SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Sister Cinema Swap, the podcast where two sisters work through their backlogs of movies they haven't seen. I'm Emily Batman.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

I'm King Kabbalah, and I finally watched the Christine.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Magic. Some stuff.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Kind of spooky.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

I mean, honestly, kind of. A little bit.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

There's some spooky shit.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

There's some spooky shit. Yeah. I feel like this is as spooky as I would normally get, honestly. On like real road. Yes, yes. Without being pushed into it. Be like, I can deal with this. Some wizards and shit. Yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Kind of spooky. Wizard in the form of Nikola Tesla. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yes. Yes. Yeah. And not some, well, kind of a murder mystery.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Murder of Mrs.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

What? All of the above. So I know we always go back and forth about this, but yes, we are talking about The Prestige, which came out in 2006. Kate, how'd you miss this movie?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

So I have no idea how I missed this movie, honestly. I 2006, I I can't remember if I was on the college films committee when this came out, or if it was right before I joined them. I remember people that I was in college with watching this movie and loving it. Like there was someone who was like, this movie fucking rules. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. And then I just never got around to seeing it. And I don't know why. So I texted Emily and I was like, I I knew like very little about this movie. I thought I knew like truly like a quarter of the twist of this. I knew something about twins, but I don't know. Here's the thing. It truly, no, truly, like by the by the end of it, it it didn't matter. It would matter that I knew that little part. There was so much other shit going on.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

I was just like, did you figure out which one had the twin?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

I think my notes sort of say like when I kind of thought about it, but I don't I don't know. Like I think it there was so much going on in this movie where I was like, I don't remember the points where I was like, oh right, there's another there's there's two guys. There's more than one guy. And I I don't remember where exactly because at like I think halfway through like the midway point towards the end, I think I was just like like along for the ride.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, like the fact that I knew anything about it, like it didn't fucking matter by the time we have clones. I'm like, what the fuck is happening? I was like, twins don't yeah, it's like twins. It's like, oh, there's a twist.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I'm like, what the fuck do you mean clones? Like, I the lowest stakes twist is the twins. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

It's like shut up about that. We don't care. Yeah, it my god, I yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Like I said, like David Bowie is a wizard.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, exactly. Like, even knowing that much of the twist, I'm like, it doesn't fucking matter. I don't care. Um, I will say, and and I know another thing. This was I think the early 2000s thing of um parallel movies coming out around the same time. I know this came out the same year as The Illusionist. I never saw The Illusionist either, but I think I thought it was this one because I thought that Edward Norton was in it. And I was like, No, he's the other one. Yeah. Yeah, and that's after the fact I looked it up and I was like, I didn't know that either of these men were in this. I had really truly. I was like, who the fuck? Oh my god. I was like, oh, it's these two. And I'm like, well, where's Edward Norton? And I was like, oh, he's in the other one. Never mind. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Like, yeah, these these famous guys are cool, but where's Edward Norton? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

No, where's where's Paul Giamatti, apparently, who is in the illusionist?

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Well, we'll have to find someone who's seen that one because I haven't seen it either.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Please, that would be fun actually, to contrast. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yes. Okay, so it makes sense that because this came out in October of 2006.

unknown 4:07

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

So you were still in like school school. You had already found because you went to college. Um, so fall break had already passed, winter break was not there yet. Because I was wondering if it was a uh a Thanksgiving one and it was not. It was October.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

That would have been like midway through a semester, and I would have been busy, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Yes. So that explains why I did see it, because I distinctly remember going with Sam, our brother, and our parents. Right. Like this was a family movie that we went to go see.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

But it was because we were still back home in Durham and we were in college. Yeah, we were in we were both in high school at the time.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

That makes sense why y'all saw it and then I didn't. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Mm-hmm. Yeah, because I know Sam and I really, really love this movie. And um, I think I just never realized that you didn't see it with someone else or at another time or something. So I I think I only found out when it came when when we were making the list, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think um I'm sure I got invited to go see it with people, and then I just like did I don't know. Yeah, I know. But I also had friends who like went to see movies all the time, and I was like, I have homework. And that was a lot of the friends who were not doing any of their fucking homework.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

It was some of those friends who I was like, I'm still trying to like, you know, like be in the music school, and they were like, bye. And I'm like, no, y'all need to study. Wait, wait, y'all need to focus. You're failing classes. Oh no. Sorry, I'm not going to see this movie with you, but uh, I gotta go. I gotta write an essay.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yeah. Okay. So, so, okay, so this was still early in a lot of their careers, so it was not like I knew a bunch about them. Because now looking at it, especially Hugh Jack when I'm like, you look like a baby. Like you are so young.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Oh yeah. I think probably the most I mean the two most famous people in this movie were uh Michael Cain and fucking David Bowie.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah. Oh well no, Christian Bale was in um uh he was in the newsies. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

I sorry I mean he was, yes, but like he was also in Batman Begins.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah, that's that's true. Yeah, the the recency bias of like, oh yeah, that had just come out.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yes. So let's see. Alright, so now we get to get into the fun stuff about the movie. Yes, we've named all the actors already. We know who's in this. The director. I did not realize this. This is Christopher Nolan. I was like, I didn't realize it either.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

It makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

It totally does because literally under his uh autobiography or whatever biography, it says, best known for cerebral non-linear storytelling. And I was like, yep. But this was only his third movie and is followed by so many other successful ones. Yeah. You know, in case whoever's listening doesn't know, like The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, and most recently The Odyssey.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Like he's doing stuff. I didn't know I liked his stuff.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

I was gonna say, so his first, like, in his first three movies, t two of them were Batman or well, um, Batman Begins and um and this.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Well, no, um, Memento was before this.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Oh god, Memento's so fucking good.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah. I haven't seen that one.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Memento's it's wild.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

I believe you. So as a director, it was this like the movie following, which was 1998, which apparently was very good, a bit more of like an indie, and then Memento. Yeah. Um uh okay, so not his third. Like it's it's early in there. Oh, okay. Because then we've got Insomnia, which we don't know, Batman Begins, 2005.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

I know I've heard of Insomnia. God, is that over? I don't know. Who the fuck is in that? I can't remember. He does a lot with like the like non-linear, but also like kind of like altered state situation. So like Memento is a lot like that.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hillary Swain.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Okay, yeah, Robin Williams. I never saw it, but I know I was like, I've seeing I remember being aware of this one.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Not sure where I wrote three then, but like this is this is early.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I mean, those are like the early big movie.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

But it's like between like Memento, Inception, um, tenant, backwards Robert Pattinson shit. Like that, I don't know what happens. Oh, I didn't realize that's what that was. Yeah. Yeah, it's like the like things are like I don't know, like yeah. Apparently it did not do well in theaters, and I heard it's a very confusing movie, and I'm like, all right, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Well, sometimes you get too confusing, and sometimes you get just confusing enough. That's true, yeah. You know, you've got Inception, which everyone loved, or you've got, you know. Yeah, I yeah, I've I've seen this. It's like the first director where we've looked at, and I'm like, I've seen a lot of your movies. Like, I know quite a few of your movies.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

It's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

It is for me. Um, I'm like, I guess I like Christopher Nolan.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I was gonna say, and to also like know that you've seen a lot of them and also that you like a lot of them, not just like, oh yeah, this guy's done a bunch and I've seen it.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Mm-hmm. That's really funny. The writers are Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan's brother.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Um, uh, with Jonathan mostly being the writer, he has also done other like writing things. He wrote Westworld or he was a writer on Westworld and stuff. So he he's done other ones with uh Christopher a lot, um, but then they kind of diverged where Christopher Nolan has, you know, become director-producer, and Jonathan is mostly just writer.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

And when looking at the writers, it also said the name Christopher Priest, which wrote the novel that this is based off of. It is a 1995 science fiction novel that received the James Tate Black Memorial Prize and the World Fantasy Award for best novel.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

And Christopher Priest was is was still alive at the time and and helped with the adaptation of like picking the director. We'll get into that, but like he's still around when the movie was made.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Oh, that's so cool. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

So, um, yeah, so that's the basic stuff. Um, we can get into fun facts.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

The editing includes 146 time jump cuts, woof, which averages to almost one timeline jump per minute of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Honestly, yeah, that checks out. It felt like it.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

It totally does. Yeah, I read that before I watched it and I was like, what? And then I was like, oh god, I forgot that like every second is another thing.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

So the directors, because this was done by Warner Brothers. It says Sam Mendez was originally uh originally wanted this movie after directing American Beauty in 1999, which was uh at that time nominated for seven Academy Awards. But another offer was for Christopher Nolan through uh New Market Films, which so like they pushed towards and they were like, hey, what about this guy? Yeah. So the author, Christopher Priest, had never heard of Christopher Nolan, but he got a copy of his short film Following from 1999, since Memento was still in post-production at the time. Oh, okay. And it says Priest was so impressed and chose Nolan in part to support an unknown filmmaker over an established one. So that's how he got it.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

That's really exciting. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah. Super cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Let's see. Ricky J, who plays Milton, who is the magician that Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are working for in the beginning. Yeah. He is actually a Guinness record holder, magic historian, and accomplished close-up performer.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

So he conducted like these intense sleight of hand workshops for uh Jackman and and um and Bale, and also helped them use, because he was this historian, use authentic period accurate stage magic techniques to minimize requirements for digital post-production manipulation. So like a lot of it is practical.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I love that. Yeah, and like especially like period accurate for this. Yeah. That's so cool. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Yeah, because I I had to figure out it said Ricky Jane. I was like, who is that? So he's barely in the movie. Um, but he he helped a lot in uh the the pre-production.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah, that's so cool. What a cool like thing to have like a like a consultant on, like so specific, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah. So let's see, um, Alfred Borden adopting the stage name. The professor was very common for 19th century naming conventions. Um there were others they named like Professor Hoffman and Professor Otto Herman. So that's a normal thing that people do at the time. They used the Los Angeles Theater and the Belasco Theater to represent Victorian era London performance venues. Okay. Uh, and they coordinated uh construction of practical stage illusions to maintain period accurate mechanical aesthetics. So cool. So again, with like, and that was the production designer. Like they went full in on this.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah. Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Ooh, this is fun. So the original choices for our two magicians were neither of these men.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Oh, amazing.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Jude Law and Guy Pierce, who was in Memento.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yes, I was gonna say were Nolan's original choices.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

So I could see both of them, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Yeah, I think at the time, especially, too.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

I could picture it, yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Mm-hmm. So Jude Law was dropped after David O. Russell, who is a director known now for American Hustle and Silver Lining's playbook, put Christopher Nolan in a chokehold at a party and demanded that Nolan allow Russell to cast Jude Law in iHeart Huckabee's.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

No.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

So that's how Jude Law lost that role.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yep. And that was just that was just like in there as a fact, and I was like, a chokehold at a party?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

What? Crazy. That's couldn't find any more about that. You know, Hollywood used to be different.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

It was crazy. Back in the the the late 90s.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

And uh Guy Pierce was vetoed by uh Warner Brothers executives because they didn't like him. Although later Pierce admitted that his performance in Memento was subpar, so he was like, I wouldn't hire me. I I don't know. I haven't seen it, but he doesn't think he did his best.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Oh my god. I think he's really good in Memento, but I honestly I haven't seen it in a very long time, so I don't really know. Like that's that's so interesting though.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you know, Hollywood or Warner Brothers executive bias like crazy, just like, nope, we don't want him.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yeah, I mean, like, I feel like the the story of so many of the movies we have talked about, there's a fun fact that uh boils down to studio involvement no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

For better or worse.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

A lot of it, oh yeah, so and so was supposed to audition so and so, you know, you're like, wow, that would have been a totally different thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, I do love, I I always love the lore of like who was offered roles before, like who who the original casting, like who who was uh initially pictured for stuff like that. Especially for those two, I can absolutely see it. I think Hugh Jackman and and Christian Bale were just such a good pick for those two. Like I can't I can't think of another person see like visually, just like with the other two, but I I don't think I could see the whole movie as the as those two. I don't know the last like serious thing I saw Jude Law in. I don't know if I don't know if he's got the chops, you know? I don't know if he could I don't know if I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yeah, for how crazy and vindictive these two men were and obsessive, like I I don't see it.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

I also think it's interesting. So is is Christian Bale I always fucking forget, is he British? Yes, okay, hold on. No, I know, because I know Hugh Jackman is is Australian. So him doing the American and then later British accent. I was like, okay, Eric, what's happening here?

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah, he was born in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Okay, the accents were doing so much, and then it was like, you know, David Bowie doing kind of German, and I'm like, okay, but yeah, that's like I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't know. Well, Nikola Tesla, German, right? Maybe I should know this. Why are you telling this to me? No, it's okay. I'll do this one. Oh, Serbian. I I genuinely don't know what a Serbian accent would sound like, though. I'm not positive.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Uh it's now Croatia. Um it's like Eastern European. I don't know. But I mean, also I know like David Bowie has like such a sort or had such a sort of like his own cadence like dialect, anyways. It was like, I don't, like, you know, whatever you're doing, I'm like, yeah, all right, go for it, man.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Well, since you said that I can skip ahead and go into one fact about David Bowie. Yeah. Um, he originally declined the role.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Uh Christopher Nolan flew out to him and told him that he was the only person he imagined as Nikola Tesla. Oh my god. And his large personality would make the idea of Tesla building a cloning machine believable. And that's what made David Bowie change his mind.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

That's, you know, that's fair. I do love that.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Sounds like totally works.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah. Oh, that's so good.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Let's see. I feel like this kind of comes through uh the film is structured like the magic trick where we talk about the three parts the pledge, the turn, the prestige.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Let's see what else. Okay, so this was cool because this was also hit kind of historical. Chun Ling Su was based on a real historical figure. Oh. An American performer named William Ellsworth Robinson maintained the persona of a Chinese illusionist through public and private life to exploit audience interest in Ish Asian performance styles. He was successful for 19 years. Oh my god. Until he was injured during a bullet catch demonstration in March of 1918. And their incident reports that he broke his stage silence upon being struck and said, either, my god, I've been shot, or oh my god, something's happened, lower the curtain. Oh. And that's the only time he ever spoke on stage was when he was injured. And that's when people found out.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Isn't that cool? That is crazy. That is all it's also crazy that it wasn't that he like bothered to learn Chinese. He was just like, I just won't. Didn't talk. I just won't talk. Not at all. Okay, man. Yeah. That's that is so fascinating. My God.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

And it's such a quick thing in the movie, but it has so much backstory to it. And like hearing about that kind of reinforces uh Borden's like commitment to to the performance and everything. Um, because uh uh Angier like couldn't believe it. It was like, there's no way he can't live like that. He can't live like a cripple for this many years.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah, it's I love that. I'm fascinated. Uh, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Okay, so the rest I think that's interesting uh is about the novel. So the actual because there are differences.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

And this is a quick one, but it kind of makes sense if you're looking at it uh now. Uh it's hinted at in the movie, but confirmed in the novel that the twins' names are Albert and Frederick becoming Alfred Borden for their one-person name.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Which would suggest why Olivia calls him Freddie. Oh my god. And Sarah, his wife, doesn't like that. Yeah. So then it's suggested that Freddie's the one in love with Olivia and Albert is the one in love with Sarah and the father of Jess.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Oh my god. Amazing, amazing. Yes, that's so cool. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Mm-hmm. Okay, and then uh the other big thing in the novel, uh, the machine works differently. This is and this is why I was like, why does this say science fiction? Because it gets weird. Instead of copying a person exactly as they are with memories and personality intact 50 to 100 feet away, it transports the essence of the person into a newly created body, leaving behind a husk. What yeah, so so that the after the the man in the box is basically like a non a non-man, basically.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Um, so also in the novel, uh the Borden twin who snuck under the stage is not framed by Angier and does in fact wreck the trick.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Because in the movie it works how it's supposed to.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

But Angier just kinda doesn't appear because they think he's dying under the stage.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

So, we'll say it's Freddy, I guess, uh wrecks the trick and creates two Angiers. One sickly at having had half of his essence taken out of him, and the other a wraith-like being who can only be somewhat solid through intense concentration. No. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

No my god. So he likes to be.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

He's like a weird ghost person.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

So okay, so then he All that being said, I don't know how the novel ends. I was gonna say, I have more questions that you cannot answer because you did not read the book, and that's okay. Um man. Yeah. That's fascinating. And I didn't I am not a science fiction person. I I like it, but I I get lost in the weeds when it's like, now here's how this machine works. I'm like, hey, I'm dumb. I don't need to I don't know about that, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, because it was like all it does was it takes your like personality, like everything about this person and makes you a new body, leaving behind like an empty shell originally. So this one, it's like he he I guess he turned it off halfway or something. It was like only only got half of you slash the rest of your personality is a ghost.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

That sucks. That's straight on the I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah. Man. I'll have to look into them and say later, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Oh, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yeah, I think I think those are the big ones. I mean, there's a few other, like, kind of obvious ones, like when Sarah's nephew's like, where's the bird's brother? Foreshadowing that Borden is a twin.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

The wives' deaths are like exactly paralleled to the the husband's basically drown, well, sort of drowning and hanging.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah, okay. A lot of these are like they're clicking now. I've seen this movie once and I'm still reeling. And so it's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Yeah, there's even reading them, I was like, huh? Like what? And then I watched it again. I was like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Yeah, I think I figure reading these and then watching the movie, it's like, wait a second, what's happening?

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Especially because I didn't remember anyone's names. I could not have told you anyone's names, any name that they went by. Like I forgot he went by the professor and the great Danton.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Like I totally forgot any of that. The way I name people in my notes, it's all over the place because it took so long to get anybody's names. Hoo boy. Yeah. That is okay. Yeah, we'll uh yeah, I think I don't get names until the end of my first page of notes.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

That's okay. I don't think they give names. I have Michael Cain, I have Christian Barry, I have Pete Economy. Yeah, like oh Hugh did this. And I'm like, shut up. What do you mean? Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

What do you mean? Yeah, he did. No, we don't know yet. Yeah, that's true. I really think going through my summary, I will have revelations of oh, that's what this meant. So just be prepared to do this.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

This deserves a rewatch. Yes. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah. Well, I have I have it rented for another uh, I think 24 hours.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

So well, don't worry. I have a DVD that I watched it on. Oh it had real previews.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Whoa, that's fun.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Okay. Um shall shall we shall we begin this? We might as well. Oh my god. Okay. So I wrote, I I don't think I knew Christian Bale was in this. Isn't there another similar movie that came out the same year? Fair. Yes. So uh so is the the prestige. Um, so we and also I will say I did not know I didn't know what the prestige meant. I thought that it was like I was thinking prestige as like the accolades and like the like the praise, um, which which now you know you find out it is kind of uh a double meaning in this case because it is looking for the recognition and the praise. But yeah, so we we open on the title and there are too many top hats on the ground. This will come into play later. That's all I said. There are too many top hats. Um this did not click at all until way later. It shouldn't. It shouldn't. It didn't, don't worry. I was like, what's happening? Um, and then we uh we get the repeated uh voiceover that is sort of a common thread through the entire movie, which is um Christian Bale's character saying, Are you watching closely? Um and then I wrote there are too many birds. Um and we get uh Michael Cain, two exclamation points. Um and Michael Cain is explaining that every trick, every magic trick has three parts. Um the first part is the pledge. The uh magician shows you something ordinary. As he says this, Michael Cain takes a bird out of a cage. We also cut two, as there's gonna be a lot of cuts. Um, we cut to uh curtain rising with Hugh Jackman in front of it. Should I just pivot to their character names because I know what their character names are?

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Is it easier for you to just read your notes or or can you do the switch?

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Oh, let's well, let's find out. No, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna read my notes as is. No, it'll just read your notes, it's fine. No, I was like, well, I know their names. It doesn't matter. Um, yeah, so the the curtain rises, um, Hugh Jackman is in front of this curtain. Um, there is a glass panels and a giant, you know, mechanical uh situation, like a big Tesla coil um behind this curtain. Um he invites uh members of the audience to come up and inspect it and confirm that it's totally normal and nothing is weird. Oh no, um Michael Cain in the voiceover is saying that, you know, the magician invites people to inspect it and confirm that whatever they're whatever the ordinary thing they has is have is indeed ordinary. Um Hugh Jackman does that. Uh Christian Bale is one of the people who comes up from the crowd to inspect this, you know, this contraption. Um he instead of leaving uh with the rest of the crowd of people who are, you know, inspecting this machine. Um Christian Bale uh darts backstage. Um someone tries to stop him, but Christian Bale uh tears off a fake beard and says he's part of the act. Um he uh continues to run downstairs as the Tesla coil above this machine starts to crackle with light. Um he finds a blind man who is below the stage who asks who's there and he doesn't answer. In the voice actor or voiceover, Michael Cain tells us that part two of a magic trick is called the turn. Meanwhile, underneath the stage, there is a rectangular box below the stage. Um, so Christian Bale sneaks around this blind man. Michael Cain tells us that the magician takes something ordinary and makes it do something extraordinary. In the room with all the birds, uh, Michael Cain has put the bird into a cage, covered the cage with a cloth. Um he is showing this trick to an adorable little blonde girl, and he flattened and he pushes his hand down, and the cage is gone. It's disappeared. Um, meanwhile, on stage, Hugh Jackman walks into the circle of electricity. Um and it just starts crackling around him. It's not really clear what exactly is happening. Um, the voiceover says, You're looking for the secret, but you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. As Michael Cain says that in the voiceover, there is a trapdoor that opens from the stage and drops Hugh Jackman into the rectangular tank of water that is underneath the stage. Um, the door closes and latches on this tank of water as Christian Bale watches. In the voiceover, Michael Cain says, making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it back. Um, and so he says that part three of a magic trick is called the prestige. And I said, Oh no, Hugh Jackman is panicking, and Christian Bale is just watching him drown. She's like, I just met these people. Yeah. And I don't know their names. And then we cut to a courtroom where Michael Cain is testifying that his employer did not get to the prestige part of his trick. Well, he does do it for the little girl though. That is true. That is true.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

The room with all the birds. Yes. She gets the bird back.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Yes, she she gets the bird back. I was too distracted by um by drawing a few jackets. It was fine.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yeah, I was like, man, this is a short movie. Um no. Um, so yeah, so we we learn that uh Michael Cain's employer, um, who did not get to the end of his act, his name is Robert Angier. He is the great Denton. Um, something went wrong. Uh Michael Cain says that he saw someone go below the stage. Um, he followed him down and saw Borden, who is Christian Bale's character. Um, he saw uh Borden watching Angier drown in this tank. Um we cut over and we see Borden, who is handcuffed to the railing of this um of this courtroom. We learn that Michael Cain's character is uh Mr. Cutter. He is an ingenure. He is someone who designs illusions and builds the implements to actually to make them happen. The water tank that was there was used in a previous act, and he says that uh Borden must have moved it to underneath where the trapdoor was. He says it's in a normal, a normal escape underwater tank that holds 400 or 500 gallons. And I'm like, that's just a normal thing that we just have. Um in the biz. Exactly. Yeah, it's an industry term. I was very proud of myself. I remembered the term, the the British term for lawyers. They are called solicitors. Um, the solicitors are asking for an explanation of how Borden moved that tank or how he did that. Like, that seems crazy. Um gosh, I'm trying to decipher my notes. I was writing down so much so much information happens in this movie. Um, so yeah, so the the solicitors are saying, well, it this doesn't make any sense. Like, well, how how does that trick actually work? Like, what's this water tank doing here? Um, and Cutter uh explains that the trick that uh Angier was going to do was called, quote, the real transported man. Um Cutter says that it's one of the most sought-after illusions in the world. If he reveals the how the trick works in court, he can't sell it to another magician. He is that's just money down the drain. We look up into the sort of the audience of this courtroom. Um we see the little blonde girl who was with Cutter previously in this in this little cutscene. She waves at Borden and he waves back at her. So we get some kind of connection there. Not positive yet. So uh the judge, um, the judge offers to talk to Cutter privately, hear how the trick works, just to determine whether the court has to know what's happening with it, basically. So we are cutting straight to a we're going to the prison. Um, there is another man who is trying to come into the prison to visit someone. He's asked to empty his pockets. Uh he's being told, it's like, oh, we can't be too careful. Whoever uh I said, whoever he's going to see might use anything to try to escape. And it's Borden. Um, because of course he's a master of illusion. He is in like maximum security. It is very much like chained to a gate that's like doors close, five guards around him, then the other door closes and the next one opens. It's very like he is locked the fuck down. Um, so this man who's coming to see Borden is his name is Owens. He is a solicitor for Lord Caldlow, um, who is an accomplished amateur magician. Uh Owens is sort of, you know, making pleasantries, and Borden cuts him off and says, How much does he want? Like, how much money does he want to for for all of my tricks? Um, Owens offers him 5,000 pounds, and Borden tells him to talk to Fallon. He's my engineer. The money is for him. You know, what's Borden gonna do with money? Um Owens says he did talk to Fallon, and he Fallon will sell him everything except the transported man. And Borden says, Well, I'm not going to either, so you're wasting your time. And Owens says, even for your daughter's sake. I know we find out that Fallon, um, Borden's ingenure, has been watching her, and but the court is trying to take her away. And so uh Owens offers to take his daughter as a ward for Lord Caldlow. So she is, you know, well taken care of, doesn't get sent to a workhouse. Um, so Owens also offers Borden Angier's diary from his time when he was in Colorado trying to learn the same trick, um, the same transported man situation. Borden says that Angier never actually learned it. And Owens says, well, he was doing something that was even better. So back in back in his cell, Borden starts reading the diary. Um, and we get Hugh Jackman's American accent. We get, and this we're gonna cut back and forth through so many scenes of people reading journals and people explaining other journals to people. So we get the uh the voiceover of Borden reading this diary. Um, so Angier is spending this trip to Colorado trying to learn Borden's secret specifically, because Angier has a journal that is Borden's that is in a cipher code that he is working on slowly deciphering. I don't know why Borden, his name never stuck for me. I wanted to write everything else. I started with a B and I was like, I don't know this man's name. I had to think so hard about it. It didn't feel right. Angier was uh easier than Border's. Yeah, Angie was yeah, I don't know what it was. I I second guessed it every time. I don't think I ever I don't think I refer to them as their first names, like the entire name. I don't either. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. Just it's a clunky name, and I don't know why. Um but yeah, so we um we get a very young looking Hugh Jackman on this train going to Colorado. Um so he he arrives in Colorado Springs on train. He is greeted by a coachman. Um, we're heading into Colorado Springs. The whole town has electricity, the entire town. It is 1897, I think. No, it's 1899 when he's there. Yeah, it's like 1899. So the whole town having electricity is wild. Um, he checks into a hotel. He is the first hotel hotel guest of the season. He asks about going up the actual mountain. Um, he is told that the mountain is closed for scientific experimentation. And he says, Yep, that's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

Um I know.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Yeah, uh, so a carriage takes him part of the way up and then says, All right, you're on your own. Um he we get Angie walking up the mountain, walking up through snow and dust, maybe. It's just it looks rough. Um, but uh he gets to a fence. There are a lot of no trespassing signs. Um he tries to open it anyways, and it is an electrified fence. Um wild. Um, but I mean also it's 1899. Why would you assume a fence was electrified?

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Nope, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Yeah, I'm like, this is a novel idea. This is a big deal. So uh from the house that is past the or like the the the building that is past this fence, um, we see Andy Circus who comes down with a shotgun um and threatens him, tells him to, you know, tells him to leave and mind his own business. Um, but then he recognizes Angier. He says, Oh, I saw your show in London. It was amazing. Um, and Angier uh cuts him off and says that he is here to see Tesla, Nicola Tesla of the Teslas, um uh of history. Of history?

SPEAKER_02 36:34

He's here to see David Bowie.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Of the of the coils, Tesla? Yeah, exactly. So uh Angier says that uh Tesla made a machine for a colleague of his, um, Andy Circus' character. Um his name is Allie. Um he says he can't, he he says he can't help him um and sends him back on his way. Um Angier says, Well, I'm staying at the hotel, you know where to find me. So Borden's journal lists that there was a show on April 3rd in 1897 at the Orpheum Theater, days before they met. Um before wait, day okay, no, so this is Angier reading Borden's journal, where Borden talks about a show on April 3rd, n 1897, days before the two of them met. So they both okay, well, no, it wasn't days before they met because that's a lie. Because I'm writing things down. They already knew each other there. Yeah, they already knew each other. Well, they didn't really okay, well, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Um, but I think that was just to like transition the story. I guess so. I didn't really understand the days before you met. It's like you or maybe it's to set up the fact that you don't you're not supposed to know that they're working together.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

I think so, but I don't know in this journal why he would be lying about it.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

They lie in both the journals.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

God, these idiots. God, I hate them. They're so obsessed with each other. My god, this just I was gonna say it's like have one conversation. Please. Uh so presumably we have uh both Angier and Borden uh at a at another performance um at the Orpheum Theater. Um Borden looks very serious. He is watching the show. Angier just looks delighted. He looks so gleeful. He's happy to be there. The magician, um, and this is is it Milton?

SPEAKER_02 38:25

Milton.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Yeah. So Milton um calls for volunteers from the audience to tie up their assist the his lovely assistant. Um so the two of them get uh called up to uh tie up the assistant. Um Cutter is watching from the wings very carefully, um, doing, you know, doing his sort of backstage help. Um Angier flirts with this woman, um, kisses her her leg. Um she looks down and kind of smiles back at him. Um Borden is trying to tie a tie a knot around around the woman's wrists. Um it it slips for a second and he kind of he redoes it, but he looks back and cutter is sort of staring, glaring at him, you know, from the wings. So once the knots are tied, the assistant is uh lifted up, like the ropes on her wrists are hooked onto something. She is lifted up into the air and then dropped into a water tank. The lid snap shut. Um the and then a curtain drops, so it is just surrounding that water tank. So you can still see the sage, but not what's going on in the tank. Um offstage, Cutter grabs an axe and also a stopwatch. But before anything gets, you know, even more concerning, the curtain lifts and the woman who was in the tank is totally fine. She is free and she's standing next to the tank. And it was magic, it was amazing. And then we get all of them backstage together because it's all a scam and they're all working together.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Um were you surprised?

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Yes, I was. I was like, god damn it. Like I didn't realize it. I thought it was like they were both gonna like see the show and then be like, oh, I got a taste for the life, and then we got da-da-da-da-da. And I was just like, and Angie is just very charismatic and flirting with this woman. And I was like, it was the 1890s. We just did, and it's like, no, this isn't just harassment. This is amazing, actually. I like that yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

Okay, I do want to know, like, when you're actually surprised by stuff, or if you're like, no, I kind of thought this was gonna happen, or I kind of guessed this or something.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Yeah, I will I I definitely have some notes where I'm like, oh, that's why. Da-da-da-da-da. Um, but okay, okay, cool, cool. No, please feel free to stop me and ask at any of these twists because I think there are definitely some where I was like, oh fuck, hang on. Right. Yeah. There are because there are so many of them.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

And it starts so early. Yes. Like this is, I don't know, maybe 15 minutes into that, and you're already your your what you see, what you think is reality is already twisted. Yes, exactly. Oh, that they're married. Oh, that's like what? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Well, no, no, no, that's not what this seemed like. Hang on. Wait a second. Yeah. They can't be married. No. What? Yeah. Um, but yeah, so we get we get all of them backstage. Um, Borden is complaining about how boring and outdated the tricks in the show are. Um, Angier defends them. He says they're crowd favorites. Um, Borden's like, nah, I should do something fun, like a bullet catch. And ever and Angier is like, that is dangerous. It is, it's basically suicide. All it takes is an audience member doing something a little funny or trying to putting something else in a gun before it is fired at a magician. Borden says, Oh, well, you can just, you know, use a plant in the audience. And uh, I think the woman says, Well, you can't use a plant for every single trick. Um, that just doesn't make sense. Um, but Borden pushes back. He says, A real magician tries to invent something new that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over. And Borden at that point says that he has a trick that no one else can do. He says that he he's he's got he's on to something. He has a plan. Um, so Cutter tells them to, you know, go do some more research. He says that to uh tells them to go watch Chungling Su's show. Um, he says he knows the doorman, he will get them in. He says, Whichever one of you can tell me how he does this goldfish trick will get a prize. And that prize is 10 minutes on stage with Mr. Ackerman, who is the top theatrical agent in London. Um so uh so Borden and Angie are like, hell yeah, let's go. Um while they are still backstage, Cutter um calls out Borden for fucking up the knot at uh at is it Julia?

SPEAKER_02 42:40

I think that sounds right. We don't really get her name for a while.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

We I yeah, we like just get it in a second. And I think my my autocorrect made it Julie later, and I was like, which one is her? Um yeah, but um, but yeah, he says it's you you fucked up the knot on um Julia's wrists. Um Borden says that the knot that they're using is it's like it's not good enough. Like it's it's you know dangerous for her to um uh to be held by it. Um what he should do is a Langford double knot. Um he said it'll hold tighter. Cutter pushes back, says that that's it's when that knot gets wet, the rope will swell. It's more dangerous for her. She won't be able to get out of it inside the tank. Um, so there are legitimate concerns, but also um I does Julia say that she could figure it out, like she kind of says she can do it. She supports Borden.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

She's like, he can do it.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Yeah, they just you know would need to practice at it, but Cutter sort of shuts them down, says that they're not really talking about it. Um Borden leaves um a little, a little annoyed. Um Angier asks Cutter where he found him. It's like where he dug Borden up from. Um Cutter says that Borden's a natural. Um the reason he's uh you know, the reason he's sending him out to other, you know, other people's shows is. Is because he wants to use Borden to steal their tricks, because Borden will figure them out. Borden is smart, Borden can see how these tricks are done, and he'll come tell Cutter, and then Cutter can replicate them. Um, so it's it is kind of Cutter using Borden because he is good at it, but not necessarily, you know, promoting Borden's career, kind of using him at this point. Uh Angie and Julie, Julia are flirting. Um, Cutter then uh says to stop making the kiss so obvious that he does that literally every night. It's like, if I can see you kiss your wife's leg every single night, the front row can too. And I was like, oh, Lordrop, they're married. Which I love. It's very cute. So then we get um Borden and Angier going to Cheng Ling Su's show. Um Borden looks delighted. Angie looks really confused the whole time. Um Borden looks like he's watching a puzzle get solved, and you can immediately tell like the difference of like valuing spectacle versus craft and like actual, you know, the actual commitment. Yeah, the commitment to it. Cheng Ling Su, he um stands in front of tables, sort of shimmies a cloth in front of it, and then things are appearing on these tables. Um, the last one is an entire bowl, like a gigantic bowl. It's probably like like a foot and a half diameter, um, with a full of water with a live goldfish in it. And as we, you know, as we cut back to the the two men in the audience, Borden is smiling like he's figured it out. He is just grinning, he's cracked it. So then outside of the theater, um, they watch Chenling Su get walked to his carriage. Um he's and older Chinese man hobbling to this carriage. Um, Borden says, no, this is the real trick. It's the fact that he's it's like this is not who this man is. He is pretending to be to be disabled. Um, so he Borden says it's total devotion to his art, a lot of self-sacrifice. It's the only way to escape all this. Um, and this also the difference between the two. It's like we get the difference of Borden needing to be the best magician, needing to be good at this craft. And Angier is kind of just having a good time and is, you know, married and has a lot going on for him. It's like he doesn't need this, you know, this accomplishment. He's like, I'm just I'm vibing, honestly. Um, and then we cut back to Angier at home with Julia. Um, Angier is trying to figure out the goldfish trick. He's thinking what Cheng Ling Su does is holds the goldfish bowl between his knees. And then, you know, when that is obscured, when he's holding the cloth in front of it, the bowl gets placed onto the actual table. He's like, I don't know, I don't know if this guy can actually do it. It's super heavy. I'm having a bad time. I don't like doing this.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

And it's not even full of water, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

Yeah, he's like, it's not even full of water. He's like, I don't know, but Borden is so sure that this is what it is. Um yeah, but um he uh he's explaining basically what Borden had sussed out to Julie. He says that Chenling Su is not actually old and disabled. He fakes it every time he's in public to keep up the act. He says that, oh my god, okay, I'm realizing things as I'm reading my notes. Um he says that Borden could tell immediately, but Angie or can't imagine that living my whole life pretending to be someone else. God damn it! I wrote down the line and it's that's what it is. God. What? Yeah, I oh man, crazy. Y'all, hot take. This is a good movie. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. It's a good movie. Emily, you did good. This is a good pick. Um yeah, so Julia kind of kind of pushed him off. He's like, well, you are pretending to be someone else. You change your name. You lie and say that you're from somewhere else. You changed your whole backstory. Um, she has an idea for a stage name for him. Um, she says it's the great Denton. Um, he doesn't like it. He says it's he says it's kind of old. Yeah, he doesn't he doesn't like it. He says it's old-fashioned. She says it's fancy, it's French. Um, and then they make out and things are great. Like they're they're just having a good time. They have a great life.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

They're having they're they're working, they're married, they're good.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Honestly, yeah, like we we stand, they're great. My notes says, Oh, we are jumping through time like crazy now. Just wait, past Kate. You you have not seen anything. Um, so in present day or in Angier's journal, um, he says Borden writes uh as if no one but he understood the true nature of magic. Um and then as as Angier is writing in his diary, he looks at a little cameo portrait of Julia and he says, But what does he know of self-sacrifice? And I'm like, oh no, what's happening? Then it cuts to it cuts to Borden. Were you worried for Julia? Yes. I was like, oh no. So I was like, self-sacrifice, oh no. And then I tried to remember like who was on stage with with Angie in the beginning of the movie, and I was like, oh fuck, that wasn't her. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Oh, oh like oh right. You're like, that's not the same link. I'm like, that's not the same girl.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Exactly. I'm like, oh damn, that's not her. Um yeah, so we cut we cut back to um Borden in in his cell reading it. He uh I said calls him a fool. I don't know who called who a fool.

SPEAKER_02 49:19

I think Borden calls Angie a fool because he's like, what does he know of self-sacrifice?

SPEAKER_00 49:24

Oh, oh, and then that makes sense because it's like you don't know what I you don't know what I've been through.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

You don't know what I am.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

You don't know for another two hours.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Yep, pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

So we cut back to to past where the Borden um okay, so oh, um, so Virgil is another magician that Borden has been working with. Um we cut back.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yes, he's stealing the secrets for cutter.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so Borden is um off stage and he uh looks up, he catches a woman's eye in the audience, um, a woman with a little boy in the audience. Um, and he kind of catches her eye and smiles. Um, and in Virgil's act, there is a bird in a cage, um, and he puts the cloth over the cage, and then he does exactly what Cutter did in the beginning of the movie and um sort of squishes it down with his hand and flattens, and then the cage is gone and flattens it. Um the little boy in the audience uh with this woman gets very upset and says that says he killed it. And the woman tries to issue tries to reassure him. It's like, no, no, no, it's fine. Like it because um right after that, Virgil has a flower, he swishes the cloth over it, and it turns back into a bird. And the little boy is still very upset um and is not buying it. Um, and Borden sees that this little boy is upset, brings the cage with the bird over to him. He's like, see, he's fine. He's like, yeah, it's like he's okay. And the little boy asks, but where's his brother? Um I know it God, so fucking sad. Um, and Borden kind of look holds his eye for a second and he's and he looks at the woman, he's like, Oh, he's you know, he's like, Your son's a sharp kid. And she's like, Oh, it's my nephew, and he goes, Ah, nephew, you say, not son, hello. Um, so we get back in um in his office workshop room somewhere, the place with a lot more birds.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Um that's I think they end up calling it the workshop later, like where he has like day job kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. So back in Borden's workshop, um, he hangs the cage with the live bird back up in the sort of row of other other birds. Um, and then he takes the table that was in the magic act and he opens a compartment in the table with a flattened cage and a crushed bird inside. I said, Oh man, sad face. I was like, I was kind of sure it'd be a little fucked up, but I don't you don't like to see it. It sucks.

SPEAKER_02 51:53

Yeah, I think I remember being like, oh my god, when when I like having no no thought, no idea of like, well, they just magic something happens. They don't just like murder the bird.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Yeah, exactly. And and I think that's the thing. Like, especially like I think if I was watching this show at like like this kind of magic show at 10, I would not assume, oh yeah, they just killed it. Like, that's not no, no, that's not even a thought that crosses my mind. And it's and it's so funny, like, you know, now, like obviously in the 1800s, like, yeah, no one really gave a shit. But like, even like animal care and like animal protections, like within, you know, filming and stuff, like how far it's come even in the last like 30 years is insane. Like, it's yeah, a world of difference. But like the fact that this is just like so commonplace for I don't know how long.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

That's a good question. Yeah, historically, I don't I don't know how long we were killing the animals. We were disappearing.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

Oh yeah. It's like I don't, I have no idea, but it's uh it's a gnarly uh gnarly history. So Borden uh comes back down the stairs from his workshop. Um he meets the that little boy and his aunt on the stairs. Um he gives the little boy a coin that has two heads um that he magics out of nowhere. Um he says his his um are you watching closely? He tells the little boy in this very like light-hearted voice, um, but says some very like kind of dark, serious, spooky stuff. It's like, okay, it's like it's like you know, don't don't let anyone see this. Don't tell them what your secret is. Like it tell it tells the little boy to keep secrets because as soon as the secret is out, you're nothing. The trick you use it for is everything. Your secret isn't the actual interesting thing. How you use the secret is actually that's what gives you power and influence and and importance. Um so later on, I think he uh walks um this same woman back to her apartment. Um, she thanks him for lunch. Um he says to call her, call him by her by his first name, which is Alfred, um, which is the first time that I think I've heard it. Oh, wait, no. I think they say it in court. I just didn't write it down. That's just me. So he tries to invite himself in for a cup of tea. She declines. Uh, he points at the lock and asks if it's enough to keep him out. And I said, if a man asked me that now, I'd call the cops.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

Yes. But and then she's like, ha ha, yeah, probably. And then she goes inside, locks, like, locks the door, and then turns around. He is already inside and like pouring himself tea. It's like, oh, dude, and and they just then they laugh about it. And I said, I would scream straight up. I I don't I don't know. But it's that's cute. It's very, it's cute, but it's like, I don't know. I think we don't get nearly enough depth in any of the female characters in this movie. And I think we don't even learn Sarah's name for a thousand fucking years. Um, I truly sung along. I was like, oh, it's the woman that he's seeing. And I'm like, I that's that's something. I don't know. I wife, maybe, I don't know. Um at some point, yeah. They live together, so yeah. Yeah, at some point, wife, but it's like their whole relationship. I feel like we needed to be bought in on them as a couple so much faster than the movie Let Us Be. I was like, I she feels like she's interested, but it doesn't feel like hell yeah, this is it. We have hit it off and I'm having a great time. And I think it might just be Rebecca's Hall's acting. Like she kind of seems a little nervous. Like some of her laughs, especially in this scene, were the laugh of a woman who is trying to get a man to leave her alone a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

Like nervous, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

Yeah, it's like, uh, I'm gonna, you know, put my keys between my fingers. I gotta go. Someone's calling me. Like, I don't know. Like it just it was just weird red flags. And I was like, I don't know. I don't trust the relationship. And then I continued to not trust the relationship. Like, I just I don't know. I just I I was not bought in on him and Sarah. Like, you know, Angie or Julia, that was that was my OTP. I don't feel good about Sarah. Really? Yeah, that was it. I don't feel good about Sarah. I think Sarah needed to get out.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

If you ever do re-watch this, you'll see it. It's like the times where it is, what did I say then? Was it Albert? And the times that it is Albert, like you can so tell that he's so in love with her and so happy with her. And the times that he's Freddy, it's like he he he he's just not there. Yeah, like um, so and it makes it hard because when you're watching this, you don't know, so he seems like he's just like flipping on a dunk. And like, why would she be with him? Yeah, yeah. But it's yeah, and and I mean, really, uh up until this point, we don't know how much they're switching.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

That's true, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:59

Or really we don't know if when they're switching, because it's only later when she finds out she's pregnant that he introduces phalon.

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, because it's not even a yeah, it's not even a there's not there's no act to use him in yet.

SPEAKER_02 57:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

The act is his marriage. That's the act to use it in.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, like at this point, I was I thought he was very charming. So I I was bought in. But that's totally fair. 2026 lens.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

I freaking weird. No, totally good. I think I was just getting like red flags about him. I think I just didn't feel great about him, and I don't know. I but I think towards the end I just didn't really feel great about either of them. Like, I I think everyone's towards the end of this movie to be real.

SPEAKER_02 57:47

Like, there's like the the minusculist happy ending for the one child in this movie, and that's really it.

SPEAKER_00 57:54

And even then, like, fuck. And I'm like, cool, you got you got something. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Um, that is a good point. I think re-watching it maybe like having like a little bit, a little bit more generous read on it, and like and and having that not even that, but like knowing that there are two of them, basically.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

And it's like you can figure out like the way that it's acting. Because I mean, it's not in this one, but she's so smart. Today you love her. Yes, today you don't mean it. Today you don't mean it.

SPEAKER_00 58:22

Yeah, I whoo boy, yeah. So many things. I'm just like, that's fucking what do you mean? God, the yeah, deeper. I need to rewatch this. I'm gonna fucking rewatch it tomorrow. Um that's so fun. So yeah, we get um we are back at the present. Um Borden is, I said remembering this sadly. I think he's I think he's thinking back to his his time with um with Sarah. So we in the present as well, um, we show this wooden closet wardrobe trapezoid thing, like a very like, yeah, the box, like a big, like, like sort of narrow, skinny trapezoid. I had to struggle to think of the word trapezoid. I was like, it's a shape that has that, and then like the legs, and then a flat. And the other things. Exactly. And I was like, it's not a parallelogram, it's not a it's not a rhombus. What is it? It's a shape word. I got it. But the uh the judge and cutter are walking up to it. Um, and Cutter says that Angier's machine is inside of it. Um, the judge asks him if Cutter made it, and Cutter said, no, I didn't build it. He said, This was not built by a magician. This was built by a wizard, a man who can actually do what magicians pretend to. Turns out that Lord Caldlow is buying Angier's entire stash of illusion equipment. Um, Cutter tells the judge not to sell him this one because it is too dangerous. Um, and the judge kind of scoffs. He says, Well, I mean, I bet, I bet, you know, like everything else, it has a simple and disappointing trick. And Cutter says it has the most disappointing trick of all. It has no trick. It's real. And I'm like, what? What does it do? I'm losing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

But it's even crazy because this is before he even like sees the actual reveal. It's like he truly believes in the machine and hasn't even met back up with Lord Caldlo Caldlow. Caldlow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

That word tripped me the fuck up too. I was like, Caldwell.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

I kept thinking Caldwell.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

Oh yeah. God.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

Were you suspicious at all of Lord Caldlow? Why would you be? But I was just curious because he kept coming up.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

I will tell you when I got suspicious of Lord Caldlow. Cool. I flagged it. I went, wait.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

It took me, it took me longer than I think it should have, but it it was there. No, I wouldn't have. But then I also was like, is this an anagram? Are there like letters? Like, what's the and it's not, and I wish it was. I wish it was some I wish it was some bullshit like Agatha Christie thing where it was like, oh, it's it's flipped around. Like, I don't know. I want I wanted some I wanted some like Westing game like puzzle puzzle name bullshit. Sure. I live for that. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:00

I think the only name thing that came up was that their initials, A, B, and uh R A spell Abra as part of Abracadabra. Oh, that's fun. But I think I think that was it. Uh and then the Alfred one is smushing smushing uh Frederick and uh uh Alfred.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

That's cool. I fucking love that. That's great. Yeah, so uh so while they're in this room of all of the uh the illusion implements, um, the judge turns to the water tank that Angie are drowned in. Um and Cutter uh shows him how it works. He shows that there is a door that slides open for the performer to undo the trick padlock on this side. Um he said, uh, this is an absolutely standard water tank that is used in a, you know, in this kind of uh magic trick. Um, but he says that instead of a trick padlock, this one was switched with a real one. And uh the judge says, what a way to kill someone! And Cutter goes, they're magicians, Your Honor. But he also says, Well, this this water tank was significant to Angier and Borden. And then we cut back to Milton's show, and I'm like, oh no. I was like, oh, god damn it. We're oh no, Julia, why? I knew it. I knew it was gonna happen. Oh yeah, so so we're getting to Milton's show where he asks of the volunteers, and uh uh Angie is uh tying uh tying Julia's ankles. Borden goes to tie her wrists. Borden makes pointed eye contact with Julia. Julia nods. It is confirmed that if he wants to do the fancy or not, the Langford double, then she's like, cool, let's do it. Um so she gets lifted up, lowered into the tank, and Cutter is off on the side of the side of the stage um with his pocket watch, watching it. And then at a certain point, just everyone realizes that something is wrong. It's too long, yeah. It's been just too long, and everyone, like everyone on stage knows it immediately, too. Um, so then um the curtains drop, cutter comes out with an axe to break open the tank. Um, it is super thick glass, so he is bashing away at it. By the time the glass breaks, Julia's already drowned. And Angier falls to his knees and and you know, embraces her, but it's too late. She is she's gone. So we are in, we cut to a mausoleum for Julia's funeral, just inside inside of Crips, basically. Um, and Cutter offers Angier a story. Um, he said he uh knew an old sailor who said that he had, you know, drowned and then you know brought came back to life like minutes later. Um he said that drowning is actually peaceful. It feels like going home. Angier is not soothed by this. It does not fucking matter. Um, and then Borden enters from across the room. Cutter looks up and asks what he's doing there, what he what he wants. Um Borden says that he's sorry for Angier's loss. Um and Angier just asks which knot he tied. And Borden says he keeps asking himself the same thing and he doesn't know. And Angier doesn't believe him. And Borden just turns around and leaves. And then the da da da. I so this is we don't have Sarah's name yet. I said the woman Borden is seeing.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:29

I think I think his wife at this point. Um, so uh we get believed so. Yeah, so we get back to this time. Um Sarah comes home. Um, Borden is there with another man. He says, Good news, I got my first booking. And Sarah's like, who's this guy? And he says, Yeah, he says, Oh, this is Fallon. He's my engineur, he builds all my stuff for me. Um, the woman says, How are oh God, more things are clicking? She says, How are we gonna pay this guy? I barely make enough to support the two of us. And Borden is not concerned. He says, Well, well, you know, um, I gotta I got a booking. The audiences will bring in money. Um, he says, it's okay, I'll share half my food with him. Um I'm Jesus Christ, it's all, it's all it's all coming together. Um I know. Uh but Sarah says, Well, you're already gonna have to be doing that because she's pregnant. And he goes, Oh my god, we should have told Fallon. And I said, All right, bud. I he would love it. Yeah, he would love this. And I'm like, I don't know this yet. I don't know why. I'm like, why are you being so weird about this man? I'm like, okay. I mean, truly, yeah. Now I know it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Um now you know, but yeah, at the time it's like, who's this guy?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

Exactly. Yeah, I was like, what's happening, man? Um, but uh, but he he embraces her and they're and they're so excited. Um, and then she uh notices that he's holding a gun. She's like, What's up with that? Um, and uh Borden says, Oh, it's gonna be, you know, to to you know, wake uh Wake Ackerman up at the end of his act to make sure he's paying attention. She and Sarah gets excited. She's like, Oh, is this like that great trick that you've been working on? And he and he says, No, the world's not ready for that one. This is just a bullet catch. Just a standard old bullet catch. And he he promises it's safe. She doesn't really believe him. He hands her the gun and asks her to shoot him. She's like, I'm not gonna shoot you. That's insane. Um, so she shoots off to the side. He reaches out his hand and, quote, catches the bullet in his hand. Um she asks how he did it, and he refuses to tell her. And then she's like, Well, then you can't do it because uh I'm not raising a child on my own. And he's like, Okay, fine. And so he explains, you know, explains how to do it. He's like, Oh, you know, basically like the is it that the gunpowder and everything like gets put in, but then like the bullet like is not securely lodged in, so it like falls out of the gun like once uh I believe like the cloth or the paper stops the bullet from getting wedged in completely so that when you he hands it over, it just falls out and then you hand the gun over.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

Yes. Um, and it just shoots the gunpowder. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:12

And and she says, Well, you know, well, once you know, it's rather obvious. And he's like, okay. Yeah, and he immediately goes, Well, well, it's still really dangerous because he's like, Well, someone else People die. Yeah, he's like, Well, someone someone else might put something in it. And I and at this point, also now it's it's clicking, but it's like, well, this isn't the guy who like likes this isn't the one who loves her. This is the one who is in love with magic and wants wants her to be impressed by magic. It's like, as soon as she's like, Oh, okay, I understand. It's it's like this is a really easy trick. He's like, Well, no, it's not. No, it's really hard. It's it's really hardly yeah, and and it's frustrating.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

Um, so he's Well, that's also why he's probably like, Oh yeah, Fallon would left and knows it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:57

Can I can I pawn this off? This would be great. Um, yeah. So he he tells he tells her, I love you. Um and she says, not today. Some days it's not true, and today you don't mean it. Today you're more in love with magic than me. I like being able to tell the difference. It is it makes the days it is true mean something. I now it's all clicking, it's all coming together. I didn't even, I was just like, he's bipolar. I have no idea. I don't even know. Even knowing that one of the twists is a twin didn't even cross my mind. Had no idea. Every time fucking Fallon was on screen and they looked at him, I truly I stared at this man and I was like, are you the are you the same guy? Could not tell. Really? Absolutely could not. I was just like, I'm like, I'm supposed to know something about you. What's your deal? And I just I never picked up on it. I don't know. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:49

Um I feel like at the when they're facing each other, they let you look the most, you know, at the jail cell.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:55

They do, but at the same time, they do such a good job with the nose and the prosthetics and everything. And I'm just like, God, okay. Like even the eyes, like the glasses throw it off. And I was like, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:04

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:05

Yeah, they it it got me. It's crazy. So um we are back uh briefly to um Angie in a carriage. He is um magicking his hands over a bullet, making it disappear and reappear. Um, we have um Borden at his show that he booked in a basement room. Uh the crowd is rowdy and booing. No one's having a good time. Um Borden is on stage as the professor. That is his stage name. Um, he connects some some uh some closed metal rings to an unimpressed crowd. Um, and finally he pulls a gun and points it at the crowd and says, This is what you came for, isn't it? And everyone's like, Okay, yeah, let's go. Um I mean they were cheering, they were chanting for it. Yeah, the energy changes immediately. Everyone's on board. Um so uh so he's like, okay, you know, who's who's gonna do it? Um so Fallon picks someone from the crowd and Borden gets a distance away from the person. Um he turns around and says, Are you man enough, sir? And we hear we hear the person the we hear the man say yes, and it's Angier with a fake beard.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:12

And did you catch, because they don't show his face for a while, did you catch when he grabbed the gun that he kind of like put his hand over it and it looked like he put something in there? Did you catch that? I did. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:24

Yeah, so he he presumably put the bullet that he was he was, you know, fit like fidgeting with, um, presumably put that in there. Borden realizes who it is um and gets kind of sort of like placating, anxious. Um and Angier asks him again which knot he tied. And Borden says he doesn't know. And this is making more and more sense as I think about the fact that it's two fucking guys. Yeah, I will tell you when that clicked for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:53

I feel like though, with that, like even though I think we know as an audience, I still feel like the real Borden who did that, it's possible that he doesn't remember either. Yeah. Cause like, you know, in a thing of trauma, you're like, I don't know. Like, I really don't know what I did in that moment. So I feel like he's not, I don't necessarily blame him entirely. I don't know why. I don't know why I'm on his side. I don't know what's happening. I think it's because I came out so hard against him. I'm like, fuck this guy. And you're like, what would you do? No, not necessarily, and maybe, maybe now, because I did see some of it differently now that he had a had a a kid, because I didn't remember what happened to the girl. And I was like kind of like, oh no, what's gonna happen to her? That's true. But you know me and kids.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:35

No, totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:36

So uh, but yeah, I I'm so I'm so shocked that Fallon didn't recognize him. Yeah. I was like, Fallon, that's your whole job.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:44

Yeah, do what are you doing here? Yeah, crazy. Yeah, this is well, here's the thing. This is this is Fallon's first rodeo doing this bullshit. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:53

We didn't know he was gonna show up in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:55

We did not. No, we did not expect it. Okay, okay, you're right. Yeah, so when Angier asks which knot he tied, and Borden says he doesn't know. Angier shoots. Um, Fallon knocks his hand out of the way at the last minute. He shoots Borden in the hand and runs away. Um, so we we see Angier, who is reading Borden's diary, and Borden in his diary says, I was being honest. I don't know which one I tied. And then we see Borden reading Angier's diary. Andrew Angier says, I don't believe him. How can you not know? I'm really enjoying these parallels of them yelling at each other from the past. Yes. It's it's a good time. So yeah, so we get um finally get Sarah's fucking name. I said, Sarah exclamation point. Um, she is stitching up Borden's hand. He has straight up lost his last, like like half of his pinky and ring finger on his on his uh left hand. She is stitching it up. She's like, How is this still so fucked up? How is this still bleeding so much? Um, and she's like, You need to call you need to go to a doctor. And they cannot afford a doctor. Borden says that he just he just wants to get back to work. Um, he, you know, he'll he'll figure it out. He still he he says he still has that one, like the one big trick. Like he still has that plan. He can still do it. Um, we cut to Angier in a pub, uh drinking away his sorrows. Um he picks up his glass and there is a playing card on the bottom of his glass. He turns around and Cutter is at a table with a beer for him. So Cutter says uh they've he's he's gotten Angier a booking because both of them have basically been blacklisted. Um, because uh no one else is gonna hire Cutter um after Julia died. Um, but uh they'll between the two of them, they'll figure it out. Um they go scope out a workshop. Um they uh Cutter says they're gonna hire an assistant. Um Cutter asks if they've settled if he's settled on a name, uh a stage name. Um Angie says yes, he is gonna go by the great Danton, which is what Julia's Julia has had suggested. Cutter says it's a little old-fashioned, and and Angier says, no, it's sophisticated. So the plan right now for the finale of Angier's act is going to be a it's a birdcage. It involves a birdcage and a very complicated vest. And Angier says, I don't want to kill doves. Uh he's like, I'm, I don't, I don't want to do this. And Cutter says, you're a magician, not a wizard. You have to be able to get your hands dirty. You have to be able to do the hard stuff. Um, so Cutter uh guides a Miss Wenscomb um into the office uh or into the workshop. Um he uh guides her uh played by Scarlett Johansson. I said, There are so many people in this movie, guides uh Miss Wenscomb into a cabinet to uh make sure she fits. She climbs, it's it's like a full-size wardrobe. Like she stands in very easily and she's like, What is so hard about this? And uh Cutter goes, Nothing. Uh you're gonna go in this little compartment instead, and opens a hatch in the underside of the cabinet um to see if she fits in the city.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

But I like how he was like, he was like, before your interview even starts, will you fit in this? Because there's no point if you can't. And I was like, damn.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:12

Yeah, it's just so scary. Yeah, it's like, okay, this is literally like this is the screening. Yeah, if you can't fit in here, there's no point.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:19

We have to trusting two strange men to just be like, get in here, and you're like, okay, I guess this is a job interview.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:26

Yo, it was a different time. Yes. A very different very different time. But yeah, um, we see Cutter working on the vest that is going to go onto Angier for this this final this final act. Um, it's got gears and wires, it has a collapsible cage that fits between his hands. There are a bunch of things that are hidden once he throws a jacket over it, basically. Um, the uh Miss Wenscombe fits into the compartment. Um Cutter closes the door and then goes back to Angier to uh give him an update. And so she's not very experienced, but she has good stage presence. She knows how to present herself. Cutter says a pretty assistant is the most effective form of misdirection. That will come into play later, Kate just realized to herself. So cut to um Angier and Wenscombe on stage. Um she's in this very cute little like corset dress situation. She is grinning, she is charismatic, she's doing great. So in the rehearsal, uh Angier asks for two volunteers. Um so we see these um we see Cutter fitting these wires and strings around a birdcage and the bird inside the birdcage. So the uh the theater owner. Oh, I wrote down his name at some point. I don't remember what.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:41

Oh um I don't know if it matters.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:43

It's okay. Um the guy who owns the theater that this is gonna be in. Um he gets called up from the uh from the um the audience um to be a part of of this, the the final act that needs a volunteer. Um so uh Angier has the bird and the cage brought out to him. Um and we're cutting back and forth between the setup and like the practice of it or the rehearsal and then the actual performance on stage um or in this rehearsal, basically. Um and the the theater owner says, You better not hurt this dove. It's like I'm gonna be mad. And I was like, oh no, what's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:21

Um also because there's no table for it to disappear into these like how what are you gonna like? What's the trick here?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:28

I know, I'm like, I have no idea. Um, so basically, on three, all three people push the cave, the cage together, and the cage disappears, gets sucked into the arm of this jacket vest situation, and the duh, the cage and the dove disappear. However, the dove, since it's on a separate little string, gets pulled off in another direction and is still on this little string and is totally fine. Um and in the in the workshop, uh Cutter shows, you know, shows Angier that the dove is fine. Angier looks really happy that the dove is fine. Um he's like, Oh, you you said I'd have to get my hands dirty. And Cutter says, Yeah, I just needed to make sure that you could. So he doesn't have to this time. He just needs to know that he's capable of it. That will come into play later, too. Um but uh back in the the rehearsal on stage, the theater owner is impressed. He's like, Well, please make the best of this. Um, I you will be easy to replace. Uh, there are always other magicians. Um, he says there's always gonna be other people who will do bullet catches and water tanks. Cutter says that the people who show up for those are just audiences who want to see an accident. Um, that those aren't that they're not really there for the actual show. Um, but the theater owner is like, cool, you have a full week. So they are booked for seven days and it's opening night, and there are some kind of like, you know, little low-key things, um, a handkerchief swept between audience members. Um, the uh the audience looks real bored. The crowd's like not super responding. Um Angie uh slips behind stay or slips off to the the the wings, um, goes back to cutter, gets into the birdcage vest. Um he walks out with uh Angier walks back out with the birdcage. Someone groans and says they've seen this before. Um no one's really impressed, but he says, no, not like this. And so uh Angier calls for two volunteers, a man and a woman. And they come up and I I thought about it, but they focus so much on the woman, and it all it all happens so fast. I feel like every scene. It really does. Every scene that surprises me in this movie, it boils down to it all happened so fast. So that's fair. Yeah, so they so he calls up two volunteers, a man and a woman, and the woman is set up on one side of Angier and puts her hands on the side of the cage. Um, and then he's and then Angie invites the man to uh put his hands on on the top and bottom of the cage. And this man places his hand on the top of the cage, and he is missing those same two fingers, and we look up and it's Borden with a fake beard. As always, so many fake beards. Um and so many fake beards. Yes, and they make terrifying eye contact for a second, and then Borden snaps a wire on the top of the cage, and it snaps shut on this woman's hand, and Borden leaves the stage, and I gasped out loud.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

And kills the bird at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:33

Yes. Yeah, I oh my god, I actually gasped. I was like, what the fuck is happening? I mean, it's it's pretty gruesome. It's like it's gruesome and it's pretty bad. It's sudden, and it's just like I I really I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect like collateral damage, you know? Like I thought it was just gonna be like, yeah, I don't know, like get up and like I don't know, fucking like punch him. Punch him or something. Yeah, like hit Andrew in the face and be like, bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:01

Like, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Cause it's like, okay, you took my fingers. Now I don't care who I hurt in this vendetta, and you're like, really?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:11

I'm out, I'm collecting other fingers. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:14

I guess so. Well, they said they were broken. It's fine. It's not uh but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:20

I oh my god, yeah. When they panned out, I was like, what the fuck happened to this woman? Yeah, it was broken. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so then uh yeah. So after the uh after the show uh backstage, um Cutter is trying to salvage it. He's like, okay, so we don't do that one anymore. Maybe we pivot, and the theater owner comes downstairs and says, forget it, you are done. Yeah, yeah. We're you know, yeah, he says, I'm hiring a comedian. You know how much I hate comedians.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:46

Um what's crazy though is that like it's a crazy thing to see Angie not faced at all. That this woman's fingers were broken, that everyone saw a live dove die in front of it. Like none of that. He's just like, oh man, we gotta read, we gotta pivot.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:01

Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah, it's like what what's uh Well he's l he's lost his wife, he's lost everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:08

This is And this is what it stems from, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:10

I was gonna say this is Dark Knight of the Soul for Angie, but no, he has he is darker. There's more.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:16

What is Dark Knight of the Soul?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:17

Dark Knight of the Soul, it's like the part of a like a like a story or a movie where it's just like all hope is lost, and they just like and like the person like comes to like a realization that they like that things are bad and maybe they have to do dark fucked up stuff to to uh crawl back out of of you know whatever. Yeah, I don't think Angel's there yet. No, no, he's not there. This is like this is the the the slightly dimmed night of the soul. This is the this is the cloudy afternoon of the soul. This is not the shooting your clone version of the dragon. Yeah, yeah, no, this isn't the kill your clone while he looks in your eyes. No, no, we're not there yet. Yeah, this is the this is the the th the afternoon thunderstorm of the soul. This is not it. Um yeah, so uh so yeah, so Cutter is still working on pivoting. Cutter is is, you know, Cutter's like, I'm gonna figure it out. Meanwhile, he sends Angie to um there's a science expo at Albert Hall. He's like, hey, go, you know, go scope it out, see what other people are doing, see what science scientists and engineers are doing, get some new ideas. Um, so meanwhile, we get um do-do-do, we are back in Colorado Springs in the middle of these two narratives. Um, Angier is transcribing Borden's notes at the hotel restaurant. Um Allie comes in and joins him. He's like, hey, what's going on? Um he uh he's here because the lightning lives here, um, explaining why he and uh why he and Tesla are like in this city, essentially. Allie uh looks at the journal and asks about the cipher. Um Angier explains that the cipher changes every day of the diary. So he's saying that it takes time to transcribe, even if you have the code word. Um then Allie asks what the code word is, and Angier gets a little cagey immediately. He's like, Well, magicians have this thing called a circle of trust. And Allie is like, okay, yeah, yeah, the circle of trust with this guy whose uh diary you stole. And uh Angier just kind of waves his hand about it. Um, you could have bought it. Exactly. It's like, you don't know, you don't know my life. Um so Angier asks about the machine that Tesla built for another magician, specifically asks him that. Um, I am noting this because it it is relevant later. Um so Allie uh tells him to tells Angier to come with him. He's gonna, you know, show him kind of what's going on, like what he and Tesla are working on. Um so he explains that Tesla is the reason why the town has electricity, um, beyond the condition that he can use the generators at night to do his own experiments, but at night far away, so he's not freaking out the townsfolks with with with whatever, you know, whatever experiments he's he's doing. Um so they go out to a full like grid in a field of lit bulbs in the ground with no wires at all. They're just it's just a grid of just like soccer ball-sized light bulbs that are just set into the ground. There's a the generator is about 15 miles from there. Uh Angier picks up one of the bulbs and it goes out. He asks where the wires are. Ali goes, exactly. Um, we're learning more about electricity. And then basically Allie says, Okay, well, have a good night. I'm gonna see you later. Um, he's successfully proven that he and Tesla are doing cool shit. Um, Angier is hooked. He refers to it as magic, real magic. Um, we cut back to the past at the science expo. Um, Angier hears that Nikola Tesla is going to do a presentation. Um, we go to a, you know, a presentation hall. There is electricity sparking off in the whole room. People are yelling that it doesn't look safe. Allie is there and says that this is just part of Thomas Edison's smear campaign trying to uh spread the word that Tesla's energy is not safe, um, which is a real thing that happened. Um, Angie uh scans the room and sees that Borden is also there and is sitting very close to this coil. I don't know if that was important, but it did seem like he was sitting very close to one, like kind of on the other. And he was not afraid. Yeah, he was not phased by the the you know, crackling lightning, like the things that everyone else was very freaked out by. Um, so uh we hear that Tesla is refusing to appear in person. The talk is canceled, basically. Um, so people are people just are starting to leave the exhibition hall because they are so terrified of whatever the fuck is happening. Um, Angie gets up and starts to leave. He at first I thought that Borden was gonna stay, but then you do finally see Borden get up and start to leave as well. Um, I really thought that he was just gonna hang out. Um but yeah, so then uh Borden it leaves the exhibition hall. Um we see Borden walking down the road, just making his way downtown. Um, and Angier is following behind him. Um Borden looks genuinely happy. At first I thought he was smiling because he knew that Angier was following him. And then it's just that he is just smiling because he saw his fucking family. Um, like he saw uh Sarah and his daughter, Jess. Um he scoops up his daughter and kisses Sarah and says he loves her and she believes him this time. Um and meanwhile, Angier is walk watching from the, you know, from the shadows, basically. Um he says, I saw happiness, happiness that should have been mine. Um, but then he goes, but I was wrong because Borg. Borden is, you know, Borden's journals are in his journals, he talks about being so unhappy about having this family. He's conflicted between wanting a family and and wanting, you know, the the relationships that he has and just wanting success and wanting to be a better magician, like pret prioritizing his family or his career.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:22

Yeah. With that, I'm trying to figure out, like, and it's never, I don't think it's entirely clear. Are we to infer that both of the twins are writing in the journal? Because that feels like a wild choice.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:34

I guess so. And it does feel crazy. It feels very like, okay, it's your turn to be the guy. Like, let's Yeah, that one I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:43

It felt like a little bit of a stretch.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:44

Yeah, I don't, I don't know. If it was me, I would, I would plan that more. Well, I don't know. I feel like that's I feel like that's always the thing, like when you have like twins and like like replicants and stuff. Like you're I don't think you're ever gonna watch the substance. Um it's it's a lot of body horror, a lot of like, it's great. It's a really good movie. Um, you'll hate it. Um, but it's like you can tell me the whole story and I'll never watch it. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, but like the concept of the substance is basically you like take this the substance, like you take this, like kind of like do this like uh miracle drug sort of thing, and you become like a younger, like your young, hot version of yourself. And oh, but was it this recent? Yeah, it was like two years ago. It was like um Demi Moore and That's right, yes, got it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:35

I saw trailers and I hated them.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:37

Oh yeah, the trailers, yeah, it's it's a gnarly gross movie, but it's really good. But a lot of it is like, okay, well, it's like you have to live in symbiosis. It's like it's not like both parts are you. And so, like when the you know, like the younger, the the young hot version like starts, you know, fucking around and spending a lot of money and not trend not changing back into the older, the older version, like she calls to complain. It's like, hey, like I it's like you need to stop her. And it's like there's no her, it's just you, like you're one person. And so it's like the symbiosis of of like this case where it's like, oh yeah, well, you know, well, you you do the family stuff and I do the job stuff. And then it's like, but well, what what about when I want to do this? Then it's like having to like live a double life, but like not like actually a balanced double life, you know what I mean? Yeah, like not stealing time from the other half, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:32

And then, like, since both these journals at the end feel planted, it's like how much of this was really for whose benefit? Like, it's really it's it's all it's all very confusing. But I do remember I was like, oh, that's so weird that like you just be like, man, I hate my kid and my wife, and then be like, man, I love my kid and my wife. I'm like, why would you write that?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:51

Yeah, I I don't know. I I personally I'd get two journals. I don't know. Well, that makes it even more suspicious. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:01

I don't know. Kate, they're they're two halves of one person, like you said. Inside you are two wolves.

unknown 1:31:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:10

All right, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:12

And they're both magicians. With two less fingers. No. So so we have um Borden in jail in quote unquote present time. Um so Jess is coming to visit him. Um and he so I think is he asking like what she's gonna call a doll? I assume so. Okay, that's what I that's what I thought. So he's you know, he's talking to her about like like a toy, and it's like, oh, what are you gonna call it? And she says, baby Sarah. And he says, that's a really good name. I like that name. Um, so he he stands up and he asks Fallon um if they are taking if they're gonna take Jess away and and take her to the to the workhouse. And Fallon nods. Um so it to avoid that, he hands Fallon the card, the business card that he got from Owens. He says, Tell Mr. Owens that I've reconsidered. Um, that I will that you know I'll we'll work something out. Like he can he can have my shit. Um, so we have um Borden writing something out in the the tiny little courtyard of this jail. Um a guard comes over and takes it, and he makes a joke about, oh, I'm gonna learn all your secrets. Um Borden's like, you have to learn to read first. Um and the guard, the guard, the guard is really unconvinced. He's like, oh, they're just stupid tricks, right? And Borden says, Well, maybe, maybe I'm just biding my time. And then somewhere, someday I'm gonna ask, Are you watching closely? And then I'll disappear. And he has a rubber ball with him and he tosses, he's been tossing it in the air to sort of like to make a point. And then he grabs it, like makes it disappear, and then he drops it and kind of fumbles. It falls on the ground. The guard just the guard just starts laughing at him. And he and the guard goes, Oh man, how did you get so famous then? Um, and Borden goes, Borden starts backing away. He goes, Magic, and the guard starts following him, but his ankle is chained to the table. And Borden is and the other inmates are having a great time and laughing it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:20

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:21

Yeah, I was I knew and I knew it was gonna happen too, but I was like, yay, I like this kind of thing. The misdirect of the miscarriage. It's fun, it's so fun, it's really good. Um, and then the guard is so fucking mad about it, it's great. So, where are the keys? It's like, what's going? Stop laughing.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:37

Yeah, yeah, it was great.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:38

But yeah, so um we get Angier uh trudging back up to Tesla's work workshop. Um, so uh February 8th, 1899, Tesla has finally agreed to meet with him. Um so Angier is led into their actual work, uh, their actual workshop. Um it's this giant room with uh it's like this big open room with a giant metal ball that is sparking with lightning in the middle of it. Um and then Tesla just strolls underneath it to meet uh him and Allie. Um and it's David Bowie in a great mustache. Um he's he's delightful. Um so he um reaches out to sh what is it? He shakes Angie or his hand um and then he does he hand him a light bulb after that and it lights up. I can't remember. There's something where he shows basically like electricity passing through their bodies or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:35

Yes, because he grabs either, I think does he is he holding it? I don't remember the order, but it's like they hold hands and it's lit. And then I think they let go and it stops or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:45

Yeah, yeah. And Angie asks how it works, and and uh I almost just said David Bowie. Um and uh and David Bowie David Bowie explains electricity. Um and Tesla explains that electricity um passes through, you know, through the human body um in order to conduct that. Um so then they have a a very sophisticated lunch outside of the workshop on this little like cliff situation. It's very scenic, it's lovely. So Angie is telling him, I need something impossible. Um, and Tesla is kind of apprehensive. He says that man's grasp exceeds his nerve. It's like what is possible is that people don't actually want to do what's possible. He says that society doesn't actually want rapid change. He says that the first time that he introduced, you know, something revolutionary, he was, you know, lauded and praised and it was a big deal. And then he did it a second time and he was asked to retire. And Jira's like, okay, so you're saying it's impossible. And Tesla says, nothing is impossible. What you want is simply expensive. Um, which I loved. I love that line. But uh Tesla tells him that you that he needs to not consider just the price, but the cost, what it like what he needs to give up or sacrifice in order to do this thing that he that he wants. Um Tesla says that he can tell that Angier is obsessed with this, that this is just this is just obsession. He he encourages Angier to give it up and go home. And Angier pushes and says, Well, as someone else who has been obsessed with things, you know I'm not gonna go to home. And Tesla goes, Yeah, I already started building it.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:25

I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:26

I know. So yeah, so then um Okay, it's back to the past. Um, so we uh we see a newspaper ad where uh it says the professor has defied death to return with a new spectacular, The Transported Man, the most magnificent talked about performance in London. Um so Angier is reading at. And then um Wenscombe, the assistant um uh that they did hire, uh, appears behind him and she's like, What are you doing? It turns out she doesn't have anywhere else to go. She has been sleeping there at the workshop. Um she's like, Cutter said it was fine. Um, but she's like, What are you doing? Angier's like, I'm doing research. I'm trying to make sure it's like, you know, I need to keep up with what my competition is doing, with what other magicians are doing. And she says, You're going to do something to that man, aren't you? Um, she said that she and Cutter had talked about it, and Cutter is hoping that that uh Angier will leave Borden alone. She says that like Cutter, Cutter is hoping that Borden will think that they're even, basically. I think that's what it is. Yeah, it's like thinking that.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:30

Something about being even because he was like, what, two fingers for a wife or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:34

Yeah, yeah, it's like my wife for a couple of his fingers. Um Angie is like, oh, uh oh, okay, even. Yeah, like sure. Like he's he's rejecting that that option, basically. But then Angier is like, well, oh, okay, I'm alone and no theater will touch me. And Wenscombe uh interjects and says, us, and I said, All right, girl, whatever. I'm like, you're this is another female character who did not get fleshed out as well as I wanted her to. And we find out more about her later, and I get a little bit more, but at the same time, like at this point for her to be like, it's you and me, I'm like, all right, calm down, babe. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:12

I don't know. She I mean, if I have to pick between her and and uh you know Sarah, it it's pretty easy.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:20

Oh yeah, yeah, it's Sarah. Sarah Sarah deserves the world. Um, yeah, Winsco.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:26

Yeah, because yeah, I think I need I think I wrote down later it's because Wensco was too long to type. I think I finally found it's Olivia, yeah. I was like, yeah, she just it felt very flighty. I'm just like, I'm just gonna do whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:40

It felt really groupy too. Like her, like especially when we get later and she's like, I was in love, and I'm like, were you? Are you sure? Like, girl, what's up? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:50

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:50

Yeah, it it felt very I don't know. I don't I didn't trust her. Honestly, it a great turn would be if she had like a separate third thing going on, and then it was like haha, but what you didn't know, could you imagine?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:03

She's a real magician after all.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:04

Yes, exactly. She's just a straight-up witch.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:08

And a twin.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:09

Hell no, no, a triplet and a triplet. She and Sarah are sisters. They they have a point of the thing. No, no, okay. Oh, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:17

One of them loves Angie, one of them loves one of the Bordens, the other one is just like fucking around. I don't know. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:23

The other the other one has a thing going with Cutter, but we never talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:27

Yeah, we don't talk about cutter.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:28

Hell yeah. No. It's fine. Um, but um, this is sort of sort of a pep talk. Um, when Skov is like, okay, well, you know, you you just need a better disguise. Um, and I said, Oh no, I don't know. I I don't know why it felt bad. I it felt like she was encouraging his like kind of revenge plot. And I was like, She was.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:49

She jumped fully on board to try and dissuade him anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:53

Yeah, yeah. She's like, okay, I will help you do the bad thing you're thinking. And I'm like, don't do that, babe. So yeah, we have um we cut to Borden on a larger stage doing his dumb ring trick. Um uh I said we have Angier comes in in a in fancier hair and more elaborate facial hair, but I don't think that's is that Angier or is it the other guy? Oh, root? Yeah. Like in the audience. Okay, it is Angier. Okay, yeah. Yeah. The hair seemed the same as this other guy, so I was like, oh no. Um but yeah That's fair, yeah. Yeah, I it it got me for a second. Um, but yeah, so Borden asks for a volunteer. Um, and it's not it's not Angier. Um, but afterwards, um oh no, um, so uh afterwards Wenscom is hanging out with uh with Angier asks him what what happened, what the trick was. He's he looks stunned. She hands him a drink. Um, so what what Borden is asking for a volunteer for, uh, he he has a the rubber ball, the one that we saw him with in the prison. Um he tosses the rubber ball to s to a man in the audience. Um the man inspects it, confirms that it's just a regular rubber ball. Um, and then he opens uh on the stage, he opens a wooden cabinet. And in the cut forward, Angier says he has a new trick. Winscomb says, was it good? And Angier goes, it's the greatest magic trick I've ever seen. So Gordon bounces the ball, backs into the cabinet, and closes the door. And then we see, we don't see the actual trick. We see the audience. We see that Cutter is back in the audience. We hear the sound of the rubber ball bouncing, and then we hear a door opening, one of the cabinet doors. And in the workshop, they're talking about it. They are recapping. Um, Cutter says the trick is too good, but it's too simple. The audience didn't have time to see it. They didn't have time to realize what they were looking at. He says he's a good magician, but he's a bad showman. He doesn't know how to dress up that trick. Um, Angier asks how he does it. Cutter says he uses a double. Angier says, no, no, no, that's not, that's not what it is. He has to, he has to have something else. He says the prestige is the same man. He's seen the trick three times. He knows that it's the same guy. Um Wenscomb backs him up. She says, yes, it's you can tell he's missing those fingers. He wears padded gloves, but you can tell that they're the same on both on both sides when he quote reappears out of the other out of the other cabinet. Um, Angier is dead set. He's gonna steal a trick and figure out how to do it better. And Cutter says, fine, we have to find a double for you. And Angier is like, no, that's not how he fucking does it. Angier is is positive that's not it. So uh Cutter is says, okay, either you ask Borden for that secret and pay him for it, and he tells you, or you listen to me and the way I would do it, and my my way is to find another guy. And Angier says, Well, take a good look. Let's get out there and find me, which I loved. Um, so we have um uh Borden and Sarah with little baby Jess. Um they are walking down the street, and then um Borden uh sort of bends down to Jess um and he makes a um little metal key appear in his hand. Um he turns Sarah around to look at the house that they are in front of. It's this cute little brown stone. And Sarah says, I asked you last week, and Borden says you caught me in a wrong mood. And I said, God, this guy sucks. But that's not obviously this is one of the guys sucks. One of the guys sucks. Um, I don't know. You couldn't pretend to like your brother's wife. Like you can't fucking pretend. I don't know. That's yeah, I yeah, uh I don't never mind.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:58

They don't have time to talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:00

They sure don't, yeah, regardless. Um can you be nicer to my wife? Exactly. It's like, hey, dude, uh yeah, you kind of chill out. Yeah, please be nice, Jesus Christ. But yeah, Subordin says, um, says his act is taking off. It's gonna be in a bigger theater soon. Basically, it's like it's the this is a great fresh start for our family speech when you move into a house and things are about to go bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:22

And I surprised you with a whole new house that you didn't know we were getting and now we have to move.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:26

Exactly. It's like, hey, things are great, babe. Yeah, so uh we see Wenscom in whatever, however, I feel about Scarlett Johansson, her outfits in this movie are great. They're really cute. This is the one with like the little sleeveless like corset situation and the little fascinator hat. It's so good. It's like a dark green. I liked it. Um, so she leads Cutter and Andrew into a crowded bar and she introduces him to Gerald Root, who is also played by Hugh Jackman. And I said, This guy sucks. Um, he is he is a rowdy drunk. He is an out of work actor. Um, he's kind of a piece of shit. Cutter says he can fix him in a month.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:07

Yeah, Cutter sees potential. Um, so we get a we get uh their rehearsal on stage. So we see two freestanding doors. Um instead of the doors facing the audience, we uh as the audience, you see like the door frame and then the door opens up to the side essentially. Um so you only see the door itself when it is opened. Um so uh they both have trapdoors below them. Um so Angie opens one door and then uh hops down onto the uh the little landing pad that is underneath that trapdoor. Um he calls Wenscom down, she hops down too. Um and then he uh Angier explains that there's an elevator on the other side, like a little quick lift that uh pushes Root back up through the trapdoor at the other door. So basically, one of them will go down below the stage behind one door, and then the other one will pop up behind the other door. And while they are talking, um, Wenscom kisses Angier. Um Angier just is does not seem bought in. He just keeps talking about how packed Borden's shows were, and she just goes, You keep going? Like, you're still going to see his shows? It's like, what's your deal, man? Um, Angier is not bought into this relationship. Meanwhile, Cutter uh interrupts and uh pokes his head down um and says, Hey, you need to you need to see what I've done. Look at my makeover. Exact exactly. I I wrote makeover too. I was like, he interrupts with Ruth. I pretty womaned him. Exactly, yeah. We've yeah, we've uh we've my fair ladied uh root. Um there you go. He's still drunk, he trips on stage. Um, but when when he is called upon to actually, you know, do his part, he hits his mark, he plays it up, he does a very good impression of Angier. Um, Angie has to admit that he's actually impressed. Root is uh he's like, yeah, dumb, a fucking good actor. Um he's he's not not really like humbled by the experience at all. It's just like, yeah, you you're paying me to do this, yeah, I'm doing this, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:10

Well, it's funny. This is a little side note because he he announces is this when he says, I've played, you know, Faust and Caesar in the past. So you know this already, but both characters were destroyed by their own ambition, as was Angie Er.

unknown 1:47:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:26

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:28

So a parallel. Oh, that's a really good point. No, I love that. Well, he couldn't say Macbeth because he was in a theater.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:35

Yeah, you can't do can't do that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:36

And that's cursed. But uh, but yeah, so Angie says, um, it's like he's he's impressed, but now they have to keep root hidden, um, or the jig is up. Um, and they will know that uh they've got another guy who just looks like this guy. Um so Cutter asks Angier what he wants to name their version of this same trick. And what he what does he call his version of the transported man? The new transported man. And I said, that sucks.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:03

How dare you?

SPEAKER_00 1:48:05

I don't like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:06

It's no, it's like the original.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:09

It's like, shut up.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:11

It's really stupid. The more better one.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:13

Exactly, new and improved, yeah, improved taste. It's like, what did it taste like before? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:48:21

I missed the old one. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:24

So we are on the actual stage performance for this. Um, it shows that the uh it's it's uh Angier and Wenscombe showing that the doors are normal doors. Um, so the way Angier does this trick um is that he opens the door on his side, he flings his top hat, he disappears, and then Vroot appears out of the other door and catches the top hat, and everyone loses their minds. Everyone's like, oh my god, this is incredible. Because he actually has showmanship. There, he's he's improving on what um Borden does. Got literally the fact that it wasn't right here in my notes, I was like, it starts with a B. What is his name? I fully forgot. That's crazy. I don't know what it is. But yeah, so um Root uh is bask in the applause. He is taking his bow. He grabs Winscombe and kisses her. Everyone goes nuts. Um, and meanwhile, Angie is below the stage and kind of holds his arms out and basks in the applause and takes his bows, but he is underneath the stage. He's not getting the actual recognition. Um, so after the show, we we've got champagne, we got congratulations. Angier is salty about not getting to enjoy the actual ovation. And he says, Nobody cares about the man who disappears, who goes into the box. They care about the one who comes out the other side. And Winscomb says, I care about the man in the box. And I said, Okay, girl, but I do. Pick me. But I do. I'm not like other girls.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:57

I'm the only one that's around you now.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:59

Exactly. I got a note in a second that uh was hilarious. Um yeah, so um so And you're instead of celebrating, he starts to try to figure out it's like, hey, how how can how can we switch so I can be the one who gets the applause? And Cutter says, no, no, no, you you're better at this. You have to be the one who builds up the anticipation. You Root can't do that. Root says, Yes, I can. And Cutter's like, why are you still in costume? You need to be hidden.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:28

He was like, oh my god, people could see you.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:30

Exactly. He's like, What are you doing? Um, so uh Cutter drags Root off to get un-Angierified. Um, so while they're alone, Wenscom kisses Angier again, says, Oh, they need to celebrate properly. Um, Angier is super distracted. And then Wenscomb goes, What's wrong? Is it your wife? And I said, Oh my god, girl. Isn't that crazy? She's not good at words. Wenscomb has has her own issues, and I I just I don't I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:03

Yeah, and you say you want the I don't want to know more about this character.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:08

Like I want to know more about Sarah and Julia. I don't care about her. No. Yeah, I you're a bad person.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:14

I need Wenscomb to get a fucking grip, you know? Yeah, I need her to, I need her to chill out. Um, but yeah, so Angier is he's just thinking about the trick and the way that the fact that even though they figured it out and it's getting good reviews, he says it isn't good enough. He still needs to know how Borden does his. So what he does is says that Wenscomb needs to go and work for Borden and be a spy. And he says, do whatever you need to to get Borden's secrets, but just tell him the truth about how Angier does his version. He's like, I don't, it's like, it's fine. Like, I it's like tell him, tell him that that's why you're here. Like you can tell him whatever you want about me. Like he'll he'll figure it out anyways. I just need to know what his secrets are. And I said, Wenscomb is confused and unhappy. And this is where I wrote, she realizes that he doesn't care about her, he just cares about magic. He's just like Borden at his core. Like that, this is kind of a we're not so different you and I thing. I'm like, they do really have a lot in common. Um, for all of their like back and forth, and it's like, oh, I'm not like you. It's like, you really are. You're two sides of the same coin, you're so much the same dude. But uh, but yeah, so um, we get the middle sort of storyline. Angier um comes to Tesla's lab for a final demonstration. Um, so in order to um, you know, demonstrate this machine that Tesla has built, he takes Angier's hat. Uh, he puts it in the middle of this circle of glass panels. There's the Tesla coil overhead. There's a lot of a lot of smoke, a lot of fizzling, a lot of electricity, a lot and just a big flash. And then the hat is still there. Um, and very quickly, and Allie just leads Angier out and says, Well, okay, we have to do some more tests. I need you to come back next week and just pushes him out the door. Tesla has not moved. He's just staring at the machine, and it's just it's very funny for Allie to be like, Well, okay, you need to go. Yeah. Pushing him away. Um, so uh, meanwhile, back at the previous storyline, um, Wenscombe shows up at Borden's workshop. Um, he uh she introduces herself and he's like, I know who you are. Um, he asks if she's here to steal the rest of his show. And she says, she's here to give him what it's missing. Her. And I'm like, all right, girl, you are such a fucking Mary Sue. Like, I get it. Calm down.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:43

Um I'm the chosen one.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:46

Exactly. Yeah, it's such chosen one vibes. I'm like, girl, okay. Um, but Borden asks why he should trust her. Um, and she says, Angier sent her there to spy on him. Um, and Borden asks why. He's like, Angier already knows how to do my trick. He already has it. Um he's like, from what I can tell, it's like he's he's crushed it. He is, you know, disappearing and then reappearing on the other side of the stage, new, overweight, and very drunk. Um so Borden has cracked it. Borden's like, yeah, all right, sure, you figured it out. Um, yeah, good job. Yeah, but Borden, knowing Angier as well as he does, asks if he enjoys taking his bows under the stage. And Wenscomb says, No, it's killing him. He's having a bad time. Um she says that Angier is obsessed with figuring out Borden's secrets, and Wenscomb is sick of it. She's uh she says that she's there to offer up Angier's secrets. And I said, I feel like they think she provides tension, but she really doesn't. I don't know. Like, I think this is where Borden's like, is that really why you're here? And they make pointed eye contact and Wenscomb makes a face, and we're like, well, I guess that's pretty much it. Like it just, I don't know. I don't, I don't feel like I don't feel like she's as compelling of a character as these two men that she's in the middle of. I feel like in the comparison, she's such a weaker character. It's kind of a bummer.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:09

It is, although I feel like they're doing this to set up the later reveal of what she says later.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:17

I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:18

So yeah, I I mean it nothing to say against Scarlett Johansson, but it's like, yes, this character just does not have as much depth or anything. Yeah, you're right, she's not compelling. And so like the fact that she has her own like little reveal, I think is the only thing that elevates her at all, is that she has a secret that we find out later.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:40

Exactly. And it's like it's like she has important lines, but she doesn't feel like an important character, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:55:46

No, not at all. Yeah, like yeah, she's frustrating. Um she's a prop.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:52

Yes, she exactly, yeah. She and she is treated as this too. Um, we have um backstage before one of Angier's uh performances. Um Root is very drunk and he is starting to make demands. Um Angier is upset because Borden is performing, quote, the original transported man right across the street. We have rebranded and things look bad. Um black uh Root is officially blackmailing them. Um Cutter honestly says he's surprised. It usually takes longer for uh people who are being used like this to realize that they're being used. Um so Cutter is like, well, we just have to stop doing the trick. And Angier is like, no, the fuck we're not. We're absolutely not doing that. This is this is the whole point. Um Cutter says that Angier right now is has been rated the best performer in London. Not just magician, but performer. He says, You've come, you've gone too far to risk professional embarrassment. You have gone too high and you can fall from too high. Cutter says that they don't need to do any tricks that they can't control. Angier just wants to keep doing it until Borden's show opens. Uh, he tells Cutter to pay Root whatever he wants and just they'll they'll get through it. Um, so we cut back, I guess the same night, um, to uh Borden meeting with Root at the pub, just hanging out. Root is is you know drinking like a fish, and Borden's like, oh man, I it's like aren't you the guy? And Root's like, yeah, sure am. Um we see Angier. Yeah, meanwhile, we see Angier in real time setting up the setting up the uh the the transported man trick. Um Angier uh falls through the um he falls through the trapdoor, he looks up and sees that Root is just hanging out on the on the little lift platform, not going up yet, taking his time. Um Angier is waving at him, trying to get him to go ahead and go up. Um meanwhile on the bar, Borden is buying Root even more drinks. He's like, oh, you know, I I'm I'm a I'm some I'm something of a magician myself. Um he says he had a similar trick. Um, but what he did was use a double until it went bad. Um, because the guy realized that he had, you know, he had some bargaining power. Um, and he realized that the the double had complete power over him. So meanwhile, we cut back to um Angier trying to do this trick again. Um, Root uh has finally emerged on the other side. He very slowly and comically picks up the hat. Um, everyone's laughing. It's completely just undercut like the the performance of Angier's trick. Um Cutter is so pissed off. But Borden talking to Root says, be very careful giving someone that power over you. We get Angier once again another performance, setting up the trick again. He falls through the trapdoor. Someone's moved the cushion and he lands right on his own, right on his leg, breaks it. Um I forgot about that one. That one I was like, oh yeah, it just oh, the thud. Yeah, it's so fucking gnarly. Um, but as he looks up, instead of Root getting really drunk, he sees Borden and a fake mustache, who is on the elevator who waves. And then um Borden comes out from behind the other door. Um he picks up the hat, kind of fumbles for the door that is closing, just makes a meal out of it. Um, Root has been tied up and is lowered from the rafters with a sign advertising Borden's show across the street. It's so good. I I wrote Borden does a plug for his show and leaves. Absolutely. It's like, oh, I I I've got too much magic going on. I had to spill over into another theater. Anyways, I'll see you across the street. And I love it. It's so good. It's so funny. It's so good, but it's like, oh man, this this this is crazy. This is so fucking insane. Um backstage we have uh Cutter is bandaging up Angie or leg. Um Cutter asks if he thinks it was Wenscombe, if if it's her fault. Um, so meanwhile, we have Wenscomb at home question mark. She hit like she is she still in the the workshop or does she have like a house now?

SPEAKER_02 2:00:16

I don't know. I would imagine because she's not working for Angie.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:19

That makes sense, yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so uh Angier is there um and trying to basically is like, hey, uh we we need to talk. She's confused why he's mad because he literally asked her to do this. Um and he says uh she was supposed to steal his secret, not improve his act. Um and uh Wenscombe says, well, she's figured it out. Um Borden is using a double. She sees wigs and glasses and stuff that is not from the show that they're doing, which now I know why the fuck that's there. Um Angier is paranoid. He says that that's a red herring. He's leaving it out specifically to fool her. She is like, he can't know when I'm looking at it. And Angier says all the time he knows this. Angier says he lives his act. Angier he gets he gets mean. He accuses her of sleeping with him and like getting in too deep, basically. And Wenscomb just seems really offended by the accusation. And she says, Here, I stole his fucking notebook for the night. I proved it. There you go. Hands it to him and says, Um, she hopes that Angier can translate it. He looks at it and realizes it's a cipher. It's like it'll take months for me to decipher this. And Wenscomb's like, okay, well, I have to give it back, or else he'll know that I took it. He knows where I live, and Angier does not care. He is like, no, you're not getting this back. Like, all of his secrets are in there. And Wenscomb says, it won't bring your wife back. And Angier says, I don't care about my wife. I care about his secret. And I said, Oh damn. And then I wrote, they both realize what he just said.

unknown 2:01:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:00

And he and he gets he he's surprised that he said it. He gets a little self-conscious about the fact that he that that was his instinct. So he sort of to backpedal, he says that he'll instead he'll go to Borden's workshop. He's gonna stage a break-in to make it look like it's like it had nothing to do with Wenscomb to get the heat off of her. And I wrote, apologize to her, you idiot.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:27

Nope. No apologies.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:28

No, absolutely not. No, and as as he's as he's finally leaving to stage this break in, Wenscom says that she has fallen in love with Borden. And Angie says that I know how hard this has been for you. And I don't know if he has, unless he kind of has the same love for Borden. I think I think there's like a relation, like the undeniable relationship of like we are we are we are intertwined, and I don't know how the fuck like this was.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:57

The not enemies to lovers.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:58

Exactly. Yeah, enemies to enemies to enemies to more enemies.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:03

Yes. Although, like, how much time has passed that she fell in love with Angie and now she's totally in love with Borden? I'm like, you are so fickle.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:12

That's what I'm saying. She's such a fucking groupie. She is like, okay, it's like I've it's like I was in love and now I'm not. Now I'm in love with, and I'm like, you're I think you're 14, you're an idiot. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:24

Like I just, girl, I need you to get a grip.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:26

It's like both of these men have put too much trust in this young lady. Yes, I know. What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_00 2:03:32

But yeah, so we have the the staged break-in at Borden's. Um, so much stuff is just tables knocked over, everything's broken. Um Borden looks around and he asks, um, he asks Fallon if the notebook is gone. Fallon nods, and Borden says, then he's just getting started. And I'm like, okay, I don't know what this means. Um, so we yeah, so we have uh Borden's first show at the Pantages, um, the theater across the street. Um, he's still basically doing the same, the same act. It's the two cabinets and the rubber ball bouncing between them, but now he's got the sort of showmanship of Winscombe flipping a switch on a giant Tesla coil between the two cabinets. Um yeah, so it but we actually get to see the trick. It's like he actually does it. And then he, you know, comes out and uh takes takes Wenscomb's hand and kisses it gently. Um and it's like, oh my god, is that chemistry? Are they working together well? Like, what is this? Um, there's a crowd at the stage door, everyone's excited to see Borden as they're leaving. Um, and Borden uh hesitates at his carriage, um, tells Fallon that he's walking home. Um, he sees he sees Angier like on the other side of the street, and he but Borden says, let him come. I don't care. Um, so I said, Of course Angier is in the shadows across the street. He starts to follow Borden. Fallon clocks with his broken leg. Yeah, with his broken leg, not stealthy at all, just like click-clack it along. Um so Borden is walking home, Angier follows him, Fallon clocks him and starts to follow them also. Angier pauses when he is following Borden and then turns to the right down an alleyway instead. Fallon kind of pauses and follows Angier as well, takes a turn, falls through a broken stair straight into a coffin, and then Cutter is there, throws a lid on it, nails it shut, and then Fallon shoots him through the wood. I once again, all happening so fast, I'm like, what the hell? Um Angier follows, like comes downstairs to meet him, asks Cutter if he's okay, and Cutter is like, nah, it's fine, it saves me from having to cut an air hole. Um so we get the next day. Um Borden is walking into a rainy graveyard, and Angier is there. Um and Borden says, I'm impressed you're finally getting your hands dirty. It's what a good trick costs. Um, Angier asks for asks for uh what the secret to his trick is. Um he says that Fallon wouldn't talk. Borden says that the notebook is useless without the keyword. It doesn't matter that he has it, uh, that just has the the actual notebook. Um Angier asks for the method written down. He hands Borden a piece of paper. Um Borden does not write very long. Angier's like, no, no, no, the whole thing. Um he says the keyword is the method, uh, and then hands the paper back to him. Um Borden asks for Fallon back. Oh, Angier sort of waves to a um like a dirt pile. Um Borden asks if he's alive, and uh Angier says, How fast can you dig? And Borden panics and starts digging. And this makes a lot more sense now. Yeah. Yeah, it's so fucked.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:55

I can't believe Cutter was in on this one.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:58

I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:59

We're kidnapping and burying a man alive. That's what we're doing now, Cutter? Really?

SPEAKER_00 2:07:04

It felt like an escalation, but it also like I feel like when you just think that Fallon is just like a thug kind of, but he's not, yeah, but he's not a like a guy. He's not just a thug. Like he's like, he's the guy who builds the stuff. Like he's he's an entrepreneur just like Cutter is.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:21

Like he he's Cutter, he's it's Cutter and Angier and Borden and Fallon, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:25

Yeah, like you feel like there would be like some amount of like you know professional courtesy, but it's just like nah, fuck this guy. I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, it felt like it escalated a lot. But we get Angier, uh he visits Cutter in the hospital. Um, Angier is like, hell yeah, I have the method. Cutter's like, we already know the method, it's the same thing, but Angier wants it to be something more. Um, but Angier uh shows shows Cutter what is written on this little piece of paper, and it's Tesla. And Angier is so excited, he's like, we have to go to America. And Cutter's like, that's not a we thing. He says obsession is a young man's game. He says he's on his own. Um, so Angier is like, well, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and do this myself. Um, so we get Sarah waiting alone at a table at a very fancy restaurant. Um, Borden breezes in with Wenscombe and Fallon. Um Sarah is annoyed. She thought it was just gonna be them. Um and she's like, I didn't know we had company. Um Borden says that they're celebrating. He's got a new trick. Um Wenscomb calls him Freddy, and Sarah does not like that. She bristles at that. Um Borden says he's got a great new trick. He's gonna bury himself alive every night, and then someone will come and dig him up. And I'm sure that this is the one that got buried, just sort of projecting and and spiraling, maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:51

I mean, I don't know if it's the one that got buried, but it's definitely the one that's in love with Olivia.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:55

Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, so um the champagne that Borden had flagged down comes. Um Sarah tries to cut him off. She's like, we're not fucking doing this. She asks uh Fallow to go ahead and take Winscombe home. Um as Wenscombe is leaving, she calls uh Borden Freddie again. Um and then as once they're gone, Sarah goes, Freddie. And uh Borden goes, it's my name. And she says, Not at home. He says, Well, I'm not always at home, am I? It's so this man sucks. He's so like petulant and frustrating about it. And he he asks her, he asks Sarah to like be chill. He says, Oh gosh, he says he lost something important and he he just wanted to have a good night. And then she asks what he's lost, and he does not answer.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:44

And I think he said he almost lost.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:47

Oh, almost lost. Oh, okay, yeah. Oh, that makes more sense. Yeah, yeah, since he almost lost something important. She says, Well, what did you lose? And he doesn't answer. And he says, Oh, she says, Oh, good, more secrets. And then he says, he says, secrets are my life, our life. And I have, God damn it, now I get it. Okay. The fact that I wrote these quotes down on purpose that I'm it's such a quotable movie, though.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:14

Like everything feels so poignant.

SPEAKER_00 2:10:16

Everything's a fucking Easter egg. That's crazy. God, yeah, yeah. Uh, but yeah, she she says this isn't you. Stop performing. And I said, Yes, it is, girl. This is him. Like, this is like this is who he is.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:30

Yeah, but the fact that she says performing also is like, you know, very it's it's got levels to it.

SPEAKER_00 2:10:36

Yeah. Um, but yeah, I said she she chugs her champagne, sadly. Um, meanwhile, um, back in middle time frame, um, Angier returns to the hotel. He said, uh, looks like new people are checking in. Um, apparently, these are people who work for Thomas Edison. Um Gasp. Um, Angier is uh reading Borden's account of Wenscomb going to work for him. Um, and then we get the rest of that conversation where Borden asks if that's the whole truth of her coming to work with him. And Wenscomb says the truth is that she loved Angier, but he sent her away thoughtlessly, and she hates him for that. And this is where I was like, my God, I need more depth than these female characters. Um, yeah, so so Borden says that he doesn't need Wenscomb's help to figure out Angier's method. So he asks what she can offer instead. Um, she says that she can help him do his tricks better. She says to display his injured hand proudly to prove that his tricks are real. She says, You can be so much more than he is, and I can show you how. Um Borden in his journal, he says that he didn't believe her at first, but he ended up loving her. It's we see him, and and this is also especially when I thought it was the same kind. I was like, this guy sucks so much. Um because he like they're in bed together and he's like flipping his wedding ring like between his fingers. I'm like, nope, hate this. So in order to do this, here's the thing. It's like, so in order to go into something like an affair, Borden had to make sure that she was a hundred percent in. Which like what? Like the idea of like, okay, well, if I'm gonna cheat on my wife, I need to make sure that you are like a hundred percent committed to this. And I'm just like, don't cheat on your wife. Like, I I don't I know I know it's more complicated than that.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:36

They deal in secrets, Kate.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:37

This is how this works.

SPEAKER_00 2:12:38

I know they do, but it's like the idea of like, okay, well, I in order for me to be actually untrustworthy, I need to know that you are trustworthy. And I'm like, this sucks. I don't like this.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:49

Um, yeah, yeah, but it's it's also very weirdly transactional. Yes. And it's like, you have to do an extra thing for me, and then we can kiss. It's like what exactly, and then I will and then I will weird.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:02

Yeah, it's like, and then I'll cheat on my wife. It's like, hooray! I get you 50% okay? Yeah, like yeah, I don't know. Um, but yeah, so so in order to this this test basically is Borden says she must help me rid ourselves of Angier. And this I rewound this like five times because I was like, what the fuck is happening? I yelled at my TV. So, okay, so Angier is reading the diary in in the middle middle time frame in the hotel. He flips ahead, and the day that their Wenscomb proves her worthiness, it's when Wenscomb led Borden to root, like it's like introduced introduce them. Um, but it says it proves her truthfulness to you, Angier, which is what it says in the fucking notebook. He knows Angier is reading. He gave her the diary to bring to him on purpose. It's like, yes, Tesla is the key to the cipher, but not the method. And in the journal, uh Borden says, Did you really think I'd part with my secret so easily after so much? I was cackling. I was like, Oh my fucking god, you got played, my guy. He's so good. Yes, it's so good. And Borden signs off, Goodbye, Angier. May you find solace with your forward ambition back in your American home. And Angier is devastated.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:24

Yeah, he's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 2:14:26

So sad. So he what he does instead is goes to confront Tesla. He confirms that Tesla never actually made a machine for Borden. They just let him believe that he had. They just sort of read between the lines and let him answer his own questions. Um, so what they are doing is just using Angier's money to fund, according to him, whatever projects they want. Yeah, and Tesla appears and says that's not necessarily all a lie. He comes and he has Allie's cat in a crate. Um he says, uh, Tesla says that he never lied when he said that they could make such a machine. He says, exact science is not an exact science. I said, All right, Tesla. Um, so he says the machine did not operate as expected, but it didn't work on the top hat, so maybe they need a different subject. So Al, so he Tesla makes Allie put his cat in the middle of the screen. So do it says Allie's cat. Yeah. Allie's like, I my cat better be okay. So Tesla flips the switch. This cat is having a bad time surrounded by electricity. It's hissing and yelling. Um, and then the electricity stops and the cat's still there. And nothing seems to have happened. And Angier storms off. The cat leaves with him. They're they're a squad now. They're both they're both mad at Tesla. They go both gotta go. Um, but as soon as Angier gets outside, he hears so many cats yowling.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:55

And there's two cats fighting, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:15:57

Yeah, it's two cats fighting. It's like that stuck, like that, that like stock like sound of of cats yowling. Um, and then he he walks off the path off to the side, and there is a spot outside that is full of top hats and black cats that have been duplicated by Tesla's machine. And it's the shot from the beginning where there are too many top hats. Uh-huh. It's insane. I will say there is one shot that one of the one of the cats like runs like towards the camera. He's got like a little like silver like chain collar. There's a cat that lives at the mechanic shop that that our brother turned me on to that I go to. Um, the guy who works there has a cat who is a black cat who has like a silver like bracelet chain, basically. Um, who just lives there and hangs out. Um and immediately I was like, that's the cat. It's the same literally looks exactly like it. I was like, hey, it's my guy. But yeah, it was fun. Um, but yeah, so uh apparently Tesla and Allie never checked the machine because the hat never moved, so they didn't think they needed to. Tesla seems unfazed by this. He is like, Oh, cool. He's like, Well, would you look at that? Um, he says they need a couple weeks to figure it out. Um, Angier's like, okay, sounds good. He goes to leave. Tesla says, Don't forget your hat. Angier says, which one is mine? He says, They're all your hats, Mr. Angier. And that's very funny. It's I've cloned your hat. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:32

You're welcome. You're welcome. All your hat.

SPEAKER_00 2:17:34

Yeah, so good. Yeah, so um, we are back in the past, Borden is drinking tea in his fancy house. Um, just oh, things are clicking more. God damn it. Okay, I'm putting more pieces together of things that I missed. Um, so uh yeah, so Borden is drinking tea in his fancy house. Um, Jess runs over to him. Um, she asks if they're going to the zoo today. He said he has errands to run, but if he promised he's gonna run his errands and then they're gonna go to the zoo, he's gonna figure it out. Um, so Jess is delighted and she runs off. Um, Sarah is drinking already. Um, things are bad. Um, Borden tries to reassure Sarah that the only okay, that the only other person he loves apart from her is Jess. And Sarah looks at him and says, You mean it today, which makes it so much harder when you don't. And I said, God, they should not have gotten married. And now I'm like, okay, all right, I'm getting it. It's making sense. That's frustrating. Um yeah, so um Borden goes to meet with Fallon at like a carousel. Um, he tells Fallon to go ahead and take Jess to the zoo instead. Um I at this point, truly, I was this it makes more sense now. Um he says, uh Sarah knows. Um does not elaborate, just says Sarah knows. Um so if you can just do whatever you can to help me, uh talk to her, just convince her that I love her. Um I'm like, do you want Fallon? Like at first, I'm like, are you gonna have Fallon kill your wife? Like, what the fuck is happening? Oh my god, that's what she's like. I don't know. And then, but then it's like as soon as he says, like, talk to her, but like, okay, just so if you can just do whatever you can to help me, that's vague. That's really vague. And it leaves it up for like a lot of like interpretation of like, what do I have to do? I'm like, what does this man have to do? We've never heard him speak. He's he's very intimidating, and I don't know, I don't get him. Um, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:19:46

Surface level is kind of weird. It's like she doesn't care about Fallon. Why would she listen to him? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 2:19:52

And yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:19:53

We were like, okay, well, obviously it's like, hey, knock it off. Stop being so rude. Yeah. Because you don't like, like, can you at least pretend? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:01

It's like, can you please tag in and not be a piece of shit?

SPEAKER_02 2:20:05

Can you please I'm desperate here.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:08

Oh boy. Yeah, but also like the pawning off, it's like, hey, can you take Jess to the zoo? And I'm like, I don't know how I feel about that. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:15

Yeah, because of where he ends up.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:17

It's like, uh, exactly. I don't know. I'm like, I don't know. Um, but yeah, so after this, after this exchange, um, Borden immediately goes to meet with Wenscom at her house. She uh calls him Freddie. He asks her not to call him that. And then, but then, okay, Wenscomb pushes back. She says, I told you before, when you're with me, you're with me. Leave your family at home where they belong. I said, What the fuck is her ideal? I'm so so mad. I, my god, the I oh the audacity. I don't like her. She's such a problem.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:52

I was like, how fucking dare you? She's such a fucking problem.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:57

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:59

Yeah, she's she's a fucking nightmare. Um, but she says that she uh she noticed that Fallon was following her around. She's like, I don't trust him. And uh uh Borden says, well, if you if you trust me, you can trust him. He protects the things that I care about. And that all makes a lot of sense now. So we have back in the the middle storyline. Angier is uh leaving the hotel. He's passing Edison's uh crew guys on the way out. He is going up to Tesla's lab. The lab is fully burnt to the ground. Um, and Borden is reading about this bit in jail and laughing to himself. Borden's having a great time. Um, yeah, so uh Angier is checking out of the hotel. That's you know the reason he was there, so he's gonna go. Um the front desk uh guy said that he's really sad to see Tesla leave too. He was a great guest. Um, but the front desk guy says, I he didn't he didn't think he needed to tell Edison's men about the box. And Angier goes, what box? And I said, what box? And it's the big trapezoid cabinet box um that we see in the uh that we know holds the machine. Um it's in an entirely empty ballroom. Um, but there is a yeah, uh there is a note from Tesla. It says, The truly extraordinary is not permitted in science and industry. Perhaps you'll find more luck in your field where people are happy to be mystified, um, which I love. Um he says that Ali wrote out instructions on how to put it together and what you need to do. Tesla only has one suggestion: destroy it, drop it to the bottom of the deepest ocean. Such a thing will bring you only misery. So I said, of course, Angier doesn't listen and immediately sets it back up.

SPEAKER_02 2:22:45

Did you have any any thoughts as to what it what would be happening? What is it?

SPEAKER_00 2:22:51

I I think I was still thinking like actual teleportation.

SPEAKER_02 2:22:56

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 2:22:57

Well, no, hang on. No, because at this point we saw that it was like cloning stuff. I think it's still I think it is still like cloning.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:06

But I didn't Okay, that's I guess that's not the right question. Um it's did you like did you see any foreshadowing? Did you think like and when he says like don't do it, it'll only, you know, bring you misery. You're like, well yeah, because we saw you were you were, you know, murdered, basically. Like I was like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:23:28

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:29

Yeah, like I don't think I you're just like what an idiot he's not listening to the scientists.

SPEAKER_00 2:23:35

I I think yeah, I think it was like it I think just general it might it might just be the the David Bowie of it all, but I think I just like trusted Tesla to like say, hey, if this thing is dangerous and bad, it's dangerous and bad and you shouldn't do it. Like I like I don't I believe him. Um but yeah, I don't I don't know. Like I don't think I like not read into it any further. I don't think I anticipated anything further.

SPEAKER_02 2:24:04

Sure, okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:24:05

What a well what about what about you? Like do you think is there is there something specific that you think like that like that means maybe?

SPEAKER_02 2:24:16

No, not nothing deeper. I think it was just interesting because cause it's like he repeatedly tries to stop Angier. It's you know, I see you're a man in obsession, like you should stop. And then and then there was another uh there was another instance where he said like, oh, like the cost. You know, are you ready for the cost of what this is? Yeah. And then again, it's like, well, I built your machine, but like it will not help you at all. Like it will not make you happy. Yeah. And like it's like Tesla understands the implications of cloning, basically, like for the sake of the trick, like that Angier doesn't basically and so in in and the toll that it takes on him, we'll get it to later.

SPEAKER_00 2:25:04

Yeah, I think I do think that that makes sense. I think it for me, like I took it seriously. Like I knew, like I I trusted that it was like a serious warning, but I think it kind of falls into that realm. It's kind of like the Jurassic Park thing of um science scientists spent so long trying to just uh to figure out whether they could that they never stopped to figure out whether they should. Like it's that kind of thing where it's like, oh, you know, what is what has science done? And it's like, oh, science has gone too far, but we keep, you know, trying to do the thing. Like, I think it's just like it's kind of that archetype of science.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:40

He has that mentality.

SPEAKER_00 2:25:42

Exactly. Yeah, that it's like, yeah, like I think it's just something that not even a trope, but like I think it's something that I've seen enough times in stories that it just it made sense of like a a scientific discovery that does a really cool, impressive thing that you should not fuck with. And then someone goes, what if I fucked with it?

SPEAKER_02 2:26:01

No, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 2:26:02

Yeah, oh yeah. Um, but yeah, so so that being said, Angie fucks with it immediately. Um, so he so we see him setting this thing back up. Um, he walk he turns the machine on, he walks into that circle of panels, we see the electricity start to crackle, and then then it says, but here at the turn, I must leave you, Borden. And we cut to Borden reading his journal in jail. Yes, you, Borden, sitting there in your cell reading my diary, awaiting your death for my murder. And I said, What? That is pretty crazy. I cackled again. I was like, oh my god. This is where I was like, okay, your death for my murder. I'm like, okay, you know you're still alive. There's something going on. Yeah, this is and this is where I'm like, okay, the pieces are coming together. There's still there's still so much of this movie. That's the crazy thing. We've come so far. I'm like, okay, okay, let's go. We get Borden um in jail. Um, Owens has come to meet with him. He says the journal is fake. Um, Owens is like, what do you mean? It's Angio's handwriting. It's absolutely that. We we know for a fact it's real. So Borden says, fine, here are the documents, how to do all of his tricks. And Owens is very excited. And then Borden's like, well, no, because this is the the first two parts. This is the pledge and the turn for all of them. And Owens says, Well, without the prestige for these tricks, these are worthless. Um, so basically, uh Borden says, Yeah, that's fine. Um, you're gonna get the rest of these when he brings my daughter back. Or it's like when you bring my daughter back so I can say goodbye. Honestly, I think after a while I just wrote down every line that had the prestige in it. Like every quote. I was like, is this the thing? And then I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I think it's just you know the nebulous thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:06

Um it is in this movie, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:28:09

Yeah. Um, but yeah, so we get um all the way in the past, um, we get uh Sarah sort of audio from another room in uh Borden's, you know, giant house. Um Sarah is yelling at Borden about about uh Wenscombe. Um Borden is insisting that she means nothing. Sarah says, I know what you really are. And Borden actually sounds scared.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:34

I have a fact about this. Yes. Rebecca Hall improvised that line, I know what you are, during filming. And in retrospect, like afterwards, she was so concerned it would reveal the twist, but Nolan kept it in thinking it was ambiguous enough. Yeah. Yeah, because I think you know, it I think she improvised it and then afterwards was like, Oh, I don't know if this is like too much or if it's like too obvious. And I think they like watched it or whatever, and Christopher Nolan was like, no, this is good.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:04

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:05

So yeah, so that was not in the script.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:07

Oh my god, that's fucking that's so fucking good.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:09

Yeah, yeah, it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:11

Yeah, so and that's the thing. Like, I I don't know what I thought she was gonna say. Even having that distant memory of someone's a twin and I don't know who, even with that, no idea. I was like, I know what you are then. Exactly. It's like I know what you are, and I'm like, is is he is he a real wizard? Is he like is he like a like a like a monster thing? I don't I don't know. I don't know what that I don't know what that fucking is. Vampire? Yeah, say it out loud? Exactly, yeah. How long have you been a magician? A while. I don't know. I'm like, I I have no idea. But like I God, that's so that's great. I fucking love that. But yeah, so like I after she says, I know what you are, Borden like sounds scared. He tells her to shut up. Um, it's like to to stop. Um, we see that sweet little Jess is listening down the hall. Um, I said Fallon comes to rescue her and take her away from the fighting. Um, Sarah is uh losing it. Sarah says that she can't live like this. And Borden asks if she thinks that he enjoys living like this. And she's like, what is so wrong with with this? She wants him to be honest with her. She says, no tricks, no lies, no secrets. Do you love me? And he says, not today, no. And it all sucks. I don't like it. Um, yeah. It's just it's so bad. So then we get uh Sarah in Borden's workshop. Um, we get the you know, the memories of when they first met at the show, when he was, you know, assisting and she was in the audience. And then we get it compared to that last horrible dinner uh when he's just not himself. Um, and then she looks up at the rafters in the building, and then she looks down at a coil of rope. And then I wrote, It's like we hear, like we hear, you know, a body fall, and we get this shot of like just her hands and her body, like just a little bit of her body sort of hanging in front of the the cages of birds. And I wrote, really tastefully done, but upsetting shot of her hanged body. And then it zooms out and it shows the whole thing. And I said, Oh no, it got less tasteful because they just they just pan, like truly, I was like, oh, like they they did this tactfully. You don't need to do the whole thing, and then it was like, nope, you did the whole thing, okay. Um yeah, but especially her in front of the wall of birds in cages. I was like, metaphor about caged birds having to get your hands dirty, et cetera, et cetera. There's so much of it. And it did, especially with the birds, like it does, it does always make me think of Sweeney Todd. Like it does, it's like the the you know, the birds in cages singing. Like it I always I always think about that. Yeah, like that's just that imagery. It but but yeah, I'm like, oh god, okay. This is you know, especially the fact that we have seen Jess in present day, quote unquote, but not Sarah. I was like, something bad happens to Sarah. I know that. Really? Yeah, I'd say that's I was like, I don't feel good about Sarah. If Sarah was around, she would have been there just like Julia.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:30

Yeah, I'm just like neither of these.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:33

What happened? No, that's a good point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:36

But yeah, so um, so then we get um Cutter is at a pub. He uh picks up his beer and there is a playing card on the bottom of his glass. It has an address on it. It is for a sketchy, like burnt-out theater. He walks inside and there is a the blind man from the beginning from that first scene. Uh he looks up and asks who's there. Um Angier comes up and greets him as well. He um is like, oh, you know, you got you got my message, basically. Um, Cutter looks around and he's like, Oh, all of your stagehands are blind. This is a good touch. I like this. Um, so Angier is putting together a team for one last job. Um he says this is his last show, and then he is done. He's calling.

SPEAKER_02 2:33:20

You're gonna ocean's 11 this bitch.

SPEAKER_00 2:33:21

Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're putting together a team. He said he's doing the real transported man, except no substitutes. Um, he wants, he doesn't want Cutter backstage this time. He wants Cutter doing all of the front of house stuff. He wants him to pull all the strings he can. He wants him to like use those connections. He wants to get whoever he can in the audience. And Cutter asks, okay, what sort of booking are you after? And uh Angier says, the sort that Borden can't ignore. And I said, Oh my god, this is a trap to get himself, quote, killed. Did he clone himself?

SPEAKER_02 2:33:57

Ooh, good one, King.

SPEAKER_00 2:33:58

I was gonna say, this is where I. I'm finally like I'm I'm catching up and I'm like I'm glad that I'm like actually asking questions to myself when I know and also the movie's catching up too.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:10

So you're like you have enough pieces that you can put something together. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:34:14

Yeah. It's like it really is like doing a puzzle, and then like you find like those two sections that like actually each other. It yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:23

God, yes. I fucking love a puzzle. You know me.

SPEAKER_00 2:34:26

We we actually I just did a puzzle with my friends when we were down at the beach and it was so good. I was like, man, like God, a puzzle at like on a coffee table at the beach when you can just like you know pick and choose at it.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:40

Touch it when you oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:34:41

Put together five pieces and then leave. So good.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:44

But you did it. You saw them and you're like, God, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:34:46

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:47

It's it's so nothing like a high of a puzzle. God, I'm so fucking old. I'm an old woman. This is what we get up to. I mean, truly, I have a puzzle waiting for me. I haven't done it in two days because I had to watch this movie and we're recording, and I'm like, I gotta get back to it.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:06

Oh yeah. Um, so yeah, so we so we've One last show. Yeah, one last job. So we finally get to meet Mr. Ackerman. He finally appears. Um, he shows up to is it the the the shitty theater? Is it like the burnt down one? I can't remember. Or did he go to like a nice one? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:25

Because I remember at the end he was like, dress it up. I think it's it might have been the shitty theater. I don't know. That's a good point, because why would he move it?

SPEAKER_00 2:35:33

Yeah. If he doesn't in the theater.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:37

Yeah, yeah. And maybe that's why he was so far back.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:41

Because he's in like the rafters or something. Or not like the but like the higher up seating.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:44

That was like the mezzanine, yeah. Um there we go.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:47

That's the word.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:48

Yeah. Um, we go to theater things. So yeah, so Mr. Ackerman is there. Um, he is there for a demonstration. Um, he stands up in that in that top mezzanine with um uh with Cutter. Angier turns the whole Tesla coil on. Um, Angie uh steps into the middle of the panels and then disappears. And Ackerman is unimpressed. He's like, yeah, okay, anyone can disappear. It's like he has to come back. There has to be a and Angier finishes his sentence, a prestige, and Angier appears from behind them at the fucking like steps down into the mezzanine, like way further than he could have gotten that quickly. Um, so and Ackerman is impressed. He says it's been many years since I've seen real magic. Um, so but he he's he's in, but he says you'll have to dress it up a little, disguise it. Give them enough reason to doubt it, which I think is I I love it. Like I want, I want to know what kind of real magic Ackerman has seen. Like, I've I'm like, okay, Ackerman's like in the fucking no. Like what's your right? What's your deal, man? I'm like, you're on the level. Like, what's what's your deal? Yeah, exactly. It's like, ah, my friend Tesla. It's like, what's going on, man? Um, so we get um Wenscomb and Borden together. Um, Wenscom asks Borden, she's like, oh, you haven't talked about Sarah at all. And Borden correctly asks why he would talk to about her to Wenscomb. Exactly. I'm like, girl, yeah. She loves bringing up dead wives. Exactly. My God, read the fucking room, Wenscom. Like, honestly, I'm like, the last scene you said, don't talk about your family. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, what? No.

SPEAKER_02 2:37:36

It's so bad.

SPEAKER_00 2:37:37

Oh my god. But so then Wenscombe says, well, the day before Sarah died, she wanted to meet with Wenscomb to tell her something, but Wenscomb backed out. She was like, I got, I was scared. I was a coward. I I backed out. I didn't meet with her. Um, and Wenscomb says, What would she have said? Um and Borden says, you know, the the truth is that the truth is that he never he never loved her. He never loved Sarah. He says, part of him did, part of him loves Wenscomb though. Um, and she she doesn't believe him. She says it's inhuman to be so cold. Um, she basically is just, you know, tired of of being treated like that. Um, she gets up from the table, she says, Hey, Angier's back after two years. He's got the best trick London's ever seen. You should go to him. You two deserve each other. And I was like, Yeah, you fucking do. Like, yeah, like no one else needs to put up with your bullshit other than the two of you. Like, that's it. So Ackerman is meeting with um the uh theater owner from the Angier's original show. Um Ackerman is like, hey, uh, you need to clear your schedule. We're doing a hundred shows. You got five matinees. Fuck the ballet. Here's what you're charging for tickets. Yeah. We're going. It's happening. Ackerman is the Russian ballet. Yeah, Ackerman's like, get on board, buddy. Um, so we get um, so we have the the opening uh opening performance of this of this show. We get a spotlight on an empty water tank at the very front. Um, we get very polite applause, kind of subdued. Um, Borden is in the audience. He of course he's here. Of course he's here opening night. Um, Angie or comes on stage, and the difference with this, with this trick, um, with the his transported man, he would emphasize how safe it was, how it was, you know, not that dangerous, how it's perfectly safe, no one should be worried about him. Now he comes out and says, this is dangerous. Anyone who doesn't want to maybe see someone drowned should probably leave. Um, if you're looking to see an act, if you don't are not comfortable seeing an accident, you need to leave. He mentions that the woman who taught him how to do this trick died doing it, if that tells you anything. And it's it's such a it's a very different, sobering tone from the first shows that we saw from him. In front of the curtain, he says, In my travels, I've seen the future, and it is a strange future indeed. The world, ladies and gentlemen, is on the brink of new and terrifying possibilities. Um, the curtain raises and we see the Tesla coil and the and the sort of semicircle of panels. He says, What you're about to witness is not magic, it's purely science. Um, so he invites people up on the stage to examine it, um, make sure that there's nothing, no funny business. Borden stays seated this time. Borden waits. Um, Angier um hands off his coat and his cane. He walks into the circle of panels. He disappears, but we get the close-up on the snap of a trapdoor. And the audience is audience is confused, like they're waiting for, you know, the actual the the trick to end, but then we see a spotlight up to the top of the mezzanine, and here is standing on the ledge of it, and he says, Man's reach exceeds his imagination. There is a standing ovation, everyone loses their minds, and Borden looks so mad, he's so pissed off. We get Borden immediately after in his workshop. He is complaining about the hundred shows that Andrew has booked. He's like, why? What's the deal? What is he trying to prove? He teleported 50 yards in a second, and all he knows is that he used a trapdoor and he doesn't fucking know why. Um Fallon is Fallon is the one that he's complaining to. He's he's frantic like sketching out like what could possibly be happening, and Borden is asking him, why can't he out why can't you outthink him? And then I wrote, then how the fuck were you doing your bullshit if this is so baffling? I'm like, well, aren't you magic too? Like, what the fuck, Borden? I don't understand. I got I was You're the magic guy. Exactly. I was like, well, you do real fucking magic. Why are you so mad about this? I was confused. I this is what I should have I should have put together more pieces, but I was like, well, no, hang on, hang on, why are you mad? Um, don't be mad at your friend. Exactly. I was like, no, no, no. But the but the but but Fallon did a good job of making you disappear. Why are you mad that he can't figure out how this guy did it? Um so we yeah, so we see that the the blind stage hands are moving the cabinet with the with the machine. They're moving it out of the theater and taking it away and they're moving the water tank. The water tank! Oh oh my fucking god, they are, aren't they? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 2:42:48

It's the water tank, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:42:50

God damn it. Okay. I thought, oh god, damn it. Okay. Yeah, no, you're fine. I I straight up thought they wouldn't have. Nope, that makes a lot more sense. Maybe I would have cracked this. After every show. Yeah. Yep. Maybe I would have cracked this earlier. Woof. Okay. Um, so yeah, uh they No, I don't think, yeah. I think I think I was already kind of kind of cracking it. I don't think I wrote it down though. Like I think it was Sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:18

It's there's so much.

SPEAKER_00 2:43:19

Yeah, I think I was, I think I was putting it together.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:21

Um, because you already technically saw what happened.

SPEAKER_00 2:43:26

Exactly. Yeah. So I'm like, well, it ends up here. Like how how how now? Yeah, what's the difference? What do? Yeah. Um, so yeah, so the okay, I'm so glad. I'm so glad you mentioned that. Um, so yeah, so the blind stage ains are moving the water a water tank, they're bringing it back to the burned-out theater every night. It says they do this every night. Cutter is watching them do it as well. Borden is talking to Fallon, I believe. He says they're done. He says, let Angie do his trick. Borden doesn't need whatever his secret is. He says, Both of us leave him alone. We're done. And I wrote, Who is he talking to? But obviously he's talking to Fallon. He doesn't talk to anyone else.

SPEAKER_02 2:44:06

He is, yes. Yeah, yeah. I think I think it's like the extent, it's the same conversation or something.

SPEAKER_00 2:44:11

Or like anything to, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:44:12

Something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:44:14

Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:44:15

Yeah, he says we don't need don't like leave him alone. Like, don't go. And it's weird because it's like, why would he be telling Fallon to not go to the shows when he's the one who went to the show? Yeah. Like we don't need a secret.

SPEAKER_00 2:44:27

So I think re-watching this, like especially this scene, like if there's anything in like the angles where like one of them is like with the back wall or like the door behind them. Like, I don't know. I wonder if I don't know. Um, but yeah, so um, so we see uh Cutter is Cutter walks into the the crumbling theater. Um Angie spots him and is like, hey, I don't want you backstage on this. You need to leave. Like specifically keeping Cutter out of what however the fucking sausage is made. So it's it's a new show. Angier invites uh audience members to come and uh examine the machine. Borden is in yet again another fake mustache. He raises his hand. This I said scene from the beginning of the movie. Yup. Very good. Yeah, I was like, this seems familiar. So Borden um once again uh inspects the machine, then slips backstage. He pushes a stage hand, says he's part of the act. Um, we see Angier's uh coat and uh coat and his cane are handed off. Um Cutter asks the stage hand who the fuck that was. Um we see we see Borden moving around the blind stage hand. He sees the water tank, he grabs the lantern to look at it more closely. Um we see Angier in the middle of the um the the machine. Um the trapdoor opens, he drops into the tank, the lid closes as Borden is watching. And I said, Is Angier killing a clone every single night? He must be because the original thing never disappeared. Oh my god, this is insane. Oh, good for you. I'm so glad that I wrote these things down as I was these ideas as I was having though. Okay, yeah, so this is like, wait, every night? Every night? A hundred nights? That's too many. And yes, the answer is yes, that is too many. Yeah, so so as Angie or f like uh gets into the tank, um Borden is watching. Um, Borden yells for the key. He says he's drowning. Borden sounds genuinely like upset and like oh he's yeah, he's fully like, oh my god, where's the key?

SPEAKER_02 2:46:34

Like, what have you done? Like he's trying.

SPEAKER_00 2:46:37

And it's wild, like, based on everything that we've seen from him and Borden, it kind of feels like he might be like good, excellent, like my rival. I'm gonna walk away. Exactly. But the fact that it's like, no, what the fuck? Like, I don't want this man to die. Like, that's yeah, this is like this is like the most humanity we've seen from Borden, I think. Like, it's real close to like, oh no, like this is just a guy, and I don't want I don't, I don't I don't want him to die.

SPEAKER_02 2:47:06

Like, I want to be better at his job than him, but I don't want him dead. And what yeah, I want to beat him in his own game, but not murder seeking murder.

SPEAKER_00 2:47:14

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so so Borden it, you know, tries to break the glass to save him. Um Cutter runs down to join him, asks what he's done. And then we we get um Cutter in a morgue identifying Angie's body. We get the sentencing in court where Borden is convicted and sentenced to death. And now we're kind of caught up to real time. Um, we get um Cutter looking at the cabinet with the machine in it. Um Owens joins him, the solicitor. Cutter says he wants to buy that machine from Lord Caldlow. Owens says no. Um, it's like absolutely not. Uh, Cutter says, Well, if I can talk to Lord Caldlow in person, Owens says it's out of the question. And I wrote, it's one of their fucking clones. Because at this point, I was also like, is maybe they're both clones. Is it more than a clone too? I don't know. The twin idea was out of my mind. I was I was clone pilled at this point.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:15

Once we had jumped from twins to clones, then you can't go back. Truly, no. I was like, oh yeah, you want me to assume it's a twin?

SPEAKER_00 2:48:21

Yeah, whatever. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:23

How pedantic.

SPEAKER_00 2:48:24

Only one twin. How dare you? No, I'm talking about a hundred clones. Go fuck yourself. Twin murder. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:30

Clone murder. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:48:32

Um, but yeah, so uh Owen says, Well, if they happen to meet while handing off Angie's property, they could probably still talk. Um, good.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:40

So you're suspicious of Lord called Lodan. You're like, it's somebody important. Okay, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:48:45

This is where it clicked, like specifically when it's like, oh, can I talk to him in person? Owen's it's like, that's out of the question. I was like, ha ha, but why? Um, red flag. Um, but yeah, so we have um, oh, and then and then it gets revealed like right afterwards, too, though, which is funny. Um, so it's um uh Borden in his in his jail cell. That same fucking guard comes in and says, still here, and Borden goes for now. Um, Lord Caldlow is here to see him, and he brought Jess. Um, and Jess runs ahead to meet him. We we don't get a good look of Lord Caldlow yet. We just see Jess. Um, she runs ahead. Um, he uh he says he misses her. He says Fallon's missed her too. I said, I bet he has, but this is before I knew that they were the same dude. I just thought that Fallon was a very supportive uh right-hand guy. And I was like, adoptive father. Like this is great. Basically, yeah. Um Jess asked if she can come in there to be with him. And Borden's like, well, I don't. It's like, well, no, you know, not today. Yeah, not today, which is so sweet. And then Borden uh stands up to um meet Caldlow and sees Angie. Oh god, and he says, Caldlow, yes, I am. I always have been. And I said a very not suspicious thing to say in a jail set. Exactly. And Gordon says, I pulled you out of that box. And I I think with this, I don't know if I wrote down all of the right sentences. There's so much going on here where it's like he said, and and Angie or Angier called low, whatever. He says, All I wanted to do was prove that I was a better magician, but you couldn't leave me alone. And Angie is saying that he's won. He's saying that this is the this is my my, you know, my final whatever he's like, no one cares about the man in the box, the one who disappears. And Borden's like, this is not our rivalry, is bullshit. I don't care. This is about my this is about my daughter's life. This isn't this that that's not what it is about. Um, Angier throws back that he knows how hard it is to lose someone that you love. And it's not, I don't, it's not, I don't know. Angie, so Angier turns to leave. Borden stops him and hands him the pages where he's written the prestige for all his tricks. He hands them over, he's like, here, this is what you want. Angier takes them, he says, You always were the better magician. We both know that. Whatever your secret was, you have to agree, mine is better. And he rips up the papers and throws them into the yard, and it didn't fucking matter at all. Um, no. Yeah, so Borden kneels down to Jess and he says he's gonna take her home. He pulls the red rubber ball out from behind her ear. He says he loves her as they leave. But as Jess and Angie start walking away, Borden is yelling at them. He says, You think this place can hold me? But then he says, they're gonna bloody hang me. Like this is this doesn't make sense. They're going to kill me. And then he starts yelling at the guards. That's the guy that I was accused of killing. He's here, so I'm not guilty. I didn't kill anyone, and they're no one's hearing him. Like they're dragging him back to his cell. It sounds crazy, and it sucks.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:05

Yeah. Because I think what is unclear is like at like this part of the plan we never see is Angier from realizing that he's been murdered and like not stepping back out of the um into the spotlight because you can hear from the stage like um bored and yelling and stuff, up until being Lord Caldlow.

SPEAKER_00 2:52:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:32

And it's like, where was this? Like, where what what happened here?

SPEAKER_00 2:52:36

Like, what was the the Was this always the plan? Like, were we always gonna do this at show 100? Like I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:45

I think his plan was just to have the better, but it's like, yeah, it seems extra evil to have like him hang for murder and then like have the daughter involved and all that stuff. It's like, why?

SPEAKER_00 2:52:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:56

No, that part didn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 2:52:58

No, you're you're absolutely right. And it was like, and it was specifically like a trap for for Borden because he was like, I want to get booked where he can't ignore it. So it was a trap. Trap oh, yeah. So it was a trap at a certain point, but he was like, I want to do this show. This is my last show. I have one more thing I need to do, and then I'm done. And it's like, was it to trap? Like, was it to trap Angier? Or was it just to like do the show, you know, rub it in in Borden's face and then make a grand exit and fucking. I thought it was more like Bilbo, like Lord of the Rings, disappears with the, you know, like throws the thing. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:53:43

Yeah, I'd I never thought of like the frame for murder, but I definitely thought it was like, you know, he's gonna go to the show. Like, you know, he can't ignore the so it's like, yeah, I'm gonna win by doing the better trick because I have science on my side, basically. Yeah, and then but yeah, it's like why why the pivot to being like such an evil dude?

SPEAKER_00 2:54:04

I know it yeah, now it's just like I'm going to ruin your life. And it's like, did you have to? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:10

And your childs and your like all yeah, it's like so it's like two extra steps past everything else we've done here.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:18

Yeah, it's such an escalation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:21

Yeah. And so that this especially is like when in my brain, because I see a child, I'm like, you're the evil one. Like, you're the bad guy here. Like, out of the two, if I have to pick one, I'm picking bored and I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:36

Oh yeah. That is crazy. Like, as far as like what the fuck the plan is, like it's so frustrating.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:42

Yeah, and like how it came together, how did he become a different dude? Like, all of that stuff is is the one the one story that we're not shown.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:50

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:51

But that's not what the focus is, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:53

No, it's it's yeah, exactly. The illusion. Okay, so I feel like this is gonna fly when I get like in this. Um, okay, so probably yeah, so uh so Angier or uh Lord Caldlow and just arrive home to this like grand fucking manor. Lord Caldlow has a guest. Um Cutter is waiting for him there. Um he turns around and clocks Angier. Um Cutter is stunned, asked how he asks how he's still alive. He says he identified his body, like how. Um it all comes together, and Cutter realizes that Jess is Borden's daughter because he's he's seen Jess before. He realizes that he helped Angier set Borden up to be hanged and executed. Um he he realizes that he's just a pawn in this. He said that uh Cutter says he came to beg Lord Caldlow to destroy the machine, but he won't ever beg Angier for anything. And Angier says he'll make sure it's never used again. He asks um Cutter to deliver it. Uh he's gonna deliver it to his theater. He says it belongs with the prestige materials. Um Do you know what that means? Yes now I do. Oh God. The bodies. The bodies. Um but he as Cutter leaves, uh Andre says he did he tried not to involve him. Um but Cutter leaves, anyways. Um, okay, so this is a funny typo on my part. I said Borden saying goodbye to Borden. That's not wrong. That's incredible. I good job good job, Pat. What a Freudian slip. I was gonna say this is an incredible typo. Um so Borden is playing goodbye to Fallon. This is where I was like, oh no, has Fallon not spoken this entire time? Um Borden behind bars says, No, you were right. I should have left him to his damn trick. Um he apologizes. He says he's sorry about Sarah, he didn't mean to hurt her. He tells Fallon to go live for both of them. He tosses him the rubber ball, and as as it bounces back, Fallon catches it and says goodbye. Um and this is the first time that we've heard Fallon speak, but I I stared at this at this screen, and I was like, is that the same guy? And I was like, I don't think so, but I can't tell. And at this point, I was I had so much else going on. Um, but yeah, I'm I love I love the Freudian slip for myself. That's very funny. That's amazing. Yeah. Uh so yeah, so we see Jess is playing in the yard of this, of this gigantic house. Um, Cutter waves at her. We see Cutter and a crew um are delivering the machine. Um, we see Borden being walked out of his jail cell to the gallows. Um, we see the machine has been delivered. Uh Cutter is hanging out. Borden uh being walked through the jail, looks at that same guard that he's been terrorizing and says, Are you watching closely? Um the guard looks very nervous. Um Cutter uh helps uh helps Angier lower the machine cabinet into the depths of the theater, and then he and Angier push it along. Um Borden is approaching the gallows. So when Cutter and Angier are are down in the the you know, the basement of the theater, Cutter says, um tells him to take a minute to consider his achievement. He he recalls the story um that he that he had told God, this one fucked me up. Um the story that he had told um uh Angier after after Julia had died, um, of the sailor saying that drowning, uh it's how he described drowning. Angier said, You said it was like going home. And Cutter says, I was lying. He said it was agony. And I and then Angier turns and holds his lantern up to one of the glass tanks down there and presses a hand to it. And I said, OMG, are there gonna be a hundred clones? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 2:59:02

I don't think we got to a hundred shows, but no, no, there's enough.

SPEAKER_00 2:59:06

I don't, yeah, enough. God, so we see um uh cutter is leaving the theater. Um, I said he passes Fallon on his way in. I said, oh I thought it looked like Fallon too. Yeah, but well, I mean, you know, case in point, yes. Yes, Angie. Okay, but I know. Um, but yeah, I just wrote, oh no. Um so we see I was like, is Fallon gonna like kill him? Um and I'm pretty close, yes. Yes, yeah. Um, but yeah, so we see the the noose is fitted around Borden's neck. Angier is is still staring at one of the tanks. He says no one cares about the man in the box. Um he hears a noise in the distance, he turns around and calls for cutter. The hangman asks Borden if he has anything to say, and Borden says abracadabra as the trapdoor falls, um, and he and he is hanged. Um, but then we also cut back to the theater where a red rubber ball bounces out of the darkness to Angier, and I said, Fallon shoots him, and then I said, wait, no, it's Borden. I oh my god. Every single one of my editorial notes is in all caps or starts with OMG from here on out. So, so it pans up and uh Angier has been shot. And I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 3:00:30

Yes, I forgot that they shoot Angier. Like that was another one of the I forgot Angier died.

SPEAKER_00 3:00:34

Oh, yeah. God, yeah. So we sorry, go ahead. No, you're fine. So Angier says, a brother, a twin, you were Fallon the whole time. And Borden slash Fallon explains, yes, we yes and no, we were both Borden and Fallon. See, like shots of them like swapping facial hair and prosthetics and glasses. And I said, Oh my god, the stuff that Wenscomb clocked. Yes. They would swap all the time. And Angier is like, God damn it, like this is Cutter knew, but I told him it was too simple, too easy. And the fact that Cutter is like, I know how he did this fucking trick, and Angier is like, nah, what if it's magic? And it's like, no, you idiot. You know, Angier says that it's it's too simple, too easy. And Borden says, no, simple maybe, but there's nothing easy about two men sharing one life. So then we have the fuck fucking one of them having to chop off his brother's fingers so they fucking match. It's yeah, insane. And I said this is why he didn't know which knot he tied. I think that I think part of it is part of it because, you know, the the shock response. I think part of it is that I we don't fucking know who he's asking. Yeah, we don't know which guy it was. Um yeah, and then I wrote uh in all caps, I said we each loved one of them when it was explaining that one of the Bordens loved Sarah and the other one did fall in love with Wenscombe. Um, I said, Oh my god. Um each uh said each had basically half of a full life and they were they were content, but it wasn't enough for their families. And they said sacrifice is the price of a good trick. And I said, that's why he panicked when Fallon got buried. That makes sense. Um but yeah, and he says, but Angier wouldn't know anything about that, about sacrifice. He says it takes nothing to steal a man's work. And Angier says it takes everything because and because then we cut back to the first time that Angier turns on the machine and and the clone appears, and I wrote Angie or Prime, turns around, grabs the gun that is behind him, and shoots the other one immediately before he says, Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, and just shoot immediately. And Angier says it took courage to climb into that machine every night, not knowing if I'd be the man in the box or the prestige. And he tells Borden to look at where they are. And Borden doesn't really look, I don't think. He doesn't want to, he doesn't care. Yeah, no, Borden says he he tells him he did all this for nothing. And Angier says that Borden never truly understood why they did this. And I wrote down a lot of quotes for the rest of this. Um, yeah, yeah, because it's it's god, it's so good. So Angier says the audience knows the truth, the world is simple, it's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them even for a second, then you can make a new wonder. And then you got to see something very special. And Borden is just looking at him, and Angier says, You really don't know. It was the look on their faces. And that is when Angier falls back dead. He breaks the lantern that was by his foot. It a fire starts in the the you know, the basement of this theater, and that's the end of Angier here. And we get Cutter's voiceover from the beginning of the film. He says every magic trick consists of three parts or acts. And I said, This is why Cutter is showing just the trick because Angier is dead. Um, he talks about the f uh, the first act is called the pledge. The magician shows you just something ordinary. We see Borden leaving the blazing row of clone tanks, which is all I'm calling them now. Um yeah, this is the second act, it's called the turn. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it into something extraordinary, but it's not enough to make it disappear. You have to bring it back. And then we have Borden appearing through the doorway where Cutter and Jess are, and Jess runs over to him, jumps into his arms, and they embrace. Um, Borden sort of nods at Cutter and leaves. Um, Cutter looks around, adjusts his coat, prepares to leave himself. I have almost out of the theater, cutting slightly back. Borden finally looks back at the row of all of the tanks. Um and then the voiceover says, now you're looking for the secret. We have the the shot once again of too many hats in the woods. Um we get the voiceover that says, you don't really want to work it out. And we finally, finally, we pan over to one of the many, many clone tanks on the end. And the voiceover says, You want to be fooled, and it blacks out. And that's the end of this movie, and it's so fucking good. I had such a good time with this movie.

SPEAKER_02 3:05:36

Oh, I'm so glad.

SPEAKER_00 3:05:38

I holy shit, dude.

SPEAKER_02 3:05:40

I I was- I'm really excited for you to watch it again tomorrow now.

SPEAKER_00 3:05:46

I yeah, I'm absolutely gonna watch it again and then immediately like I please dude, it's really fucking good. I I did not figure it out until like the last like half hour was when I figured out like everything. And then it was like, here's this, here's this, here's this, here's this other thing. God, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 3:06:07

Yeah. Oh. And the fact that like they both have I think watching that the first time and seeing that they both have like these intense, intense secrets.

SPEAKER_03 3:06:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:06:17

I mean, Borden's is throughout the entirety of the thing, but Angie's just like so crazy at the end. And the fact that they both kind of get to reveal to each other at the same time and at the same time to the audience is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 3:06:35

Yeah, it's so good. And like I like, I like that it's it feels like a movie where if you know what you're looking for when you re-watch it, you can tell. Yes. You can pick up on it. I don't I don't like a mystery or like a reveal thing like this where it's like there's no fucking way I could have seen it. You couldn't tell. It's like not telegraphed where it's like, but what you didn't see is this. Like, I like I like the breadcrumbs that this had. I like those little, that's why they said this. That's why this was like this, that's why this person. I just I love I love the thing where like if you're very, very smart, you could have figured it out. And I'm okay not being very, very smart. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:07:15

Yeah, it's yeah, but but it it it's worth a rewatch because of all this because like it's still a great movie, yeah, but you can appreciate different parts of it, and you're like, oh wait, this ties into this and this this time, and so yeah, no, it's it's it's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:07:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 3:07:35

Why don't they make movies like this anymore?

SPEAKER_00 3:07:37

I don't know, Christopher Nolan, come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 3:07:41

Christopher and Jonathan, why aren't you working together anymore? Yeah. You guys. Yeah. Awesome. Man. Well, well, that means you get to do a rating first.

SPEAKER_00 3:07:53

I do. I think, okay, so I my only issues with this were really how fucked over the female characters got. And how and how and how I was like, I I'm okay with characters being like pawns in this game that the two main characters are playing. But like to the detriment of like every single female character being one of those pawns, I'm like, that's kind of a bummer. I don't like that, but yeah, but I think it's God, it's it's so good. It's so it's so like twisty and and complex, but like never like in a way that doesn't seem like it's out of nowhere. It's in a way that it all comes together, not in like like it makes sense the way it all came together. Like it's crazy, but it does like it's not like that's not how that works. I mean, like it all adds up. Suspension of disbelief, clones and tanks. Like it's fine. It is what it is. But like whatever. Yeah, it's yeah, it's fine. Um, but yeah, I just yeah, this was this was so fun. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it a nine out of ten top hats.

SPEAKER_02 3:09:10

Oh yeah, because we don't we don't do halves because that would make it confusing on um letterbox.

SPEAKER_00 3:09:18

Letterbox would get really mad at us if we try to do a quarter star. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:09:22

A quarter, a quarter, yeah. No, I totally agree. I think in a 2026 lens, I think it's not I'm I'm torn. Is it a perfect movie? I don't know. I want to give it nine and a half. I mean, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I say. It's just fine. Okay, I'm gonna give it a fucking nine and a half. There you go. Um I was like, wait a second. Um oh gosh. Okay, so if it's a half, it can't be anything living. I was gonna say birds.

SPEAKER_00 3:09:48

That's not um Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 3:09:51

Uh uh. Yeah, we'll do uh nine and a half rubber balls.

SPEAKER_00 3:09:56

Yay, fun. That half one's not gonna bounce nicely.

SPEAKER_02 3:10:00

No, it's it's a bad one. Um but yeah, like I'm because I'm trying to think of like I think the one other movie I gave a 10 was Black Klansmen.

SPEAKER_03 3:10:08

Oh that's good.

SPEAKER_02 3:10:09

These are like different levels. And I think maybe when I saw it first, probably like 10 out of 10. And it and it's almost there. Like it's it's like Yeah, it's there's nothing really wrong with this movie.

SPEAKER_00 3:10:20

No, absolutely not. No, I I so definitely like considering it's a 20-year-old movie, there is nothing in here where I'm like, ugh, 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 3:10:28

Like it's it's good and it holds up, and it's like yeah, it's and all the effects are so good and and like yeah, yeah, it's all very practical. Yeah. So um, I think I've already covered, yes, it it holds up. We just said that. Is it good as good as I remember? Absolutely, yes. Like this was and I had forgotten parts of it. I I didn't remember that Andrew died. Yeah, I just remember the tanks, and so yeah, it was it was super fun.

SPEAKER_00 3:10:54

It sounds like even remembering like the twist, like you know, like it's still an enjoyable like watch.

SPEAKER_02 3:11:00

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 3:11:00

And that's yes, that is not always the case. Like sometimes, like after you'd see like a murder mystery thing, and it's just like I know how this happens, and so this is not a fun like this, this is still a fun watch, I think. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:11:13

I mean, especially the second time when you know you were like, I'm gonna pick out all the Easter eggs and everything there, and then like you can, you know, you can never go back to it again. But it's like, yeah, the first two are great.

SPEAKER_00 3:11:25

That's so good. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 3:11:27

Yeah, well, good. I'm so glad.

SPEAKER_00 3:11:29

Yeah, thank you for this one for suggesting this one. Like I of course. Yeah, I'm so glad. I'm so glad we watched this one.

SPEAKER_02 3:11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:11:36

Um, but yeah, well, if you would like to, you listener, would like to talk to us about this movie and how much you liked it and all the twisty turns, you can uh follow us on several social media platforms. We are Sister CinemaSwap on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, and Letterboxed.

SPEAKER_02 3:11:52

We want to thank Jenny Crowley for our super cute artwork, Nick Heredia for our really cool themed music, and thank you all so much for listening. And thanks for uh dealing with our little break back there. Uh but we're gonna keep going on for the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_00 3:12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:12:07

Yeah. Well So we'll see you at the theater.

SPEAKER_00 3:12:12

We'll see you at the movies at the theater.