Jump to content

The Prestige(movie) Real Story (according to speculation)

YoloSwag
 Share
Posted

The Prestige

 

I'll just get down to business and explain what I believe to be the real story in the movie, The Prestige - Directed by Christopher Nolan

 

What you guys already know:

The machine Nikola Tesla built actually works and clones Robert Angier/Lord Caldlow (Hugh Jackman) in order for him to perform 'The Real Transporting Man'.

He dies twice, one of the twins, Borden/Fallon, dies. - It doesn't matter who, because they've lived, quoting one of them, "We were both Fallon. We were both Borden." & "We both had half of a full life, really, which was somehow enough for us. Just... but not for them."

 

The only way to identify the twins is that, the one who lived loved Sarah, and of course the one who died loved Olivia.

 

Here's where my speculation comes in:

I've heard that it is possible that the machine was actually fake. Meaning - it didn't really do anything.

 

But how is that even possible when there were two Angiers?

- Remember that Angier used to have a double. Root, the guy who betrayed him by selling out to Borden/Fallon. No one really knows what happened to him, it is possible that he's the one who died in the tank.

 

But wasn't the machine working when they duplicated the cats and hats?

- That event was written in a journal of Angier that was then given to Borden, which then turns out that it was all a trick. It all could have been a lie just like how Borden lied to Angier with the notebook thing.

 

Angier was explaining himself to the other twin towards the end of the movie.

- He was keeping his secret. This movie is all about keeping secrets. He could be misleading the Borden/Fallon twin to thinking that the machine really works, that's why he was forcing him to look at the tanks. Heck, he was gonna die, why not play one more trick? ;)

 

But near the end, didn't we see a lot of tanks filled with dead Angiers?

- Like I said, Angier is keeping his secrets. The bodies are fake. At the event someone sees the tanks with dead Angiers, they'd think the machine really works, enforcing that idea meant everything to Angier. It was a great precaution. He was a magician, the trick is everything.

 

If that's so then how come they had many shows?

- His greatest ambition was to prove to Borden that he was the better magician. He was luring Borden out to try and find out his secret. He kept on doing the show with his double, Root, until Borden himself came out of hiding. It was a trap after all. A trap that succeeded. Of course one of the twins got caught and was executed, since Angiers goal was accomplished (as in accomplished, I'll explain later) he didn't need to do shows and he decided to keep his secrets locked by returning to his true identity, Lord Caldlow.

 

Why then would he have to kill Root in the last show?

- Tying up loose ends. He doesn't want Root to spill out like he did last time, and this time it played a more important part since one of the Borden/Fallon twins was there to see it and take part of it. No one knows the secret, and his greatest rival had no idea.

 

How was Lord Caldlow, Angiers true identity?

- His wife(the girl who drowned) knew about it and she says that he's pretending to be someone else as a humorous answer to his point. Angier says "I promised my family I wouldn't embarrass them with my theatrical endeavors". Well after the last performance, he decided to take his old identity back.

 

Angier's greatest goal.

- Sure he said something about fooling the world but if you really watched it towards the end, for him, it was always about who was better. After one of the twins got caught he realized he succeeded. He retreated to his real identity and bought all of Angier's(his) equipment, as well as Borden's secrets.

 

The point here is, it is actually a whole different story if you realized there is no 'magic' going on here. It is now more of realism instead of science fiction. Although Nikola Tesla was mentioned, it sure is fiction, but it was more of realism.

 

I've read some critics say it was great in the beginning but they were put off when it suddenly turned into science fiction.

 

I'll close with these -

Angier to the-twin-that-lived - "You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth, the world is simple, miserable, solid... 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 very special. You really don't know. It was the look on their faces."

 

In one way, Angier actually succeeded. He got to see the look on the-twin-that-lived's face as he was sure that he didn't get to figure out Angier's trick but Angier knew about his. This adds a whole other 'wow' to the story and adds drama to their final conversation.

 

The Nolans love twists in their stories, you get some in Inception, Memento, and a very light and obvious one in Batman: Dark Knight Rises.

 

A quote from Alfred... I mean Cutter, "Every magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called 'The Pledge' - The magician shows you something ordinary. The second act is called 'The Turn' - The magician takes the ordinary something and and makes it into something extraordinary. But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it back. 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."

 

You've all been fooled. This was the whole point of the movie - the three parts of a magic trick.

Firstly, The Pledge - we were shown something that magic tricks are just tricks and there is really no magic. Then, The Turn - they actually made you believe that there really is magic; the machine really does what it does. And Finally, The Prestige - you've been fooled! You keep on searching for a final ending where Angier is still alive and keep on searching for all the wrong things. But I! have found the answer!(BWAHAHA!) - chill yo ;)

 

I believe this is how the movie really is and is meant to be. That's the real magic there. The whole point of the movie is making us, the audience, who knows the truth but, believe that there really is something going on.

 

Simply, one of the best movies I have ever seen :D

 

Sources: The movie itself - The Prestige, imdb.

The explanation above was done by me, and not a copy-and-paste thing. The idea however, is common knowledge to those who look.

Personally, I got the idea from a comment on a Facebook post.

 

*Updated as of 11/2/2014

You can bark like a dog, but that won't make you a dog.

You can act like someone you're not, but that won't change who you are.

 

Finished Crysis without a discrete GPU,15 FPS average, and a lot of heart

 

How I plan my builds -

Spoiler

For me I start with the "There's no way I'm not gonna spend $1,000 on a system."

Followed by the "Wow I need to buy the OS for a $100!?"

Then "Let's start with the 'best budget GPU' and 'best budget CPU' that actually fits what I think is my budget."

Realizing my budget is a lot less, I work my way to "I think these new games will run on a cheap ass CPU."

Then end with "The new parts launching next year is probably gonna be better and faster for the same price so I'll just buy next year."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

All Christopher Nolan films are amazing, and this is no exception! one of my favourites

 

Not sure how I feel about your interpretation, but I love that this film does that to people

Desktop - Corsair 300r i7 4770k H100i MSI 780ti 16GB Vengeance Pro 2400mhz Crucial MX100 512gb Samsung Evo 250gb 2 TB WD Green, AOC Q2770PQU 1440p 27" monitor Laptop Clevo W110er - 11.6" 768p, i5 3230m, 650m GT 2gb, OCZ vertex 4 256gb,  4gb ram, Server: Fractal Define Mini, MSI Z78-G43, Intel G3220, 8GB Corsair Vengeance, 4x 3tb WD Reds in Raid 10, Phone Oppo Reno 10x 256gb , Camera Sony A7iii

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I got so bored with this movie that I almost died towards the end.

 

Aside from that, I don't like Christopher Nolan's (and others) let's leave it up the interpretation bullcrap. Like Inception and how people argued so much about the ending whether or not it was still a dream. My attitude  when it comes to this is it was neither. Movie deliberately left it unanswered and promptly killed all my enthusiasm about it. Interpret all you want, you cannot reach to an answer because there is no answer.

 

Dear filmmakers, I don't care to speculate about what your vague endings meant, I don't care to fill in the blanks with my imagination. If I wanted to use my imagination, I could come up with awesome stories for free and amuse myself all day long. I watch your movie to hear your story. If you are going to just not put an ending because that makes it "edgier" well frankly fuck you.

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

I got so bored with this movie that I almost died towards the end.

 

Aside from that, I don't like Christopher Nolan's (and others) let's leave it up the interpretation bullcrap. Like Inception and how people argued so much about the ending whether or not it was still a dream. My attitude  when it comes to this is it was neither. Movie deliberately left it unanswered and promptly killed all my enthusiasm about it. Interpret all you want, you cannot reach to an answer because there is no answer.

 

Dear filmmakers, I don't care to speculate about what your vague endings meant, I don't care to fill in the blanks with my imagination. If I wanted to use my imagination, I could come up with awesome stories for free and amuse myself all day long. I watch your movie to hear your story. If you are going to just not put an ending because that makes it "edgier" well frankly fuck you.

 

Yeah, the Nolans were criticized for this a lot. That's probably why they're really not meant for general audiences.

You can bark like a dog, but that won't make you a dog.

You can act like someone you're not, but that won't change who you are.

 

Finished Crysis without a discrete GPU,15 FPS average, and a lot of heart

 

How I plan my builds -

Spoiler

For me I start with the "There's no way I'm not gonna spend $1,000 on a system."

Followed by the "Wow I need to buy the OS for a $100!?"

Then "Let's start with the 'best budget GPU' and 'best budget CPU' that actually fits what I think is my budget."

Realizing my budget is a lot less, I work my way to "I think these new games will run on a cheap ass CPU."

Then end with "The new parts launching next year is probably gonna be better and faster for the same price so I'll just buy next year."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

It was an okayish movie. It could have been executed in a better way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

It was an okayish movie. It could have been executed in a better way.

It could have been linear, but other people love twists and turns.

You can bark like a dog, but that won't make you a dog.

You can act like someone you're not, but that won't change who you are.

 

Finished Crysis without a discrete GPU,15 FPS average, and a lot of heart

 

How I plan my builds -

Spoiler

For me I start with the "There's no way I'm not gonna spend $1,000 on a system."

Followed by the "Wow I need to buy the OS for a $100!?"

Then "Let's start with the 'best budget GPU' and 'best budget CPU' that actually fits what I think is my budget."

Realizing my budget is a lot less, I work my way to "I think these new games will run on a cheap ass CPU."

Then end with "The new parts launching next year is probably gonna be better and faster for the same price so I'll just buy next year."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Off Topic

×