The Ocean's Eleven Quest
My favorite example of a quest story in movie form is Ocean’s Eleven, with George Clooney. Ocean’s Eleven worked. Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen did not. They had the same actors, playing almost the same roles. Ocean’s Eleven was a Quest with heroes and heroics. The others were not. The movie is useful to consider because it is easier to share the experience than to describe a new start-up.
The story starts out with George Clooney who is playing Danny Ocean sitting in a prison uniform at a parole board hearing. The disembodied voice of a female parole officer asks him if he knows what he is going to do next. He says “no”, but he is such a good actor that by the way he says “no”, you know that he knows exactly what he is going to do next. For the audience, George has demonstrated the “realization” phase. Stage One
He is picked up by his friend, played by Brad Pitt. They drive around together. They go out for a meal. And Brad says to George in a beautiful act of verification “so, we are going to rob a casino” Stage Two.
The next scene takes place in an office tower at night. Equipped with flashlights as weapons, the two raid a file cabinet and pull out a blue print of the Bellagio Hotel. It is taped to the wall while Danny Ocean describes his plan (Plan 1.0) for robbing the casino. The blue print is on the screen for a couple of minutes, a starring role given to it by the producer.
At the end of the scene, Brad Pitt begins rattling off a list that you can not make heads or tails of, until you realize it’s shorthand for criminal job descriptions. Plan 1.0, Stage Three, is now complete. Clooney and Pitt consult, what they want to go after first, the money or the team. They decide on the money first.
The next scene (Stage Four) is a classic. They visit with Elliott Gould who is seated at an elegantly set table which is pool side in what is obviously a very expensive home. He is wearing a bathrobe, covering a bare chest festooned with gold chains and he has on glasses with unusually thick rims.
Clooney and Pitt state their business – to rob a casino. Gould, playing the venture capitalist, tells them it cannot be done. He offers three cases where attempts come close. Three vignettes roll out on the screen. In the end, those trying are stopped with disastrous consequences. Our heroes acknowledge Gould’s wisdom and begin to withdraw.
“Oh, out of curiosity,” Gould asks, “Which casinos are you going to rob?”
They answer, “The Bellagio, The MGM Grande, The…”
“Those are Tony Benedict’s Casinos” Gould states.
They reply, “Oh, we didn’t know that”. Of course, they did.
“He’ll kill you.” Warns Gould
“Yeah.” They reply.
“He put me out of business, you know!” Gould informs them.
They reply, “Oh, we didn’t know that”. Of course, they did. It is why they
picked him.
They talk. At the end Gould concludes, “I’m in!”. Clever entrepreneurs.
Stage Four is complete. The twenty minutes of the movie following this scene is a series of recruiting efforts which demonstrate the unique character and capabilities of the rest of the entrepreneurial team. Each is a play within a play. Each prospect demonstrates unique abilities and both character strengths and flaws. Pitt and Clooney assess and recruit team member.
They convene and are fully instructed in Plan 2.0 where they also learn of the incentive compensation being offered. Team is committed, engaged and begins to prepare for the execution phase. We will leave the movie for now, but you might find it intriguing to watch again with the Quest theory in mind.
There are many other movies, books and stories with a Quest motif, stretching all the way back to the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, written down in the Seventh Centtury. Gilgamesh was rediscovered in 1832, found written on tablets in the remains of a library of a king of Ninivah. The story was inscribed during the Seventh Century but, no doubt, is a recording of an earlier tale of wisdom and morality. The story is compelling and rich with nuance. The Quest is in our DNA.
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