Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

Why trust us? Check out Fiction Horizon’s Editorial Policy.

The Ocean’s movies are a series of heist comedy films. The films revolve around a group of con artists who carry out an elaborate heist, aimed at the film’s antagonists that include plenty of twists and turns. The film also features an ensemble of casts. 

The Ocean’s movies started with Ocean’s 11 – (1960), directed by Lewis Milestone, and feature five of the Rat Pack members namely Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. In 2001, director Steven Soderbergh created a remake of the 1960 film and came up with a trilogy; Ocean’s Eleven – (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen – (2007). The theme and concept of the movies are retained from the original 1960 film, where the story involves a group of con artists made up of an ensemble of popular casts. In 2018, director Gary Ross created Ocean’s 8 – (2018), a spin-off and continuation from the Ocean’s trilogy and features an all-female ensemble cast. Let’s see which is the ideal order to watch The Chronicles of Narnia and what each movie’s storyline is like.

Best order to watch Ocean’s Movies

The Ocean films are listed in chronological sequence of release. This is with the exception of Ocean’s 11 – (1960), as it is a standalone film. Let’s say you wish to view the Ocean movies in chronological or timeline sequence. In that scenario, you must follow the release sequence, since the Ocean films are released in chronological order.

Ocean’s movies in order of release:

  • Ocean’s 11 (1960) 
  • Ocean’s Eleven – (2001)
  • Ocean’s Twelve – (2004)
  • Ocean’s Thirteen – (2007)
  • Ocean’s 8 – (2018) 

Ocean’s movies in order

1. Ocean’s 11 – (1960) 

Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

Danny Ocean recruits a gang of World War II veterans to rob five Las Vegas casinos on the night of the New Year. They plan the complex heist with the precision of a military operation. Josh Howard takes a job as a garbage truck driver, Sam Harmon is an entertainer in one of the casino hotel’s lounges, while others scope out the various casinos. The team places demolition charges on an electrical transmission tower and rewired the backup casino’s backup electrical system.

Moments after midnight, the tower is blown up and a blackout occurs in Vegas. Unexpectedly, the backup electronic systems open up the cashier cages instead of providing emergency lights. The inside men collect the money and dump the money bags into the garbage bins which are then collected by Josh with his garbage truck. The plan appears to have been successful. 

The team’s electrician, Tony Bergdorf, has a sudden heart attack and drops dead at the Last Vegas Strip. The police become suspicious, wondering if it ties with the heist. An ex-mobster Duke Santos offers to recover the casino bosses’ money for a price. He discovers that Ocean is in town and that he is the son of Duke’s fiancee. 

Solving the crime, Santos confronts the thieves demanding half of their take. As a contingency, Ocean’s team had hidden the loot in Bergdorf’s coffin. The team plans to reclaim the money, making no payoff to Santos, after the coffin leaves Vegas. The plan backfires when the funeral director convinces Bergdorf’s widow into cremating the body. In the end, the money is cremated as well. 

2. Ocean’s Eleven – (2001)

Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

Shortly after his release from prison, Danny Ocean violates his parole by traveling to Las Vegas with his partner-in-crime Rusty Ryan to plan a heist. Their plan involves robbing three casinos (namely, the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand) in Las Vegas, owned by Terry Benedict, simultaneously. Ocean and Rusty pitch their plans to their friend and former casino Reuben Tishkoff. With the intention of getting back at his rival, Benedict, Reuben agrees to finance the operation.  Ocean and Rusty then recruit eight former colleagues who are criminal specialists with various talents such as pickpocket, con man, and electronics. The team discovers that Benedict’s girlfriend Tess is Ocean’s ex-wife.

On the night of the heist, their plans are set to motion. Ocean allows himself to be locked up by Benedict into a storeroom. Rusty calls Benedict threatening to blow up the vault unless he lets them have half of the money in the vault. Benedict complies to give them the money and load it into their van. At the same time, he calls in the SWAT team that arrives and causes a shootout that unexpectedly sets off the explosives, burning the remaining cash in the vault. 

As Benedict’s men stop the Ocean’s van, they find out that it is driven with remote control and the bags only contained loads of flyers for prostitutes. Studying the surveillance tapes, Benedict realizes that the flooring of the vault in the video does not have the Bellagio logo. It is shown that Ocean’s team used their practice vault to create fake footage to fool Benedict into believing that it was his casino’s vault. In addition to that, Ocean’s team had disguised themselves as the SWAT Team and loaded up their gear bags with the money. 

Benedict checks to see that Ocean had still been locked up in the storeroom the whole time, thus denying him any involvement. Ocean is able to trick Benedict into claiming that he would give Tess up in exchange for the money. Realizing that Ocean is involved but unable to take action, Benedict hands Ocean over to the police informing them that he has violated his parole by being in Las Vegas. The rest of the team, disappear into the crowd in Vegas as planned. 

Sometime later, Ocean is released after serving time for his parole violation. He is met by Rusty and Tess. As they drive off, Rusty and Ocean notice that they are followed by Benedict’s bodyguards.

3. Ocean’s Twelve – (2004)

Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

Terry Benedict locates all of Danny Ocean’s team, demanding they return him the $160 million they stole in addition to $38 million interest. Coming up short, the team plans another heist in Amsterdam to avoid trouble with American authorities. An informant informs them about the location of the invaluable “first stock certificate”. They find out that the certificate had been stolen by a master thief known as Night Fox. Europol Detective Isabel Lahiri, warns Ocean’s team of the Night Fox and his mentor, Le Marc both of whom she has been hunting for years.  

Ocean’s team discovers that Night Fox’s identity is Francois Toulour. They break into his villa and steals his paintings. In a confrontation with Toulour, Toulour reveals that he exposed their identities to Benedict. Toulour is upset that LeMarc suggested that Ocean may be the better thief among the two of them. He challenges Ocean to steal the Faberge Imperial Coronation Egg. If Ocean succeeds, Toulour will pay off their debts to Benedict.

Ocean’s team begin planning a heist that involves swapping the egg with a holographic substitute. Toulour betrays them by tipping off Lahiri. She proceeds to arrest most of the crewmembers except for Linus, Tarr, Saul, and Turk.  Linus comes up with a contingency plan where they involve Ocean’s wife, Tess, to pose as a pregnant Julia Roberts in order to swap the Egg. The plan was foiled by Lahiri and Bruce Willis who was present coincidentally, leading to the arrest of the remaining members of the group. In the process of extradition to the United States, an FBI agent who is Linus’ mother releases the whole team. 

Ocean and Tess confront Toulour where he mocks at their failures and subsequently, boasts that he had stolen the egg. Toulour’s delight was short-lived when Ocean informs that his team had possession of the real egg, while it was in transit to the museum. Toulour realizes that LeMarc had tipped them off. It is shown in a flashback sequence that Ocean and Rusty had met LeMarc earlier, forming a friendship with the latter. Toulour admitted defeat and finances Ocean’s debts to Benedict. Rusty takes Lahiri to meet LeMarc, who is revealed to be her father.

4. Ocean’s Thirteen – (2007)

Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

In the process of legitimizing himself by building a hotel-casino, Reuben Tishkoff suffers a heart attack and is bedridden after being conned by Willy Bank, his former business partner. Bank had forced Tishkoff to transfer the ownership rights to him. Ocean and his team plan to ruin Bank on the opening night of his hotel-casino “The Bank” to avenge Reuben. 

The first of their two-part plan is to prevent The Bank from winning the prestigious Five Diamond Award, which has been won previously by all of Bank’s hotels. Saul poses as the award reviewer while the real reviewer is treated horribly during his visit through Ocean’s associates and the staff on their payroll. 

Their second plan is to rig the casino’s game machines to payout more than their win limits across the casino. Rigging the games would require the team to overcome the AI system, “The Greco”, that protects and oversees the games. While preparing to rig the games, their drill breaks, forcing them to approach Terry Benedict to fund them for a replacement drill. Benedict offers to help with the condition that they also steal the four diamond necklaces Bank bought for his spouse, secured in a case in the hotel. 

After securing the necklace, they are caught by Francois Toulour, whom Benedict had ordered to obtain the necklace. The team handover the necklace to Toulour who leaves and only discovers that he holds the fakes after departing. It was shown that Ocean’s team had anticipated Toulour’s arrival and arranged to extract the entire necklace case from the hotel. 

The remainder of their plans continues, as expected. Guests were able to leave the hotel with their enormous winnings, leaving the Bank in ruin. Ocean confronted Bank and informed him that their act was for Reuben. With the money from the heist, they bought a property in the Las Vegas Strip for Reuben. As for Benedict’s portion of the heist, they donated his part to charity, forcing Benedict to appear in the media for his “philanthropy efforts”. At the end of the movie, Rusty compensates the real Five Diamond reviewer for his trouble by allowing him to win a jackpot on a rigged slot machine at the airport. 

5. Ocean’s 8- (2018)

Ocean’s Movies in Order: The Complete Heist Guide

Debbie Ocean, con artist, and sister to the late Danny Ocean, partners with Lou, Rose, Amita, Nine Ball, Constance, and Tammy to execute a heist. The plan involves stealing the Toussaint Cartier necklace during the upcoming Met Gala. The team manipulates Daphne Kluger, a film star into hiring Rose and convinces Cartier to loan Daphne the necklace, where they replicated a knock-off of the necklace. 

As an act of revenge, Debbie involves art dealer Claude Becker (who betrayed her and was responsible for Debbie’s imprisonment) as part of the plan’s fallout. At the gala, Lou spikes Daphne’s soup, causing her to head to the female bathroom. Here, Nine Ball had created a blind spot in the security cameras. As Daphne vomits in the toilet, Constance swiftly removes the necklace from her neck. With the real necklace, Debbie plants a piece of it on Becker. 

When Daphne appears without the necklace, the museum is sealed where the premises and the guests are promptly searched. Tammy then “finds” the duplicate necklace and returns it to the officials. After the heist, Daphne joins the ladies, revealing that she was aware of the entire heist. In exchange for not ratting them out to the police, she asks for a cut in the heist. 

When the fake necklace is returned to Cartier, the switch is discovered. Insurance investigator John Frazier is assigned to investigate. Debbie frames Becker for the stolen necklace by planting the necklace in his possession. Adding to that, she arranged for hired actresses, selling the pieces of the necklace off and depositing the money into an account with Becker’s name. The police proceed to arrest Becker. 

She also hired actresses posing as socialites to sell the necklace off and deposit the money into As the team celebrates their success, Lou reveals that, with the help of an acrobat, she was able to replace a set of royal jewels with replicas, obtaining gems that are far more valuable than the Toussaint necklace. At the end of the movie, Debbie is seen enjoying a drink at Danny’s grave, knowing he would be proud of her.

Share:
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments