Recap / Film Reroll: Ocean's Eleven

Oceans 11 Reroll poster by /u/dtrust on reddit

We meet the team of Oceans 11! Jon stalks himself! Scott rides a skateboard! Tim makes an explosion! Pitr shoots a parrot! Andy eats a cold sandwich! Joz goes to Venezuela!

Episodes 86-90 of Film Reroll. Based on the 2001 heist movie.

Following his release from jail, career criminal Danny Ocean meets up with his old buddy Rusty Ryan to plan a new heist which can finally make them set for life, simultaneously robbing the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand casinos. Knowing that they have a difficult, elaborate scheme in front of them, they hire a Dream Team consisting of the best crooks in the business, promising them all a share of the cash. The question is, will the plan succeed? Or will they paint themselves into a corner?

Starring Jon Miller as Danny Ocean and Linus Caldwell, Jocelyn "Joz" Vammer as Rusty Ryan and Sasha Goddyn, Andy Hoover as Frank Catton and Chris Stockton, Kara Strait ^note credited as “Pitr Strait” as Reuben Tishkoff and Isaac Caesar, Scott Aiello as Travis Love and Rowan Davies, Timothy "Tim" Nolan as Brian Quezada and Livingston Dell, and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.

Followed by Toy Story.

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Tropes:

• Ambiguous Gender: Paulo admits to not knowing the gender of Patreon supporter Rowan, but made their Film Reroll namesake a man because that worked better for the story.
• Ambiguous Situation: After the events of the campaign, Danny Ocean falls into a deep depression and contemplates suicide, but we don't know if he goes through with it or not.
• Auction: Paulo introduces a bidding system into the campaign, giving the players 100 "Reroll bucks" each to bid for a large number of potential characters. (Players who already have characters from the beginning only get 50, however.)
• The Bartender: Ricky's occupation, which Joz is so eager to play that she also plays another, unrelated bartender before her proper character is introduced.
• Becoming the Mask: Rowan Davies actually ends up forming a Bond with Terry Benedict while impersonating George, writes him an apologetic resignation letter to give him some closure, and later shows up in a different guise to give him some aid and advice.
• Bittersweet Ending: The heist is carried out successfully, but most of our leads are depressed and exhausted and several people are dead while Tess is injured and ends up cutting both Danny and Benedict out of her life. The only thing keeping it from becoming an outright Downer Ending is that she does seemingly make a full recovery and is still on good terms with Isaac.
• Boring, but Practical: Rather than using some fancier electronical alternative, Jack Robinson simply uses a notebook to take notes. This makes them extremely difficult for our protagonists to access.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Chris Stockton is rather slow-spoken and not very personable, but he's still one heck of a driver.
• Buy Them Off: Bobby the guard let's our protagonist's in, because they bought his cousin a boathouse once. (He also had a houseboat, but it sank.)
• Call-Back:
  • Jeff returns once again, this time as a bartender. And he's still said to be a good man.
  • Travis adopts the alias "Barry" while filling the position of Isaac's aide.
• Camera Spoofing: Played With. Rowan broadcasts previously shot footage of Linus running around the casino disguised as Charles Brown, distracting the security team and making them follow a false lead.
• Character Death:
  • Brian Quezada is hit by a deadly hail of bullets during the money transport robbery. Having already done his part, none of his allies consider saving him to be worth the risk.
  • Benedict ends up hunting down and killing Jack Robinson, still convinced that he was involved in the break-in.
• Co-Dragons: Benedict appoints Jack Robinson as The Dragon alongside "George", to the latter's ire. While it's obvious that Rowan is really worried about getting the plot exposed, his arguments still bring up genuine issues this trope can cause, such as confusions about authority.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The players — who all end up Acting for Two In-Universe — use differently colored dices to differentiate between them.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting:
  • The Rerollers imagine Chris Stockton to be played by Jason Statham... with a terrible American accent.
  • Sasha Goddyn is said to be played by Scarlett Johansson... even though — as admitted by the Rerollers — she would have been too young at the time.
  • The undercover casino guard at least sounds like Johnny Cash.
• Con Men Hate Guns: From the beginning, it is made clear that our protagonists don't want anybody to die during their caper, even if not everyone are pleased with this rule. Tragically, this doesn't quite turn out the way they hoped...
• Dark and Troubled Past: Isaac Caesar has a hard time designing a marshal disguise, as he previously had a romantic relationship with a marshal which did not end well.
• Disguised in Drag:
  • Rusty Ryan — played by Joz Vammer — is given a surprisingly convincing Harmless Lady Disguise, courtesy of Isaac and a very lucky roll.
  • Later Averted with Sasha Goddyn, who Joz Vammer wanted to reveal as Rusty in drag, but DM Paulo Quiros didn't allow her to make such a retcon. (For her part, Joz claimed that Sasha was always meant to be Rusty, and that Paulo simply didn't get the hint.) They eventually compromised by establishing that Sasha was an inside woman working for Rusty.
• Disney Death: DM Paulo Quiros initially has Tess Killed Offscreen, but when the other players find it cheap, he relents and allows them to roll luck for her survival. Turns out she was merely thought to be dead, and actually just fell into a coma she eventually recovered from.
• The Eeyore: Chris Stockton comes across like this, but he claims to simply be The Stoic and a bit slow-spoken. Either way, he shows very little enthusiasm for his assassination mission.
• Enforced Method Acting: An only half-intentional example. The fourth episode was the first one to be recorded as a video conference due to the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. This gave a "detached" quality to the gameplay which ended up working well with the story, as the characters communicate mostly through Comm Links.
• Engineered Public Confession: Danny Ocean manages to get Jack Robinson to admit that Terry Benedict wants him dead on camera. Tess sees the broadcast, likely playing a part in her leaving Benedict later.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Jack Robinson eventually become convinced that LeMarque (from Ocean's Twelve) is The Man Behind the Man, as he can't fathom that Danny Ocean would stage such an elaborate coup himself.
• Fake Nationality:
  • In-Universe, Danny Ocean does an australian accent to fool an undercover casino guard into thinking that he's caught the wrong man. The Rerollers admit that this is not very good, but feel like it does sound like the kind of accent George Clooney would probably do.
  • Also In-Universe, Rowan puts on a french accent while trying to sell Isaac's sculpture to Tess's exhibit.
• Fall Guy: As a potential last resort scenario, our protagonists design a computer virus which — if inserted into a casino terminal — will make it seem as though Benedict himself had organized the break-in.
• Five-Finger Discount: Linus ends up having to pickpocket Jack Robinson's notebook, photograph all the pages, and our it back without him noticing. He pulls it off like a charm.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: DM Paulo Quiros incorporates a deck of cards into the game to allow Jon Miller and Andy Hoover to actually play a brief game of blackjack.
• Genuine Human Hide: Reuben is a bit too obsessed with Danny's skin. Also a Shout-Out to Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.
• Girls With Mustaches: This is apparently George's kink, as he has a big folder full of pictures of them on his computer.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Jack "the Crusher" Robinson has a "Bond villain-esque" facial scar.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In-Universe, the Rerollers consider the fact that Frank Catton is working at the Trump Casino to be this.
• Identity Impersonator:
  • Our protagonists plan involves Rowan impersonating George Hammerschmith, the head of security. They pull off the disguise perfectly.
  • Danny Ocean also attempts to get close to George by impersonating the hypothetical owner of a casino which closed down some time ago. This backfires when Benedict shows up and informs George of who Danny really is.
  • Averted when Isaac makes Linus up to look just like Jack, only for the gang to realize that it would be much easier to simply send him in as a substitute guard.
• In-Series Nickname: Our protagonists use "Eggman" as a codeword for Terry Benedict.
• Insufferable Genius: Isacc is the best make-up artist in the business, and isn't afraid of boasting about this.
• Invented Individual: As part of the "Charlie Brown" con, Rusty disguises himself as an US marshal named George Orwell.
• It's Personal: Aside from Danny's actual motives, the gang also create a ficticious example with Invented Individual Charles "Charlie" Brown, an escaped inmate with a thorn in the side against Benedict after losing his savings at his casino, and supposedly had contact with Danny Ocean during his time in jail.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Danny begs Tess to — if not get back together with him — at least leave Benedict, as he is a truly evil man. It seems like she actually listens, as she does indeed reject Benedict at the end.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Our protagonists sneak into the Bellagio server room under the pretense of modifying the smoke detectors to detect poisonous gas.
• Kill and Replace: How the real George Hammerschmith is eventually dealt with, though it's more like "knock him out with a Tap on the Head and replace."
• Lotus-Eater Machine: George is basically kept in one as Danny sends him to a medical facility, bribing a nurse to keep him doped up.
• Love Redeems: During the gala, Terry Benedict realizes that he actually has feelings for Tess. Once she is comatosed, he ensures that she gets the best medical treatment money can buy.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: When Jack, the second-in-command of security, uncovers the operation, Rowan-as-George and his collaborators knock him unconscious and inform the medical staff that he needs an ambulance. Fortunately, Danny Ocean knows a guy who drives one and is willing to transport Jack to the same facility where George is being held.
• Master of Disguise: Isaac Caesar is said to be one, and he certainly lives up to his reputation, as all of his disguises succeed beyond our protagonists' already high expectations.
• Mind Screw: The line between game and reality starts getting kind of fuzzy when Joz throws her voice into the character auctioning... while framing it as a passionate argument from from Rusty.
• Mistaken for Spies: Benedict eventually starts suspecting "George" — the actual culprint — of being The Mole, but when several explosions go off at the casino after Jack Robinson suggested to keep half the money in the vault, Jack becomes the prime suspect, which is exactly what our main characters counted on.
• Naïve Newcomer: Chris Stockton is the only member of the party who hasn't heard of the Bellagio casino, but he's still excited about going there and see some "spinning wheels which are not on cars."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • From Danny Ocean's perspective, the look Isaac designs for Tess is so gorgeous that both Terry Benedict and the normally asexual Isaac fall head over heels for her, which is very much going against his plans for the evening.
  • An even bigger example comes later, when the heist ends up causing the death of many innocent people, giving the whole team a collective My God, What Have I Done? moment.
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Isaac Ceasar is Married to the Job and terrified of anybody — regardless of gender — hitting on him.
• Polly Wants a Microphone: Bobby the corrupt security guard has a talking parrot, because it's "bring-your-parrot-to-work-day." (Maybe, he might have misread that...)
• Pragmatic Villain: "George" actually "uncovers" and exposes part of the plan to Benedict, just to make it seem like he is making an effort to stop the thieves.
• Properly Paranoid: Jack Robinson has the security levels at the casino increased substantionally. Given that there is in fact a huge conspiracy to rob the place, he's absolutely right to do so.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Our main characters end up only getting half the money the were promised, and by that point they barely care about it anymore. Rusty ends up donating most of his share charity, and Rowan doesn't even collect his, simply leaving it in the helicopter along with the late Brian Quezada's share.
• Recognition Failure: Tess has never heard of Isaac Ceasar before. Given that he actually is a famous artist, this is legitimate ignorance on her part, which Isaac does not take well...
• Red Baron: Jack "the Crusher" Robinson. The moniker was an ad-lib by Kara Strait, which made at least Scott Aiello wonder if that was a canonical character he had forgotten about.
• Renaissance Man: Isaac Ceasar; costume designer, make-up artist, sculptor, composer...
• Right Hand Vs Left Hand: Invoked by Rowan, who disguises his own deliberate sabotage as simply poor communication within the security department.
• Samus Is a Girl: Jon Miller doesn't realize that the first Non-Player Character he interacts with is a woman before she corrects him, as Paulo forgot to mention that detail.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Isaac and Sasha both Book it when they hear that the casino explosions are about to go off.
  • Rowan Davies also leaves the casino after realizing that his disguise has served its purpose and that he's only putting himself at risk of being caught.
• Secret Test of Character: It's implied that Tess let Isaac design her dress and make-up at Benedict's place to see how trustworthy and legitimate he is. As she doesn't actually uncover the plan, all it really results in is her getting a new formal look.
• Small Name, Big Ego: "The Sasha Goddyn," who assumes that everybody would know her from that one soap opera she starred in. Nobody does. (Of course, this may just be part of her act.)
• Stalker without a Crush:
  • Well, no crush that we're aware of, at least. Danny spends three days stalking Frank — always making sure he knows it's happening — in an attempt at convincing him to return to a life of crime.
  • Part of the final plan also involves stalking George Hammerschmith for a period of time so that Rowan can kidnap and impersonate him.
• The Starscream: Disillusioned by the high body count and the loss of half his payment, Hamilton threatens to just take all the loot and run. He is eventually talked into accepting Danny's share as well (giving him slightly more than originally promised) and give the rest back to his accomplices.
• The Stoner: David, who is high when he gets called up, but promises not to be for the actual mission.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: In-Universe, Kara Strait says that she actually prefers the 2001 Ocean's Eleven movie over the original.
• Talking to Themself: In-Universe. Jon Miller actually ends up stalking and then recruiting himself in the first episode, playing both Danny and Linus.
• The Theme Park Version: Kara Strait describes Scott Aiello's southern accent as that of an actor playing Tim Nolan in a film based on a true story.
• Thrill Seeker: Brian Quesada, the stunt man. Ricky even uses the danger of the mission as a selling point to get him involved.
• Token Good Teammate: Daniel Hamilton, a normal helicopter pilot with no criminal history.
• Trojan Horse: The heist involves hiding explosives in a glass sculpture (shaped like a frozen explosion, natch) designed by Isacc Ceasar, and then have it displayed in the art gallery above the casino.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Paulo Quiros ended up editing down Danny and Ricky's planning session into a montage, since the players needed to know it exactly, but the audience might just find it redundant and spoilery. (They also discussed having a Unfolding Plan Montage, but felt it would be impractical.)
• The Un-Twist: In-Universe. The Rerollers wonder why Paulo even bothered trying to keep Linus Caldwell's identity a secret, since it was so obviously him.
• The Vamp: Sasha is trying to be this, but sadly she utterly fails at seducing George and just ends up offending him.
• Villains Out Shopping: Danny and Chris discuss their ongoing heist over a pair of snowcones, because why not?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see what happened to the real George. As far as we know, he never got out of that institution...
• Wrong-Name Outburst: An epic blooper example. When Sasha tries coming onto George, he slips up and says his name is Rowan, even though he's meant to be the real George at the time! This makes the Rerollers wonder if George was coincidentally planning to steal Rowan's identity before Rowan stole his.

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