Two stage magicians engage in competitive one-upmanship in an attempt to create the ultimate stage illusion.
Cast:
Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine etc.
Story:
Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) begin their illusionist careers as shills for "Milton the Magician". John Cutter (Michael Caine) works as Milton's ingénieur (stage engineer) and Angier's wife Julia (Piper Perabo) as Milton's assistant. Milton's most famous trick is to have Julia escaping from a water tank. In one performance, with Julia's consent, Borden ties her hand with a more difficult knot; she fails to undo it in time and drowns in the tank. Angier blames Borden for his wife's death and holds a grudge from then onwards.
The two go on to launch separate careers. Borden becomes "The Professor", hires a mute and mysterious man named Bernard Fallon as his ingénieur and starts a relationship with Sarah (Rebecca Hall), a woman he meets when performing, eventually marrying her. Angier becomes "The Great Danton", assisted by Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson) and Cutter. Angier attempts to kill Borden in his bullet catch trick, shooting off two of his fingers. Borden retaliates by sabotaging Angier's bird cage act, killing the bird and maiming an audience member in front of the theater. This move severely damages Angier's reputation.
Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter, Jess. However, she becomes increasingly disturbed because of Borden's apparently fickle and contradictory nature. Sometimes, he is the man who truly loves her; at other times, he is emotionally distant. Borden's refusal to explain this duality leads her to depression, alcoholism and eventually suicide.
Borden begins performing the wildly successful The Transported Man trick. He enters one cabinet and exits another across the stage, seemingly having been transported across the entire length of the stage in just one second. Cutter insists that Borden uses a double to perform the trick, but Angier and Olivia disagree, pointing out that "both men" miss two fingers on one hand. Unable to figure out the trick, Angier reluctantly uses a double to perform The New Transported Man, but becomes frustrated when he has to hear the audience's applause from below the stage. He sends Olivia to discover his rival’s secret but, while she does give Angier Borden's encrypted diary, she falls for Borden. Borden then sabotages Angier's show, publicly humiliating him and also crippling his leg. Afterwards, with Olivia as his assistant, Borden's performances become more elaborate and successful.
Angered and desperate for answers, Angier kidnaps Fallon and forces Borden to give up the keyword to the diary to get Fallon back. Conceding to him that the keyword is "Tesla", Borden leads Angier to believe that he uses an invention of scientist Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) for his trick, an invention that actually teleports Borden across the stage. Angier travels to America and convinces Tesla to create a teleporter for him also. Whilst in America, Angier finally deciphers Borden's diary, only discovering it to be a fraud that Borden had Olivia dupe him with; in it Borden reveals that Tesla has nothing to do with how he accomplishes his act and is simply the keyword. Tesla admits to having built no such device for Borden, but has managed to build a transporting machine for Angier. The machine, however, has one unexpected and shocking side effect: it also creates an exact duplicate of whatever is placed inside it. Tesla departs but advises Angier to destroy the machine.
Angier electrifies audiences with The Real Transported Man, seemingly vanishing within the machine but then reappearing at the back of the hall. Baffled by the fact that the man appearing across the hall is indeed Angier, one night Borden sneaks backstage to find his secret, only to witness Angier drowning in a water tank below the machine, and no other Angier in sight. Cutter becomes convinced that Borden is responsible for Angier's drowning and the trick going wrong. Cutter testifies against Borden in court, and Borden is sentenced to death. On death row, Borden is visited by the agent of a Lord Caldlow, who offers to care for Jess in exchange for the secrets of his tricks. Borden reluctantly agrees. When Lord Caldlow shows up with Jess, Borden recognizes him as Angier. Baffled by the returned duplicate, Borden begs for his life, but Angier ignores Borden's pleas and leaves him to his demise. Borden is hanged and dies.
After learning that Caldlow has bought the machine, Cutter visits him to plead for its destruction only to find to his disgust that Caldlow is Angier, and he is still alive. Along with Angier, he delivers the machine to Caldlow's private theater. There he discovers numerous water tanks containing the duplicates of Angier that drowned each night of the performance before Borden intervened. Disgusted by Angier's elaborate plan to destroy and kill Borden, Cutter leaves, inviting another man to enter. The man fatally shoots Angier, and reveals himself as Borden.
Angier realises that "Alfred Borden" was actually an identity assumed by twin brothers, Albert and Frederick. They took turns being Borden and Fallon, each living half of Alfred's life to prepare for their "Transported Man" trick (with one twin cutting off the fingers the other lost to preserve the illusion). Albert, the calm and soft-spoken one, loved Sarah while Frederick, the hot-headed and loudmouthed one, had a relationship with Olivia. Frederick, going against Albert's wishes, went to investigate Angier's trick, thus leading him into Angier's trap. Although dying, Angier justifies his actions to Albert as having been worthwhile, since he feels that getting the audiences to suspend their disbelief during his act, even if only for moments, was the ultimate goal. Finally, he collapses backwards, toppling his lamp and setting light to the theater. Albert goes to pick up Jess at Cutter's workshop, exchanges a silent goodbye with Cutter and leaves.
A final flashback scene shows Albert looking around hesitantly at Angier's water tanks as he leaves the theater, while Cutter narrates that we, the audience, never want to confront the truth to magic, instead we want to be fooled. The final shot is of one of Angier's drowned clones in a tank of water.
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