The Trailer Time Capsule: Rounders

A semi-regular NMS feature examining “classic” movies trailers, through the magic of YouTube, with a keen eye towards whether the initial marketing message was prophetic or disconnected to the film’s ultimate pop cultural legacy.

Rounders (Poker-Elevating Thriller, 1998):

In 2003, real-life accountant and amateur card player Chris Moneymaker earned fame and fortune by winning the World Series of Poker – an underdog outwitting professionals with ESPN cameras on hand to capture the story – ushering in a new era of public awareness for the age-old game. Now, there’s a decent chance your mom or grandfather knows what Texas Hold’Em refers to, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “The Poker Explosion.” Moneymaker’s victory is often noted as the major catalyst, but five years earlier, the movie Rounders also caused a seismic shift in the game’s place on the cultural map.

When an everyman like Moneymaker ascends to wealth over the course of days, it will always be more eye-catching than any similarly-themed Hollywood tale, but Matt Damon’s portrayal of Mike McDermott in Rounders made the game cool. The sharp lingo, dimly lit and palpably seedy poker rooms, and the flowing, easily relatable poker metaphors for life – it was enough to make a 15-35 year-old male (especially) crave to be involved. It stoked home-game interest and laid the foundation for an average Joe to have any inkling about a seat at the WSOP.  

If you’re male, under 40 years of age and over 15, the following Rounders quotes have probably found their way into your conversations at some point…

“If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.”

“You can't lose what you don't put in the middle. But you can't win much either.”

And of course…

“In the poker game of life, women are the rake.”

ESPN writer/pop culture authority Bill Simmons calls it “one of those movies that can put a hop in your step.” Meanwhile, poker writer Joe Benik says “the number of poker players who took up poker after having watched that film is extraordinary.”

So, does this Rounders trailer foretell a movie with such cultural cache? Not hardly, but you can only blame the film’s backers so much for underestimating the potential grab a card game possessed.

If you’re a loyal fan of the movie, then this clip probably seems strikingly off-tone from the film to you on multiple accounts, but the most surprising thing about the trailer is that it never even mentions the word “poker.” (In comparison, 2007’s romantic comedy, Lucky You, with Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana, makes sure we’re aware that it’s a “poker” movie 22 seconds into its trailer.)

How did they want viewers to think of the film? The message of the trailer could be summarized as “an extraordinary card player who is being drawn away from his regular wholesome life, and into a dangerous underworld by a shady old friend. He will have to use these card playing skills to escape a dangerous situation. ”

It’s not necessarily misleading, but it really doesn’t hone in on Rounders’ most compelling angle: Matt Damon’s character taking a risk and defying conventional wisdom to follow his true passion. The first scene in the film is easily the most important to the plot – when McDermott loses his entire bankroll to John Malkovich’s character, “Teddy KGB,” in one gigantic hand – and it is not even alluded to in the trailer. McDermott was born to play poker, but when your true passion is unrespectable to the mainstream, and it can cost you stacks of money in a single hand – is it really worth the risk? That’s the story’s pull.  

Just as importantly, the trailer barely hits on the cool factor that boosted Rounders.  It really needed to feature a lot more Malkovich and Edward Norton (as “Worm,” the shady, ex-con friend), and a lot less Gretchen Mol as the girlfriend, who ended up being a small subplot. (Tangentially related…few movie trailers include this many scenes that did not make the final cut. At the very least, cult fans of Rounders need to thank its editors for the fact that Mol’s wet-blanket character received modest screen time).

To advertise the coolness, the trailer also could have played up poker settings, props and language a lot more. We get a dose of this, but it’s in split seconds. So many future poker lovers were eventually drawn in by this aspect of the film, it’s noticeably absent from the trailer. 

Credit should be given to the trailer for including much of the attorney’s game scene, when McDermott blindly reads the hands of a round table of erudite lawyers. This (and many other poker scenes in the film) is hotly contested as a representation of the game amongst poker gurus today, but Damon’s poker savant routine definitely helped hook many of the film’s fans.

According to Box Office Mojo, Rounders made less than $9 million in its opening weekend and less than $23 million domestically overall. One cannot blame the film’s backers for their lack of clairvoyance regarding “The Poker Explosion,” but the film certainly helped the game’s popularity by its portrayal. Even though poker had not yet reached its apex, the filmmakers understood and captured the qualities of the game that make it alluring, but the trailer failed to reflect it.