FILM · 2006 · UK
The Prestige
- Directed by
- Christopher Nolan
- Runtime
- 130 min
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Newmarket Films
24 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (24)
- #001
David Bowie initially turned down the role of Nikola Tesla when it was offered to him. Sir Christopher Nolan flew to him personally to say that Bowie was the only person he had envisioned for the part and that his extraordinary personality would make Tesla's idea of building a cloning device believable. Hearing this, David Bowie changed his mind and took the role.
- #002
(Around 1 hour 18 minutes) The film implies that the twins' names are Albert and Frederick Borden, which the novel also confirms, their combined names forming "Alfred" Borden. The clue in the film is that Olivia insists on calling Borden "Freddy" when she speaks of him (to the distress of Borden's wife Sarah). This could mean that Frederick Borden fell in love with Olivia and that Albert Borden fell in love with Sarah and is also Jess's father.
- #003
The editing contains 146 time-jump cuts, in which the next shot either moves backward or leaps to another time period in the story. That means an average of nearly one timeline jump per minute of the film.
- #004
The word "prestige" originally meant a trick, deriving from the Latin "praestigium" and meaning "illusion."
- #005
Nikola Tesla was a world-famous inventor, physicist and engineer. For a time he conducted electrical experiments in his laboratory in Colorado Springs, where he was also known for his eccentric behavior.
- #006
In the novel the machine works somewhat differently from the one in the film. It does not copy a person exactly as they are, memories and personality intact, 50 to 100 feet away from the device's location. Instead it actually transfers the person's essence into a newly created body, leaving the original behind as a seemingly dead shell. These dead shells are what Angier calls his "Prestige materials" in the novel.
- #007
In the period in which the film is set, the use of twins in a "transported man" magic act was quite common.
- #008
(At about the 59th minute) Root, Angier's on-stage double, announces that he has previously played Faust and Caesar. Like Angier, both characters were destroyed by their own ambitions.
- #009
Alfred Borden's baby was played by one of the children of writer, producer and director Sir Christopher Nolan.
- #010
Sam Mendes wanted to make this film as a follow-up to American Beauty (1999), which was nominated for seven Oscars. A further offer came from Newmarket Films on behalf of writer, producer and director Christopher Nolan, whose name the author Christopher Priest had never heard. When a VHS copy of Nolan's Following (1998) was delivered to his home by motorcycle, Priest was ready to close the deal with Mendes (Memento (2000) was still in post-production). Priest was impressed and chose Nolan (partly to support a new filmmaker rather than an established one).
- #011
Ricky Jay held intensive sleight-of-hand workshops for Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale during pre-production. The performers used authentic, period-accurate stage magic techniques to minimize the need for digital post-production manipulation.
- #012
In the novel, the rivalry between Borden and Angier begins when Borden ruins a fake séance conducted by Angier and his wife. During a fight, Angier's pregnant wife is thrown to the ground, which results in a miscarriage; she otherwise survives the incident.
- #013
The vanishing birdcage in the hands was successfully developed and performed by Harry Blackstone for many years. His son Harry Blackstone Jr. also performed the trick successfully for years.
- #014
This is one of three 2006 films in which magic and magicians are the main characters. The other two are The Illusionist (2006) and Scoop (2006) (which also stars Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson).
- #015
In the novel, the Borden twin who secretly goes beneath the stage is not framed by Angier and in fact ruins the "Transported Man" trick. His interference creates two Angiers; one is sickly because he has taken half of the essence, while the other is a ghost-like being that can only become somewhat solid through intense concentration.
- #016
Hugh Jackman, who plays Robert Angier, has no earlobes, whereas he was fitted with prosthetic earlobes and a nose ridge when playing Root, Robert Angier's English look-alike double.
- #017
Daniel Davis, who plays the judge, arrived on set speaking with an English accent for the character and claimed he responded with surprise when Sir Christopher Nolan revealed to him that he was in fact an American. Davis is best known for the role of the butler Niles on The Nanny (1993), where he also used an English accent.
- #018
The protagonists' initials, Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, form the abbreviation ABRA. This sequence is a reference to the traditional abracadabra spell often associated with stage magic. The production uses this terminology detail to reinforce its thematic focus on illusionist traditions.
- #019
Alfred Borden adopts the stage name Professor throughout his professional career. This title reflects the common nineteenth-century naming convention used by magicians such as Professor Hoffmann and Professor Otto Hermann. Dai Vernon specifically used this particular alias throughout his career as a professional magician. In the production, the Los Angeles Theatre and the Belasco Theatre were used to represent Victorian-era London performance venues. Production designer Nathan Crowley coordinated the construction of practical stage illusions to maintain a period-appropriate mechanical aesthetic. The camera department used anamorphic lenses to capture the intricate physical mechanisms of the magic apparatus.
- #020
(About 59 minutes) During the stage rehearsal sequence involving the character Root, the production uses a monologue from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. Root reads the lines spoken by the character Harry Percy, also known as Hotspur, particularly regarding the refusal to hand over prisoners to the King after the Battle of Holmedon. Actor Hugh Jackman had previously used this particular Shakespeare text as part of his personal audition repertoire before this sequence was shot.
- #021
Ricky Jay plays the stage magician Milton. A Guinness record holder, magic historian and accomplished close-up artist, Jay generally did not perform stage illusions.
- #022
At around the 10-minute mark, when Alley is introduced, there is a reference to a magic trick in which a person guesses the contents of someone's pocket. The same trick had also fooled Andy Serkis's character in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).
- #023
As of 2024, this is the only non-Batman film Christian Bale and Sir Christopher Nolan have made together. In a 2018 interview, Bale was asked whether he would work with Nolan again and said he would very much like to, but since The Prestige is the only non-Batman film the pair have made, it is up to Nolan whether he can see him as anything other than Bruce Wayne/Batman. He also explained that if the two made another film it would not be Batman-related, because the two agreed that if they made three Batman films, they would move away from Batman once the story of Bruce Wayne they set out to tell was finished.
- #024
Jude Law and Guy Pearce were Sir Christopher Nolan's first choices for the lead roles. Law was dropped after David O. Russell choked Nolan at a party and demanded that Nolan let Russell cast Law in I Heart Huckabees (2004). Meanwhile, Pearce, who had previously worked with Nolan on Memento (2000), was vetoed by a Warner Bros. executive who did not like him. Pearce himself admitted that his performance in the film was below average: "I realized I hated what I was doing. So all this rumor about an executive at Warners, was that the reason I never worked with Chris again? Everything fell apart. I know why I never worked with Chris again; it's because I wasn't good in 'Memento.'".
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