Ocean's Eleven

Complete Team Analysis By Darcey Deisch ,Ashley Hermesch, Noor Yacoub ,Justin Carter ,Chad Alley-Purdue University

Ocean’s Eleven was a story about eleven people brought together to achieve a main purpose: robbing the Bellagio hotel vault. According to the movie, there has never been a successful casino heist in the history of Las Vegas. This tells the story of the first victory. The majority of the movie walked the audience through an elaborate plan being played out with hints of humor and suspense. The thieves all came from various backgrounds and nationalities which added to the entertainment of their interactions with each other. The sheer complexity of the heist required that all eleven members have their own important roles to play. If one failed in their job, then the work of all eleven would be ruined. Even when the audience knows what is going on, the plot twists further to reveal an even deeper plan which is what ultimately made the heist a success.

Daniel Ocean (Task Leader, Self-Oriented Leader, Self-confessor, Initiator/Contributor, Standard Setter)

Daniel Ocean is an ex-convict recently released from jail, where he was serving a term for robbery. As soon as he was released, he comes up with an idea to rob the vault of 3 casinos. Casinos are the most difficult places to rob which means only the perfect execution of a perfect job would suffice. His behavior, along with that of fellow team member Rusty Ryan, contributed to the team’s goals being accomplished, as they were the two that seemed to take the reins of the operation (Task Leader). Mr. Ocean also had a hidden agenda in robbing the Bellagio, as he wanted revenge against Mr. Benedict, the owner, who was dating his ex-wife. This motivation does not readily come out, but is rather discovered as the plan develops (Self-Oriented Leader). For this reason, Ocean should also be considered a (Self-Confessor) because he brought in his personal feelings to the job. The first step he underwent, with the help of Rusty, was to get the right team that would be needed (Initiator/Contributor). He also delegated the tasks to each of the members so everyone knows where they fit in the grand scheme of things. By setting and communicating the plan, which contained strict time constraints, paths to follow, and interactions with others, he was also giving the team a standard that had to be met in order to successfully achieve the team goal of pulling off the largest casino robbery in history (Standard Setter). This meticulous planning is why he could be considered the groups standard setter. The intricacies of the plan could only be done by a perfectionist. He made everyone else up their levels by showing them how much he trusted them to do correctly (Standard Setter).

Rusty Ryan (Procedural Technician, Coordinator, Information Giver, Gatekeeper, Harmonizer)

Rusty had a number of roles and responsibilities throughout the movie. For one thing, he’s the one that Danny Ocean trusts the most and relies on. He is his “wingman.” Rusty was the first person Ocean sought out after his release from prison and got him on board with the plan; to get his “approval” (Procedural Technician). Rusty helped Ocean with the preliminary ideas and strategies (Coordinator). Since Ocean was in jail, Rusty took the liberty of suggesting different crew members with their special abilities and availability (Information Giver). After choosing the eleven they needed to get the job done, Rusty was assigned for the recruitment process. He traveled across the United States to get a hold of possible crew members and enticed them to join the team (Gatekeeper). Further into the movie, when the plan was set and the players were ready for action, Rusty went over the entire plan a couple of times with the team (Coordinator). They needed to perfect it; there was no room for mistakes. He was also in the control, whenever he did not have any other responsibilities to fulfill, to make sure that everyone was on track. He would give the ‘go’ when it came to accurate timing (Coordinator). Rusty also tried to mend things between several crew members when tensions arose. He was always the cool, aloof, emotionally detached member of the group; that helped keep the team in balance (Harmonizer). Another key role he was hat both Rusty and Ocean were sought out for any questions or problems that came up during the operation. They were the glue holding the crew members, and the plan, together (Gatekeeper).

Terry Benedict (Standard Setter, Self-Oriented Leader, Blocker, Dominator)

Terry Benedict is the owner of several casinos which were the target of the thieving group Ocean’s Eleven. He was very meticulous and ran his companies with an iron fist. There were several very distinct characteristics about him which signify what kind of a leader he was. He remembers everything about everyone in the casino. He is has a meticulous routine with everything he does. He is in control and there is little that he won’t deal with personally (Standard Setter). He was fluent in Italian, German, Spanish, and working on his Japanese, always greeted everyone, including the doormen, by name every time he enters his casinos, and was always punctual to every meeting. A leader who runs a major organization must be seen as a force to be reckoned with. A casino’s leader needs a tough image so no one messes with him which is the reason why he not only punishes the people who try to steal from him, but also the ones that are close to them. He did not care if someone is innocent or not. If it scares other people away from future crimes toward him, then it is worth it (Dominator). Benedict attended to his own needs before the needs of others (Self-Oriented Leader). When he was very sure of Ocean’s involvement in the heist, he made a deal that he would get rid of Tess Ocean so he could know who robbed him. It ended up being an ineffective way of dealing with his problem since he lost Tess and never found out who robbed him. The fact that Ocean’s Eleven got away with the heist and no one was found guilty of the crime, made him even more upset over the loss. He had been outsmarted in his own environment. With a personality such as his demanding no emotion, his anger showed just how rattled the event had made him.

Reuben Tishkoff (Social (Maintenance) Leader, Information Giver, Group Observer, Opinion Giver, Evaluator)

Reuben provided many important qualities and abilities to the team in the movie Ocean’s Eleven. Reuben performed many roles, and the first was helping the group to achieve its goals while maintaining relationships (Social (Maintenance) Leader). He helped to make sure everyone knew their roles and built upon the team relationships. Reuben gave the team specific information as to what other teams had done before when they were in the same situation. Other groups had tried to rob a casino and failed. Reuben wanted to make sure the team knew others’ failures in order to make their efforts a success (Information Giver). Reuben kept mental records of the stage of the process and brought up important information that the group may have overlooked. During team meetings he remained quiet but was sure to remind the members what not to do in order to succeed (Group Observer). Reuben was sure to give alternatives for the group. He made sure the team knew their options and could choose the best one for them as a team (Opinion Giver). The last role that Reuben played for the team was subjecting the team to criterion. He made sure the steps that Daniel Ocean and Rusty Ryan had set up made sense. Reuben sometimes criticized what each of these men said so the group could realize what would be the best plan of action (Evaluator). Reuben’s greatest talent that he exhibited was keeping the team on track. He helped to organize information in order to successfully make a plan for the team to complete. Keeping the team on track proved to be very vital to their success. Therefore, Reuben was an extremely important part of the Ocean’s Eleven team.

Linus Caldwell (Information Seeker, Procedural Technician, Follower, Group Observer)

Danny Ocean invited all of the possible team members to a meeting to discuss the plans to rob the casinos. Linus was sitting on a chair observing the presentation. He was greatly interested in participating in the robbery. He first had to know what they were trying to achieve and how they where going to do it. He also wondered what tasks he would be performing to achieve the goal (Information Seeker). Linus’s main task throughout the movie was to follow Terry Benedict who is a Casino owner. Linus observes Terry’s everyday routines by following him secretly all day every day. He has to take records of Terry’s every move in order to gain important information of the regular routines (Procedural Technician, Group Observer). Another task that Linus had to perform was imitating a Nevada casino board member. While acting like a board member he had to investigate Frank Catton, who was a black jack dealer accused of have a criminal record (Procedural Technician). Linus was asked to help in the robbery by Danny Ocean. Danny comprised a scheme to rob three casinos at the same time. Linus was given various duties to perform in order for the robbery to be successful. Danny told him what he needed to do and he did it (Follower). Linus was asked by Rusty Ryan, one of the leaders of the team, to take over a task that Danny was supposed to perform. Linus accepted the task without argument or disapproval (Follower). Linus was brought up in a criminal family. His father and mother are well known professional criminals. This is where he gets his varies talents such as pick pocketing and observing a person with them knowing about it.

Livingston Dell (Information giver, Orientor, Procedural Technician, Avoider)

Livingston Dell is the information hub of Ocean’s Eleven. It was his job to keep tabs on what everyone else in the group was reporting (Information Giver). He operated out of one base spot and monitored the activities of the others to make sure the plan ran like clockwork (Procedural Technician). It was his job to make sure that the distraction was still occurring when it was needed as well as to inform the team what was going right or wrong. He went down the list of things that needed to be accomplished and made sure everyone did exactly what was needed of them for the plan to go correctly (Orientor). Dell stuttered a lot which led the audience to believe that he was not very sure about himself. When there was an argument or problem in the group, he did not step in to remedy it except when it directly involved the completion of his task (Avoider).

Tess Ocean (Self-Oriented Leader, Blocker, Aggressor)

Tess Ocean played the role as Danny Ocean’s ex-wife. She had begun to date the owner of the casino, Terry Benedict. Therefore, in the move, she played a negative role with the team. She was not a direct member of the team but tried to inhibit their success. Tess was worried more about herself rather than the team (Self-Oriented Leader). Tess also was negative and resistant toward Danny Ocean. She was not sure what he was up to, but disagreed with him being at the hotel/casino when she was there. Tess tended to argue with Danny about different issues, including their personal relationship and the underlying reason he was at the casino (Blocker). Tess showed great disapproval of Danny and his team. She attacked him several times threatening to get him thrown out of the hotel. She did not like the fact that he was at the hotel because he was up to something (Aggressor). The role that Tess played in Ocean’s Eleven was extremely negativistic and hindered the group process only a small bit. She tried to stop the group from completing their task at hand, but also proved to a part of their success.

The Tuckman Model describes 5 stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. At the beginning of the movie, the crew was in the “forming” stage, which is the first stage of the Tuckman Model. After the recruitment process, they all met at Rueben’s house in Las Vegas, and all the details of the operation were laid out. Daniel Ocean gave the crew the dangers and benefits of the operation, and asked them to be sure of their decision to join the team. Then, the crew jumped past the “storming” stage and into the “norming” stage. This stage is when they started to practice for the real operation, creating a replica of the vault that they were robbing, and worked out the kinks in the operation. Moving to the “performing” stage was displayed when the crew members had to perform the actual operation. No mistakes were allowed. Everything had to go smoothly and in a timely manner. The fifth and final stage is the “adjourning” stage, which was when the operation was completed successfully; they were not caught, and walked away with all the money.