I know that 3D printing is something incredible. I’ve heard a lot about it. But I can’t, for the life of me, figure out just how it works. So when I heard about this documentary sitting in the great red field of Netflix, I had to give it a go. I’m going to learn what this is all about, I thought. I’ll finally get it!

A short time into Print the Legend, they do a quick demonstration of how 3D printing works. And by quick, I mean I still don’t have a clue how this black magic happens. You design something on a computer, things move around in a machine, and before you know it – it’s there. But as the film went on, I realized it doesn’t matter if I understand how 3D printing works. This is not about 3D printing – this is about building a business that’s attempting to catch the wave of the future.

At the beginning, we’re informed that there have been two giants in 3D Printing since the 80’s – 3D Systems (1986) and Stratasys (1989) – but their primary focus has always been making 3D printers for industries that can afford and benefit from their super-expensive machines. We are then introduced to two companies intent on building the first personal 3D printers – Makerbot and Formlabs. You can see the importance of this race – the goal is not unlike that of the race to build the first personal computer. It’s an area of relatively new technology that has yet to mature – its potential is increasing by the day and the possibilities are out there for companies to capture and run with.

But the film wisely poses the problem early on: it’s easy to start a company – it’s a lot harder to grow one. From the get-go, the film seems to be on Makerbot’s side. Not only are they developing their product with what looks like a great, friendly team, but they’re also led by Bre Pettis, who became something of a technology celebrity in the company’s growth process. Armed with some star power and lots of personality, Makerbot quickly gets investor money that allows them to expand into far roomier, far more expensive digs. Formlabs, meanwhile, has an incredible successful Kickstarter campaign that is almost completely derailed by manufacturing issues that leave them mailing out their printers over a year later than promised.

It becomes clear as the film goes along that Makerbot will persevere. Formlabs has too many communication issues and no clear leader like Makerbot has with Bre Pettis. But with great expectations comes great responsiblity, and as Makerbot adds more and more members to it’s fast-expanding team, the rules of the game begin to change. There is perhaps no better illustration of just how much a company can change than when Makerbot goes from an open source technology – in which the program is open to the public to help work on and improve it – to a closed source technology – where patents and copyright are put in place and the business side of things kicks in in a real way.

Amidst this fascinating tale of two rising companies, a wild card by the name of Cody Wilson is thrown in.  A former UT law student, I admit feeling a bit unnerved that this guy called Austin, TX his home. Wilson creates his own company, Defense Distributed, of which publishes open-source gun designs that anyone with a 3D printer can make a reality. It’s more than a little jarring to see Wilson brag about how he has created the first 3D printed shotgun, and then shows everyone in a Youtube video that he not only printed it, but that it totally works. Even more jarring? The video got over 3.7 million views in a week whereas a MakerBot video about making a prosthetic arm for a limbless child – a great story and use of 3D printing – couldn’t even crack 500,000 views in the same amount of time.

Wilson represents how the best of intentions can go wrong, and even more disturbing is how much he seems to relish the chaos he is creating. He’s smart enough to word any argument so that disagreeing with him is disagreeing against human nature. He’s a politician in disguise, armed with responses to each of the complaints flung against him. It’s no surprise Wired Magazine recently named him the 5th Most Dangerous Person on the Internet.

But for all of Wilson’s provocation, this is still a film about growing a business and what it does to a person. One of the former high-ranking sales people in Makerbot says that Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs did the start-up industry a real disservice because it seemed to justify to many that being an asshole was a totally okay way to get your business where it needed to go. There are two choices, he says: to run the company based on the values you want – the values of hard work, creativity, collaboration, or to run the company as a personal revenge service, firing people who disagree with you and leading with an iron fist and fiery mouth. It’s a pretty nifty trick the documentary pulls when you get pretty used to seeing the job titles of all the subjects interview…and then see “former” added to the front as the story starts wrapping up. A lot of amazing, talented people didn’t make it through this story. But who’s really to blame?

Which way these companies go is up for you to see. I found myself shocked at the directions these companies took, which is a great credit to Print the Legend for making such a compelling narrative out of such chaos. The future is coming. Know who you’re going to root for and who you’re not going to listen to. History is being printed as we speak.

Print the Legend is currently streaming on Netflix.