 The Prestige Acts is a perfect example of how the magic of movies can be used to help enhance a story and make it so much better. What I mean by the magic of movies are the aspects of filmmaking that are unique, editing, post-production, and rewatchability. There have been hundreds if not thousands of comparisons of the structure of the magic act to the structure of the film. As Cutter tells us, there are three stages to a magic trick, the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Similarly, most stories follow a very similar three-act structure with setup, conflict, and resolution. When you boil it down to its simplest form, The Prestige is a movie about manipulation. We see characters lie to one another, steal ideas, and trick one another. In addition, there is never a reliable narrator established, so we as the audience can never be sure who to trust, which brings us to the second kind of manipulation. The filmmaker, Christopher Nolan, and his co-writer and brother, Jonathan Nolan, misguiding and tricking the audience. Take for example this line said by Borden. We were two young men at the start of a great career. Two young men devoted to an illusion. Out of context you would have no idea who the second young man he is referring to is, but in the context of the movie when we see him with Angeer, we assume that he is referring to the two of them. But once we take that line into the context of the entire story, it becomes clear that the two young men in question are actually Borden and his twin brother, Fallon. As Angeer tells us, the two men had just met. There would be no way of Borden knowing that they would have a great career together. They also weren't dedicated to an illusion. That is the illusion of Fallon and Borden being two different people and not twin brothers. This is told to us in the very beginning. There should be no reason why we, as the audience, can't piece everything together. But we want to accept that the story will follow the traditional rules of filmmaking. Throughout the entire movie there are subtleties scattered on almost every scene that tell us what is going to happen, be it these subtle changes in Christian Bale's performance in demeanor or Sarah literally yelling at us what we need to pick up on. Because we are so conditioned to movies telling us what we need to know, we don't have any incentive to look on our own. Unlike a real magic trick, this movie lays out its secrets. The end of the movie ends with a giant revelation. It tells us everything that we missed up to that point. A big idea in this movie is out of magicians going back and studying other magicians to try and learn their secrets. Oftentimes, no matter how many times they go back to try and learn the other's trick, they're unable to. There is no revelation in a magic act. Similarly, imagine if the film cut off the last 10 minutes when everything is revealed. We would be asking ourselves if this is a movie about people who can actually do magic, but as we learn in this movie there is no magic. Nolan himself also didn't summon the ending out of thin air. Instead he had the answer there the entire time. This movie's revelation is that there is no magic, instead just good showmanship and science. This is the struggle that Anjir faces throughout the entire movie. He wants to believe that there is more to life than just an illusion. He searches for something, giving up years of his life in order to try and achieve it. But in the end, it's science, not magic, that his best trick is based on. In the words of Arthur C. Clarke, magic's just science that we don't understand yet. Anjir is never able to realize that the best magicians are the best showmen. In fact, the only people who are able to realize this are Olivia and Cutter. Anjir thinks that the success of his act comes from how legitimate his magic is. He is only interested in magic for selfish reasons. He doesn't care what the audience believes and said he cares what the audience thinks of him. In this scene, he asks Cutter why he can't be the last one out on the stage. He wants to see how well his trick works in the eyes of the audience, but if he were to see it, he would be ruining the essence of the trick. Borden fully realizes that there is no magic in this world. He spots the trick done by Chung Ling Soo because it's the same trick that he has been doing his entire life, putting up an act when he is both on and off stage. He sees a magician as an entertainer, as a career. He has a better understanding of the physical world, which is why in the end, he comes out on top of Anjir. If we take a step back and look at this comparison between a magician and a filmmaker, it lets us into Nolan's philosophy of filmmaking. In his eyes, the audience comes first. He makes his films very accessible, so more people are able to understand and appreciate his art. At the same time, he doesn't let that get in the way of the quality of his different films. In order to be a good storyteller, you need to first understand how the story will be told and what is the best way of conveying every aspect of it. The order of information matters in the way in which we are told this information matters. This information may be disguised, but it is always there. The best plot twists are the ones that we as the audience are never able to guess, but upon being told what they are, make perfect sense. That is what this movie is able to do perfectly. Subvert our expectations long enough so that we don't see the twist coming. But then once we know what it is, it makes sense the entire time. Nolan uses traditional manipulation in order to tell the story. He'll ask you to look one place while he hides the answer somewhere else. He relies on people's assumptions and because of that, he is able to trick the entire audience. This is the same technique that Jonathan Nolan used in Westworld. If you're not aware, the show was created, produced, and written by Jonathan Nolan and his wife, Lisa Joy, and implements the same techniques used in the prestige. Now I won't be spoiling anything in Westworld, but for those of you who have seen it, think about how time is used, or the way editing is used, to morph different stories into one. I think that it says a lot about we as an audience that we were able to be tricked twice, using the same techniques both times. It also tells us that today, some of the best magicians working are today's best filmmakers, and they're the ones who can do real magic. They create stories out of thin air and transport audiences into a brand new world. Thank you so much for watching. The Prestige is one of my personal favorite movies out there. It was a lot of fun revisiting it because it's one of those movies where upon every rewatch you notice something different about it. Next week we'll be taking a look at American Beauty. I'm very excited to discuss that film. That video will be out next Saturday and linked on the right of the screen. On the left is my last video where we explored 12 Years a Slave. Be sure to check that video out if you haven't seen it yet, and I will see you next week. Thanks for watching.