Blackjack is one of the world’s most popular gambling games. It’s easy to understand, with fewer variants than the likes of poker. It’s also quick, there are only a few possible bets to get to grips with, and players have a decent chance of winning any given hand. It is also readily available in physical casinos, and online casinos, and is even available on mobile devices, which means it can be played anywhere.
Its popularity and intrigue have seen blackjack featured in many movies across the years, and in the 12 releases below, it features heavily in at least one scene.
1. Rain Man
Rain Man is a classic. Released in 1988, the film features Dustin Hoffman as an autistic savant who inherits a fortune from his father. After a car import deal goes wrong for his estranged brother, played by Tom Cruise, the brothers head on a road trip filled with blackjack games in order to make the money Cruise needs to pay off debtors.
2. 21
21 is one of several movies and documentaries based on a real-life team of MIT students, and their professor, who took millions from Las Vegas casinos playing blackjack. Such was the level of their success that the team was eventually banned from casinos across the country. While a lot of the film is fictional, including elements of the relationships between the professor and his students, much of the storyline is based around blackjack and will prove a favorite with card lovers.
3. Croupier
While most blackjack movies tend to concentrate on blackjack players, the 1998 release Croupier takes a different angle. The film is based on a blackjack croupier called Jack Manfred, played by Clive Owen. Manfred, who hates gamblers and enjoys seeing them lose, becomes embroiled in a plot to rob the casino.
4. Licence To Kill
In the Ian Fleming books, James Bond is described as having a strong fondness for everything about casinos, including the impartiality of the playing cards. As such, casinos feature heavily in a lot of Bond movies, and in Licence to Kill, blackjack is the special agent’s game of choice. He places impressively big bets on the game before walking away when the dealer changes and Lupe Lamora takes over.
5. The Hangover
The Hangover is a hilarious feel-good comedy movie in which a group of four “friends” end up in Las Vegas after having their drinks spiked. As well as stealing Mike Tyson’s tiger, Stu losing a tooth, and the party ending up with a baby in the closet when they wake up in the morning, they also lose $80,000 to a gangster. Alan, who spiked the group’s drinks in the first place, winds up playing blackjack to win back the $80,000 they need.
6. The Gambler
The Gambler is a film about an English Professor who also likes to gamble. The cast includes Mark Wahlberg, Dan Goodman, Jessia Laing, and Brie Larsen. Walberg’s character, Professor Bennet, loses big playing blackjack and ends up owing an underground casino operator and a loan shark money. He tries to win it back with a big bet on the roulette wheel but fails.
7. The Last Casino
The Last Casino is another movie based on the MIT blackjack team. The movie was a straight-to-TV release and it looks at Professor Barnes’ time at the tables as well as his relationships with the students, as well as the epic amounts of money that the team managed to win. It’s another great take on a true story that really captures the imagination.
8. The Cooler
In The Cooler, a man is employed by the casino to play at tables where other players are winning big, with the aim of stopping the winning streak. However, the cooler’s luck changes and, when it does, so does his motivation and the fortunes of the players around him. The film follows the cooler throughout the journey and is a heartwarming tale at the tables.
9. Casino
Sharon Stone and Robert De Niro star in the classic movie, Casino, released in 1995. In it, De Niro plays a casino boss hired by the mob to increase profits and catch cheats. The Martin Scorsese movie not only delves into De Niro’s character and how he develops but also takes a closer look at how Vegas changed over the years the film was set.
10. Jinxed
Luck plays a part in every hand of blackjack, and while some movies look at the good or bad luck of gamblers, Jinxed is about a couple who follow a supposedly jinxed dealer. Wherever the dealer goes, players have bad luck and lose big. The couple aims to exploit this information and follow the dealer from table to table in a bid to make big money.
11. Mississippi Grind
Mississippi Grind is a road trip movie that features Ryan Reynolds as a drifter who befriends a real estate agent who likes to play blackjack. Blackjack not only gives the two hope but it also serves to further their self-destruction. The movie is about their journey to try and reverse their fortunes.
12. Swingers
Swingers is not only heavily based around the game of blackjack but it even offers some pointers for would-be blackjack players. In one scene, the unemployed actors debate whether or not they should always double down when they’re dealt 11. The movie features John Favreau, Vince Vaughn, and Heather Graham, and was released in 1996.
