Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kyle Chandler, Uma Thurman, Elisabeth Shue, Kerry Bishe, Eva Victor, Babak Tafti
Uber CEO and founder Travis Kalanick (Gordon-Levitt) transforms from founding a company which revolutionized the way the world travels to being forced to resign amid bad press, a toxic workplace culture which harassed female employees, and Kalanick's monstrous ego spinning wildly out of control. It takes a certain amount of ego and brass ones to start up a company and keep it humming. In the opening scene of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, Kalanick asks a prospective employee in a job interview, "Are you an asshole?" The follow-up question would likely be: "Are you capable of being an asshole if needed?" For Kalanick, he became an asshole and stayed one to his detriment. I can't say demise, because even when Kalanick was shown the door, he was still a billionaire. Hard to feel too sorry for him.
As Super Pumped opens, Kalanick's Uber is a small-time start-up company with visions of world domination. However, Uber lacks the funds to spread across the United States and then the world. Capital investor Bill Gurley (Chandler) provides the needed capital and sound advice in a futile attempt to keep Travis and Uber going in the right direction without controversy. Soon, Travis and controversy find themselves in the same sentence much more often than to anyone's liking. Travis' obsession with conflict, winning, and domination at all costs plasters Travis on the front page and all over the internet, much to the chagrin of Bill and Uber's board members, including the supportive Ariana Huffington (Thurman).
Travis is not above rallying his subordinates to perform subterfuge, sabotage, and deceitful acts to get ahead. He has no fear of alienating Apple (which runs the Uber app), his board, or Bill Gurley. Soon, he will have estranged all three. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has teeth-gnashing fun with this role. You can almost detect a sly grin as he pushes the envelope with what he can get away with. Until of course, his plans backfire and he finds himself calling in favors to keep his job. After a while, it is evident Travis doesn't want to win as much as he doesn't want to lose. Super Pumped is a cautionary tale which no one in Silicon Valley or the business world will heed. Bill, as played by Kyle Chandler, is as level-headed and wise as Travis is explosive and rash. Bill attempts in vain to guide Travis through building Uber and later through trying to prevent him from imploding. It doesn't work out like that.
Other key elements in the mix include the harrowing experiences of Susan Fowler (Victor), a new employee harassed by her boss from day one who begins the chain of events which would lead to Travis' removal as well as his right-hand man Emil Michael (Tafti), who has his own list of compromising events which make him a liability. Super Pumped takes us through a journey in which Travis transforms from bright founder with strong ties to his family, especially his mother (Shue) to a leader whose toxic masculinity threatens to tear apart everything he founded.
Super Pumped is seven episodes which move along swiftly enough although at times the story arcs grow repetitive. Yes, we know Travis is heading towards his breakup with Uber and he is unable and unwilling to change in order to prevent this. However, in the end, Travis is still a billionaire even after he is ousted. Super Pumped attempts to play as a tragedy, but most of us wish we had Travis' problems.
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