25 Ext. Tishkoff's Opulent Back Yard (Las Vegas) - Day

OCEAN’S ELEVEN

25 EXT. TISHKOFF'S OPULENT BACK YARD (LAS VEGAS) - DAY

REUBEN TISHKOFF, the grimace of a man in mid-movement, forever cemented on his face, scrutinizes his two lunch guests (Danny and Rusty) at his poolside.

TISHKOFF Are you listening to me? You are, both of you, nuts. I know more about casino security than any man alive. I invented it, and it cannot be beaten. They got cameras, they got watchers, they got locks, they got timers, they got vaults. They got enough armed personnel to occupy Paris. Okay, bad example...

DANNY It's never been tried.

TISHKOFF Oh, it's been tried. A few guys even came close. You know the three most successful robberies in Vegas history?

26 FLASHBACK - INT. SANDS CASINO FLOOR (1965)

An Adlai Stevenson-lookalike approaches a lockbox carrier from behind and snatches the box.

He takes almost three steps before five security men leap at him and -- FREEZE FRAME on his wide-eyed expression of horror...

TISHKOFF (V.O.) Number three. The bronze medal. Pencilneck grabs a lockbox at the Sands. He got two steps closer to the door than any living soul before him.

RESUME ACTION: Adlai Stevenson gets a taste of what NFL quarterbacks experience every Sunday... five fold.

27 INT. FLAMINGO CASINO FLOOR (1971)

Ocean’s Eleven/scenes 25-30 1 A hippie races toward the electronic sliding doors, clutching a tray full of chips, and as the doors begin to part for him -- FREEZE FRAME: A billy club appears out of nowhere...

TISHKOFF (V.O.) Second most successful robbery. The Flamingo '71. This guy actually smelled fresh oxygen before they got him.

RESUME ACTION: The billy club comes down -- whap! -- across the hippie's skull and it's Chicago '68 all over again.

TISHKOFF (V.O.) Course, he was breathing out of a hose the next three weeks, goddamn hippie.

28 EXT. REUBEN TISHKOFF'S BACK YARD - DAY (PRESENT)

TISHKOFF And the closest any man has gotten to robbing a Las Vegas casino...

29 FLASHBACK - EXT. CAESAR'S PALACE ENTRANCE (1987)

Tourists and valets scatter as a Euro-thief (pastel T-shirt beneath a white linen suit) bursts from the casino and takes five steps before -- FREEZE FRAME: GLASS EXPLODES from three different doors behind him and he arches his back in agony...

TISHKOFF Outside of Caesar's in '87. He came, he grabbed, he got conquered.

RESUME ACTION: BULLETS rip the man to shreds and he collapses on Caesar's steps a bloody pulp.

30 EXT. REUBEN TISHKOFF'S BACK YARD - DAY (PRESENT)

TISHKOFF But what am I saying? You guys are pros, the best. I'm sure you can make it out of the casino. Of

Ocean’s Eleven/scenes 25-30 1 course, lest we forget, once you're out the front door, you're still in the middle of the fucking desert!

Both Danny and Rusty look chastened.

RUSTY You're right. (to Danny) He's right.

DANNY Reuben, you're right. Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

RUSTY That's exactly it. Pure ego.

TISHKOFF Yeah yeah blah blah.

DANNY Thank you so much for setting us straight. Sorry we bothered you.

They both rise to go.

TISHKOFF Look, we all go way back. I owe you from that thing with the guy in the place, and I'll never forget it.

DANNY It was our pleasure.

RUSTY I'd never been to Belize.

TISHKOFF Give Dominic your addresses, I got some remaindered furniture I wanna send you.

Danny and Rusty begin to circle the pool to leave. Tishkoff, of course, won't let them go that easily.

TISHKOFF Just out of curiosity, which casinos did you geniuses pick to rob?

Ocean’s Eleven/scenes 25-30 1 Danny stops, almost as if he's been waiting for this question, which of course he has.

DANNY The Bellagio, Mirage, and the M.G.M. Grand.

TISHKOFF (nostrils flared, smelling a rat) Those are Terry Benedict's casinos.

RUSTY Say, you know, he's right.

Tishkoff waves them back, sipping on his umbrellaed cocktail.

TISHKOFF You guys... Whadda you got against Terry Benedict?

DANNY What do you have against him? That's the real question.

TISHKOFF He torpedoed my casino, muscled me out, now he's gonna blow it up next month to make way for another fuckin' eyesore. Don't think I don't see what you're doin'.

RUSTY What are we doing, Reuben?

TISHKOFF You gonna steal from Terry Benedict, you better goddamn know. This sorta thing used to be civilized. You'd hit a guy, he'd whack you. Done. But Benedict... (bristles) At the end of this he better not know you're involved, not know your names, or think you're dead. Because he'll kill you, and then he'll go to work on you.

Ocean’s Eleven/scenes 25-30 1 That's why we've got to be very careful. We have to be precise. We have to be well-funded.

TISHKOFF Yeah, you gotta be nuts, too. And you're gonna need a crew as nuts as you are. (pregnant silence) Who do you have in mind?

Danny and Rusty both smile; they've hooked their fish. And so it begins...

Ocean’s Eleven/scenes 25-30 1