Who is Borden? Who is Fallon?

[QuailmanJR]

For sake of discussion, I'll refer to "Borden" as the one who loves Sarah, and "Fallon" will be the one who loved Olivia.

Is "Borden" both the performer and the engineer? Personally I think so (see long explanation below). Does that mean that "Fallon" has no role other than for the Transported Man?

**Another question: Who gets buried by Caine and Angier? I thought it was Fallon dressed as Fallon because shortly after (at dinner) Fallon dressed as Borden jokes "I have a new trick, I'm going to bury myself alive" and acts like a d*ck at dinner.

So yeah, I think Borden is the performer and the engineer. Here are some key points
-We first see this when the idea of Fallon is first introduced and Borden is dressed as Fallon. The "useless twin" is dressed up as Borden, and Borden (the magician/engineer) is dressed as Fallon to explain the "gun shot" trick as an actual engineer. The useless twin then exclaims "we have to tell Fallon (borden)!" when Sarah says she's preg-o and then she later says "not today" about loving her so yeah, it's "Fallon" as Borden and "Borden" is Fallon to be the engineer.
-"Borden" is the performer for the gun shot trick because we know "Fallon" cuts his fingers off and gets pissed around Sarah and says we can't afford a doctor (he never wants to spend money, Borden buys her the apartment and everything).
-"Borden" tells "Fallon" to try to take his daughter to the zoo while "Borden" does magic-related work with Olivia. If "Fallon" knew how to be an engineer, wouldn't he go with Olivia and Borden could be with his family?

It seems like Borden is just the man and Fallon is relatively useless, but still a good PERFORMER nonetheless. That's why the trick works. Not useless, that sounds bad. You know what I'm saying...

[James]

they took turns

[QuailmanJR]

they took turns

I know they took turns...please re-read the question

[mchekhov]

they took turns

I know they took turns...please re-read the question

please re-read his answer...they took turns....for everything..as in they shared all responsibility...they were equally important

[James]

please re-read his answer...they took turns....for everything..as in they shared all responsibility...they were equally important


haha Thank You!

[rbevanx]

One twin loved Sarah and was the calmer as well as the cool headed one, who was also Fallon.

One twin loved Olivia who was always pushing to go a step too far and frommy view had a little bit of a temper, who was also Fallon.

But in short "They took turns"

[Anne Elk (Miss)]

It's entirely up to the viewer in my opinion, and that it doesn't really matter in the context of the film (not that it's not an interesting topic to discuss).

I would call Borden the performer - the one whose fingers were shot off by Angier, the one who loved Olivia, the one who was hanged at the end.

I would call Fallon the ingeneur - the one whose fingers where cut off by his brother, the one who loved Sarah and fathered Jess, the one who shot Angier at the end.

But you might as well call them Alfred-A and Alfred-B. One of the most interesting to me is that you spend the whole film trying to work out if Borden or Angier is the character you sympathise with (given that Borden possibly killed Angier's wife and is also, randomly, pretty rotten to his own wife), but this is resolved (for me, at least) by the end of the film and after watching the film you're trying to work out whether you sympathise more with Alfred-A or Alfred-B. The point is that it's one of the most open and subjective films I've seen.

I don't think it matters who is Borden and who is Fallon in scene 17, scene 52 or scene 88.

[Bocaj6487]

The question of whose fingers got shot off is an interesting one. We can assume that the one who tied the deadly knot was not the one who showed up to the funeral, and the one who showed up to the funeral was the one whose fingers were shot off. If that helps anything . . .

[Pat S.]

Sorry if I'm repeating someone's question but has anyone brought up the idea that the 2nd Borden is a clone? Remember, Borden had Tesla make a machine just like Angiers'. Instead of killing his clone, he kept it around knowing that they could make something out of it. And....at the end when Angier says: "A brother....a twin?" Borden doesn't confirm that they were brothers. Anybody else think about that or am I just crazy?

[steveportee]

Sorry if I'm repeating someone's question but has anyone brought up the idea that the 2nd Borden is a clone? Remember, Borden had Tesla make a machine just like Angiers'. Instead of killing his clone, he kept it around knowing that they could make something out of it. And....at the end when Angier says: "A brother....a twin?" Borden doesn't confirm that they were brothers. Anybody else think about that or am I just crazy?

It's a nice idea but if you really think about it, it just doesn't add up. The Tesla Machine that Borden used on stage was just for show, it didn't actually do anything. When Angier confronted Alley, he admitted that Tesla never built the type of machine for Borden that Angier was looking for.

Also, when Angier uses the machine on stage, Borden is dumbfounded. He has no idea how the trick works. Now if Borden had used a similar machine to clone himself, then he would understand how Angier's machine works.