the prestige

[street heat]

i dont see how you guys are saying the machine didnt work ?

 

[Won Won]

i watched the movie just now off the strength of this thread. I really appreciate it brehs b/c I thoroughly enjoyed it. so much so I cannot wait to watch again. the machine definitely didn't work. the fact that Tesla's assistant was such an enthusiastic fan of magic and appeared to admire Angier was a big red flag for me. he would not be able to resist assisting in a magic "trick" that would fool one of the greatest magicians in London. another red flag... the assistant appeared to be attached to the cat.. it was his pet right? why did the cat not have a name? "you are responsible for what happens to this animal" then after the machine is finished the cat prances off like the stray that it was heading towards the cat nip strategically placed around the hats. hats that closely resembled the hat Angier wore throughout... w/ch would be familiar to someone who caught at least 7 of his London shows.

Cat nip?

 

[pete clemenza]

Good flick

 

[Atsym Sknyfs]

i dont see how you guys are saying the machine didnt work ?

Because they were watching the Illlusionist ... meanwhile in The Prestige ... the machine worked..

They just stuck on the fact that it was the 18 hundreds and chris nolan's "realism" over the fact thats its a movie.... it can be science fiction but still grounded in reality..

Hell everything we use today in our reality was at one point a science fiction thought ...

 

[LeVraiPapi]

Because they were watching the Illlusionist ... meanwhile in The Prestige ... the machine worked..

They just stuck on the fact that it was the 18 hundreds and chris nolan's "realism" over the fact thats its a movie.... it can be science fiction but still grounded in reality..

Hell everything we use today in our reality was at one point a science fiction thought ...

yup. dude kept killing his duplicates and I think he ended up killing himself (true self) which is why he got betrayed by his master. dude knew that was not the same dude when he decided to destroy the machine.

 

[HookersandIceCream]

yup. dude kept killing his duplicates and I think he ended up killing himself (true self) which is why he got betrayed by his master. dude knew that was not the same dude when he decided to destroy the machine.

No the Machine made duplicates but whether the original would come out where was random
Hence the line Robert Angier: Would I be the man in the box or the prestige?

Everytime he was drowning himself. It was his obsession with magic and performing fro the audience
Also some day he was punishing himself because he felt guilty his wife drowned. And he wanted to feel the same.

 

[winb83]

I got this movie at Blockbuster for like 6 bucks on Bluray. watched it with my mom a few weeks ago and she hated it. it was too dark for her but to me this movie is one of the best.

 

[FaTaL]

Watched this again last night, and Tesla's machine definitely works. He specifically says the machine isn't the same one he built for Borden, but the machine that Angier wanted

what machine did he make for borden?

 

[Exit9NJturnpike]

This is a classic case of OVER THINKING some sh*t.

1.) Angier assumed that Tesla was pulling his leg, but realized the machine actually worked by discovering the duplicate cat and hats. Telsa admitted not to even KNOW the hats even there! Angier already was leaving believing Telsa as a fraud and stumbled upon the hats and the other cat ON HIS OWN. So where did it show that Telsa was even trying to fool him when Angier already has that assumption? Angier found out the machine worked on his own account, not by what Telsa done.

2.) Telsa didn't need to pull a "trick". He was an actual SCIENTIST, in the film as well as in real life. He, himself stated in the movie, "True science is never an EXACT science." So, the machine didn't work as expected, but it did work. There is NO SCENE even suggesting that it did not. Even Cutter when trying to purchase the machine told the Angier's broker that it works.

3.) Angier was upset because he read Borden's diary and Borden purposely wrote that it's all a ruse to put him on a wild goose chase. Borden had NO KNOWLEDGE about Telsa's work, but knew tricking Angier to leave the country on a wild goose chase would work. This is the only reason why Angier assumed Tesla was a fraud. As I stated before, Tesla admitted on not even knowing about the multiple duplicate hats. THEY EVEN MEASURED AND EXAMINED THE HATS to prove they were EXACT DUPLICATES. And to add some common sense to it all, if Tesla was actually going to trick Angier, where and how is it LOGISTICALLY POSSIBLE for him to request and purchase all of those hats in it's exact way in RURAL COLORADO SPRINGS, up in Pikes Peaks no less? This is precisely what over thinking is.

4.) It shows you, in detail what happens when Angier used the machine. He drew an X on the floor in where he should be transported. He laid his gun on the side of the machine just in case. He turns on the machine and duplicates and transport himself. He panics and shoots his other self. That is all shown. And even without that, the scene where him and Cutter was showing the trick to the theater promoter, he went in and got transported within seconds.

And why would we be lead to believe what Angier was saying when he was dying. He was dying and had no reason not to be lying. In fact, he didn't even tell Borden how he done it. WE, the viewer was shown how! So why that scene have to be a ruse? That scene was use to inform US. Borden didn't even CARE to know. Angier even asked him to take a look at the tanks to prove how much he had sacrificed and it didn't matter to Borden. So why would you think it was a ruse if Angier insisted Borden to take a look?

Assuming sh*t that's NOT on screen and denying what's actually there. Maybe you are like Angier, that it's "too simple" it had to be complex than that. Don't be making sh*t up that's NOT on screen. Go off strictly what's on screen and use common sense.

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

ive seen the film. you have to be a moron to think the machine worked.

:tdogg:

IM GLAD YOU'RE BANNED! HAHAHAHAHAHAHhahahah

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

http://taylorholmes.com/2009/08/26/the-prestige-explained/

great idea... i mean when you really think about it.. the entire movie was recreated from the readings of two diary's.. and both of those could have been completely fake... we know borden's was, why not angier

but here's a little bit of the question section:

Common Questions:
Q. But the HATS man! What about the hats and the cats? He sees them with his own two eyes! He discovers that the machine works all on his own!

A. Drivel. Are you saying that purchasing 200 identically sized and colored top hats is difficult? That finding five similarly colored cats is hard? Please. The genius here wasn’t in the hats and the cats in the field. It was in getting Angier to believe he solved the glitch in the Tesla Machine. It was the perfect con.

Angier only realizes the machine doesn’t work after the lab is destroyed and he’s already on his way back to England. That was Angier’s turning point. Do I really want to be the greatest magician of all time? Will I live the lie 24/7/365 in order to pull of this stunt and in so doing secure my position atop all the other magicians and showmen that went before me? And more importantly, will I beat my arch nemesis finally? Or will I allow myself to lose?

——

Q. We see with our own two eyes that Angier is duplicated by the machine. That he had to take the gun and shoot his double upon realization of what he’d done.

A. Earlier in this review I detailed out the narration problem. This too is a similar problem. At the point in the story when this scene is shown it is Angier telling Fallon what he’d done, and that the machine had worked. Why would we trust Angier’s word any more than we would trust his diary? This is just one more lie, albeit one that we envision along with Fallon as he is telling it to us. Its nothing more than a lie.

——

Q. But what about all the bodies in the chambers at the end?

A. That is the essence of a magic trick. There needs to be nearly incontrovertible proof that the trick is real or we wouldn’t believe. It really doesn’t matter how I answer this one, in my opinion. 20 different look-a-likes that Angier has killed. 20 wax figures he’s crafted to trick Fallon (Borden) into believing he’s really made the Tesla machine work. This magic trick was for an audience of one. Fallon. (And You.)

 

[Won Won]

what machine did he make for borden?

A fancy electricity-based stage prop

 

[R.E.N. Spells Ren]

http://taylorholmes.com/2009/08/26/the-prestige-explained/

great idea... i mean when you really think about it.. the entire movie was recreated from the readings of two diary's.. and both of those could have been completely fake... we know borden's was, why not angier

but here's a little bit of the question section:

Those "explanations" are far more far fetched than the evidence that the machine did work.

The only thing that proves is that machine may not have worked. Absent definitive comments from Nolan himself, I gotta say the machine worked.

 

[L&HH]

Just to shut this whole machine works or not down, I'll provide you the SOURCE.

what was the video?

 

[Oh1one]

I mean I love the breakdown and it's interesting as hell but...we watched him shoot and kill his double the first time he tried the machine. And if I recall there were multiple tanks with bodies of Angier, not just one. That look of fear can also be seen on the first double we saw leading one to believe the doubles have no knowledge of being doubles. How do you explain that?

Yeah, theory out the window