will someone please explain the PRESTIGE ??

Question

We just watched it (awesome movie) but we don't totally get the ending. they flash Angiers clone or something bodys back so that we see that last...but why.

we have a friend that said it was all an illusion...is that true?


thanks for the help :))

Answer 1

No, it wasn't an illusion. Every time used the Tesla machine for his transported man act, it created a clone- so he killed them by dropping them into water tanks below the stage. That's why the stage hands working for him were blind, and why he told Cutter (Michael Cain) he didn't want him working behind the scenes... So nobody else would know what was in the tanks.

When Borden managed to sneak in during the act and saw Angier drowning, it was a clone... but of course he had no idea..

Answer 2

Which Angier (real or clone) dies at the end?

This is a highly debatable question.

First are some ground rules:

1) Real refers to the ORIGINAL Angier 2) Clone refers to the Angiers created by the machine

Here are possible scenarios:

1) The Machine creates a clone about 20 feet away from the real Angier. Which means when Angier performs his trick to the public, the CLONE is given the prestige of the trick. Under this assumption then, it can be said that the REAL Angier drowned in the box, like his wife, and the CLONE took over. However, this assumption raises another question: Angier performed this trick several times, so was he killed by his clone or did he kill his other clones.

2) A view from another source: The blind stage hands remove the covered tank after every performance. At the end, Angier says the machine belongs with "the prestige materials". When Bordon walks out of the burning theatre he turns to look at a tank with a floating Angier inside of it...I was left with the impression that there were several of these tanks lined up there. My conclusion was that they are all the "real" Angier (From Tesla's statement: "They are all your hat, Mr. Angier") and that each night the "real" Angier dies in the tank, and each night a "real" Angier is the prestige. Angier's statement about "will I be the one in the box or the prestige" seems to reveal a fear that one night the generator will not work and he will just be dead.

3)One more: I think he is a clone himself, here's why. A clone created is exactly in the same state of mind as the real one. Assuming this, If Angier makes a clone thinking that he will later kill him, the clone would already know this. And this scheme would be redundant for a show. On the other hand, if he is ready to die and let the next clone take-over, the process could go on and on. Also, the added reason is that a clone is created a bit far away, and we always see the man in the machine die; but if we choose to believe that he created a clone before the actual "show" this reason would mean nothing. One thing to be noted is that a clone is as good as real for Angier so there is no particular clone or real. Another dimension to the problem is this: when a clone is made, is the real one sent 50m away and the clone at the machine (because that was what Tesla was trying to build, a transporting machine) or vice versa. This is probably why Angier says "not knowing whether I will be the man in the box or the prestige". Guess the point of naming the film "The Prestige" is that.

4) Another intriguing thought: When Angier first successfully gets cloned, the one who is away from the machine and gets shot says "Wait, I'm the -!" Now, if it was the clone who appeared some distance away and was saying something like "Wait, I'm the prestige!", would it make sense that the original Angier would drown himself at the first performance? (But then what was written in points 2 & 3 apply, and it practically doesn't matter if real=clone.) However, if it was Angier who got transported and he meant to say "Wait, I'm the real Angier!" then it would make sense that clone #1 should be confident about being the prestige each time he did the trick, and subsequent clones would be drowned soon after being cloned. Then why does the dying clone of Angier at the end not know whether he "will be the man in the box or the prestige"? Could it be that the clone is really never sure whether he has been transported or not (and therefore may or may not drown), whereas the original Angier did know (but was tragically shot)? Could the point be that the real Angier did know how the machine worked but his clone did not?

5) Another take: All of the Angiers are "real." The copies created by the machine are the exact equivalent of the real Angier, even down to his memories, with no significant difference between "real" and "clone." The physically original Angier dies in the tank during the first run of his Transported Man trick. The last Angier, who dies at Borden's hand, is almost a product of luck: his experiences and his memories are of being the prestige -- the survivor -- each time the Transported Man was performed, back to the moment when he first attempted the trick and shot the copy. Going into the machine, he knows that one incarnation of himself will live, and one will die. Every Angier who dies in the trick begins with the same memories as the one who survives that particular trick, which makes them all effectively equal.

Answer 3

I loved this movie.

If you are into these types of movies, check out THE ILLUSIONIST. - Another great flick.

About the ending;

Cutter accompanies Angier to the abandoned building where the water tanks are stored, and helps him store the teleportation machine. After learning of the dead, replicated Angiers, Cutter leaves in disgust, silently acknowledging the arrival of Borden, who shoots Angier. Borden reveals that he and "Fallon" were twins who lived as a single individual, alternating lives as needed: one twin loving Sarah and the other loving Olivia. For the original illusion, a twin acted as the double. They were so committed to the illusion that they amputated the other twin's fingers to match his brother's injury; they also suffered the loss of Sarah as a result of their dedication to the illusion. Similarly, flashbacks recount (only to the audience) Angier's method: that each time he disappeared during his illusion, he fell into a locked tank and drowned, and the machine created a replicate who teleported to the balcony and basked in the applause. Each tank stores a drowned replicate of Angier for each time that he has performed the trick. Before leaving, Borden looks back at the aisles of tanks containing the dead duplicates and then leaves Angier to die as a fire begins to consume the building. Afterwards Borden reunites with Jess.


Hope that helps

Answer 4

Yes it was an amazing movie. I loved it. To answer your question if you saw the hole movie you'll find out that Christian Bale has a twin. His twin is a kind of mean and he only cares to make Hugh Jackman a loser. But Hugh Jackman is a bad person. He thinks that he has won so when he goes to see Christian Bale in jail he goes with Bale's daughter. Anyways at the end of the movie the bad twin dies so the good twin could win and keep his daughter who Hugh Jackman wants to steal from him to make him angry and to prove that he has lost. So it's not an illusion. Hugh Jackman didn't know that Bale had a twin, so Christian Bale's twin gave up his life so he could be happy with his daughter. At the end Hugh Jakckman loses. Sorry for the spelling mistakes.