Directed by: Mike Figgis
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis
Other mistake: Nick Cage is playing blackjack at a Caribbean stud table.
Other mistake: When Ben and Sera are in the casino playing blackjack, and Ben gets angry and loses control, he supposedly knocks the waitress to the ground. It's a terribly fake looking stunt because Nicholas Cage never even comes close to making contact with the girl playing the waitress. She just falls backward and throws her tray to the ground.
Continuity mistake: Moving out to Sera, Ben is packing his things in a motel. You can see a half full glass standing on a bed table on his left. In the next shot Ben is pouring alcohol to an EMPTY glass filling it in 1/3 approx. In the next scene glass is half full again and in the next one - FULL. Eventually he is drinking from a glass full of alcohol.
Sera: So, Ben with an "N " what brings you to Las Vegas? Business convention?
Ben Sanderson: I came here to drink myself to death.
Trivia: Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue were so dedicated to the film that she interviewed several real Las Vegas prostitutes while he went on a drinking binge to experience what might happen to his cognition and speech patterns.
Question: How did Nicolas Cage manage to keep his job for so long? You'd think he'd get fired for coming to work drunk the first time.
Answer: Most workplaces I know have to try and help the employee to an extent, especially with mental health or addiction, even giving three chances. This, of course, might have been different in the time this movie was set, however.
Chosen answer: On the contrary, the social contacts at work typically tolerate, sympathize with, and even enable alcoholics and other substance abusers, because many of the other employees are also similarly (and secretly) engaged in addictive behavior of their own to varying degrees. Usually, no action is taken until the addictive behavior starts affecting company income, insurance and morale. So, some substance abusers can lead lengthy careers within a company before the hammer falls.
Charles Austin Miller