Saw the film yesterday.
Although I will say that I liked the film, I did figure out all of the twists before the end of the film and was surprised by nothing.
If you haven’t seen the film, wait for DVD or a cable broadcast…not worth spending the money, although you will like it when you can see it for cheap, or for free, in a few months.
I think that was my problem as well - I kept thinking there must be something more, but from what I can tell, there wasn’t. The very end with the water boxes just annoyed me - I felt like I was being hit in the head (like Only Mostly Dead) and something about just felt sloppy. Friend I saw it with thought it was great, though when she realized that Angiers was drowning each night she got this disgusted look on her face and said “That man is sick.”
Quite possibly reading too much into things, but here’s what I’m thinking…
The original cat is (not unsurprisingly) yowling it’s fool head off whilst getting zapped with lightning. The cat suddenly becomes calm as the light display ends, and runs off outside just ahead of Angier. As he’s walking down the path, you can hear angry cat noises. Could be the two cats fighting, but they don’t appear to be as the camera pans over the hats.
I read this as original cat is getting zapped, and “suddenly calm cat” marks the appearance of the clone. Original cat is outside, still yowling, which we hear as Angier exits the building, but calms down by the time he’s on the scene to see the hats.
This would mean that clone (Mk 2, if you will) Angier is the one that does the shooting, and the original Angier is the shootee whose protestations are cut off. This would also mean that Mk 2 is the one getting transported to the balcony each night of the show, and all the subsequent clones are drowning. Mk 2 therefore has the dubious distinction of catching the bullet from the twin at the end. Which would give you one “Mk 2” killing another, rather than a clone of a clone of a clone [loop ad nauseum] being shot, which would tie things up nicely.
Tesla’s commentary about the hats all being identical certainly tends to detract from this avenue of thought, but my wife and I were struck by how quickly that cat shut up while watching the flick. And everything that follows works out nicely from a plot/poetic justice stand point, so Tesla could be seen as an (semi)ignorant character rather than as a mouthpiece for the director’s metaphysical views.
My 2 cents.
-ellis
Actually, to me that means that the original Angier is always sent to the balcony, and then later disposes of the newly created and immediately drowned clone.
I love this movie, and love this kind of moral enigma- a clone that sprouts fully adult and aware must have…what? The memories of Angier I right up to the flashpoint when he the Clone of Angier was created? If so, then he knows as he hits the water that he is going to die- because he has all of Angier’s memories and knowledge and yet hits the water and is trapped.
That would explain, or allow for reading further into, the expression of terror on Clone of Angier’s face at the beginning/end of the film as he drowns.
To me, the one who was shot dead is the one true Angiers.
Loved catching David Bowie by about the second close-up. I checked the eyes. 
The Edison/Tesla parallel was brilliant, IMHO. Edison was a heartless fucker, a head buster and ruthless businessman in addition to being rather brilliant. ( And deaf in one ear. )
Gotta find the book now and read it. With all of the doubling back and double identities, I wonder if it reads like a Russian novel.
Cartooniverse
Read the novel over the summer, liked it.
Just came back from the movie, LOVED it.
Finally got the chance to see this last night, and I really enjoyed it.
I think I caught all the twists except one, and it’s probably minor. When Borden and Angier are having their revealing expositions at the end, Borden says something to the effect that the reall trick to his Transporting Man isn’t that he has a double, but where the switch occurs. Then there’s a quick flashback of the two of them passing each other, presumably in the middle of the show somewhere, but it happened so quickly that I couldn’t tell what he was referring to. Did anyone catch what happened there?
No I did not catch that at all! I need to see it again so that I really absorb everything. …I do have a question about the end when Jackmans character was like I never knew which on it was going to be in the water tank? I thought he was just doing the clones again…can someone shed some light there?
I enjoyed the film a whole lot, even if they hit you over the head with the twists (which really makes me think that there has to be something else going on, but who knows). Just one question;
Before the one Borden is hanged, what are his last words?
His last words were “Abra Kadabra”.
Yeah there were several twists in the movie, which only made it that much better!. I can’t get over how both men were so obsessed with this magic. It took over there lives…Great movie, sad story!
I hope I’m remembering and interpreting correctly: I think that he was saying the real trick was that the switch occurs during the Transporting Man. Meaning that it wasn’t one of them being Borden most of the time and just occasionally being the other guy. The trick is that Borden is doing the show, then he does the Transporting Man and gets into the first box, and the other guy gets out of the second box and is now Borden until the next time they do the trick and switch again. I guess that minimized the chance that they would be caught switching identities. Hope that makes sense.
We caught this film on Wednesday. Loved it, but just wanted to comment on the ‘Borden-twins’ thing. This actually annoys me. As I left the film I thought ‘oh right they were twins the whole time’ and I didn’t like that. It just seemed to be piling on the plot implausibilities. Give us a double of Hugh Jackman, then give us a cloning machine too, but don’t put identical twins in as well! :rolleyes:
So when we decided instead that Borden had in fact been duplicated once by the Tesla machine, that just seemed to make a whole lot of sense to me and I’ve been sticking to that version of events. Now I read this thread and it appears that the ‘twins’, not ‘clones’ explanation, fits the story better.
But I’m sticking with the ‘clones’ explanation. So there.
Also, I buy Tesla’s thesis that there is no ‘original’ and no ‘copy’, that they are all the same hat… and all the same Angier. (and Borden dammit!)
I had a morbid thought later that night. Suicide is obviously very difficult to contemplate for most of us… but what if you knew you had a clone that was just created a few moments ago? It seems to be that dying might be a little easier in that circumstance. I dunno. Hmm.
I agree. I know there’s a lot of discussion about which was the clone and which the real Angier, but I didn’t see anything in the movie that gave any evidence for either being an actual clone. As far as I can tell, after the machine did its thing, there were two ‘real’ Angiers.
I loved the movie, but need to see it again to pick up on everything I missed. I’m terrible at that sort of thing.
My one nitpick:
The backup safety plan of Michael Caine using an ax to free the girl if the trick goes wrong was not much of a plan. Obviously, when it was needed it failed spectacularly and I would think Caine’s character could easily make a box with a trap door or something that would let the water out in an instant. After all, at that point the trick is over and there is no need for any subtlety.
It would have made perfect sense if he stood on stage with the ax, rather than hidden in the wings. Then it becomes part of the act, to heighten the drama of the trick.
This is the kind of observation that makes me feel dumb. I sat through the movie and watched both desperate, labored efforts to break through very thick glass and free the drowning people, and it never even occurred to me that a better escape plan might be a good idea.
They wouldn’t even need a trap door. A section of the glass could be deeply scored, like a Hershey bar, so it could easily be bashed in.
But in Angier’s case, the point was to not be able to escape. The ‘extra’ Angier was supposed to die.
I understand that. But the boxes were not redesigned with this in mind, or they’d have been iron instead of glass. And presumably he still uses them for the escape earlier in his act, so they still need safety features.
NO see the entire time I thought they were clones…I completly forgot about Telsa saying that they were all the same…That kind of changes things now…especially at the end when Jackman said that he never new who was going to die!
That comment by Angier at the end was very important, I think he said something to the effect that he had to convince himself before every show that he was going to be the one that appeared in the balcony. As I see it, there was one Algier who had a continuous thread of consciousness all the way up to stepping into the machine and jumping to the balcony, and another Algier who was conscious of stepping into the machine and then dropping through the trap door and drowning.
Before every show, he had to convince himself that the true effect was to transport himself to the balcony, because the alternative was to be running a 50/50 risk that he was going to drown. I don’t think I could do it.
A guy at work yesterday pointed out an interesting parallel that I didn’t catch, that in effect what was happening to Algier was the same thing that happened to the bird in the disappearing bird trick: the one on stage died during each show, and the Prestige was a different bird entirely.
Yeah that makes since about the hat and his statments at the end of the movie the 50 50 thing…which to me is crazy…his obsession with the magic trick went too far if you ask me…but he bird thing I thought was a different thing…remember the little boy say what happened to his brother…this lead me to believe that the bird that died was his brother and not a replica.