First: If Tesla needed money, he COULD duplicate it, he had time for Angier so time wasn't an issue.
This led me to believe that the machine didn't work at all.
Second: Why at the end would Angier need so many watertraps? Makes no sense, two would be enough.
I think he did this to fool Bordon. Again, to make everyone think the machine worked while it probably didn't.
schrutey69 wrote:First: If Tesla needed money, he COULD duplicate it, he had time for Angier so time wasn't an issue.
This led me to believe that the machine didn't work at all.
The machine didn't immediately work. It took him a long time to iron out the problems, and took him quite a long time before he even realized it was a duplicator. And soon after that, Edison's men burned down his building, forcing him to escape, leaving the machine behind for Angier.
The interesting thing is that Tesla said he already had begun building it =)
In reality, Tesla held a speech once about transporting matter. Probably the nail in his coffin professionally, but most definitely The Prestige would never have been written if he never had held that speech ^