Dear Mr Christopher Nolan - I think I cracked The Prestige

The 2006 film about rival magicians desperately trying to learn the secrets of each others tricks.
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Joined: March 2016
My whole understanding of the movie - The Prestige

1) "Clone" is the magic trick or "sleight of hand" of the movie, if you believe it, you are tricked.
>> that why the narrator says "because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled."
>> The Pledge = Angier did "The Transportation Man" with Root << simple and real!
>> The Turn = i)"Remove" Root
ii)convince you the "clone machine does work"
iii) did several times The Transportation Man" again, without Root introduced in the movie.
iv) Borden killed "Angier", Angier gone!
>> The Prestige = Angier still alive and kicking!
Therefore, the audience concluded the clone machine worked!! Including Borden and Cutter!!


2) The movie is some sort of "stage" for Angier to perform his magic. To the end, he is still "performing", lied to Borden that he had to kill his clones, every time he perform "The Transportation Man" . He want Borden to believe his magic, like he believed Borden's The Transportation Man.
Even in the final frame of the movie, we still can see Angier body smilling in the box filled with water, which i believed it was a life size wax figure to fool Cutter and others.

3) The few parts when Angier was alone, in Colorado or testing the machine, are fake. There are lies that Angier would tell the audience, including me and you, Cutter and Borden. To be specific, the "Hats and Cats", and "Angier killed his own clone". These parts are the "introduction" of the Cloning Machine, which only happened when Angier was alone. Nolan fooling us!!

4) How Angier trapped Borden
After brought back the "Tesla Machine", Angier was the Prestige every time he perform The Transportation Man at the big stage.
Root is "the man in the box"(at almost the end of the movie, Angier did said "no one care the man in the box"), hence Root is the one on stage, the one who walk into the "Cloning Machine", and the one who drop in the box, each and every time!
What Angier waiting was Borden goes into the back stage.If Borden didnt, Angier just need to be The Prestige, If Borden did, Angier will change the lock, and hide himself, so Borden will be the murderer who "killed" Angier, who was actually Root.

And a lots more!!
Nolan's fans please give your comment!!

by Jerry Teh!! ;)

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Joined: February 2017
Thats one good another way to intepret by watching "closely". I find one instance that would contradict your stand.

If the machine didn't work, explain to me on how did Angier was able to perform the transported man "trick" to Ackerman in the theater "live". This was a real incident and not in the diaries of Angier and we saw Angier/Root/Angier's clone appearing at the other end.

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Joined: July 2018
prestigefan wrote:
June 12th, 2017, 3:18 am
Thats one good another way to intepret by watching "closely". I find one instance that would contradict your stand.

If the machine didn't work, explain to me on how did Angier was able to perform the transported man "trick" to Ackerman in the theater "live". This was a real incident and not in the diaries of Angier and we saw Angier/Root/Angier's clone appearing at the other end.
In that instance, the trick was made by Angier and Root.

Posts: 2
Joined: February 2017
Turello wrote:
July 16th, 2018, 8:40 am
prestigefan wrote:
June 12th, 2017, 3:18 am
Thats one good another way to intepret by watching "closely". I find one instance that would contradict your stand.

If the machine didn't work, explain to me on how did Angier was able to perform the transported man "trick" to Ackerman in the theater "live". This was a real incident and not in the diaries of Angier and we saw Angier/Root/Angier's clone appearing at the other end.
In that instance, the trick was made by Angier and Root.
Nah..if you "watch closely", Angier clearly disappears amidts light flashing. They show it in very close up.

This is my theory to tie all the knots. Tesla repaired the machine to just transport the person (Angier) to a distant place, that was otherwise producing copies/clones/likes of the original (hats and the cats - Ah...thats a rhyme :D ). When Angier receives the machine, there was Tesla's letter which says "Alley has written thorough instructions on how to use the machine...."

The instructions should have had the option to tune the machine for transporting the original AND for duplicating the original at distant place.So, when Angier announces 100 performances, he should have tuned the machine to ONLY to teleport. But when he saw Borden inspecting the machine on stage and prepared to go down, he re-tuned the machine to duplicate. Thus the original/copy Angier died by drowning (that was watched by Borden) and the copy/Angier got teleported (that was later shown as Lord Caldlow).

Watching the movie again tonight 8-) Nolan...you bloody genius :thumbup:

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Joined: December 2019
I've been for the past week or so just exploring the things that I didnt really understand in my chemistry class. One if things brought me to what is called the many worlds interpretation, and its basically a way to interpret what wave functions are. If you have ever heard of the double slit experiment the idea of a wave function pops up and is a part of quantum mechanics. Basically in the experiment electrons are fired between two slits and they act differently depending on if you are "observing them or not". If you observe them they act as though they are particles and when you dont they act as though they are waves. If you have heard of wave particle duality, this is the experiment that led scientists to believe that wave particle duality is true. The wave function basically, in terms of the double slit experiment, is a way to predict where the electrons will land (like particles or like a wave with interference patterns). Before observing the electron, there is a "wave function" that encompasses the different possible ways the electron could move. It is only until you observe it that the wave function "collaspes" and a spot for the electron to land is actually chosen. This basically means that before you look at it, the wave function holds the various possibilities where the electron could land in the double sphere experiment. It is only when you..
This idea is reflected in the schrodinger's cat idea
Where until you open the box to see if the cat is still alive, the cat is in a superposition of either dead or alive.
An interpretation of how the wave function works is called the many worlds interpretation and basically says that (from my understanding) that different "worlds are created" in which one of them you observed the cat and he is alive and the other world is that you observed and that the cat is dead
The reason why I bring this up is in reference to the prestige. Where the main characters produce copies of themselves using Tesla's machine. My idea is that teslas machine grabs copies of the alternate dimensions of themselves somehow.
The different copies of them that are created via the "many worlds interpretation" somehow which I cannot fully explain.
It is also worth noting that Tesla died well before the "many worlds interpretation" was created; but it would be cool as hell as a movie for this idea and a genius such as Tesla to coincide together. Let me know what you think!

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