Disclaimer: IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO WATCH THE MOVIE PLEASE DON'T READ THIS POST AS IT CONTAINED ALOT SPOILERS AND ALMOST THE WHOLE STORYLINE. WARNING, THIS POST SERVES AS AN EXPLAINATION FOR THE MOVIE. Rating: 8.8/10
Movie review for the day:- The Prestige
Not all movies can made it up to my blog. Please contact me if you happen to see any impressive movie with two thumbs up story plot.
Quote from the movie which the title came from:
Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. The last act is called "The Prestige"; The magician then reverse the trick back to its original state.
At a glance:
Told in a narrative that jumps between various points along its time line, playing out like a magic act itself, the story is that of two magicians on the rise in their careers.
The first magician Alfred Borden, is an expert in understanding the fundamentals of any trick, but lacks showmanship.
The second magician Robert Angiers, is a master showman who is more entertaining than technical.
A tragic series of events pits the two performers against each other in a battle of wits that spirals further and further out of control, consuming both of them and everything and everyone they care about.
In that, the story becomes a never-ending stream of wonder for the mind: one can never tell exactly where the story is going to lead next, becoming more and more as time goes on.
With narration by several characters, each adding their own viewpoint to the events, and with a direction that moves between time to mystify and distract, the end result is a climax that itself is a series of puzzles that each unravel beautifully.
Story:
The movie begin with the death of Angier and Borden being caught and sent for death sentence for murdering Angier.
The story starts with two promising magicians starting off their careers as a magician assitants. A dreadful event which the wife of Robert Angier, who was the magician's assistant too, drown in one of the performance. Robert Angier then suspected that the cause of her death was due to the knots tied by his friend, Alfred Borden.
Thus, it began a battle of hatred and jealousy between both of them. Which sparked off with the pariticipation of the disguised Robert Angier in Alfred Borden's magic performance. Robert Angier saw through Alfred Borden's bullet catch trick and reverse the effect which caused Borden to lose his both fingers.
In anger, Borden disguised himself too and sneaked into Angier's performance and caused Angier performance to take away one of his volunteer audience's fingers.
One day, Angier went to watch Borden's amazing magic trick which the audience didn't realise it was amazing. The trick was a teleportation of Borden from one door to another door which Angier's magic engineer suspect was a use of a duplication. But what really puzzled Angier was that both the person who teleported had his finger severed (Which Angier remember he shot at it).
Angier decided to compete with Borden in order to avenge his wife's death by performing the same trick as Borden which was with a duplicate of himself. Borden managed to solve his magic trick and put Angier into embarassment infront of the crowd when he tied up his duplicate and hung him on the stage while removing the bean bag which Angier landed on during the performance and crippled him.
Angier, full of curiousity, sent his female assistant to Borden who then fell in love with Borden. Out of a chance, he kidnapped Borden's magic engineer and forced Borden to reveal his secret. The secret was "Tesla", an american scientist. So Angier travelled to America in search for this teleportation which he found out in the end Borden had cheated him to spend his money on Tesla's invention.
The twist was that Tesla's invention which was supposed to be a teleporter turn out to be a cloning machine (An unexpected discovery). Angier tested it and put it to use in his performance. In his first experimental try, he withnessed his clone appearing infront of him and he killed it with no consideration.
Hence, he started the transportation performance which attracted Borden's attention. Borden was caught for killing Angier in the performane when Angier was drown in the water tank below. Which the water tank was irrelevant with his teleportation performance.
HOW WAS ANGIER TELEPORTATION TRICK PERFORMED:
He knew that it was not a teleportation machine but a cloning machine. So he put a trap door below the real him and when he operate the machine, a clone will appear behind the audience while the real him will fall into the water tank below the trap door and drowned.. This was his sacrifise.
THE TWIST IN THE END:
After the death of "Angier", Angier clone changed his identity to lord courtner who reveal himself to Borden in jail. Angier adopted Borden's daughter and put Borden who was facing his death sentence very uneasy. After Borden was hang, Angier took the cloning machine to the stage cellar and hid it forever but he was killed by Borden.
HOW WAS ANGIER KILLED IN THE END?:
How Borden really performed his trick was that he really had a twin brother, who cut off his two fingers with a chisel and lived his life disguised as Borden's assistant. The trick was very simple which Angier refused to believe in. His twin then killed Angier in the end when Angier thought Borden was dead forever.
MORE TWIST:
1. Angier's engineer once comfort Angier for the death of his wife that " A sailor who was stuck in the water for 5min, told me the feeling was like going home"
After Angier's engineer knew he drown himself to death in every teleportation performance he told Angier " The feeling of dying in water was slow and miserable"
2. Borden and his twin brother took turn to be each other. They fell in love with different woman and caused a misunderstanding between Borden and his wife. Borden's wife found out the existence of his twin and could not accept the fact of sharing herself with two man and commited suicide in Borden's workplace.
There was so much twists in the story that I can't relate. Please WATCH the movie for yourself.
