K-SCORE: 90
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Ted Griffin
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould, Eddie Jemison, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Shaobo Qin
“So… the plan was…”
Spoiler Level: Absolutely Total. Who hasn’t seen Ocean’s Eleven though?
So… the plan was…
To have Daniel Ocean’s crew build a fake version of the Bellagio vault in a warehouse and film a fake robbery whereby fake thieves will load up only half of the money while rigging it with explosives simultaneously. They will indeed fill those fake bags and rig them with explosives, but those bags will be filled with fliers for prostitutes. Frank Patton will become a dealer at The Bellagio Casino so that he can overhear a lonely technician talk about his infatuation with a hooker named Charmaine (or something), which will then allow Rusty to pay Charmaine to steal the ID card from said technician. Brothers Virgil and Turk will stage an argument about bumping into each other, which will just be a cover for a large cluster of balloons to block a key camera that will allow Livingston Dell, armed with the ID card, to pass into the hallway from which he can access the casino’s security network and set a device that will allow him to tap in. Livingston Dell will monitor the security feeds from the casino, armed with the ability to intercept 911 calls and control what the casino security station sees on their monitors. Ocean will purposefully gets targeted by Terry Benedict so that he will be put in a room with no cameras where he’s supposed to be roughed up by a bruiser on Benedict’s payroll, but he will pay the bruiser a million dollars to pretend to rough him up while he escapes through a vent in the ceiling so that later he can join up with Linus at the top of the elevator shaft leading down to the vault. (No need to tell Linus this part of the plan.) Linus will pose as an employee of the Nevada Gaming Commission who will expose Frank to Benedict as a criminal and they will have a fake fight whereby Frank will be, indeed, fired, but this will allow Linus access to the elevator he wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Meanwhile, Saul will pose as a rich man who needs four emeralds housed inside the Bellagio vault for twenty-four hours, and after they’re safely in place, he will fake a heart attack, to which Rusty will respond as a fake doctor to the emergency. Rusty, pretend-dead Saul playing millionaire Lyman Zerga, and brothers Turk and Virgil Malloy will enter and extricate themselves from the security surveillance room. Turk and Virgil will have to get there quickly after shoving The Amazing Yen into a dumbwaiter and staging a scene whereby they convince two casino employees that the dumbwaiter has Benedict’s personal belongings inside and needs to be wheeled into the vault. Basher will detonate an electromagnetic pulse that cuts the power to all of Las Vegas for a perfectly timed thirty seconds, during which Linus and Ocean can descend the elevator shaft leading to the vault without triggering the laser array. A simple sliding smoke bomb will incapacitate the two armed guards outside the vault. Rusty then will call Terry Benedict on a cell phone that Ocean will have planted in his ex-wife’s pocket earlier that night, masking the action with a discreet kiss on the cheek, and through this phone Rusty will announce to Benedict that he’s being robbed. The Amazing Yen will then emerges from the dumbwaiter and blow the vault door open from the inside while Ocean blows it from the outside. Livingston Dell will switches the feed to the staged robbery with the fake bags of money and explosives in them while Rusty convinces Benedict that he’s watching that robbery and making a deal that involves blowing up the money in the event that Benedict doesn’t let them walk out of the casino. In reality, Ocean, Linus, and The Amazing Yen will gather the real money in a big pile and sit on it. They anticipate then that Benedict will pretend to agree to the deal and call for a SWAT team to come and stop the robbers. He assuredly will order that his own money, in bags, be placed into an unlabeled white van outside the casino, which will then drive away. He will inevitably have people tail it, which is expected by Ocean’s crew and part of the plan, for Virgil drives the van using a remote controlled robot. Unbeknownst to Benedict, Livingston Dell will have answered the 911 call and Rusty, Saul, Basher, Frank, and Turk will pose as the SWAT team and stride into the casino and down to the vault where they will meet up with Linus, Ocean, and The Amazing Yen. They will all load the real money into SWAT gear bags and pretend like the SWAT team encountered resistance at the vault, fire their guns, and trigger the first explosion of the fake robbery that will make Benedict think that the half of the money the robbers left behind in the vault got destroyed because he violated their agreement. Then, knowing his $80,000,000 is already gone, he will definitely order that the van with the other half of the fake money be taken down. Virgil and Reuben will then trigger the second explosion, which will send the hooker fliers out onto the street, revealing to Benedict that he has been hoodwinked. Linus, The Amazing Yen, Rusty, Saul, Basher, Frank, and Turk will ascend the elevator in their SWAT disguises and carry the money out of the casino while Ocean slips back through the vents to the room with no cameras, and the bruiser he paid off will start to hit him for real. Benedict, angry that he’s been tricked, who’s had an eye on Ocean from the beginning, surely will return to the room with Ocean, who will have the strong alibi of having been beaten up at Benedict’s orders all night, and demand to know if Ocean had a part in the robbery. Ocean then will tell Benedict that he can get the money back if Benedict gives up Tess, and Benedict, being the scumbucket that he is, will agree to this, but once he realizes that all Ocean can do is hook Benedict up with a loose contact in the criminal underworld, Benedict will just be agitated and send Ocean away. Livingston Dell will send a video and audio feed of the live conversation between Ocean and Benedict where Benedict proves he cares more for money than his girl to Tess’s hotel room and will call her to ensure that she watches it. The only downside with this plan - Daniel Ocean will inevitably be in violation of his parole and have to do another three to six months time in prison.
“there’s no reason those (the emeralds) couldn’t have been put inside the dumbwaiter with The Amazing Yen”
This film is almost universally adored. To say that that plot is convoluted is obviously an understatement. Not only that, it has holes. There’s no way Linus, Yen, and Ocean could have gotten bags filled with hooker fliers to the vault before the SWAT team arrives and there’s no way Benedict can let that fake money be loaded into the van at any point after the SWAT team arrives. Furthermore, there’s no reason for Saul to play Lyman Zerga at all for nothing regarding the briefcase of fake emeralds, the fake heart attack, or the fake doctor is essential to getting Yen into the vault, getting Ocean and Linus outside the vault, or getting the fake SWAT team down later. The only link, the only reason for that whole character and side of the story, was so that, in the moment that Saul has a fake heart attack, Livingston Dell can switch the surveillance feed of Linus in the elevator from the real one to the staged one without any technician noticing the change, which could have been accomplished with a simple knock on the door. The fake emeralds are also, presumably, part of the explosives for the vault door, but there’s no reason those couldn’t have been put inside the dumbwaiter with The Amazing Yen.
So why does the movie work? Well, it works for the same reason that magicians can pull off simple tricks. You’re paying attention to the smoke and mirrors. You’re part of what is being hoodwinked. And at the end, when they show you the SWAT team trick, you feel like something super clever happened and that the robbery really was fantastically planned out by these brilliant, seasoned criminals. The dialogue is impeccable, the characters are all really suave and enjoyable to watch every second they’re on screen, the actors crush their roles, and the way the film is shot and edited is super sexy. Ocean’s Eleven is never dull, not for a split second. It’s got a classy sense of humor and does a fantastic job of creating the illusion of masterful thievery. If you ever wonder how far presentation can take a story, look to Ocean’s Eleven. It can take you this far and no further. Plus, everybody loves a “get the team together” story and this is a good team - nine white guys, a little Chinese acrobat, and Bernie Mac.
Update: It has been pointed out to me that perhaps it’s unfair of me to label Don Cheadle as one of the nine white guys. Have you heard that accent? I offer up no correction and no apology.
