Rival 19th-century magicians engage in a bitter battle for trade secrets.Rival 19th-century magicians engage in a bitter battle for trade secrets.Rival 19th-century magicians engage in a bitter battle for trade secrets.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 6 wins & 44 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaChung Ling Soo was a stage character created by William Ellsworth Robinson, a white man who disguised himself as a Chinese man to cash in on audiences' enthusiasm for the exotic. Robinson lived as Chung, never breaking character while in public. He died in March 1918, when a bullet-catch trick went wrong. There is doubt about his last words. They were either "My God, I've been shot" or "Oh my God. Something's happened. Lower the curtain." Either way they were both his last words and the first English he had spoken on stage in nineteen years.
- GoofsWhen Angier visits Tesla in February, it is obviously winter, with snow on the ground. Yet after a brief meeting they venture out to a balcony, where it is summer, with green foliage, and no breath visible.
- Quotes
Cutter: Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now 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. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."
It's not an easy film to totally digest, even with two viewings, because that ending has some mind-boggling revelations. Without having to resort to spoilers, let me just say the story is extremely interesting, the acting very good, the period pieces fun to view and it's a pretty clean movie so grandma can also enjoy it, too, without language or sex concerns.
Basically, it's a story about obsession between two magicians in the last decade of the 19th century. They continually try to top one another and things get nasty along the way. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are both fun to watch in those roles, as are Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson in supporting roles.
This is one movie guaranteed to have you thinking about it when it's over!
- ccthemovieman-1
- Sep 28, 2008
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- El gran truco
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $53,089,891
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $14,801,808
- Oct 22, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $109,676,311
- Runtime2 hours 10 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1