The set piece of the casino holds considerable sway over the silver screen, and there’s a range of reasons why this is the case. For as long as there have been casinos, they have served as unique spaces in which to tell stories. By their very design they are liminal spaces outside the ordinary hustle and bustle of daily life. This makes them the ideal place to have meetings between characters, encounter novel plot points – or even host an exciting action scene.
There are a great many movies that are, in fact, about casinos – such as 1995’s iconic Casino and 1998’s Rounders – but here we’re taking a look at some lesser known casino cameos that make up pivotal scenes in some of the finest films committed to celluloid in the 20th – and 21st – centuries.
Road to Perdition
Casinos today are accessible, especially online ones like Level Up casino, well regulated spaces in which responsible adult gamers can access quality table experiences, but this has not always been the case. If we wind the clock back to the prohibition era, otherwise affectionately remembered as the Jazz Age (of Great Gatsby fame), the casino in a more transitional space.
Explore the vast array of slot gacor hari ini games, each with its unique theme and features. You can also enjoy bonuses and rewards, accessible on platforms like slot online terpercaya.
As such, it was the perfect setting for the protagonists of this classic Chicago mobster movie by Sam Mendes to host a meeting. In the scene, Tom Hanks’ character Michael Sullivan visits a casino to confront associate of Al Capone, Frank Nitti – played by the inimitable Stanley Tucci. The scene is crafted beautifully, with the casino serving to underscore the power of the people Sullivan finds himself increasingly enmeshed with as the story unfolds.
Of course nowadays, card and table experiences in the Great Lakes region are decidedly less precarious to access with a new generation of tech-savvy aficionados well informed that you can play online casino games if you go to Michigan without any of the challenges facing Hanks’ character.
Rush Hour 2
The second entry in Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker’s now legendary martials arts cop-buddy action movie series, Rush Hour 2, utilizes a fictional Las Vegas casino to extraordinary effect in the films’ high octane finale.
The setting is the so-called Red Dragon casino, where the Triad gangsters our dynamic duo are hunting down are conducting their illicit business. The scene unfolds on two levels that perfectly bring together the winning formula of the Rush Hour films. This is because it combines some excellent comedic relief by way of Tucker who assumes the bluster and style of a high roller at a Craps table – deliberately seeking to draw attention to himself and away from his partner.
Simultaneously, Chan finds himself engaged in iconic aerial acrobatics above the gaming floor as he swings perilously from curtains across the upper floors of the building while engaged in a fast unfolding kung fu bout with the gang’s henchmen.
Whereas many casinos featured in films are real locations, the Red Dragon casino was actually a set built from the ground up on the outskirts of Las Vegas. This is understandable given the unique filming requirements of this scene, and the set was then promptly dismantled once the film wrapped.
The Last Jedi
Courtesy of Disney
Casinos are visually effective devices for storytelling, and are instantly recognizable thanks to their layout, and the presence of slot machines and table games. As such, it’s not uncommon to see them crop up in the unlikeliest places – such as, for example, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
In 2017’s The Last Jedi, episode 8 of the mainline Star Wars saga, we are briefly treated to the visual splendor of the Canto Bight casino – a gaming venue on the desert planet of Cantonica. The characters of Rose and Finn visit Canto Bight in a bid to meet up with a master codebreaker who may be able to help them disabled an encrypted hyperspace tracking device.
The scene is a memorable one that encapsulates the unique appeal of Star Wars and gives an intentional throwback to scenes like the Cantina in episode 4, and Jabba the Hutt’s pleasure-barge in The Return of the Jedi.
Main photo courtesy of Unsplash+ in collaboration with Hartono Creative Studio