Alex, Dillan, Jonathan,Brandon, Josh

THE PRESTIGE
ARE YOU WATCHING
CLOSELY?
 BACKGROUND

Industrial Revolution
Tesla vs. Edison (Peaks of career)
Where the people want to be amazed through magic
(science).
Angier, rich American background.
Borden, poor and from the streets.
Different views on magic.
 STORY CHRONOLOGICAL

Borden and Angier are assistants for a magician. They are used as the audience to
be volunteers. The first show, the Fallon messes up on the knot and they argue
that the Langston double knot is better than the slip knot. Cutter is the igenieur
Borden and Angier go to watch the Chinese Magician.
On the second show, Borden uses the Langston double and Julia, the assistant is
unable to get out of it, causing Julia to drown to death.
At the funeral, Angier asks Borden which knot he uses and Fallon replies that he
doesn’t know.
Borden then goes to work by himself and is called ‘The Professor’ with Fallon as
his engineer. He meets Sarah and they fall in love and marry.
At the same time, Angier starts his magician career with Cutter as his ingenuieur.
He calls himself the Great Danton, the name Julia made up for him.
 STORY

Angier sabotages Borden’s bullet catch trick and ends up shooting off Borden’s
left ring and pinky fingers.
Borden in turn sabotages Angier’s disappearing bird act and ends up hurting an
audience member.
Angier spies on Borden and sees the new trick, ‘The Transported Man’.
With a stunt double, Angier manages to duplicate it and calls it the New
Transported Man.
However, Angier still sends Olivia, his assistant, to Borden to spy on him and
learn Borden’s secret.
Olivia falls in love with Borden but gives Borden’s journal to Angier by Borden’s
request.
The journal is encrypted so Angier kidnaps Fallon in order to get the key word to
decipher it.
 STORY

The key word is TESLA. Borden uses that word in order to send Angier into a
wild goose chase because the scientist Tesla has nothing to do with Borden’s trick.
Angier goes to Colorado Springs to talk with Tesla. He funds Tesla’s work while
reading the journal. Soon, Tesla builds a cloning machine.
He tries it out for the first time and ends up killing the first clone because it
actually worked.
During Angier’s journey to Colorado, Borden has trouble at home and Sarah ends
up hanging herself because she knows that Borden is not the same person
everyday.
When Angier comes back with the ‘Real Transported Man’. He only does 100
shows.
Borden is unable to figure out the engineering of the trick and gets frustrated.
Borden then goes backstage one day, and finds Angier drowning inside the
Chinese Water Torture Tank. He tries to get him out but fails.
 STORY

Borden goes to trial for Angier’s murder. He then goes to jail. Lord Caldlow’s
assistant visits Borden in jail and gives Borden Angier’s journal. He offers Jess’
future in return for Borden’s tricks.
The next visit, he sees Lord Caldlow and realizes that Angier is still alive under
Caldlow’s name. He then visits Fallon and tells him to live on for the both of
them.
After Borden’s execution, Angier takes the cloning machine to the cellar and
Cutter finds out that Caldlow is Angier.
Borden then meets Angier in the cellar and kills him and burns down the
whole place.
Borden then goes back to meet up with Jess an Cutter.
 STRUCTURE

Pledge Turn Prestige

The whole movie was broken up into three

different sections. The movie itself is a giant
magic trick. We don’t want to believe that the
magic trick is real, because we’re not really
looking.
INNOCENT TILL PROVEN
GUILTY?
 CHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE

Reliability. Can we believe what they say in the journal?

Who’s the protagonist? Who’s the antagonist?
1 hour 45 minutes audience is shown that Borden is innocent of the murder.
 NARRATION/ POINT OF VIEW

The movie is never told in an objective point of view.

Each and every detail we learn is through the eye of a
character in the film. Eventually we know some details
about Borden that Angier does not know and also some
details about Angier that Borden does not know.
Narration from either Borden or Angier gives details
away slowly to the viewer, never until the end when we
are in present day do we learn much detail at one given
time.
 WHO CAN WE TRUST?

Can we trust either diary? In the TURN

of the movie (the second part of 3 parts)
we learn that both journals were meant to
be delivered. Borden tricks Angier into
thinking the journal was stolen, and
Angier (who is dead in Borden’s mind)
explains how his plan is proving successful
in the murder of Borden.
 MOTIVATION

Fallon motivation-Olivia
Borden motivation- Love for magic, the sacrifice for a good trick
Angier motivation-Revenge turns into obsession
 MOTIVATION

Because the film was a replication of the Victorian Era,

almost every single shot in the film is shot from an eye
level of a character

The journals also play a key role in motivation. The

directors limit our knowledge through “restricted
narration”

The line “are you watching closely” generally signified

the coming of an important event.
 QUOTES

“The secret impresses no one, the trick you use it for is

everything.”
“I don’t care about my wife, I care about his secret.”
“Sacrifice is the price of a good trick.”
“Obsession is a young mans game”
“No one cares about the man in the box, they care about
the one who comes out on the other side.”
 QUOTES

“Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course,
you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be
fooled.”
“You went halfway around the world. You spent a fortune. You did terrible
things. Really terrible things Robert. And all for nothing.”
“You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the
world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool
them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you...
then you got to see something really special... you really don't know?... it was...
it was the look on their faces…”
 QUOTES

Olivia: “You married her. You had a child with her.”

Borden: Yes. Part of me did. But the other part... the other part didn't. The
part that found you, the part that's sitting here right now.
“The truly extraordinary is not permitted in science and industry. Perhaps
you'll find more luck in your field, where people are happy to be mystified.”
“They're magicians, your honor. Men who live by dressing up plain and simple
truths to shock, to amaze.”
 QUOTES

Our group found it a bit much to add the entire script to the PowerPoint.
Almost every line in this movie has a greater and deeper meaning. So you want
to hear more quotes you can watch the movie again.

But our favorite quote would have to be

“where's the bloody key, where's the bloody key”

(amazing accent right there)
 MOTIFS

Black hat
Rubber Ball
Tricks twice
“Are you watching closely?”
Birds in cage
Man’s reach exceeds his grasp
 SYMBOLS

Chinese Man- Borden

Rubber Ball- Borden
Bird in the cage- Angier
Tesla vs. Edison- Borden vs. Angier
Black Top Hat-Angier
Julia and Sarah (both die)
The whole movie symbolizes the trick. (Pledge, turn, prestige)
 CHARACTERS

Angier
Borden
Fallon
Cutter
Tesla
Olivia
Sarah
Many many more…
 ANGIER’S CHANGE

In the beginning in the movie, he was innocent. At the

end, he was able to take a finger from his rival, taking
Borden’s daughter, and killing himself every time he had
a show. He slowly kills himself. This shows
SIGNIFICANTLY how obsession can change a man
and also the power of rivalry.
 TESLA

Tesla was an important character even though it may have seemed like he
wasn’t. His dialogue in the film DIRECTLY states the theme.
“Exact science, Mr Angier, is not an exact science.”
“The truly extraordinary is not permitted in science and industry. Perhaps
you'll find more luck in your field, where people are happy to be mystified.
“Men’s reach exceeds his grasp is a lie, Men's grasp exceeds his nerve”
“Go home Mr. Angier I can recognize obsession when I see it”
“Society tolerates only one change at a time.”

Tesla’s rivalry with Edison is a parallel to Angier’s rivalry with Borden

 BORDEN/FALLON

Borden and fallon, grow up in a poor environment. Their love for magic
opposes Angier's view on magic. The two share half a life each.
Borden is initially portrayed as the Antagonist but
WERE YOU WATCHING CLOSELY? :O
Throughout the movie we will be given hints and signs that borden is actually
two people, this is how he performs the original transported man.
(1:27:40)
They both realize the need for sacrifice to produce a good trick and they both
truly “live the act”
This is the main reason Borden is able to understand how the old chinese man
is able to do the fish bowl trick.
 WHO IS WHO?

How do we know which one is Borden, and which one

is Fallon?
Is Borden is prison? Or is Fallon in prison?

If you were “watching closely,” you would

have realized who was in jail at 1 hour 53
mins.”
 PARALLELISM

Borden vs. Angier; Edison vs. Tesla

Both wives die
Journals (Cypher)
Trick each other for Journal
Each and every trick shown was shown at least twice, once by
Borden and Once by Angier.
The second time each trick was performed, it was always
sabotaged by the other. (Men can only accept one idea at a time)
 KEY MOMENTS

When Angier dies in the water tank.

The full scene backstage of the Angier water
tank.
When Julia dies from the water tank.
The prestige of the movie.
The revealing of Caldlow.
Diaries (Borden) (Angier)
 MORE KEY MOMENTS

Angier realizes that he was supposed to get the diary.

Borden realizes he was supposed to get the diary.

Who’s diary can we trust? Can we trust either?

Finally the reveling of Borden’s magic trick, how he does it in the

end. He explains the process in full.
 FINAL KEY MOMENT

What is the significance of the final scene?

The whole message comes together. Borden explains his trick and
how he used a double, his twin brother. Angier states that cutter
knew all along but he though it was too simple. What does that
tell us?

That we are being explained that we are being told a magic trick,
but we don’t really want to believe it. Angier was looking for
something more, something unnatural.
 THEME

Obsession is a young man’s game.

No one cares about the man in the box, they only care about
the one that comes out.
Its about Living the act.
The secret impresses no one, the trick you use it for is
everything.

Revenge
Deceit
Sacrifice
Lifelessness
Jealousy
Rivalry
 QUESTIONS?

WERE YOU REALLY WATCHING CLOSELY?