The Prestige, the explanation of the ending of Nolan’s film

Il finale Of The Prestige It may be difficult to grasp in all its implications, however, after a little help (if necessary), it appears perfectly consistent with that narrative full of twists and turns that traces the rivalry between the wizards Alfred Borden (interpreted by Christian Bale) e Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), both in search of the ultimate trick: human transportation, in which the magician appears to travel between two wardrobes at opposite ends of the stage, almost instantaneously.

Moving along a narrative line based on mutual competition, the protagonists of the film intercept the story of a real man. It is about Nikola Teslawho in the film is played by David Bowie.

The film The Prestige is itself a sleight of hand

In the movie, Cutterthe character played by Michael Caineexplains what the three acts of a sleight of hand consist of. Do you know what else is divided into three acts? A film. Here Nolan establishes the analogy: the film The Prestige It is itself a number to amaze the audience and the director is a magicianwhich will use the tool of narration to leave us speechless. The promise (which opens the film) will be kept. And that is why The Prestige It is considered an indisputably beautiful film and perhaps the best of those directed by the English director who won an Oscar for Oppenheimer.

How The Transported Man Was Made in The Prestige

During the final scene of The Prestigethe viewer discovers that both protagonists have succeeded in achieving the trick of human transportation, but through different paths. A first revelation comes when Fallon Borden, twin of Alfred Borden (both played by Christian Bale), shoots Angier – Hugh Jackman. Angier immediately realizes that Alfred is actually two people, the twins Alfred and Fallon Borden (both of whom live as Alfred). This is how Borden performed the transported man trick. A twin would disappear in one door and a twin would appear in the other, without arousing suspicion because no one knew there were two of them, not one. What was Alfred’s technique?

There is still room for another twist in the film. In turn, and on the point of death, Angier reveals his own secret, much darker. With the help of a machine built by Nikola Tesla, Angier manages to duplicate himself. After the duplication has taken place, a trap door throws the Angier who has performed the act into a tank, where he drowns. At this point the duplicate, appearing somewhere beyond the stands, reveals himself to the audience, so as to give the illusion of teleportation (in reality it was not a teleportation, but a replacementOf Anger with one of his own double). All this is repeated with each performance of the number.

Angier was so desperate to be the best and wow the audience that he sacrificed himself. Because of the horrific cycle his trickery set in motion, we discover that it is not the original Angier who stands before Borden. The real Angier, the one the Borden twins knew, died the first time he performed the transported man.

The little girl in the finale is Jess, the Borden’s daughterwhom Cutter has taken into custody to protect her from Angier’s dangerous obsession. Borden’s reunion with his daughter is punctuated by the discovery of Angier’s clones.

What is the meaning of the ending of The Prestige

“According to many Nolanians – wrote Stefano Piri on Esquire – The Prestige is by far the best film of the English director, and in a certain sense the most personal. The endless duel between the two magicians played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, beyond the Conradian echoes, is the device through which Nolan addresses two aspects as intimate as they are universal in the life of an artist: illusion and obsession. Borden (Bale) and Angier (Jackman) are equally aware of the fact that ‘human transportation’ does not exist, and yet they sacrifice their lives for it. The Prestige It is a film about the difference between looking, seeing and believing, and one of the most intelligent metacinematic reflections of Hollywood in recent decades.

Even the film’s only apparent flaw, a final twist that does not live up to the complexity and depth of the plot, could be interpreted as the only appropriate conclusion to the discussion being carried forward. The Prestige: never reveal the trick behind a wonderful illusion. The explanation will never live up to the mystery“.