The Prestige Favourite Quotes

The 2006 film about rival magicians desperately trying to learn the secrets of each others tricks.
Posts: 963
Joined: June 2009
I loved Prestige as a movie and I thought we could post the quotes that stood out for us.

Tesla:
"Do you know the phrase man's reach exceeds his grasp is a lie? Man's reach exceeds his nerve."

"Society only tolerates one change at a time. First time I might change the world I was hailed as a visionary. Second time, I was asked politely to retire."

"Nothing is impossible, Mr. Angier. What you want is simply expensive."

Angier:
"Nobody cares about the man in the box."

"Man's reach exceeds his imagination!"

Cutter:
"Every magic trick consists of three parts or acts... Now you're looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."

Posts: 1610
Joined: April 2009
Location: Puerto Rico
Sarah: Say it again
Borden: I love you
Sarah: Not today, noi. Sometimes you mean it and sometimes you don't. Maybe today you're more in love with magic than you are with me. I like being able to tell the diference, it makes the days it is true mean something

Posts: 160
Joined: April 2010
I like this one. ;)

Cutter: Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

User avatar
Posts: 3197
Joined: April 2010
Location: We can't stop here, this is Bat Country!
"Now you're looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."

"The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special... you really don't know?... it was... it was the look on their faces..."

"You're a magician, not a wizard. "

and my favorite:
"Are you watching closely?" ;)

Posts: 9827
Joined: August 2010
"The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special... you really don't know?... it was... it was the look on their faces..."

The best quote from this movie :)

Posts: 9038
Joined: July 2010
"If you want Angier's secrets, you go dig him up, and ask him yourself" - Alfred Borden
"Why can't you out-think him?!" - Alfred Borden
"I don't care about my wife, I care about his secret" - Robert Angier
"In my travels, I have seen the future. And it is a strange future indeed. The world, ladies and gentlemen, is on the brink of new and terrifying possibilities." - Robert Angier

Posts: 8
Joined: February 2011
Its not a long quote, but it is a powerful one "You don't know!?" by Angier of course.

Posts: 528
Joined: November 2010
Location: Italy
I can't find it on wikiquote so I'd have to write it down from the film and right know i don't want to, but I did like the dialogues near the beginning where Alfred says not every trick is doable by every magician.

Well, and of course a lot of others quotes, but they're already posted :)

Posts: 89
Joined: January 2011
Location: Gotham City
I can not decide which one is my favourite...
Alfred Borden: Never show anyone. They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them.
Alfred Borden: The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.
Alfred Borden: Are you watching closely?

Posts: 6
Joined: February 2011
Angier: "The audience knows the truth-that the world is simple. Solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, you could make them wonder. Then you got to see something very special."

Very powerful stuff. Great monologue for a dying man, and made even better by the great Hugh Jackman.

Post Reply