Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film Ocean's Eleven. 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]
| Ocean's Eleven | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Steven Soderbergh |
| Written by | George C. Johnson Jack G. Russell Harry Brown Charles Lederer Scott Corwon Ted Griffin |
| Produced by | Jerry Weintraub |
| Starring | George Clooney Brad Pitt Matt Damon Andy Garcia Julia Roberts Bernie Mac Elliott Gould Carl Reiner Don Cheadle Scott Caan Casey Affleck |
| Cinematography | Steven Soderbergh |
| Edited by | Stephen Mirrione |
| Music by | David Holmes |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates | December 7, 2001 |
Running time | 116 min. |
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $85,000,000 |
Plot
Hours after being paroled from prison, Danny Ocean (Clooney) begins choosing members for a specialized team of heist men to rob the central, underground, high-tech vault shared by three Las Vegas casinos: the Bellagio, The Mirage and the MGM Grand. The crew is composed of underworld professionals (two with recent prison records) who each have a specialty that helps them foil the elaborate security mechanisms to get to the vault. They plan to commit the robbery during the much anticipated Lennox Lewis versus Wladimir Klitschko boxing match. As 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 Ocean's ex-wife, Tess Ocean (Roberts). As the plot unfolds, it becomes apparent that one purpose of the heist is for Ocean to win Tess back. The plan is financed by a wealthy former casino owner, Reuben Tishkoff (Gould), who is bitter about having been bought out by Benedict.
The elaborate heist involves a number of interlocked distractions that had to be coordinated precisely. The Malloy twins, posing as hotel personnel, approach the security area to deposit a money cart in the main vault, claiming that it's Benedict's money. One of the twins pretends to have forgotten his swipe card. The two begin to argue loudly and, to silence them, another security guard offers to take the cart in for them. The cart actually contains the "Amazing Yen," a Chinese acrobat and contortionist, who will infiltrate the vault room.
The team needs certain access codes to get inside the cages that are the heart of the casino security. The codes are updated twice a day and are carried on Benedict's person. Linus, a skilled pickpocket, presents himself to Benedict as a member of the NGC tracking down a blackjack dealer who is a felon, enabling Linus to get inside security, escorted there by Benedict. However, the dealer is in fact a plant named Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), a member of the crew. A staged scuffle between Frank and Linus occurs, during which Linus picks Benedict's pocket and lift the codes. Frank is immediately fired, thus avoiding any future suspicion about his failure to appear at work after the robbery. Linus turns back, saying he forgot his pager, as Benedict hurries on to a boxing match where Tess waits for him.
Basher Tarr (Cheadle), a master of explosives, is tasked with shutting off the power to the city to allow two of the crew to rappel down an elevator shaft. This is accomplished by an electromagnetic pulse generated by Basher's pinch, an elaborate fictional device with illuminated coils, which they steal at night from the fictitious California Institute of Advanced Science (apparently based at UC Irvine), with CIAS security guards just missing apprehending Linus.
Saul Bloom (Reiner) poses as a shady Eastern European businessman who convinces Benedict to store some jewels in the bank vault for him. While overseeing the transfer, Saul stages a heart attack to distract the local guards. Rusty 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 footage of empty hallways and elevators, masking Linus's entry into the elevator shaft. Rusty declares Saul dead and has the two fake EMTs transport Saul's body out of the security room.
Danny unexpectedly joins Linus in the elevator shaft and the two change into their rappelling gear. They get in contact with Rusty, now on his way out of the casino, and signal Basher to detonate the EMP, throwing Las Vegas into a blackout and disabling the laser sensors in the elevator shaft. Las Vegas is thrown into chaos, Danny and Linus descend the elevator shaft and reach the bottom moments before the backup generators reactivate the laser sensors.
Yen, the acrobat, emerges from the tight confines of his money cart and flips over the roving sensors of the vault room, positioning himself near the vault door. Danny and Linus, outside the vault, disable the two guards with a gas grenade. Inside, Yen plants Bloom's fake jewels, which are actually explosive charges, against the hinges of the vault door. Ocean plants detonators on the corresponding locations outside the vault and detonates them. The door is blown off its hinges and Ocean now has access to the money in the vault. Meanwhile, Livingston's stock video footage continues to distract the security room.
When ready, Rusty calls Benedict directly on a cellphone, which Danny secretly dropped into Tess's pocket. Rusty says Benedict is being robbed and that the vault contains $163,156,759.00 (which Benedict confirms). The video feed suddenly changes to that of an armed robbery taking place. Benedict calls for a SWAT team, which arrives promptly and storms the vault. However, the supposed SWAT team is actually composed of the team members in disguise, who carry the money out of the vault. Benedict understands, too late, that the video of the robbery taking place was staged, because he notices the lack of the Bellagio insignia on the floor that had been installed recently.
After the robbery, the group arranges for Tess to see a surveillance video in which Benedict agrees to trade her for the chance to get his money back. 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.
Whether they get away from Benedict in the months and years afterward is the subject of the sequel, Ocean's Twelve. While the third film in the series, Ocean's Thirteen, gets Benedict involved in helping the gang to get even/con a mutual rival, Willy Bank.
Cast
Ocean and the Eleven
- George Clooney as Daniel (Danny) Ocean - The Idea Man
- Brad Pitt as Robert "Rusty" Ryan - The Pro
- Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell - The Rookie
- Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy - The Getaway
- Scott Caan as Turk Malloy - The Getaway
- Shaobo Qin as Yen - The Grease Man
- Bernie Mac as Frank Catton - The Inside Man
- Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr - The Basher
- Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom - The High Roller
- Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell - The Eye in the Sky
- Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff - The Bankroll
Others
- Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict
- Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean
- Lennox Lewis as himself
- Wladimir Klitschko as himself
- Topher Grace as himself
- Joshua Jackson as himself
- David C. Roehm Sr. as Slick Mack
- Barry Watson as himself
- Shane West as himself
- Holly Marie Combs as herself
Cameos
- John Cusack is one of the opening robbers where he is shot leaving the casino
- Five teen idols make cameos as themselves during the scene where Rusty teaches them how to play poker: Holly Marie Combs (Charmed), Topher Grace (That '70s Show), Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek), Barry Watson (7th Heaven), and Shane West (Once and Again & "ER").
- Steven Soderbergh also has a cameo in the film, playing one of the bank robbers with Basher that the LAPD catch.
- Siegfried and Roy and Wayne Newton have cameo appearances in the film, as themselves in the audience of the boxing match.
- Henry Silva and Angie Dickinson appear in brief cameos during the boxing sequence in the film; Both were stars of the original.
- The two fighters featured in the boxing match sequence are Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis.
- Producer Jerry Weintraub can be seen at the casino gambling at the same table as Saul. Weintraub subsequently appears in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.
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),
Off the top of my head, I'd say you're looking at a Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever!
This list of cons was created by director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Gibson 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?"
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.
Differences from the 1960 film
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. (Some have also noted similarities to The Magnificent Seven, with Clooney and Pitt resembling Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen assembling their team.)
References
External links
- Template:Ymovies title
- Ocean's Eleven at IMDb
- Ocean's Eleven at Rotten Tomatoes
- Full script of 2001 re-make