Silicon Valley - Pilot Outline

What a great pilot. What an awesome metaphor for the shit show that is Hollywood.

Written by Mike Judge & John Altschuler & Dave Krinsky

Silicon Valley  - Pilot Outline 

Credit sequence of Silicon Valley 

1. Establishing shot of Erlich's house: "could be the home of upwardly mobile while trash or downwardly mobile professionals." 

2. Inside Erlich's house. We "pan through the denizens of Hacker House" -- meet Danesh, Big Head, Jin Yang, and Thomas (who I guess became Richard) and a few other guys who are not in the show but must've been in the original pilot. 

They are all working on computers, eating ramen, and procrastinating at the same time. Except Thomas, who is working really hard. Big Head wants to participate in some sort of all night nerd tourney, but Thomas refuses because he has too much work to do. 

Then, we get out exposition because Jin Yang tells Thomas "he can just buy compression software" and Thomas explains what his company, Pied Piper, does. Then Thomas asks Danesh to test his module, Big Head is jealous, Danesh negotiates to trade his testing for Thomas's lunch... it very much sets up the dynamics between the characters. 

Enter Erlich. He's wearing an HTML - How to Meet Ladies shirt - and he's described as someone who "doesn't make much eye contact but is still somehow very aggressive." 

Erlich pulls Thomas aside and basically tells Thomas to get out. Erlich has given Thomas 6 months to work on Pied Piper, and nothing has happened. Thomas tries to defend Pied Piper, "The Google of Music" but Erlich calls it crap. 

Thomas says it well help artists not steal music. Erlich is like, dude, artists steal music on purpose, they make careers of it. Very smart discussion about money vs. ethics. Then Erlich says Thomas should be like Big Head, who's making an app called NipAlert - tells you where a woman with erect nipples is in your vicinity. 

Thomas says he wants to change the world and bargains for more time - when he signed up to live here Erlich promised him a month's notice. Erlich agrees, then we get a little bit of Erlich backstory and he says he really wants to make a difference "Like Steve." Thomas asks "Jobs or Wozniak?" And Erlich says "(duh) Jobs." This is also a big character moment for both of them. Erlich likens Jobs to Jesus and Thomas says, "He was a poser! He didn't even write code." 

NOTE: this scene takes us to page 6, but it basically sets up EVERYTHING about the show. Convictions vs. money. Concept vs. execution. Erlich's incubator. Big Head as dummy. Other coders. Thomas's ambition. AND the stakes of Thomas needing to produce some sort of results. 

3. On a Google bus (Hooli, in the script it's called Boodle) - Gavin Belson talks to the riders via CCTV, "Boodle brings the world to everyone. Boodle is everything. And that's what allows Boodle to 'make happy.'" Thomas and Big Head are among the riders on the way to work at Boodle (which is obviously meant to feel a little creepy and dystopian). Thomas is searching for a new living situation, but everything is crazy expensive. He can't believe. He and Big Head don't want to be forced to move home. 

They talk about how every day someone hits in big in the Valley, "but not me!" 

Then, Big Head and Thomas discuss how Thomas could help legitimize Big Head's NipAlert app. But they quickly see holes in their ideas, and Thomas laments that he's "gonna have to go to grad school." He can't afford to live in the valley even with a full time job at Boodle. 

The idea of "changing the world" comes up again, and Thomas is disheartened this time. 

4. On the Boodle campus. Thomas and Big Head walking. We see an unused "play area" with climbing walls etc. and a bunch of engineers standing around drinking energy drinks. (They always use these little moments to remind us of the satire and to comment on place). Then Big Head brings up Peter Gregory to Thomas. "Did you hear what he's doing?" PG is building an island in the pacific (ridiculous) but he's also offering a hundred grand to kids willing to skip or drop out of college to pursue an idea. 

Big Head suggests going to see PG speak in Palo Alto tonight. Maybe get money for Pied Piper? Funny joke: "I don't know what happened to that guy, but he really hates college." 

5. Inside Boodle. Again, we see some silly SV stuff. The brightly painted, round cubicles. A ridiculous snack area. And every thing is "energy" related. Thomas runs into "brogrammers." They rib him, he confesses he needs a place to live because nobody gets Pied Piper. They offer to help, he is excited, but then they are just fucking with him. He sends them Pied Piper before he realizes this. 

6. Four Seasons Hotel - PG's speech. It's all about successful guys dropping out of college. And how college strangles people with conformity. It's very smart -- how college is an "expensive joke on the poor and the middle class" and that it churns out unemployed debtors. Again, this is a real, timely, philosophical argument. PG gets into an argument with a righteous academic in the crowd. 

7. Cut to: Later. Thomas and Big Head approach PG and his hot assistant, Monica. Thomas realizes he didn't sign up to have a personal consult, but he has a plan -- he trick PG into talking to him by threatening to return to college, "maybe Boston University." PG is beside himself, but soon realizes that Thomas is trying to weasel his way into pitching. PG says ok, fine. Thomas is ready to go and quickly pitches Pied Piper. But it doesn't go well and PG is a weirdo who doesn't respond to Thomas as he'd hoped. Monica intervenes as PG's car arrives and then offers to look at Thomas's link, but he feels that she's just humoring him. Meanwhile, Bighead has just been staring at her boobs. 

8. Erlich's house. Thomas feels defeated. He returns and sees that Erlich is eating and interviewing potential replacements for Thomas's slot at the incubator. Erlich is full of himself. The person is pitching binary alphabet soup. Erlich thinks this is very stupid but still pointedly looks at Thomas and asks who has an idea worth of this new slot. 

9. Thomas's room. He enters to find Big Head talking to Danesh and Roland (who I think becomes Gilfoyle). Big Head is showing them his 14th century brass instrument "sacbut". He is in a band that plays "sacbut" but nobody really gets it. Then Thomas expresses frustration that even though everyone likes music, nobody gets his app. Then Big Head talks about Monica being super hot, and how he neglected to put her on NipAlert because he was too distracted. 

10. Yoga studio - "The room is almost depressingly filled with young, hot women and one guy." Here, we meet two very hot women, Tandy and Langdon, who are discussing how they need better jobs and "there's no money in non-profit anymore." They reminisce about good old days of AIDS fundraisers. One of them is defaulting on student loans "Why the hell did they lend me money to major in Art History. Assholes!" 

They discuss going out to a club, but "all the guys with money in LA seem to be old and fat." "Except for the professional athletes." "Yeah, they're hot but they're all rapists." "Yeah, or (even worse) Christians." This is just another funny, satirical exchange. 

11. Moments later, in the studio. Langdon and Tandy go into an adjoining cafe. They feel like they're too old to land a man. They see Silicon Valley guys on TV, wish they could land "geeks" who are rich and smart and age appropriate. They consider moving to SV. 

12. Close up of Pied Piper logo. It sucks. Reveal: the Brogrammers are making fun of Thomas's program at Boodle. Their scorn quickly turns to surprise when they realize the file size is tiny... and that it's not downgraded at all. 

Moments later: A crowd has gathered to look at Pied Piper. The Brogrammers are humbled and impressed. Then, JARED Dunn walks by. He's intrigued. 

13. CUT TO: The perpetually scowling face of Gavin Belson (what a great character intro). We listen as Jared explains Pied Piper to Gavin. Gavin gives Jared a greedy look and says, I want it. 

14. Erlich's house. Thomas is packing up. Big Head is helping. Then Erlich tries to say he's being a good guy, but actually he's just giving Thomas a choice between leaving his code with Erlich or cleaning the bathroom. Thomas gets a call from "A Boodle number again." But he's dismissive about it. Thinks it's the brogrammers. 

Finally, he picks up the Boodle call, wanting to put an end to the brogrammers' torment. But it's someone saying Gavin Belson loves PP and wants a meeting. Erlich, who was hearing another pitch, immediately says he's gonna change clothes to come to the meeting and that he owns 10% of PP. 

15. Thomas is admitted to the exclusive exec area in Boodle. 

16. Thomas waits in the Boodle area. Jared and a bunch of other people are there. Jared says Gavin is running 30 min late. Thomas says "It's been about 40 minutes, so does that mean 30 more min or..." Another exec pipes up and says Gavin is excited. Everyone talks about how incredible and energizing (and rare) it is to meet Gavin. 

17. In Gavin's office - Gavin's really nice office is covered in pictures of Gavin. A lot of photos are of him with starving children etc. Again, ridiculous. He's talking with a designer. He doesn't want another "posed" photo of himself. He wants an action shot of him innovating. 

18. Meanwhile, Erlich forces Big Head to sneak him into Boodle. 

19. Thomas is still waiting, but then he gets a call from Peter Gregory. WTF? 

20. In Gavin's office. Gavin describes a typical "pack of 5 programmers" - Tall skinny white guy, short skinny Asian guy, fat guy with a ponytail, some guy with crazy facial hair, and then an East Indian guy. But it turns out he's talking to a Powerade salesman, and the salesman is confused and just wants to sell his drinks. Then, Gavin says he used to pay people in ice cream but now everyone wants to be healthy. THEN someone tells Gavin that PG is on the phone with Thomas and Gavin kicks the Powerade guy out. 

21. Thomas on the phone. He tells PG he's actually in Gavin Belson's office. Gavin enters, mistakes someone else for Thomas, then approaches Thomas and says he loves PP! Jared then explains that since Thomas developed PP while working at Boodle, it belongs to Boodle. But Thomas will get a promotion and raise. 

Thomas refutes this, says no, he has only worked at Boodle for a couple of weeks and he developed this months ago. 

Enter Erlich, who says, "That's right. He created it while living at MY INCUBATOR." 

Big Head apologizes to Thomas and says Erlich forced him to sneak him in. 

Gavin is annoyed, ignores Erlich, realizes he may not have ownership and offers Thomas 600,000 for PP. But Erlich isn't having it... he puts his arm around Thomas "like he owns him." Thomas smiles. 

Gavin gives a speech about how if Thomas sells to Boodle, he'll have the full weight of the company, "At Boodle, we don't ask people what they want. We tell them what they want." Big Head gets a phone call from PG, who wants to speak to Thomas. Big Head says I don't know how he got my number and gives Thomas the phone. Thomas apologizes but while he listens to PG, Gavin blurts out that he'll give Thomas ten million dollars. Thomas mutters this half to himself, half into the phone. 

22. In PG's office. Monica stands by as PG has Thomas on speaker. PG offers one hundred thousand dollars to Gavin's ten mil. INTERCUT: Thomas is confused as he announces to the room what PG's counter offer is. PG says listen, don't take 10 million dollars and disappear. That's not why you're here. You're here to make your mark. Take my money and you could be one of the greats. Thomas can't decide, he flees the room. 

23. SERIES OF MEETINGS -- everyone gives Thomas advice about what to do. First at Erlich's, then at Boodle, where Thomas asks what his position would be and Jared says "you could think of something else brilliant." Which Boodle would own. 

Then Thomas points out that the contract is for thirty years. "Yes the ten million is paid over thirty years." And there's a clause that basically says Thomas can't talk to Gavin. Thomas seems dejected. 

24. Outside Erlich's - Thomas is lost in thought. He sees Monica waiting for him. He's very startled. She says she wants to tell him that whoever he chooses it's ok. Boodle is creepy and PG is nuts but these two HUGE guys are fighting over you, so enjoy it. 

Thomas says he can't. He's bad at making these kinds of decisions, but good at code. He's not a big picture guy. He says, why did PG send you here? Monica brushes past him, it's sexy, she says, Nobody sent me over here. She walks away. Thomas is confused. 

25. Gavin's office. Thomas is on speaker. Thomas wants to be a part of his project but Gavin is revved up about this. Jared tries to mediate. Gavin, unwittingly still on speaker, says, "I'll give this dickhead thirty mil if I never have to talk to him again." 

26. Langdon and Tandy - hot yoga girls - are at the four seasons. But it's overrun with coders and programmers who have no idea how to talk to women. A really drunk, pissed off for no reason guy starts ranting about his skills and yells "I'm a tenth level magic user" as security drags him out. 

27. Downtown Palo Alto. Langdon and Tandy are confused. This is where all the rich tech guys live? They enter a brew pub. 

28. In the pub - it's all nerdy, terrified men just like in the four seasons. But we see that Jin Yang and Roland/ Gilfoyle are patrons. We realize they are there celebrating Thomas's 30 mil offer from Boodle. Langdon catches wind of this and wants to talk to Thomas, who is surrounded by his housemates and other people, still giving him advice. Tandy wants to leave because she's bored with this scene, but Langdon has smelled blood. 

29. Erlich's house. Thomas is alone in the kitchen. It's late. Erlich enters, Thomas waits for a snide remark but instead, Erlich says, "You don't want to work for assholes and now you don't have to. You're like me - you want to build something." Thomas looks almost relieved by this comment. NOTE: THAT IS THE WHOLE SCENE. 

30. Boodle - Jared talks to Gavin. The whole scene is this: Jared: "He turned down 30 million dollars?" Gavin: "Well, look at it this way -- I have 30 million dollars that I'm going to use to destroy that sad, pathetic, stupid prick." 

31. Erlich's house - Everyone celebrates with pizza and beer. Now they're gonna do things right. Starting with changing the shitty name. Jared enters. Thomas says, my decision to turn you down was final. And Jared says, I know. It's all I can think about - you turned down 30 mil because you really care about something and I want to be part of that. It's very rousing. Then Thomas says, "maybe it sounds like bullshit to want to change the world, but we can at least make our mark." Everyone is swept away. It's clear they all came to the Valley for this feeling, this moment. Erlich reminds them why he's there by cheers-ing to "making some money." 

IT'S AMAZING.