Question: When Saul is dressing up in front of the mirror for the final night, he collapses on the bed. Rusty, who's watching the scene, doesn't seem too bothered about it. Was Saul simply rehearsing his part, including the fainting, or did Rusty have enough confidence in him to believe he would not fail even if he felt ill?
Question: Benedict sent the SWAT team down to the vault while the "thieves" were still there in order to gain control over his vault etc. Obviously the SWAT team kind of managed to do that, except that the "thieves" blew up the vault with the money. But then when Benedict came down to the vault personally, why he didn't ask about the thieves or want to speak to them, or wonder where their bodies were? Because when the SWAT team left it was only him in the vault.
Answer: Simple, he didn't suspect the SWAT team to know anything more than he did. All he knows is that the SWAT team arrived in an empty vault, just like he did. No thieves, no money. He is a control freak anyway and wanted to nail the scumbags himself, it was his vault.
I thought about this... but how are they going to justify the standoff and gunfight if they say the vault is empty.
He talks to the SWAT team shortly after the lights are turned back on. They say the bomb was detonated, and they were looking for survivors. He then rushes to the vault and doesn't contact them again, assuming he would meet them at the vault but the SWAT team was already gone before he got there. I suspect Benedict would have run up to vault to find nobody there, no guards, SWAT, or thieves. That's when he starts working things out. Remember the money was supposed to be in the van at the airport.
Plot hole: When Bruiser (the man who's supposed to beat up Danny) is faking the noises of punching Danny, the two thugs can hear him through the door. But earlier, he punched Danny by accident, then started to talk to him. The thugs should have been able to hear their talking through the door as well. (01:15:30)
Suggested correction: It's possible Benedict's thugs couldn't hear Danny and Bruiser's conversation earlier since they were just speaking normally, but they can hear Bruiser playing up the "beating" by being deliberately loud and crashing into the furniture.
I do not believe that is correct because Ocean yelled after Bruiser hit him.
Factual error: In the scene when Clooney and Damon are rappelling down the shaft on steel cables, the come up short of the floor. They pull knives and swipe the cables. No knife would be able to cut a steel cable with one swipe.
Suggested correction: The cable is actually small enough gauge to be severed by a sharp knife when under the amount of tension created by the (static) suspended loads, i.e. Linus and Danny, although if so, it probably should have broken when their dynamic descent was halted so abruptly.
Cables would be left swinging, therefore setting off the alarm sensors.
They were retracted after they were cut. There's enough time for that to happen.
Corrected entry: After the lights come back on from the "pinch" everyone in the casino was trying to grab chips and money and a number of people were just running around, but when Rusty is walking through the casino talking on his cell phone to Tess and Benedict everything around him seems to be normal. No one is running around and people are still playing at the tables and slot machines. (01:29:50)
Correction: Rusty called right after the lights came back on. We don't actually see Rusty just yet. He could still be up in the room, outside by the pool, anywhere. The call came just as Terry and Tess are leaving the fight. Terry then had to leave the MGM, get back to the Bellagio in the middle of fight night traffic on the Vegas strip (which anyone can tell you is quite terrible), enter the Bellagio, and get to the security center. That is enough time for casino security to restore order. We don't actually SEE Rusty until Terry gets back to the Bellagio.
Actually, you see Rusty as he makes the call, and he is in the casino. It is apparent in this scene that there's a commotion going on as a few security staff run across the screen behind Rusty.
Corrected entry: Why didn't Terry have the cell phone dusted for fingerprints? Danny didn't use gloves, as we see in the flashback, and he's a convicted criminal. Terry would have been able to pin the heist on Danny in no time.
Correction: In the clip showing Danny placing the phone in Tess' pocket, he's shown holding it by the extended antenna; which would not be a large enough area to retrieve a print. Which would explain why the antenna is extended in the first place. Also, Tess and Benedict both used the phone which would also reduce the chance of retrieving a usable print.
Another explanation for the cell phone antenna being extended is to give it less distance to drop in Tess' pocket therefore being more subtle. What's interesting is that later when she pulls out the phone to answer it, the antenna is magically retracted.
Corrected entry: When George Clooney and Matt Damon first meet, George slides a ticket along the table, which Matt Damon subtly takes, leaving Mr. Clooney quite impressed. But before Matt takes it, George Clooney looks towards the bar, waves his hand, and is then amazed when the ticket's gone. Matt Damon had about 3 seconds to take it - anyone could grab it in that time.
Correction: While Danny looks away for about three seconds, if you follow the motion of his hand, it's only away from the ticket for about a second. Given that Linus wouldn't have known that Danny was going to take his hand off the ticket at that moment, it does require quite impressive reflexes to grab it within the one-second window.
If you watch closely, as soon as George lifts up his hand, Matt goes for the ticket and grabs it all in the same shot. You can see the corner of the ticket briefly flash on the bottom of the screen proving Matt successfully swiped it before the scene cuts. So even just a second is plenty of time to swipe something since the actor was able to do it. Even still, the movie seems to be implying that Matt takes the ticket while George has his hand on it since the camera pans down on George's hand flat on the table with nothing under it at which point George says, "That's the best lift I've seen you make, yet."
Question: In the scene where Rusty prepares Linus for his conversation with Benedict as a Gaming Commissions person, Rusty says something like, "And whatever you do, under no circumstances...", and then gets interrupted. Does anyone know what he wanted to tell Linus?
Answer: In the commentary with the actors, Brad Pitt says that they tried a variety of lines, but none seemed to fit, so they just left it.
I thought it was a nod to Fight Club.
Question: What kind of car is it that Rusty is driving, when he picks up Danny from jail in the final scene?
Answer: I'm assuming it was the 1963 Ford Falcon Futura Convertible that served as Rusty's car throughout the film. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_5165-Ford-Falcon-Futura-1963.html.
If you listen closely it sounds like a late model 5.0L mustang engine in the convertible.
Chosen answer: Rusty is aware that Saul is just rehearsing. He knows Saul well enough to be able to tell if he was really having a medical episode.
raywest ★
I see this a little differently. When Saul struggles to stand, I think it's real; he's having trouble. Rusty notices, but they have to keep moving. From a filmmaking standpoint, this moment is meant to make the audience wonder if Saul is having an episode, helping build tension in the security room scene later. While his struggle is real when getting dressed, it serves as misdirection, making us think the heist is falling apart when it's actually going perfectly to plan.
jshy7979