In 1984, the Apple Macintosh 128K’s voice demo fails less than an hour before its unveiling at Flint Center. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs demands engineer Andy Hertzfeld to fix it, threatening to publicly implicate him in the presentation’s credits if he does not. Hertzfeld finally suggests faking the demo using the prototype Macintosh 512K computer.
Jobs rants to marketing executive Joanna Hoffman about a Time magazine article exposing his paternity dispute with ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan – he denies he is the father of Brennan’s five-year-old daughter, Lisa. Brennan arrives with Lisa to confront him – she is bitter over his denials and his refusal to support her despite his wealth. Jobs bonds with Lisa over her MacPaint art and agrees to provide more money and a house. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak asks Jobs to acknowledge the Apple II team in his presentation, but Jobs feels that mentioning the computer (which he considers obsolete) is unwise.
By 1986, following the apparent failure of the Macintosh, Jobs has founded a new company, NeXT. Before the NeXT Computer launch at the War Memorial Opera House in 1988, he spends time with 9-year-old Lisa, but his relationship with Brennan is still strained – he accuses her of irresponsible behavior and of using Lisa to get money from him. Wozniak arrives and predicts the NeXT will be another failure. Jobs confronts him about his public criticism of him, and Wozniak questions Jobs’ contributions to computing history. Jobs defends his role as that of a conductor, who directs “musicians” like Wozniak.