The Prestige: Difference between revisions

Interestingly, the film cannot really be said to have a protagonist. Both sides are portrayed neutrally [[Grey and Gray Morality|without either getting a sympathetic point of view]]. This gives a different slant on a story instead of just the normal protagonist vs. antagonist story. Instead we get a story about two overly obsessed flawed men.

 

 

'''This film is built almost entirely out of unexpected twists. You will learn them if you read any further.'''

** {{spoiler|Starting with Borden immediately grokking the fishbowl trick.}}

** {{spoiler|And the pairs of birds of whom one is killed every time the trick is performed. "Today you've been the lucky one."}}

* [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]: Edison is hinted to be a ruthless, violent man who crushes his foes by sending [[Faceless Goons]] to their labs to destroy everything and run them out of town. Even way up in the mountains, Tesla couldn't escape his wrath.

* [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]]: Piper Perabo's character, Julia, who drowns during a stage performance, setting Angier against Borden.

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: Chung Ling Soo, the ancient Chinese performer with stiff legs.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Arguably, Borden's disguises: they start out seeming very transparent and obvious until we find out that {{spoiler|Borden had also been disguising himself as Fallon the entire time.}}

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: [[David Bowie]] only appears in a handful of scenes, but he absolutely ''nails'' them.

* [[People Jars]]: {{spoiler|Angier's many drowned copies of himself, stored in a warehouse.}}

* [[Powered By a Forsaken Child]]: Tesla knows how twisted his {{spoiler|teleporter}} is, and even tries to warn {{spoiler|Angier}} by letter after it is delivered to him.

* [[Rule of Sean Connery]]: [[David Bowie]] and [[Michael Caine]] are in the movie for maybe 15-20 minutes each '''MAX''', but that short amount of time is all that is needed.

* [[Serious Business]]: These people are serious about stage magic. '''Dangerously''' serious, in fact.

* [[Single-Minded Twins]]: {{spoiler|"Borden" is actually a pair of twins who have made it their life's work to be so identical to each other that no one can tell the difference. The one flaw in their arrangement is that they fall in love with different women.}}

** Its not perfect though {{spoiler|The women they love can tell some difference. Specifically, the wife can tell that sometimes Borden genuinely means it when he says he loves her, and sometimes he doesn't.}}

* [[Trick Twist]]: The movie is practically riddled with them.

* [[Twin Switch]]: Angier and his double, Root. {{spoiler|And the Bordens, identical twins who swap roles, and the Fallon disguise, without anyone knowing.}}

* [[World of Cardboard Speech]]: Angier at the end.

** {{spoiler|[[Final Speech]]}}

[[Category:Arthur C Clarke Award]]

[[Category:The Prestige]]