Hulu’s biographical drama feature film, ‘Swiped,’ recounts the real-life story of Whitney Wolfe Herd, who made waves in the online dating scene with Tinder and Bumble. The film traces her path from being a college graduate hoping to change the world to becoming immersed in the male-dominated world of start-ups. Though her hard work and natural ability lead to her great success, her journey is littered with thorns that get under her skin until she decides enough is enough and takes matters into her own hands and lives her life her way. Getting there is no easy feat, which is why the film is so worthwhile. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Swiped Plot Synopsis
Whitney Wolfe is a recent college grad who is attempting to raise investment for her startup business. The issue is that her startup is all about getting volunteers to where they’ll be needed, and no tech bro cares. They’d rather introduce a new flavor for a soda. Things get interesting when she meets Sean Rad, who is tinkering with some ideas of his own. Their unexpected encounter results in another encounter in which Sean is impressed with Whitney’s marketing abilities and hires her in his company. The team happens to be engaged in a few projects, none of which have gained momentum so far. One of them is a dating app, which at first is called Match Box, until Whitney proposes that the app’s name be switched to Tinder.
Things can only get better for business from this point, as Whitney dives head-first into work, studying other dating apps to discover their weaknesses, and running across her old school grounds persuading sororities and fraternities to register on the app. Amidst all this, she also enters into a relationship with Justin Mateen, co-founder of Tinder, with Sean. Initially, their relationship goes well despite being boss-employee. But when Whitney’s work is appreciated, with Rad declaring that she will be given co-founder credit for Tinder, things begin to go wrong between her and Justin. She is devastated when Tinder wins an award, and she is not brought on stage because she is not referred to as one of the co-founders. She breaks up with Justin but subsequently realizes that Justin presents her ideas as his own, that she is being excluded from the meeting, and that she is being gradually phased out of the business. It gets worse when Justin still harasses her by texts and badmouths her so much in front of their coworkers that they call her derogatory names to her face. Whitney informs Sean about it, but not only does he not act, but when she says she cannot work anymore with Justin nearby, he misquotes her as saying that she is quitting her job. She sues Tinder for sexual harassment and discrimination, but she is urged to settle out of court so she would not damage her reputation. She is also requested to sign an NDA, meaning she cannot speak about Tinder at all. This is actually counterproductive because it takes away the power of the story from her former employers.
She faces online abuse, gets death threats, and feels ostracized by the world. She eventually begins working on another concept, and that’s when Andrey Andreev enters the equation. She had met him earlier at a party when he had presented to her his dating app Badoo’s position of CMO. She had aspirations and dreams about Tinder then and turned him down. But he is now the only one who is entirely committed to her vision. She tells him she wants to create an app for women, and it would be about kindness. He asks her, though, to take this concept of kindness for women and do something with it in the dating app space. This makes her come up with the concept of a new app, and she devotes her blood and sweat to it once again. This time, however, she has control over it. At least, that seems to be the case at first.
What Happens to Andrey? Does He Go to Prison?
When Andrey Andreev offers to go into business with Whitney, he appears to be the complete opposite of the men she worked with at Tinder. He is supportive and encouraging and keeps himself in the background, letting Whitney take center stage. Despite being the majority shareholder in Bumble, he does not exercise any unnecessary restraint on Whitney, as she has complete creative freedom on the app. This is part of the reason that she can take Bumble in a more tolerant and accepting direction and give control to women. He is a good working partner and friend over the years, and so Whitney is stunned when she is told about an article that lists all the ways in which he fostered a misogynistic and toxic culture on Badoo.
Jessica Powell, Badoo’s CMO after Whitney rejected Andrey’s offer, approaches the media with the trauma she experienced during Badoo’s corrupt work environment. Whitney finds it impossible to believe that the kind and outwardly feminist Andrey that she knows and admires resorted to such excesses and depraved acts, which Powell has accused him of. When her lawyer asks her for an initial statement, Whitney defends her friend. Later, she is also told by her lawyer to stick to this. This goes against her principles of standing up and advocating for women. It goes against the purpose for which she began Bumble and makes her feel like a hypocrite. She confronts Andrey about it, but he denies all charges against him. And then, at the party where she opens a new chapter of Bumble, she speaks out against being sickened by the accusations against Andrey and stands with the women instead of siding with his actions. The last we hear of Andrey is when he just walks away while Whitney continues to speak out against him. But this does not indicate that he is going to get arrested. In real life, no criminal charges were brought against Andrey, and he never ended up in prison. Nevertheless, he did eventually quit Bumble. As the movie portrays, real-life Andrey sold his interest in the company to the Blackstone Group in a reported $3 billion deal. This implies that although he broke up with Whitney and Bumble, he earned a lot of money.
Does Whitney Still Have Bumble’s CEO Position?
While the news about Andre comes out, Whitney’s attorney advises her to speak well of him. This is because she is aware that if Whitney decides to speak badly of him, she will lose Bumble, as he holds majority stakes in the company. Then, when Whitney publicly denounces Andrey’s actions, she’s aware that it will affect the app negatively. Indeed, shares of the parent company drop, so Bumble’s finest days are also behind it. There is no way Andrey will allow it to go on now. Nevertheless, she does not agree to sacrifice her morality and her values. She has already endured too much poison from men who didn’t care what their manipulations were costing her. If being true to herself costs her Bumble, she is prepared for that, too. The no-regrets aspect is increased when her colleague and friend, Tisha, and her husband, Michael, back her up.
A few days pass, and Whitney is called on by Matthew Slate of the Blackstone group. Whitney identifies him from a one-time meeting when they were introduced to one another at a party. He informs her that they have bought Bumble and its sister platforms, including Badoo, from Andrey. This implies that there is going to be a major change in the management. Whitney thinks that since her remarks caused this commotion, Matthew is present to ask her to relinquish her position as CEO. She reaffirms her not caring about standing her ground and issues a warning to Matthew that she will not relinquish her position as CEO without a battle. But Matthew promises her he is not there to take anything from her. Indeed, given all that, especially the fact that Bumble and its success are hers, she is the best one to carry on running the business, but that is not it. He even desires her to adopt Badoo and Magic Lab under her care because no one is more suited for the job than she is. Whitney doesn’t have to hesitate before agreeing to the proposal, and in a gesture that indicates she was born ready to lead, she informs Matthew that she has a few ideas. Her passion and determination awe him, but this doesn’t shock him because this is exactly what he anticipated from her. Therefore, he lets her take control, and Whitney, once again, comes out on top in a scenario where it seemed like she was going to lose everything she’d fought so hard for, again, due to a man. Read More: Where Was Swiped Filmed? All Shooting Locations
