The fact that Nolan just tells you every step and every twist along the way and it still dupes the viewer. Masterpiece. He even says he's going to do it. "but you wan't to be fooled".
Starting with him showing up in his wife's apartment for a cup of tea to talking about how he 'loves her today/doesn't love her today', just a ton of subtle indicators that he had a twin brother. This movie's phenomenal
@@BadassRaidenthat's how he normally sounds, he doesn't have any particular Welsh accent. He's in so many movies with an American accent many Americans assume he's an American actor
One of my friends is American and claim British people are terrible at American accents. Then he found out his favourite American actors are all British haha
Awesome bits of foreshadowing: Borden didn't know which knot he tied, as it wasn't the same twin at the funeral who tied the knot. Same with him and Sarah. "Not today."is because the one who loves Sarah is not the same one. You can sort of tell the twins apart on the rewatches, but sometimes its more tricky than others. Its more their personalities. At the end, Cutter knows how wrong Angier is in what hes done, which is why he does nothing when Borden goes to take his final revenge.
I’ve seen this movie 7 or 8 times and your comment just now made me realize why Borden didn’t know which knot he tied. Great catch! Or maybe I’m just not that observant
We never find out either. It might have easily been that he took the advice not to use that type of knot, and it was simply an accident that she died. The whole obsession between the two of them could have been born out of quite literally nothing at all. I choose to believe this, because it makes it all the more poetic.
@@neil2444I think it’s safe to assume he tied the Langford double, and the disagreement from the twin who did it is likely just guilt and denial. To expand a bit: you can tell the Bordens apart eventually, and the one who ties the knot is the gruffer, arrogant one (who loves Olivia) who would absolutely tie the Langford double. The other one is the softer, smarter one (who loves Sarah) who will know in his heart what happened, but can’t know for sure because he didn’t see it, with the knot-tying Borden likely in denial over his guilt and refusing to admit it. The second Borden is the one attending her funeral, who is completely honest that he just doesn’t know.
The nephew saying "But where's his brother?" is a subtle nod to Borden's situation Angier & Julia discussing the old man's magic trick, with Angier saying "Anytime he's in public, anytime he goes out. Borden saw it at once, but I couldn't fathom it." is a subtle nod to Angier's situation. There's tons of these scattered throughout the film but those were the 2 earliest and most prominent examples.
33:23 That's why the scene at 8:57 is so important in the film. The only time Borden reveals a trick to his wife, he ends up feeling disappointed that he did, so there was no way he was going to reveal his greatest trick to her. Of course he didn't know the consequence of her depression.
This film has amazing rewatch value. Compared to other “twist” films where they’re hiding the secret from you so rewatching can make the story feel a bit cheaper, the greatness of the Prestige is that everything is just out in the open. Case in point: when Borden and Sarah are having their big fight, on first watch it suggests she knows about his affair. But on rewatch, it’s easier to catch “Olivia, I’ll go to her, I’ll tell her! I know what you really are, Alfred” and what they’re *actually* arguing about (and why he gets so angry) is that she knows he’s two different men.
Great point! And there is foreshadowing if you revisit what Afred tells her nephew when he gives him the coin..."as soon as you give it up (the secret) you will be nothing to them."
@@bigdream_dreambig I think she knows. There is Alfred and there is "Freddie" Oliva calls him Freddie and he says that's my name. In the big fight she says Alfred. But at times she calls him Freddie. She knows and wants it to stop. Wants her whole husband but he is willing to do that. To just give up this ONE trick and let their family be enough for them. This is why she kills herself. She treathens to tell Olivia they are twins.
With Angier and Borden they were both villains and heroes. The obsession and rivalry destroyed everyone around them. "Fallon", his daughter, Cutter and Olivia were the survivors.
Fallon, the disguise, definitely didn't survive b/c there's no need for him anymore after Freddie's execution. Alfred can now live a full life, although a private one.
It’s also an incredible re-watch once you know everything. Like realizing that both of their tricks are derived out of the bird trick at the beginning, complete with the kid figuring out the use of a brother, like Borden’s trick, and the pledge being killed every time, like Angier’s trick.
It’s also funny because if your mind is already thinking about things that way, that scene gives away the ending twist. I didn’t catch on to that my first viewing, but when I watched it with my brother I heard him go “huh” when the kid asked about the brother. If that happens, SO much happens that makes it super obvious. But that’s the whole point by the end, “you want to be fooled”.
Which means his american one is so good, that the reactor thinks he is american. I remember when I had to inform my sister that Nicole Kidman was actually Austrailian.
I've never cared much for magic tricks as an adult but this movie is one of my favorites which speaks to the genius of Christopher Nolan. He could make any subject interesting.
Many of his movie are the same, in that they are him telling you how he's showing you what he's showing you. This movie has the whole plot explained in the first few minutes as just a simple magic trick. Inception is just him explaining movie making all they way planning an idea in the audience's mind.
Between this movie and Assassin's Creed 2 every 90s kid grew up knowing that Edison had it in for Tesla and our parents couldn't understand wtf was going on
23:12 omg im dying Angier always thought he was the originial, as the cloning happens before the drowning. Meaning once a clone is being made, the originial always dies, but the clone thinks he is the originial because in his memory, just 1 second ago he was inside the machine and then just kinda teleported into somewhere else. So that's why Angier kept killing himself over and over. Because the clone's minds has continuity. 1 second Angier is inside the machine, next he is teleported. That's why he says "it took courage to climb into that machine every night, not knowing if I'll be the man in the box or in the prestige". To him, as long as the continuity from the machine to the prestige exists, he is not killing himself. In his mind, he did the same thing for days and days and he is still alive and well. But he is actually killing himself... And I would love to watch your second reaction to this movie. This is literally the only movie you can watch twice where the second time is a completely different movie.
Young me watched this movie when it came out. I remember absolutely loving it but at the same time I was so traumatized by the drowning scene that I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks, I think I even had nightmares. Not just because drowning is one of my deepest fears, but also the thought that he made "himself" suffer like that every time ...I still have chills.
Nolan is a master of foretelling. This film only gets better when you watch it a second time and see the little boy crying and asking about the bird "but what about his brother?" it clued the audience in to what might happen. The same thing with the knot that killed Robert's wife, it wasn't the same brother the second time so he didn't get the same warning that it was too dangerous to do, and when Jackman kept asking Bale's character which one he used he told him he didn't know because he likely wasn't the one that tied it. That meant the death that kicked off the entire rivalry was completely accidental.
The Prestige is the most well written and well directed movie in my opinion. It requires a rewatch almost immediately. The most incredible thing is the movie is constantly giving you the answer throughout the story… but like a good magic trick it redirects the viewer to thinking something else. Example: when consoling the nephew, the little boy asks, “But where’s his brother?” I’ve watched this movie dozens of times and have yet to find plot holes. I’m convinced there was a good twin and a bad twin. The bad twin received justice and the good twin was restored to his daughter.
If you rewatch it again it becomes super obvious Fallon is a twin, thats why when he's asked "what knot did you tie?" He responds with he doesn't know, because he wasn't the one who tied it, it was the other one
Spoiler Alert!!! You have to go back and watch this film a second time. Christian Bale is so good in this movie, you can actually start to tell when he is playing each of the twins. At times he is more gentle and kind (the twin in love with Sarah), and other times he is more bold and arrogant (the twin in love with Olivia). For this reason, I consider this to be one of his best performances. He is playing two different characters without you even knowing it. Also, I think this is one of Hugh Jackman’s most underrated performances. He played the change from passionate to vengeful and bitter so well.
Rumor has it that Albert Einstein was once asked what it was like to be the world smartest man. He replied, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Nicola Tesla"
You do know that Edison had nothing whatsoever to do with Topsy's execution, right? The elephant was executed because it had killed multiple people but regardless, Edison was not involved in any way, nor did it have anything to do with the AC vs DC conflict as that had been over for years by the time Topsy was killed.
I like to think the father survived. He told his twin "we're done" he just wants to take care of his daughter, but the twin is so obsessed with magic and the method that he goes anyway, is spotted and arrested. Also, a lot of the themes in this movie are quite real. Like they actually happened. These kind of rivalries or feuds between magicians were common. Usually they we're a marketing ploy to drum up publicity. And the old magician with the goldfish bowl, that was probably inspired by a real magician. "Chung Ling Soo" - an American pretending to be Chinese who never broke character in public. Also he died after getting shot while performing a bullet catch routine when the gimmicked weapon malfunctioned.
That's the thing though. Because they were always switching places, they don't know who the biological father was. So as far as they were concerned, they both were.
I have always loved this movie and your video made me realize a detail. Every time Hugh Jackman's character would ask Christian Bale "Which knot did you tie?" he was answering honestly, because it was the other brother. Good writing makes a movie infinitely rewatchable.
@@bigdream_dreambig I got the impression that one brother is a genuinely nice person and would not have done the unsafe knot. The other is kind of a jerk and he would lie about doing it. That was my reading of it.
@@bigdream_dreambig yaaa (shrugs) but it's fiction. I could be biased based on the "some days you love me, some days you don't," plot thread. It gives off the impression of one being very cold and dishonest, and one being very caring and nurturing. Stepping back from that emotional reading, logically they are both lying, and there's no reason the loving father couldn't have also been the one to risk the assistant's life. Again, I think this movie has great writing, you can interpret it different ways.
One of the things that I noticed when I first re-watched this was Borden's wife kept saying weather or not Borden loved her on certain days. Meaning, when it was her real husband, she could tell that he meant that he loved her, but when it was the twin, even though she didn't know it wasn't her husband, she could tell there was enough off that it was a lie.
This is great, but I think my favorite Nolan film is his first, Memento. It's one of the most original, inventive movies. It also ends with a Bowie song to start the credits.
I love Memento as well…But, I prefer this one. The only thing that takes me out of Memento (doesn’t take away from how great it is) is the inconsistency with the short term memory loss.
@@jayvansickle7607 The film has been praised for how accurately it depicts anterograde amnesia, a very real condition. It's not inconsistent at all. Whenever Leonard loses focus, he forgets. And it's explained how conditioning can make him instinctively learn things without making specific memories of them, it's how he knows what his condition is, how he knows Polaroid prints are easier to burn than tear, and how he created false memories of Sammy Jenkis based on his own experiences. Cleveland Clinic says this: While anterograde amnesia affects explicit memory, it usually doesn’t affect implicit memory. That means you can still learn by using methods that involve implicit memory. Examples include: -Errorless learning. Instead of learning from mistakes (because someone with amnesia can’t learn this way), this method focuses on giving hints and prompts. This works because hints and prompts help your brain rebuild and strengthen the connections and networks that you rely on for memory. -Procedural learning. This method focuses heavily on repetition and practice. -Priming. This technique involves giving a cue to help someone learn. The cues train the person’s brain on how to act next. Over time, this effect gets stronger, so you can rely on cues less.
Saw this movie in theaters with my Dad. We walked out. Quiet. He turned to me and said "We're going again." So we watched it back to back in theaters. Lol.
As much as people love this movie, I don't think it gets the attention it deserves. I really do think this is my favorite Nolan film and you pick up so much when you rewatch it. I had this wonderful write-up about this on Reddit at some point, but good luck finding it... Anyway, I'll keep it short and only include the important bits. I mean, just the opening of the movie, showing the top hats and "Are you watching closely?" Then it switches to Cutter explaining the parts of a magic trick, first part the magician shows you something ordinary. "A deck of cards, a bird, or a man." Or, how about top hat? "Perhaps he asks you to inspect it." eg asking if you're watching closely. In the 2nd part of the trick, he explains that you're looking for the secret. I mean, most people try and think things through in a movie and figure it out, "but you won't find it, because you're not really looking." Hey! Remember when we asked if you're watching closely? Remember all those top hats? Why are there so many top hats? Nope. Not even 2 minutes in and you're already forgotten and they laid out very heavily what the secret of the movie is in the opening shot. There's so many layers to peel back in this movie and well over a decade of watching it, I'm still picking up on nifty subtleties.
What annoyed me the most is that The Illusionist which came out around the same time got all the attention and this got passed over a lot. This is by far the better film.
One of the best films. It is extremely rewatchable and you'll see the entire thing completely different the 2nd time through. Also, this one plays it's final twist extremely close to the chest. Literally the last couple of minutes. And it gives you so many hints and clues. Right down to the "i don't know which knot" because it wasn't him. It's extremely well acted. It's dark and macabre. It has solid and good magic. The cast is stacked as hell. The script is tight and fast paced, doesn't waste time. It's just so good.
YES!!! LETS GOOOO! :D This is one of my favorite movies!!! Rebbecca Hall has a way of INSTANTLY building empathy with the audience and she's great in everything she's been in! The Prestige, The Town and The Gift are all incredible movies!! :)
Nolan gave away Borden's secret in the beginning when the kid asked about the bird "Where's his brother"? You can see how much of a gut punch that was to Borden.
Agree. There was a lot of buildup before his first appearance on screen, and I thought he would go big (which was certainly in his toolkit), but instead he underplayed. Good choice by Nolan.
I really loved seeing your reaction to the big twist at the end. It mirrors the one I had the first time when I watched this movie. Not sure if you have seen this already, but "Now You See Me" is also a movie focused on magicians, but it is a lot less dark. More of a fun heist movie. I recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. Do not recommend the sequel though...
@@sntxrrr The sequel has some really good stuff in it. It's not AS good as the first, but it's got some fun. The utter idiocy of not calling it Now You Don't though is inexcusable.
One of my favorite moments is Angier's monologue at the end of the movie as he's dying. When he's talking about why they did all this. And for him, it was about that moment when he saw the audience and their faces full of wonder. It's almost like that's the last bit of humanity that's left of him, and then he dies
One of my favorite movies, so many twists & turns it was like a cinematic magic trick for the audience! - this released roughly the same time as another 'magic' film that is for my money equally as good if not better: 'The Illusionist' - thoroughly recommend watching that one if you haven't already! 😁
I think the prestige is better than the illusionist in my opinion, but to each their own. This one is a watch over a couple of times to fully appreciate it, while the illusionist is a watch once type of movie. Another excellent movie in my opinion that’s a watch a couple of times to appreciate it, is predestination
This is one of my favorite movies. The only movie where I left the theater and almost walked back in to watch it again. This is my top Christopher Nolan movie.
this movie has another fold: consider this movie as a magic trick, the appearance of the plot and story line was the first part, "the pledge", the main characters' disappear and reappear was the second part, "the turn", and the final revieal of both characters' lives and trick, was the third part, "the prestige", and you, are literally THE MAGIC TRICK AUDIANCE, trying to figure out how the magic trick was done, and once you know that, it releases your obssesive mind.
Every time I watch someone react to this movie I expect them to get the twist so much earlier, but it’s only obvious on rewatch. I was completely taken in the first time. I still love it after at least a dozen viewings
The "breathe as little as possible" is funny to me because my first job as a dishwasher at a big kitchen involved me having to crawl through the dishwashing machine to clean it and when my boss gave me the spraybottle with the heavy duty cleaning chemical in it his advice was "try not to breath too much" haha
They tell you that it's body doubles and show you with Angier how it's done but they do it in a way you don't believe them. The movie tells you up front about everything.
After a long time that i saw this movie, only now i noticed that the only reason that Angier used the water cadge for the bodies is because is a sort of penitence and grieve for what the woman that died because of the knot he made.
I love that they give you everything you need to figure out the Borden/Fallon link early on in the movie with the birds and the little boy asking about "his brother" and even ask if you're watching closely. I'll be eternally proud that I figured out Fallon was his twin early on the first time I saw it. There is so much more you notice when rewatching though.
Every scene in the movie gives away the secret. Like Borden wooing Sarah. How he was able to get into her house so quickly. Or the China man’s secret with the fish tank. He acts like a cripple always as to not give away the secret. Genius movie. Rewatch it now that you know and you will see how well this movie was made!
It's *_really_* interesting to me that V thinks this movie is the most messed up she's seen! I thought it was so satisfying, the back n' forth, the cat&mouse, the progression of stakes, happened all so smoothly. It's my favorite movie for that reason and I'm glad my favorite reactor watched it. 😊
You know, strange as it sounds, you can still read the (excellent) book this is based on and NOT be spoiled! The same setup exists, but the things that are saved for the big finale of this movie are actually revealed pretty soon in the book. The twists that follow are different.😁 It’s also not quite as dark as the movie. Not as much of a total bummer. VERY different ending. And Borden and Angier aren’t as relentlessly hateful the whole time. The Prestige, by Christopher Priest. I recommend it very highly.👌 For what that’s worth.😜
One of my favorite movies ever, sooo much foreshadowing that pays off in the end with one of my favorite parts (that at once I thought came out of nowhere) was with Lord Caldlow, this millionare amateur magician that for some reason just shows up... but at some point Angier reveals to his wife that he changed his name to avoid embarassing his family, so he was Lord Caldlow all along and was the perfect oportunity to assume a "new" identity once Robert Angier was murdered. Bravo Nolan.
4:46 the two young men here are the twins, and not Alfred and Angier as one might think. the next line "two young men who never intended to hurt anyone" just confirms it. He really didnt know which knot he tied, because the twin did it. Also Tesla is David Bowie
when I saw tesla walk through the electricity and then I realized it was THE legendary David Bowie playing him.. I was so excited! I loved that they sprinkled in that bit of sci-fi into an otherwise pretty grounded period drama. the cool thing is, if you go into a deep dive about Tesla conspiracy-theories, the events of this movie don't seem so farfetched. towards the end of his life, Tesla was dabbling in some pretty crazy stuff. The fact that a lot of his work was lost or destroyed just added to the mystery. This movie is my favorite portrayal of Tesla
Alfred Borden: killer Caldlow’s wife, shot his own brother, broke Caldlow’s leg, got his brother sentenced to death by refusing to reveal his secret, murdered Lord Caldlow Lord Caldlow: killed his clone dozens of times, didn’t defend Borden by refusing to reveal his secret.
I stand by that this is Nolan's best work. I can't think of another that is so well written. Even Inception, there are parts that bore me or where there is a bit too much talking. Here? Every scene, practically every line, serves a purpose. On rewatch especially, you catch on to all the foreshadowing. You can actually tell which twin is on screen at any given time. Alfred (the one that loves Sarah) is the one who has a more even temperament and a subtler accent; he's the one that seems to be the "brains" of the operation ("Why can't you outthink him?!!!). Whereas Freddy (the one who loves Olivia and is executed at the end) has a stronger accent and tends to yell or push boundaries. One of them has a slight scar on his eyebrow, the other doesn't. Once you recognize that, you realize that Freddy was the one who killed Angier's wife. But when Angier asked "Which knot did you tie?" Alfred said "I honestly don't know." He's telling the truth
Yeah, back in those days... they did alot of bird killing for illusions like that. Up until the animal rights people put the stop to it I think. And there are devices that Hugh's character that go So fast, they can really hurt someone if your not careful... hence... the lady broke her fingers on the collapsing bird cage. Fun Fact: The China man Magician is based on an actual magician who Pretended to be Chinese, but he was american pretending to be a chinese magician: Chun Ling Soo. He would speak gibberish and he would have "Interpreters" tell the interviewers what he said. He did this for such a long time and it's been a secret up until he died doing the Trick that Bale's character did, "The Bullet Catch". When he said the older man was all an act... he wasn't wrong and he was right on how dedicated Chung Ling Soo was to his craft. When I saw this I got giggily because I knew who he Was talking about. So yeah Hope you find that fun. :) lol OH and The Gold Fish Trick is such a marvel to see. Check out "Penn and Teller's Magic and mistery Tour: China" on YT. There's a man still doing that trick in the video and it's really great. :)
The Prestige is one of the best "steampunk" films out there. It's quite shocking, and horrifying what lengths a man might go to, to achieve his own greatness. Bowie as Nikola Tesla was surprisingly good casting. "I didn't know there was such high value for magic tricks." Back in the late 19th century, stage magic was HUGE. Magicians would play in the courts of kings. They would "battle" each other in stage "duels", each trying to out-do the tricks of the other.
As many times as I've seen this movie, I've never seen it with subtitles on so at 29:10, I always thought he said "I'm pretty damn great", not actually "abracadabra" lol
You have to admit this is a wild movie: It has Alfred working for Wolverine, Wolverine against Batman, Black Widow has an affair with both Wolverine and Batman, Black Widow falls in love with and then leaves Batman, Batman is hanged for the murder of Wolverine, and Batman shoots and kills Wolverine. To make it even more fun, Wolverine buys his magic trick from Jareth (David Bowie - Labyrinth) and Gollum/Smeagol! Such a great movie!
Couple of people already mentioned this, but another magician movie came out in the same year that took place in the same era called The Illusionist with Ed Norton that was also very good. You should totally check that one out too. It's not nearly as soul crushing.
It's a good movie but watching it so close to this one is a mistake. It just pales in comparison. So much so, that even Edward Norton seems a bit underwhelming.
I'm mot sure you understand the full horrific nature of the obsession: He doesn't kill the clones, that's not how the box works. The clones are created at a distance from the machine. The man that drowns, night after night, is the most recent clone, starting with the original. He literally killed *himself* and created copies of copies of copies just to make a better trick.
This was my first non-Batman movie from Christopher Nolan and it has long been my favorite. Stuff like that happens when you get stoned with your buddies and watch it a few nights in a row
One twist a lot of people seem to miss even after rewatching is that "Lord Caldlow" was always the real identity of 'Angier', that's why he says to his wife at the start his family don't approve of his choice of career. He was always a wealthy aristocrat putting on an American accent to hide his posh background. So he wasn't motivated by fame or money in the end, he just wanted that badly for his audiences to experience a piece of performance art a cut above the miserable reality he lived in and went too far for it.
You're right to be conflicted. The revelation of Borden living as twins doesn't absolve him. He committed to the full life deception outside the act, because just like Angier, he placed the trick above his personal relationships. Sarah having to guess whether her Borden loved her or didn't love her on any particular day was indeed torture, caused by this deception. But Angier was just as obsessed, revealed early when he said 'I don't care about my wife I care about the trick!' and then the crazed plotting after. The surviving Borden brother may have been the most sane one, since the executed one told him 'you were right, I should have left him to his damn trick!' In some unfilmed interaction, maybe he counselled for sanity. Nevertheless, they were all committed to what they did. So I guess among all of them you were a bit harsh on Olivia/Johannsen lol, but it's fair because in any normal movie then her fickleness and mercenary nature might have been a fault. It's just that in this, her character flaws pale into insignificance.
Definitely the kind of movie you need to watch again to really pick up on all the subtle but obvious things 🤯 Another great magician thriller is The Illusionist, it came out the same year as The Prestige so it unfortunately got forgotten about, but has Edward Norton and other phenomenal actors and it’s an intense, amazing film that deserves more love.
This movie is one you have to watch multiple times. The second time, you will see all the clues you missed to the plot twist. Makes you see everything differently
I feel like it isn't so much that both sides are "bad" but rather, it's a story that illustrates how very human things like anger, envy, ego, and ambition can lead to escalation where people can do horrible things to each other that they wouldn't normally do.
Aside from The Dark Knight trilogy, this is my favorite Chris Nolan movie. I may be biased because I do card tricks, and other (easy) tricks, but the twist at the end, foreshadowed when Bale shows the little girl the bird trick, and she asks him "where's his brother," is sooooo good and actually made me gasp when I put the pieces together.
I've probably rewatched this movie 20 times. It's one of my favorites. Like other people are saying, rewatching this movie is great. Every time I do I try to identify which of the Brother's is actually in each of Borden's scenes. Usually it's pretty obvious, Christian Bale does some nice subtle acting differences between the two. It's basically Alfred (Fallon) and Freddie (Borden) in my eyes. The 'Borden' persona is always the one super energized about magic, talking about doing his great trick, super invested. In my eyes this is Freddie, while they both like magic I see him as being the more obsessed one. Alfred (Fallon) found Sarah and started settling down a bit and they tried to make it work and you can see the obvious tensions that resulted. Like Alfred (Fallon) hugging his daughter and leading her away as Freddie (Borden) is arguing with his wife in the other room. Freddie is obviously the one at the restaurant they go to while Alfred (Fallon) is next to them. Alfred (Fallon) appears to be the one that fell into the grave. The Freddie (Borden) persona also seems a bit more reckless "Let him come," before Alfred gets thrown in the coffin. Although this makes the restaurant dialogue a bit ambigious, "I'm going to bury myself alive and have someone come along and dig me up." His obvious following treatment of Sarah makes it pretty obvious it's Freddie but I've gone back and forth on who was actually in the grave. Might of been Freddie actually and then after that happened he's like, "I want the Borden persona, I need to get drunk after that so we're swapping." and then he's the one at the restaurant. So his line of, "I'm going to bury myself," might of been a jab at Alfred (Fallon) for being careless and falling into his trap or a comment on the fact he just got dug up from a grave by his brother because he was worried about him being reckless walking home and then he got punished for it. Alfred (Fallon) strikes me as more of the thinker so I think he's the one saying, "Don't go back there, we're done." to Freddie (Borden) who can't give up on his obsession, so he ends up being the one going to prison. I think they were equally passionate about their act and magic (I mean you'd have to be, being two people living one life.) but I think Alfred (Fallon typically) may have been the more reticent one, although it's clear their success continued to fuel their desire to continue the ruse and not adopt their own lives. Also, the scene in which he 'teleports' into her apartment. Think that's Freddie (Borden) on the stairs setting up his Brother in the next room Alfred (Fallon) because Freddie's dialogue to me always struck me as like slightly more intense and direct and sometimes humorous. (See his flirting scene with Sarah.) - Although - they did just finish up their date, so it's possible it's Freddie standing there in the apartment because Alfred (Fallon) was like, "Hey, there's this girl I'm seeing and I wanted to impress her and you should probably meet her too so if you could just wait in her apartment until we get there and have a cup of tea chat her up a bit and then head home to make me look good for the next time we go out?" And of course the whole knot scene. He was - literally - arguing with "himself" but he never knew what the knot that was tied was because his Brother Freddie (Borden) was probably at home blaming himself for the death of Angier's wife and he wasn't even able to go to the funeral because he felt responsible. So he dove headfirst into magic and obsession until he met Olivia and softened perhaps ever so slightly? So yeah, there is a - ton - to analyze on each rewatch because you're dissecting the actions of two different men portraying one role and trying to divide them where you can to see how their overall personalities shape out. Which leads to you imagining all kinds of behind the scenes conversations they must of had throughout the entire movie.
The fact that Nolan just tells you every step and every twist along the way and it still dupes the viewer. Masterpiece. He even says he's going to do it. "but you wan't to be fooled".
This movie is my favorite of all time, it is actually fucking insane the story telling
Starting with him showing up in his wife's apartment for a cup of tea to talking about how he 'loves her today/doesn't love her today', just a ton of subtle indicators that he had a twin brother. This movie's phenomenal
@@phoenixdzkalso bird trick earlier when he killed "brother"
@@uzik00sh65 My favorite as well. I love how he uses the diary/journals.
Yeah, right from the start all over again. "It's fucking brothers". 😅
When I first saw it I thought about twins, but that seemed to soap opera to me.
Christian Bale is not putting on an accent. That's his natural voice.
I think she was indeed talking about his natural Welsh accent.
@@BadassRaidenshe clearly wasn’t
@@BadassRaidenthat's how he normally sounds, he doesn't have any particular Welsh accent.
He's in so many movies with an American accent many Americans assume he's an American actor
One of my friends is American and claim British people are terrible at American accents. Then he found out his favourite American actors are all British haha
@@MrSqurk The ONLY people that can do a southern accent, is the brits
Awesome bits of foreshadowing:
Borden didn't know which knot he tied, as it wasn't the same twin at the funeral who tied the knot. Same with him and Sarah. "Not today."is because the one who loves Sarah is not the same one.
You can sort of tell the twins apart on the rewatches, but sometimes its more tricky than others. Its more their personalities.
At the end, Cutter knows how wrong Angier is in what hes done, which is why he does nothing when Borden goes to take his final revenge.
I’ve seen this movie 7 or 8 times and your comment just now made me realize why Borden didn’t know which knot he tied. Great catch! Or maybe I’m just not that observant
We never find out either. It might have easily been that he took the advice not to use that type of knot, and it was simply an accident that she died. The whole obsession between the two of them could have been born out of quite literally nothing at all. I choose to believe this, because it makes it all the more poetic.
@@neil2444 But we did see one of them switch the knot. Even Angiers wife noticed, but didn't say anything, as she seemed game for it.
@@neil2444I think it’s safe to assume he tied the Langford double, and the disagreement from the twin who did it is likely just guilt and denial.
To expand a bit: you can tell the Bordens apart eventually, and the one who ties the knot is the gruffer, arrogant one (who loves Olivia) who would absolutely tie the Langford double. The other one is the softer, smarter one (who loves Sarah) who will know in his heart what happened, but can’t know for sure because he didn’t see it, with the knot-tying Borden likely in denial over his guilt and refusing to admit it.
The second Borden is the one attending her funeral, who is completely honest that he just doesn’t know.
Just checking ... you're not so caught up in the movie you're forgetting the twins are played by the same actor, right?
The nephew saying "But where's his brother?" is a subtle nod to Borden's situation
Angier & Julia discussing the old man's magic trick, with Angier saying "Anytime he's in public, anytime he goes out. Borden saw it at once, but I couldn't fathom it." is a subtle nod to Angier's situation.
There's tons of these scattered throughout the film but those were the 2 earliest and most prominent examples.
33:23 That's why the scene at 8:57 is so important in the film. The only time Borden reveals a trick to his wife, he ends up feeling disappointed that he did, so there was no way he was going to reveal his greatest trick to her. Of course he didn't know the consequence of her depression.
Woahh. That makes sense🤯
This film has amazing rewatch value. Compared to other “twist” films where they’re hiding the secret from you so rewatching can make the story feel a bit cheaper, the greatness of the Prestige is that everything is just out in the open.
Case in point: when Borden and Sarah are having their big fight, on first watch it suggests she knows about his affair. But on rewatch, it’s easier to catch “Olivia, I’ll go to her, I’ll tell her! I know what you really are, Alfred” and what they’re *actually* arguing about (and why he gets so angry) is that she knows he’s two different men.
Great point! And there is foreshadowing if you revisit what Afred tells her nephew when he gives him the coin..."as soon as you give it up (the secret) you will be nothing to them."
Although she _thinks_ she does, I don't think she knows the actual truth. If she did, suicide wouldn't have been the result.
@@bigdream_dreambig I think she knows. There is Alfred and there is "Freddie" Oliva calls him Freddie and he says that's my name. In the big fight she says Alfred. But at times she calls him Freddie. She knows and wants it to stop. Wants her whole husband but he is willing to do that. To just give up this ONE trick and let their family be enough for them. This is why she kills herself. She treathens to tell Olivia they are twins.
With Angier and Borden they were both villains and heroes. The obsession and rivalry destroyed everyone around them. "Fallon", his daughter, Cutter and Olivia were the survivors.
Fallon, the disguise, definitely didn't survive b/c there's no need for him anymore after Freddie's execution. Alfred can now live a full life, although a private one.
Fallon died the father survived they swapped in jail
@YouSmokeChed They were both Fallon and they were both Borden.
@@jp3813 Alfred Borden is dead.
@@YouSmokeChed Fallon's the disguise that they both shared, Freddie died, Alfred survived, and they never swapped in jail.
It’s also an incredible re-watch once you know everything. Like realizing that both of their tricks are derived out of the bird trick at the beginning, complete with the kid figuring out the use of a brother, like Borden’s trick, and the pledge being killed every time, like Angier’s trick.
It makes it a great movie to watch reactions OF!
After going through his films, I really think this is Nolan's masterpiece.
It’s also funny because if your mind is already thinking about things that way, that scene gives away the ending twist. I didn’t catch on to that my first viewing, but when I watched it with my brother I heard him go “huh” when the kid asked about the brother. If that happens, SO much happens that makes it super obvious. But that’s the whole point by the end, “you want to be fooled”.
@23:10 "MAKE MORE CATS." I lol'd hard at that.
"Christian Bale's accent is so good." Being actually English will do that.
Then doesn't mention how good Scarlet Johansson's is.
@@daved2352 For good reason
@@daved2352 ha ha, it's pretty bad.
Which means his american one is so good, that the reactor thinks he is american. I remember when I had to inform my sister that Nicole Kidman was actually Austrailian.
It's amazing how Christopher Nolan makes films of varied themes and always puts his essence in a good and functional way
I've never cared much for magic tricks as an adult but this movie is one of my favorites which speaks to the genius of Christopher Nolan. He could make any subject interesting.
Easily the best of our time. Him and Tarantino.
Many of his movie are the same, in that they are him telling you how he's showing you what he's showing you. This movie has the whole plot explained in the first few minutes as just a simple magic trick. Inception is just him explaining movie making all they way planning an idea in the audience's mind.
@@Chris-dp2jj Spielberg, Scorsese, Fincher, etc...
@@joshuaortiz2031 IMO, Copperfield is the best magician b/c he thinks like a storyteller. I heard that he was actually an advisor for this film.
One of my favorite movies. Christopher Nolan is an amazing talent. Love Bowie as Nikola Tesla in this.
And Andy Serkis as his sidekick! 10/10 casting
Between this movie and Assassin's Creed 2 every 90s kid grew up knowing that Edison had it in for Tesla and our parents couldn't understand wtf was going on
The dude electrocuted an elephant in a smear campaign to scare people of the dangers of Tesla's alternating current. He was a POS
A movie and a computer game. Good indicator of the believability of this myth. - ruclips.net/video/6331JXvOUGY/видео.html
Hiding in plain sight
The greatest trick of a magician, Nolan did to all of us
I love that the clues to his secret twin were peppered throughout the movie's dialogue, makes for a very rewarding re-watch
He tells you in the movie, since the beginning. It's amazing. We wanted to be... FOOLED
23:12 omg im dying
Angier always thought he was the originial, as the cloning happens before the drowning. Meaning once a clone is being made, the originial always dies, but the clone thinks he is the originial because in his memory, just 1 second ago he was inside the machine and then just kinda teleported into somewhere else. So that's why Angier kept killing himself over and over. Because the clone's minds has continuity. 1 second Angier is inside the machine, next he is teleported. That's why he says "it took courage to climb into that machine every night, not knowing if I'll be the man in the box or in the prestige". To him, as long as the continuity from the machine to the prestige exists, he is not killing himself. In his mind, he did the same thing for days and days and he is still alive and well. But he is actually killing himself...
And I would love to watch your second reaction to this movie. This is literally the only movie you can watch twice where the second time is a completely different movie.
Young me watched this movie when it came out. I remember absolutely loving it but at the same time I was so traumatized by the drowning scene that I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks, I think I even had nightmares. Not just because drowning is one of my deepest fears, but also the thought that he made "himself" suffer like that every time ...I still have chills.
Nolan is a master of foretelling. This film only gets better when you watch it a second time and see the little boy crying and asking about the bird "but what about his brother?" it clued the audience in to what might happen. The same thing with the knot that killed Robert's wife, it wasn't the same brother the second time so he didn't get the same warning that it was too dangerous to do, and when Jackman kept asking Bale's character which one he used he told him he didn't know because he likely wasn't the one that tied it. That meant the death that kicked off the entire rivalry was completely accidental.
The child crying over the dead bird "But where's his brother?" IT WAS RIGHT THERE.
The Prestige is the most well written and well directed movie in my opinion. It requires a rewatch almost immediately. The most incredible thing is the movie is constantly giving you the answer throughout the story… but like a good magic trick it redirects the viewer to thinking something else. Example: when consoling the nephew, the little boy asks, “But where’s his brother?”
I’ve watched this movie dozens of times and have yet to find plot holes. I’m convinced there was a good twin and a bad twin. The bad twin received justice and the good twin was restored to his daughter.
Even the "I don't remember which knot I tied" isn't a lie, nor is it a hole. It's simply the other brother. He doesn't know.
I disagree about your bad twin/good twin assessment. Nothing in the movie indicates that
If you rewatch it again it becomes super obvious Fallon is a twin, thats why when he's asked "what knot did you tie?" He responds with he doesn't know, because he wasn't the one who tied it, it was the other one
Spoiler Alert!!!
You have to go back and watch this film a second time. Christian Bale is so good in this movie, you can actually start to tell when he is playing each of the twins. At times he is more gentle and kind (the twin in love with Sarah), and other times he is more bold and arrogant (the twin in love with Olivia). For this reason, I consider this to be one of his best performances. He is playing two different characters without you even knowing it. Also, I think this is one of Hugh Jackman’s most underrated performances. He played the change from passionate to vengeful and bitter so well.
Just realized that the birds in the beginning is literally how Hugh Jackman did his trick at the end
Now re-watch the first five minutes of the movie, and marvel at how it tells you exactly what the trick really is. "But where's his brother?"
Rumor has it that Albert Einstein was once asked what it was like to be the world smartest man. He replied, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Nicola Tesla"
Remember the sad child watching the bird trick asking, "Where's his brother?" GENIUS FILMMAKING
You do know that Edison had nothing whatsoever to do with Topsy's execution, right? The elephant was executed because it had killed multiple people but regardless, Edison was not involved in any way, nor did it have anything to do with the AC vs DC conflict as that had been over for years by the time Topsy was killed.
I like to think the father survived. He told his twin "we're done" he just wants to take care of his daughter, but the twin is so obsessed with magic and the method that he goes anyway, is spotted and arrested.
Also, a lot of the themes in this movie are quite real. Like they actually happened. These kind of rivalries or feuds between magicians were common. Usually they we're a marketing ploy to drum up publicity. And the old magician with the goldfish bowl, that was probably inspired by a real magician. "Chung Ling Soo" - an American pretending to be Chinese who never broke character in public. Also he died after getting shot while performing a bullet catch routine when the gimmicked weapon malfunctioned.
I also think the father survived because the one that died said „I‘m sorry about Sarah“
That's the thing though. Because they were always switching places, they don't know who the biological father was. So as far as they were concerned, they both were.
We know for certain that the father survived because at the end he says “I loved Sarah, he loved Olivia”
@@shelbyvillerules9962 Can you tell I'm bad with names? :D
@@frustbox Sarah was Rebecca Hall’s character, and Olivia was Scarlett Johansson.
I have always loved this movie and your video made me realize a detail. Every time Hugh Jackman's character would ask Christian Bale "Which knot did you tie?" he was answering honestly, because it was the other brother. Good writing makes a movie infinitely rewatchable.
It does make me wonder why the one brother didn't tell the other though, unless the twin who tied the knot also wasn't sure.
@@bigdream_dreambig I got the impression that one brother is a genuinely nice person and would not have done the unsafe knot. The other is kind of a jerk and he would lie about doing it. That was my reading of it.
@@MKnowS Interesting. It's rare for twins who were raised together (which I assume these must have been) to have such divergent personalities.
@@bigdream_dreambig yaaa (shrugs) but it's fiction. I could be biased based on the "some days you love me, some days you don't," plot thread. It gives off the impression of one being very cold and dishonest, and one being very caring and nurturing. Stepping back from that emotional reading, logically they are both lying, and there's no reason the loving father couldn't have also been the one to risk the assistant's life. Again, I think this movie has great writing, you can interpret it different ways.
One of the things that I noticed when I first re-watched this was Borden's wife kept saying weather or not Borden loved her on certain days. Meaning, when it was her real husband, she could tell that he meant that he loved her, but when it was the twin, even though she didn't know it wasn't her husband, she could tell there was enough off that it was a lie.
I think she knew they were twins. She remembered her nephew knowing the trick.
Just wait until you watch it a second time. There is a ton of foreshadowing you’ll notice now that you know how it ends.
David Bowie's performance was amazeb@lls !!! I wish he acted more since Labyrinth.....
This is great, but I think my favorite Nolan film is his first, Memento. It's one of the most original, inventive movies. It also ends with a Bowie song to start the credits.
Not quite his first. He made a little black-and-white thriller called Following that's pretty good.
I love Memento as well…But, I prefer this one. The only thing that takes me out of Memento (doesn’t take away from how great it is) is the inconsistency with the short term memory loss.
@@jayvansickle7607 The film has been praised for how accurately it depicts anterograde amnesia, a very real condition. It's not inconsistent at all. Whenever Leonard loses focus, he forgets. And it's explained how conditioning can make him instinctively learn things without making specific memories of them, it's how he knows what his condition is, how he knows Polaroid prints are easier to burn than tear, and how he created false memories of Sammy Jenkis based on his own experiences.
Cleveland Clinic says this:
While anterograde amnesia affects explicit memory, it usually doesn’t affect implicit memory. That means you can still learn by using methods that involve implicit memory. Examples include:
-Errorless learning. Instead of learning from mistakes (because someone with amnesia can’t learn this way), this method focuses on giving hints and prompts. This works because hints and prompts help your brain rebuild and strengthen the connections and networks that you rely on for memory.
-Procedural learning. This method focuses heavily on repetition and practice.
-Priming. This technique involves giving a cue to help someone learn. The cues train the person’s brain on how to act next. Over time, this effect gets stronger, so you can rely on cues less.
Saw this movie in theaters with my Dad. We walked out. Quiet. He turned to me and said "We're going again." So we watched it back to back in theaters. Lol.
As much as people love this movie, I don't think it gets the attention it deserves. I really do think this is my favorite Nolan film and you pick up so much when you rewatch it.
I had this wonderful write-up about this on Reddit at some point, but good luck finding it... Anyway, I'll keep it short and only include the important bits.
I mean, just the opening of the movie, showing the top hats and "Are you watching closely?" Then it switches to Cutter explaining the parts of a magic trick, first part the magician shows you something ordinary. "A deck of cards, a bird, or a man." Or, how about top hat? "Perhaps he asks you to inspect it." eg asking if you're watching closely. In the 2nd part of the trick, he explains that you're looking for the secret. I mean, most people try and think things through in a movie and figure it out, "but you won't find it, because you're not really looking." Hey! Remember when we asked if you're watching closely? Remember all those top hats? Why are there so many top hats? Nope. Not even 2 minutes in and you're already forgotten and they laid out very heavily what the secret of the movie is in the opening shot.
There's so many layers to peel back in this movie and well over a decade of watching it, I'm still picking up on nifty subtleties.
What annoyed me the most is that The Illusionist which came out around the same time got all the attention and this got passed over a lot. This is by far the better film.
One of the best films. It is extremely rewatchable and you'll see the entire thing completely different the 2nd time through. Also, this one plays it's final twist extremely close to the chest. Literally the last couple of minutes. And it gives you so many hints and clues. Right down to the "i don't know which knot" because it wasn't him. It's extremely well acted. It's dark and macabre. It has solid and good magic. The cast is stacked as hell. The script is tight and fast paced, doesn't waste time. It's just so good.
YES!!! LETS GOOOO! :D This is one of my favorite movies!!!
Rebbecca Hall has a way of INSTANTLY building empathy with the audience and she's great in everything she's been in! The Prestige, The Town and The Gift are all incredible movies!! :)
The Night House and Resurrection are also superb!
Nolan gave away Borden's secret in the beginning when the kid asked about the bird "Where's his brother"? You can see how much of a gut punch that was to Borden.
And the opening shot of the film, the cats and hats, gives away Angier's secret.
it only occurred to me after you mentioned the hostilities between Tesla and Edison that maybe that's supposed to be mirrored with the two magicians.
David Bowie as Tesla was brilliant casting
Agree. There was a lot of buildup before his first appearance on screen, and I thought he would go big (which was certainly in his toolkit), but instead he underplayed. Good choice by Nolan.
I really loved seeing your reaction to the big twist at the end. It mirrors the one I had the first time when I watched this movie.
Not sure if you have seen this already, but "Now You See Me" is also a movie focused on magicians, but it is a lot less dark. More of a fun heist movie. I recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. Do not recommend the sequel though...
The fact that they didn't call the sequel "And Now You Don't" should tell you enough 😆
Sequel was decent - don't diss the sequel
@@sntxrrr The sequel has some really good stuff in it. It's not AS good as the first, but it's got some fun. The utter idiocy of not calling it Now You Don't though is inexcusable.
You didn't notice David bowie played Tesla a crazy cameo if you ask me.
One of my favorite moments is Angier's monologue at the end of the movie as he's dying. When he's talking about why they did all this. And for him, it was about that moment when he saw the audience and their faces full of wonder. It's almost like that's the last bit of humanity that's left of him, and then he dies
"I didn't know he could teleport!"
OOOOOH BOY!
One of my favorite movies, so many twists & turns it was like a cinematic magic trick for the audience! - this released roughly the same time as another 'magic' film that is for my money equally as good if not better: 'The Illusionist' - thoroughly recommend watching that one if you haven't already! 😁
I think the prestige is better than the illusionist in my opinion, but to each their own. This one is a watch over a couple of times to fully appreciate it, while the illusionist is a watch once type of movie. Another excellent movie in my opinion that’s a watch a couple of times to appreciate it, is predestination
”Make more cats!” Said every lonely crazy catlady. Thats why they end up alone with 20 cats. 😅
This is one of my favorite movies. The only movie where I left the theater and almost walked back in to watch it again. This is my top Christopher Nolan movie.
this movie has another fold: consider this movie as a magic trick, the appearance of the plot and story line was the first part, "the pledge", the main characters' disappear and reappear was the second part, "the turn", and the final revieal of both characters' lives and trick, was the third part, "the prestige", and you, are literally THE MAGIC TRICK AUDIANCE, trying to figure out how the magic trick was done, and once you know that, it releases your obssesive mind.
Every time I watch someone react to this movie I expect them to get the twist so much earlier, but it’s only obvious on rewatch. I was completely taken in the first time. I still love it after at least a dozen viewings
He didn't explain the trick to his wife, because the first time he explained the catch a bullet trick to her, she got dissilussioned.
The "breathe as little as possible" is funny to me because my first job as a dishwasher at a big kitchen involved me having to crawl through the dishwashing machine to clean it and when my boss gave me the spraybottle with the heavy duty cleaning chemical in it his advice was "try not to breath too much" haha
One of the taglines for this was, "You'll want to see it again, the second it's over". I wanted to shout in the theater to play it again:)
They tell you that it's body doubles and show you with Angier how it's done but they do it in a way you don't believe them. The movie tells you up front about everything.
The birds "you're the lucky one today" is a great nod.
I am addicted to watching people react to The Prestige.
"It was the look on their faces"
-Absolutely right Angier.
Holy moly never did I think that V would watch my favorite movie of all time.
After a long time that i saw this movie, only now i noticed that the only reason that Angier used the water cadge for the bodies is because is a sort of penitence and grieve for what the woman that died because of the knot he made.
"Make more cats 😤"
I love that they give you everything you need to figure out the Borden/Fallon link early on in the movie with the birds and the little boy asking about "his brother" and even ask if you're watching closely. I'll be eternally proud that I figured out Fallon was his twin early on the first time I saw it. There is so much more you notice when rewatching though.
I mean, the disguise could’ve been better. I remember watching it the first time and immediately thinking wait a minute, that’s also Christian Bale.
This movie is the movie that made me fell in love with cinema. so many twists, and not knowing the full picture until the very end of the film.
Every scene in the movie gives away the secret. Like Borden wooing Sarah. How he was able to get into her house so quickly. Or the China man’s secret with the fish tank. He acts like a cripple always as to not give away the secret. Genius movie. Rewatch it now that you know and you will see how well this movie was made!
It's *_really_* interesting to me that V thinks this movie is the most messed up she's seen! I thought it was so satisfying, the back n' forth, the cat&mouse, the progression of stakes, happened all so smoothly. It's my favorite movie for that reason and I'm glad my favorite reactor watched it. 😊
You know, strange as it sounds, you can still read the (excellent) book this is based on and NOT be spoiled! The same setup exists, but the things that are saved for the big finale of this movie are actually revealed pretty soon in the book. The twists that follow are different.😁
It’s also not quite as dark as the movie. Not as much of a total bummer. VERY different ending. And Borden and Angier aren’t as relentlessly hateful the whole time.
The Prestige, by Christopher Priest. I recommend it very highly.👌 For what that’s worth.😜
The first line in the film pretty much sets the tone: "Are you watching closely?"
One of my favorite movies ever, sooo much foreshadowing that pays off in the end with one of my favorite parts (that at once I thought came out of nowhere) was with Lord Caldlow, this millionare amateur magician that for some reason just shows up... but at some point Angier reveals to his wife that he changed his name to avoid embarassing his family, so he was Lord Caldlow all along and was the perfect oportunity to assume a "new" identity once Robert Angier was murdered. Bravo Nolan.
4:46 the two young men here are the twins, and not Alfred and Angier as one might think. the next line "two young men who never intended to hurt anyone" just confirms it. He really didnt know which knot he tied, because the twin did it.
Also Tesla is David Bowie
The way they teleport is the same way it works in Star Trek except in star trek it kills you when it copys you.
when I saw tesla walk through the electricity and then I realized it was THE legendary David Bowie playing him.. I was so excited! I loved that they sprinkled in that bit of sci-fi into an otherwise pretty grounded period drama. the cool thing is, if you go into a deep dive about Tesla conspiracy-theories, the events of this movie don't seem so farfetched. towards the end of his life, Tesla was dabbling in some pretty crazy stuff. The fact that a lot of his work was lost or destroyed just added to the mystery. This movie is my favorite portrayal of Tesla
Obssession ruined their lives, the brother killing his wife.
Alfred Borden: killer Caldlow’s wife, shot his own brother, broke Caldlow’s leg, got his brother sentenced to death by refusing to reveal his secret, murdered Lord Caldlow
Lord Caldlow: killed his clone dozens of times, didn’t defend Borden by refusing to reveal his secret.
probably best performance from Bale, which is not surprising, the movie is godly, the writing, the soundtrack ... 9/10 amazing movie
I stand by that this is Nolan's best work. I can't think of another that is so well written. Even Inception, there are parts that bore me or where there is a bit too much talking. Here? Every scene, practically every line, serves a purpose. On rewatch especially, you catch on to all the foreshadowing. You can actually tell which twin is on screen at any given time. Alfred (the one that loves Sarah) is the one who has a more even temperament and a subtler accent; he's the one that seems to be the "brains" of the operation ("Why can't you outthink him?!!!). Whereas Freddy (the one who loves Olivia and is executed at the end) has a stronger accent and tends to yell or push boundaries. One of them has a slight scar on his eyebrow, the other doesn't. Once you recognize that, you realize that Freddy was the one who killed Angier's wife. But when Angier asked "Which knot did you tie?" Alfred said "I honestly don't know." He's telling the truth
Yeah, back in those days... they did alot of bird killing for illusions like that. Up until the animal rights people put the stop to it I think. And there are devices that Hugh's character that go
So fast, they can really hurt someone if your not careful... hence... the lady broke her fingers on the collapsing bird cage.
Fun Fact: The China man Magician is based on an actual magician who Pretended to be Chinese, but he was american pretending to be a chinese magician: Chun Ling Soo.
He would speak gibberish and he would have "Interpreters" tell the interviewers what he said. He did this for such a long time and it's been a secret up until he died doing the
Trick that Bale's character did, "The Bullet Catch".
When he said the older man was all an act... he wasn't wrong and he was right on how dedicated Chung Ling Soo was to his craft. When I saw this I got giggily because I knew who he
Was talking about. So yeah Hope you find that fun. :) lol OH and The Gold Fish Trick is such a marvel to see. Check out "Penn and Teller's Magic and mistery Tour: China" on YT.
There's a man still doing that trick in the video and it's really great. :)
The Prestige is one of the best "steampunk" films out there. It's quite shocking, and horrifying what lengths a man might go to, to achieve his own greatness. Bowie as Nikola Tesla was surprisingly good casting.
"I didn't know there was such high value for magic tricks." Back in the late 19th century, stage magic was HUGE. Magicians would play in the courts of kings. They would "battle" each other in stage "duels", each trying to out-do the tricks of the other.
As many times as I've seen this movie, I've never seen it with subtitles on so at 29:10, I always thought he said "I'm pretty damn great", not actually "abracadabra" lol
You have to admit this is a wild movie: It has Alfred working for Wolverine, Wolverine against Batman, Black Widow has an affair with both Wolverine and Batman, Black Widow falls in love with and then leaves Batman, Batman is hanged for the murder of Wolverine, and Batman shoots and kills Wolverine. To make it even more fun, Wolverine buys his magic trick from Jareth (David Bowie - Labyrinth) and Gollum/Smeagol! Such a great movie!
Another cool thing about the Prestige is when you watch it again, you'll be able to see which twin was present during the events of the movie.
That’s the late, great and legendary David Bowie who plays Tesla. Worthy to note. 👨🏻🎤
The twin is why he’s says “not today” when she ask “do you love me”
Couple of people already mentioned this, but another magician movie came out in the same year that took place in the same era called The Illusionist with Ed Norton that was also very good. You should totally check that one out too. It's not nearly as soul crushing.
It's a good movie but watching it so close to this one is a mistake. It just pales in comparison. So much so, that even Edward Norton seems a bit underwhelming.
My favourite Nolan movie! Truly brilliant and affecting!
Also, Bordens wife worked out about him. She told him at the end before killing herself.
I'm mot sure you understand the full horrific nature of the obsession: He doesn't kill the clones, that's not how the box works. The clones are created at a distance from the machine. The man that drowns, night after night, is the most recent clone, starting with the original. He literally killed *himself* and created copies of copies of copies just to make a better trick.
This was my first non-Batman movie from Christopher Nolan and it has long been my favorite. Stuff like that happens when you get stoned with your buddies and watch it a few nights in a row
23:11 Ah, yes. Now you understand the true genius of Nikola Tesla. The cat maker.
One twist a lot of people seem to miss even after rewatching is that "Lord Caldlow" was always the real identity of 'Angier', that's why he says to his wife at the start his family don't approve of his choice of career. He was always a wealthy aristocrat putting on an American accent to hide his posh background. So he wasn't motivated by fame or money in the end, he just wanted that badly for his audiences to experience a piece of performance art a cut above the miserable reality he lived in and went too far for it.
You went from "Don't test on animals" to "Make more cats" real quick.
You're right to be conflicted. The revelation of Borden living as twins doesn't absolve him. He committed to the full life deception outside the act, because just like Angier, he placed the trick above his personal relationships. Sarah having to guess whether her Borden loved her or didn't love her on any particular day was indeed torture, caused by this deception. But Angier was just as obsessed, revealed early when he said 'I don't care about my wife I care about the trick!' and then the crazed plotting after.
The surviving Borden brother may have been the most sane one, since the executed one told him 'you were right, I should have left him to his damn trick!' In some unfilmed interaction, maybe he counselled for sanity. Nevertheless, they were all committed to what they did. So I guess among all of them you were a bit harsh on Olivia/Johannsen lol, but it's fair because in any normal movie then her fickleness and mercenary nature might have been a fault. It's just that in this, her character flaws pale into insignificance.
My little brother is a huge Christopher Nolan fan and has seen all of Nolan's movies. Of them all, The Prestige is his favorite.
Now that you’ve watch this once, watch it again to fully appreciate the movie now that you know the twist.
Probably the most underrated Nolan movie, but it's an absolute masterpiece.
Go back and re-watch it after a while... all the foreshadowing is right there, it's nuts.
That first jump scare made me giggle VK. Thank you for that 😀😀
"His accent is very good"
That's because he isn't using one. Christian Bale is VERY English. ;)
This was my first favorite movie when I saw it in 2006. I know it in and out. However, 20 years later it still gets me. Still my favorite movie
Definitely the kind of movie you need to watch again to really pick up on all the subtle but obvious things 🤯
Another great magician thriller is The Illusionist, it came out the same year as The Prestige so it unfortunately got forgotten about, but has Edward Norton and other phenomenal actors and it’s an intense, amazing film that deserves more love.
This movie is one you have to watch multiple times. The second time, you will see all the clues you missed to the plot twist. Makes you see everything differently
I feel like it isn't so much that both sides are "bad" but rather, it's a story that illustrates how very human things like anger, envy, ego, and ambition can lead to escalation where people can do horrible things to each other that they wouldn't normally do.
"Why do you need chimpanzees when you have a CLOWN right in front of you little girl?"
Can't believe I didn't find this in the top comments, 10/10
This movie has so much rewatch value. I loved every second of it.
Aside from The Dark Knight trilogy, this is my favorite Chris Nolan movie. I may be biased because I do card tricks, and other (easy) tricks, but the twist at the end, foreshadowed when Bale shows the little girl the bird trick, and she asks him "where's his brother," is sooooo good and actually made me gasp when I put the pieces together.
"Is this close enough?"
"Are you watching closely"?
I've probably rewatched this movie 20 times. It's one of my favorites. Like other people are saying, rewatching this movie is great. Every time I do I try to identify which of the Brother's is actually in each of Borden's scenes. Usually it's pretty obvious, Christian Bale does some nice subtle acting differences between the two. It's basically Alfred (Fallon) and Freddie (Borden) in my eyes. The 'Borden' persona is always the one super energized about magic, talking about doing his great trick, super invested. In my eyes this is Freddie, while they both like magic I see him as being the more obsessed one. Alfred (Fallon) found Sarah and started settling down a bit and they tried to make it work and you can see the obvious tensions that resulted. Like Alfred (Fallon) hugging his daughter and leading her away as Freddie (Borden) is arguing with his wife in the other room. Freddie is obviously the one at the restaurant they go to while Alfred (Fallon) is next to them. Alfred (Fallon) appears to be the one that fell into the grave. The Freddie (Borden) persona also seems a bit more reckless "Let him come," before Alfred gets thrown in the coffin.
Although this makes the restaurant dialogue a bit ambigious, "I'm going to bury myself alive and have someone come along and dig me up." His obvious following treatment of Sarah makes it pretty obvious it's Freddie but I've gone back and forth on who was actually in the grave.
Might of been Freddie actually and then after that happened he's like, "I want the Borden persona, I need to get drunk after that so we're swapping." and then he's the one at the restaurant. So his line of, "I'm going to bury myself," might of been a jab at Alfred (Fallon) for being careless and falling into his trap or a comment on the fact he just got dug up from a grave by his brother because he was worried about him being reckless walking home and then he got punished for it.
Alfred (Fallon) strikes me as more of the thinker so I think he's the one saying, "Don't go back there, we're done." to Freddie (Borden) who can't give up on his obsession, so he ends up being the one going to prison.
I think they were equally passionate about their act and magic (I mean you'd have to be, being two people living one life.) but I think Alfred (Fallon typically) may have been the more reticent one, although it's clear their success continued to fuel their desire to continue the ruse and not adopt their own lives.
Also, the scene in which he 'teleports' into her apartment. Think that's Freddie (Borden) on the stairs setting up his Brother in the next room Alfred (Fallon) because Freddie's dialogue to me always struck me as like slightly more intense and direct and sometimes humorous. (See his flirting scene with Sarah.) - Although - they did just finish up their date, so it's possible it's Freddie standing there in the apartment because Alfred (Fallon) was like, "Hey, there's this girl I'm seeing and I wanted to impress her and you should probably meet her too so if you could just wait in her apartment until we get there and have a cup of tea chat her up a bit and then head home to make me look good for the next time we go out?"
And of course the whole knot scene. He was - literally - arguing with "himself" but he never knew what the knot that was tied was because his Brother Freddie (Borden) was probably at home blaming himself for the death of Angier's wife and he wasn't even able to go to the funeral because he felt responsible. So he dove headfirst into magic and obsession until he met Olivia and softened perhaps ever so slightly?
So yeah, there is a - ton - to analyze on each rewatch because you're dissecting the actions of two different men portraying one role and trying to divide them where you can to see how their overall personalities shape out. Which leads to you imagining all kinds of behind the scenes conversations they must of had throughout the entire movie.