Hey, I saw this on the IMDB Prestige forum. A very interesting theory, have a read!

"Sarah and Borden have a fight towards the end of the film in which Sarah repeatedly states that she knows who Borden really is and even says "what you really are." In line with a few discussions that have already been posted, this suggests that Sarah found out the real secret: that Alfred Borden and Fallon were the same person. This is also supported by the fact that when she asks for "no more lies, no more secrets" she does not ask about his magic, she asks if he loves her. Then, later in the film Olivia states that Sarah contacted her and said that she wanted to tell Olivia a secret about Borden. However, before Sarah gets the chance to talk to Olivia, she dies and it is believed by most of the characters that she committed suicide. The way I interpret this is very different. Sarah found out about Alfred's secrets and was going to tell Olivia about it. Borden and Fallon couldn't risk the secret getting out. They lived their life by this secret, so they set up a trap of sorts in their studio that hanged Sarah and made it look like a suicide. Certain cinematic cues lead me to this conclusion and they include the abrupt nature of Sarah's death (one minute she is just walking around the studio, not looking particularly upset mind you, and then the next she's hanging by the neck) and the bird's reaction both suggest an element of surprise, not only for the benefit of the audience, but also in form following the narrative. That is to say, Sarah was also surprised. The biggest clue to this explanation is that Sarah wanted to talk to Olivia. Why would Sarah want to tell Olivia this secret, but kill herself before she does? And what secret would it have been if not that Borden and Fallon were one in the same? Your thoughts?"

It was a suicide. The thing you mentioned is too far fetched.

The whole film is about how far these men are willing to go to keep their secrets and best each other. Why not?
It's a good catch, but that being said, I still think you're reading too deeply into it.

that's interesting and possible, but i think unlikely for the sake of the audience's empathy towards the character

talli wrote:that's interesting and possible, but i think unlikely for the sake of the audience's empathy towards the character

Sarah or Borden?

You're over analysing the movie.

Dream Thief wrote:

talli wrote:that's interesting and possible, but i think unlikely for the sake of the audience's empathy towards the character

Sarah or Borden?

borden...if he has killed his wife the audience has no reason to sympathize with him or his cause

I agree with everyone else, but I do enjoy thinking about the possibility.

talli wrote:

Dream Thief wrote:
Sarah or Borden?

borden...if he has killed his wife the audience has no reason to sympathize with him or his cause

But isn't that the point? It shows how far these magicians will go and also makes Angier's ending speech to Borden more hard hitting?

The trap thing is far-fetched.
The murder thing might be possible in the real world and in a story where we're supposed to realize how far the characters would go to achieve certain things, but considering the premise and the way the story's told and Nolan's approach I should say that if Nolan really wanted to do exactly that he wouldn't hide it like that. I know Prestige is all about disguise, but there are also clues that something is disguised or not. In the sequence in Borden's workshop leading to Sarah's suicide there was absolutely nothing that would incline that it wasn't a suicide. There's only Olivia saying that Sarah was about to meet her and tell her some kind of secret. In that scene we can see Borden's reaction to that. He obviously didn't know Sarah would've told Olivia. Not to mention that in the scene where Borden and Sarah argue she just says 'I know what you really are' which isn't enough for him to kill her and doesn't really suggest that she poses a threat to him.

The other reason why it doesn't make sense is that the twins are the ones that are portrayed as less... likely to kill or harm intentionally. Which only makes the possibility of Sarah being murdered by Borden something much more important to the narrative and the story. So important that there would be no sense to hide it in such a way that it would take like 5-10 views of the movie to get the idea that it's possible.

In other words if Nolan really wanted to make the final dialogue between Borden and Angier so much more powerful he would've made it more obvious. If it was there at all.

These and many other reasons make it much more than highly unlikely.