Magnifique! the movie, and these answers (satisfying all my questions?! that I noted in prvs post)
#Are there alternative theories for Angier's trick?
The surprising answer is yes. Many of the things presented within the film can be viewed as ambiguous, even though most do not see it as the intent of the filmmakers. This raises a question better left for the boards, whether it should be seen as their intent or why we would want to.
In interviews it has been suggested that the movie is meant to be ambiguous. There is an article here which supports the premise of the idea of alternate interpretations:
Some of the more popular theories involve whether or not the machine actually duplicates since there is nothing within the film that requires a working duplicator, everything can be explained presuming the machine is simply a prop. Thus there are some who believe that Nolan intended the twist to be that the machine is a prop.
As he wrote, [Jonathan] Nolan never shied away from letting the audience draw their own conclusions about all that is going on in the raging battle between Angier and Borden. I love contentious stuff, he admits. Chris and I still argue about aspects of Memento and we've had arguments about The Prestige as well.
#How can the movie be explained without a duplicator? oh good. ie the alternative theory:
This question is frequently asked on the boards and debated, making many wonder if this was the Nolan brother's intent in creating the film. In this theory:
Borden never met Tesla, but sends the gullible Angier on a wild-goose chase to America
The money-strapped Tesla sees how gullible that Angier is and decides to con him out of some money.Tesla strings Angier along taking his money and showing him a light show with the Tesla coil, until Angier starts to suspect and then they use the cat to lead Angier to the field. The hats and the cat in the field are placed there by either Tesla or Alley to try and convince Angier (after he is lead there) that the machine duplicated. When Tesla believes that he has milked all the money he can out of Angier he gives him the machine.
Angier realizing he was conned, decides to convince Borden of the same con, believing that if he could convince Borden the trick was not an illusion but "real magic" it would prove that Angier was the better illusionist.
He works up a better trick, using the device and presumably a double. but of course nothing in film suggests that he does get another double to work with him here.
He plans the trick and also has dummies in tanks created well this is the implausible bit , hoping that the curious Borden, would follow the tanks to the warehouse and see the "corpses on display" and suspect duplication. ~ well not totally implausible if figure there is only one double and the drowned corpses are wax. but then how is there a living man drowning in the tank when Borden sneaks beneath the stage?* well:
In addition, he plans a secondary trick for Borden, in case he goes backstage. If Borden investigates during the act, Angier plans on killing the double, believing that Borden would be found guilty even if the jury only believed it was accidental, caused by sabotage. It did not even matter to him if the dead body was identified as him or a double.
Cutter identifies the dead body as Angier's, so Angier decides to remain "hidden" and moves on in his real life as Lord Caldlow. [see next question]
When Borden is in jail, Angier again tries to convince Borden of the "duplication", by providing a journal which suggests how Tesla created a duplicating machine. Borden is never convinced, realizes he was conned, and is hanged.
Borden's twin (who were both taking turns as "Borden" and "Fallon") goes to the warehouse and shoots Angier. Angier finally realizes the simplicity of Borden's trick. Angier realizes he is dying and has lost so tells Borden how his goal was always to make the audience believe in the magic and try and forget that it was only an illusion. always and only an illusion.no I think this theory is not supported by the film. a shame, bcs this last speech of Angier's is suggestive, and yes it wld be int if somehow even this teleportation-dupication machine is an illusion, with a simple mechanism: solid all the way through.
#How did Angier became Lord Caldlow?
The truth is that, as he explains near the end, he was always Lord Caldlow. Early on in the film Angier's wife says that he is living a double life. ah very good. Angier responds to this by saying that he only did that to "spare my family the embarassment of my theatrical interests." Angier is the heir to the Caldlow name. He adopted the identity of Robert Angier a supposed American because he wanted to pursue a career in magic and such a career would have embarrassed his aristocratic family. At the end of the film he simply reclaims his original identity. Also, note that at his wife's suggestion of calling himself The Great Danton he seems to takes offense at being associated with the French, which would likely be more of an insult to an Englishman rather than an American in the period in which the film is set. Also, during his wife's funeral Angier's accent noticeably slips from American to English proving a further clue to his real identity.
#What did Cutter mean when he told the judge that the machine is real and has no trick?
At this early point in the film, Nolan is trying to convince the audience that the machine is a real teleporter. Ackerman who? is also used later to further this misdirection. The movie is suggesting that Cutter knows the secret of the trick, that the machine can truly teleport a person. This is actually a red herring and is done to the audience so that they will be surprised when Nolan reveals at the end that Cutter (and Ackerman) had been fooled by the trick and that the machine was not a teleporter but actually was a DUPLICATOR and that Angier was drowning a duplicate for every performance of the trick. (unless he wasn't, and it was neither a teleporter nor a duplicator per the alternate theory above, but no that theory not plausible in film as is~. and so the contention here is that Cutter believes the machine to be *only* a transporter when in fact it is a transporter& duplicator: it can only transport at the same time as it duplicates, which Angiers deals with by killing the untransported one of the two resulting Angiers)
*re alternate theory IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: Alternative Ending Theory?:
Spliff_The_Cimmerian Tue Nov 11 2008 06:04:35 first rate answer:
I'd say it can be disproven. If nothing else, there's the flashback scene in which one Angier shoots the other. That scene isn't narrated in a diary/notebook (Angier deliberately stops just short of that scene in his diary narrative) and it doesn't illustrate anything Angier is saying to Borden, nor does it make sense as anything either character is thinking. (It might make sense as something Angier is remembering, but in that case it really happened.) Even if we decide to distrust all the other evidence, that one scene nails it down: it's a veridical flashback for the benefit of the audience, just like the corresponding veridical flashbacks of the Bordens and their secret.
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#What were Borden's last words?
Right before Borden is hanged he mumbles "Abracadabra".
#What is the truth of Borden's Trick?
There is a suggestion introduced into the film that Borden may have met Tesla and had a device, but we are shown that this is a misdirection by the Bordens. By the end of the film it is clear that Borden and Fallon are identical twins who have been trading off lives and performing the Transported Man trick in a conventional manner involving no supernatural explanations.
IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: Borden and Fallon:
-Upon additional viewings, are we supposed to be able to tell what Borden twin is on screen in every scene? Some of the scenes are clear because they involve Sarah and Olivia. But some not so much-other than the fact that the Borden twin who had the affair with Olivia is much more hotheaded and gets them into trouble most of the time. Is there anything else unique to one but not the other?
Spliff_The_Cimmerian 5 days ago Sat Mar 14 2009 17:03:33: very very good answers
It's possible to tell with a high degree of probability which one is which in any given scene cool, although there are one or two about which there's no consensus and there are arguments on each side. Basically, in my opinion:
The one who loves Olivia is the more headstrong and reckless one, more adept at performing tricks oh ok he's the better performer bcs more bold but not as good at figuring out how to do them. He's
the one who ties the Langford Double on the night Julia drowns,
the one who chisels off his fingers,
the one who is buried alive
and the one who sneaks below stage at Angier's show and is hanged as a result. ah well it's nice that it is the ~nicer, quieter lover of Sarah who is united with daughter at end:
The one who loves Sarah is the ingenieur of the act, the one who works out how to do tricks and how other magicians do them, but who (at least initially) isn't quite as adept at performing them. He's
the one who says he doesn't know which knot was tied,
the one who gets his fingers shot off by Angier,
and the one who tells his brother to leave Angier to his trick. and is united with daughter at end.
*my impression is vice-versa re burial scene, such that: it's the brash, loud, lover of Olivia who meets with Angier "I'm impressed. You finally got your hands dirty." and writes Tesla (yes yes this fits with the reveal at end of his journal that he told Olivia to give Angiers the journal, and rid thmslvs of Angiers by sending him on a wild goose chase to the States to find Tesla. not only is the brash Borden twin the one likely to come up with that plan, he is the one who loves Olivia & would be arranging this with her) on the paper he gives to Angier in exchange for 'Fallon': "where's my ingenue?" he's not lying, it really is his ingenieur who is buried. (whichever Borden might refer to Fallon as his ingenieur, but it's only accurate when it's the brash fellow as Borden and the quieter ingenius fellow as Fallon.)
what's clear is that it is the brash fellow that evening who has dinner with and offends Sarah. and I think when he says that he had an ordeal that day, he tht he lost sth v precious to him, he means his brother & ingenieur (perhaps wh is so precious is his own ability to do the transported man trick, and his brother's ingenuity. but maybe that is cynical and what is precious to him is his brother himself. no, I think more the former aspect is what he is referring to. but of course all aspects are involved). by Spliff's conception, when he says he tht he'd lost sth v precious, he means his own life.
You can work out who's who in most of the other scenes. Most of the exceptions don't matter, but one of them is an important scene: the one in which Borden says "It's the wrong knot" and insists that the Langford Double "will hold tighter." I think that's the brother who loves Sarah (the ingenieur proposing what he thinks is the better knot even though he's not as adept at tying them; remember he "dropped the knot" in the performance that night). But there are good arguments for each one.
-I've heard people saying Borden had a duplicate rather than a twin, and vice versa, which is true? Now if he had a twin that would make sense given the fact of what he said about the chinese magician. BUT I have further questions:
1. Which Borden tied the knot?
2. Which Borden attended the funeral and why didn't he know what knot he tied? good was he stressed or was it not him tied it?
3. If Tesla is the method and cypher for his journal than that leads us to believe he has met Tesla since he was at one of his shows. If not then is he simply an admirer of Tesla or did he duplicate himself at one point in time?
4. When Borden and his twin are cracking their heads over Angier's trick which is which?
5. Whats the relation between Borden and Tesla? and why send Angier all the to Colorado?
Spliff_The_Cimmerian 2 days ago Tue Mar 17 2009 15:24:45:
1. Most of us are pretty sure it's the Borden who loves Olivia who ties the knot . . .
2. . . . and the other brother who attends the funeral, and genuinely doesn't know which knot was tied.
3. Angier and (one) Borden do attend one of Tesla's shows, but only to get ideas for how to capture the imagination of a public increasingly fascinated by scientific wizardry. As for duplication, there are already two Bordens from the beginning, while they're working for Milton with Cutter, Angier, and Julia; we see them do an early version of their trick at Sarah's apartment.
4. I think the Borden shouting Why can't you out-think him? is the one who loves Olivia. It's the one who loves Sarah who's good at figuring out both how to do tricks and how other magicians do them.
5. There's no relationship between the Bordens and Tesla; they just know that Angier will accept Tesla as a plausible explanation of their teleportation trick (because he really is a plausible explanation of it). good, okay. They send him to Colorado to get him out of their hair for a while, and since they believe he's American, they probably hope he'll just stay there.
>IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: Big plot hole (spoiler) x 2: So Angier was tricked to go to Tesla to get him out of the way - send him all the way to America on a wild goose chase by planting that information in his diary. But then Tesla actually creates a cloning device? Quite the lucky coincidence there I think. that was my concern. but I find the answers here satisfying:
Spliff_The_Cimmerian 21 minutes ago Fri Mar 20 2009 16:52:04:
Well, sort of, but not quite. The Bordens sent Angier to Tesla because Tesla was the one man in the world who really might be able to build a working teleporter; they knew Angier would accept him as a plausible explanation because he really was one. They just didn't count on his actually building one.
IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: Big plot hole (spoiler) x 2 Mentrilo:
It is a coincidence. But not a great stretch as such. In Victorian times electricity was a new frontier. For many people the possibilities were endless. They actually believed electricity could be used to teleportation, it could help them fly, it could do anything.
Obviously we know now that isn't the case. But at the time, while it was thought everything was possible, it wasn't thought by everyone. I'm sure Borden thought it was a flight of fancy, that it was impossible to actually teleport.
However, he needed to pick a person who Angier would believe was capable, and if anyone in those times would be a believable source of teleportation, it would have been Tesla.
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