ruthless real estate owner who screws over his business partners to get what he wants. However, Ray did take on all risk, to even mortgaging his house to make McDonalds a reality, and had to fight extremely hard to make it all happen. He also received middling support at best from his ex-wife. The film ends with Ray possibly questioning his decisions.

** The brothers pare down their menu to just burgers, fries, and drinks -- which constituted 87% of their sales -- to streamline service and wait times. [=McDonald's=] faced sales drops in TheNewTens in part because an overexpanded menu had amplified wait times and lousy customer service, forcing new brass to come in and pare down the menu again.
** Kroc is furious when he finds out franchisees have added extraneous items to the menus without his consent, like fried chicken, corn on the cob, and biscuits. In the long history of [=McDonald's=], nearly every attempt to expand outside their forte -- pizza, spaghetti, buffalo wings, etc. -- have been notorious, costly, abject failures. One of the few exceptions would be the Chicken [=McNuggets=], which have been a staple of the [=McDonald's=] menu since the 1980s.

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: The whole film is about how Ray went from a salesman with an admirable work ethic and drive to succeed into a ruthless real estate owner who screws over his business partners.

* EvilIsPetty: Although calling Ray "evil" is an overstatement, after he gains full control of the franchises he buys the [=McDonald=] brothers out for a relatively small fee, and makes them a non-written "handshake deal" to pay them 1% of corporate revenue annually knowing he'll never actually have to do it. He then uses a buried clause in the buyout contract to make them change the name of their restaurant, and builds his own [=McDonald's=] right across the street knowing it will put them out of business. On top of that, he implies through ExactWords that he is, well, the founder of UsefulNotes/McDonalds and takes sole credit for the successful model. He also leaves his wife who stood by him through many failed ventures and had their house unknowingly mortgaged to finance the restaurant's expansion. He then makes sure she never sees any of the profits from the corporation.

* HeroAntagonist: As greed overtakes Ray and he starts making slimy and rotten moves, he [[FaceHeelTurn becomes the villain of the piece]] and the [=McDonald=] brothers are the wholesome (non-powdered milk) heroes opposing him.

* VillainProtagonist: Ray is presented something like this; he's the main character of the story, the CharacterDevelopment he goes through makes him increasingly ruthless and venal, and the narrative presents him as a rather underhanded opponent towards two honest and upstanding businessmen as he goes from entering into partnership with them, to undermining them for the sake of profit, to essentially stealing their business model and name.

** The film posits that Harry Sonneborn first saw Ray during a chance encounter at a bank where the latter failed to secure funding, and that the only reason why Ray eventually changed his model is because Harry convinced him during the subsequent review of the financial ledgers. In actuality, Harry and Ray already knew each other from the latter's days selling multi-mixers (Sonneborn was VP at a company that bought said mixers from Ray), and he quit his job and went to work for Ray, eventually working alongside him to create the Franchise Realty Corporation.

** Remember that the [=McDonald=] brothers were taking no risk in their franchising venture with Ray. Ray was putting up all the money, taking all the financial risk even mortgaged his house behind Ethel's back, and doing all the work. Furthermore, Dick [=McDonald=] was so timid in his business decisions that he vetoed every move Ray suggested to improve the franchises. The Brothers didn't have to do anything, and received royalty checks as a result. Ray (correctly) saw that they were sitting on a gold mine and that if they didn't act quickly someone else would just copy their model and become the dominant force in the fast food industry. Since the brothers essentially had all of the control with none of the risk, Ray felt justified in exploiting a loophole so he could take greater control of the franchises and vastly increase his profits. Unfortunately, many of his antics and later acts in this process just come across as EvilIsPetty.

* ProductPlacement: While ostentiably being a story about "founding" [=McDonald's=] and the in-fights that happend along the way, the film wastes no time to start glamourising the company and its products.

* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Ray gives a cruel one to Mac: he makes it clear that he (Ray) is calling the shots here, and that the brothers have absolutely no leverage on him. When Mac indignantly stands up for integrity and honesty again, Ray gets even nastier. It rattles Mac so badly that he goes into diabetic shock.

* SiblingTeam: The [=McDonald=] brothers. In real life Dick lived another 27 years after Mac died. It's very sad when you see how close they are in the film, and really were in real life.

-->'''Ray:''' No, you and your brother. I want to hear your story.

* ChekhovsGun: The abandoned Thriftown Market store in San Bernardino. Ray later buys the land and builds another [=McDonald's=] across the street from the original.

* SexlessMarriage: Ray and Ethel have this. They barely talk to each other, even in bed. The only use Ray ever saw in her was her Country Club membership card to attract wealthy investors. Once Ray acquires the minimum capital he needs for his enterprise, he divorces her leaving her merely the house, car and insurance policy but Ray gets to keep all his riches as CEO of [=McDonald's=] while she is written out of any of his shares in the company.

* ShownTheirWork: The film really captures the 1950s scene with good immersion.
** Similarly, there is a surprising amount of depth regarding entrepreneurship and the process of designing a new business venture.

* LoopholeAbuse: The contract Ray signs gives him virtually no control over the restaurants, and a 1.4% share of every burger sold that doesn't even cover his expenses. His solution is to start a separate real estate company, and require all franchisees to lease their locations from him. This means that, even if he doesn't own the restaurant, he owns the ''land'' on which every [=McDonald's=] sits, which is both very profitable and also gives him a huge amount of power.

* LoopholeAbuse: The contract Ray signs gives him virtually no control over the restaurants, and a share of the profits that doesn't even cover his expenses. His solution is to start a separate real estate company, and require all franchisees to lease their locations from him. This means that, even if he doesn't own the restaurant, he owns the ''land'' on which every [=McDonald's=] sits, which is both very profitable and also gives him a huge amount of power.

** In their final confrontation, when commenting on how the name "[=McDonalds=]" is perfect for such an operation, Ray notes that it's the kind of name which suggests its owner will never get pushed around, leading Dick to bitterly note that it's clearly not true in his case. Ray immediately retorts that Dick currently has a check for $1.35 million in his pocket that clearly says otherwise; sure, he might have got outplayed but still fought his corner, and if nothing else still got what is by any reasonable standard a very generous payout as a consolation prize.

** There's no mention of Ronald [=McDonald=] or any mascots the restaurant had besides Speedee.

** Thrice during the brothers' story. They initially planned to bring their stand wholesale into San Bernardino before realizing that the city's main road was fronted by a bridge too low to drive under with the stand-in tow, forcing them to literally halve the building. Second, their opening day as a walk-up was a disaster, as they assumed wrongly that customers would understand to leave their car to place their order, causing massive confusion in the lot. Then when they had a grand re-opening with spotlights adorning the parking lot, they attracted a biblical amount of flies to the lights and drove everyone away in panic.

* GoodCapitalismEvilCapitalism: The film as a narrative, is a telling (though with some ArtisticLicense) of how Ray Kroc became the owner of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds franchise. The [=McDonald=] brothers worked hard to turn a few of their prior businesses into the little Hamburger joint enjoyed by the locals. Kroc offers to expand them to go national, but eventually makes himself the face of the company and does practices the brothers despise until everyone associates the SimpleYetAwesome business with him, at which point the brothers are basically forced to sell their company.

** Ray sends the [=McDonald=] brothers a packet of a new flavor of the Insta-Mix powdered milkshake (after which they vehemently oppose using in the restaurants) just to be an asshole.

** Even his visit to Mac [[spoiler: in the hospital]]! His [[spoiler:"get well card"]] contains [[spoiler:a ''blank check'', as an offer buy them out]]. Even under these circumstances, he's relentless about getting the brothers out of the picture. He didn't even have the decency to wait and address the matter [[spoiler:when Mac was discharged]].

* LoopholeAbuse: The contract Ray signs gives him virtually no control over the restaurants, and share of the profits that doesn't even cover his expenses. His solution is to start a separate real estate company, and require all franchisees to lease their locations from him. This means that, even if he doesn't own the restaurant, he owns the ''land'' on which every [=McDonald's=] sits, which is both very profitable and also gives him a huge amount of power.

** Momentary averted for Dick when they finalize the floor design (at the tennis court): he's downright giddy with glee! (Or at least as giddy as Dick gets)

* ProductPlacement: While ostentiably being a story about "founding" [=McDonald's=] and the in-fights that happend along, the film wastes no time to start glamourising the company and its products.

** Subverted when Dick later attempts this on Ray that Ray didn't invent ''any'' of this enterprise. He just took advantage of other people's ideas, development and hard work. Ray is unfazed by this, pointing out ''Ray'' the ultimate winner, so who cares how he got here?

* VillainProtagonist: Ray is presented something like this; he's the main character of the story, the CharacterDevelopment he goes through makes him increasingly ruthless and venal, and the narrative presents him as a rather unhanded opponent towards two honest and upstanding businessmen as he goes from entering into partnership with them, to undermining them for the sake of profit, to essentially stealing their business model and name.

* CallBack: When Ray meets Mac he shows him his Prince Castle Sales business card. At the end of the movie, a reporter wants to do a piece on [=McDonald's=] 100th location opening (in San Bernardino directly across from the original location) Ray gives him a business card that says he's the founder of [=McDonald's=].

** There’s no mention of Kroc’s acquaintance with Walt Disney, they had met as ambulance attendant trainees at Old Greenwich, Connecticut during World War I, and Kroc even wrote a letter to Walt asking if he could open a [=McDonald=]’s at Disneyland.

* ChekhovsGun: Mac's diabetes, the reason for Dick not wanting to go along with Ray's idea to franchise [=McDonald's=]. It does come into play late in the movie.

* IdleRich: Ray is tired of "hob-knobbing" with them.

** The movie implies that the [=McDonald=] brothers invented the idea of a fast food restaurant. While the Speedee System was indeed theirs, White Castle was using a similar system as far back as 1921. One could also argue the automats of the time used the same principles for on-demand quick food preparation.

* LoopholeAbuse: The contract Ray signs gives him virtually no control over the restaurants, and share of the profits that doesn't even cover his expenses. His solution is to start a separate real estate company, and require all franchisees to lease their locations from him. This means that, even if he doesn't own the restaurant, he owns the ''land'' on which every[=McDonald's=] sits, which is both very profitable and also gives him a huge amount of power.

* LoopholeAbuse: The contract Ray signs gives him virtually no control over the restaurants, and share of the profits that doesn't even cover his expenses. His solution is to start a separate real estate company, and require all franchisees to lease their locations from him. This means that, even if he doesn't own the restaurant, he owns the ''land'' on which every McDonald's sits, which is both very profitable and also gives him a huge amount of power.

** When Ray agrees to buy out the brothers at the end of the film, one of the conditions the latter party states is that Kroc won't be able to acquire the San Bernardino location. Kroc agrees to this, but conditions that they won't be able to use any variation of the word "[=McDonald's=]", leading to them looking on sadly as the name is removed from the sign. To add insult to injury, Kroc later expands the chain into San Bernardino anyway -- at a site located ''right across the street'' from the original location. This causes their Big M restaurant to go out of business years later. Even worse, the restaurant was for the brothers loyal employees.

* LoopholeAbuse: How Ray begins to assume further control of the brand, by owning the ''land'' on which the restaurants are built on rather than the restaurants themselves.

* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Ray becomes more unhinged the further his empire grows, but the ending [[spoiler: indicates that he may be feeling some remorse after all given the rather somber tone at the end.]]

** There's no mention of Ronald [=McDonald=].