The Prestige is a 2006 psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan, co-written with Jonathan Nolan, and based on the 1995 novel “The Transported Man”. The film revolves around a three-part structure of a magic act, with the final act being the payoff. The first part, “The Pledge”, involves the magician showing something ordinary, while the second part, “The Turn”, involves doing something extra.
The Prestige is set in the late 19th century and early 1900s, focusing on two fictional stage magicians, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden. The film explores themes of obsession, sacrifice, and the pursuit of perfection. The ending of the movie perfectly ties together the sometimes-confusing movie and exposes its core themes of obsession, sacrifice, and the pursuit of perfection.
The Prestige is a master of cinematic misdirection, using it to best effect in his adaptation of Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel. The third act, “The Prestige”, is the product of magic, with the magician providing a resolution that reveals hidden secrets and unveils the true nature of the illusion. This satisfying conclusion leaves the audience amazed and admiring the magician’s skill and creativity.
In conclusion, The Prestige is an extended magic trick, focusing on the themes of obsession, sacrifice, and the pursuit of perfection. The film is a psychological thriller that explores the relationship between magic and science, using the concept of magic as an allegory for screenwriting. The film’s success relies on the audience’s enjoyment of magic and the ability to understand the complexity of the magic trick.
📹 The Magic of The Prestige Explained
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📹 THE PRESTIGE Breakdown | Ending Explained, Every Twist Clue, Easter Eggs & Things You Missed
INSANE DETAILS In The Prestige | Ending Explained, Every Twist Clue, Foreshadowing, Easter Eggs And Things You Missed.
Another foreshadowing point in this movie, one of my favorite lines early on is a conversation between Cutter and the judge in Borden’s case: Cutter: “This device was not made by a magician but by a Wizard ” Judge: “I’m sure behind it all there’s just some disappointing trick” Cutter: “Most disappointing, because there is no trick. This device actually does what we only pretend to do!” …This is hinting that there’s going to be a science fiction element later in the movie. Fun Trivia: the Judge is Daniel Davis, who was (Holodeck) James Moriarty in two episodes of TNG!
The Prestige is the only movie which I have finished and then immediately started at the beginning and watched completely through again. The end reveal was such a WFT? moment for me that I HAD to watch it again right away to understand what I had just watched while the events were fresh in my mind. Personally, this is my favorite Nolan film.
One aspect about Angier killing his duplicate comes up near the end of the movie. Angier doesn’t really understand how the machine functions. He believes he is risking his life whenever he steps into the machine. He never understood that the duplicate would also share the memories until the point the duplicate is created, because he still has all the memories, he thinks he is still the original. Him killing the duplicates by drowning might be an expression of him viewing them as less than human, so he doesn’t feel the need to give them a less painfull death. Additionally it might also be an expression on how much he hates to share the spotlight.
One of the most tragically poignant parts of this movie is how at first the viewers are led to believe Borden is a cheating, amoral husband, and a liar who claims one day he loves Sarah, and the next day claims he loves Olivia. Upon rewatching it, there is a deep truth to everything we thought had been Borden’s lies. “Part of me loved Sarah, but part of me never did, part of me always loved you, Olivia.” This was one of the true sacrifices of two men sharing 1 life, and the exact moment “Borden” made the tiniest misstep from that very straight and narrow line, the moment he wanted just one tiny piece of an actual life for himself, was at least a part of his/their downfall.
If anyone played Remnant: From the Ashes, there’s a level called Leto’s Laboratory where the player finds a malfunctioning teleportation device, and must use it many times, only to later find a pile of burnt bodies in the basement. The first time you see it, a body falls out of a chute right in front of you, and adds to the pile. It’s all environmental storytelling and not directly explained to you, but it eventually becomes clear that those bodies are the player, each time we teleport a new copy is made and the original is burnt. It always reminded me of this movie
I’ve watched every Nolan film made prior to Tenet. Sorry Dark Knight fans but the Prestige is his best film, bar none! I loved this film and have watched it multiple times over the years, each time coming away with new tidbits of information about it. It’s a shame it hasn’t gotten the critical or commercial praise it deserves. Thank you for bringing this film up in a review. Perhaps it will find a new audience!
This move is WILD. Love it. Just rewatched it last month. It’s in my top 10 for sure. When he says he always wondered if he will be the man under the stage or the Prestige, it gave me chills. That was originally in reference to when he was using the drunk stand in duplicate for the Prestige and he had to sit underneath while the stand in took all the credit. With the machine, it must have been ten fold. One of them would be dying/drowning while the copy took all the credit. Awesome movie, thanks for bringing it back to light!
Yes! We share the same interpretation about this movie. Borden chose the hard way and Angier couldn’t. The answer is not only ethics (not killing the duplicate) but to carry out the daily process of continually deceiving the audience, like that Chinese illusionist. Humility, hard work and perseverance, that is the Prestige, the definitive trick.
I love the shot right after Borden kills Angier. As the warehouse burns, we see row upon row of drowned Angier duplicates. I think the messages of the film are really about the costs of rivalry and seeking revenge. The old saying, “he who seeks revenge dies a thousand deaths” is literally visualized here, and it’s brilliant.
Angiers only remembers going into the “teleporter” every night, and appearing across the concert hall… it feels like he’s done this 60 times. The copy has zero memory of ever falling into that tank to drown. Thus he FEELS invulnerable, even though INTELLECTUALLY he knows he’s going to drown that night (each night he does drown and a new copy is made).
I felt like the movie is a contemplation on “how far will you go…?” – I thought it was extremely well cast and overall well made. The fact that that both obsessed magicians are played by actors who are well-known for being very dedicated to capturing the characters they are playing makes the movie an even more interesting watch to me.
Thank you for this walk-through of the pledge, the turn, and the prestige of both of the magic tricks in The Prestige. It’s an amazing mystery solving adventure and a revenge tale throughout the movie, becoming a horror story once the audience reaches the ending. It is very well acted by Jackman and Bale. I’m also a fan of the music of the late Bowie and was pleasantly surprised by his portrayal of Tesla.
After learning a little about magic history you see that Chung Ling Soo (the fail of magician) is an actual historical figure. His real name was William Ellsworth Robinson. He was an American who took on the persona of a Chinese magician. The man, in reality, was constantly putting on the show of being something he wasn’t.
Great breakdown, I had done a paper on this movie in college about the Economic Commentary. The poor twins who achieve their success by love of the craft self sacrifice and discipline…coming up from nothing; Hugh Jackman comes from money he goes back too in the end. He is into the Show the recognition. In the end Hugh Jackman does mass production of himself dying slowly his view on having blood on his hand. I only got a ‘B’ on the paper
I always figured one of the Bordens was a duplicate but he was actually the more humane character in the end learning to share his life with the duplicate rather than die each time. I also thought Cutter (Michael Caine) had worked it all out at the end and that’s why he let one of the Borden twins die by testifying at the trail while also keeping their daughter safe for the others return. Sort of like he wiped the board clean as these duplicates were too unnatural to exist and needed to be stopped.
While never stated in the movie, in the book, the brothers are named Albert and Frederick, which they merged into Alfred. One of the things that is absolutely sure is that Angier is a fake no matter how you interpret the duplication. In the original test, the “original” (i.e. the one still in the machine) shoots and kills the “duplicate”. In all other performances, the “original” is drowned and the one that appears several yards away lives.
I like how they even were able to show how the two Bordens were different. The one who loved Sarah is calmer, more of a homebody. One scene would indicate he’s the one who does more of the development (while dressed as Fallon his brother screams at him why he can’t figure out Angier’s trick). The other is the more reckless (probably tied the complicated knot on Angier’s wife), probably the slightly better showman. He’s the one more in competition with Angier (likely the due to being the one Angier shot).
Holy shit. This is one of my favorite movies ever. I’ve watched it at least 25 times and always said it was one of my desert island films because of its non-linear structure it bounces around in time so much that I can’t remember what will happen next. But until now I always thought Angier was killing his duplicate every night. I never realized that in reality he was committing suicide every night, which is so much darker and makes the agony he goes through a thousand times worse. Thank you for this insight. Wow.
A twist many miss that Lord Caldlow isn’t Robert Angier’s alias. Robert Angier is Lord Caldlow’s alias. Angier’s wife stated to Robert that he was playing someone else, where he replied that he would not embarrass his family with his theatrical endeavours. He is also independently wealthy, and stated to Tesla for making his machine that “Price is not an object.” At the end of the film, Robert Angier revealed his true identity with his true accent. An English lord from the prestigious Caldlow family. BORDEN: “You must be Lord Cal…” ANGIER: “‘Caldlow.’ Yes, I am. I always have been.
I love the film, and would recommend a reading of the book too, though with the perspective of them being two different tellings. Even having seen it several times, reading the book made my next watch all the more appreciative of Bale’s portrayals of each twin’s own (very different) temperament (and each’s attempt to conceal the difference for sake of the Prestige). And Jackman’s portrayal throughout is key to the power of the Angier’s final line.
It seems like many people are forgetting that angier tells Borden at the end of the film that he never knew if he’d be the one who goes into the tank or the one that appears on stage. Angier doesn’t realize he’s a clone because it’s the seamless memory between the original who activates the machine and the clone who appears on stage.
I’m here because I’ve just watched this film few days ago. And yes, this is one of the best films I’ve ever seen. I cannot believe I took so long to watch it. I’m not the one that use to rewatch movies but with this I just have to. And everytime it gets better. But a couple things that I loved the most about this movie since the first time I saw it were: 1) You can’t tell who is good or evil or how good or how evil. Both did terrible things. Did any of them really won? 2) How it was portrayed that one was a better magician and the other a better showman. Angier’s last lines were powerful. Borden/Fallon was proud of their sacrifice for making a good trick, but Angier’s comeback was that he never understood why they were magicians in the first place.
I always loved the genus of Tesla. He was so underrated and brilliant. Having him as a character in this was great. Showing the smear campaign from Edison was a nice historical touch in a fictional story. I absolutely love this movie. You have to admit, Christopher Nolan always makes amazing movies. He’s kinda the Tesla of cinema. 😁
SPOILER: Honestly, the biggest question I was left with after the final scene was wondering why Angier kept all the dead duplicates in the water tanks. Seems like it would have been easier to simply dispose of the bodies rather than have to acquire a brand new tank each time and risk discovery. Maybe it was just a directorial decision to provide a more jarring visual impact of what he was doing.
What a great interpretation of this movie. I have seen this movie quite a bit and enjoy it every time and even noticed and liked a lot of the parts of the movie you focused on, but when you brought the story arcs of the twin brothers up in comparison to Hugh Jackman’s character’s duplicates it was like my mind exploded. For some reason the image of 3 intertangled circules popped into my head when you finished the comparisons. I also never even considerd any correlations between the dupllicates and the twins. Great article
The original Angier was unwilling to perform the bird trick without devising a mechanism that would spare the life of the first bird. You are correct in saying each successive performance of Angier’s version of the Transported Man resulted in the production of a new surviving clone, a copy of copy, each more psychopathic than the previous one. This is what produced Lord Caldlow, the man capable of exacting such an encompassing revenge against Borden, attempting to take from him everything he valued in the world. The Prestige is easily one of the greatest films ever made.
I revisit this one every couple of years and it never gets old. It’s one incredibly dark film, but I’ve seen few films that really convey the dangers of revenge as effectively as this one does. Also does a great job of making you feel absolutely awful for poor Sarah. Remarkably good turn by Bowie as Tesla, too.
For those saying Angier wasn’t willing to sacrifice, I believer you’re missing the dynamic point of his character. When he started out his journey he was selfish and uncommitted, to the point he was unwilling to harm even a small bird for the sake of magic. But through tragedy, obsession, and loss he grew into a character willing to suffer drowning himself each night for that one moment of wonder. Knowing that the wonder wasn’t for him because he would be dead but for the audience. In a twisted way that is both selfless and commited in the highest way. Borden would replicate this at the end as well by sacrificing his own twin brother a duplicate of himself in order to beat Angier. Not sure which is worse, but neither were the hero just two selfish obsessive men
The Prestige is my favorite movie. It has good actors, acting, script, dialogue, plot, and story. To top it all off there is a parallel between the movie and the making of the film itself. Nolan said in an interview that being a director is like being a magician. In the film there is the line where someone explains that the magician makes people believe in magic, like how a filmmaker tricks people into believing a story. You can take the three acts of the magic trick to be similar to the way a movie works. It’s the closest I’ve seen to a perfect movie.
Definitely my favourite of all Nolan’s film and an adaptation of one of my all time favourite novels by Christopher Priest. The novel is quite a bit different from the movie….a much more complex and dense storyline but I’d definitely recommend giving it a read. Sadly Chris passed away just recently but leaves behind a wealth of mind bending novels. R.I.P. Christopher Priest.
Thats a great explanation well done! I watched it again for the 10th time and another thing I noticed this time is how he got so wealthy. He clones valuables like gold and diamonds which I’m pretty sure Tesla did that too before giving him the machine but they never mention it because it would be just common sense. And knowing Nolan, he wouldn’t want it to be affecting the primary concept of the story.
An interesting note… the old Chinese Magician is a historical fictional portrayal of Chun Ling Soo. He’s even named by Cutter. Chun Ling Soo… was a real person. He really was very healthy strong and nimble. AND…. he wasn’t Chinese. He was an American named William Robinson. He would appear in public in character and costume…. and no one knew the wiser. Chun Ling Soo was famous for his performance of “The Bullet Catch” (sound familiar). Chun Ling Soo never spoke on stage. He died in London on stage on March 24 1918 performing the Bullet Catch. He was shot and killed on stage. After being shot he spoke in clear English “OH my God. Somethings happened! Lower the curtain”. The parallels are obvious.
The Prestige is a fate worse than death for once you go into the machine, that is when you die right then and there. This film showcases Nolan’s strengths for he seems to thrive in films with a lot of depth as long as he can keep himself from going over the edge(Tenet) and with a dash of tragedy(Interstellar).
The machine behind Tesla’s duplicates is science fiction but based on the real science of quantum teleportation which created duplicates of light particles on the Canary islands. The movie is exploring the idea of; what if Tesla, during his experiments, stumbled on a way to use quantum teleportation on objects with mass but didn’t quite know how it worked. Brilliant.
For clarification, Angier wasn’t “killing his duplicates each night”. The “copy” was the one appearing at the receiving end of the machine, not the one that went into it. In other words Angier was committing suicide each night while the copy was the prestige and the one who’d commit suicide the following night. This is in line with the character: a man so obsessed and obsessive with fame that he was unwilling to pursue the dedication and commitment of ‘living’ the trick but rather opted for the easier out of killing himself just for his fame to live on. The Prestige is the most layered and fascinating Nolan movie.
The “Invincible” TV show basically lays out the problem of “living with your clone” with the Mauler twins. The original will always feel superior to the clone and therefore they will never be equal and cannot operate as such. Borden and Fallon are equal by birth-right and therefore have no superiority over each other. This is a workable relationship. Aside from his lust for revenge, Angier also demonstrates an obsessive and greedy nature that prevents him from having the discipline needed to share power/prestige. I was always confused about which Angier falls into the tank, but if it is the original than that just adds self-loathing to many of Angier’s problems.
I actually think it’s one of Nolan’s best films. I kind of prefer it to a lot of his more bigger scale stuff – especially his recent films(Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, Tenet, Interstellar). This tale of obsession and rivalry which has very dramatic results. The end scene is especially creepy. I would also recommend Nolan’s first film “The Following” – as that is very unique as well. You can see his common traits as a filmmaker(the use of narrative being skipped around) – which he would later put into practise with his other films.
My biggest annoyance of this film is that The great Danton hated using a lookalike as he wanted to be the prestige, yet then sacrifices himself for the duplicate to be the prestige. I know they try to explain it by saying he never knew if he would be the one in the box or the other one, but as you say, it seems the original stays in the machine thus drowns. I still love the film though. Clever and intelligent like memento, another of Nolans earlier work.
I really appreciate this article for articulating the symbolisms, foreshadowing and deep character dramas. The Prestige was an enjoyable movie and fascinating story, but I have this contention when perusal Christopher Nolan movies. His style of cinematography is what I call “constant tension’, as in, he uses quick edits, fast scene shifts and tense music to keep movies flowing in a consistent tone of tension and importance to give a sense of escalating stakes. It’s like he wants to make heist movies, and it’s worked well with movies like The Dark Knight and Inception (to an extent), but it has a way souring and overshadowing the deeper personal and dramatic aspects of his character. Christopher Nolan needs to give his movies a sense of ease and levity to let this moments sink in and be more effectively conveyed. Hope this makes sense.
Wait, now Im a little confused. I just rewatched this movie last night. The night Borden goes behind stage and discovers Angier drowning, there is no prestige. Hence, why Borden was convicted of his death. Or did he actually appear somewhere and just didn’t show the audience? At what point did he duplicate himself to show up at the end?
I don’t know if you mentioned the original book, by the author Chrisopher Priest. He’s a very good writer of ‘early’ sci-fi (eg The Inverted World is quite a strange but rewarding story) so the source material used by the director here was treading good ground already constructed and dabbling in an area of interest concerning identity and so on.
I’m pretty sure the original Angeir dies the first time he uses the machine. When you see him put the gun down he places it handle away from him, but when they come out and the one goes for the gun to kill the other, the one who gets the gun has the handle pointing toward him- ergo the clone killed the original. From that point on he’s a copy of a copy of a copy…. Everything he’s done has been done before.
I gained some insight from this article as this is easily my fav movie of all-time. Thank you. But my take is that the Hugh Jackman character wins even though he is killed in the end by his rival. He wins because he learned and wanted to feel what it was like to die and embraced it. Embracing death is the ultimate sacrifice and probably the greatest gift of all. Sharing a life is nothing compared to it. Then again, a life with no meaning makes death almost welcome. So, essentially this is a paradox. Are you perusal CLOSELY?
I don’t think Borden and Fallon are artificial twins. We see that the cloning device basically makes a perfect duplicate of who you are, personality included. That makes it strange when they fall in love with different women and one of them seems to have absolutely no feelings for the other’s love interest. This makes more sense for biological brothers, since they would simply look the same, their character, personality and personal preferences wouldn’t be replicated.
It’s great that you have brought out this amazing, nearly 20 year old, classic and reminded people why it was so great. I would however like to challenge your conclusion (based purely on my own perspective which is, as is Nolan’s genius, not necessarily the truth) *SPOILERS AHEAD*: I believe Angier to be the epitome of the unreliable narrator. He lies about his name and identity, pretending to be an American when he is not. He pretends to be working class, which he is not. The entire story is told from the perspective of Freddy (not Fallon) reading Angier’s diary and, in effect, his lies. It was Albert and Freddy (Alfred) that pointed towards Tesla as the key (to the diary, not the trick) and as a middle finger to Bourden, Angier lied about the results of Tesla’s machine making him think he had succeeded, knowing Bourden would not be able to resist finding out how the trick was done. In fact, I believe that Angier went back to Gerald Root and convinced him to do the trick with him for a substantial amount, all leading up to that final performance where he killed Root and finally got to feel what it was like not being ‘the man in the box’. We never actually see any bodies clearly other than possibly one, and knowing how Nolan likes to cement his films in realism, I don’t believe he was trying to make us believe that Nikolai Tesla actually made a magical electrical sparky machine that duplicated things. Instead, throughout the film we are told that Magicians, and especially Angier who is the weaker magician but better showman, are not to be trusted.
I never realized how little sense this makes until you broke this all down for me, and now I’m even more confused. So if you start at the first time Angiers performs the trick publicly, he the original must be the one who drowned because it he has to step into the machine to duplicate himself, but the panic on his face when Borden finds him downing seems to be a duplicate who was probably told by the original that he would land on a mat other than be locked in a tank of water. I feel that the original Angiers might just be putting a duplicate into the machine, he the original hiding where he pops out near the audience, and the new duplicate created from the machine just ends up in a room backstage, and Angiers then uses him to put into the machine again. Honestly don’t know 😂 still an amazing movie
A fantastic movie and I agree, one of Nolan’s best – Also a strange and yet poignant reference towards Star Trek transporter technology as explored in the 1995 Outer limits Episode – Think Like a Dinosaur. I however have mixed views in regards of the experience of drowning. I did find it indeed like going home. Everyone is different.
One big question not touched on here is the knot used. When asked Bordon said he did not know what knot was used. That could be the truth because the Bordon twin asked was not the twin that tied the knot. But was it their dedication to their secret that stopped them telling the truth about the knot . We don’t know if a different knot was used and if yes why
it’s never really certain that he dies in the trick, in our point of view, yes it’s the one is the machine that dies and the transported one lives, but to him, the clones has the exect same memories and life as the original, so the clone will never know it wasn’t the original, so as he says in the movie “he never knows if he will be the one getting the applause or the one drowning”. You might say he confirms that the original stays in place and the copy transports, but in the scene where he shoots the copy we have no certainty that the one who got shot was in fact the copy or the original. For all we know the original might be the one constantly getting the applause
I don’t believe there’s any way to know even in principle whether this machine duplicates you some distance away or teleports you some distance away and leaves a clone where you originally stood. One might seem more logical, but we’re talking about a teleportation technology here, so I think logic goes out the window unless and until someone can explain to me how the machine works exactly.
I tried explaining consciousness to my friends using this movie. If I made a clone of myself then that clone would have all of my memories leading up the moment it existed. So it would 100% believe it was me. Apropos that to the sacrifice Angier makes to finally beat his rival. On night 1 Angier makes the only true sacrifice of the multiple clones. He’s the only one who actually knowingly kills himself. The clone who comes out of the box thinks he’s Angier 100% and is convinced that the true man comes out of the box. And the true Angier is actually dead and cant convince him otherwise so he’s 100% convinced that was the clone because why wouldn’t he? Now on night 2 this man dies, but his clone has all of his memories meaning he is not only convinced that he is the true man who came out of the box like the last guy, but he has “experienced’ surviving the trick twice so he’s doubly relieved and is almost completely convinced that it is the clone that dies. This goes on and one. The 30th man has memories of surviving 29 attempts of this trick. But in reality the real man dies every time. The only Angier that actually sacrificed himself was the first one. And that is shown in the movie when he first did the trick to test it. In that scenario in the flashback, the man who came out of the box was shot by the person in the lightning. But in the actual show the person coming out the box survives. So the original Angier who shot the fake one knew that he would have to make the “sacrifice” like Bordon did and the old Chinese man did to create a truly great trick.
Interesting perspective. I always assumed that Borden realized what the machine meant and decided to never use it again in the trick. He knew that he’d either have to kill himself or sacrifice half of his life and he was a moral man who couldn’t kill himself. I think if he really was a twin, it wouldn’t have made as much sense because how could he possibly direct Angier to Tesla, or even know that Tesla could pull off such a thing anyway. I’d like to hear your review of the Illusionist. It’s hard to compare it against the Prestige because they each had a different way of doing things. The Prestige was more about the realism in the magic, and it showed in a lot of what they did. It had a sort of mundane nature about it even in its most fantastical moments because of the practical effects and the skill of the actors and director. However, despite the Illusionist being more fake in its presentation wasn’t really intended to be about the magic and it was just a way to reveal the story. And it had a much happier ending.
I don’t think of this as a mystery box, even though there is a literal box of mystery. There was a point to the film, beyond the mystery. It was a vehicle as apposed to the trick used to ensnare the audience while the film went nowhere. The Prestige does a twist right, where the film gets more rewarding on repeated views as you see the signs and hints throughout.
Alfred Borden has a twin brother so he becomes a magician (cool. great idea) Robert Angier has a fully functioning matter converter / replicator which could literally solve a vast number of the worlds problems, not least of which being world hunger. (What does he do in the story, “my magic show is better than yours”). The guy could have become the richest man in the world ever, he could have made an unlimited amount of any resource in the entire world, but nope he wants the King of the Wizards prize.
Bah. Nolan is Night Shyamalan’s spirit brother. Everything hangs on the twist/reveal. By messing up the timelines, the viewers spend their efforts trying to piece them together and not seeing the weakness(es) in the plot. For instance, would you die horribly for fame that goes to your brother? Would you kill your identical twin/clone for fame? Isnt there some better way to utilize this (cloning)? How logical is the plot and does it rely on things that could not happen (like cloning)? Feel free to enjoy this movie, but the prestige of the film is deceiving you into thinking it is good.
I always had an issue with the death of Angier’s wife. …So, if the only reason she wasn’t able to escape the tank was because of the rope, well then that means she could get out of the tank but people outside couldn’t get in? That’s so stupid and doesn’t make sense at all. If she had her hands untied and could get out, there is no reason that anyone on stage couldn’t pop the latch and reach in and get her. …Or, and this is a BIG OR, if the trick was obviously known to be dangerous, then why not have a safety valve to drain the water quickly. I don’t know. I never understood the stupidity of that scene. The first time I watched it, I was like, huh? Wait, so they knew there was a chance she could drown, and she can get herself out from within, but no one, not even the magician or the engineer himself could open it from the outside??
Hey Dave, just wanted to say that I appreciate you reviewing older movies worth perusal instead of becoming another website that churns out WOKE DISNEY LOSES BILLIONS AND GETS REKT articles; we know they suck and we’re over it, which is why we’re looking to reviewers like you to recommend something great. Have you had a chance to watch movies from the 50’s and 60’s like Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia? Of course the effects are old but the stories are still compelling.
In movies with a big twist at the end, people often love to discuss about the hints that were given along the line, but I feel that nobody talks enough about how we are mislead away from the right conclusion. The TESLA note is an important red herring, but it’s not the main reason why you cross real answer out of your mind. The real reason why you don’t see it coming is because Hugh Jackman reassures the audience that there is no double involved. He flat out states that the one at the beginning of the act and the one in the prestige are one and the same person. This is a lie that the movie tells you. And you trust it because it comes from the person most qualified to figure it out. So in the end, all clues you are given do not counterbalance the lie you are told. Had it not been successful in this regard, the twist would have been either predictable or it would have come out of the blue. This is what makes The Prestige great!
I disagree what you said about the duplicates. I always understood the subject to be both teleported AND copied in a way where it blurs the line on who is the original; they’re BOTH Angier instead of a duplicate-original dynamic. Remember how Tesla says they’re both Angier’s hat or how Angier says he was always nervous starting the machine not knowing if he would be the one on stage or in the vat.
The audience knows the truth. The world is miserable, solid…solid all the way through…but if you could fool them…even for a second…then you can make them wonder…then you…then you got to see something very special. He’s telling us that Tesla’s machine doesn’t work. Might be time to go back and watch it again. Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be…fooled.
Firstly, yes in my opinion The Prestige is Nolan’s masterpiece. All the movies that followed got a bit weaker and weaker until I found the latest one to be utterly boring. Don’t misunderstand me, they are all well-crafted movies, superior to almost anything that comes out of Hollywood but they simply connect less and less with me and feel cold in a way. Secondly: Algier tried to do his trick with a double for a while and therefore knew it couldn’t work. I like how The Prestige is done from the view of magicians: All the tricks in the movie are explained, and except for Tesla’s machine as fantasy element, all the magic and drama is grounded in reality. Everything makes sense in the end and it’s a movie that is so much fun to rewatch opposed to others, who offer one cheap gimmick and once you know it, all the fun is gone. At same time there was another movie like it: The Illusionist. I really liked that one too: Interesting plot and great actors. But ultimately The Prestige is the much better movie. While The Illusionist relies on CGI magic which is never explained and which could never have worked in that time period, The Prestige shows and explains it all and makes everything so much more believable. The plot is also more complex and satisfying than the one of The Illusionist. Nevertheless I enjoy both movies. The Prestige is one of my all time favorite movies. It is complex yet makes sense, makes you think and wonder, keeps you in awe but pays off, keeps you guessing and is never boring, the cast is brilliant and engaging, the visuals are stunning and fitting to the period.
Illusionist was just a better watch IMO. This movie was about two guys constantly failing, almost comically, and then getting some magic trick from Tesla…to me, this makes these two professionals look like they simply got lucky (as a competitive duo) and didn’t really earn it. Granted, they went hard into the gift Tesla gave them, but come on…
I’m in the minority and thought the twist ruined the film. It’s hammered home that magic doesn’t exist and there’s always an explanation, props, sleight of hand, misdirection etc. But at the end there’s a fully functional cloning machine……… The characters, rivalry, obsession beyween the magicians etc was great. Just that unrealistic twist ruined it for me. But im glad so many others enjoy it 😊
The Prestige is a film I want to love but can’t, because it indulges in real magic. The film undermines its own point for me. We see the lengths which they will go to to maintain the illusion, but then the film introduces a magic duplication box. So the effort to maintain the illusion of magic is pointless, since actual sorcery is a thing. Or they invented star trek transporters in the 19th century. Tonally the film is grounded but once it introduces that element it falls apart.
Nolan is too much of a realist for this explanation, and the real twist is that Nolan made US, the audience, believe the “magic” of this machine. The movie itself is a magic trick. What really happened is the machine never worked. Borden tricked him into a fools errand. The scene of Angier’s first “duplication” is Angier telling a story – a lie – to keep the “magic” of the machine alive. In reality, he recruited lookalikes for the show, and there are several hints in the movie about this: He already worked with one lookalike; the usage of makeup and prosthetics by Borden and twin to fool everyone; the fact that over and over again Nolan reminds us that it’s all a trick; that Borden never actually used the machine. It’s always the true Angier who appears on the balcony, and the lookalikes go in the tank, which is a much more tragic angle – that he’d be willing to kill so many people to pull off this act. That way he ensures the secret is never told, and is also why the lookalikes panic when dropped in the tank. Also, he could’ve gone with just one duplicate if the machine really worked, just like Borden. I’ve held to this theory forever, and still do.
I usually find Nolan to be overbearing-ly complicated for the sake of complication, self-indulgent, and sometimes faux-intelligent, and most of his movies good, but overrated…however, the prestige is an exception, great movie with great casting. To me Angier IS the tragic hero, and only presented as the antagonist because he is of a higher class than Bourden…who gets a pass because he and his twin came from poverty. I find them and Cutter to be the real antagonistic characters of the film…which is consistent with most of Christian Bale’s roles(other than Bruce Wayne i guess).
I thought it was impressive but I didn’t ever really like it perhaps because it came out at the same time as the illusionist which I much preferred and the duplication machine just took me out of the story. Add to that the main characters are truth be told fairly unlikable if very compelling so I could find the connection I need to really be drawn in
If you watch the movie very closely, you notice that Bale actually shifts personalities while representing either of the Borden brothers. the one married to Sarah is overall more calm and composed with more focus on his family, while the brother who falls in love with olivia is more obsessed with magic, and looses temper easily. He’s the brother who is later hanged, so in a way, the one who was the familyman got to be with his daughter, which to me, was very powerful moment in the final scene of the movie
The entire movie was a trick to the audience. The last line where Cutter goes “You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.” gives me chills once I spotted the explicit giveaways of the twist in my third watch. It felt like Nolan himself said that to the audience. This film, hands down, is the most brilliant psychological film ever made. He matches the pacing of the movie to the story so perfectly. He did the same with Memento and that was a masterpiece too.
I think Angier knows he could never share the spotlight with a copy of himself and neither would the copy. When he looked into his own eyes he literally sees his inability to do so and in that moment they both know one must die for this trick to go on. It’s why the other is immediately afraid of what’s going to happen.
Something that wasn’t pointed out: at the 18:00 mark there’s a reference to why Angier shoots the duplicate instead of having two – later in the movie Borden remarks that the 2 brothers were satisfied living half a life each – something Angier couldn’t do. I thought it was a nice touch – the reason Angier can’t do the trick, even after having a duplicate, is because he can’t live that life – Angier and Borden aren’t the same.
This is an incredible movie. Nolan did such an awesome job of showing us Fallon and who he was yet at the same time he made sure that you didn’t notice him too much. You’re well aware of him but at the same time you almost forget about him completely. It’s always amazed me how a director knows exactly how much of a character needs to be noticed while not making the twist too obvious. It’s brilliant
A real beauty of this movie is that the “twist” is foreshadowed so heavily that it’s almost expected, to the point that Michael Caine repeatedly tells Angier what the trick is but he won’t listen. But the foreseeable but unknown twist is basically what the theme of the movie is. I think it’s represented well when Borden shows his wife the bullet catch and she’s like “womp womp”. Ppl would rather be tricked, ppl want to believe in the impossible. And that’s what makes magic (and film) so enduring.
Agreed, this is his best film so far. And C. Bale was great in it: if you pay close attention, you can really tell when he’s playing one brother and when he’s playing the other one. One (Sarah’s lover, and the girl’s father) is “the brains” of the two, he is the ingenieur, he is the one who invents the tricks and writes and draws the diary, and has a sweeter voice and calm temper, and seems a little more shy; the other one (I call him Freddie because of Scarlett) is the angrier one; it is the “manual” one; he is the one who loves manual tricks such as the bullet-catch, and plays with the red ball, or with the ring, or with his business card in prison; he raises his voice often, gets angry when Sarah asks him to buy the house, and has a huskier, deeper voice; he’s the one who asks his brother “the brain”
This movie, like a lot of Nolan’s films, found a way of being both fast-paced, and a slow burn. There is SO much detail in his films, it’s a miracle they don’t implode in on themselves. His ability to jump from past to present is masterful. He did the same thing in Batman Begins, making both that movie and Prestige my favorites of his.
This movie is literally: —incredible —one that DOES get better the more you watch it —one that if u happen upon it while website surfing, u just watch it til the end no matter where u catch it —such a great example of finding more and more “new” stuff with virtually every viewing One of my all time favs too
The first time Tesla tests out the machine it’s on a cat that he brings out in a box. While I was thinking about the concept of Robert having to face death every night, I realized that at the moment he stepped into the machine, he was both dead and alive, exactly like Schrödinger’s cat. I am utterly blown away by Nolan.
I loved this movie so much. I remember seeing it in the theaters when it released. I was perusal it, eyes open and attentive. When the ending credits rolled I said to myself “I know I missed something and I’m buying this on dvd.” After rewatching it, I can identify which brother is leading in all the scenes.
You caught a couple of things I missed. Here’s a few you didn’t mention: Cutter saying to Angier that with a little work he could make Root Anger’s brother (and Angier then replying ‘I don’t need him to be my brother. I need him to be ME’.). Borden saying to Sarah ‘Secrets are my life. Our life’. Sarah saying to Borden that she knows he really is. Borden describing Angier’s double (Root) as mute and overweight – which describes Fallon. Tesla: alternating current. The Borden brothers alternated days as the magician (and as Fallon). There’s a also a nice clue in the intro to the published screenplay (which is outside the scope of this article): it’s written in the first person and is then ‘signed’ by the Nolan brothers
Here are 2 more easter eggs that i found that weren’t mentioned 1. In 12:48 the reason Borden is surprised and says : We should have told Fallon, is because Fallon is the father 2. In the dinner scene where Olivia,Sarah,Fallon and Borden are together Sarah asks : What trick? And Borden says : I am going to bury myself alive today and someone will come along and dig me up, This is a direct hint that Borden speaking here is the one who got buried by Angier
The source novel is also really good, though very different in many ways from the film. For one thing there’s an overall 20th-century framing device in which a journalist, a descendant of Borden, is investigating the Angier-Borden rivalry, which would have way overcomplicated an already complicated film. The characters and plot vary quite starkly at times from those of the film as well. Overall I like the film better, but it’s definitely worth a read.
I could be wrong, but I thought that Borden really did appear in Sarah’s home, and it was not the twin brother. Right before the scene cuts away from him, we see Borden looking and heading towards an open window in the stairwell. And when he appears in Sarah’s house, he is right next to her window. Presumably, he climbed out the window from the stairwell and climbed into Sarah’s house from her window.
This movie was a very complicated but interesting one. I love the back and fourth between the two characters and the references to the end. But the funny part is the fact that there are multiple endings and nobody really knows what’s going on, but that’s just the magic of a Chris Nolan movie. You get an ending that makes you want to know more when there is nothing else to know and there is no need for a sequel
I’d love a article talking about the theory that Alley is actually Tesla and Bowie’s character is an actor. Once you see the proof laid out it’s so insanely clear that that’s what Nolan was doing. Tesla is the method but Angier couldn’t see it because he couldn’t understand living that way. Just like the Chinese magician, Borden saw Alley and knew instantly what he was doing.
I watched it recently, and it’s probably one of my top 3 movies by Nolan. The movie itself is a magic trick as you also called it out. But I wonder, what was the ultimate message of this movie?! Because with Christopher Nolan and Specially in a collaboration with Jonathan there is always a core and meaningful hidden message. Other than that I totally loved it.
listen: my favorite mental exercise is to watch this movie and in real-time figure out WHICH Borden i’m perusal in each scene. I will say this: Christian Bale absolutely 100% did the work to figure it out and plays the two physically identical characters noticeably differently. The Alfred Borden who loved Sarah was more polite and refined and careful, and the Borden who loved Olivia was more edgy and boorish, and more likely to push the limits of what they could get away with. If you pay attention, you can figure out WHICH Borden you’re perusal in every single scene, and it makes absolute perfect sense plot-wise. All credit to Nolan for doing the work to distinguish the two, and all credit to Bale for playing the two with such subtle distinction that it’s challenging but absolutely obvious to tell them apart once you know the secret. What a brilliant film. Spoiler: the happy ending is honestly a happy one — the Borden who ends up alive and reunited with their daughter is the Borden who truly loved Sarah and the family they’d made, and is no doubt the daughter’s real father, for whatever that’s worth.
Angier’s wife insisted that she could do the trick using the new knot that Borden wanted to use. It was plausible that she practiced untying the new knot, so that when they tried the trick again, she was using the new method to escape… but they were using the same old knot. Another reason why, at the funeral, Borden said he didn’t know which knot was used. Also, as some have pointed out, I feel that it was the father who lived at the end, and not the uncle. Why would the grieving widower tell his brother that he was sorry for the wife dying? It would have been the condemned man telling his grieving widower brother that he was sorry.
Great article! Ill make one comment At 17:56, you jokingly ponder why Angier didnt simply keep his duplicate, instead of killing it. I personally think the reason why is because in the movie, they make it clear that Angier is a showman, but Borden is a magician/technician with skill. Borden understands tricks, Angier doesnt. Angier couldnt see the forest from the trees with magic. Therefore, it shows how Angier thinks practically (or fails to think practically) when developing a trick.
I first watched this movie at a young age and for some reason I thought that the “father” twin was the one originally put in jail and that at some point, his brother was able to come in and switch off with him. While I love the original ending, I feel like “my” ending would’ve hit home the idea of sacrifice. Imagine being the free brother switching off with the one doomed to death so he could raise his daughter 😢
I’ve watched this film dozens of times and never put together that Borden had a twin brother. I figured that he visited Tesla, made a copy of himself, realized the value of this, and decided to live one life as two people. His sacrifice was knowing he would only live half a life, whereas Angier would rather kill his double than share the spotlight. Now I’ll have to view the movie again with this knowledge in mind.