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Alright, The Prestige has been out long enough. Let's talk ending SPOILERS

Posted by Jazz Inmate on September 12, 2007 at 02:20:47:
What was your interpretation of the ending? For those of you who haven't seen it, stop reading right now. To recap the ending for those who have seen it, Borden shoots Angier after Borden's twin brother goes to the gallows for the staged murder of Angier. The film ends as we see the many victims of Angier's "trick" drowned in their boxes and we hear Michael Caine's voiceover challenging the audience by saying we don't really want to solve the trick.

Each of Angier's final 100 performances resulted in the death of an Angier look-alike during a magic trick that used an electric device invented by Tesla. This device was sold to Angier with the implication that it would clone him, as Tesla made it appear it could clone hats and a black cat. Indeed, a brief scene shows Angier testing the device on himself. It certainly appeared to work, as an Angier look-alike steps out of a wardrobe and is quickly shot while pleading "wait, wait, I'm not..."

As Angier is mortally wounded at the end, he and Borden share a final conversation. Borden reveals the truth about his twin brother, which explains not just his magic tricks but the painful developments in his personal life. But Angier never reveals the secret of his trick leading most viewers to believe it is indeed a cloning device. In his final words, Angier talks about the sacrifices he made and claims he never knew whether he or the look-alike would drown. Borden replies that Angier made no sacrifice and that Angier went halfway around the world, spent a fortune and did "terrible things for nothing".

The movie consistently had a logical explanation for each magic trick. So what is your interpretation of the Tesla trick and why? It seems obvious to me that the Tesla device was just a fancy light show, and the "cloned" hats and cat were staged. Tesla made it clear he needed financing at that point and that Angier was his only financier. Tesla had to make his device seem like it was doing magic. I believe Angier, realizing he had wasted resources on a cheap trick, then travelled far to find many look-alikes to make his trick work. Earlier in the film, Angier learns his lesson to never give a body-double the power they wield in a trick--thus his motivation to quickly rub them out...and we all know his motivation for staging his own death was to defeat Borden once and for all.

To me, this body double theory is the only possible explanation for the ending, yet every analysis I've read indicates that the Tesla device was actually cloning Angier! That's so stupid. Didn't anyone hear Michael Caine warn them about being too gullible to solve the trick? The ending certainly shows many water-filled boxes, each with a drowned Angier look-alike inside.

It's a captivating story, no matter how you interpret it, but I think the interpretation that Tesla invented a cloning device is just silly.
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"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." -Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)