MovieChat Forums > Ocean's Eleven (2001) Discussion > Another plothole thread. Please explain ...

Another plothole thread. Please explain how they.....

posted 13 years ago by hogwouth
16 replies | jump to latest

...got the flyers into the vault in the first place.

I'm talking about when Benedict's guards take the first "$80million" into the remote controlled van which was actually filled with hooker flyers.
How did they get several bags of flyers into the vault in the first place.
The only people that had access to the vault was Linus, Danny and Yen.

Yen couldn't have put 4-6 large bags of flyers into the vault. He was hiding in a tiny box on the verge of suffocating.

Danny and Linus certainly didn't bring it down there. They dropped down the elevator shaft with ropes/harness.

It definitely wasn't the rest of the team because they were busy elsewhere or in the hotel room.
They couldn't have taken it in there disguised as the swat team, because the guards took the "money"(flyers) out of the vault before the "SWAT team" arrived.
It was already loaded into the van by the time the "SWAT team" got there.

When the contents of the vault were blown up, there were still traces of excess flyers in there.

The only explanation I can think of is that someone loaded 6 filled bags of flyers through the top of the elevator which is quite impossible. It doesn't add up. There's no explanation to how they put the decoy money into the vault.

Well what use are MY brains if I'm tied up with a dumb clunk like you!

[–] luke_leonhart 13 years ago

I came on here to ask that exact same question.
WTF. I'm sure there's an answer on the board somewhere but I've not found it yet.

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[–] Abuhin 13 years ago

I heard the director admits it's a plothole in the dvd commentary.

[–] Lucy9596 13 years ago

I don't know about the bags with the x that got blown off in the van but the flyers in the vault could be brought in with the bags that the "SWAT team" later filled with the money.

It’s just so sad that the variety of the world should be used as a contentious issue.

[–] uscpsycho 13 years ago

It is a plot hole. Just overlooked I guess. But I came up with a "how it should have been done/explained" a while back. It's quite simple really.

When Saul passes out in the security room, and they switch the camera to the video in the elevator (Linus disappears), then Rusty comes in as a doctor, there is about a minute pause before the twins come in with the stretcher. If they were on their way in at the same time as Rusty, with the bags hidden under the stretcher, they could have quickly loaded the bags onto the elevator while Linus held it open for them (the stretcher could have even just been spring-loaded to pop them off). The cameras have already been switched to video, there's chaos as Saul has apparently just had a heart attack, and the elevators aren't used again. Then the bags would just sit on the elevator until the guards opened it.

Here's another plot hole for you though.... 167 million dollars, in $100 bills, divided between 18 or 20 SWAT bags... Those bags should be about the size of a sofa each, and weigh around 300 pounds. Sorry, I did the actual calculation a few years ago and can't remember it, but there was NO WAY that much money would fit in those bags, and NO WAY each one of them could carry two bags with ease.

[–] TeraBlight 13 years ago

[...] The cameras have already been switched to video, there's chaos as Saul has apparently just had a heart attack, and the elevators aren't used again. Then the bags would just sit on the elevator until the guards opened it.

You know... that's actually quite inspired! :D

Here's another plot hole for you though.... 167 million dollars, in $100 bills, divided between 18 or 20 SWAT bags... Those bags should be about the size of a sofa each, and weigh around 300 pounds.

Yep, that occurred to me too. It's one of those things that lots of movies get wrong.

A dollar bill weighs about a gramme, thus, a million dollars in cash weighs at least ten thousand grammes, i.e. twenty pounds. If you're going to steal much more than that per head, you can't just carry it out, or at least not all at once.

In that respect, American thieves are a bit worse off than the rest of the world, since most national currencies continue beyond the equivalent of the hundred-dollar denomination. ;)

[–] BigRich 13 years ago

I'd say another plot hole was how there were laser detectors in the vault that Yen tried to avoid after leaving the cart and then placing the explosives on the door. Moments later after the explosion...why didn't the alarm go off? Clearly the vault was in ruins and even the laser detectors were no longer working.

_
Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

[–] uscpsycho 13 years ago

Basher clearly states earlier in the preparations that the explosive charges he's making (the emerald stones) will knock out the sensors inside the vault. That's why he had to stay off the floor until the charges went off. Obviously they weren't planning to load up $160M+ without touching the floor!

[–] BigRich 13 years ago

I never heard him say that. At what point in the movie (give me a hour/minute mark) because I just went through my DVD and i did not hear him say that. As he's prepping the explosives, he's by himself and the hotel behind him implodes. He later investigates, goes down in the sewer, finds workers fixing the electrical problem and then reports back to the other 10, says they nawsed it all up and later says they need a pinch. Between this time and when the Chinese guy sets the charges, Basher enters the hotel room and says, "where we at boys?" and Livingston says, "Pins & Needles". At no time was it "clearly stated" that the explosives would knock out the sensors. You find the section, let me know, I'll review my DVD and go from there.

Edit-
Scrolled through this again. They barely showed Basher from the time he climbed down the manhole and said something about "broke, blind or bedlam" to the time he made the emerald bombs, to the time he tells them about needing the pinch, to stealing the pinch and then so on. Again, please tell me at what point he clearly states that the emerald bombs he created will knock out the sensors.

_
Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

[–] uscpsycho 13 years ago

I haven't seen the movie in a while (4 or 5 years) but I remember distinctly Livingston saying "floor pins and sensors" and Basher saying something like "Nothing a little Semtex can't handle."

Besides, this can be easily inferred even if they don't explicitly state it. Yen had to stay off the floor to arm the explosives, which is why they needed a "grease man" (an acrobat small enough to fit in the container and acrobatic enough to get "ten feet without touching the floor... what do you do?").. Do you think they planned to levitate during the heist once in the vault? Of course they took out the sensors, but they had to do it from within.. hence, Yen.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] uscpsycho 13 years ago

Sorry, as I said, I haven't seen the movie in 4-5 years and I don't have it... So I can't give you a screen shot or a time.

But here's the script from IMSDb. Section 222 matches my memory, but not what you said previously. So I don't know if it's edited out for TV, or if it's in a deleted scene, or what... I certainly recall it fairly closely, and I don't think I just made it up and happened to match a script.

Perhaps I read the script 10 years ago when questioning some of these things myself, but I don't remember doing that. I believe you when you say you didn't hear this, since you went through the movie yourself, but I have no explanation for why I remember it and it's in the script but not in the movie...

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Ocean%27s-Eleven.html

[–] Lint6 13 years ago

Actually, just watched it with the subtitles on. When Basher says "Where we at boys?" Linus says "Pins and floor sensors now" meaning they had to take out the pins, a term used in safes/locks for the pieces that hold it shut, and the sensors. So obviously those emerald explosives Basher made did have something to do with taking out the floor sensors

[–] suza-lilli 12 years ago

OMFG, please take that stick out of your ass! Watch the DVD yourself and L-I-S-T-E-N. If I thought you could read I'd tell you to turn the subtitles on too. This is quite clearly explained, even though you don't seem to understand what you're hearing. Pins and needles? No. Just......no.

[–] GTizzle 11 years ago

HA!!! Suze just jacked you up, kid!!!

Now take your pretentious little attitude, and suck it!! (Oh, and learn how to listen to movie lines while you're at it).

HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

[–] MurphAndTheMagicTones 10 years ago

OK, I can take down my thread on this. I had the same question.

---
"What story begins with the discovery of magic beans?"
"Inherit the Wind"---Hollywood Squares

[–] JoeCorrao 10 years ago

what always bothered me besides the flyers was that Danny was in theroom talikng a beating...1st
1) he talked to the goon and said not yet to let us know he was in on it...but the 2 goons outside woulda heard too.
2( the beating woulda been 20 minutes or so...Danny looked like he took 1 punch.

~I see a little silhouette of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango.