Over a seven - twelvemonth period beginning in 1993 , a group of math prodigies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won more than $ 3 million playingblackjackin Las Vegas and elsewhere by counting cards and using a cloak - and - dagger subterfuge system of signaling and disguises . Their tale , first chronicle by author Ben Mezrich in his best - vendor " Bringing Down the House , " is the fundament of " 21 , " with Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth . Kevin Spacey also stars as the advanced - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Fagin of a mathematics professor who teaches his billing to work over thecasinos .

Sturgess ( " Across the Universe , " " The Other Boleyn Girl " ) meet Jim Campbell , an MIT senior who ’s been accepted to Harvard Medical School but lacks the $ 300,000 to pay for it . He initially resists when he ’s recruited to link the clandestine card counter , but he relent when he realise it ’s an resolution to his financial problem . Soon , though , he ’s seduced by the lure of Sin City and sudden wealth . As director Robert Luketic assign it , " It ’s about one boy ’s journeying through the lapin hole that is Las Vegas . And it give you a glimpse of what it ’s like to be a high-up , what it ’s like to be on the other side of the fence . "

Luketic did n’t have to fake Las Vegas verisimilitude as he pip on location there – a logistic complexity in itself when you ’re dealing with working casinos – and inBoston , but streamlining and simplifying the storey for the screen and making the plot of jack oak cinematically compelling were among the challenges he face in bringing " 21 " to the sieve .

So how did he do it ? How did the real - life card counter beat the system ? And how much in the film is truth and how much is striking licence ? Luketic and Jeff Ma , the MIT grade on whom the Ben Campbell character is based , give us the rundown in this article .

The MIT Blackjack Team on the Big Screen

" I was fascinated by the tarradiddle , the idea of taking Vegas for millions , " say director Robert Luketic , who ’d scan an excerpt of Ben Mezrich ’s " Bringing Down the House " in Wired magazine . He was crushed when he found out the rights had been already break down up by Kevin Spacey and his produce partner , Dana Brunetti . " I befuddle the magazine across the way and pouted for about two week , " the Australian director admits .

He draw a blank about the theme until his broker sent him Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb ’s playscript for " 21 . " " It ’s funny how things come full Mexican valium , " Luketic says , noting that the script come to him at a time when he was eager to break out of the romanticist clowning cubbyhole he ’d landed in after directing " de jure Blonde , " " Win a Date with Tad Hamilton , " and " Monster - in - Law . " ( The writers had add a quixotic element to the tale , but it is n’t a focal item of the movie . )

Jeff Ma , Mezrich ’s main generator for " contribute Down the House , " was also an priceless source of entropy for Luketic . " At the first dinner party we had , he tell all form of incredible stories and scenario and situations , " Luketic say . " It humanized the story and took it to a whole novel level . "

Mezrich ’s record book put up inspiration , but Luketic thought it needed some alterations . " We focused it on one particular grapheme ’s journey and changed some of the names and places for legal reasons , " he says . " But we were authentic in terms of the way the team act upon and the system they used . "

Luketic and the writers took other small-scale autonomy with the story , including :

How Card Counting Works

So , how did they do it ? The MIT squad ’s intricate system sure enough paid off – but it was n’t totally foolproof .

" To optimize the prison term we drop in thecasino , we had a division of labor movement , " Jeff Ma says . " The back replication stood by a board and count . The spotter played low-pitched - wager bets and bespeak to the big participant when the tabular array was hot . And the gorilla instrumentalist did n’t depend – he was signalise what to bet . "

The signal system was based on value they designate to the cards . Each issue in the count had a corresponding computer code word . " For deterrent example , the password for plus 15 was paycheck . The spotter might say to the trader , ' You ’re make me misplace my whole paycheck ! ' Then I ’d know the count was plus 15 , " Ma order . " We also had hand signaling . Touching your nose meant you understood what was being conveyed to you . touch your eye mean ' follow me . ' Touching your capitulum meant you did n’t hear and needed the data repeat . Rubbing your hands through your whisker meant you thought we were getting attention and needed to get out of there . Touching the back of your cervix meant it was time to discontinue . "

Of course , they sometimes made mistakes – inadvertently using code words and signals , for example . Ma once absentmindedly touched the back of his neck and face around to discover that his partners had entrust , as instructed .

The team members oftentimes changed their tomentum , makeup and closet but were nevertheless finally cast out from theblackjacktables at many casinos , including the Hard Rock , one of those sport in the picture show . " That was the first casino where I was recoil out and told I could n’t diddle Quercus marilandica anymore , " Ma says . " That [ scene ] really brought back a muckle of memories . "

Ma decided not to go to medical school – he became an options dealer in Chicago , impress back toBostonand invested some of his six - figure earnings in a house , a streak and net troupe . He teaches card counting on the World Wide Web but does n’t do it himself anymore . move toLas Vegasnow is " a totally unlike experience , " he say . " Before , it was a business trip . Now it ’s a vacation . "

Filming “21” in a Casino

" 21 " was shoot in wintertime 2007 in Las Vegas and Boston . Interiors were , for the most part , take on stages in Boston , but a few Vegas hotel did concede license to film inside their casinos . " They either welcome us with open arm or did n’t want anything to do with it , " music director Robert Luketic says . " [ Some hotels ] did n’t want to glamourise cheating . They put too many restriction on us . But Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock let us shut down entire sections , in meridian metre , perhaps because of the new clientele they attract . "

Shooting in a working gambling casino and divide 200 extras from civilians was difficult , to say the least . " We had a heap of security , but just trying to control such a public place was hard . It hindered us at times , " Luketic says .

The picture ’s climacticchasescene was filmed at Planet Hollywood , at least in part . " Once they split behind the scenes at the casino , that ’s a formula gist in Boston , " Luketic says . He put the prospect to the side for a calendar month and came back to it , which caused persistence problems . " Minutiae like the hair , which pass the base was in – all those thing have to be recreated … It might not seem like it but there ’s a lot of discussion that happens before the tv camera rolls , and a lot of restiveness . "

Another memorable scene , in which two character reference are stationary as the sped - up action take place around them , " was a very complicated chronological succession that was shot over many , many workweek in all sorts of location , at different speeds , " Luketic aver .

All the Las Vegas scenes had to be take out of succession at the head start of product . But the cast had go through " blackjackboot camp " for a few days before the shoot , larn the ropes from play expert Kyle Morris . " We post them to micro chip - address class , to card - counting category , " Luketic say . " Some of them had never advert chips in their lives . We had to teach them how to do that , play the game plus get a line all the handwriting signal and make a operation within that . "

Some were prompt studies . " Kate Bosworth and Aaron Yoo [ who trifle Choi ] picked it up incredibly fast , " says Luketic . " Kate was spin around splintering around her fingers like a professional . "

Boston posed its own set of output trouble , especially during the coldest wintertime on record . And MIT reject to permit filming on campus – so Luketic stroke from ahelicopterand on the street in front of the campus . Boston University and Harvard Medical School were more welcoming , he says .

Although Jeff Ma was n’t an official adviser , he was on set in Las Vegas and visit several meter in Boston , make himself available to the histrion . He joined their social status briefly , playing a blackjack monger in one scene : " I ca n’t even begin to tell apart you how surrealistic it was . "

Lots More Information

Sources

­