Does The Prestige Duplication Machine Actually Duplicate Anything?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 เม.ย. 2020
- Oh, boy... a film school grad has a fan-theory about a Chris Nolan film!
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the real duplication machine was the friends we killed along the way
HAHAHAHAhahahahHahHAAhhaha
It’s nice to see a Nolan analysis with an interesting angle to it. And that thumbnail is great. I’ve always described this movie as 2 magicians measuring and wagging their dicks and ruining lives along the way.
Thank you dear stranger, that honestly just made my day a lot better than it was before :)
@@noeloumard9106 no worries mate!
explain this comment plz
I literally just realised Borden was killed by falling through a trap door...
which trap door?
@@xt355 the hangman's trapdoor when he was executed for Angier's murder
This means one thing...the duplicate machine is duplicating. Why then Angier would make kill Borden in a trap door...to kill him as he usually would kill his clones!
@@yarone84 or hb that fact that we see the machine.. work🤦🏻♂️ 😂
only in a description given by angier, doesnt mean it happened @@danarud3471
the real Hugh Jackmans were the Hugh Jackmans we made along the way
The real Hugh was the Jackman we made along the way
@@bigdaddydons6241 the real Hugh was the man we jacked along the way
wolverine was a clone
The real high Jackman was the one in the tank all along
The real references were the realities we referenced along the way.
This movie made me BELIEVE they had ACTUALLY CAST a Hugh Jackman look alike.
When I read that they gave him false teeth to play Root it was like an existential weight was lifted off my shoulders. I could SWEAR they weren’t identical while I was watching, but I was never in a million years gonna guess what was different.
@@coldcrashpictures YEEEEEEEES, holy shit, I was CERTAIN while watching that they were two actors. Maybe that's also a honor medal kinda for Hugh Jackman's acting abilities LOL. I don't even remember when I realized exactly it was Hugh in a double feature all the time, I guess I read the credits properly some day.
coldcrashpictures pssst his nose is different too
@@coldcrashpictures His nose, ears and teeth were
They should’ve, in my opinion that’s the main flaw of the film
(Spoiler warning) While it is certainly an interesting theory, I feel like the film doesn't support it thematically. The thematic notion of the secret being disappointing compared to the trick itself is certainly present in the film, but the film doesn't stop at disappointing; it goes out of it's way to show that the secret sometimes involves sacrifices. The birdcage trick that shows up multiple times throughout the beginning of the film is analogous to the final transported man: in both tricks the original must be destroyed to give the illusion that it has been transported. The theme of sacrifices is also present in Alfred Borden's marriage and life in which he must allow his brother to replace him some times in order to maintain the secret about how his trick is done, destroying his marriage and driving his wife to hang herself. His brother must sacrifice his fingers to replicate the injury caused by Angier shooting him. To one up Borden, Angier must also make sacrifices. First he is forced to sacrifice being in the spotlight for his transported man trick, which bothers him greatly. He still isn't satisfied, so he convinces himself that he must do it better regardless of the cost. Consider the conversation between Angier and Tesla where Tesla asks Angier if he has considered the cost of the duplicator machine. Angier tells Tesla that price is not an object, and Tesla replies "Yes, but have you considered the cost?" This line alone is enough to put this theory to bed as far as I am concerned. The greatest magic trick must involve the greatest sacrifice.
If the final trick was just a better done version of Angier's previous transported man, it would not continue the theme of escalating cost that is present throughout the film. Angier would also never go back to Root for his final trick. Angier doesn't want to get rid of Borden, he wants to beat Borden's Transported Man, and then get rid of him after he has won. Angier is convinced utterly until the very end that Borden is not using a double so he would never be able to feel like he beat Borden by using a double himself. That's why he was never satisfied with his act involving Root, even though it was better than Borden's Transported Man already. Prestige is a film about obsession, not just about rivalry. Angier is obsessed. His character arc is all about the sacrifices made for blind obsession. Deciding to kill himself every night over and over again to one up a rival is the ultimate expression of this.
Yeah
So basically, it's weak either way. Either the cost escalates, and it stops being about who is fooled and why with a really brute force variation (going from one double to hundreds that are killed each time just isn't a big shift), _or_ it's a brilliant trick with costs that are basically one random showboaty guy (Rook) and one a-hole who ruined people's lives just so there wouldn't be one or two more people who knew the secret to his trick. As a viewer, I feel worse about the birds.
Also, I'd say the arc you present is interesting, while the other arc is really boring. It reduces the whole movie to more and more elaborate dick measuring with the same damn measuring tape. Which I guess was always my problem with the movie. The only character I found interesting and appealing was Tesla. And that was probably because I knew enough about his bizarre and tragic life to know why he ended up in the middle of nowhere, flinging lightning through sky on a mountain above a small town that feared and hated him as a real life mad scientist in love with a pigeon (I kid you not). Everyone else seemed to be a tiresome, egotistical, privileged idiot with uninteresting goals, characterization, and background.
Tesla vs. Edison, now that was the _real_ destructive rivalry.
@@kobaltkween There was never real beef between Tesla and Edison, it's a false narrative that's been pushed by unscrupulous publishers for 100 years straight and it's only remained within the cultural consciousness for this long bc everyone loves a good underdog story. The truth is somewhat fittingly just as disappointingly mundane.
That was my take away as well.
@@frosted3 Um, I've read quite a few historical documents that say otherwise. And actually watched the film of the completely unnecessary electrocution of that elephant. And read a fair amount about Edison and his unscrupulous business practices in general. Just by himself, he wasn't anywhere near mundane, and Tesla was even more extreme. I think you need to do more research, and actually look at original documents. Like the account of Tesla with his arcing electrical outfit, and _why_ he wore it.
I love that this movie came out 14 years ago, and people are still discussing its possible interpretations.
Nolan knocked it out of the park with this film.
His best film by a country mile in my humble opinion.
I consider Memento and The Prestige as his best work. Batman Begins, Insomnia, and TDK are close 2nds. Then the rest are all fantastic too (including Tenet)
What I find interesting in this story is that Jackman's character creates a clone of himself to sacrifice for the trick, while Bale's character is a "natural clone" that metaphoric decided to sacrifice the other of himself for the trick.
Both does the same thing in different ways.
I am very attached to the idea of the duplication machine working, because it perfectly shows the lengths both of them are willing to go to best each other. One (well, technically two) of them keeps swapping identities, which basically destroys his family and the other one kills himself over and over again for his trick. I don't think Angier believes that the original version of himself ends up above the audience, but I do think he wants to believe that. It's either that or accepting that the real him has died the first time he performed the trick on stage and now every other time he performs it he's going to drown beneath the stage while a new clone reaps the applause.
The novel the film is based on is absolute crap, by the way. The film is a vast improvement.
That really can't be a clone in the tank at the end. Drowning victims don't stay preserved like that and bulge with water.
That was my initial perspective as well. But, are we all agreeing to the fact that a machine which can duplicate anything (living or non living) which has the same consciousness level or the soul is logical? Another channel highlighted the fact that this was more of a psychological thriller type of a movie NOT A SCI-FI movie.
I had always interpreted that the lines at the end were in reference to the fact that we didn't want to know that Angier killed 100 clones.
thats what he wants to think
Also, when Caine's and Jackman's characters first reunite, they work in a building with a wall of windows. Caine's character says, "We'll have to whitewash the windows (to) confound the more curious members of the public." At the end of the movie, we don't really see all the bodies... we see one body and the rest of the glass boxes have whitewashed windows.
That's a good point which I didn't see in anywhere else!
Main problem with this theory: Why did Angier set up that room full of fake dead clones? If he knew about the second Borden, then why allow himself to be bushwhacked to death? And if he DIDN'T know about the second Borden, why would he go to all the trouble of locking up these fake clone bodies?
We don’t know that the room is full of them. We only see the glass tanks, and we only actually SEE one “clone” inside one of the tanks. The theory goes that this could be Angier’s double that he used earlier in the movie. Obviously, by us not seeing the rest of the tanks, it is still a possibility they are full of clone, but there’s an equal amount of circumstantial evidence that it was all just a grand illusion to trick the audience.
@@onnixcarmichele3911 I'm not so much questioning whether he COULD set up the room as a fake-out, I'm questioning who we imagine he's trying to fake-out. If he knows about the other Borden, it seems like a stretch that he'd take the goof as far as to let himself be killed for it. If he didn't know about Borden 2, who did the set up the room for?
@@onnixcarmichele3911 Still, why make tanks a real thing? It's an expensive prop to make - both tanks themselves and the floating figures inside. He only revealed the truth about the machine when Borden was in prison. He thought Borden died there. No one else was supposed to know. If trip to Tesla was just a tale so could've been the tanks. It's a lot of work and money spent for no one to ever see.
Unless, he knew about the other Borden but then he was really unprepared for the revenge for a guy who prepared all this fake evidence of his trick.
that's plan B. he doesn't know Borden gonna dead or not. Borden can escape. in my opinion
Also, if the machine doesn't work then does Tesla just setup a bunch of identical black hats down to fool Angea into thinking that the machine works? What's his motivation for this? We see the machine working long before Angea sets up his show. And who does Angea shoot when he uses the machine for the first time? This theory is one huge reach, quiet unlikely. And if it's all predicated on Nolan not confirming something, well that's very shaky grounds. Nolan doesn't usually confirm or deny fan theories so that alone doesn't say much.
The thumbnail and the outfit are 10/10
Best thumbnail 2020
omg i hadnt read it until you said this lol
I stared at Hugh Jackman's face before I noticed what whas written
To paraphrase an oft quoted line from Danse Macabre, Stephen King is on the same page as Borden- the answer satisfies no one. It’s the question the audience leaves the theater wondering that satisfies. That lingering, nagging, how? Why? What? They’re not plot holes, they’re not red herrings, they’re a matryoshka doll of morality.
It's an interesting theory but the "wax figure" part is a bit of a stretch. The reason why he would do it, does make sense though.
Nolan didn't deny this theory is possible because that's what artists do. They want to leave room for any interpretation of their art.
I agree, I think it's a fun theory. And Nolan not denying it is like a schrödinger's plot twist if you don't confirm either they're both right and wrong and you get credit for both of them.
Also worth noting IIRC Nolan has done the same thing with the ending of Inception, never confirming whether the top falls or not. He just likes to let audiences play around and believe what they want, more or less
There's a line in the film from Michael Caine saying that he's found better doubles than Root. I always read it that he was killing them. And the body you can see in the tank was one of them rather than Root.
@TheRitualsOfTheSorcerer gross
Not wax figure but plastic surgery on a dead body perhaps? See it was London and that dude was rich af . He was amoral and and wanted to screw Borden's head. Also I think the reason Root is not busted by cutter & Border is coz of the plastic surgery performed which might have cost Angier a fortune
But Angiers thought Borden was was going to hang, and had no reason to think he would ever see the hall of Angiers wax works...?
The trick, ultimately, wasn't to fool Borden. It's to fool the film's audience. Mission accomplished there by Nolan I'd say.
I think the key to this theory would be that Angier knew all along that Borden had a twin and his surprise at the end is merely feigned to make his story believable. What doesn't make sense is that the only way Angier gets a payoff is if he gets murdered by the twin, which feels very out of character of Angier to sacrifice his life and revenge only to make Borden think he was the better magician.
@@oOOoOphidian I think it's pretty clear Angier didn't know it was a double. This is why he is caught by surprise at seeing the surviving Borden.
@@davidlean1060 I agree it's really likely that was the intent in the movie, especially given that the book also has a machine Angier uses that works (albeit a bit differently from the movie). It's still fun that there is just enough ambiguity in the film that it could be either way.
When Angier says he never knew if he was going to be the one up on the stage or down in the tank, what if the duplication machine was real & each time, the Angier going into the machine was the one who fell into the tank? What if the original Angier died the first time & every time he performs the trick, he basically dies & is replaced by a clone?
So the thing is, (if this theory video isn't true) that is what happens. But also, the clone is the one that lives to tell the tale, and the clone is the one that experiences more and then the process repeats. Each time, the surviving Angier has only a continuous experience of being the prestige, giving him further confidence in repeating the performance (even if every single time, the man that goes on the stage is the one that ends up in the box). It's possible that by 100 performances, this confidence would have grown so much that the line 'I never knew...' would actually have to be a lie.
buffypython I’ve actually always assumed this
@@jamesteavery0 even if its random who of the 2 dies, the one who tells the tale is the survivor on the prestige.
I assumed this too
In the book both magicians had children and thier family hatred continued on through the generations until they ended up together. Like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, this pretty much was Wuthering Heights with Wizards.
The author says the film adaptation is better and doesn’t follow his book
As much as I love this theory, I think that the movie is actually pretty straight forward, and follows exactly what is shown. Borden is an identity shared by twins, the machine did actually duplicate Angier, and everything else revealed at the end is correct. I believe the “you want to be fooled” final line is more about the Borden twin system, and the reveal that Angier had been killing himself for the trick.
Yes, Cutter's last line is challenging the audience in a way, to see if they want to suspend disbelief & accept the story we've been presented with, or if we just have to know more because we're in disbelief that it's as simple as we're told. His conclusion is Nolan's, that audiences experience pretending in movies, but we accept and appreciate that pretense because we like how it makes us feel.
This is my
Interpretation. Anything more hurts my head.
I never even considered that he only killed the drunk lookalike, but that is a brilliant theory. Great analysis too. The Prestige is probably Nolan's best film, or at least my favorite.
Unless Root had the best nose job ever in 1840... It wasn't Root.
You mentioned that Nolan didn't deny the theory. I'm curious if you'd take his word for it if he did. Personally, I wouldn't. I feel like creators shouldn't confirm or disconfirm any fan theories.
Also considering the source material emphasizing never revealing the trick, I can't see him disproving any theories even if they are wrong.
Nolan knows the value of ambiguity (see the ending of inception).
@@yourfriendoverseas5810 Yes but inception's ending was confirmed
I always took that as a kind of juxtaposition between the words being spoken and the visuals - “seeing how it’s done,” in this case, is so monstrous and otherworldly that it’s too much to comprehend. So, in this scenario, we are the audience, and with the horror revealed of what Danton was doing to himself, would we want to see behind the curtain? When the price of knowing might be too much to take? Wouldn’t you rather think it was all an easily explainable trick, so the universe can stay the way you think it is? Like Frankenstein.
Did wonder why that big reveal scene was so dark and murky, didn't even realise what was being shown on my first watch (my eyesight is pretty poor). Just put it down to Nolan's sensibilities, he seems to like barely visible scenes. Also, what's the point of the big pile of hats in the forest? Obviously there's nothing to stop someone in the fiction from dumping a load of identical hats in the forest, but from a film-making perspective I don't see why they would be featured unless it's to clearly show that the machine actually produces duplicates.
this was my issue with this theory. the hats / the cats. This guy seems to explain it with 'that never actually happened.' which is kinda weak imo
@@richardcraven no i heard a theory that i liked more and it says that borden and tesla were in on it together to trick angier into funding teslas work
Agreed
@@richardcravenbut then again, why would Borden actually send angier to Tesla to actually get he machine?
Unless he thought that he was going to trick angier into thinking he has the machine? Idk
I have a different vision: the target or audience was Borden, the vision of the top hats and the cat was the vision of Borden who read the diary, all of this had the objective of deceiving Borden who was the "public" that Angier wanted to deceive and with this he proved to be the best magician and Angier achieved so much that he killed the double who was the drunk and got the sentence which in his view was justice for killing his wife, but the other brother came and he tries the same trick but it doesn't work since this other person knew it was a scam!
I love watching videos about The Prestige without ever actually watching it. I feel like I get all the good stuff and just watching the whole movie might make it less enjoyable ... hey, wait a second...
You’re wrong. I’ve literally seen it so many times. I not only see something new each time I watch it, sometimes I get confused if I knew it before or not, but I also learn something new each time I watch these. Now I’m confused if it’s knew or new 😅
Eh... It's kind of interesting, but I just don't think the narrative works in such a way that would allow the whole Tesla sequence to be fictional. If those scenes were framed as Angier telling the story in flashback, or explaining it to Cutter after the fact then sure, but as it stands it would feel like a jarring break with cinematic convention to read the movie like that.
I watched this when I was really young and only remember how Nicola Tesla was played by David Bowie. now I’m gonna have to go back and rewatch this because holy moly
I don't think it holds up for a couple reasons.
First, it relies on certain scenes (shooting the clone, the hats, etc) being lies. It's possible, but a good unreliable narrator story needs to establish itself as such and follow the rules it's set up for itself. It's pretty bad storytelling if you just arbitrarily say that some scenes are completely fabricated, with no indication given.
Second I don't see why Angier would save a tank with his dead double in it if it was just some dude. The reason he keeps them is because it's a kind of monument to his own sacrifice, it wouldn't make sense if they aren't clones. I also don't see why he'd have dozens of other empty tanks. He doesn't know any of this will be seen, so it doesn't make sense for him to set this up to fool anyone.
Third it really cheapens Angier's sacrifice if it turns out he didn't really flip a coin to live or die. It was a major theme of the film that the trick is often sacrifice: the dove trick, the fish bowl magic, Borden sacrificing his marriage, etc.
It's an interesting theory but there are too many holes in it. I think Nolan's refusal to deny it is just simple death-of-the-author style desire to not place unnecessary restrictions on how his film is interpreted.
I'm leaning in this direction as well.
However, if the machine is real, the scenario also paints Angier as a massively selfish, narrow, very short-sighted man. He has a machine that truly duplicates anything. Cows, gold, anything you want from 1895. He doesn't get massively wealthy, solve hunger, or anything. It's all dedicated to his trick and DIES with him.
But, massive potential erased by extreme lack of vision is not a unique story, not by any means.
@@davepowder4020 Not exactly, I mean, maybe he was going to do something of that but first he wanted to accomplish his revenge, putting your moral to a character doesn´t say anything about the film, after all, he is a murderer...
@@davepowder4020 Plus if the machine was real, Tesla would be famous today for inventing a duplicating machine, ha!
@@davepowder4020 It's established in the film that Angier is actually a super wealthy British Lord in disguise as an "American" magician. His whole point in life is his stage act and revenge on Borden, and desire to outdo Borden.
For the first point, indicators were given. The whole Tesla story is narrated by Angier and read by Borden in jail.
Interesting but this basically assumes that Angier knows the plot of the movie beforehand and in particular knows about Borden's twin. This makes no sense considering the lengths he goes through to figure out how Borden does his trick even though he already achieved the exact same thing with his lookalike.
Coming from a love of Cosmic Horror I like to imagine he did use cloning and that the discovery of cloning lead to his partial insanity since he hit the philosophical roadblock of cloning/teleportation: What was teleported? No matter the method of cloning/teleportation you will reach a point where you must ask yourself, what part of me is me that I should target? I think someone as intelligent as him used his understanding of Illusions to figure out a harsh truth: There is no self. Self identity is the greatest illusion of all time and the replication of the self proves that he does not exist in the way he imagined as a singular entity, it's all smoke and mirrors called emergence.
But instead of falling to pieces he ran with it and used this new understanding of the truth in order to have an advantage in his acts. No body would ever consider the possibility of clones nor would they accept it because that nagging truth of self-identity would critically damage their own sense of self. In that way it's akin to a cultist using the cognitive dissonance of an inductee to further push them away from their own sense of self and follow the cultist, but in this case it's the trick exploiting this psychological defense.
That's the truth we aren't truly looking for and don't want to know. That identity is an abstract illusion used to give us order in a senseless universe so that we may survive. Everyone in the movie who casts away their sense of self is rewarded while those who hang onto their understanding of the world is tricked or left dying confused as to how they couldn't see how things lined up to their current predicament. And anyone pursuing him will go through mental gymnastics to avoid accepting his methods as plausible. Sending his investigator's into a spiral of layers upon layers of planning and trickery they made up for Angier assuming 'that's how he's doing it!'
I also think that's the tragedy of Angeir's death, the advantage he had that people would ignore truth in favor of their own version was a double edge sword. Angier was one of the few who knew the truth that everyone unwittingly refused to see and even surrounded by evidence of this truth Bordem, the stand in for humanity, choose to ignore it because they'd rather cling to their own understanding. Humanity when given a chance to improve will willing choose to stay in mediocrity unless pushed to the brink with no other options; we'd rather live a lie then humor truth.
Thank you for that. It was always the part of the movie that frightened me
perfectly said. 👏👏
Very well stated. I just have a problem with giving Angier more credit than he deserves. To me, he doesn't have truth that no one else does. Angier is twisted. He took Borden's lesson on sacrifice paving the way for a truly great trick & completely misinterpreted it. That's why he's portrayed as the villain by the end of the movie. Angier is a cynic who only understood recognition. He had no appreciation for craft like Jess' dad did.
Although the machine being real does work better for a cautionary tale of revenge, which makes all the Tesla stuff more relevant as well. A man is granted access to the greatest advancement in scientific history and uses it for revenge and murder, just as petty greed motivates Edison's pursuit of Tesla and denial of his dream in the film.
The Prestige, a film that just utterly baffled me :S
Line Bjørgen if anything, i found it made too much sense. it was too in sync. too neat. probably the movie that’s easiest to write about. ever.
@@foofy3406 Well, it is one of the few movies where Nolan sticks to a single topic and explores it to the end instead of juggling with ten different concepts, biting off a bit and then have them lying pointlessly around until the closing credits...
What about all of the times we see hats and animals duplicated? Were those all just visualizations of the explanation given or did that happen?
All of those instances were from Algiers' point of view as recorded in his diary. Therefore, we can't necessarily believe it happened that way. It could have just been Algiers putting false information in his diary for Borden's benefit.
@@rickdff62 the hats may have been placed there just to make it look like the machine worked. tesla left as soon as he got the money and the machine was delivered. if the machine was a phony then tesla would not want to be there when Angier found out.
I can't buy it, just because Borden so easily sniffed out Root in the first place.
I know I have seen several critics pan this movie because it suddenly changes into the realm of Science Fiction/magic with no warning, but you have convinced me that Nolan was going for the ultimate trick in the end, and fooled even the critics......Which is what a magic trick is supposed to do. I need to rewatch it now!
That's crazy. That's what I love most about this film!
think about what the movie is called
What doesnt make sense is that you say that angier wants to fool Borden one more time. Why? As far as Angier knows Borden is already dead.
Did anyone else have to watch this twice?😅😅
2:35 Umm... isn't the one appearing on the balcony the clone and the one falling into the water the original? It's been a while since I saw the film but I seem to recall the cloned hat, and cat, appeared in the field while the original stayed where it was.
They're both the original. There's no distinction. One sees himself as nothing having happened & the other as being teleported.
All I know is the top spun for way too long, and Batman sure did escape that nuclear blast quickly.
Sooo what about all the hats in a pile? Just aesthetics?
Telsa went out and purchased 100 hats in a complex plot to swindle Angier out of his money! I also believe Telsa turned frogs gay and is responsible for chem trails! This whole theory is weak and based on some pretty large assumptions that simply aren't really shown in the movie.
This video is the best explanation. And your part 2 commentary breaks down the exchange between the men to reveal what is really going on in their dialogue.
It's really nice to go back to your earlier videos and see that you did make the videos you were interested in creating. (I think you mentioned this idea back in 2015 or something.) Congrats on another year of great videos!
I’m all about that planting & payoff.
I mean, if I was Angier, I would be more than delighted to travel across the world to see David Bowie-- I mean, Nikola Tesla.
Honestly, I like the film far more if the machine works. With the alternate theory it feels like you're just guessing what was in Nolan's head. The evidence that the machine doesn't work seems very weak and circumstantial. There's no real hinting that Angier is using a double/twin. The is nothing to suggest that Root was still around. Borden's brother was clearly foreshadowed and it's obvious upon a second viewing.
People think the main theme of the film is about deception of the audience, but I think there's also another important theme that is also very important. When Borden explains the bullet catching trick to Sarah she says something to the effect that it's obvious once you know the secret. Then when Angier is trying to figure out Borden's transporting man trick Cutter is telling him the obvious answer which is Borden is using a double, but Angier can't believe it's that simple, but Cutter is basically right. Maybe the audience is trying to make something more complicated than it needs to be. The most obvious answer to how things ended is that the duplication machine worked and Angier was basically committing suicide every night hoping his clone appears.
There's no reason to think this movie isn't sci-fi. It is, Christopher Nolan we're talking about. So that's how I think the film works best and how I enjoy it the most. If other people like other theories better, good for them.
You like the film far more because you wanna be fooled
Sorry I had to say it haha
No. When Angier used a double, Borden spotted it right away. Even if this new double is somehow better, Borden wouldn't be fooled because he knows how that trick is done; in order for the story to play out, he has to be CERTAIN that it's really Angier he's seeing at every stage of the trick.
Not only Borden, but he would have to be fooling Cutter as well. There is a scene were Cutter would be in a conversation with a body double for a extended period of time and there is no way they would pull that over on him.
Correct, people are searching for ways for the machine not to work.... But they always fall short in proving it. Way too many things show that it does. Zero show that it doesn't.... Even in the book the machine apparently works. It just works. It's a movie and not real life.
@@MrVicbryant Or Angier was so ambitious he got extremely good at it
@@MrVicbryant Wait, so did Cutter know about the two Bordens?
@@Gurrehableyes
I immediately clicked after seeing your thumbnail 😂
I hate allowing myself to succumb to clickbait, but the thumbnail alone brought me to this video lol
I love your channel and I love this movie so much. I always assumed that the duplication was a metaphor for Angier sacrificing his soul to his ambition. I know it's a bit shaky because if the machine actually could duplicate anything it touches the "soullessness" would apply to everybody, since everyone could potentially use it. But Angier is the one using it after all.
For me the theory doesn't fit into the film's theme or genre. The underlying premise is that in any magic trick, you could spot the trick if you were looking hard enough but you don't want to.
Fallon is the best example of that. On my first watch I did not see the twist coming at all - Fallon had this weirdly repulsive energy about him I didn't want to think about him. On every other watch I kept thinking to myself "How could I miss this? This is so obviously Christian Bale in make up".
The film never out right lies to us - it may leave out scenes or show us the same scene from a different perspective later but at no point are we led to believe that what we're seeing isn't actually happening. So if the whole Tesla arc is a lie, just a visualization of what Borden is reading, I think the movie would betray its own statement and genre. Like a whodunit story in which the murderer is revealed based on evidence the audience was never given.
What a cool take!! I love the idea of knowledge being like this ephemerally antagonistic or liberating thing, dependent on framing of characters, but the idea that this theory allows for like, perpetual discussion over the theme is just *chef's kiss* amazing because it translates that knowledge theme directly to the audience, and doesn't contradict canon which, props. Thanks for sharing this!!
Thank god!! I heard you say this theory in another video and I’m so happy we get it explained 💕
Also now that I’ve finished the video, thank you for the point that plots conspiracies and hot takes on films only matter if they evolve the character arcs and storytelling catharsis in some way. What you said was a cool new way of looking at each of the characters. I can’t stand film theories that are like every Disney movie is one big connected timeline because to me it doesn’t add any value to the storytelling
thanks for making a video on one of my FAVORITE movies!
Only a Nolan theory could be this meta
A read of Christopher Priest's novel The Prestige might assist.
He got lucky dropping the drunk guy on the one and first night that Borden goes snooping under the stage.
I never saw this and appreciate this eye opening insight into this film.. great channel and videos. Glad to be subbed. (raises glass) Cheers!
Asa magician, I approve of you theory. Great video man, just subbed!
i once wrote a 39-page essay on this movie. not for school. i didn’t go to film school. i just did it for fun. it wasn’t half bad, no pun intended
I did one for Batman begins
Good breakdown! I really like your point at the end - and ironically, it’s the same reason I like inception. At the end, when the top doesn’t fall and the film cuts, the audience thinks it’s a cliff hanger. But Cobb is walking away, into his own reality with his kids, because they’re real to him. He didn’t care about the top. Just like how Borden doesn’t care to look at Angiers “proof”. Brilliant storytelling!
If you really wan to go deeper, read the novel by Christopher Priest.
Oh god I read it. Its even more horrifying. Good but horrifying. Angier is an even bigger monster than we thought.
Yeah I just got goosebumps thinking about the final chapter. It was such a riveting book...omg
Based on the novel, did Angier copy himself?
@@elgato49 Yes but with a stark difference. The machine in the book creates a body a set distance away and then moves the soul to that body. The old body is a near lifeless corpse/shell. In the movie it is a 100% fully functioning clone.
When he said, "You want to be fooled." He meant that he knew that every time he entered the machine, he was guaranteed to die and make a clone of himself that carried on his life. He knows he is voluntarily dying, creating a clone that has to live with the horror of another body to dispose of and that clone knowing his days are numbered.
This theory blew my mind. Also “A magician never reveals his tricks”
So Borden suddenly lost the ability to tell Root and Angier apart, while he previously saw it immediately? Root was notoriously unreliable but was suddenly performing perfectly for a hundred shows? All the differences in Root's and Angier's looks disappeared somehow? All of that without the slightes chance for the audience to find that out by "watching closely"?
yesssss you made a video about it!!
yay, new video!! missed you lol❤️
It's established that Borden was(/were) able to tell that Root was Angier's double. To assume that, in the Real Transported Man, Angier was using Root or any other double, but Borden was(/were)n't able to tell, without the movie addressing why (t)he(y) failed to recognize it in the latter trick, is just cheaty fanwankery.
Interesting, though.
Indeed. I have a really hard time believing that Nolan's answer, the one he keeps to himself & doesn't tell, doesn't follow the rules & logic displayed in the movie, or that it incorporates concepts that are not even suggested in the movie.
Correct... Bordan/s was/were onto Angiers first transported man double without issue.... but the next one when he comes back there is a scene where the Borden is going crazy because he can't work out how he does it. Mix that in with the absolute fact that it was the real Angiers (not Root unless he had the best nose job ever in 1850) in the water at the end, on the slab dead (also confirmed by cutter aswell) on stage and the balcony every time we see any footage of the trick post Tesla machine, going into the machine from the balcony and apperaring back at the balcony when showing that old dude the trick to get the show approved.....+ Cutter said "why aren't you dead to Lord Caldlaw and Cutter also said the machine actually works to the Judge..... + Angiers last line about not knowing if he would be the one drowning or the prestige every night. Man there is even more + apparently the machine is real in the book...... I'm looking everywhere to be shown that the machine doesn't work.... but I just can't find anything at all that proves it. I'm calling it's on what we are actually shown in the movie.... If people want to assume potential things and disregard things that were shown in the movie then that's up to them. I'm not even convinced that Angiers grand plan was to frame Borden... sure he'd take that, but Angiers needed to do what he done anyway just to do his show and be the Prestige everynight. Borden getting jailed may have just been a nice bonus.
I will bite. Time for 3rd rewatch
Oh no, I’ve gone cross-eyed again 😣
This was my fave movie for so long. Years ago when I watched it again, I came across this theory and was skeptical. But the more you think about it, it’s almost the most sensible ending. It goes with the theme of the movie perfectly that his greatest trick would be tricking his rival and seeing his face in disbelief as he dies. Then you think about Christopher Nolan and his love for ambiguity. It’s hard for me to believe this wasn’t possibly the point of the entire movie. Regardless, a great movie is one that you can’t stop thinking about long after you watch it. In both Memento and the Prestige, Nolan does that as well anyone’s ever done it IMO.
Honestly after all these years and a few more movies under his belt, I think Nolan not confirming or denying the theory is his way of fucking with us.
A good artist doesn’t confirm or deny theories about their work. They generally prefer to allow their work and a person’s interpretation of it to speak for themselves. Death of the author and all that. If you can’t tell, I’m swiping at Ridley Scott just out and out saying: ‘Deckard is a replicant.’ When the movie left it vague.
Plus, he’s Christopher Nolan, virtually all of his films (The Prestige especially) are just him messing with the audience.
@@samuelbarber6177 There is a theory that David Bowie’s Tesla is a fake Tesla and Andy Serkis’s Tesla was the real Tesla. Tesla had a fake double in order to trick Thomas Edison’s agents from stealing his work. Bale’s character knew the truth that it was a fake Tesla and Jackman’s character failed to see it. Tesla’s machine was not the magic trick Tesla was the magic trick.
Root has detached earlobes. Angier does not. The corpse on the slab has joined, hence Angier's, earlobes. They didn't "forget" the prosthetics.
holy shit. great observation
7:00 right there looked so much for that particular comment everyone kept writing how you see many clones in those tanks, all I could think was "I see one clear one and others maybe have a persons maybe not even". Thank you for pointing this out it was driving me crazy. Clearly nolan could have made it obvious if there were clones in those tanks but he did not. He actively chose to show only one angie.
also do we know the time line of when the root dies and the body is shown that is on the autopsy table? maybe it is the same body.
This video was masterful. God, I loved this. What a film.
Thank you so much for this video! I am always looking for opportunities to talk about how much I love the Prestige, but those chances are few and far between considering this movie is 15 years old already.
For me, the mystery surrounding the magic was very delicious and complex, but not quite but as frustrating or crazy-making as the original question Angier wanted an answer to: which knot did Borden tie the night Julia died?
It made me want to pull my hair out that neither of the Borden twins could ever give him an answer, and because of it, I ultimately sympathized a little more with Angier’s descent into madness/obsession than I could with the plight of the Borden twins. Because honestly - “how could you not know??”
Anyway, thanks again. I find the theories and headcanons you touched on a bit superfluous bc they don’t really enhance my enjoyment of the film more than my own interpretations, but I enjoyed watching nonetheless. Love the way you put these video essays together and I’m grateful for your hard work!
P.S. I was not expecting the way “hats, cats, and... Hugh Jacks?” actually made me burst out laughing lmao.
If I wasn't considering this while watching the film I probably would have fallen asleep.
What about the theory that there are hired actors in the water tanks in the end?
Angier hired a lot of look-a-likes and killed them at the end of every show. He killed two birds with one stone, makes a teleportation trick and deal with the only person who knows the secret.
I mean it is "possible" but very unlikely and requires many things set up in the movie to just be thrown aside, which is a lazy way to end a movie that is built on being clever. It is shown that a double shouldn't be the pledge in an act, as the build up and presentation of the act is what makes it work. The pledge sets the stage and the prestige only has to appear, bow, and leave the stage (this act is very likely the end of the show). For the drown person to just be line of actors that Angier is tricking would violate the rule they created earlier in the movie. It would also be hard to find/train 100 of these actors up to a standard that would fool Borden, who is very good at detecting stuff things, for each performance.
I reckon there was more chance of inventing a clone machine than finding 100 Jackman lookalikes (secretly) in 1850.
@@MrVicbryant I think it goes exactly with the film. “There’s always a double. Always.”
i love your channel!
14:18 lol, this edit had me rolling...
Unless Root got the best nose job ever in 1850.... The clone machine worked.
I'd argue that the Duplication machine was advanced science that tapped into magic. Too advanced. What is the duplication machine? Well put on your Star Trek hats cause let's go back to what the trick is supposed to be: A teleporting man. The trick is making the audience believe the Magician teleports from one place to another place. And that's what the machine is: it's copying Angier atom by atom, piece by piece, and transporting this carbon copy of Angier to the other part of the theatre.
The gist is that while Tesla is a brilliant scientist - or more aptly "wizard" - this is still the early 1900s and after the late 1800s. There's many concepts of science fiction and technology that have not even entered common thought let alone the minds of geniuses. So Tesla could figure out that in order to "teleport" it means transporting oneself atom by atom piece by piece, down to the very core. But the technology isn't perfect and it actually doesn't transport atom by atom wholesale - it leaves behind the original. So going back to Star Trek, it's like whenever they teleport to any planet, it's them being transported via atoms or light ot whatever but its at a point in history where the tech is perfected so you have a person wholesale teleported.
Angier's comment "I didn't know if I was the one in the box or the prestige" was more of a philosophical or spiritual remark. The moment he did the first transport, he killed his copy that was "teleported". But on the first night of the trick, it was Angier himself - the original who lived a life and lost his wife and feuded with Borden for years - who was trapped in the box. But the copy had Angier's memories, his ambitions, he was "him" and so that was the question, "is that Angier still"? Its a copy sure but if exactly like Angier and not the same physical body, doesn't that make him Angier anyway? Tesla coyly answers this when Angier asks which hat is his "They all are". Thus they all are Angier. Thus Angier did die every night and did teleport every night. The prestige was always a new copy with the same memories, but not the same body as the previous night.
The last line "you want to be fooled" is more so a note by Nolan. We can learn all we can the truth about tricks, about "magic" but its always a ruse of a sort. Even "real magic" like what Angier was doing was a ruse, a more sinister and dark ruse. Just like the classic Bird in a cage. A magician to make it look like they teleported a bird from being crushed, is really a magician killing a bird and revealing another "copy" as the previous bird. You want to be fooled because the truth ruins the magic.
While Im not really convinced this was a great video. The Prestige is one of my favorite movies as well-so much so that I named my twin kitty boys Albert and Fredrick Borden. Because of them? Ive spent a few viewings trying to figure out which twin is on-screen at any given point in time.
Fredrick is the asshole that ‘cheats’ on his wife and is executed while Albert is the nicer one who designs all their tricks, is actually married and (hopefully) the father of his child, and confronted Angier at the end. One could argue that either name combination is correct but thats exactly how my boys are so thats what Im going with. :)
loved this vid!
I love this movie, and I enjoyed this speculation on it! Still amazed by this movie, even after all these years.
What about this the part the movie after the hanging is a hallucination of what he wants. He wants to believe in magic against all odds.
As someone who rarely looks that closely at films, I really enjoyed this deep dive into the film's narrative. Also, you get bonus points for costuming. Not nearly so extravagant as the Harley Quinn cosplay, but very on point nonetheless.
This is a fantastic theory .... it just needs us to really suspend the disbelief: Chris Nolan ain't clever enough to make the movie That Clever
Theme of the movie are guilt, grief and revenge. I have to watch it again, maybe this is so key to the mystery.
How Angier kill himself or the double (even if it's himself how the burden is symbolic of self destruction) and Borden for revenge. Considering this how could he talk about wonder on his deathbed? Could it be that he was looking to free Borden of his guilt despite Borden feeding it because of the pain and could he have free himself of the grief by "fooling" himself about the deception of death.
The conclusion seem to be about rebirth, hope (Angier) and love(Borden). Maybe the rebirth is a theme carry by Cutter?
I don't think it matters the point is that Angiers is prepared to do anything for revenge even murder whether it's himself or another person. He wants to make Borden lose something like he did. In the end Borden has already lost his wife in living a double life and then loses his twin. That's why he doesn't care and only wants to avenge Angiers or stop him taking more just as Angiers doesn't want to know the trick he wanted to up stage. Borden has paid too much and just wants to preserve what's left.
Great use of Ethel Merman at the very end!
I've been thinking this for years! I've watched several 'prestige ending explained' videos, and I always think, 'no, that's not right', I've always thought this was the real explanation, never come across it anywhere before.
My guess, several years after The Prestige’s release, and after watching Tenet and Interstellar, it’s a Time Machine. Read up on Everette’s ‘many worlds theory’. This would also explain his line, ‘I did not know if I was going to end up in that box or on the balcony.’ I don’t think he truly knew because he merged two timelines into one. Tesla’s theory about the universe being compromised of energy, frequency, and vibration also supports the machine functioning more like a Time Machine than a cloning machine. Or maybe I’m just splitting hairs, lol.
This is actually really convincing. I wasn't expecting that. The "Look at all the elaborate puppets I made in order to pull off one last illusion" story actually feels much more believable than the "Oh, but he's using REAL magic from a magical Tesla character that has nothing to do with the historical figure" cop-out, which I always had a problem with. You should have included that into your analysis of the themes: This is a film about illusions and trickery first and foremost. To believe that Nolan would just sell this concept out with some cheap "no, but there actually IS real magic" nonsense, THAT is the theory that would do disservice to the film and its themes.
But the thing is that you want to believe there´s something more, he´s showing it from the start.
teleportation isnt magic though. its science.
@@lunali7209 I disagree, but it doesn't really matter - the rest of the film shows stagecraft and trickery clearly available in this time and place where the movie is set. This "teleportation" trick would require way, way out science fiction that has nothing to do with the science of Tesla and clearly was not consistent with the technical abilities of these times. (also: it's not really teleportation, though, is it? It's multiplication/instant cloning.)
@@danijobi the novel this movie based on involved real magic cloning, albeit different outcome. But you know, death of the author and all that stuffs
@@lunali7209 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
For us it seems like a simple scientific idea, but it we look back a century things change a bit. That was the time when people thought there was life on Mars and Venus and you could sail on the ether between the stars. When people drank mercury and irradiated water to be healthy and electricity in that use was still rather novel. A machine that sparks and seemingly teleports people is close enough to magic that people can be convinced it is.
Love your videos
We love it, I haven’t seen all of it, but I know I love it.
...How come Tesla didn't just duplicate money?
Also, Jackman did the trick multiple times (100). He also walked into the electricity. A wax sculpture can't walk...Unless Tesla's machine brings it to life!
If it was a dummy, why bother drowning it? To convince the blind man?
Why isn't Andy Serkis CG?
How'd David Bowie get so cool?
Can Scarlett Johanson possibly get hotter?
THIS MOVIE BOGGLES THE MIND!
Lol plothole
6:35 Lord Caldlow is not a new identity. He pretended to be American Robert Angier to not embarrass his extremely wealthy, upper-class British family.
When Borden asks Angier, "you must be lord Caldlow," he responds "yes, I am. Always have been."
This boy is so cute!! Lock me up in a quarantine with him 😍
Angier and Freddy were the bad guys and Allen was the good guy…I’m sticking to it. Great vid!!
Why would Angier go through the trouble of commissioning that many wax sculptures of himself (something which would be incredibly odd, since I doubt there were that many wax sculpture artists at the time, so at the very least they would have to make multiple sculptures themselves, and would probably talk to each other like "Hey, you know that magician? He got me to make a few sculptures of himself." "What really? He did the same for me")
And why would he do that if those were never meant to be seen? If found, at the very least it would have triggered an insane investigation into wtf was going on.
If it was purely for Borden's twin, which Angier didn't even know about since he was still after Borden's trick (up until he tore it up cause his was better), did he lure him down there? Did he tell Cutter? If so, did he expect to just... be killed? Did he not think anything would have happened?
If the point was to fool Borden with "real magic", it doesn't even make sense. Angier had nothing to do with the machine, and wasn't even thought up by him. If it was about showing him that he sacrificed to do the trick, that has nothing to do with the point of being better than him.
Are we really already at the point at, when there is no unexplained impossible twist at the very end of a Nolan Film, we have to make one up ourselves?^^ Let the guy tell a story with a proper ending for once!
How about you let other people enjoy media how we want to?
@@NineWheels Uuuhm...I didn't really stop you from doing so?
But that aside, I hoped it was fairly obvious my first comment was said with a wink. It was more making fun of Nolans constant twisty endings that are so numerous, that when there isn't a final incredible twist, we still expect one.
I like fan theories and I enjoyed this video for that matter :) I don't agree with this specific theory but I didn't mean to tell anyone they have to agree with ME. Possibly I have to sharpen my sarcasm though
@@noeloumard9106 I'm sorry, I guess I overreacted. It's hard to tell when someone's Really Serious about an opinion like that, especially on TH-cam, so I admit I've gotten a little tetchy about it. My bad.
@@NineWheels Nevermind mate :) Have a nice time
But truly the biggest trick in the movie is convincing us that both, Batman and Wolverine look damm good in waistcoats.
They effing do
Nolan is the same guy who made the interstellar ending with supernatural elements. I think he’s serious about the cloning machine.
I don't think Interstellar technically has ANY supernatural elements. The 'beings' that formed the tesseract and made the wormhole turned out to be just the people in the future.