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The heist is on, and we're cracking the vault on Hollywood's coolest caper! Join us as we count down the most fascinating behind-the-scenes facts from Steven Soderbergh's legendary heist comedy "Ocean's Eleven," just in time for its 25th anniversary! From secret cameos to real-life tech, the real scheme happened behind the camera!
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00:00What, did you guys get a group raid or something?
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most interesting trivia behind the making of Steven
00:08Soderbergh's heist comedy classic, Ocean's Eleven.
00:10Jump back into action in time for the film's 25th anniversary.
00:14I'm not joking, Tess.
00:15I'm not laughing, Danny.
00:18Number 11, Hatching the Plan.
00:20In 1960, audiences turned out to see their favorite crooners loot Las Vegas and Ocean's Eleven.
00:25Unfortunately, they didn't turn out in the numbers expected, as the Rat Pack heist comedy received mixed reviews.
00:31You've given us the good news, how about the bad news?
00:33Talk of a reboot began in 1987, and was getting serious in the late 90s, when director Brett Ratner left
00:39to make Rush Hour 2.
00:40It was around this time that avant-garde filmmaker Steven Soderbergh broke into the mainstream, with a stylish caper out
00:46of sight.
00:46Tell me, Celeste, what do you do for a living?
00:48I'm a sales rep, and I came here to call on a customer, but they gave me a hard time
00:53because I'm a girl.
00:54Is that how you think of yourself?
00:56As a sales rep?
00:57As a girl.
00:58After he struck Oscar gold with Erin Brockovich, and traffic in 2000, Warner Brothers trusted him as the mastermind of
01:04the new Ocean's Eleven.
01:05Soderbergh envisioned a classically cool counter to the violent spectacle of modern Hollywood, but he'd still need modern star power.
01:11So need planning, a large crew.
01:14Number 10, Assembling the Team.
01:16It was always essential that Ocean's Eleven featured some of the most popular Hollywood actors going into the new millennium.
01:21Danny Glover was attached, along with Luke and Owen Wilson, but they were all poached by Wes Anderson's The Royal
01:25Tenenbaums.
01:26Let me ask you something.
01:27Why would a review make the point of saying someone's not a genius?
01:31You think I'm especially not a genius?
01:33Bruce Willis would come to regret walking away from the lead role of Danny Ocean.
01:37Mark Wahlberg, on the other hand, was glad to have turned down Linus Caldwell with the reviews that Ocean's Twelve
01:42eventually got.
01:43I am a traveler, in both time and space, to be where I have been.
01:48There were even discussions about pulling Joel and Ethan Coe into the other side of the camera, to play the
01:53bickering Malloy brothers.
01:54He went through a 10-44.
01:5610-46, get a watch that works.
01:59Thank you so good.
02:00Their names were certainly big for filmmakers, but it was all about face value with Warner's $85 million investment.
02:06That's a lot of money.
02:07Number 9, Taking a Cut.
02:09The film's huge budget still couldn't afford the desired cast, but Steven Soderbergh had a major connection.
02:14Out of Sight star George Clooney was so eager to work with the director again, especially after reading Ted Griffith's
02:19script, that he joined the cast at reduced pay.
02:21I need a reason.
02:23I don't say money.
02:25Why do this?
02:26Why not do it?
02:27He then used his levers to persuade others to do the same.
02:30It's said that the jokester sent Aaron Brockovich star Julia Roberts a $20 bill with a note that read,
02:35I hear you get $20 a film now.
02:37That was about 6-0 short of the going rate.
02:39To work with Steven again, you know, I would do that for $20.
02:44Don't tell Jerry Weintraub.
02:45Ultimately, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Elliot Gold, Carl Reiner, and more rounded out a generation-defining roster.
02:54Even with just Soderbergh and Clooney, teamwork makes the dream work.
02:57Shouldn't somebody help him?
02:58Oh, now that's a great idea, but let's hop out the van and we can all get nicked.
03:02Number 8, Chin Jumps In.
03:04The character of the amazing Yen was an interesting bit of figurative and literal stunt casting.
03:08I don't know, it doesn't seem all that different.
03:17Casting scouts landed on the teenage Chin Xiaobo while he was in Vegas on tour with the Peking acrobats.
03:23The Chinese contortionist spoke very little English and was so inexperienced in film that he didn't recognize much of the
03:28all-star cast.
03:29Any questions?
03:40Still, Chin's physical prowess and screen presence were so impressive from the audition that Yen would go on to appear
03:46in every Ocean's installment.
03:48Aside of that and passing aspirations of becoming a full-time actor and stunt performer, Chin is stuck to acrobatics.
03:54Just as long as he's not using his skills to pull heists.
03:58What the f*** you bet?
04:01Number 7, Cheadle's accent and disappearing act.
04:05Munitions expert Basher Tarr was always written as British.
04:08Casting considered Ewan McGregor and Lenny James, but ultimately paid homage to the original Ocean's Eleven.
04:13Don Cheadle, who played Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's The Rat Pack, portrayed Tarr with explosive charm and an undeniably
04:19bad English accent.
04:20All right, chaps. Hang on to your niggas.
04:24He did his homework in London, but has taken so much flack that he's embraced the fan theory that his
04:29character is an American obsessed with British culture.
04:32Hey, where we at, boys?
04:34Pins and floor sensors now.
04:37Blind.
04:38The bigger insult is that the studio refused to promote Cheadle's name among the cast's headliners.
04:43The actor thus opted to go uncredited on the entire project, but would get top billing for the sequels.
04:48Unfortunately, he failed in his pitch to phase out Tarr's accent.
04:51I'm a goddamn American icon.
04:54Number 6, Rusty's appetite.
04:57You may have noticed that Danny Ocean's right hand, Rusty Ryan, is eating in almost all of his scenes in
05:01Ocean's Eleven.
05:02We need Saul.
05:04He won't do it.
05:05Got out of the game a year ago.
05:06Get religion?
05:08Pulitzer.
05:09Chomp that up to actor Brad Pitt's ability to bring nuance to even the most discreet characters.
05:13He approached Steven Soderbergh with the idea that his character would be so busy with coordinating the heist that he'd
05:18never have time to sit down to a meal.
05:20Do they employ an in-house technician?
05:22Two.
05:23One of them is lonely.
05:25The truth is that Pitt himself rarely had time for a lunch break.
05:28Either way, Rusty's snacking became fans' favorite running gag in the film franchise.
05:32It's speculated that Pitt gradually walked back the habit to signal the con artist's progression toward a less stressful life.
05:38Hey, you dropped these.
05:41Go ahead, I got a plan to catch.
05:42Actually, try this one.
05:44It's been paying out.
05:45Number 5, Dysfunctional Crew.
05:47Steven Soderbergh encouraged the cast to socialize in order to build chemistry to complicated results.
05:52It's a crime.
05:53We should not be getting paid for this.
05:55It's just been a laugh.
05:58The most fulfilling exercise was gathering around to hear Carl Reiner's showbiz anecdotes and get a sense of veteran con
06:04man Saul Bloom's criminal wisdom.
06:06Saul, are you sure you're ready to do this?
06:12If you ever ask me that question again, Daniel, you will not wake up the following morning.
06:24His castmate's anecdotes include George Clooney losing 25 hands of blackjack at the Bellagio Casino.
06:30He says that Matt Damon won the most, but Damon says it was Pitt.
06:33It's hard to trust Clooney with his legendary pranks, which made the set so paranoid that Pitt reportedly ransacked his
06:38hotel suite to find a misplaced room key that he feared was hidden.
06:42The team-building exercise was still so successful that many of the co-stars regularly have worked together outside of
06:47the Ocean's franchise.
06:49Could have been a tracker in there.
06:50Tracker.
06:51You don't think they'd already be here if there was a...
06:53Number 4.
06:54Infiltrating the Bellagio.
06:55Brad Pitt dubbed producer Jerry Weintraub, the Pope of Vegas, for his connections around Sin City.
07:00Specifically, his friendship with Bellagio owner Kirk Krikorian gave Ocean's Eleven carte blanche over the film's central setting.
07:07We need to build an exact working replica of the Bellagio vault.
07:10For practice.
07:12Something like that.
07:13The world-famous hotel became the production's home base, where the cast lived in luxury, and up to 30%
07:18of the casino floor was selectively closed for filming.
07:20Even high rollers lost valet parking privileges.
07:23Additionally, the crew was given access to the building's surveillance system for authentic monitor footage.
07:28Let that be a testament to how confident the Bellagio is in their actual security.
07:31Find out how much money we have down there.
07:33Sure.
07:33And let the iconic Fountain Show sequence, fittingly the most emotional scene shot at the location, be an invitation to
07:39visit.
07:50Number 3.
07:51The Pinch.
07:52The glamorously gritty Ocean's Eleven seems to stretch logic to a breaking point when Basher Tarr uses the pinch to
07:58cause distracting pandemonium during the final heist.
08:01What's a pinch?
08:03A pinch is a device which creates, like, a cardiac arrest for any broadband electrical circuitry.
08:08Or better yet, a pinch is a bomb.
08:10You know, but without the bomb.
08:12The thing is that this technology really existed in 2001.
08:15More or less.
08:16Production designer Phil Messina sent his team to labs in Northern California to study and photograph a Z-Pinch.
08:22Maybe the pinch blew out his earwink.
08:24Linus, can you read me?
08:25Do not blow the door.
08:27They then created a prop particle accelerator that appeared to be capable of blacking out the entire Vegas Strip.
08:33Jeff Quintez of the Sandia National Laboratories assured APS News that the machine wouldn't produce an electromagnetic pulse that powerful.
08:40Let's still hope that it would be a lot more difficult for tech-savvy criminals to steal something like the
08:44pinch.
08:44That is the sexiest thing I have ever seen.
08:49Number 2.
08:50Demolishing the Xanadu.
08:51One of the most intense scenes in Ocean's Eleven involves Danny Ocean staring down Terry Benedict during the demolition of
08:57the fictional Xanadu Hotel and Casino.
09:06It was originally filmed as the New York, New York, a real Vegas resort based on the most iconic city
09:11in the U.S.
09:12But its fictional destruction would be a disturbing symbol after the terrorist attacks on the city on September 11th, 2001.
09:18This meant that the scene had to be partially re-shot to reference the Xanadu, while the building's practical demolition
09:23effect was modified digitally.
09:25The final sequence is seamless, and 25 years later, both of the actual New York, New Yorks are still going
09:30strong.
09:30New York, New York.
09:38Before we continue, be sure to check out WatchMojo's 24-hour livestream.
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09:46Always on, always live.
09:48Are you not entertained?
09:50Number 1.
09:51Hidden Players.
09:52Hawkeye viewers can spot costume designer Jeffrey Kerlin as Salce Taylor, producer Jerry Weintraub as a high roller, and director
09:58Steven Soderbergh on Bashar's first crew.
10:02Oh, leave me out.
10:07You toss us.
10:08You had one job to do.
10:10The real challenge is clocking Vegas royalty like Wayne Newton, Steven Adie, and Siegfried and Roy in the audience during
10:16the film's climatic boxing match.
10:17The guests of honor, of course, are actors Angie Dickinson and Henry Silva of the 1960s Ocean's Eleven.
10:23Cornel, Roger Cornel.
10:24That's me.
10:26First man on the 82nd to be fined for fraternizing with the Freulein.
10:30Alas, George Clooney and Julia Roberts hardly echoed that respect in interviews, where they admitted to being unimpressed with the
10:35OG Oceans.
10:36Ironically, their more acclaimed version was key to the predecessor formerly becoming a cult classic.
10:41Tell me quick.
10:43Ain't love a kick.
10:44But with a takeover of $450 million and a Hollywood franchise, 2001's Ocean's Eleven is truly legendary.
10:52I'm going to ask you one more time.
10:54Did you have a hand in this?
11:00Benedict, I have no idea what you're talking about.
11:03What are some other schemes behind Ocean's Eleven and its sequels?
11:06Roll the dice in the comments below.
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