MovieChat Forums > The Prestige (2006) Discussion > Spoilers - why is Angier confused about....

Spoilers - why is Angier confused about...

posted 8 years ago by !!!deleted!!! (40461903)
1 reply | jump to latest

After Angier is shot by the surviving Borden twin, and they are talking about making sacrifices, Borden says that Angier has never made any sacrifices. Angier replies, saying that (with regards to his version of the vanishing man trick) he never knew whether he would be the drowning man or the prestige (successfully "transported", bowing to the audience, etc).

However, when he tests Tesla's finished machine, he deliberately places the gun some distance away from the machine, right where he ends up being "teleported". So, it has always appeared to me that Tesla and Angier are certain that the man who steps into the machine is teleported, while the "clone" or "copy" is created in the exact same spot inside the machine. Therefore, the clone is drowned (when the trapdoor opens), and the original Angier always survives.

Am I wrong? Did I miss anything?

[–] mad_weather 8 years ago

No, this is not so. For starters, Tesla does not make any distinction between the item that stays and the item that goes - there's no "clone" nor "original", they are all manifestations of the same primary item. Angier, when he tries the machine for the first time, places the gun there for the case that something goes wrong. The decision to shoot the second instance of him wasn't premeditated, it happened on an impulse. After experiencing staying in the machine (that time), and teleporting (next time) he can compare his feelings and conclude that he has no criteria to determine which time he's real and which time he's not - he simply feels himself being Angier. What happens to the "real him" is a mystery that has no solution - at least not to his understanding.

__________________________________
Oh my god! They killed Angier!
YOU BASTARDS!!!