Casinos are the ultimate fantasy destination. Every single player that enters the gaming area harbors the fantasy that this time could be the time that they hit it big. This happens whether the player is a penny slot player, sitting at the $100 minimum blackjack table, or betting “cranberries” at baccarat.
Filmmakers have long tried to incorporate this fantasy, and for the most part they have failed. The game they use most often is blackjack. The reasons for this are fairly simple; most people know how to play blackjack and they are aware that blackjack is one of the only games in the casino that can be beaten.
Two films where blackjack plays an integral part of the plot do get it right.
21 is the semi-biographical story of a group of MIT students who study the science of card counting and make weekend trips to Las Vegas to use their skill at the table. They make hundreds of thousands of dollars and live the high-roller life style. While the MIT Blackjack Team, did in fact exist (actually in several different incarnations) the film uses the real-life players only as a plot line.
There are many aspects of the game and the entire high roller lifestyle the film does get correct. The first is the actual game play. Few films ever get the mechanics of the game play down correctly; 21 is an exception. The various characters and situations are believable and realistic even down to the scene where the team enlisted the help of strippers to cash in their chips. Perhaps the most realistic of all is the depiction of the perks and comps afforded to high rollers. High rollers (called “whales” by the casino hosts) are the life blood of any casino and the limos, suites and preferential treatment shown to the members of the team are actually the bare minimum usually offered to high roller players.
It is exactly the treatment afforded high rollers that puts one other movie on the most believable list. In Last Vegas, a group of old, both in terms of age and in terms of the length of their friendship, friends meet up in Las Vegas for the marriage of one of their group. Archie, played by Morgan Freeman, (the anti-Clark Griswold) goes on the run of a lifetime at the blackjack table and eventually leaves the game after winning $87,000.
At this point Archie and his friends begin a cat and mouse game of trying to avoid casino hosts that are trying to catch up with them. The group, like most recreational players, is totally unaware the it is the casino host’s job to reward winners for being winners, and are totally caught off guard when the hosts finally corner them and offer them a suite and the full VIP treatment.
While much of the rest of the film stretches believability a bit, the rare but realistic run of a lifetime and the lack of awareness of the level of service offered to big winners earns Last Vegas a spot on the most realistic Vegas movie list.
Originally published May 26, 2015. Updated November 12, 2018.
