The Top 100 Movie Quotes for HR Pros: #77 is Danny Ocean ("How Did You Get By The Laser Field?")..
May 30, 2014
"How did you get by the laser field in the Great Hall?"
-George Clooney as Danny Ocean in "Ocean's 12"
There's a great scene in Ocean's 12 where Danny Ocean is talking with "The Night Fox", his European competition in the high end theft game. He's going through things the Fox has accomplished that seem beyond the realm of possibility to him. At one point, he says, "How did you get by the laser field in the Great Hall?", at which point the footage breaks away to show the Fox working on his strength and flexibility, which made beating the lasers possilbe through what I'll call interpretive dance.
After the breakaway clip, the footage comes back to Ocean, who simply says "oh".
He just realized that someone on his team isn't good enough for "the show", which means the highest level of competition.
On Ocean's team, the guy who handles breaking safe and secruity systems is Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr, but the when Ocean asks the question about hte laser field and says "oh" in response, he realizes he's limited. He's probably also wondering if the Amazing Yen, the acrobat on his team, can come close to handling that as well.
Tarr blows things up and tunnels into them. He doesn't dance. Ocean has figured out what he has isn't good enough. It's called a talent upgrade in the HR game.
The next time I'm talking to someone about the need to upgrade, I'm going to say "how are you going to get by the laser field in the Great Hall?"
They'll be confused, but I'll be entertained. (email subscribers click through for videos below)