20 Years Later, Christopher Nolan's Most Underrated Movie Is a Different Experience Every Time
Bradley is an experienced and award winning journalist and all around entertainment fanatic. He is a passionate film and TV fan and long time attendee of San Diego Comic Con.
When it comes to smart blockbuster film-making, nobody does it better than Christopher Nolan. Between The Dark Knight, Inception, and the recent smash hit, The Odyssey, the name has become synonymous with epic adventures that dazzle the eyes and the brain. But one of Nolan's most overlooked films, The Prestige, which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with a re-release in theaters in 2027, has arguably aged better than most of his filmography.
Nolan's tale of two dueling magicians who are engaged in a constant battle to one up the other's magic tricks brought the star power of Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, and Batman himself, Christian Bale, but beyond its cast, the film succeeded for rewarding viewers who revisited it and looked for clues to its final magic trick. Rewatching The Prestige is a completely different experience after seeing it for the first time and much like a magic show, will have viewers looking hard to spot any crack in the veneer.
The magic is in plain sight.
The opening lines of dialogue of The Prestige is a warning to those watching: "Are you watching closely?" It immediately prepares the audience for a big twist coming and wants to make sure that that audience is paying attention. But even this line is a trick- Nolan keeps the viewer so focused on uncovering the twist that they fail to see the clues playing out over the course of the film.
As one character in the film, Sarah (Rebecca Hall), even says at one point, "Once you know, it's very obvious." This line also serves as a wink to the viewer. In a fourth wall breaking way, Sarah prepares the audience for the rewatch. After knowing what the film is building to, the clues to the twist are presented much more clearly to the point that many a repeat viewer will say out loud, "How did I miss that?"
Revisiting the film adds a new layer.
The grand reveal at the climax is that Alfred Borden (Bale), who has mystified his rival Robert Angier (Jackman) with his magic, was switching places with his identical twin brother throughout the entire movie, allowing for the iconic trick he pulled to appear to teleport from one side of the room to the other. This twist doesn't come out of nowhere; the entire film has been hiding the secret in plain sight even down to small lines of dialogue, namely Sarah telling her husband, "I know what you are."
On rewatch, this line hits harder, but even beyond that, Borden's seemingly schizophrenic switch-ups in demeanor and personality make far more sense. In some scenes, he appears madly in love with Sarah, while in others, he disregards her, as this is the other Borden brother who has no attachment to her whatsoever.
But the film isn't done fooling the viewer. Ironically, Angier's solution to replicating Borden's simple deceit is far more complex and much more personal. Angier partners with Nikola Tesla (the late David Bowie) to build a machine that will allow him to clone himself and teleport one clone to the other side of the room. In attempting to figure out what went into Borden's illusion, Angier arrives at the same trick, only in a far more convoluted and darker fashion, as Angier is forced to kill his duplicate every time he performs the trick.
While to some, this twist may not seem as obvious upon rewatch, Nolan has accounted for this as well, During the aforementioned first line of dialogue, the camera pans over a field of Angier's hats, all left behind by his late clones. This is diffused by the line, "Are you watching closely?" which distracts the audience from seeing the clue in front of them. Only on second viewing does this hit, leaving the audience just as flabbergasted as anyone witnessing a magic trick.
Christopher Nolan's films have often boggled the brains of many, forcing them to rewatch his works over and over to catch what they missed. And in the case of The Prestige, they are met by the director at every turn. For those that enjoyed the film when it came out, taking another look at the trick will show them a whole new side of the drama.
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