I will start by saying again - if you haven’t seen the movie, don’t read this thread! I highly HIGHLY recommend watching the movie blind, do not keep reading, do not pass the line below!
Anyway, The Prestige is one of my favorite movies of all time, because everything that happens is very deliberate, and much of the movie has relevance to the overarching illusion behind the entire film. I love showing this film to new groups of friends, so I’ve come up with a list of every bit of foreshadowing/reference/hint/etc. related to Alfred “Freddie” Borden. Some of these are super thorough instances of symbolism, making elaborate, sometimes even over-the-top parallels to what’s going on. Some are indirect, thematic nods to the main illusion. Others are quite minor things I’ve noticed, little tidbits of interesting dialogue or decoration, which still serve to further enrich the narrative.
If I’ve missed anything interesting, which is quite possible, we will certainly expand this list. Without further ado, here’s (in narrative order) what I’ve caught concerning the brilliance of The Prestige:
!!!SPOILERS!!!
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The opening shot is filled with hats – all the same kind. Pretty meaningless the first time you see it, but for repeat viewers it is a quick visual reminder of what the movie is about. Opening shots are extremely important; with this one, repeat viewers are immediately reminded about the crux of the film.
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Fallon is first shown in the courtroom. I think it’s pretty fitting that he’s introduced watching over and taking care of the daughter, Jess. Also, it’s made very clear that he’s wearing gloves here, to obscure his hands of course!
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When the prospect of Fallon taking care of Jess is brought up, it’s comical. Fallon, “... a man with a past almost as obscure as your own...” Certainly, Fallon would have an obscure past, considering the nature of his character. But that’s quite a natural suggestion for Freddie to make.
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When Angier is first shown reading from Borden’s diary, it reads: “We were two young men at the start of a great career. Two young men devoted to an illusion. Two young men who never intended to hurt anyone.” Borden is quite likely not referring to Angier at all. You can interpret this as him referring to a different pair of men.
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Backstage, after one of the earliest performances of the original squad: “No one else can do my trick”. Indeed Freddie, no one else can possibly do your trick; the others don’t understand quite how literal his statement is!
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When Angier and Borden are observing the Chinaman, Borden understands right away while Angier is perplexed. They see him outside walking slowly, and Borden says “This is the trick! This is the performance, right here, this is why no one can detect his method. Total devotion to his art, lots of self-sacrifice.” Later, Angier says “It’s unthinkable! Borden saw it at once, but I couldn’t fathom living my whole life pretending to be someone else.” Do I even need to explain this one any further? The real trick extends to masking your entire life outside of the stage!
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“But where’s his brother?” A classic, iconic scene with the bird trick. The movie waves the idea of one brother pretending to be another right in your face. Two brothers, and one has to die while the other lives. “You’re the lucky one today”
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“Are you watching closely?” Freddie does a magic trick for the boy using a coin, which if you watch closely, actually has a head on both sides. He’s asking the kid the question, but he’s also asking the audience to watch, to see if you’ll pick up on the dual faces on the coin.
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After the magic show, Borden walks Sarah home and then performs one of the boldest tricks in the entire movie, by entering her home uninvited. This is a very entertaining scene for repeat viewers, and one of my favorites in the whole movie. It works perfectly here because for first-time viewers who are still getting a feel for the rules or limits concerning magic in this movie, they may not take it too seriously. If this kind of trick was shown much later in the movie, it would be too much of a giveaway. But it’s placed just early enough to still be okay.
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At the funeral service: “I keep asking myself that...” Borden doesn’t know what knot was tied since, well, he didn’t tie it!
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The next scene has a couple very clever hints that are obvious to repeat viewers, yet I don’t see mentioned much when this movie comes up online. Upon introducing Fallon to Sarah, she expresses concern about how they will pay him. Borden replies “Don’t worry about it, I mean I’ll share half my food with him or something!” Actually, repeat viewers know this is not an unfamiliar proposition at all.
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Same scene: when Sarah announces her pregnancy, Borden says: “Oh my God, we should have told Fallon!” Kind of a bizarre response to becoming a father, unless you realize exactly who is no longer there in the room with them – then it makes complete sense, as Freddie isn’t the one who values that news the most.
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Still the same scene, we get the first “I love you” … “Not today” exchange. This confirms the preceding point.
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In one of the transition/framing scenes, Angier is reading from Borden’s journal: “I have fought with myself over that night. One half of me swearing blind that I tied a simple slipknot, the other half convinced that I tied the langford double.” This is quite literally describing an argument involving at least one dishonest party, not some vague subconscious turmoil.
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“It’s as bad as the day it happened!” Referring to the hand injury, which had to be repeated. This should be very strange, but most viewers probably think nothing of it. This works so well because it’s framed simply as a tool to illustrate how much they’re struggling, even though it’s more explicitly evidence for something else.
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“See, today it’s true” - here we have Borden saying the words, and Sarah understands them to be genuine.
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“... family life that he craves one minute, he rails against the next” and “his mind is a divided one... his wife and child tormented by his fickle and contradictory nature.” Another instance of Angier reading from the journal, and dancing around the conclusion that he just can’t seem to grasp. He’s laying out all the evidence for us, without being able to put it together.
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After the meeting with Tesla, we cut to Angier and Olivia backstage. The newspaper he’s reading has an article titled “The Professor has Defied Death” which seems strange, but this is of course foreshadowing what will blow Angier’s mind at the very end.
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Next, we have our magician, engineer, and assistant trio arguing about The Transported Man “It’s a double that comes out” vs “It’s the same man”. Once again, for repeat viewers the film is very blatantly dancing around the reality of the situation. Angier is so fixated on how exactly one man can be “transported” so quickly, and his obsession is further nurtured by the cunning title of the trick.
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Borden and Sarah looking at their new home, and Sarah is confused/surprised, but he reassures her “You caught me in a wrong mood” Well, not exactly, but we do know what he’s actually obscuring behind that statement.
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Discussing Gerald Root as Angier’s possible double at the pub: “He could be your brother.” A very on-the-nose way to describe how Root will look when he’s all dressed up, just winking again at the viewers.
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Cutter, at the end of Root’s first demo of his Angier character: “Root has to keep a low profile, if anyone sees him, the game is up.” True, thought what’s really important here is how much this statement applies to our other main characters not in this scene, like one particular beardy boi who has to keep a low profile.
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Angier, despite success of the new trick, is still unhappy being in hiding during the applause. “Maybe we could switch before the trick, that way I could be the prestige…” He doesn’t quite realize how much his rival is switching places, taking turns on who can be the prestige.
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The scene where Root gets compromised. Borden straight up shares there’s no transported man, he says “I used a double.” He was Alfred, he was Freddie. Can I make it anymore obvious?
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After his leg injury, Angier and Olivia converge again, and he’s desperate for answers. She has nothing to say that he wants to hear. She’s convinced Borden is using and double, and backs it up by saying “I’ve seen things, makeup, glasses, wigs.” Seemingly innocuous statement, and a bit of makeup or a wig could be used to help make someone else look like Borden. But glasses? They wouldn’t be used for making a duplicate Professor. However, we do know about one beardy boi who wears glasses.
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“ALL. THE TIME. OLIVIA” Angier is exclaiming his understanding of “total devotion to [the] art” and how that means perpetually keeping up an illusion. But sadly he’s focused on the wrong direction of disguise, he’s too certain about the wrong form of deception, even though he’s reminding us of one of the crucial skills required to keep up a trick like The Transported Man.
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Later, we see Angier getting his hands dirty, and extorting Borden for information. Referring to their kidnapped prisoner: “He doesn’t seem to talk at all”. Naturally, when captured, Fallon would need remarkable willpower to remain silent despite everything that’s going on, just so he’s not found out.
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After Fallon is rescued, Freddie is having a nice dinner and is asked to describe the new trick he’s boasting about, so he says “I am going to bury myself alive every night, and then have someone come along and dig me up!” Funny, since it was Fallon that was buried. But this highlights mercurial, ever swapping nature of these characters and their roles.
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Soon after, same scene: “I thought something very precious had been lost to me”, Freddie can’t share what he lost. Indeed, he can’t truly convey the severity of losing someone who is much more than just his assistant.
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“This makes you unique” - Olivia, telling Borden he should flaunt his hand. More trickery to befuddle the audience, trying to emphasize that it’s the same man on the other side.
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“I promised did I?” Borden is surprised to hear that he promised a trip to the zoo. Clearly there was not time to communicate this plan, so he had to act on the spot!
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“You mean it today… which makes it so much harder when you don’t” The penultimate instance of this type of interaction between Sarah and Borden. It’s incredibly sad, but it’s clear that Sarah suspects something, something that probably should be obvious to the audience, but that most viewers probably haven't put together.
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Later, Borden and Fallon meet in public, to touch base. Borden tells Fallon “The little lady wants to go to the zoo, so I thought you could take her.” Really, how shitty is it to send Fallon to the zoo with your daughter, unless… ;) …
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Also immediately after, he says “Sarah, she knows… I mean at least she knows that something’s not right” If there’s one obvious thing he could be referring to, viewers probably assume this is the affair. But between the two of them, the subject of the line could be broader, referring to their secret. Which I think plays into how he catches himself and clarifies his statement with the second half. Bale nails that distinction here, as he does in many other places.
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Borden then goes to meet with Olivia, and when he calls him Freddie he says “Don’t call me that, it seems wrong”. Clearly here he is struggling to keep up the role as passionate lover to Olivia.
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Same scene, where Olivia raises her suspicions about Fallon. Borden responds “Do you trust me? Then trust Fallon.” Yes, this statement could be taken quite directly, even though Olivia doesn’t realize.
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“If it went wrong, I would not want to live like that...” Angier straight up thinks about the possibility of living with a second version of himself before deeming it impossible/unacceptable. Damn.
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Later we see Sarah and Freddie arguing, I think. Fallon comes to comfort Jess, and of course he’s wearing those gloves. Though furthermore the lighting in this scene really obscures his hands so that you can’t tell where there might be padded fingers, and instead only a few primary digits are discernible while the last two fingers on his hand remain shrouded.
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Same fight, and Sarah asks for honesty. “Do you love me?” And in a true, brutally honest moment, finally Freddie says “Not today.”
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Freddie decides to continue with this same trend of honesty later when he is at lunch with Olivia. “The truth is that I never loved Sarah” … “Part of me did, but the other part didn’t. The part that found you, the part that’s sitting here right now.” THE TRUTH.
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And another one of my favorite lines in the film follows right after “You could be in some other restaurant with some other woman right now, talking about me that way.” He was a cheat, she did augury. What more can I say?
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After Angier performs The REAl trAnSPOrteD mAn, The Professor and Fallon are in a heated “discussion” over how it’s done. Fallon is scribbling at this time, but without gloves! However, it’s made sure that his other hand is below the desk, out of sight!!! Tiny detail that I absolutely love.
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Next scene, Borden gives up. He tells Fallon “We’re done… Don’t go back there, leave him alone…” He’s the one making this decision, but then we immediately transition to the murder scene from the beginning of the movie. More on this later...
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But first, we get a scene where Jess is brought to visit Freddie in jail. He almost immediately states “Fallon’s missed you too” because despite how hard they try, sometimes he lets slip how much Fallon is connected to their family. Looking back at many of these points, isn’t it silly how much everyone mentions this completely undeveloped character with no backstory and no interaction dynamics with any other character? :P
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Nearing the end, we have Fallon visiting Freddie in jail. Here we get the last smorgasbord of cheeky hints before the finale. Freddie says “You were right. I should have left him to his damn trick.” Another one of my favorite cautiously but deliberately implemented lines. Two points ago, didn’t I mention that it was Borden telling Fallon “don’t go back there”? But now it’s Fallon who’s hearing “you were right”. Really neat interaction when you know what’s going on.
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As he’s being led away, Freddie apologizes to Fallon: “...I’m sorry about Sarah…” included. It would be unclear why a widower would need to apologize to a work colleague over his wife’s death, but by the end we know the actual reason why, where that apology is coming from, and who it’s directed to.
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“You go and live your life in full now. You live for both of us.” Yet another thing that would be odd to say to a simple colleague, but it’s actually perfectly fitting. No more living half of a full life!
So, did I miss anything? Leave a comment if you need clarification on anything or to suggest inserting something somewhere. I hope there's at least one thing on this list to surprise every reader :)
Submitted December 12, 2019 at 06:43PM by Tremaparagon https://ift.tt/2YFXlPY
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