A Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, 2 Jethro's, a Leon Spinks & an Ella Fitzgerald.
I've just had a weekend of watching Ocean's 11,12 & 13. Every time I watch these movies I find myself trying to decipher the various names they give to their scam. Throughout the movies you will hear the characters refer to the scam they will need to pull, by giving it a code-name. It's always fascinated me if these codes actually meant something, so I decided to do some research and find out. Apparently the list of cons was created by director Steven Soderbergh and a screenwriter. 'There are still some other different and varying theories, but out of all the ones I read, these seem the most plausible.
The Hustles
It's all about the scene where Danny is trying to convince Rusty to rob Benedict's casinos with him, Rusty says:
"Off the top of my head, I'd say you're looking at a Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever."
* A Boesky:
This is the character of Saul playing Lyman Zerga.
(image credit:empireonine.media)
Lyman Zerga is the whale who asks to put his jewels in the casino vault. His jewels actually being dynamite. This is a reference to Ivan Boesky, a big-time trader on Wall Street who got caught committing securities fraud. The con here is about a wealthy roller who has insider information.
* A Jim Brown:
The fight between Frank Catton and Linus, staged to distract Terry Benedict so that Linus is able to pickpocket the security codes to the casino's vault.
Named after the famous American football player, "Jim Brown, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players ever. The fight between the characters is called a "Jim Brown" in a reference to the confrontations in football.
* A Miss Daisy:
This refers to the S.W.A.T van used as the getaway vehicle.
"Driving Miss Daisy' is a movie about a woman who gets chauffeured around. The team use a S.W.A.T van which is remote-control and therefore being driven not by them.
* 2 Jethro's:
This is the name given to the Malloy brothers, Turk and Virgil.
The two Jethro's is a reference to "The Beverly Hillbillies" character of the same name. These are the slightly redneck Molloy brothers who are hired to look after Miss Daisy (The Van). Throughout the movie, they work as an effective duo on a variety of tasks. For example, the distraction with the balloons which are used to cover the security camera in order for Livingston to get into the cctv surveillance room. The remote-control drag car they are playing with at the beginning of the movie, is a clue to use of the remote-control ploy used later in the movie.
* Leon Spinks:
The distraction in the form of disrupting the boxing match.
This is a reference to the boxing match where Leon Spinks beat Muhammad Ali in what was a total upset which nobody expected. This is mirrored with a boxing match in the movie, however the unexpected occurrence in the film is when the power goes out in the middle of the match. This created the necessary chaos required for the scam.
* Ella Fitzgerald:
Playing a looped tape of the staged robbery over the casino security system, as a distraction while the real theft is actually taking place.
This is a reference to a commercial for Memorex where a recording of Ella Fitzgerald's voice breaks a glass. Then the voice-over says, "is it live or is it memorex?" The concept is that Benedict doesn't know if the robbery that he is witnessing is the robbery that's actually happening. This creates confusion.
Conclusion:
I hope you enjoyed the explanations and if enough people like this post, I will do another for Ocean's 12 & 13.
CREDIT:
I need to credit Jackson Mohsenin @ Quora
& Adel Johnson @ allthelittlethings
& IMDB
for providing me with nearly everything i wanted to know for this post.
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