Trailer
Plot summary
Ben Campbell is a mathematics major at MIT. Harvard Medical School has admitted him, but the $300,000 cost is beyond his family's means. Ben applies for the Robinson Scholarship, which would pay the whole amount, and is told the director will give it to the student who impresses him most. In class, Professor Micky Rosa challenges Ben with the Monty Hall problem, and Ben solves it. Micky invites him to join the MIT Blackjack Team with Choi, Fisher, Jill and Kianna, who use card counting and covert signaling to win at casinos. Ben shows little interest until Jill Taylor, on whom he has a crush, asks him. He agrees on the condition that he stops once he has the money for Harvard. Cole Williams, head of security at Planet Hollywood, watches the team.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Donna Lowsas Planet Hollywood Dealer
- Butch Williamsas Planet Hollywood Dealer
- Steven Richard Vezinaas Red Rock Dealer
- Chaska T. Werneras Red Rock Dealer
- Kyle Morrisas Red Rock Dealer
- Ernell Manabatas Red Rock Doorman
- Frank DeAngeloas Red Rock Host
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about 21 (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Jeff Ma, the real-life inspiration for the character Ben Campbell and a consultant on the film, was attacked as being a "race traitor" on several blogs for not insisting that his character be Asian-American; Ma responded that people did not understand how little control he had in the movie-making process.
- Producer Dana Brunetti wrote of the casting: "Believe me, I would have LOVED to cast Asians in the lead roles, but the truth is, we didn't have access to any bankable Asian-American actors that we wanted."
- The film had originally been set up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with the title of Breaking Vegas and Brett Ratner attached as director, and the filmmakers were unable to use the original title of the book because of the 2003 comedy film of the same name.
- The track played as the team makes off at the end of the film is "Rito a Los Angeles" by Giuseppe De Luca, which features part of the main riff of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", and it is also used in Ocean's Twelve, the first sequel to Ocean's Eleven.
