Does the audience ever see the water tank? I'm confused because he talks about the danger of drowning in the tank, but he falls through the trap door into the tank, so how does the audience see this? It seems this element of danger is missing for the audience. The only time we see the tank is when Borden goes below to see the trick. Am I missing something?
shareIt's a confusion because of faulty montage. The water tank is used openly in the *first* trick of the evening, which is escape from underwater (like Julia's trick in the first part of the movie). This way tank's presence in the theater is justified and raises no questions. Then the tank is removed from the stage and placed below where it waits for the *climax* of the show - The Real Transported Man. The movie just does not emphasize the gap between the two.
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Oh my god! They killed Angier!
YOU BASTARDS!!!
Oh, gotcha, that makes sense. I guess I just didn't catch that the water tank was the first trick and that's what he's referring to when he addresses the audience. Thanks!
shareYeah, he performs the escape from the water tank as his first trick - as his announcement refers to Julia dying while performing it. But for the Transported Man, he places the tank under the trapdoor. That way it ensures that the clone created from Tesla's machine drowns when he goes through the trapdoor.
It is explained by Cutter at the very beginning of the movie though, when he's recalling the events of the evening in sequence to the court.
But yeah, it would have been better to show at least a glimpse of Angier performing the escape trick, as we never see him perform it himself in this movie.
Because when seeing it tonight I also wondered, does he do it himself or his assistant? I think there is a missed opportunity here, showing the (movie) audience Angier ESCAPE the tank one time before he drowns later.
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A year is a long time.
Not so long. Just once around the sun.
Damn, I only now realized the whole grisliness and dark irony of the situation. He has to dive the same tank *twice* a day. How should it feel to him, performing an escape from the water cage, knowing that less in an hour he'll have to do it again, only that there won't be an escape this time, or will there? He'd have to have an iron grip to perform it without snapping.
"It's inhuman to be so cold." (c)
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Oh my god! They killed Angier!
YOU BASTARDS!!!
No, the audience never sees the tank.
The idea of the trick is to make the audience think that Angier has been transported instantly to the upper tier of the theatre. As far as they are concerned there is no tank.
In reality the machine does not just transport a person, it duplicates them. One copy drops through into the tank and is drowned. The other is transported. The tank is only there to get rid of the duplicate, and to frame the other magician. Nothing more.
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Christianity : A god who loves you so much that he'll set fire to you if you don't love him back
You haven't read the whole thread, right?
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Oh my god! They killed Angier!
YOU BASTARDS!!!
[deleted]
I don't know, I think involving the water tank with the transported man might give away too much. As is, it's just about transporting (which is a spectacular trick on it's own), but if you involve the tank, too (again), it might be too complicated. The audience (or anyone else) might want to see the empty water tank which is impossible since one of him is in the tank and one is transported. I think it might be best to just keep the tank a secret. Plus it would have been more difficult to set up his death.
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