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Question about "The Prestige"

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Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
9,181
901
126
Originally posted by: hdeck
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: hdeck
you act like they never went to the cemetery to dig up people before.

it's not a sci-fi film. it never was. go read the book.

:roll: to all your comments in this thread ...

oh boo hoo, you don't agree. the machine doesn't work. continue thinking it does if it will make you feel better.

Did you even read the book? The machine works in the book, albeit not exactly the same as in the movie.
 

necine

Diamond Member
Jan 25, 2005
3,631
0
0
Originally posted by: Minjin
Originally posted by: hdeck
Originally posted by: Jeeebus
Originally posted by: hdeck
Originally posted by: Mwilding
Originally posted by: hdeck
Originally posted by: torpid
I had almost everything figured out early too, but still enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Surprise endings are a lame trick anyway. I prefer a movie that's good for 100% of the time and not good just for the last 10 seconds.

did you figure out that the machine doesn't work? :Q

What do you mean? It makes a copy of whatever is in it. That was made very clear. :confused:

actually, it wasn't. the entire movie is based upon angier & borden trying to one-up each other and hide their secrets from one another. part of this was planting false information into their diaries to throw each other off. borden did it with the tesla reference & got angier to go all the way to america in search of the fabled machine that let him do the teleporting trick. tesla never had a working machine. once angier figured it out, he used tesla to make a visually stunning machine that appeared to teleport him (or make clones as he says in his diary).

throughout the movie we are all misled by lies in their diaries that twist the story. angier gave borden his diary to read & did everything he could to make him think the machine actually worked.

the whole premise of the movie comes from cutter's comment "now you're looking for the secret, but you won't find it, because you don't really want to know; you want to be fooled." the secret is that the machine doesn't work, not that borden has a twin.

And the 10 dead clones floating around in the tanks at the end of the movie are Angier's 10 identical twins? :confused:

you don't see 10 dead clones floating around. you see murky water with bodies inside. you only clearly see 1, angier's double root.

Do you honestly believe this stuff you are saying? If your theory was true, the double died during the one time that Borden happened to go down there. But then the murder was reported and the body would have been taken to the morgue and later buried. Are you saying that he went and dug up the body to put him in the tank....to fool who? The viewers?

The stage hands were blind for a reason. Although I personally think its silly that he used a different tank each time. I thought that he was just having the stage hands empty the tank out somewhere every night. Those tanks can't be cheap... ;)

He's right... the entire movie is supposed to be a trick and confuse you. See one thing, believe another. I agree man, good summary.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Borden didn't read about the top hats, cats or the first clone that Angier shot, those scenes were shown to the audience as facts that Borden didn't know about.

The second machine (not Borden's) worked, as a clone-maker.

(Edit) and the tanks were filled with clone bodies. Every tank had to have a normal lock not a trick one, because there was no way to know which night Borden would head under the stage and be framed for murder.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: hdeck
you act like they never went to the cemetery to dig up people before.

it's not a sci-fi film. it never was. go read the book.

What would be the purpose of digging up dead bodies? The only reason he'd need a dead body would be to frame Borden. For that the dead body of just any guy would not be sufficient - it'd have to be the body of someone who looked exactly like Angier. So what's the point of digging up a bunch of dead bodies and storing them in tanks of water?
 

torpid

Lifer
Sep 14, 2003
11,631
11
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I guess it's better to predict the outcome of a movie way before you are supposed to than to still not understand it hours, days, weeks, of years later. Reminds me of the time I went to see the sixth sense and about 3 minutes after everyone else in the audience figured out the gimmick, I heard someone say, "OHHHHH!!! I get it!" and laughed. But what was funnier was, on the way out, that same person had to explain to his friends what happened, because they STILL didn't understand it.
 

PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
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Originally posted by: Mwilding
This movie was a huge let down. So much hype about the suprise ending that would have me watch it over and over and I had the movie figured out half way through...

So lame... There was no mind blowing plot twist. The movie just got around to actually saying what was painfully obvious from an early point in the film...

And yes, the wife knew there were two of them. Women can sniff out a lie better than a bloodhound.

ya, i was also pretty disappointed.

the Illusionist was much better.
 

Shawn

Lifer
Apr 20, 2003
32,236
53
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I figured out this movie as soon as I saw the 2 cats. I didn't guess that the other guy had a twin brother though.
 

Shawn

Lifer
Apr 20, 2003
32,236
53
91
The one thing I didn't pick up on is who's daughter was it? The twin who was hung or the other one?
 

Cruisin1

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
1,119
0
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Originally posted by: Minjin
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Minjin
I just watched it. Very good movie. However, just like with the Illusionist, I guessed the tricks (the cloning and the twins) very early in the movie.

At what point did you guess the cloning?

As soon as he tried the cat and nothing seemed to happen. Although I should have guessed earlier because we can remember seeing the top hats in the very beginning. But as soon as they showed the top hats and the extra cat, the whole movie clicked and I knew that a clone of the magician had been killed. I suspected the twin nearly from the introduction of Fallon (when someone said that Fallon doesn't talk much), but it was absolutely confirmed as when Fallon was kidnapped via Bale's reaction.

edit: I'll tell you one thing I never suspected...that David Bowie played Tesla. :Q

Yeah seriously.. David Bowie... wow.. thats fricken nutts
 

zerocool1

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2002
4,486
1
81
femaven.blogspot.com
Originally posted by: JayMassive
Originally posted by: Alone
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: Alone
Originally posted by: LordSnailz
For Angier's last magic trick, he steps in clones himself, but how does he control where the clone appears?

Calibrating the machine.

Yeah, I think he went back to Tesla after walking outside the house and saw all the clone hats and cats for the first time and reworked where the clone should appears.

Tesla mentions that Alley wrote a thorough set of instructions. One can assume that calibration was part of those instructions.

DID he control where the clone appeared? Hmmm...

at the end when borden confronts angier, angier talks of sacrifice... and his fear whether he would be the man in the box or the man to appear to the audience. so i don't think there was any control. the question is, would he have known?