5 things in the new 'Steve Jobs' movie that are completely made up

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Universal

The new "Steve Jobs" movie isn't intended to be a traditional biopic, so it's far from historically accurate. It does a good job of examining Jobs' persona and the highs and lows of his early career at Apple, but it gets a lot of facts wrong.

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Here are the five biggest things in "Steve Jobs" that didn't happen in real life.

Warning: The following list contains spoilers.

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Jobs' daughter Lisa was not backstage at his product events.

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Universal

Steve Jobs' daughter Lisa plays a big part in the movie, and she's backstage with Jobs at all three product events the story focuses on (the Macintosh, NeXTcube, and original iMac).

In reality, there's no evidence that the real Lisa Brennan-Jobs was backstage at any of those events.

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John Sculley never sneaked backstage at the NeXT event to confront Jobs about leaving Apple.

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Universal

Former Apple CEO John Sculley, who is played in the movie by Jeff Daniels, sneaks backstage in the second act to confront Jobs minutes before he goes onstage to unveil the NeXTcube.

It's one of the biggest scenes in the movie, and the two men have a passionate argument about why Jobs left Apple.

Sculley told Tech Insider that he wasn't at the event in real life.

 

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The way Steve Jobs left Apple wasn't as dramatic as the movie makes it out to be.

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Universal

When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, he wasn't forced out the way the movie depicts.

In the movie, Jobs and Sculley have an intense (and completely fictional) argument about why Jobs left Apple. Sculley accuses Jobs of spinning the story in the press to make it look like Sculley fired Jobs. A flashback scene depicts Sculley and Jobs in a stand off with Apple's board about who would resign if the other was fired.

Sculley says Jobs left of his own free will because he didn't want to let the company divert resources away from the Macintosh's development. That's only partly true.

In reality, Sculley and Wozniak have said that Jobs left of his own free will because he didn't feel supported by the company, not because Sculley threatened to leave if Jobs stayed.

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A pivotal scene between Steve Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak never happened.

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Universal

In the third act of the movie, Jobs and Steve Wozniak (played by Seth Rogen) have a heated argument about who deserves credit for Apple's success as a company.

The intense conversation takes place in the auditorium where Jobs is about to introduce the original iMac, and dozens of Apple employees and a journalist are in the room observing. It's a great scene, but in reality it never happened.

"That scene was made up for the movie," the real Steve Wozniak told Tech Insider. "I was behind Jobs and the products at each introduction. I would never even talk to a friend that way. But the sentiment among many was like that portrayed by my character, so their feelings were put into my mouth for the movie."

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Steve Jobs didn't give his daughter Lisa a preview of the first iPod on a roof before he unveiled the iMac.

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Universal Studios

The last scene in the movie is between Jobs and Lisa on the roof of the venue where he announced the first iMac. 

Jobs sees that Lisa has a Sony Walkman and tells her that he's going to "put a thousand songs in your pocket," a blatant reference to the pitch for the first iPod.

Not only did this scene between Jobs and Lisa not take place, but there's no evidence to support that Jobs got the idea for the iPod from Lisa's use of a Walkman. 

While Jobs' distaste for the state of MP3 players before the iPod has been made clear publicly, the origins of the iPod can be traced back to Apple's purchase of the music software app SoundJam and the work of other Apple executives like Jon Rubinstein and Tony Fadell.

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