Plot
Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), in an attempt to legitimize himself in his later years, is conned by Willy Bank (Al Pacino), his former business partner. When Bank forces Tishkoff to sign over the ownership rights of the new hotel/casino they were building together, Reuben suffers a heart attack and becomes bed-ridden. Daniel Ocean (George Clooney), after attempting to negotiate with Bank, gathers up his partners-in-crime and plans to ruin Bank on the opening night of his hotel-casino, "The Bank", to get revenge for Reuben.
The first of two plans is to prevent "The Bank" from winning the prestigious Five Diamond Award, which Bank has previously won with all of his previous hotels. Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) poses as the reviewer of the board, while the real reviewer (David Paymer), is treated horribly during his stay through Ocean's associates and the staff on their payroll.
The second plan is to rig the casino's slot machines and other games to force a pay out more than $500 million in winnings across the casino; this will force Bank to cede control of the casino to his board. Rigging of the games would require them to defeat "The Greco Player Tracker", a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence system that monitors the games and ensures that all winnings are legitimate, by measuring the players' biometric responses for authenticity. They plan to trick Bank into carrying a cell phone with a magnetron, created by technical expert Roman Nagel (Eddie Izzard), to disrupt the Greco. To assure that players cash out, Ocean's team acquires one of the giant drills used to bore the Channel Tunnel, to simulate an earthquake under the hotel on opening night.
While the group prepares the rigged games, the drill breaks, forcing them to approach Terry Benedict (Andy García), one of the previous people they stole from, to fund the purchase of the second drill. While Benedict has a grudge against Bank and is willing to help, he only offers Ocean the funds if they also steal the 4 Five Diamond Awards, now on display in a secured case at the top level of the hotel. Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) offers to seduce Bank's assistant, Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin), to gain access to the display and switch the diamonds with fakes, and the group accepts.
As Ocean's plan proceeds on opening night, agents from the FBI have been tipped off that machines have been rigged by Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) (although in reality this allows Livingston to have the card-dealing machines removed, as he was unable to actually rig them) and have identified him, which may reveal the rest of Ocean's gang to Bank. Basher (Don Cheadle) distracts Bank long enough to allow Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk Malloy (Scott Caan) to change the group's FBI records, including their names and appearances.
Linus, in the process of seducing Sponder in the secure room with the diamonds, is interrupted by the lead FBI agent. He explains the diamond-theft plan to Sponder, and Linus is arrested, but as they exit in the elevator, the lead agent is revealed to be his father, Bobby (Bob Einstein), who is in on Ocean's plan and there to help Linus swap the diamonds. As they exit to the roof of the hotel for extraction via helicopter, they are caught by François "The Night Fox" Toulour (Vincent Cassel), whom Benedict had ordered to intercept the diamonds. Linus gives the diamonds to Toulour, who leaves, but discovers he only holds the fakes after departing; Ocean had been aware of Toulour's presence, and arranged to extract the entire display case from the hotel with a helicopter.
The remainder of Ocean's plan continues as expected, with "The Greco" disrupted, and guests leaving the hotel with their huge winnings. As Bank realizes his ruin, Ocean lets him know that they did everything for Reuben, taunting him about the fact that Bank cannot even arrange for revenge as he cannot prove that Ocean did anything illegal. The group uses the money they made off with to buy property north of the Las Vegas Strip for Reuben to build his own casino. As punishment for Benedict's treachery, Ocean donates his portion of the take to charity, all $72 Million; forcing Benedict to publicly admit his philanthropy via TV appearances. As the group disperses on their own and considers settling down, Rusty ensures that the real Five Diamond reviewer is compensated by allowing him to win an $11 million jackpot at a rigged slot machine at the airport.
Read more about this topic: Ocean's Thirteen
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