-----------------------------If you already know the plot well, you can skip this part--------- --------------------
PartA
Angier and Borden were both assistants and apprentices in the same magic group at the beginning. During a magic show, Angier's wife, the magician 'S female assistant accidentally died of underwater escape magic because she couldn't break free of the knot. Angier believes that Borden’s Lan knot killed his wife.
Because of the accidental death of the female assistant, the magic troupe could no longer perform. Borden, Angier, and the organist Cutter left the original team. Cutter took a fancy to Angier's talent for acting and found him to work with, while Borten and his brother, who pretended to be the mechanic Fallon, began to perform magic tricks in a small underground theater to earn a living.
In order to take revenge, Angier shot Borden when he was performing a dangerous magic "receiving a bullet" and shot him a real bullet in an attempt to kill him. As a result, the two sides forged an incomprehensible enmity, and a series of battles were triggered for this.
Borden’s destruction of the mechanism in Angier’s pigeon magic injured the audience, causing Angier to lose the opportunity to perform magic;
Angier imitated Borden’s finale magic Transport Man by acting as a substitute, and sent his female assistant to sneak into Borden’s magic group undercover to steal Borden’s secrets. .
Borden saw through Angier's double-handed technique, designed to dismantle him and cause him to break his leg.
Angier obtained Borden's diary through an undercover agent, and together with Cutter designed and kidnapped Borden's brother Fallon, forcing him to surrender the secrets of the Transport Man magic.
In the end, Angier successfully obtained an anagram diary with magic secrets and a anagram dictionary (Key Word)-Tesla from Borden through undercover and kidnapping threats. Angier believes that Tesla's machine is the key to the magic, and wants to go to the United States to find the answer to the puzzle. The mechanic Cutter insisted that the double is the secret of this magic (combined with the fact that the double he prepared was dismantled, at this time he may have guessed the fact that Borden and Fallon are twins, which is very important), and does not want to participate anymore. During the fight between the two sides, he said that he could no longer help Angier, and Angier had to go to the United States alone to find the answer.
PartB
In a small town in the United States, Angier met Tesla as he wished and asked him to build a teleportable machine for himself. On the other hand, he himself finally solved the diary anagram. From Borten’s diary, he did not find the answer he wanted. Even Borten himself couldn’t figure out what knot he tied to Angier’s wife at the time. At the end of the diary, Angier discovered that this anagram diary was a trick carefully prepared by Borden. Borden just hopes to use Tesla's name to trick Angier to the other side of the world, and have nothing to do with himself.
Turning around, Angier, who was deceived and ended his way, accidentally discovered that although the machine Tesla developed for himself cannot be transmitted, it can make a copy of the object in it and appear in another place, even if it is a living object. No exception. After trying to replicate himself, Angier returned to London with his replication machine and an elaborate revenge plan.
Angier performed his unparalleled new magic in London, disappeared from the stage without using a stand-in, and then appeared in the stands 50 feet away within a second. However, in every performance, Angier drowned himself, who fell into the water tank through the secret door of the stage, and only a copy of himself appeared in the stands.
Because of this surreal sci-fi machine, the Borden brothers naturally couldn't see through his technique this time. One of them broke into the background because he couldn't restrain his curiosity, and witnessed the drowning of an Angier, and was discovered by Cutter who arrived later. . Cutter thought it was this Borden who killed Angier and testified against him in court.
Borten in PartC
prison (call it Borden’s brother for the time being) obtained Angier’s diary from Sir Caldlow (actually Angier’s true identity, but at this time Angier is already a copy of the Nth generation), and Borden gave it to Like Angier's diary, this diary is also a trick Angier prepared for his opponent. At the end of the diary, Angier revealed to Borden brother the fact that he was still alive. Angier used means to make Fallon, who was disguised by the Borden brother, lose their custody of their daughter, and brought the Borden brother's daughter to meet with his brother in prison.
At the same time, Cutter, who was suspicious of Angier's new magic, hoped to destroy the copy machine left by Angier after his death. Taking this as an opportunity, Cutter met with Sir Caldlow who bought the machine and discovered that Sir Caldlow was Angier. fact. Combining all the previous doubts and speculations, Cutter should have known the truth about Angier's magic at this time. He was shocked that he had become an accomplice who framed Borden and sentenced him to hanging. What made him even more unacceptable was that Angier got from Borden's assistant Fallon. He took away his daughter's custody rights and left angrily.
Brother Borden in prison told his elder brother the truth of the matter. With the help of Cutter, his elder brother found Angier who was dealing with magic props in the underground theater of the abandoned theater and killed him, the murderer who framed his brother. Finally, Borden brought back their brother's daughter from Cutter.
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Look, if you tell it in the correct timeline This story seems a bit monotonous. As Borden said to the little boy in the movie, "The secret impresses no one, the trick you use it for is everything." (The secret impresses no one, the trick you use it for is everything.).
So how did the real magician Nolan in this movie make this slightly monotonous story suspenseful and brilliant?
First of all, the name and theme of the movie-the Prestige, can be understood as the puzzle, technique, or the most critical part of the magic. For Borden, it is the identity of their twins and the process of how they hide this identity; for Angier, it is the secret of the replicator and the revenge plan he designed; and for the movie itself, it is the Prestige of the magician In itself, Borden and Angier repeatedly emphasized the self-sacrifice for magic. The Prestige is the foundation of the entire movie, the reason why the story develops in this way, and the biggest suspense in the story.
At the beginning of the film, through the mouth of Cutter, who performed magic for the little girl, told the audience that the Prestige was the third most critical part of the magic. It set a suspense for the audience, and returned to this at the end of the story. The scene, and through the constantly flashing images, borrowed from Borden's brother and the nth-generation replica Angier to solve this suspense.
The main timeline of the movie is the PartC part of the previous article, that is, the period from the imprisonment of Borden's brother (if you haven't read the previous article, please understand that this is for the convenience of narrative) to the final revenge of Borden's brother.
Brother Borden was sentenced to death. While waiting for execution in prison, he obtained a diary prepared by Angier for him. With the help of this diary, he led to the Part B part of the previous article, that is, guided by the Borten anagram diary from Angier, he went to the United States to find special Sla, attempting to perform the Borden brothers' magic, to Angier's design of a revenge plan through a copying machine, framed Borden's imprisonment.
In Angier's diary, he recorded his experience in a small town in the United States and how he cracked and read Borten's anagram diary. In the anagram diary prepared by Borden for Angier, he recorded PartA of the story and used it in prison. The memories of Borden's brother and Angier's diary complete the story.
Therefore, the story content of the three timelines comes from three different subjects:
PartC, the main line of the story, comes from the four protagonists of the story: the Borten brothers, Angier, and Cutter. The other parts of the story are attached to PartC. And unfolded with the development of the PartC story.
PartB, all from Angier's diary, so this story is presented from Angier's perspective.
The content of PartA’s story comes from Borten’s memories in prison and his anagram diary prepared for Angier, as well as Angier’s diary for Borten’s brother, so this part of the story is mainly based on Borten (I think it is Borten’s brother) And Angier’s perspective.
Because the three stories come from different perspectives of the characters, and the characters stand in their respective perspectives with their own incomprehensible puzzles, the Prestige, and these puzzles are the suspense of the story for the audience.
In the first half of PartA, the main mystery was what knot Borden tied. This question should have been very clear, but because the Borden brothers played part of Borden at different times, one of the knots may have killed Angier's because of a miss. The wife feels guilty and fearful, forgot the details of the knot and "swears to tie a simple knot", while the other person may pretend to be in the audience or watch the backstage while "remembering a blue knot", leading to a dispute between the two Unclear, no one is sure what kind of knot was tied at that time. The other protagonist of the story, Angier, does not know the fact that Borden is a twin brother pretending to be a twin brother, and believes that in order to avoid responsibility, he has deepened his hatred against Borden.
In the second half of PartA, the main puzzle is the secret of the Borden brothers' magic. Because one of Borden in this part pretends to be his engineer Fallon, no matter from the perspective of Angier or Borten, the audience cannot see the real answer to the puzzle, and the suspense is brought to the next part until the end of the film. .
In PartB, the main puzzle is still the Borden magic mystery brought by PartA, and as Angier's story in the United States develops, a secondary puzzle is brought about-what exactly is the function of the machine made by Tesla? . Although at the end of this paragraph, the movie used the magic hat and black cat outside the factory to euphemistically reveal the answer to this puzzle, but immediately used Tesla's escape to draw a question mark for the answer.
Why would the director do this? As mentioned earlier, the function of this machine is actually a relatively minor puzzle in the entire movie, and this puzzle was actually set vaguely for the audience at the beginning of the movie with the help of Angier drowning. In the middle of the movie, hinting at the answer helps to alleviate the audience's doubts and set a climax. If the whole movie is set up with puzzles from beginning to end without solving them, the rhythm of the story will become boring. So the director here hints at this mystery, and at the same time sets up a new suspense-is this mystery true? Or did Tesla deliberately do it to delay time?
In the PartC part, the second half, all the suspense set before was abandoned in this part and detonated, and the whole story was pushed to the climax. Cutter followed the convoy transporting the water tank and found the abandoned theater, which once again hinted at the answer to Angier's puzzle; the brother Borden and Cutter in prison respectively met Angier, who was Sir Caldlow, and completely solved the puzzle. The meeting between Borden's brother and Angier at the end of the movie solved the biggest mystery of the whole story, the mystery of the Borden brothers.
In different timelines repeatedly interspersed, the director uses different perspectives of different stories in each timeline to set up big and small puzzles, and at the same time set up new big puzzles in the process of solving some small puzzles in other timelines , Aroused the audience's thinking and conjecture, and for a while, it made the audience think that it seemed to have found the answer, but it immediately made the audience questionable. In the final scene, these puzzles are detonated together and the whole movie ushered in a climax.
When you set the foundation of the story, the biggest puzzles, such as the Borden Brothers in the film, will naturally bring details of these foundations. The director does not deliberately hide these details in the film, and even emphasizes these clues continuously. When the final mystery is solved, the audience will suddenly realize that they will recall the parts that are constantly emphasized in the movie, and will regret-"I should have thought of it!" Even want to watch it again from the beginning. This is the most attractive thing about suspense movies. part.
So back to this movie—not this story—its own puzzle, the Prestige. What is the Prestige of a magician? Different magicians have different choices and sacrifices. The Borden brothers chose to sacrifice half of their lives and live together as Borden, so at the end of the story, one of Borden was sentenced to death, which symbolized the sacrifice Borden chose. And Angier chose to sacrifice his own life, constantly killing himself, and appearing as a copy, so the final copy Angier was killed by Borden, and Angier's death symbolized the sacrifice he chose.
At the beginning and end of the story, Cutter said in the narration, "Now you want to find the secret, but you can never find it, because you are not really watching, you just want to be deceived.". The real Angier died of drowning during the first performance-I think it was the person in the close-up water tank at the end of the story, because the first performance was in Angier's own abandoned theater, so this water tank may have been It has not been moved but is placed on the outermost side-when he first tried to use the copy machine and kill the copy person, he should know the real function of this machine, but he did not, he just wanted to use the copy machine to achieve The purpose of his own revenge, for which he did not hesitate to let himself die by drowning.
The Angier that appeared from outside the copying machine was actually not the original Angier, but the copy himself did not know that he had the same body and memory as Angier, so he would think that he was teleported to the stands. This is why the last one N-generation replica-Sir Caldlow would tell Borden that he did not know whether he would be the one that was teleported out or the one that died in the water tank when he was using the replicator, because as the last replica, in his In my memory, every time I perform, I am the one that was transmitted-actually copied -.
The most pitiful thing about Angier is that everyone who was drowned thought that before he fell into the water tank, he thought that dying from drowning was like going home.
—————————— About some other small puzzles in the movie——————————
Q1: What is the knot of Borden?
A1: I think from the performance of the movie screen, it should be a blue knot.
In the movie, Borden and Julia made eye contact. After Julia nodded slightly in agreement, Borten untied the previous knot and tied it again in another way. The movie screen also clearly shows that the two knots are different. But there is a doubt that Cutter could see the small mistake of Borden's binding the first time, but he could not see that Borden changed the way of binding the second time. Otherwise, even if he can't stop him, he should be prepared. Run out of the backstage early to save Julia.
Q2: Why did Borden kill Angier's wife and trouble Angier over and over again? Wouldn't he be ashamed? The three views of this film are really crooked!
A2:
First of all, from the dialogue after the first underwater escape, we can know that the blue knot does not necessarily kill people. At least Borden, who tied the knot, and Julia, who agreed to the knot, think so.
Secondly, Borden tied the blue knot with Julia’s consent. Although Julia finally died of failing to break the knot, it was not that Borden wanted to kill her. It could only be said that in this accident, Borden should Take the main responsibility, and Julia, who agreed to bind, and Cutter, who is responsible for preventing accidents, should share the remaining responsibilities.
In the end, he was shocked and felt guilty for killing Julia by mistake, which caused the Borden brothers to have a dispute and cannot be sure of what he was tied to.
All in all, Julia's death was not intentional, but an accident, both from Borden's subjective perception and objective facts. But when Angier loaded the bullet into the grab and shot it at Borden, did he just want to break his two fingers? Your competitor wants to kill you, of course you will want to trouble him.
Q3: As Angier's engineer, why did Cutter help Borden in the end?
A3:
I think Cutter feels very guilty because of Julia's death. He believes that as an agency teacher, he is responsible for the accident. This is why he designed a magic trick that does not kill the birds in the cage (including the magic at the beginning and the end of the movie) in the subsequent cooperation with Angier, and why he chose to help Borden in the end because he no longer wants to do it because of his own The cause of death (get his hands dirty).
After the end of the first underwater escape magic, Cutter agreed with Borden's point of view in the backstage conversation that the magician needs to take risks (Milton is great, but he won't get his hands dirty). But after Julia’s death, when he designed a new bird magic for Angier, and the film was finally angry because Angier deprived Fallon of custody and adopted the Borden brother’s daughter (mentioned earlier, Cutter should have guessed that Fallon is Borden’s twin. Brother), we can all clearly see this change.
On the other hand, Angier is obsessed with revenge. From a magician who doesn't even want to kill a bird, he finally transforms into a man who kills himself cruelly in order to kill the enemy. This is also the reason why this pair of partners go further and further.
In the end, I think the direct reason that caused Cutter to fall to Borden was that Cutter discovered Angier’s biggest secret, that is, the real Angier was dead, and he was used by the cloned Angier to frame another old friend, which touched his Bottom line.
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