"The Prestige" - A Magical Movie Quiz

Answer: The Great D'Anton

Angier (Hugh Jackman) didn't like the name at first, saying it sounded French. After his wife dies in the water tank accident, he adopts The Great D'Anton as his stage-name and won't change it, even after Cutter (Michael Caine) says it sounds old-fashioned. The Professor is the name Borden (Christian Bale) later uses as his stage-name.

Answer: The goldfish bowl trick

The two men go to see an old Chinese man performing this trick where he produces a large goldfish bowl from under his robes, complete with water and fish. Borden reckons that the secret behind this trick is that the old man has misdirected everybody by pretending to be a cripple all his life. That way, he can conceal items under his robes. Angier doesn't think anyone would go to those lengths to protect the secrets of their tricks, but as we find out later, this is the first clue to the secrets of Borden's best-known trick.

Answer: He tampers with the Bullet Catch trick, resulting in two of Borden's fingers being shot off.

Angier does steal the Transported Man trick, but not until later in the film. When he hears Borden is doing the Bullet Catch, he volunteers to shoot him. The bullet is usually removed prior to the gun being fired, but Angier slips another bullet in the gun and it's only Fallon, Borden's assistant, knocking the gun away that saves Borden's life.
After this incident, it is Borden who then sabotages Angier's bird-cage trick, on the first night of his new show.

Answer: A red rubber ball

Borden bounces the ball just before he steps through one door on one side of the stage, then catches it by reappearing through door at the opposite end. Angier cannot work out how he has done this and a big part of the film deals with Angier's quest to find out how it's done and the secrets Borden has been keeping.

In Angier's version, he throws a top hat from one side of the stage to the other.

Answer: Gerald Root

Root (also played by Jackman - I presume!) is an out-of-work actor who spends rather too much of his time drinking. He scrubs up well enough to pass for Angier in their Transported Man stage act. Borden manages to exploit Root into thinking he's the lynchpin of the act and so ruins Angier's trick by taking Root's place one night.

Answer: "Obsession is a young man's game."

Cutter is also recovering from being shot by Fallon so it's no surprise that he bails out. Earlier in the film, he told Angier that a sailor once told him that drowning "felt like going home". This is to make Angier feel better after his wife drowns. Cutter later says that he lied and the sailor had really said "it's agony".

This is when Borden's life is in the balance and Cutter thinks Angier has gone too far.

Answer: Colorado

Tesla (David Bowie) has a deal with the town of Colorado Springs that he will supply them all with electricity so that he can use the generators whenever he wants - usually when they're all asleep. Angier finally persuades him to build the machine that will allow him to perform the Transported Man trick.

Answer: "They are all your hat."

Tesla needs to iron out the kinks as the machine is currently producing clones of the object instead of transporting the original. As we find out later, however, he doesn't seem to have had much success!

Answer: "Abracadabra."

At the beginning of the film, we see what we assume to be Borden watching Angier drown. Borden is tried for his murder and is hanged at the end of the film. What we don't find out until the end, though, is that is is neither Angier in the water tank nor Borden who gets hanged! This film is an illusion in itself and I defy anyone to have guessed the complete ending!

Answer: A double coming out of the second door

Borden has an identical twin the whole time! His assistant, Fallon, is his twin and Borden admits that they frequently change roles, one playing the magician, one playing the assistant. When one of them has their fingers shot off, the other cuts his own off too, to preserve the illusion. It's only after the film ends that things, like Borden's wife saying she knew he only loved her on certain days, make sense. It was because some days she was with Borden and others, his twin!
Angier uses Tesla's machine for his Transported Man act, resulting in a clone being created every time he goes in. Borden is an innocent witness to Angier disposing of one of his clones in his trick.

This film certainly had me thinking long after it finished. Feel free to send me any comments about the quiz or the film. Thanks for playing!