The meaning of the film Prestige: explanation of the plot & ending. Christopher Nolan is one of the most famous directors of our time. Almost every one of his films is meaningfully successful and receives positive reviews from critics. The Prestige is another successful collaboration between Nolan and Christian Bale and Michael Caine. This picture caused a lot of controversy about the plot. The most popular topic in these discussions is the meaning of the film The Prestige.
Description of the story
Christopher Nolan based on the drama with fantasy elements of Christopher Priest. The director reworked the story – it turned out to be an independent work.
Interesting! The Nolan brothers removed the entire modern line, completely transferring the action to the last century. The main characters were good friends before the feud. In the original source, they did not know each other before their confrontation.
Christopher Nolan tells the audience a story using the technique of retrospective – the memories of the characters. The incoherence of the presentation adds to the intricacies of the plot, which makes the viewing even more interesting. The plot of the film “The Prestige” is built on the war of two famous illusionists.
What is focus
The story of the confrontation between two great magicians begins with the display of a large number of simple black top hats. Already there is an intrigue: how they ended up scattered in the forest. However, the viewer is introduced to Cutter, a talented engineer. He shows the girl a trick with a disappearing bird, explaining the components of a magic trick.
- The show begins with a bait. The illusionist shows something ordinary. Cutter demonstrates the bird.
- Then – the transformation, when an ordinary object is forced to do something mysterious. For example, the disappearance of a bird.
- For the trick to succeed, a third part is needed – an unexpected action that leads the viewer into admiration. Cutter returns the bird. This is prestige.
For some magicians, the main thing is to create new tricks that amaze the imagination. For others, the realization that you are considered a wizard. But the constant pursuit of knowledge or fame can destroy a person, as happened with Alfred Borden and Robert Angier.
Tesla’s mysterious car
The ending of the film “The Prestige” is also its beginning. Famous illusionist Robert Angier performs a movement trick with the help of a special Tesla machine. However, while passing through it, he falls into a tank of water and drowns, because it is automatically locked.
Alfred Borden sneaks offstage and tries to save the illusionist. The man is seen by Cutter and accused of killing Angier. Borden is sentenced to death. He is visited by an envoy from Lord Caldlow and offers to take care of Alfred’s daughter in exchange for the secret of the move trick.
The messenger gives Angier’s diary, where he describes his acquaintance with Tesla. Robert tries to decipher Borden’s diary.
The beginning of the confrontation
The main characters used to be friends. They started with the famous magician Milton. Angier’s wife Julia, who was an assistant in one room, worked with them. They tied her hands and feet and lowered her into a tank of water. Borden always tied it.
He suggested using a complex knot. Julia agreed, but Robert and Cutter were against it. The woman could not free herself and died during the performance. At the funeral, Angier asked Borden what kind of knot he used. Alfred couldn’t answer. The death of Robert’s wife became the cause of their confrontation.
Mysterious trick
A war breaks out between the main characters. They disrupt each other’s performances, not embarrassed by any methods. Roger’s team includes engineer Cutter and beautiful assistant Olivia, while Borden has the mysterious character Felton.
Alfred performs an incredible trick: he disappears in one place and immediately appears in another. His rival becomes obsessed with figuring out this trick. Enthusiasm for work and confrontation affects their relationships with loved ones. But the illusionists cannot stop.
Angier comes up with a trick using a Tesla machine. Even Cutter is not privy to the secret of the performance. It turns out that passing through it, it turns out a double. Neither Borden nor Cutter knew that Robert was still alive.
The ending and meaning of the film
How did The Prestige end? The viewer is taken to the beginning. Alfred gives the diary with secrets to the lord, who turns out to be Angier. Borden realizes he has been set up. Felton comes to him. Saying goodbye, the magician says that it is his turn to live life to the fullest.
Robert returns to the theater where he is shot by a stranger. It turns out to be Alfred, who revealed his secret. He and Felton are twin brothers, Cutter was right in suggesting to Angier about his secret. Borden leaves the theater in flames, picks up daughter Jessie, whom Cutter performed a bird trick on.
The meaning of the film “The Prestige” lies in the confrontation between the main characters. At the beginning of the picture, Borden and Angier, then unknown, are watching a performance by a Chinese magician. And Alfred figured out his secret: he pretends to be weak in order to perform tricks.
Borden admired such self-sacrifice with his life. And this was a reflection of his essence: for him, his whole life was a performance that he and his brother had to play flawlessly. Even the loss of loved ones could not stop them.
Interesting! When Robert asked Borden about the knot, he really didn’t know the answer. After all, his twin brother tied up.
Angier realizes this closer to the finale. He, too, becomes obsessed with the game of self-sacrifice. Only Robert went further, killing himself every time on stage for the sake of fame and recognition by the audience. In the end, Angier told Alfred that every time he performs a trick, he does not know who will be in the tank.
The meaning of the film Prestige is that passion can destroy a person. As well as the desire for revenge. Blinded by passion and revenge, the heroes did not pay attention to their loved ones and ruined their talent. For them, focus, prestige, which became the meaning of their lives, was more important.
