OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001 FILM)

'''Ocean's Eleven''' is a 2001 remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film ''Ocean's Eleven''. The 2001 movie was directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring an ensemble cast. The film was generally considered to be a success with both the box office and critics. Soderbergh directed two sequels, ''Ocean's Twelve'' in 2004, and ''Ocean's Thirteen'' in 2007.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Cameos

Cons described

Real Life Models

Differences from the 1960 film

References

External links

Plot

Only days after being released from prison, Danny Ocean (Clooney) recruits a team of specialized 'heist men' to rob three Las Vegas casinos: Bellagio, The Mirage and the MGM Grand, all of which store their money in a central, high-tech bank vault beneath the Bellagio, and the men plan to rob the string of casinos on the night they sponsor the much anticipated Lennox Lewis-Wladimir Klitschko boxing match, a night when $163,156,759.00 will be put into the central safe vault, located 70 yards underneath the Vegas strip. The man who owns these casinos, Terry Benedict (Garcia), is the lover of Danny Ocean's former wife, Tess Ocean (Roberts). As the plot unfolds it becomes apparent that part of the 'sting' is to trip up Benedict with regard to Tess, so that she'll come running back to Danny. With financing and backing from a wealthy ex-casino owner (who was bitter at the way he was bought out by Benedict), the robbers foil the elaborate security mechanisms to get to the vault.
Unlike the original film, in which the crew is made of 82nd Airborne veteran 'undetectable' amateurs, this crew is composed of underworld professionals; two with recent prison records which are utilized to the crew's advantage. 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.)
The elaborate sting involves a number of interlocked distractions which must be coordinated precisely. Benedict is the object of the sting, as well as the millions in the vault. Basher Tarr (Cheadle), is the explosives man whose job it is to shut off the power to the city. The purpose of that, however, is ultimately to allow two of the crew to rappel down an elevator shaft, and also to cause some distraction for casino security and monitoring. This is accomplished by a debilitating 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 small-time crook Linus Caldwell (Damon).
In addition to a brief city-wide power outage, they need certain access codes to get inside to the elevator. These are updated daily, and are carried on Benedict's person. Linus, a skilled pickpocket, is introduced to Benedict as a member of the Nevada Gaming Commission, tracking down a dealer who has a record. However, the dealer, employed under the name Ramon Escalante, in fact is a plant named Frank Catton, a member of the crew (played by Bernie Mac). This enables Linus to get into the same room with Benedict when they question the dealer. This is also to extinguish any future suspicion of the disappearance of Mac's character from his work at the casino after the robbery. A staged scuffle is created, at which point Linus picks Benedict's pocket. Linus doubles back saying he forgot his pager, as Benedict hurries on to a boxing match where Tess waits for him.
A third element, another distraction, is created by Saul Bloom (Reiner) posing as a nebulous and shady Eastern European arms dealer. He convinces Benedict to let him store some jewels in the deep vault, overnight. In the process of doing so, he stages a heart attack to distract the local guards from seeing Linus doubling back.
Another element is control of the surveillance video. As Linus doubles back, while Saul stages the distraction, a third member cuts in with pre-shot video of empty hallways, and an empty elevator. Meanwhile, the security is worried about Saul, as Rusty dashes in with two paramedics, also members of the crew, who declare the man 'dead' in order to get him out of there.
Danny has joined Linus in the elevator shaft ready to rappel, and Rusty is wheeling away the 'dead' Saul. Both get on cellphones to call their control center to blackout the town.
Meanwhile, the last element is the 'greaseman', known by his circus act as "The Amazing Yen". A Chinese acrobat and contortionist, able to squeeze himself into tight spaces and leap around, he is concealed in a money cart, which is placed inside the vault. He exits the cart and jumps to shelving in the vault to avoid scanners that are knee or ankle high.
After the brief blackout, Danny and Linus find themselves looking out the elevator at a short corridor at two guards in front of the vault. They use a pop-up gas-releasing grenade device to disable both. Yen plants the charges (the fake jewels) onto the vault door. Ocean plants detonators outside and blows the vault. Meanwhile, surveillance shows something different (absolutely nothing wrong happening) than what is actually occurring inside the vault.
When ready, Rusty calls Benedict directly on a cellphone, which Danny secretly dropped into Tess's pocket. Rusty says Benedict is being robbed. 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. Ultimately the crew still succeed in stealing the money - by virtue of the SWAT team being none other than the team members in disguise. The video of the robbery in place was apparently staged, something Benedict learns too late (referencing the new Bellagio insignia on the floor that was installed recently). In a final touch, the group arranges for Tess to see (via the surveillance video) Benedict agree to trade her for the chance to get his money back. Seeing this video causes Tess to leave Benedict.
After the robbery, Danny is arrested again (for a parole violation) and sent to prison. After "three to six months," Danny is released and met outside of the prison by Rusty, who has brought Tess in his car. They drive off, followed by a car with Benedict's guards.
Whether they get away from Benedict in the months and years afterward is the subject of the sequel, ''Ocean's Twelve''. The third movie in the series, ''Ocean's Thirteen'', was released in June 2007.

Cast

★ George Clooney as Daniel "Danny" Ocean - "The Idea Man"

★ Brad Pitt as Robert "Rusty" Ryan - "The Pro"

★ Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell - "The Rookie"

★ Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict - "The Target"

★ Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean - "The Wild Card"

★ 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 (uncredited) - "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"

★ Wladimir Klitschko as Wladimir Klitschko

★ Lennox Lewis as Lennox Lewis

★ Topher Grace as Topher Grace

★ Joshua Jackson as Joshua Jackson

★ David C. Roehm Sr. Slick Mack

★ Barry Watson as Barry Watson

★ Shane West as Shane West

Cameos

★ 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 70's Show"), Joshua Jackson ("Dawson's Creek"), Barry Watson ("7th Heaven"), and Shane West.

★ Steven Soderbergh also has a cameo in the movie, playing one of the bank robbers with Basher that the LAPD catch.

★ Siegfried and Roy and Wayne Newton have cameo appearances in the movie, 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 as a high roller who talks about Terry Benedict to Saul (in disguise). Weintraub subsequently appears in ''Ocean's Twelve'' and ''Ocean's Thirteen''.

Cons described

In the beginning of the movie, 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 a screenwriter that described the type of people and cons needed to knock over the three casinos.^[1]

★ '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 movie 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.

References

1. [1]

External links

★ Official Site

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★ Full script of 2001 re-make