The Prestige (film) - Wikipedia. The Prestige is a 2. Christopher Nolan, from a screenplay adapted by Nolan and his brother Jonathan from Christopher Priest's 1. World Fantasy Award- winning novel of the same name. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 1. Obsessed with creating the best stage illusion, they engage in competitive one- upmanship with tragic results.
The American- British co- production features Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier, Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. It also stars Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, Andy Serkis, and Rebecca Hall. The film reunites Nolan with actors Bale and Caine from Batman Begins and returning cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, film score composer David Julyan, and editor Lee Smith.
A co- production between Touchstone Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, the film was released on October 2.
Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Along with The Illusionist and Scoop, The Prestige was one of three films in 2. In early 1. 90. 0s London, magician Robert Angier performs his trick, 'The Real Transported Man,' to a sold out theater. Rival magician Alfred Borden, in disguise, sneaks under the stage. At the trick's culmination, Angier drops through a trap door and into a waiting water tank, where Borden watches him drown.
With Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman. Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Christian Bale .
Scarlett Johansson (/ d. Scarlett Johansson at the TCM Movie Database; Scarlett Johansson. Actors Scarlett Johansson (L) and Hugh Jackman arrive at the UK Premiere of 'The Prestige' at the Odeon West End. MOVIE TRIVIA; TRAILERS; TV.
At Borden's murder trial, Angier's ing. In prison, Borden is visited by an agent of Lord Caldlow, who offers to care for Borden's daughter Jess in exchange for all of Borden's tricks. As a show of good faith, Caldlow gives Borden a copy of Angier's diary, which Borden reads.
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In flashback, Angier and Borden work as shills for Milton the Magician, alongside ing. Milton's famous trick is the water tank trick, where Julia is bound in ropes and dropped in a water tank from which she frees herself and escapes. Borden, with Julia's consent, ties her hands with a more secure yet difficult knot.
Julia fails to slip the knot and drowns, infuriating Angier and fueling his deep- seated grudge against Borden. Borden launches a solo magic career and hires the silent, mysterious Fallon as his ing.
Borden courts and eventually marries Sarah, who gives birth to their daughter, Jess. At his first show, Borden's bullet catch trick is sabotaged by Angier, and Borden loses two fingers. Angier launches his own magic career, hiring Olivia Wenscombe as his assistant and Cutter as his ing. During the finale of Angier's show, a disguised Borden sabotages Angier's bird cage act, which maims an audience member and ruins Angier's reputation. Angier discovers and subsequently steals Borden's fantastic trick . Cutter and Olivia groom Root, an out- of- work actor, into a . Obsessed with Borden's secret, Angier orders Olivia to spy on him.
Instead, she revamps Borden's act, making it more successful. Borden subsequently sabotages Angier's show, humiliating him and leaving him with a permanent limp. Angier confronts Olivia, who confesses to loving Borden before giving Angier a copy of Borden's diary, its contents scrambled by a coded cipher. Angier and Cutter kidnap Fallon and extort from Borden his codeword .
As Angier leaves for America to find Tesla, Borden begins an affair with Olivia. Sarah becomes increasingly disturbed with Borden's fickle and contradictory nature and, succumbing to depression, commits suicide. In America, Angier meets scientist Nikola Tesla and asks him to build him the machine Tesla built for Borden. While waiting for Tesla to finish, Angier deciphers Borden's diary, which he discovers to be fraudulent: Borden confesses that Tesla has nothing to do with Borden's trick and that Borden ordered Olivia to give Angier the diary to send him away. Angier confronts Tesla, who admits to never having built any device for Borden but has successfully built a replicating machine for Angier, capable of reproducing animate and inanimate objects a distance from the machine.
As Tesla departs, he advises Angier to destroy the machine. Returning to London, Angier debuts 'The Real Transported Man' where he vanishes within the machine's electrical field and appears atop the balcony at the back of the hall. Baffled by the trick's success, Borden sneaks backstage to find Angier's secret, only to witness Angier drop through a trap door and plunge into a waiting water tank, where he drowns.
Cutter stumbles upon the scene, and Borden is arrested. In the present, Borden is found guilty and sentenced to death. He agrees to Lord Caldlow's terms and surrenders all his secrets. When Caldlow visits, Borden recognizes him as Angier. Baffled by Angier's return, Borden begs for his life, but Angier ignores Borden's pleas. Borden is hanged and dies, his last word: .
When he visits him to plead for its destruction, he discovers that Caldlow is Angier and faked his death to kill Borden in revenge for Julia. Disgusted with Angier, Cutter agrees to help Angier dispose of his machine in a private theater. As the two work, Cutter discovers rows of water tanks containing rotting duplicates of Angier: Every show, Angier used the machine to create clones of himself atop the balcony, while unbeknownst to anyone, the original Angier would fall through the trap door to be drowned in the tanks under the stage. The night Borden ventured backstage, Angier's clone presumably disappeared into the crowd, making it appear Borden had killed him under the stage.
His task finished, Cutter leaves the theater, allowing a man to enter as he departs. The man shoots Angier and reveals himself as Borden. Angier realizes that . Borden berates Angier for going too far in his quest for dominance. Angier supports his actions by explaining that all he ever wanted was to amaze an audience.
If he could have fooled them even for a second, then his work would have been complete. Angier dies and the living Borden twin leaves to pick up Jess at Cutter's workshop, exchanging a silent goodbye and leaving.
The ending note shows what looks like the body of Angier in a water tank near the dead body. Cutter narrates that while we try to find the secret of a magic trick, we will never find because we don't really want to. Instead, we want to be fooled. Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier/Lord Caldlow (The Great Danton), an aristocratic magician. After reading the script, Jackman expressed interest in playing the part. Christopher Nolan discovered Jackman was interested in the script, and after meeting him saw that Jackman possessed the qualities of stage showmanship that Nolan was looking for in the role of Angier. Nolan explained that Angier had a .
Nolan said that Jackman . People haven't had the chance to really see what he can do as an actor, and this is a character that would let him do that. Christian Bale expressed interest in playing the part and was cast after Jackman.
Although Nolan had previously cast Bale as Batman in Batman Begins, he did not consider Bale for the part of Borden until Bale contacted him about the script. Nolan said that Bale was . Caine had previously collaborated with Nolan and Bale in Batman Begins. Nolan said that even though it felt like the character of Cutter was written for Caine, it was not.
Nolan noted that the character was written . Caine, in trying to create Cutter's nuanced portrait, altered his voice and posture. Nolan later said that . He has a wonderful warmth and emotion to him that draws you into the story and allows you to have a point of view on these characters without judging them too harshly. Hall had to relocate from North London to Los Angeles in order to shoot the film, although the film itself takes place in London. Hall said that she was . Nolan said that he was .
For the role of Nikola Tesla, Nolan wanted someone who was not necessarily a film star but was . A lifelong fan, Nolan flew out to New York to pitch the role to Bowie in person, telling him no one else could possibly play the part.
Alley, Tesla's assistant. Serkis said that he played his character with the belief that he was . Serkis described his character as a . Jay and Michael Weber trained Jackman and Bale for their roles with brief instruction in various stage illusions.
The magicians gave the actors limited information, allowing them to know enough to pull off a scene. Morgan Sheppard as Merrit, the owner of a theatre where Angier initially performs. Daniel Davis as the judge presiding over Borden's trial. Production. Priest was impressed with Nolan's films Following and Memento.
While in London, Nolan read Priest's book and shared the story with his brother while walking around in Highgate (a location later featured in the scene where Angier ransoms Borden's ing. The development process for The Prestige began as a reversal of their earlier collaboration: Jonathan Nolan had pitched his initial story for Memento to his brother during a road trip. The three- act screenplay was deliberately structured around the three elements of the film's illusion: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Finding the cinematic equivalents of those literary devices was very complex.
Jonathan and Christopher Nolan finished the final shooting draft on January 1. January 1. 6. Filming ended on April 9. Obsession, secrecy, and sacrifice fuel the battle, as both magicians contribute their fair share to a deadly duel of one- upmanship, with disastrous results. Angier's obsession with beating Borden costs him a great deal of money and Cutter's friendship, while providing him with a collection of his own suicide victims; Borden's obsession with maintaining the secrecy of his twin leads Sarah to question their relationship, eventually resulting in her suicide when she suspects the truth. Angier and one of the twins both lose Olivia's love because of their inhumanity. Finally, Borden is hanged and the last copy of Angier shot.