Uber founder puts a brake on his own rise in 'Super Pumped'

In a scene from Showtime's new anthology series "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber," Travis Kalanick, the ride-sharing company's controversial founder, strides into the boardroom as the Beastie Boys song "Rhymin & Stealin" blasts on the soundtrack.

Over the next 2 1/2 minutes, Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his right-hand man, Emil Michael (Babak Tafti), proceed to pitch investors, as a supercut of iconic duos like Batman and Robin, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein flashes across the screen.

The high-energy sequence suggests the heroic lens through which Uber's leaders see themselves.

"The ability of these people to self-mythologize and to occupy a place in our society that gods used to occupy, is completely fascinating," said David Levien, who, along with Brian Koppelman and Beth Schacter, is a showrunner, writer and executive producer of "Super Pumped," which debuts Sunday.

In taking on Uber, "Super Pumped" (based on the nonfiction book by New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, who is also a co-executive producer) chronicles one of the 21st century's most profitable and disruptive startups. Starting with the company's founding in 2009, the show spends seven episodes tracing the rise and fall of Kalanick, Uber's co-founder and former chief executive, who was pressured to resign in 2017 after the company was hit with a series of privacy scandals and lawsuits about workplace discrimination and sexual harassment.

Koppelman said they didn't set out to make "Super Pumped" a straightforward villain origin story.

"We wanted you to understand why Travis was effective in his world," he said. "We wanted you to see moments where his power of personality and intellect are able to convince people."

"From what I can gather — from the book, and from the people that I spoke to — he was always convinced that he was doing the right thing," he said.

As much as Uber was steeped in bro culture, men aren't the only ones who wield power and influence in "Super Pumped." Travis' biggest mentor, perhaps, is his business-savvy mother (Elisabeth Shue). Arianna Huffington (Uma Thurman), who joined Uber's board in 2016, is a commanding presence from the moment Travis meets her.

As Uber's first female board member, Huffington helped look into the company's handling of the sexual harassment accusations. She was later criticized for some of her public statements, in which she described the harassment as not a "systemic problem," and for defending Kalanick. She left the company in 2019.

Unlike a classic Greek tragedy, the Uber story does not end with the death of the protagonist — or the company. Kalanick, by all accounts, is doing just fine. A billionaire, he is the chief executive of a company focused on developing distressed real estate and is building a ghost kitchen empire in Europe.