SUMMARY OF THE PLOT

The Founder is a story about how the world-famous McDonalds started out. It begins
with a salesman named Ray Kroc who is unable to sell milkshake mixers to restaurants
despite his many attempts. One day, he got a call from a particular restaurant in San
Bernardino that made such unusual large order. Out of curiosity, he decided to see for
himself in order to know what the hype was all about. As soon as he got to the place, he
discovered this restaurant run by the McDonalds brothers which has a family-friendly
atmosphere, a high quality menu, and an efficient service that he has never seen or
experienced before. He was offered a tour of the restaurant and after seeing its
potential, he suggested on franchising it. Nevertheless, the brothers explained that they
did try to franchise the food business, but was unsuccessful. Ray, however, was very
persistent and convinced them to try again, with him leading the franchising efforts.
Hence, Ray and the brothers entered into a contract, including stipulations that any
changes or decisions towards the business shall be received and approved by the
brothers first and he was given all the rights to market the brand. Eventually,
representing himself as “The Founder”, Ray was successful in building his first
restaurant and attracting new investors for the said food business, including a man
named Rollie Smith, along with his wife Joan that Ray, a married man, was instantly
attracted to.
However, due to the limitations of the contract in terms of decision-making, he
encountered a lot of financial difficulties, but not until he met a lawyer named Harry
Sonneborn, who suggested that the real profits are not from the food business, but in
providing real estate to the franchises. According to Harry, creating his own company
and attracting investors will give him the power and control over the brothers, which he
did. He named his company “McDonalds Corporation” and demanded to be released
from his contract with the brothers by offering them a blank check to be bought out. The
brothers, realizing that they can never win against Ray, named their price and sealed
the deal in person. However, Ray's lawyer said that the 1% earnings will have to be
carried out through a handshake.
The story ends with Ray, divorcing his wife and marrying Joan until his death. The
brothers never earned the promised 1% earnings and were forced to change their
business name into “The Big M” since Ray now holds the intellectual property over the
original brand name.

REASON
Firstly, as persons who constantly dine in one of the most popular fast
foods worldwide, we wanted to know the origin and history of McDonalds—
how it started merely as a small restaurant to becoming an empire that it is
today. Secondly, as students learning about Law on Sales in this semester,
we also wanted to focus on a movie involving transactions that actually take
place in the business world, so that we will be able to apply everything we
learned in this subject. After considering the aforementioned two factors,
we all agreed to critique the movie entitled, “The Founder”, which was
released in 2016. It was actually suggested by one of our members, and
after reading the plot and watching the whole movie, we all agreed that this
is the best choice.
“Contracts are like hearts; they are meant to be broken.”—this is one
of the best lines that we consider a highlight in our chosen movie. Upon
knowing that the group has to choose a movie to write a critique on, we all
agreed that this movie would best suit everything, since it involves about
the different stages in the contract, obligations and rights of the contracting
parties, and a lot more provisions related to a contract of sale. Studying Law
on Obligations and Contracts during our first semester in college, we were
taught that a breach in contract gives rise to certain consequences, which is
not always favorable to the guilty party. Because of this, we were curious of
the reason as to why Ray Kroc, the main lead in the movie, said such line.
The desire to know where he was coming from and why did he have the
need to say such words really piqued our interest in the movie.