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The Prestige (film)
Encyclopedia
The Prestige is a 2006 mystery thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan
, with a screenplay adapted from Christopher Priest
's 1995
novel of the same name
. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London
at the end of the 19th century
. Obsessed with creating the best stage illusion
, they engage in competitive one-upmanship
with tragic results.
The film 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
, Rebecca Hall
, and Andy Serkis
. 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
.
Priest's epistolary novel
was adapted to the screen by Nolan and his brother, Jonathan Nolan
, using Nolan's distinctive nonlinear
narrative structure
. Themes
of duality, obsession, sacrifice, and secrecy pervade the conflict. The film was released on October 20, 2006, receiving positive reviews and strong box office results, and obtained Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
Alfred Borden (Christian Bale
) is on trial for murder, accused of killing his lifelong rival, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman
). They first began working together as ringers
for Milton the Magician (Ricky Jay
), with John Cutter (Michael Caine
) as Milton's engineer of illusions. Angier's wife Julia (Piper Perabo
) drowns while performing a predicament escape
from a Chinese water torture cell
; Angier suspects Borden purposely bound her wrists with a difficult knot, making him responsible for her death. At the funeral, Borden enrages Angier by saying he does not know which knot he tied.
The two men begin competing magic careers: Borden becomes "The Professor" and hires the enigmatic Bernard Fallon as his engineer; Angier performs as "The Great Danton" with Cutter and his assistant, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson
). During a parlor magic
job, Borden meets Sarah (Rebecca Hall
); they marry and have a daughter, Jess. Both magicians begin to disrupt each other's acts: Angier interferes with Borden's performance of the bullet catch
, severing two of Borden's fingers, and a disguised Borden sabotages Angier's performance of the vanishing bird cage
illusion, damaging Angier's reputation.
Borden soon astonishes crowds with his new illusion, "The Transported Man", where he enters one cabinet and reappears a moment later in another one. Angier and Cutter argue over how Borden performs the trick with Cutter insisting that Borden uses a double and Angier insisting that there is a more complex explanation. They end up hiring a dissolute actor Root (also played by Jackman) to be a double for Angier and steal Borden's act, calling it "The New Transported Man". Not content with having a more popular act, Angier sends Olivia to Borden in order to seduce him and discover the secret of his trick. However Olivia falls in love with Borden and leaves Angier, giving him an encrypted diary of Borden's as a parting gift. Borden then sabotages Angier's act, leaving Angier with a permanent limp. In retaliation, Angier and Cutter kidnap Fallon and bury him alive, demanding the secret to Borden's trick in exchange for his release. Borden gives Angier the name of inventor Nikola Tesla
, insisting that this is the key to both his encoded diary and to his trick.
Angier, now abandoned by Cutter who disapproves of his obsessive quest, travels to Colorado Springs to meet Tesla (David Bowie
). He pays Tesla to make the same teleportation
machine that the man made for Borden. Angier learns from Borden's notebook that he has been sent on a wild goose chase. Feeling cheated, he returns to Tesla's lab to demand his money back, but discovers Tesla's machine creates an exact duplicate of an object and leaves the original intact. Tesla leaves Colorado Springs after his rival, Thomas Edison
, sends henchmen to torch his lab, leaving the machine for Angier with a warning to destroy it.
Meanwhile, Borden's relationship with Olivia takes a heavy emotional toll on Sarah, and she eventually hangs
herself. Angier returns to London to produce his new act, "The Real Transported Man". Borden attends Angier's performance again and slips backstage just in time to see Angier fall from a trap door into a locked water tank. Borden tries to save him, but Angier drowns before his eyes. Cutter catches Borden, and he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
In prison awaiting execution, Borden is visited by a representative of a mysterious Lord Caldlow. Caldlow is a fan of stage magic and wishes to purchase the secrets to all of Borden's tricks. In exchange, Caldlow agrees to adopt and raise Borden's daughter Jess, who, being an orphan, would otherwise become a ward of the court in the wake of Borden's execution. Borden is given Angier's diary as a gesture of good faith and while reading it encounters a shocking reference to his current incarceration. Borden then insists on meeting Lord Caldlow personally in order to give him the secret to the Transported Man. When Caldlow arrives, Borden recognizes him as Angier, mysteriously returned from the dead. Angier triumphantly rips up the paper containing the explanation of Borden's trick and then leaves with Borden's daughter. A short time later, Borden is executed by hanging. Meanwhile, Cutter learns that Lord Caldlow has bought all of Angier's old effects, including the Tesla device, and meets him to argue for the destruction of the machine. He is horrified when he recognizes Caldlow as his old friend and sees Borden's daughter with him. Angier explains that he had always been Lord Caldlow and had merely pretended to be the American Robert Angier in order to spare his family the embarrassment of his theatrical career.
Cutter accompanies Angier to an abandoned building filled with tanks, and helps him store Tesla's machine. Cutter leaves, silently acknowledging the arrival of a very-much-alive Borden, who shoots Angier. As Angier lies dying, Borden reveals that he was actually two identical twins who lived as Fallon and Alfred, alternating between each role. One twin (the one still alive) was the husband of Sarah and father to daughter Jess, and loved Sarah more than the magic; the other was in love with Olivia. They played one individual in life and in the illusions. Borden reminds Angier of a Chinese magician they saw together years ago who pretended to have a limp when ever he was in public so he could use this to conceal his methods on stage and that the way he lived his life was the actual illusion. Borden tells Angier his devotion to the illusion was such that he and his twin were willing to live the same life in order to conceal their methods. Angier's method is also revealed: During the illusion, the machine created a duplicate of Angier, with one falling through a trap door into a locked tank and drowning, and the other being teleported to the balcony. This was always Angier's intention to frame Borden for his murder as he knew sooner or later Borden would try and discover the secret to the trick by sneaking backstage to be caught watching Angier drowning. Borden leaves Angier to die as a fire consumes the building. Afterwards, Cutter reunites Borden with his daughter. A final shot shows that each tank in the abandoned building contained a drowned Angier.
's and Sam Mendes
' producer approached Christopher Priest
for an adaptation of his novel The Prestige
. Priest was impressed with Nolan's films Following
and Memento, and subsequently, producer Valerie Dean brought the book to Nolan's attention. In October 2000, Nolan traveled to the UK to publicize Memento, as Newmarket Films
was having difficulty finding a U.S. distributor. 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 ingénieur
in Highgate Cemetery
). 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
.
A year later, the option
on the book became available and was purchased by Aaron Ryder of Newmarket Films
. In late 2001, Nolan became busy with the post-production
of Insomnia
, and asked his brother Jonathan
to help work on the script. The writing process was a long collaboration between the Nolan brothers, occurring intermittently over a period of five years. In the script, the Nolans emphasized the magic of the story through the dramatic narrative, playing down the visual depiction of stage magic. The three-act screenplay
was deliberately structured around the three elements of the film's illusion: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. "It took a long time to figure out how to achieve cinematic versions of the very literary devices that drive the intrigue of the story," Christopher Nolan told Variety
. "The shifting points of view, the idea of journals within journals and stories within stories
. Finding the cinematic equivalents of those literary devices was very complex." Although the film is thematically faithful to the novel, two major changes were made to the plot structure during the adaptation process: the novel's spiritualism
subplot was removed, and the modern-day frame story
was replaced with Borden's wait for the gallows in the mise en scene
. Priest approved of the adaptation, describing it as "an extraordinary and brilliant script, a fascinating adaptation of my novel".
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In early 2003, Nolan planned to direct the film before the production of Batman Begins
accelerated. Following the release of Batman Begins, Nolan started up the project again, negotiating with Bale and Jackman in October 2005. While the screenplay was still being written, production designer Nathan Crowley began the set design process in Nolan's garage, employing a "visual script" consisting of scale model
s, images, drawings, and notes. Jonathan and Christopher Nolan finished the final shooting draft on January 13, 2006, and began production three days later on January 16. Filming ended on April 9.
Crowley and his crew searched Los Angeles for almost seventy locations that would resemble fin de siècle
London. Jonathan Nolan visited Colorado Springs to research Nikola Tesla and based the electric bulb scene on actual experiments conducted by Tesla. Nathan Crowley helped design the scene for Tesla's invention; It was shot in the parking lot of the Mount Wilson Observatory
. Influenced by a "Victorian modernist aesthetic", Crowley chose four locations in the Broadway theater district
in downtown Los Angeles
for the film's stage magic performances: the Los Angeles Theatre
, the Palace Theatre
, the Los Angeles Belasco, and the Tower Theatre. Crowley also turned a portion of the Universal back lot
into Victorian London. Nolan built only one set for the film, an "under-the-stage section that houses the machinery that makes the larger illusions work," preferring to simply dress various Los Angeles locations and sound stages to stand in for Colorado
and Victorian England. In contrast to most period pieces, Nolan kept up the quick pace of production by shooting with handheld cameras, and refrained from using artificial lighting in some scenes, relying instead on natural light on location. Costume designer Joan Bergin chose attractive, modern Victorian fashions for Scarlett Johansson; cinematographer Wally Pfister captured the mood with soft earth tones as white and black colors provided background contrasts, bringing actors' faces to the foreground.
Editing, scoring and mixing finished on September 22, 2006. The song "Analyse" by Radiohead
frontman Thom Yorke
is played over the credits.
composer David Julyan
penned the music for The Prestige. Julyan had previously collaborated with director Christopher Nolan on Memento and Insomnia
. Like the film, the soundtrack was divided into three sections: the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige.
Some critics were disappointed with the score, acknowledging that while it worked within the context of the film, it was not enjoyable by itself. Jonathan Jarry of SoundtrackNet described the score as "merely functional", establishing the atmosphere of dread but never taking over. Although the reviewer was interested with the score's notion, Jarry found the execution was "extremely disappointing".
Christopher Coleman of Tracksounds felt that although it was "a perfectly fitting score", it was completely overwhelmed by the film itself, and was totally unnoticed at times. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks
recommended the soundtrack for those who enjoyed Julyan's work on the film, and noted that it was not for those who expected "any semblance of intellect or enchantment in the score to match the story of the film." Clemmensen called the score lifeless, "constructed on a bed of simplistic string chords and dull electronic soundscapes."
: Borden as The Professor, a working-class magician who gets his hands dirty, versus Angier as The Great Danton, a classy, elitist showman whose accent makes him appear American. (through it is revealed towards the end that Angier is in fact the aristocrat Lord Caldlow, and that he only changed his name to Angier to avoid embarrassing his family). Film critic Matt Brunson observes a complex theme of duality exemplified by Angier and Borden, noting that the film chooses not to depict either magician as good or evil.
Angier's theft of Borden's teleportation illusion in the film echoes the many real-world examples of stolen tricks among magicians. Outside the film, similar rivalries include magicians John Nevil Maskelyne
and Harry Kellar
's dispute over a levitation illusion. Gary Westfahl of Locus Online
also notes a "new proclivity for mayhem" in the film over the novel, citing the murder/suicide disposition of Angier's duplicates and intensified violent acts of revenge and counter-revenge. This "relates to a more general alteration in the events and tone of the film" rather than significantly changing the underlying themes.
Nor is this cutthroat competition limited to prestidigitation: engineering "wizards" Nikola Tesla
and Thomas Edison
engaged in a rivalry over electrical current
, which appears in the film in parallel to Borden and Angier's competition for magical supremacy.
Den Shewman of Creative Screenwriting says the film asks how far one would go to devote oneself to an art. The character of Chung Ling Soo
, according to Shewman, is a metaphor for this theme. Film critic Alex Manugian refers to this theme as the "meaning of commitment." For example, Soo's pretense of being slow and feeble misdirects his audience from noticing the physical strength required to perform the goldfish bowl trick, but the cost of maintaining this illusion is the sacrifice of individuality: Soo's true appearance and freedom to act naturally are consciously suppressed in his ceaseless dedication to the art of magic.
Nicolas Rapold of Film Comment
addresses the points raised by Shewman and Manugian in terms of the film's "refracted take on Romanticism
":
For Manugian the central theme is "obsession," but he also notes the supporting themes of the "nature of deceit" and "science as magic." Manugian criticizes the Nolans for trying to "ram too many themes into the story."
and the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
, as well as a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007. Along with The Illusionist and Scoop
(also starring Jackman and Johansson), The Prestige was one of three films in 2006 to explore the world of stage magicians.
reported that 76% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average
score of 7.1/10, based upon a sample of 179 reviews. At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 66, based on 36 reviews. Claudia Puig of USA Today
described the film as "one of the most innovative, twisting, turning art film
s of the past decade." Drew McWeeny
gave the film a glowing review, saying it demands repeat viewing, with Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
agreeing. Richard Roeper
and guest critic A.O. Scott gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating. Todd Gilchrist of IGN
applauded the performances of Bale and Jackman whilst praising Nolan for making "this complex story as easily understandable and effective as he made the outwardly straightforward comic book adaptation (Batman Begins
) dense and sophisticated... any truly great performance is almost as much showmanship as it is actual talent, and Nolan possesses both in spades." CNN.com and Village Voice film critic Tom Charity listed it amongst his best films of 2006. Philip French
of The Observer
recommended the film, comparing the rivalry between the two main characters to that of Mozart
and Salieri in the highly acclaimed Amadeus
.
On the other hand, Dennis Harvey of Variety
criticized the film as gimmicky, though he felt the cast did well in underwritten roles. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
felt that characters "are little more than sketches. Remove their obsessions, and the two magicians have little personality". Nonetheless, the two reviewers praised David Bowie as Tesla, as well as the production values and cinematography. On a simpler note, Emanuel Levy has said: "Whether viewers perceive The Prestige as intricately complex or just unnecessarily complicated would depend to a large degree on their willingness to suspend disbelief for two hours." He gave the film a B grade.
Roger Ebert
gave the film three stars out of four, describing the revelation at the end a "fundamental flaw" and a "cheat". He wrote, "The pledge of Nolan's The Prestige is that the film, having been metaphorically sawed in two, will be restored; it fails when it cheats, as, for example, if the whole woman produced on the stage were not the same one so unfortunately cut in two." R.J. Carter of The Trades felt, "I love a good science fiction story; just tell me in advance." He gave the film a B-. Author Christopher Priest saw the film three times as of January 5, 2007, and his reaction was "'Well, holy shit.' I was thinking, 'God, I like that,' and 'Oh, I wish I'd thought of that.'"
and BD
formats. The Warner Bros. Region 2 DVD was released on March 12, 2007. It is also available in both BD
and regionless HD DVD
in Europe (before HD DVD
was canceled). Special features are minimal, with the documentary Director’s Notebook: The Prestige – Five Making-of Featurettes, running roughly twenty minutes combined, an art gallery and the trailer. Nolan did not contribute to a commentary as he felt the film primarily relied on an audience's reaction and did not want to remove the mystery from the story.
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...
, with a screenplay adapted from Christopher Priest
Christopher Priest (English novelist)
Christopher Priest is an English novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige and The Separation.Priest has been strongly influenced by the science fiction of H. G...
's 1995
1995 in literature
The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
novel of the same name
The Prestige
The Prestige is a 1995 novel by British writer Christopher Priest. The novel is epistolary in structure: that is, it purports to be a collection of real diaries that were kept by the protagonists and later collated...
. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the end of the 19th century
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Obsessed with creating the best stage illusion
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
, they engage in competitive one-upmanship
One-upmanship
One-upmanship is the art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor.The term originated as the title of a book by Stephen Potter, published in 1952 as a follow-up to The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship and Lifemanship titles in his series of tongue-in-cheek self-help books, and film ...
with tragic results.
The film features Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
as Robert Angier, Christian Bale
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
as Alfred Borden, and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
as Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
. It also stars Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
, Piper Perabo
Piper Perabo
Piper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award nominated American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean...
, Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Maria Hall is an English actress.In 2003, Hall won the Ian Charleson Award for her debut stage performance in a production of Mrs. Warren's Profession...
, and Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
. The film reunites Nolan with actors Bale and Caine from Batman Begins
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
, and returning cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, film score composer David Julyan
David Julyan
David Julyan is an English musician and film score composer. He composed the scores to several Christopher Nolan films including Memento, Insomnia and The Prestige, a collaboration that began with the short film Larceny. Recently he scored the horror movie The Descent and a UK feature, Outlaw...
, and editor Lee Smith
Lee Smith (editor)
Lee Smith is an ACE-certified Australian film editor. He began his career as a sound editor/sound designer for films such as Dead Calm , The Piano , The Portrait of a Lady and Holy Smoke!...
.
Priest's epistolary novel
Epistolary novel
An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use...
was adapted to the screen by Nolan and his brother, Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan "Jonah" Nolan is a British-American author and screenwriter. His short story "Memento Mori" was used by his brother, director Christopher Nolan, as the basis for the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film Memento. He has also co-written the screenplays for The Prestige and The Dark...
, using Nolan's distinctive nonlinear
Nonlinear (arts)
Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, hypertext websites and other narratives, wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order...
narrative structure
Narrative structure
Narrative structure is generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer....
. Themes
Theme (arts)
In the visual arts, a theme is a broad idea or a message conveyed by a work, such as a performance, a painting, or a motion picture. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a work. Themes are usually implied...
of duality, obsession, sacrifice, and secrecy pervade the conflict. The film was released on October 20, 2006, receiving positive reviews and strong box office results, and obtained Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
Plot
MagicianMagic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
Alfred Borden (Christian Bale
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
) is on trial for murder, accused of killing his lifelong rival, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
). They first began working together as ringers
Shill
A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization...
for Milton the Magician (Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay
Richard Jay Potash , better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.-Life and career:...
), with John Cutter (Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
) as Milton's engineer of illusions. Angier's wife Julia (Piper Perabo
Piper Perabo
Piper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award nominated American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean...
) drowns while performing a predicament escape
Predicament escape
A predicament escape is any form of magic trick or escapology stunt in which the performer is trapped in a dangerous situation and is required to escape from it...
from a Chinese water torture cell
Chinese Water Torture Cell
The Chinese Water Torture Cell is a predicament escape made famous by Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini. The illusion consists of three parts: first, the magician's feet are locked in stocks; next, he is suspended in mid-air from his ankles with a restraint brace; finally, he is lowered...
; Angier suspects Borden purposely bound her wrists with a difficult knot, making him responsible for her death. At the funeral, Borden enrages Angier by saying he does not know which knot he tied.
The two men begin competing magic careers: Borden becomes "The Professor" and hires the enigmatic Bernard Fallon as his engineer; Angier performs as "The Great Danton" with Cutter and his assistant, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
). During a parlor magic
Parlor magic
Parlor magic is done for larger audiences than close-up magic and for smaller audiences than stage magic. In parlor magic, the performer is usually standing and on the same level as the audience, which may be seated on chairs or even on the floor. According to the Encyclopedia of Magic and...
job, Borden meets Sarah (Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Maria Hall is an English actress.In 2003, Hall won the Ian Charleson Award for her debut stage performance in a production of Mrs. Warren's Profession...
); they marry and have a daughter, Jess. Both magicians begin to disrupt each other's acts: Angier interferes with Borden's performance of the bullet catch
Bullet catch
The bullet catch is a conjuring illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at him—often in his mouth, sometimes in his hand or caught with other items such as a dinner plate...
, severing two of Borden's fingers, and a disguised Borden sabotages Angier's performance of the vanishing bird cage
Vanishing bird cage
The vanishing bird cage, also known as the flying birdcage, is a classic parlour magic effect that was invented by French magician Buatier De Kolta. The trick has also been used by magicians Carl Hertz, Harry Blackstone, Sr., John Mulholland, Sabrina Vera and Tommy Wonder.The magician displays a...
illusion, damaging Angier's reputation.
Borden soon astonishes crowds with his new illusion, "The Transported Man", where he enters one cabinet and reappears a moment later in another one. Angier and Cutter argue over how Borden performs the trick with Cutter insisting that Borden uses a double and Angier insisting that there is a more complex explanation. They end up hiring a dissolute actor Root (also played by Jackman) to be a double for Angier and steal Borden's act, calling it "The New Transported Man". Not content with having a more popular act, Angier sends Olivia to Borden in order to seduce him and discover the secret of his trick. However Olivia falls in love with Borden and leaves Angier, giving him an encrypted diary of Borden's as a parting gift. Borden then sabotages Angier's act, leaving Angier with a permanent limp. In retaliation, Angier and Cutter kidnap Fallon and bury him alive, demanding the secret to Borden's trick in exchange for his release. Borden gives Angier the name of inventor Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
, insisting that this is the key to both his encoded diary and to his trick.
Angier, now abandoned by Cutter who disapproves of his obsessive quest, travels to Colorado Springs to meet Tesla (David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
). He pays Tesla to make the same teleportation
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
machine that the man made for Borden. Angier learns from Borden's notebook that he has been sent on a wild goose chase. Feeling cheated, he returns to Tesla's lab to demand his money back, but discovers Tesla's machine creates an exact duplicate of an object and leaves the original intact. Tesla leaves Colorado Springs after his rival, Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
, sends henchmen to torch his lab, leaving the machine for Angier with a warning to destroy it.
Meanwhile, Borden's relationship with Olivia takes a heavy emotional toll on Sarah, and she eventually hangs
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
herself. Angier returns to London to produce his new act, "The Real Transported Man". Borden attends Angier's performance again and slips backstage just in time to see Angier fall from a trap door into a locked water tank. Borden tries to save him, but Angier drowns before his eyes. Cutter catches Borden, and he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
In prison awaiting execution, Borden is visited by a representative of a mysterious Lord Caldlow. Caldlow is a fan of stage magic and wishes to purchase the secrets to all of Borden's tricks. In exchange, Caldlow agrees to adopt and raise Borden's daughter Jess, who, being an orphan, would otherwise become a ward of the court in the wake of Borden's execution. Borden is given Angier's diary as a gesture of good faith and while reading it encounters a shocking reference to his current incarceration. Borden then insists on meeting Lord Caldlow personally in order to give him the secret to the Transported Man. When Caldlow arrives, Borden recognizes him as Angier, mysteriously returned from the dead. Angier triumphantly rips up the paper containing the explanation of Borden's trick and then leaves with Borden's daughter. A short time later, Borden is executed by hanging. Meanwhile, Cutter learns that Lord Caldlow has bought all of Angier's old effects, including the Tesla device, and meets him to argue for the destruction of the machine. He is horrified when he recognizes Caldlow as his old friend and sees Borden's daughter with him. Angier explains that he had always been Lord Caldlow and had merely pretended to be the American Robert Angier in order to spare his family the embarrassment of his theatrical career.
Cutter accompanies Angier to an abandoned building filled with tanks, and helps him store Tesla's machine. Cutter leaves, silently acknowledging the arrival of a very-much-alive Borden, who shoots Angier. As Angier lies dying, Borden reveals that he was actually two identical twins who lived as Fallon and Alfred, alternating between each role. One twin (the one still alive) was the husband of Sarah and father to daughter Jess, and loved Sarah more than the magic; the other was in love with Olivia. They played one individual in life and in the illusions. Borden reminds Angier of a Chinese magician they saw together years ago who pretended to have a limp when ever he was in public so he could use this to conceal his methods on stage and that the way he lived his life was the actual illusion. Borden tells Angier his devotion to the illusion was such that he and his twin were willing to live the same life in order to conceal their methods. Angier's method is also revealed: During the illusion, the machine created a duplicate of Angier, with one falling through a trap door into a locked tank and drowning, and the other being teleported to the balcony. This was always Angier's intention to frame Borden for his murder as he knew sooner or later Borden would try and discover the secret to the trick by sneaking backstage to be caught watching Angier drowning. Borden leaves Angier to die as a fire consumes the building. Afterwards, Cutter reunites Borden with his daughter. A final shot shows that each tank in the abandoned building contained a drowned Angier.
Cast
- Hugh JackmanHugh JackmanHugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
as Robert Angier / The Great Danton, an aristocraticAristocracyAristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
magician. After reading the script, Jackman expressed interest in playing the part. Christopher Nolan discovered Jackman was interested in the script, and after meeting with 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 wonderful understanding of the interaction between a performer and a live audience", a quality he believed that Jackman had. Nolan said that "[Jackman] has the great depth as an actor that hasn't really been explored. 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." Jackman based his portrayal of Angier on 1950s-era American magician Channing PollockChanning Pollock (magician)Channing Pollock was an American magician and film actor.-Magician:As one of the most sophisticated and charismatic practitioners of his craft; strikingly handsome with an enigmatic stage presence, he was best known for an act in which he would elegantly produce doves out of thin air and he was...
. - Christian BaleChristian BaleChristian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
as Alfred Borden / The Professor, a working classWorking classWorking class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
magician. Christian Bale expressed interest in playing the part, and was cast after Jackman. Although Nolan had previously cast Bale as BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
in Batman BeginsBatman BeginsBatman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
, he did not consider Bale for the part of Borden until Bale contacted him about the script. Nolan said that Bale was "exactly right" for the part of Borden, and that it was "unthinkable" for anyone else to play the part. Nolan described Bale as "terrific to work with", who "takes what he does very, very seriously". Nolan suggested that the actors should not read the book, but Bale ignored his advice. - Michael CaineMichael CaineSir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
as John Cutter, the stage engineer who works for Angier. Caine had previously collaborated with Nolan and Bale in Batman Begins, where he played Alfred PennyworthAlfred PennyworthAlfred Pennyworth is a fictional character that appears throughout the DC Comics franchise. The character first appears in Batman #16 , and was created by writer Bob Kane and artist Jerry Robinson. Alfred serves as Batman’s tireless butler, assistant, confidant, and surrogate father figure...
, the Wayne family butler. 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 before I'd ever met him". Caine describes Cutter as "a teacher, a father and a guide to Angier". Caine, in trying to create Cutter's nuanced portrait, altered his voice and posture. Nolan later said that "Michael Caine’s character really becomes something of the heart of the movie. 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." - Piper PeraboPiper PeraboPiper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award nominated American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean...
as Julia McCullough, Angier's wife. - Rebecca HallRebecca HallRebecca Maria Hall is an English actress.In 2003, Hall won the Ian Charleson Award for her debut stage performance in a production of Mrs. Warren's Profession...
as Sarah Borden: Borden's wife. Hall had to relocate from North LondonNorth LondonNorth London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
to Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in order to shoot the film, though the film itself takes place in North London. Hall said that she "was starstruck just to be involved in [the film]". - Scarlett JohanssonScarlett JohanssonScarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
as Olivia Wenscombe, Angier's assistant and lover. Nolan said that he was "very keen" for Johansson to play the role, and when he met with her to discuss it, "she just loved the character". Johansson praised Nolan's directing methods, saying that she "loved working with [him]"; he was "incredibly focused and driven and involved, and really involved in the performance in every aspect." - David BowieDavid BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
as Nikola TeslaNikola TeslaNikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
, the real-life inventor who creates a teleportation device for Angier. For the role of Nikola Tesla, Nolan wanted someone who was not necessarily a film star, but was "extraordinarily charismatic". Nolan said that "David Bowie was really the only guy I had in mind to play Tesla because his function in the story is a small but very important role". Nolan contacted Bowie, who initially turned down the part. As a lifelong fan of his music, Nolan flew out to New York to pitch the role to Bowie in person, telling him that nobody else could possibly play the part; Bowie accepted after a few minutes. - Roger ReesRoger ReesRoger Rees is a Welsh actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord on the American television sitcom show Cheers and Lord John Marbury on the American television drama The West Wing...
as Owens. - Andy SerkisAndy SerkisAndrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
as Mr. Alley, Tesla's assistant. Serkis said that he played his character with the belief that he was "once a corporation man who got excited by this maverick, Tesla, so jumped ship and went with the maverick". Serkis described his character as a "gatekeeper", a "conman", and "a mirror image of Michael Caine’s character". Serkis, a big fan of Bowie, said that he was enjoyable to work with, describing him as "very unassuming, very down to earth... very at ease with himself and funny." - Ricky JayRicky JayRichard Jay Potash , better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.-Life and career:...
as "Milton the Magician", an older magician Borden and Angier work for at the beginning of the story. Jay, a noted American stage magician, 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.
Filming
Julian JarroldJulian Jarrold
Julian Edward Peter Jarrold, born 1960 in Norwich, is a BAFTA Award-nominated English film and television director.He is a member of the family which founded Jarrolds of Norwich in 1823 and was educated in Norfolk at Gresham's School, Holt...
's and Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
' producer approached Christopher Priest
Christopher Priest (English novelist)
Christopher Priest is an English novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige and The Separation.Priest has been strongly influenced by the science fiction of H. G...
for an adaptation of his novel The Prestige
The Prestige
The Prestige is a 1995 novel by British writer Christopher Priest. The novel is epistolary in structure: that is, it purports to be a collection of real diaries that were kept by the protagonists and later collated...
. Priest was impressed with Nolan's films Following
Following
Following is a 1998 British neo-noir film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It tells the story of a young man who follows strangers around the streets of London and is drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance...
and Memento, and subsequently, producer Valerie Dean brought the book to Nolan's attention. In October 2000, Nolan traveled to the UK to publicize Memento, as Newmarket Films
Newmarket Films
Newmarket Films is an American film production and distribution company which is a subsidiary of Newmarket Capital Group. It was founded in 1994.-Brief summary:...
was having difficulty finding a U.S. distributor. While in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Nolan read Priest's book and shared the story with his brother while walking around in Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
(a location later featured in the scene where Angier ransoms Borden's ingénieur
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
in Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
). 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
Road trip
A road trip is any journey taken on roads, regardless of stops en route. Typically, road trips are long distances traveled by automobile.-Pre-automobile road trips:...
.
A year later, the option
Option (films)
In the film industry, an option is a contractual agreement between a potential film producer, such as a movie studio, a production company or an individual, and a writer or third party who holds ownership of a screenplay...
on the book became available and was purchased by Aaron Ryder of Newmarket Films
Newmarket Films
Newmarket Films is an American film production and distribution company which is a subsidiary of Newmarket Capital Group. It was founded in 1994.-Brief summary:...
. In late 2001, Nolan became busy with the post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
of Insomnia
Insomnia (2002 film)
Insomnia is an American psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. The film, released on 24 May 2002, is a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name.-Plot:...
, and asked his brother Jonathan
Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan "Jonah" Nolan is a British-American author and screenwriter. His short story "Memento Mori" was used by his brother, director Christopher Nolan, as the basis for the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film Memento. He has also co-written the screenplays for The Prestige and The Dark...
to help work on the script. The writing process was a long collaboration between the Nolan brothers, occurring intermittently over a period of five years. In the script, the Nolans emphasized the magic of the story through the dramatic narrative, playing down the visual depiction of stage magic. The three-act screenplay
Dramatic structure
Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with Aristotle in his Poetics...
was deliberately structured around the three elements of the film's illusion: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. "It took a long time to figure out how to achieve cinematic versions of the very literary devices that drive the intrigue of the story," Christopher Nolan told Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
. "The shifting points of view, the idea of journals within journals and stories within stories
Story within a story
A story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...
. Finding the cinematic equivalents of those literary devices was very complex." Although the film is thematically faithful to the novel, two major changes were made to the plot structure during the adaptation process: the novel's spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
subplot was removed, and the modern-day frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
was replaced with Borden's wait for the gallows in the mise en scene
Mise en scène
Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction...
. Priest approved of the adaptation, describing it as "an extraordinary and brilliant script, a fascinating adaptation of my novel".
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
accelerated. Following the release of Batman Begins, Nolan started up the project again, negotiating with Bale and Jackman in October 2005. While the screenplay was still being written, production designer Nathan Crowley began the set design process in Nolan's garage, employing a "visual script" consisting of scale model
Scale model
A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...
s, images, drawings, and notes. Jonathan and Christopher Nolan finished the final shooting draft on January 13, 2006, and began production three days later on January 16. Filming ended on April 9.
Crowley and his crew searched Los Angeles for almost seventy locations that would resemble fin de siècle
Fin de siècle
Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...
London. Jonathan Nolan visited Colorado Springs to research Nikola Tesla and based the electric bulb scene on actual experiments conducted by Tesla. Nathan Crowley helped design the scene for Tesla's invention; It was shot in the parking lot of the Mount Wilson Observatory
Mount Wilson Observatory
The Mount Wilson Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a 5,715 foot peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles...
. Influenced by a "Victorian modernist aesthetic", Crowley chose four locations in the Broadway theater district
Broadway (Los Angeles)
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs from Lincoln Heights on the Eastside, through Chinatown, passing through Central Plaza and the Dragon Gate, the Los Angeles Civic Center, passing the Los Angeles Times building at First Street, and Broadway's historic commercial...
in downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
for the film's stage magic performances: the Los Angeles Theatre
Los Angeles Theatre
The Los Angeles Theatre is a 2,000 seat movie palace located at 615 S. Broadway in the historic Broadway Theater and Commercial District in Downtown Los Angeles.-History:...
, the Palace Theatre
Avalon Hollywood
Avalon is a historic night club and music venue in Hollywood, California, located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, at 1735 N. Vine Street...
, the Los Angeles Belasco, and the Tower Theatre. Crowley also turned a portion of the Universal back lot
Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction....
into Victorian London. Nolan built only one set for the film, an "under-the-stage section that houses the machinery that makes the larger illusions work," preferring to simply dress various Los Angeles locations and sound stages to stand in for Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and Victorian England. In contrast to most period pieces, Nolan kept up the quick pace of production by shooting with handheld cameras, and refrained from using artificial lighting in some scenes, relying instead on natural light on location. Costume designer Joan Bergin chose attractive, modern Victorian fashions for Scarlett Johansson; cinematographer Wally Pfister captured the mood with soft earth tones as white and black colors provided background contrasts, bringing actors' faces to the foreground.
Editing, scoring and mixing finished on September 22, 2006. The song "Analyse" by Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
frontman Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
is played over the credits.
Music
English musician and film scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
composer David Julyan
David Julyan
David Julyan is an English musician and film score composer. He composed the scores to several Christopher Nolan films including Memento, Insomnia and The Prestige, a collaboration that began with the short film Larceny. Recently he scored the horror movie The Descent and a UK feature, Outlaw...
penned the music for The Prestige. Julyan had previously collaborated with director Christopher Nolan on Memento and Insomnia
Insomnia (2002 film)
Insomnia is an American psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. The film, released on 24 May 2002, is a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name.-Plot:...
. Like the film, the soundtrack was divided into three sections: the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige.
Some critics were disappointed with the score, acknowledging that while it worked within the context of the film, it was not enjoyable by itself. Jonathan Jarry of SoundtrackNet described the score as "merely functional", establishing the atmosphere of dread but never taking over. Although the reviewer was interested with the score's notion, Jarry found the execution was "extremely disappointing".
Christopher Coleman of Tracksounds felt that although it was "a perfectly fitting score", it was completely overwhelmed by the film itself, and was totally unnoticed at times. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks
Filmtracks.com
Filmtracks.com is a leading modern film score review website created and maintained out of Missoula, Montana by its sole reviewer, Christian Clemmensen...
recommended the soundtrack for those who enjoyed Julyan's work on the film, and noted that it was not for those who expected "any semblance of intellect or enchantment in the score to match the story of the film." Clemmensen called the score lifeless, "constructed on a bed of simplistic string chords and dull electronic soundscapes."
Themes
The rivalry between Borden and Angier dominates the film. 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, a Borden is hanged and the last copy of Angier shot. Their struggle is also expressed through class warfareClass conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
: Borden as The Professor, a working-class magician who gets his hands dirty, versus Angier as The Great Danton, a classy, elitist showman whose accent makes him appear American. (through it is revealed towards the end that Angier is in fact the aristocrat Lord Caldlow, and that he only changed his name to Angier to avoid embarrassing his family). Film critic Matt Brunson observes a complex theme of duality exemplified by Angier and Borden, noting that the film chooses not to depict either magician as good or evil.
Angier's theft of Borden's teleportation illusion in the film echoes the many real-world examples of stolen tricks among magicians. Outside the film, similar rivalries include magicians John Nevil Maskelyne
John Nevil Maskelyne
John Nevil Maskelyne was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with many other Victorian-era devices. His door lock for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".-Biography:Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham,...
and Harry Kellar
Harry Kellar
Harry Kellar was an American magician who presented large stage shows during the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
's dispute over a levitation illusion. Gary Westfahl of Locus Online
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
also notes a "new proclivity for mayhem" in the film over the novel, citing the murder/suicide disposition of Angier's duplicates and intensified violent acts of revenge and counter-revenge. This "relates to a more general alteration in the events and tone of the film" rather than significantly changing the underlying themes.
Nor is this cutthroat competition limited to prestidigitation: engineering "wizards" Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
and Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
engaged in a rivalry over electrical current
War of Currents
In the "War of Currents" era in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current for electric power distribution over alternating current advocated by several European companies and Westinghouse Electric based out of Pittsburgh,...
, which appears in the film in parallel to Borden and Angier's competition for magical supremacy.
Den Shewman of Creative Screenwriting says the film asks how far one would go to devote oneself to an art. The character of Chung Ling Soo
Chung Ling Soo
Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of the American magician William Ellsworth Robinson who is mostly remembered today for his tragic death after a bullet catch trick went wrong.- Biography :...
, according to Shewman, is a metaphor for this theme. Film critic Alex Manugian refers to this theme as the "meaning of commitment." For example, Soo's pretense of being slow and feeble misdirects his audience from noticing the physical strength required to perform the goldfish bowl trick, but the cost of maintaining this illusion is the sacrifice of individuality: Soo's true appearance and freedom to act naturally are consciously suppressed in his ceaseless dedication to the art of magic.
Nicolas Rapold of Film Comment
Film Comment
Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
addresses the points raised by Shewman and Manugian in terms of the film's "refracted take on Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
":
For Manugian the central theme is "obsession," but he also notes the supporting themes of the "nature of deceit" and "science as magic." Manugian criticizes the Nolans for trying to "ram too many themes into the story."
Release
Touchstone opted to move the release date up a week, from the original October 27, to October 20, 2006. The film earned $14,801,808 on opening weekend in the United States, debuting at #1. It proceeded to gross $109 million, of which $53 million was from the US. The film received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Art DirectionAcademy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
and the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, as well as a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007. Along with The Illusionist and Scoop
Scoop (2006 film)
Scoop is a 2006 American-British romantic comedy/murder mystery written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Ian McShane, and Allen himself...
(also starring Jackman and Johansson), The Prestige was one of three films in 2006 to explore the world of stage magicians.
Critical response
The Prestige received generally favorable reviews from film critics. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 76% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 7.1/10, based upon a sample of 179 reviews. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 66, based on 36 reviews. Claudia Puig of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
described the film as "one of the most innovative, twisting, turning art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
s of the past decade." Drew McWeeny
Drew McWeeny
Drew McWeeny , also known by his pseudonym Moriarty, is a film critic, screenwriter, and the former west coast editor of the Ain't It Cool News website...
gave the film a glowing review, saying it demands repeat viewing, with Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
agreeing. Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
and guest critic A.O. Scott gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating. Todd Gilchrist of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
applauded the performances of Bale and Jackman whilst praising Nolan for making "this complex story as easily understandable and effective as he made the outwardly straightforward comic book adaptation (Batman Begins
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
) dense and sophisticated... any truly great performance is almost as much showmanship as it is actual talent, and Nolan possesses both in spades." CNN.com and Village Voice film critic Tom Charity listed it amongst his best films of 2006. Philip French
Philip French
Philip French is a British film critic and former radio producer.French, the son of an insurance salesman, was educated at the direct grant Bristol Grammar School, read Law at Oxford University. and post graduate study in Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington on a scholarship.He has been...
of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
recommended the film, comparing the rivalry between the two main characters to that of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Salieri in the highly acclaimed Amadeus
Amadeus (film)
Amadeus is a 1984 period drama film directed by Miloš Forman and written by Peter Shaffer. Adapted from Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the story is based loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers who lived in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the...
.
On the other hand, Dennis Harvey of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
criticized the film as gimmicky, though he felt the cast did well in underwritten roles. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
felt that characters "are little more than sketches. Remove their obsessions, and the two magicians have little personality". Nonetheless, the two reviewers praised David Bowie as Tesla, as well as the production values and cinematography. On a simpler note, Emanuel Levy has said: "Whether viewers perceive The Prestige as intricately complex or just unnecessarily complicated would depend to a large degree on their willingness to suspend disbelief for two hours." He gave the film a B grade.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three stars out of four, describing the revelation at the end a "fundamental flaw" and a "cheat". He wrote, "The pledge of Nolan's The Prestige is that the film, having been metaphorically sawed in two, will be restored; it fails when it cheats, as, for example, if the whole woman produced on the stage were not the same one so unfortunately cut in two." R.J. Carter of The Trades felt, "I love a good science fiction story; just tell me in advance." He gave the film a B-. Author Christopher Priest saw the film three times as of January 5, 2007, and his reaction was "'Well, holy shit.' I was thinking, 'God, I like that,' and 'Oh, I wish I'd thought of that.'"
Home media
The Region 1 disc is by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and was released on February 20, 2007, and is available on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and BD
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
formats. The Warner Bros. Region 2 DVD was released on March 12, 2007. It is also available in both BD
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and regionless HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
in Europe (before HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
was canceled). Special features are minimal, with the documentary Director’s Notebook: The Prestige – Five Making-of Featurettes, running roughly twenty minutes combined, an art gallery and the trailer. Nolan did not contribute to a commentary as he felt the film primarily relied on an audience's reaction and did not want to remove the mystery from the story.