'It was staged.' (possible writing goof, but might be necessary)

OK, I have seen this movie a number of times since 2001. It just struck me recently that there is a possible goof in the writing, but having said that it also might be NECESSARY for the screenplay to work.

36.00

Livingstone hacks the casino surveillance system.

37.52

Fourth task, construction: ‘we need to build an exact working replica of the Bellagio vault.’

‘For practice?’

‘Something like that.’

1.15.21

Livingstone is watching as the cash box (containing Yen) is dropped off in the (real) casino vault and Saul’s briefcase is placed on top ‘oh, s—t.’ he observes, meaning it will be very difficult for Yen to get out without tripping the vault sensors.

1.35.29

Terry Benidict says to Walsh: ‘Does it say Belagio on the vault floor?’, ‘We had it installed on Tuesday.’

1.35.58

‘It was staged, someone made a duplicate of my vault, and what we saw on the monitor wasn’t actually happening.’


Obviously if Livingstone and the Ocean team had hacked into the casino surveillance as early as 36.00 minutes into the movie then they would KNOW ahead of time that the vault flooring had been changed the Tuesday previous to the heist, and would have adjusted their flooring accordingly so that everything (in terms of the robbery) would have gone off without a hitch.

However, having said that it also might be NECESSARY (in screenwriting terms at least) for the goof to exist, meaning that the movie viewers have to be given both a visual and verbal cue to the effect that images were different and hence Benedict's line of : 'what we saw on the monitor wasn’t actually happening.’ as a cue to the fact that the Ocean team had been successful and gotten away with $160 million, and not the $80 that Rusty had suggested earlier in the film.

Anyone have any thoughts? Please post and let everyone know what you think.

Cheers for now.