Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan: The Perfect Hand (Ocean's 11/12)
Title: The Perfect Hand
Author: victoria p. (musesfool)
Pairing: Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan
Fandom: Ocean’s Eleven/Twelve
Spoilers: for both movies
Personal Website: Achromatic
Notes: Thanks to hwmitzy, mousapelli and leadensky for looking this over.
The Perfect Hand: Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan
Ocean's Eleven is a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack heist movie, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt (among many others). Danny Ocean is a recently released from prison con man and Rusty Ryan is his partner, and they put together a team of (hey, how about that?) eleven guys in an elaborate plan to knock over three casinos and steal $160 million. Really, that’s all you need to know. It’s a fun movie, well worth the two hours, and much better seen than told about.
This movie is slashier than a convention of spandex-wearing superheroes, and the pairing we're here to talk about today is Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan.
The Idea Man
Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney, is all Golden Age Hollywood charm in dark suits and tuxedos; he's a gentleman thief in a time when gentlemen are in very short supply. Danny is a man with vision, and he knows how to get the resources to turn his visions into reality - or, in actuality, he knows who to go to get the resources he needs. He's a successful con man and thief, a silver-tongued devil who can talk anybody into (or out of) anything.
And yet, when we first meet Danny, he's at his parole hearing, after having spent four years in prison:
Parole Board Member #2: Mr. Ocean, what we're trying to find out is was there a reason you chose to commit this crime, or was there a reason you simply got caught this time.
Danny: My wife left me. I was upset. I fell into a self-destructive pattern.
Parole Board Member #3: If released, is it likely you'd fall back into a similar pattern?
Danny: She already left me once. I don't think she'd do it again just for kicks.
So. We know that Danny's been married and his wife left him. We know that when he walks out of prison, he puts his wedding ring back on. And yet... His (ex-)wife is not the person he's most interested in seeing. He doesn't ask about her. No, the first thing Danny does is seek out an old associate and say, "You seen him?"
And this old associate, one Frank Catton (played by Bernie Mac), responds as if there is only one "him" in Danny Ocean's life.
Which brings us to
The Detail Man
Rusty Ryan, played by Brad Pitt in shiny suits and eating an endless variety of snack food, is the detail guy, Danny's confidante and right-hand man. He's the one who makes Danny's visions into reality, the one who makes things work in the real world, the one the others went to when they had a problem of some sort:
Linus: Well, if any of you had a problem, who did you go to?
Basher, Turk, Virgil, Reuben, Livingston, Yen, Frank: [simultaneously] Rusty.
When we meet Rusty, he's fleecing up-and-coming actors out of their money by teaching them how to play poker, and it's pretty clear he's miserable:
Bartender: How's the game going?
Rusty: Longest hour of my life.
And then after Danny finds him again:
Rusty: God, I'm bored!
Danny: You look bored.
Rusty: I *am* bored!
Rusty is a different kind of slick from Danny, flashier, more overtly sexual. Where Danny is low-key and self-deprecatingly charming in a Cary Grant way, Rusty isn't the type to fade into the woodwork, so he tends to use other things to distract people from recognizing or remembering him (disguises, usually), though he is not at all lacking in the personal charm department, either.
Together, they are
A Well-Oiled Machine
"Danny and Rusty are old school," screenwriter Ted Griffin explains. "They're guys who live by a code, which now seems a little outdated. They're like modern gunslingers after the west has been civilized. Danny is the idea guy and Rusty is the detail man. Danny can sell you anything, but he has a lot of blind sides and Rusty tends to watch out for him. He knows when Danny's going to screw up about two steps before Danny knows it." (from http://www.rottentomatoes.com)
It's obvious that Danny and Rusty have known each other a long time, have worked together a lot, are well-known for working together (the first thing Basher says to Rusty is "Is Danny here?" and then "It'll be nice to work with proper villains again."), and - and this is key - they trust each other implicitly. Rather important - and rare - in their line of business, and in relationships everywhere.
At the beginning of Ocean's Eleven, they've obviously had a falling out:
Shane West: You stole things? Like jewels?
Rusty: Incan matrimonial head masks.
Shane West: Any money in those? Incan matrimonial ...
Danny: Head masks. There's some.
Rusty: Don't let him fool you, there's boatloads. If you can move them. I'll take one [card]. But you can't.
Danny: My fence seemed confident enough.
Rusty: Dealing in cash you don't need a fence.
Danny: Some people lack vision.
Rusty: Probably everybody in cell block E.
There's a moment during the card game when Danny's not sure Rusty's going to forgive him, but then Rusty does, and Danny's mouth quirks into this nearly imperceptible smile as he lays down his winning hand (four nines and an ace), and he knows he's been forgiven. They fleece the actors easily, and communicate silently throughout that scene, and throughout the movie:
Danny: Ten ought to do it, don't you think? You think we need one more? [Rusty is silent] You think we need one more. All right, we'll get one more.
Danny brings this job (the Benedict job, as the others want to call it in Ocean's Twelve), the plan, as a peace offering to Rusty, a gift to woo him. He has a speech planned out and everything, like an ex-boyfriend who's begging to be taken back:
Rusty: I need a reason. And don't say money. Why do this?
Danny: Why not do it? ... 'Cause yesterday I walked out of the joint after losing four years of my life and you're cold-decking "Teen Beat" cover boys. ... 'Cause the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes, the house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, then you take the house.
Rusty: Been practicing this speech, haven't you?
Danny: Little bit. Did I rush it? Felt I rushed it.
Rusty: No, it was good, I liked it. The "Teen Beat" thing was harsh.
And when Rusty discovers that part of Danny's scheme involves his ex-wife, he gets angry, and he sounds like a jealous lover:
Rusty: Tell me this is not about her, or I am walking. I am walking off this job right now.
Danny: Who?
Rusty: Tess. Terry Benedict. Tell me this is not about screwing the guy who's screwing your wife.
Unlike the argument they have later, when Rusty tells Danny he's off the job (thus getting Linus to agree to blow the vault), this one is genuine. Rusty is genuinely surprised to see Tess at the Bellagio, and he's genuinely upset that Danny concealed this information from him.
The Love Interests
Tess Ocean is the ostensible object of Danny's affection, and yet there isn't a hundredth of the warmth between her and Danny that there is between Danny and Rusty throughout both movies. Isabel Lahiri, Rusty's love interest in the second movie, is slightly more believable, but only just. See, I'm usually totally onboard with canon het pairings if they're sold, and neither Danny/Tess nor Rusty/Isabel is sold well in these movies. The first is tacked on almost as an afterthought in the first movie, and the second is a plot device in a movie full of macguffins.
The true emotional throughline in both movies is Danny/Rusty (even if they only have minimal screentime together in the second one. They're still playing tricks on Linus, and their best scene together is in the middle of the night, getting drunk on red wine and watching "Happy Days" (dubbed in Italian) while Rusty wears a fluffy white hotel bathrobe). The most important, most solid, most obviously loving relationship each has is with the other.
And we're not the only ones who see the subtext:
Apparently there was some ambiguity about my character Rusty's sexuality in the first one and we really wanted to clear that up in this one. (from an interview with Brad Pitt promoting Ocean's Twelve)
Believe me when I tell you that there is not enough fanfic activity in the fandom for this impression to have come from the online community and filtered up into the studio's consciousness, and there was even less when the sequel was in talks, so the subtext is definitely there, crying out for fic. Even the combined feminine pulchritude of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones can't het these guys up.
The Perfect Hand, or, Why I like this pairing
My favorite pairings are generally friends-become-lovers pairings, and Danny/Rusty is exactly that. They have an ease together that speaks of long-term love and affection, they have no sense of personal space with each other, they finish each other's sentences, they speak without words -- hell, in the "we need another guy" scene, they're not even looking at each other, and Danny knows what Rusty's thinking. Other people automatically speak of them together, the way you'd talk about your friends who are a couple, as well
I find that exceptionally appealing. These are two men who know each other - strengths and weaknesses, good and bad - and complement each other really well.
I also like how it's relatively angst-free. Yeah, Danny's a little nervous about seeing Rusty again that first time, about whether he'll be forgiven (for the job going bad? For falling for Tess? We don't know - fertile ground for fic writers), and there's the whole Tess imbroglio (easily taken care of in the hands of a good fic writer), but mostly you get the feeling it's Danny and Rusty against the world, and that can make for a lot of fun, bantery, porny fic. There's also something about the ring-a-ding-ding ethos, the cool nonchalance of the successful (and fictional) con man that's very attractive.
And they are successful. They're hot, stylish men who are very good at what they do, and their competence, their smoothness and yes, their stylishness, is something else I find appealing, and this is a pairing for which inimitable style is canon.
The Fandom
O11 fandom as a whole is miniscule, sadly. I realize that the canon may not support thousands upon thousands of Danny/Rusty stories, but it can definitely support a lot more than is out there now.
Some places to start:
*thefourthvine provides a great overview of the fandom, and some fic recs
*oceanfic = an LJ community for all fic in the fandom
*Criminal Record = a small but growing archive for slash, het and gen fic
Fic Recommendations:
Confidence Men by Dorinda
The godfather of O11 fic, this story should have launched the fandom into the mainstream of fannish consciousness, and yet... Anyhow, it's a wonderfully drawn backstory for Danny and Rusty, separately and together.
Leave Emotion @ the Door by hackthis
Tackles the Tess Issue head on and in a manner completely consistent with (first movie) canon - Danny Ocean *always* has a con going on.
Probably Everyone in Cell Block E by hackthis
A whole new spin on the Tess situation in the first movie. The little details are perfect and the Danny-voice is spot on.
Hand Magic by Guede Mazaka
An elegant and in-character explanation of why Rusty has that distinctive tattoo, and what Danny must have thought when he first saw it.
Untitled Danny/Rusty by jjtaylor
Linus is observant, and he sees how Danny and Rusty are together.
Like There's Nothing to Lose by ethrosdemon
Another great fic filling in the Danny/Rusty backstory.
On April 12th, Ocean's Twelve comes out on dvd. Rent it, watch it, write some fic. You know you want to.
Author: victoria p. (musesfool)
Pairing: Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan
Fandom: Ocean’s Eleven/Twelve
Spoilers: for both movies
Personal Website: Achromatic
Notes: Thanks to hwmitzy, mousapelli and leadensky for looking this over.
The Perfect Hand: Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan
Ocean's Eleven is a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack heist movie, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt (among many others). Danny Ocean is a recently released from prison con man and Rusty Ryan is his partner, and they put together a team of (hey, how about that?) eleven guys in an elaborate plan to knock over three casinos and steal $160 million. Really, that’s all you need to know. It’s a fun movie, well worth the two hours, and much better seen than told about.
This movie is slashier than a convention of spandex-wearing superheroes, and the pairing we're here to talk about today is Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan.
The Idea Man
Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney, is all Golden Age Hollywood charm in dark suits and tuxedos; he's a gentleman thief in a time when gentlemen are in very short supply. Danny is a man with vision, and he knows how to get the resources to turn his visions into reality - or, in actuality, he knows who to go to get the resources he needs. He's a successful con man and thief, a silver-tongued devil who can talk anybody into (or out of) anything.
And yet, when we first meet Danny, he's at his parole hearing, after having spent four years in prison:
Parole Board Member #2: Mr. Ocean, what we're trying to find out is was there a reason you chose to commit this crime, or was there a reason you simply got caught this time.
Danny: My wife left me. I was upset. I fell into a self-destructive pattern.
Parole Board Member #3: If released, is it likely you'd fall back into a similar pattern?
Danny: She already left me once. I don't think she'd do it again just for kicks.
So. We know that Danny's been married and his wife left him. We know that when he walks out of prison, he puts his wedding ring back on. And yet... His (ex-)wife is not the person he's most interested in seeing. He doesn't ask about her. No, the first thing Danny does is seek out an old associate and say, "You seen him?"
And this old associate, one Frank Catton (played by Bernie Mac), responds as if there is only one "him" in Danny Ocean's life.
Which brings us to
The Detail Man
Rusty Ryan, played by Brad Pitt in shiny suits and eating an endless variety of snack food, is the detail guy, Danny's confidante and right-hand man. He's the one who makes Danny's visions into reality, the one who makes things work in the real world, the one the others went to when they had a problem of some sort:
Linus: Well, if any of you had a problem, who did you go to?
Basher, Turk, Virgil, Reuben, Livingston, Yen, Frank: [simultaneously] Rusty.
When we meet Rusty, he's fleecing up-and-coming actors out of their money by teaching them how to play poker, and it's pretty clear he's miserable:
Bartender: How's the game going?
Rusty: Longest hour of my life.
And then after Danny finds him again:
Rusty: God, I'm bored!
Danny: You look bored.
Rusty: I *am* bored!
Rusty is a different kind of slick from Danny, flashier, more overtly sexual. Where Danny is low-key and self-deprecatingly charming in a Cary Grant way, Rusty isn't the type to fade into the woodwork, so he tends to use other things to distract people from recognizing or remembering him (disguises, usually), though he is not at all lacking in the personal charm department, either.
Together, they are
A Well-Oiled Machine
"Danny and Rusty are old school," screenwriter Ted Griffin explains. "They're guys who live by a code, which now seems a little outdated. They're like modern gunslingers after the west has been civilized. Danny is the idea guy and Rusty is the detail man. Danny can sell you anything, but he has a lot of blind sides and Rusty tends to watch out for him. He knows when Danny's going to screw up about two steps before Danny knows it." (from http://www.rottentomatoes.com)
It's obvious that Danny and Rusty have known each other a long time, have worked together a lot, are well-known for working together (the first thing Basher says to Rusty is "Is Danny here?" and then "It'll be nice to work with proper villains again."), and - and this is key - they trust each other implicitly. Rather important - and rare - in their line of business, and in relationships everywhere.
At the beginning of Ocean's Eleven, they've obviously had a falling out:
Shane West: You stole things? Like jewels?
Rusty: Incan matrimonial head masks.
Shane West: Any money in those? Incan matrimonial ...
Danny: Head masks. There's some.
Rusty: Don't let him fool you, there's boatloads. If you can move them. I'll take one [card]. But you can't.
Danny: My fence seemed confident enough.
Rusty: Dealing in cash you don't need a fence.
Danny: Some people lack vision.
Rusty: Probably everybody in cell block E.
There's a moment during the card game when Danny's not sure Rusty's going to forgive him, but then Rusty does, and Danny's mouth quirks into this nearly imperceptible smile as he lays down his winning hand (four nines and an ace), and he knows he's been forgiven. They fleece the actors easily, and communicate silently throughout that scene, and throughout the movie:
Danny: Ten ought to do it, don't you think? You think we need one more? [Rusty is silent] You think we need one more. All right, we'll get one more.
Danny brings this job (the Benedict job, as the others want to call it in Ocean's Twelve), the plan, as a peace offering to Rusty, a gift to woo him. He has a speech planned out and everything, like an ex-boyfriend who's begging to be taken back:
Rusty: I need a reason. And don't say money. Why do this?
Danny: Why not do it? ... 'Cause yesterday I walked out of the joint after losing four years of my life and you're cold-decking "Teen Beat" cover boys. ... 'Cause the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes, the house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, then you take the house.
Rusty: Been practicing this speech, haven't you?
Danny: Little bit. Did I rush it? Felt I rushed it.
Rusty: No, it was good, I liked it. The "Teen Beat" thing was harsh.
And when Rusty discovers that part of Danny's scheme involves his ex-wife, he gets angry, and he sounds like a jealous lover:
Rusty: Tell me this is not about her, or I am walking. I am walking off this job right now.
Danny: Who?
Rusty: Tess. Terry Benedict. Tell me this is not about screwing the guy who's screwing your wife.
Unlike the argument they have later, when Rusty tells Danny he's off the job (thus getting Linus to agree to blow the vault), this one is genuine. Rusty is genuinely surprised to see Tess at the Bellagio, and he's genuinely upset that Danny concealed this information from him.
The Love Interests
Tess Ocean is the ostensible object of Danny's affection, and yet there isn't a hundredth of the warmth between her and Danny that there is between Danny and Rusty throughout both movies. Isabel Lahiri, Rusty's love interest in the second movie, is slightly more believable, but only just. See, I'm usually totally onboard with canon het pairings if they're sold, and neither Danny/Tess nor Rusty/Isabel is sold well in these movies. The first is tacked on almost as an afterthought in the first movie, and the second is a plot device in a movie full of macguffins.
The true emotional throughline in both movies is Danny/Rusty (even if they only have minimal screentime together in the second one. They're still playing tricks on Linus, and their best scene together is in the middle of the night, getting drunk on red wine and watching "Happy Days" (dubbed in Italian) while Rusty wears a fluffy white hotel bathrobe). The most important, most solid, most obviously loving relationship each has is with the other.
And we're not the only ones who see the subtext:
Apparently there was some ambiguity about my character Rusty's sexuality in the first one and we really wanted to clear that up in this one. (from an interview with Brad Pitt promoting Ocean's Twelve)
Believe me when I tell you that there is not enough fanfic activity in the fandom for this impression to have come from the online community and filtered up into the studio's consciousness, and there was even less when the sequel was in talks, so the subtext is definitely there, crying out for fic. Even the combined feminine pulchritude of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones can't het these guys up.
The Perfect Hand, or, Why I like this pairing
My favorite pairings are generally friends-become-lovers pairings, and Danny/Rusty is exactly that. They have an ease together that speaks of long-term love and affection, they have no sense of personal space with each other, they finish each other's sentences, they speak without words -- hell, in the "we need another guy" scene, they're not even looking at each other, and Danny knows what Rusty's thinking. Other people automatically speak of them together, the way you'd talk about your friends who are a couple, as well
I find that exceptionally appealing. These are two men who know each other - strengths and weaknesses, good and bad - and complement each other really well.
I also like how it's relatively angst-free. Yeah, Danny's a little nervous about seeing Rusty again that first time, about whether he'll be forgiven (for the job going bad? For falling for Tess? We don't know - fertile ground for fic writers), and there's the whole Tess imbroglio (easily taken care of in the hands of a good fic writer), but mostly you get the feeling it's Danny and Rusty against the world, and that can make for a lot of fun, bantery, porny fic. There's also something about the ring-a-ding-ding ethos, the cool nonchalance of the successful (and fictional) con man that's very attractive.
And they are successful. They're hot, stylish men who are very good at what they do, and their competence, their smoothness and yes, their stylishness, is something else I find appealing, and this is a pairing for which inimitable style is canon.
The Fandom
O11 fandom as a whole is miniscule, sadly. I realize that the canon may not support thousands upon thousands of Danny/Rusty stories, but it can definitely support a lot more than is out there now.
Some places to start:
*thefourthvine provides a great overview of the fandom, and some fic recs
*oceanfic = an LJ community for all fic in the fandom
*Criminal Record = a small but growing archive for slash, het and gen fic
Fic Recommendations:
Confidence Men by Dorinda
The godfather of O11 fic, this story should have launched the fandom into the mainstream of fannish consciousness, and yet... Anyhow, it's a wonderfully drawn backstory for Danny and Rusty, separately and together.
Leave Emotion @ the Door by hackthis
Tackles the Tess Issue head on and in a manner completely consistent with (first movie) canon - Danny Ocean *always* has a con going on.
Probably Everyone in Cell Block E by hackthis
A whole new spin on the Tess situation in the first movie. The little details are perfect and the Danny-voice is spot on.
Hand Magic by Guede Mazaka
An elegant and in-character explanation of why Rusty has that distinctive tattoo, and what Danny must have thought when he first saw it.
Untitled Danny/Rusty by jjtaylor
Linus is observant, and he sees how Danny and Rusty are together.
Like There's Nothing to Lose by ethrosdemon
Another great fic filling in the Danny/Rusty backstory.
On April 12th, Ocean's Twelve comes out on dvd. Rent it, watch it, write some fic. You know you want to.