The Prestige
Posted by: Liz | From: November 05, 2006
After lengthy encouragement by my parents to go see "The Prestige," we finally got around to seeing it this weekend. (Similar praise was offered for "The Illusionist," but the only thing I can think of when I hear about that movie is this post. Also, I will choose Scarlett Johansson over Jessica Biel any day. And then there's the Christian Bale trump card.) I really did love the movie, but I have some questions that need answering. In order to keep this non-spoily, I'm going to take the discussion to the comment section.
My understanding is that he was literally committing suicide in the same fashion his wife died every single night, and then his clone (who was him) would keep going, and kill himself the next day...
The part I was a little confused about was the first time he used the machine, did he kill the clone or did the clone kill him? Because if the clone killed him, it would make more sense for the Clone to not fear dying, because he could see that he was the same person, just in a different space. But if he killed the clone, then it seems like it would be very hard to ever accept killing yourself... because you don't know if that clone is really you.
Posted by: Mikey at November 6, 2006 10:18 AM
I have decided that the original Angier killed the first clone (if we remember that the pile of hats and cats were out in the woods and that the original stayed in the magic Tesla machine), and I'm going with the idea that the clone shares consciousness because nothing else makes sense. Not that that really makes sense.
Naturally, I was rooting for Angier the whole time and really wanted Borden to be the most contemptable human ever, but he turned out to be the better magician (cutting off your fingers with a blunt tool = way more devoted) and therefore, the winner. Although I was hoping that Angier had hidden away at least ONE clone at his palatial estate to come back and kill Borden/twin Borden. I wonder which one is the one who loves Scarlett Johansen?
Maybe the book explains things better.
Posted by: Sally Nordan at November 13, 2006 08:43 PM
Post a comment:
Why didn't they unlock the the tank Julia was in, in addition to trying to smash it? Shouldn't that have been easy?
J has an explanation for this one, but I'm curious if it's the same as yours: was there no difference as far as consciousness goes between Angier and his clones? Was the original Angier killed a long time ago and the clones carried on the career? Was the Angier killed at the end a clone?
I know Angier was waiting for Borden to come to his show at the end, but they didn't really show him acknowledging that Borden had snuck on stage. How did he know not to go through with the prestige for that particular performance?
Did you find Borden's trial a tad unfair? Like they never answered the question of how he was supposed to have pushed the tank of water underneath the trap door, or addressed the fact that the whole theater heard him yelling, "Where's the key?!" Also, it was those blind stagehands' JOB to move that tank of water there every night. No one bothered to ask them anything?
I found the fact that Edison was a big bully bad guy in this hilarious.
Posted by: Liz at November 5, 2006 11:10 PM