WOW! Nolan has done it again with yet another mind blowing movie This will leave us thinking for a while.. Want to watch 4 weeks EARLY and access our UNCUT reactions? AND Vote for what Movie we watch next over on Patreon! www.patreon.com/spartanandpudgey

The second time watching this movie is SO much better than the first. The boy at the beginning watching the bird die in the magic trick. “Where’s his brother?” The boy gave the whole movie right there

Now you know why Bordens moods change a lot, because it’s literally 2 different people!

He sent him to Tesla to bankrupt him, Bordon didn't expect that Tesla could actually make a machine that could do "something" like his trick. That was an accident, a coincidence, which was why Bordon was caught off guard and couldn't figure out his trick.

Pudgey, stop overthinking. Spartan is right. Christian Bale character had a twin

The scene with Borden and the little boy with the bird is a very important scene! It basically explains the plot and twist of the movie which is why Borden says to the kid (us the audience) “are you watching closely”

12:41 "Surely you'd make the glass more easily breakable?!" Water is hella heavy, so the glass has to be strong enough to hold it without collapsing.

"No one cares about the secret" "Once you know it's actually pretty obvious" This movie is true about this two statements in magic, but totally subverts them in the context of the movie itself. Once you know the secret it actually gets more interesting to rewatch, to pick all the (countless) clues and foreshadows they leave along the way. Just brilliant

This film is so good man. Every time I rewatch it with people the twist seems so obvious to me, and no one I’ve ever watched it with has caught it.

It’s rare to see Spartan out shining Pudgey here, but Spartan is on fire with this movie and Pudgey is a bit slow today.

Regarding the knot, I suspect the twin who tied the fatal knot would never willingly admit to it, and the twin who didn’t would genuinely not know. So it makes sense that either twin would answer “I don’t know.”

9:36 Christian Bale's character figured it out easily because he was also living his trick his whole life

Cutter lied originally when he said drowning is like going home when Robert Angier's wife drowned to try and comfort him. But later, when Cutter realized how Angier did his clone-act, he thought it was wrong and had to be honest and say drowning is agony.

One thing you guys perhaps did not realize is that Angier was always Lord Caldlow, even before he became a magician. He was secretly moonlighting as a magician the whole time.

Pudgey is the only person who doesn’t understand the twist even when it’s been explained. That’s because she was talking over the line “…a brother, a twin…”.

One of my favorite movies. Even after knowing the twist, it's still just as enjoyable to rewatch.

He sent Angier to Tesla as a misdirection. But Tesla was actually able to build the cloning machine. That's why Borden was shocked that Angier was still alive.

Prestige is the best story the Nolan brothers has done in his career.

It’s a movie that’s definitely requires a second and third watch! Fun to see the pieces moving and put in place now that you know the twist

The best thing about this movie is that, like some magic tricks, it's just as enjoyable the second time around when you know what to look for.

Guys!! I’ve been saying this movie is literally the greatest movie of all time! The twist and turns this movie takes you through is so incredible! The movie itself is an actual making trick. When Borden says throughout the movie, “are you watching closely ?” He’s literally asking us as the audience to pay attention because the movie requires it. Entangling the mess with your brain! Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman deserved Oscar’s for this work and this is Christopher Nolan’s best film in my opinion! 11/10 perfect!

What I like best about the movie is (beside David Bowie) that is shows what a good actor Hugh Jackman is..he is often only reduced to the Wolverine thing and people forget what a great actor..and even waaaaay greater stage broadway performer that guy is. That guy won Tonys for a reason

57:30 one of the twins actually know which knot was tied. However, Robert asked the wrong Borden twin that’s why he said “I didn’t know”. Obviously the second twin should follow that line to not get caught and keep up the act.

I don't think Sarah knew that her husband was twins, she was just able to read him/them well enough to sense when it was Alfred (he was sincere in his love for her) and when it was Fallon (he was just playing the part). That's why she thought he was having an affair, etc. I'm unclear whether she figured out his/their secret by the end, but it kind of sounded like she did. And can you imagine? You suddenly discover that half the time you've spent in a relationship with your partner, it's actually been their sibling pretending to be them. And how far did that go in private? Like, did they kiss? Sleep together? Change, shower, etc in front of one another? That realization would be horrible and feel like such a violation. The part about Angier not knowing if it was him who would die is always an interesting subject. I've seen a lot of people theorize that it's a 50/50 chance whether he teleports or drops into the tank and he never knows which it'll be, but I actually think it's simpler than that. No matter how many times you do the trick, the guy who comes out the other door will NEVER have fallen into the tank and drowned (or else he wouldn't be coming out the other door). He would have the memories of walking into the first door and coming out the second door every time. The problem is that nobody knows how the machine actually works: Is the first Angier being teleported to the second door and leaving a clone in his place to drop and drown, or is the first Angier dropping into the tank every night while a clone appears at the second door? For Angier, that uncertainty means that each time he does the trick, he doesn't know if he's always walking into an agonizing death, leaving a copy (who has never experienced death) to take over for him until the next performance, when that clone then drowns and a new clone takes over for the previous clone, over and over and over. Personally, I suspect that the machine leaves the original in place and creates a copy a short distance away, meaning that Angier is having one final performance every night, each one capped off by a horrible drowning death. That's his sacrifice for the trick. That's the "cost" Tesla refers to when he advises him to destroy the machine. Every night, Angier has to be entering that trick thinking, "Am I about to experience dying?" That would be rough. Is he murdering his clones night after night, or is he experiencing a never ending string of self un-alivings? An extra irony is that, if it's the second choice, then the Angier that starts the trick never gets to experience the audience applauding (the same problem he had when he tried to use the double) because he's too busy drowning. On the subject of Thomas Edison: Edison was a businessman who reportedly wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty and stealing some patents to be known as the most successful inventor (in kind of a parallel with our main characters, who were each willing to get their hands dirty and steal tricks to be the best magician), but a lot of the animosity between Tesla and Edison is myth. Tesla actually worked for Edison's company for a while, eventually quitting because he wasn't being listened to and he got screwed out of a promise $50,000 for improving Edison's dynamos. Apparently, after he made the improvements, he was told that the $50k was just a "practical joke" and he was instead offered a $10/week raise. Later, Edison was working on DC electricity but it had the problem of there not being any infrastructure to transfer it long distances, meaning electricity would be limited to cities. Tesla, on the other hand, was working on AC electricity, which could be transferred long distances - making it available to everyone - but had a reputation for being dangerous (another parallel to the movie?) and starting fires. Tesla worked to show that AC was not actually dangerous and could benefit everyone, but Edison - who was heavily invested in DC - did everything he could to discredit Tesla, including trying to put the stink on AC by holding demonstrations in which he would electrocute animals (there's famous footage of one of Edison's demonstrations where he electrocutes an elephant, which, for me, is enough reason to think of Edison as a dick). One of Tesla's labs did burn down (not sure if it was the Colorado Springs lab or the NY one), but there's no evidence that Edison was behind it like in the movie. Supposedly, the fire started in a dry-cleaning business downstairs from Tesla's lab, possibly from the cigarette of a careless security guard. Of course, history is full of stories that are told by the victor so it's totally possible that Edison was behind it and did it to sabotage Tesla's work with AC, radio, etc. For now, that's just a conspiracy theory that gets tossed around though. Either way, after the fire, Edison let Tesla use his labs to continue his work, so that would actually be a point in Edison's favor (unless he was just trying to keep him close so he could see what he was up to and steal some inventions). Originally, Tesla idolized Edison. He even said about meeting him: "The meeting with Edison was a memorable event in my life. I was amazed at this wonderful man who, without early advantages and scientific training, had accomplished so much." But, over time, the two men grew to not like each other very much because they were both very smart-but-egocentric guys who didn't like other egocentric people. Plus, Tesla was a germophobe and Edison was reportedly not super clean. According to Tesla's autobiography: "[Edison] had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene." Another thing Tesla said about Edison in his autobiography: "His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of the labour. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense." So, I'm not sure that the stuff in the movie was based off of Edison stealing the lightbulb from someone so much as it was just sort of a play on the mythology of Tesla (who is built up as an almost magical, almost alien super genius by fanbois who believe his work was suppressed by the government for being too advanced, etc) and a possibly exaggerated version of Edison's ruthlessness and willingness to steal other people's work, combined with a sprinkling of their eventual dislike for one another and the competition between their competing forms of electricity.

Oh, and Alfred Borden wrote in the diary that he argued with himself over and over about what knot he tied. Knowing that they are twins, he was actually arguing with his twin brother about what knot the brother tied. Meaning, Angier was reading the diary of the one who didn't tie the knot. After he tied the knot and they argued, for whatever reason, probably shame, the twin brother never admitted what knot he tied. So the other twin didnt actually know.

For the amount of times they said the word Cutler, you'd think there was actually a guy in the movie named Cutler haha.

I think you guys might have missed at the end where Alfred says to Angier “We each loved one of them. He loved Olivia, I loved Sarah.” Basically confirming that the twin who died was kind of the shittier twin who was yelling at Sarah constantly, cheating with Olivia and most likely not the father of the little girl.. also the one who snuck backstage to see Angiers trick..

13:33 "Which knot did you tie?" "I don't know" Cause he doesn't know, it is the other brother, the one that wasn't on stage that night ;-)

The clone is identical to the original at the time they split. So the clone knows what the original knows, which is why he knows he’s about to die. It also means the original knows he’s killing himself over and over again. Whether the clone or the original dies, it’s the same person. Rick and Morty did an amazing episode about this called The Vat of Acid Episode.

51:04 "They are all your hat" - Tesla They both are the real Angier.

Y’all overthinking it, the end was Kane talking to us the audience saying we don’t want to see the truth(the horror and sacrifice) we want to be fooled and awed by the “magic”. Borden was twin brothers Danton was clones

The magician on stage during the rope knot scene is Ricky Jay, RIP, doing a cameo and did consulting on the movie to get the historical look and feel right for how theater magic was performed. He was a great historian and performer of the craft in his own right, a nice touch to see him there.

What's funny about this movie is that its telling you plain and simple what the brothers are doing, how the trick is done and all that. But ''YOU WANT TO BE FOOLED'' which they say at the beginning and at the end. It really fascinates me how Nolan(s) created this story knowing that the audience would constantly (almost like Robert) look for the trick, or for clues, when really it was right there in front of us the whole time.

When you realise that Angier could have made just one clone and then done exactly the same thing as Borden and just taken it in turns, but his avarice in wanting to be on stage for every reveal and not the man in the box, so he commits murder every night…

Easily one of Nolan’s greatest films.

When I saw this in the theater, before Christian Bale's character hangs, I whispered to myself, "Abracadabra," feeling that's what I would say in contempt. Hearing the delivery sent chills down my spine. Nolan is brilliant.

I just love the idea of having the senior citizen in charge of smashing the glass with the axe. GIVE IT TO HER HUSBAND WOLVERINE

You guys didn’t catch that David Bowie is the actor who plays Tesla.

Spartan, I love your face when ever pudgey goes on one of her silent giggle fits , amazing 😂❤

9:26 Them talking about the old man getting into the carriage with the fishbowl foreshadows the big reveal of the whole movie and I missed it my first time through. Bird scene, that's his brother. 19:26 Voice and mo-cap actor for Gollum / Sméagol I don't know which knot. I'm pregnant, oh my Go... we should have told Fallon I love you, not today Finger bleeding again Just some of them and it's crazy how all this is put in front of the audience within the first of the movie.

Also. There’s soooooo many great things in this movie you can find a new one every time. I didn’t realize until this watch that the scene at the very beginning, where Michael Caine is explaining the three phases of a trick, it is literally the moment before Borden walks in at the end and his daughter sees him. Genius movie.

I love how the end says that the viewer doesn't want to understand it and how they want to be fooled and pudgy and spartan immediately say they don't get it and think there's something more that they're missing (like in a magic trick)

I’ve watched this movie dozens of times and the more you watch it the more you realize Nolan is constantly telling you the answer but has you focus on something else. Also, there is a good twin and a bad twin! The bad twin is hung and the good twin reunited with his daughter.

The best reaction in the video occurs before the film even starts. Spartan's reaction is gold, well done pre-empting him Pudgey! 😂

In my opinion this is the most well written and directed movie I’ve ever seen. There are no plot holes! It’s so intricate it’s mind blowing. Even the main characters initials spell out ABRA(CADABRA) Alfred Borden & Robert Angier

I never understand how no one can tell that its christian bale as the brother earlier. I remember when I first watched this in a cabin with friends years ago, the first time I saw him I noticed and we figured out it had to be a relative

“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." - Alfred wasn't referring to himself and Angier here, but to himself and his brother. Such subtle yet quite inspired writing.

This was so fun. Thanks guys! You both were on top form in this one.

The whole movie is a magic trick that follows the structure set forth in the beginning of the movie. Very good story telling device!

If you are interested in the backstory about Tesla, The Current War is a 2017 biographical drama film about the rivalry between Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse over which electrical system would power the United States in the 1880s. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, Michael Shannon as Westinghouse, and Nicholas Hoult as Tesla.

Spartan (chad): It cos they twins. Pudgey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.... OOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Pudgey stealing Spartan's lines = Magician's stealing each others acts :)

The end of the movie was just all of the clones (or originals) who died in the box. He's got a basement full of water tanks with bodies in them.

How the trick works is whomever is in the machine ends up in the box. Tesla built not a transport device but a duplication device. So for the trick, you step in the machine, you get duplicated but you fall into the tank and die and your replicatant takes your place. At the end, it was a warehouse full of water tanks and each on had a body in it.

The initials of both characters are A.B. And R.A. - ABRA for abracadabra

Great reaction guys! This movie gets better and better the more you watch it as you catch new little details every time.

What a great reaction. I loved seeing your post watch discussion, and all the realizations and theories that came along with it!

There are two personalities. One is always cool, soft spoken and the other one is more of the hot head and always angry. The time Sarah said I knew because she can comfirm that Borden/Fallon is having an affair with Olivia and she doesn't know his husband is a twin. The twin bought the machine from Tesla just for the extreme electricity effects of it, nothing more. Angier got tricked by the twin and request a specific type of machine based on the schematic diagram je passed to the Tesla's butler. If you watch again for the 2nd time after knowing the ending, you will realize there's really a lot of clues seeded along the way.

"Abracadabra" Spartan: "They didn't even let him finish his word!" Bruh... I just cannot....

Nolan is an exceptionally talented director. Every movie of his that I watched so far is absolutely brilliant.

When narrating Borden/Fallon's diary hes constantly referring to 'we' and 'ourselves'

"He looks very similar." Dude they're both Hugh Jackman.

Okay, but I need to know if you ever realized that Root (Robert's drunk double) was ALSO played by Hugh Jackman! 🤦‍♂

Borden loved Olivia Fallon loved Sarah Everytime Sarah says "not today" the one she's with is Borden and yeah the one that lived was Fallon

Yaay great! These Nolan movie reactions from you are such a treat these days. Prestige is one my favourite movies. Nice reactions as always 💙

There was a bit of foreshadowing when the kid was asking about the bird "but what about his brother?"

If the teleported Algiers is a copy with all memories intact, then the original died the first time he performed the act. Every Algiers thereafter is a copy.

You guys are my favorite reactors! So happy you have boarded the Nolan-train, there are so many amazing movies that just leave you thinking about them for days afterwards, Can´t wait for more amazing movies and reactions! Love from Norway:)

Pudgey your overthinking both makes you confused unnecessarily at times but also it allows you to hilariously guess the twist so quickly with some confidence "this whole movie a trick in 3 parts" Just awesome LOL

Tesla was a real historical character (considered a genius who was ahead of his time). Nolan said that had always thought of David Bowie for the part because he also fit that description. He was surprised when Bowie agreed to do it...& was blown away by how Bowie "became" the character. So much so that many viewers didn't realize it was Bowie!

I've waited almost 20 minutes at the end in your analysis for the bird symbolism/foreshadowing. I was so happy when after the Pudgey Story and the word "boy", the face of our Spartan became really focused and guessed that beautiful aspect of this film.

29:21 that clip just threw me off laughing 😂

I love how you guys had the puzzled expression the whole movie 😂

Bless this man's patience with her

Since Wolverine, Batman, Black Widow, and Maya Hansen (from Iron Man 3) are in this magical spectacle, it’s interesting to note that there are two Alfreds (Michael Caine and Andy Serkis) from the Batman universe. Interestingly enough, Fallon’s brother turned out to be named Alfred, as well. Therefore, in The Prestige, the movie itself is a magic act. There is a magician’s code that all magicians have held close to their hearts throughout the centuries: never reveal their magic act, under penalty of death. This is why The Masked Magician hides his face when he reveals tricks in his act. In The Prestige, the twins were magicians performing as one person and never revealed their secret identity to even those closest to them. Borden’s wife developed trust issues because she was driven crazy by not knowing if her husband truly loved her, ultimately leading to her suicide. Additionally, the twins didn’t know who tied the knot on Robert’s wife, which ultimately led to her death, because the twin they asked was not the one who had done it.

The final line of wanting to be fooled I interpret as we the audience wanting cheap thrills without having to look at any toxicity that may come along with it. Basically using entertainment as distraction rather than analysis. The two competing philosophies in the final scene feel like Nolan arguing with himself. Do you make are to be meticulous and craft something perfect or do you do it to make an audience happy. It’s his wrestle as a film maker.

Borden sending Angiers to Tesla was a distraction, a red herring, to get rid of him. Borden never had any interaction with Tesla. Angiers kind of 'got lucky' that Tesla was exactly what he needed.

I remember seeing this as a kid and I was perplexed throughout the entire movie, a great classic!

Holy crap the Tenet discussion will be four hours long.

"I'm probably going to be lost in the first 5 minutes..." No, that's TENET. Looking forward to you guys getting your brains melted by that one. I'm still recovering.

12:45...Hi guys! They can't make the glass more easily breakable because it's gotta hold back a couple of tons (at least) of water.

32:27 (speculation): Borden says "the keyword is the method", referring to his trick which later turns out to be the twin method. Since we know the keyword was “TESLA” this could imply, that Borden might have created his twin brother Fallon with Teslas machine some time ago. But in difference to Danton he never used the machine again.

It is really fun to rewatch the movie and figure out in every scene which brother is Borden and which is Fallon. If you think about it, Christian bale played 4 roles in this movie. One of my all time favorites

Right on time for my birthday! Thanks for what you do. :)

I like rewatching this to see if I can tell when it's Fallon vs. Borden in scenes.

I love this movie! It’s definitely the OG guy who drowns everytime. The first time he shoots the clone. The remainder of the times he drowns and the clone is the prestige. A lot of discussion has gone on about this, but if you watch the building of the machine. The final test with the cat… Andy Serkis took the collar off the cat, and the cats by the top hats had collars. So everytime he goes into the machine he drowns. Which makes cutlers comment about drowning cut deeper. He said it was like falling asleep to ease him over his wife’s passing, but wanted him to know how painful it was for him everytime.

OMG, YES! I remember seeing this is the theater and being shook!

Borden & Fallon was real twin. They switch when come the prestige so both can live it. Tesla's invention make clones of Angier. Angier didn't know when in enter the machine, if he is going to die (the man on the box) or if he is going to die. Each time he enter in the machine, he had 50% chance of dying. At the end, we see an entiere room of dead Angier, all Angier who was kill on the trick. The twin who survive is the one with Sarah and the father of the child. The one that was hang is the one Olivia love.

One ot the greatest films ever made! The story, the director/crew & the cast are phenomenal!!!

watching this movie for a second time is amazing because wow, the trick feels so obvious with all the hints. (Like a magic trick ;) )

The first 2 min of this video are just pure gold! Hilarious!!

If u like this one then u will like “The illusionist” with Edward Norton..came out the same year as The Prestige and is also a tricky magic movie is a really good movie that u should watch

I recently rewatched The Prestige, amazing movie. What surprised me is that the twist(s) really aren't hard to foresee, as they say in the movie all you need to do is pay attention and not be misled by the movie (like in the scene with Angier drowning in the water tank).

HANDS DOWN ONE OF THEE BEST MYSTERY DRAMAS OR MYSTERY THRILLERS EVER!! THE CAST IS PHENOMENAL! The sets, costumes, the cinematography, etc ALL OF IT TOP NOTCH!! All of the magic scenes are sooo much fun too!! I do not understand how this isn’t ALWAYS on lists for the best movies of all time or best movies for the last 2 decades.

“Which one is the real one?” They both were. That’s the whole point. He literally murdered himself every act. When he says he was never sure if he would be the man in the box or the man in the Prestige, he was lying to himself. He was always both, but one of him would drown to death and so wouldn’t be around to answer.

Awesome guys.... your sleuthing pretty good.., but just one thing will clean up for you. Robert Angiers in the end was a copy of a copy of a copy. The 'Original' of that cycle drops into the Tank, & the copy lives on to take the Prestige. Tesla's machine was a Facsimile..., a 'copy' maker. He realised that the 'transporter' he was trying to make, he could never get to work properly.., What it did do was make an 'exact' copy, at the new location. So Robert was making the "ultimate sacrifice" every time he did the trick. He was Killing himself, EVERY single time & the new exact copy lived on. There was no Original Robert, after the 1st time he performed the trick. This was Nolan's reveal at the very end of the Movie. to show Robert Angiers still dead in the Tank from the last time thru that he performed the trick. To reveal to you that it wasn't the 'Original' Robert, let's call him 'Angiers Prime' getting transported every time & just 'killing the copy' by drowning it in the tank. It was the copy of the copy of the copy etc Drowning on the next time thru the cycle. 😵😎

Another period movie about magicians that came out about the same time is The Illusionist. The plot is simpler, but it’s worth watching.

This is my favorite movie, I remember watching it years ago and it really got me into film. The ending isn't as deep as you may be making it out to be. "You want to be fooled." Is just talking about human nature, and more specifically to this movie, talking about Angier's obsession with Borden's trick. At some point he stops caring about the truth, what really motivates him is just the mystery of it. Similar to how people go to magicians in the first place, we wouldn't go if we knew all the answers, we want to be fooled.

"Useless" is certainly what I would call Lennon for a lot of the recording process of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His ego was very apparent in the early sessions, always insisting on getting his own way.

Tesla was a wild goose chase Alfred came up with that actually turned out to give Robert an actual working machine.