Ocean's Eleven (2001 film)

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Ocean's Eleven
Directed by	Steven Soderbergh
Produced by	Jerry Weintraub
Written by	George C. Johnson Jack G. Russell Harry Brown Charles Lederer Scott Corwon Ted Griffin
Starring	George Clooney Matt Damon Andy Garcia Brad Pitt Julia Roberts Don Cheadle Casey Affleck Scott Caan Elliott Gould Bernie Mac Carl Reiner
Music by	David Holmes
Cinematography	Steven Soderbergh
Editing by	Stephen Mirrione
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 7, 2001
Running time	116 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$85,000,000
Followed by	Ocean's Twelve
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film of the same name. The 2001 film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and featured an ensemble cast. The film was generally considered to be a success at the box office and with critics. Soderbergh directed two sequels, Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007. George Clooney stated in November 2007 that there will not be any additional sequels.^[1]

[edit] Plot

The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

Hours after being paroled from prison, Danny Ocean (Clooney) begins choosing a specialized team of eleven heist men to rob the central, underground, high-tech vault shared by three Las Vegas casinos: the Bellagio, The Mirage and the MGM Grand. They plan to commit the robbery during the much-anticipated Lennox Lewis versus Wladimir Klitschko boxing match. Since, in the film, the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) requires that casinos have money on hand for every chip being played, they estimate that during such a high-profile match, the vault should contain in excess of $150 million. The owner of the three casinos, Terry Benedict (Garcia), is the lover of Danny's ex-wife, Tess Ocean (Roberts). As the plot unfolds, it becomes apparent that one purpose of the heist is for Danny to win Tess back. The plan is financed by a wealthy former casino owner (and Benedict rival) Reuben Tishkoff (Gould).

The elaborate heist involves a number of interlocked distractions, cons and impostors. The Malloy twins, posing as hotel personnel, take a cart containing the "Amazing Yen," a Chinese acrobat and contortionist, who will infiltrate the vault room. Because accessing the vault requires thumb print identification, the two approach the security area and argue loudly about a swipe card; to silence them, another security guard offers to take the cart "of Benedict's money" in for them.

The security access codes, updated twice daily, are carried on Benedict's person. Linus (Damon), a skilled pickpocket, presents himself as a member of the NGC tracking down a blackjack dealer who is a felon (a plant named Frank Catton (Mac)), enabling Linus to get inside security, escorted by Benedict. A staged scuffle between Frank and Linus enables Linus to lift the codes. Frank is immediately fired, thus avoiding any future suspicion about his failure to appear at work after the robbery. Linus stays behind in security, saying he forgot his pager, as Benedict hurries off to the boxing match.

Saul Bloom (Reiner) poses as a mysterious Eastern European businessman who convinces Benedict to store some jewels in the vault for him. While overseeing the transfer, Saul stages a heart attack to distract the guards. Rusty (Pitt) and the Malloy twins, posing as medical personnel, pretend to attempt to revive him. While security is preoccupied with a "dying" Saul, Livingston overrides the security cameras with pre-recorded security footage of empty hallways and elevators, masking Linus's entry into an elevator shaft and all subsequent activity of the gang. Rusty pronounces Saul dead and he and the "EMTs" transport Saul's body out of the casino. En route, he signals Basher Tarr (Cheadle), a master of explosives, to detonate a fictional pinch to briefly shut off the power to the city. This allows Linus and Danny to rappel down the elevator shaft into the hallway outside the vault moments before the backup generators reactivate the laser sensors.

Danny and Linus, outside the vault, disable the two guards with a gas grenade. Yen, now in the vault, flips over the roving floor sensors (positioning himself near the door) and plants Saul's "jewels" (actually explosive charges) against the door's hinges. Danny plants detonators on the corresponding locations outside the vault and detonates them; the door is blown off its hinges. But not before a delay in which Yen gets his hand trapped in the hinges and the bomb fails to go off after the inital attempt to detonate.

Rusty (now back in the casino) calls Benedict on a cell phone (that Danny had planted on Tess), telling Benedict that he is being robbed of "around $160 million" — an amount that Benedict confirms. The video feed suddenly changes to that of a robbery taking place. Rusty states they will only be packing up around half of it, with the other half to remain booby trapped in the vault. Rusty demands that Benedict’s men load up half the money in a white van that will pull up in the valet station, or they will blow up both halves of the money. Benedict complies, but has his men follow the van and calls 911. A SWAT team arrives, and as they enter the vault area, they ask to have power shut off. Benedict agrees, and a sound of a firefight is heard through the radio, as well as an explosion. The power is switched on, and the SWAT team informs him the money has been blown up. Meanwhile, Benedict’s men manage to take the van, ending up near McCarran Airport, only to find that is being remotely operated (by Virgil Malloy) and that there is no money in the bags. Benedict heads down to the vault, where he tells the SWAT team to leave after seeing that the money there had been replaced with flyers, which had been blown up. It is then revealed that Ocean’s 11 had in fact gotten out with the money after all. When Benedict had called 911, Livingston had overridden it and answered pretending to be emergency response. The SWAT team was actually composed of the team members in disguise; while they were “infiltrating” the vault and had the power cut, they had instead been helping put the money in the bags and imitated the sounds of a firefight. The video of Danny, Yen, and Linus robbing the vault had in fact been previously recorded, as the team had constructed a duplicate of the vault. The crew, disguised as the SWAT team, then simply carried all $160 million out of the vault. Benedict realizes, too late, that the video of the robbery was staged when he notices the lack of the recently-installed Bellagio insignia on the floor in the surveillance video.

Danny (returning through the ceiling to a security room Benedict was holding him in) offers Benedict bogus assistance in recovering the money if Benedict will give up Tess; Benedict agrees. The group arranges for Tess to see a surveillance video of this. Disgusted, Tess leaves Benedict.

After the robbery, Danny is arrested for a parole violation and sent to prison for three to six months. On his release, he is met outside of the prison by Rusty, who has brought Tess in his car. They drive off, aware that Benedict's guards are following them.

[edit] Cast

Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, and Steven Soderbergh in December 2001

[edit] Ocean's Eleven

1. George Clooney as Daniel (Danny) Ocean - The Ringleader
2. Brad Pitt as Robert "Rusty" Ryan - The Pro
3. Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell - The Rookie
4. Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy - The Getaway
5. Scott Caan as Turk Malloy - The Getaway
6. Shaobo Qin as Yen - The Grease Man
7. Bernie Mac as Frank Catton - The Inside Man
8. Don Cheadle (uncredited) as Basher Tarr - The Fuse
9. Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom - The High Roller
10. Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell - The Eye in the Sky
11. Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff - The Bankroll

[edit] Others

• Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict
• Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean
• David C. Roehm Sr. as Slick Mack

[edit] Cameos

• Five television actors make cameos as themselves, being taught how to play poker by Rusty:
  • Holly Marie Combs (Charmed)
  • Topher Grace (That '70s Show)
  • Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek)
  • Barry Watson (7th Heaven)
  • Shane West (Once and Again)
• Steven Soderbergh — one of the bank robbers with Basher
• Siegfried and Roy — themselves
• Wayne Newton — himself
• Henry Silva and Angie Dickinson — themselves (both appeared in the original)
• Wladimir Klitschko — himself
• Lennox Lewis — himself
• Jerry Weintraub — high-roller gambler^a[›]

[edit] Cons described

In the beginning of the film, when they begin to work on the plan for the casino heist, Rusty (Pitt) says to Danny (Clooney),

This list of cons was created by director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin that described the type of people and cons needed to knock over the three casinos.^[2]

• Boesky - Saul playing Lyman Zerga. This is a reference to Ivan Boesky, a big-time trader on Wall Street who got caught committing securities fraud. The con is about a wealthy bankroller who has insider information.
• Jim Brown - the confrontation between Frank Catton and Linus Caldwell, staged to distract Terry Benedict so that Linus can lift the security codes to the vault. Named for the famous American football player Jim Brown.
• Miss Daisy - the SWAT vehicle used as the getaway car. From the film title Driving Miss Daisy.
• Two Jethros - the Malloy brothers. "Hillbilly gear-head types" hired to take care of Miss Daisy, distraction purposes, and for general two-man work.
• Leon Spinks - the disruption of the boxing match. This refers to the surprise victory of Leon Spinks over Muhammad Ali.
• Ella Fitzgerald - the looped tape of the robbery that is played over Benedict's security system. A reference to a 1970s commercial for Memorex, in which a recording of Ella Fitzgerald's voice breaks a glass and the question is posed to the viewer: "Is it live or is it Memorex?"

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical

The film received a rating of 81 percent at RottenTomatoes.com.^[3] People magazine called the film "pure fun from start to finish,"^[4] and included it in its end-of-year Best of Screen list.^[5] Newsweek said Ocean's Eleven "bounces along with finger-snapping high spirits," and said that while Soderbergh has "made deeper films, ...this carefree caper movie is nothing to sneeze at."^[6] Time magazine's reviewer Richard Corliss criticized the film, saying it "doesn't offer much."^[7]

[edit] Commercial

Ocean's Eleven had a budget of $85 million. On its opening weekend, it grossed an estimate of $38 million making it #1. The film grossed $183,417,150 in the United States and grossed $267,300,000 in foreign countries leaving an worldwide gross of $450,717,150 making the film a huge box office success. The film is the 6th high grossing film in 2001.

[edit] Real Life Models

The inspiration for both Ocean's Eleven films is believed to be the famous, highly-technical robbery of the Brink's Security building in Boston by a team of eleven, usually known as "the Brink's Job".

Andy Garcia's character is partially based on Steve Wynn, the developer behind Bellagio, The Mirage and Wynn Las Vegas. One of Andy Garcia's lines reads, "If you should be picked up buying a $100,000 sports car in Newport Beach, I'm going to be supremely disappointed." This is a reference to the real-life 1994 kidnapping of Steve Wynn's daughter, Kevyn Wynn, where one of the kidnappers was caught in Newport Beach a week after the incident trying to buy a Ferrari with cash.

[edit] Differences from the 1960 film

In the original 1960 film cast with the "Rat Pack," the crooks leave empty handed when their plan for dividing the money backfires and their "winnings" are cremated. However, in the 2001 version, presumably to allow for sequels, the job is successful with a total of $160 million stolen. As well, other than the title character, none of the robbers in the remake share names with those in the original, although they do exhibit some of their personality quirks. The use of highly experienced professional criminals in the heist also differs from the original film, in which the crew is made of 82nd Airborne veteran 'undetectable' amateurs. It's much more similar to The Sting than to the original Ocean's Eleven.

[edit] Details

• In reality, USD$160 million in 100-dollar bills would weigh 3,532 pounds (1,602 kilograms or 1.7 tons),^b[›] much more than the eight duffel bags depicted being carried by the SWAT-costumed thieves.

• To justify such a large amount of money being in the vault, the film cites a fictitious stipulation of the Nevada Gaming Commission that all casinos must have enough cash and coin to cover every chip in play. In reality, casinos remove excess cash from their vaults as quickly as possible.

• On the DVD commentary, the makers of the film admitted that there is no way that the bags containing the flyers could have been in the vault.^[8]

[edit] Notes

^ a: Weintraub subsequently appears in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.
^ b: A one-hundred-dollar bill weighs approximately one gram. 1.6 million bills would therefore weigh 1.6 million grams (1600 kg). They would take up 73.9 cubic feet (2.093 m³).^[9]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site

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Ocean's Eleven

• Ocean's Eleven (2001 film) at Yahoo! Movies
• Ocean's Eleven at the Internet Movie Database
• Ocean's Eleven at Rotten Tomatoes