The Founder

The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. Starring Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, the film portrays the story of his creation of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain, which eventually involved forcing out the company's original founders to take control with conniving ruthlessness. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as McDonald's founders Richard and Maurice McDonald, alongside Linda Cardellini as Ray Kroc's third wife Joan Smith, and B. J. Novak as McDonald's president and chief executive Harry J. Sonneborn.
==Plot==
In 1954, traveling milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc observes that many of the drive-in restaurants that he tries to sell to are inefficiently run. After learning that a drive-in in San Bernardino, California is ordering an unusually large number of milkshake mixers, Kroc drives to see it. What he finds is McDonald's, a popular walk-up restaurant with fast service, high-quality food, disposable packaging and a family-friendly atmosphere.
Kroc meets with Maurice "Mac" and Richard "Dick" McDonald, who give him a tour of the restaurant. The next day, Kroc suggests the brothers franchise the restaurant but they hesitate, pointing out that they already tried, only to fail. Kroc persists and eventually convinces them to allow him to lead their franchising efforts on the condition that he agrees to a strict contract, which requires all changes to be subject to the McDonald brothers' approval.
Kroc begins building a McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, while attempting to entice wealthy investors to open franchises but encounters the same poor management ethic which doomed the original franchise efforts. After encountering a Jewish Bible salesman, Kroc hits on the idea of franchising to middle-class investors and begins visiting local fraternity organizations and church communities finding their members to be more inclined to uphold McDonald's quality as they are more invested than their wealthy counterparts. It proves successful and new franchises begin opening across the Midwest, with Kroc representing himself as the creator of McDonald's and Fred Turner, a burger cook at the Des Plaines restaurant, as his associate. During that time, Kroc meets Rollie Smith, an upscale restaurant owner in Minnesota who wishes to invest and Rollie's wife, Joan, to whom Kroc is immediately attracted.
Kroc expands rapidly but his shares of franchise profits are limited due to his contract, which the McDonald brothers decline to renegotiate. Joan Smith suggests saving money by introducing a powdered milkshake but the brothers consider it to be degrading to their food quality standards. Kroc's wife Ethel is upset by a visit from the bank since his mortgage is three months' late and she did not know Kroc had mortgaged their house. Harry Sonneborn, a financial consultant, tells Kroc the real profit opportunity is in providing real estate to the franchisees, which will not only provide a revenue stream, but give Kroc leverage over his franchisees and the brothers. Kroc incorporates a new company, Franchise Realty Corporation and attracts new investors, while opening new restaurants without the brothers' approval. This upsets the brothers and emboldens Kroc, who increasingly defies them by circumventing their authority and providing powdered milkshakes to all franchisees but not their restaurant. Kroc also divorces Ethel who gets all his assets except any shares in his business.
Ray Kroc renames the company the McDonald's Corporation and demands to be released from his contract and buy the McDonald brothers out, which sends Mac into diabetic shock. Kroc visits him in the hospital and offers a blank check to settle their business. The brothers agree to a $2.7 million lump sum payment (equivalent to $26 million in 2020), ownership of their original restaurant in San Bernardino and a 1% annual royalty but when the time comes to finalize the agreement, Kroc refuses to include the royalty in the settlement and instead offers it as a handshake deal. Afterwards Dick McDonald confronts Kroc and asks why he had to take over their business when he could have easily stolen their idea and recreated it. Kroc answers that the true value of McDonald's is the name itself, which expresses the attributes of Americana.
The McDonald brothers are forced to take their own name off the original restaurant and Kroc opens a new McDonald's franchise directly across the street. Kroc marries Joan Smith, who has left Rollie Smith. In 1970, Kroc prepares a speech for California Governor Ronald Reagan – plagiarized heavily from a motivational speech he heard earlier in the film – crediting himself for his success, which he claims was achieved not through talent or education but through persistence.
An epilogue reveals that the McDonald brothers were never paid their royalties, which would eventually have been about $100 million a year and that McDonald's feeds about 1% of the world's population every day.
==Cast==
*Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc
*Nick Offerman as Richard "Dick" McDonald
*John Carroll Lynch as Maurice "Mac" McDonald
*Linda Cardellini as Joan Smith
*B. J. Novak as Harry J. Sonneborn
*Laura Dern as Ethel Kroc
*Justin Randell Brooke as Fred Turner
*Kate Kneeland as June Martino
*Patrick Wilson as Rollie Smith
*Griff Furst as Jim Zien
*Wilbur Fitzgerald as Jerry Cullen
*Afemo Omilami as Mr. Merriman
Category:Movies
Category:2016 films