re: Finally got around to watching The Prestige..was it supposed to be a twist ending? SPOILER

quote:

---

expand on this. how does that fit with the drowned people at the end?

---

- "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."

- the movie is constantly telling us that we do not really want to know the secret behind magic, because then it takes what is awe inspiring and turns it into something commonplace and disappointing. We would much rather believe this is magic. Angier says as much to Borden at the end.

- cutter introduces the movie to us as the narrator in just the same manner as the magicians introduce their magic act to the audiences throughout the movie. The movie itself is presented as a magic act, and follows the same rules. We watch it looking for the secret but want to be fooled.

- just as a magician performs a series of escalating and distracting acts as a way to prepare the audience for the final prestige, so the movie does for us. It does it in a way that makes us think we are being clever as we figure it out, but that is merely leading us along.

- the idea of Borden being twins is so heavily foreshadowed and alluded to throughout the movie that we must be expected to guess it on first viewing. This is the pledge.

- so by showing us the hats early on, telling us to pay attention to them, showing us the trick of the disappearing bird where it is killed, cutter/movie are hoping we will deduce the solution that the machine works. It allows us the pleasure of guessing the secret behind the magic, but the twist we think is that the magic is real. This is the turn. It takes something ordinary (a magic act) and turns it into something extraordinary (a magical clone/teleportation machine).

- That is where we usually stop when the ending tries to convince us of this. We leave the theater in wonder of the magic but also believing in the magic machine to some degree. We don't care that its existence is against what we believe in the real and against the states rules of the movie world. We like the wonder of it. The act of convincing us the viewer that there is in fact magic is The Prestige.

- The reality of the machine and the movie is more simple, but not as interesting, just like every magic act detailed in the movie. I watched it last night with this point of view and every single scene in the movie up until the very end in their final confrontation can be easily understood through this point of view.

- now the scene showing him shoot a created clone and the shot at the very end of a clone in the tank are literally the only scenes that are at all problematic for this point of view. Everything else is explained by him hiring again his double Root for a short time and for much more money, with the fake machine as the extra flair to draw attention and lure Borden into the trap. Then he murders Root and frames Borden by bringing him backstage.

- in the scene of him shooting the clone, it happens in the context of him telling the account to Borden. So just like with the fake diaries, this is an untrustworthy account. The clones in the tank (actually we are shown just one) at the end could just as easily be wax figures that Angier commissioned.

- This may be a disappointing answer to you if true, but that's just like the secret to any other great magic trick. Again the Prestige of this movie is convincing us that magic is real. It starts by showing us how magic works, taking away our belief in real magic, and then the twist is that, no, we accept magic as really real in this case. But it's all part of the act that Cutter led us through. The machine never worked, but we prefer being fooled.

quote:

---

The brother that died is the one that loved magic more, he also probably killed the girl.

---

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. yep, now i get the 'what knot did you tie??' "I DONT KNOW" interactions.

quote:

---

quote: Not to mention all of the hats, the cats, etc

Tesla doin' work to keep the money flowing that is far more plausible that he did that to convince him the machine was 'almost there' and to keep him paying.

---

Yes this is weakest argument of all that the machine works, and very easily explained by having extra hats and cat. We believe there is only one cat mainly because the assistant talks about it like it is a special cat he personally cares for. This is done to trick Angier and us. But we accept it because we are shown the top hats as the movie opens and we think "look in the woods there's tons of top hats clones there!!" Then Angier, an experienced magician, is also fooled by this parlor trick because he is so desperate at that point. He wants to be fooled just like us.

quote:

---

The movie shows us that both wolverine and batman are unreliable narrators at times when interacting with each other through their fake diaries.

And by "it takes away from the movie," you mean the actual common explanation takes away from the magic

---

They are unreliable to each other. Not to the audience itself. And no, not the magic. The movie. When you start "lying" to the audience, it changes things. Some people may think that makes it better. In this case, I do not. That's what I mean.

I am fully aware that some people see this movie completely opposite of how I do. I've literally had this almost exact argument about it before IIRC. That's one thing that makes it so great IMO.

If we look at the machine from how Cutter treats it, then the machine does work. Cutter says that the trick behind the machine is disappointing in that it works. It was made by a wizard, not a magician.
Cutter also needs to see it destroyed because of his fear of it - his belief of the crime against nature of the machine.

Cutter rejects the depths Angier has sank to for the sake of revenge.