The movie “21” is a 2008 factual story about six M.I.T. students who got together and trained as a team to become card-counting experts. They subsequently won millions at various casinos in Las Vegas.
The film was directed by Robert Luketic and starred Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Laurence Fishburne, Liza Lapira, Kieu Chinh, Kate Bosworth, Jacob Pitts and Aaron Yoo.
The Main Story
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a young, intelligent, student at M.I.T. in Boston. He wanted to be a doctor but could not afford the $300,000 he needed for his tuition.
One evening his Maths Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) introduced him to a team of 5 students trained by Micky Rosa in card counting.
As Ben Campbell desperately needed to make money, he joined the team, learnt the ropes and soon joined them on weekend trips to Vegas. The team used hand signals, code talk and other techniques to give them an edge over the house.
Before long, they were starting to make thousands of Dollars from the Vegas Casinos. Ben initially only wanted to gamble long enough to make his tuition money, but soon he became greedy and started enjoying the High Roller life too much.
The Ending
Ben gets so engrossed in playing Blackjack that he neglects his tuition and doesn’t do his fair share in an Engineering competition resulting in estrangement from his friends. During his next trip to Vegas, he gets distracted and doesn’t see his signal to walk away from the table. This resulted in him losing his $200 000 earnings and Mickey being so cross that he quits the team.
Ben and 3 of the team continue to play Blackjack, which angers Mickey, so he tips off the Casino Security Boss resulting in Ben getting beaten up and warned not to return.
