Card games have featured prominently in many movies. From nail-biting poker games to mysterious games of solitaire, they’ve served the plot in all kinds of interesting ways from providing suspense to revealing more about characters. This post delves into a few popular card games and their various encounters on the silver screen.
Poker
Poker is perhaps the most well-known card game. It’s a popular gambler’s game and relies heavily on bluffing and reading other players. As a result of this, it’s become a top choice for screenwriters wanting to up the drama.
Not only does poker feature in many movies, but it is often central to the plot of many films. Below are a few renowned examples.
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
The Cincinnati Kid tells the story of an up-and-coming poker player named ‘The Kid’ portrayed by Steve McQueen. To become the poker champion, he must beat long-time poker master Lancey ‘The Man’ Howard in a high stakes game. It’s a classic underdog tale with a lot of suspense (even if it’s a bit far-fetched at points).
Rounders (1998)
Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich star in this drama movie that is often considered the greatest film about poker. It tells the story of a young reformed gambler who takes up poker again in order to help a friend pay off loan sharks. But in order to win enough, he must involve himself in New York’s dodgy underground poker scene.
Casino Royale (2006)
This James Bond movie was the first to feature Daniel Craig as 007. It sees Bond being sent on a mission to bankrupt a terrorism financier named Le Chiffre by attempting to beat him at a high stakes game of poker. However, it soon becomes clear that Le Chiffre is willing to play dirty and try anything in order to win!
Mississippi Grind (2015)
Most of the movies listed so far have been pretty serious, but this one is a comedy. It tells the story of two poker players who befriend one another on the way to a high stakes poker game in New Orleans. The movie follows their relationship as they get to know each other on the road. However, it also follows each of their relationships with poker and the highs and lows it brings.
Molly’s Game (2017)
In this 2017 movie, an aspiring Olympic skier named Molly is forced to abandon her dreams after an accident. She decides to take up poker – having never played it before. Quickly mastering the game and seeing the money that can be made in it, she ends up organising games and eventually builds her own underground poker empire. In this movie, poker represents a new lease of life. However, it’s one that comes under threat as the FBI starts nosing around.
Blackjack
Blackjack is another card game heavily featured in movies. More fast-paced and easy to follow than poker, blackjack makes a great choice for providing action. And of course, it’s another game that is commonly gambled on, which makes it another useful plot device.
Rain Man (1988)
Oscar-winning film Rain Man features Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise as two estranged brothers. Dustin Hoffman plays the character of Raymond Babbitt who has severe autism. It turns out Raymond also has the gifted ability to count cards, which allows him and his brother to dominate the Vegas blackjack tables.
Croupier (1998)
Most movies centred around card games are about the players. This one is about a blackjack dealer. Clive Owen stars as a writer who takes up a croupier job at a casino to make some money. He continuously breaks casino policy – most notably having an affair with another croupier at the casino – and gets involved in various scams. It’s a movie about corruption in the gambling industry and the allure of the casino.
The Last Casino (2004)
Also known by its French title La Mise Finale, this French-Canadian movie follows a team of maths geniuses who partake in a heist to take down the casino industry by using their card counting skills to continuously win at blackjack. It is loosely based on the true story of the MIT blackjack team.
21 (2008)
Another movie inspired by the MIT blackjack team, 21 features a star-studded cast including Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo and Josh Gad. It follows a very similar story to The Last Casino but with more Hollywood drama thrown in – including a romance and various criminal dealings.
The Gambler (2014)
This crime drama follows the tale of a gambling addict played by Mark Wahlberg. The movie features several casino games – with blackjack being a central one. Of course, the main character owes money to a loan shark (perhaps the most tired trope of all these card game movies). However, The Gambler packs in enough twist and suspense to make up for its template premise.
Solitaire
Solitaire is a solo card game that is built around patience. It may be too slow to centre an entire movie around, however solitaire does make a cameo in several major movies. Below are just some of the different examples of solitaire at the cinema.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This classic Cold War thriller features Frank Sinatra as an army intelligence major. It also features Laurence Harvey as a veteran named Raymond Shaw, who has been hypnotised to act as a sleeper agent. This hypnosis is activated during a game of solitaire after Shaw draws the queen of diamonds. Solitaire therefore acts as a red button in this movie – a peaceful game turned into a weapon!
Jaws (1975)
Solitaire also features briefly in the iconic Spielberg shark movie Jaws. During the leadup to the famous ‘you’re going to need a bigger boat’ line, one of the protagonists Matt Hooper can be seen casually playing solitaire on the boat’s deck. This helps to further establish his character as a smart and patient man who is able to keep a cool head.
The LEGO Movie (2014)
Blink and you’ll miss it. This lego-themed comedy features a scene in which Emmet is being interrogated. During a brief cutaway, one of the officers watching the interrogation appears to be playing what looks like spider solitaire on his laptop. A sole example of virtual card games being used in a movie.
Magic In The Moonlight (2014)
Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Magic in the Moonlight features a prominent scene involving solitaire. Stanley (played by Colin Firth) goes to visit his Aunt Vanessa to vent his feelings. Aunt Vanessa is playing solitaire on the dining table, and without breaking her focus tells Stanley to follow his heart and not his head. Like Matt Hooper in Jaws, solitaire is used to showcase that this character is calm and cool headed.
The Nice Guys (2016)
Buddy copy action-comedy The Nice Guys also features a brief solitaire scene. Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling play a pair of 70s detectives on the search for a missing girl. During a pivotal scene, it is revealed that the missing girl is calmly playing solitaire – at which point her unlikely captors are revealed.
Bridge
Known as one of the more complex and sophisticated card games, bridge has made several appearances in movies – but not many in recent years. Bridge saw its heyday in the first half of the 20th Century. As a result, you’re most likely to find it in early Hollywood classics, such as these two movies…
Animal Crackers (1930)
This Marx Brothers comedy film follows several characters over a zany weekend party. It features a brief game of bridge between characters Ravelli and Mrs Whitehead in which Ravelli comically asks ‘How do you want to play? Honest?’, to which Mrs Whitehead replies ‘Well, I hope so’.
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947)
This is another classic comedy that follows the tale of chronic daydreamer Walter Mitty. This movie features a game of bridge, which sparks Walter to have a reverie about being a Mississippi riverboat gambler. In this case, the card game is a symbol of both mundanity and escapism.
Rummy
Rummy is a popular card game that involves building sets and sequences of cards. Does it feature in any movies? Kinda.
Goldfinger (1964)
Card games feature heavily in Bond movies, but they tend to be the gambling kind. In Goldfinger, there is a brief scene in which Bond is spying Auric Goldfinger through binoculars at a poolside resort. The villain is playing a card game – which from the look of his hand appears to be a variation of rummy.
Teen Patti (2010)
Teen patti is a card game that is popular in India – also known as ‘three-card brag’. It has similar rules to rummy. Oh, and there is an entire movie about it! The 2010 film follows the tale of a maths professor who works out how to effectively hack the game through card counting. This leads him to become embroiled in the world of high-stakes gambling. It’s a familiar premise, but centred around a unique game.