Ocean's Eleven (2001 film)

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

Ocean's Eleven
Directed by	Steven Soderbergh
Produced by	Jerry Weintraub
Written by	George C. Johnson Jack Golden Russell
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
Gross revenue	$450,717,150
Followed by	Ocean's Twelve
Official website • IMDb • Allmovie

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 features an ensemble cast. The film was generally considered to be a success at the box office and with critics. Soderbergh directed two less-successful 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]

Plot

Shortly after being paroled from prison, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) breaks parole to visit Las Vegas, meeting up with Rusty (Brad Pitt), a former partner in his criminal schemes. The two approach the wealthy former casino owner, Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), with a plan to rob the vaults of the Bellagio, The Mirage and the MGM Grand casinos. Reuben, seeing this as a way to get back at his rival, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), finances the option and suggests the plan occur on the night of the highly-anticipated Lennox Lewis/Wladimir Klitschko boxing match; by Nevada Gaming Commission rules, the casinos must maintain adequate funds in their vaults to cover all bets, and during the busy casino night coinciding with the match, there should be more than $150 million stored. Danny and Rusty begin to recruit former colleagues and other criminal masterminds into their group. The team plans out a series of reconnaissance missions at the various hotels to learn the workings of their security system, while setting up a recreation of the Bellagio vault to practice avoiding the sensitive floor security systems known to be in the vault. During their planning, the team discovers that Danny's ex-wife, Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts), is currently Terry's lover, and Rusty urges Danny to drop the plan, aware that Tess may warn Terry that something is afoot if she sees Danny, but Danny figures this into the plan.

On the night of the fight, the plan is put into effect. Danny himself goes to the casino purposely to be seen by Terry, who has him locked into a storeroom with one of his bouncers to beat him up. However, Danny is actually friends with the bouncer (who is in Danny's pocket), allowing him to escape into the vents and meet with his team in the vault. The team activates a pinch device to temporarily disable power from the city, allowing them to breach the vault undetected. As Terry tries to restore order in the casino after the power outage, Rusty anonymously calls him via a cell phone that Danny planted earlier in Tess' coat to let him know that his vaults are being robbed and that all the money will be blown up if Terry does not cooperate as they take half the money from the vault into a van waiting outside. As soon as the van is loaded and drives off, Terry orders his men to follow it while calling in the S.W.A.T. team to attack the vault. The S.W.A.T. arrives too late to stop the other half of the money being blown up, and shortly departs, while Terry is left to look at the ruins of the vault.

Terry quickly learns that televised images he saw of the vault were faked, the team having filmed the incidents in their own recreated, as the video feed did not show the new rugs that were installed a few days earlier. His men following the van find that it was driven remotely, and is only filled with scraps of paper. Terry comes to the realization that Danny's men must have posed as the S.W.A.T. team and faked the fighting while they cleared out the vault, taking all of the money with them as they left unchecked. Terry returns to the room where he left Danny, finding that Danny is still there, leaving Terry no way to connect him to the theft. Danny offers to assist Terry in finding the money if he would give up Tess, to which Terry agrees. However, the team recorded this conversation and shows it to Tess; angry at being used by Terry, she leaves him and returns to Danny. Danny is still arrested for violating parole and spends some months in prison, all of this done by a phone call from Terry's employees as instructed by him. When Danny is released, he is met by Rusty and Tess, and the three drive off, closely followed by Terry's bodyguards.

Cast

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

Ocean's Eleven

1. George Clooney as Daniel (Danny) Ocean
2. Brad Pitt as Robert Charles "Rusty" Ryan
3. Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell
4. Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy
5. Scott Caan as Turk Malloy
6. Shaobo Qin as Yen
7. Bernie Mac as Frank Catton
8. Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr
9. Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom
10. Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell
11. Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff

Others

• Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict
• Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean

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[›]

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?"

Reception

Critical

The film received a rating of 80 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]

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 highest grossing film in 2001.

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".

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.^{[citation needed]}

Film goofs

• In reality, USD$160 million in 100-dollar bills would weigh 3,532 pounds (1,602 kilograms or 1.6 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]

• When Rusty (Brad Pitt) and Linus (Matt Damon) are having a chat in the casino, Rusty is seen eating shrimp cocktail from a glass. This changes to a plate shortly in the next scene in a close up. After Tess (Julia Roberts) passes by, it goes back to the cocktail glass.

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]
^ c:  The movie was parodied in cartoon South Park in the episode, About Last Night...
^ d:  In the scene where Danny Ocean joins Rusty's card game, he asks Topher Grace if the transition from Television to movies was difficult, an apparent reference to George Clooney's own transition from ER to the big screen.

References

External links

• Official Site

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 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