21

21 (2008)

1 plot hole - chronological order

(3 votes)

Plot hole: After Ben loses the money and he and Mickey get into a fight, Ben talks the rest of the MIT players to risk their own money and take all of the reward instead of giving 50% of the take to Mickey. Kianna says they need at least 100 grand to play - where did they get this money from? The movie leads you to believe that Ben lost all of Mickey's money on their first night there, so they have no winnings with them. Ben's money is back in his dorm room, and you could assume the rest of them don't all have bank accounts with cash sitting in them for IRS reasons.

Continuity mistake: When Prof. Rosa calls Cole, Terry answers the phone and places Rosa on hold. However, when Cole takes the phone from Terry, he does not take Rosa off of hold and proceeds to talk to him.

Michael Piscitelli

More mistakes in 21

Kianna: Everybody knows to split eights. My grandmother splits eights.

More quotes from 21

Trivia: When Cole is beating up Ben for counting cards, before it changes to the next scene, you can see Cole's arm stop for a brief second, which gives away that there is more to that scene.

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Question: I was under the impression, although I may be wrong, that winnings in Vegas are taxed over a certain amount, and that this is done in the casino when cashing out. At the end of the film, Lawrence Fishburn says that the IRS will be wanting to speak to Kevin Spacey, but how were they able to cash out the amounts they won whilst using fake id's? It doesn't mention it in the book either - I know for the purposes of the film this is soemthing they can gloss over, but I was wondering if it would be possible to win the amounts they are talking about and simply walk out with the cash? I know in one part they cash it in in smaller amounts, but surely the casino would be aware of a huge win on one of the tables, and would be expecting a big cash out?

Answer: Gambling winnings are taxable, but using fake IDs was one way of getting around the IRS. It was also mentioned in the book that the team would keep chips until their next Vegas trip to avoid cashing out. They would also exchange money with each other so everyone would come under the $10K limit before the casino had to file a Currency Transaction Report. Also, there is no reason not to assume they would place some of their winnings as "credit" for their next visit.

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