The Prestige (2006)
Christian Bale: Alfred Borden
Photos
Quotes
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Officer : Do you have anything to say?
Alfred Borden : Abracadabra.
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Alfred Borden : So... we go alone now. Both of us. Only I don't have as far to go as you. Go. You were right, I should have left him to his damn trick. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry about Sarah. I didn't mean to hurt her... I didn't. You go and live your life in full now, all right? You live for both of us.
Fallon : Goodbye.
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Alfred Borden : The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.
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[In reference to a bird from a trick]
Alfred Borden : See? He's fine!
Boy : But where's his brother?
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[after showing a little boy how to do a coin trick]
Alfred Borden : Never show anyone. They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them.
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[first lines]
Alfred Borden : Are you watching closely?
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Alfred Borden : Everything's going to be alright, because I love you very much.
Sarah : Say it again.
Alfred Borden : I love you.
Sarah : Not today.
Alfred Borden : What do you mean?
Sarah : Well some days it's not true. Maybe today you're more in love with magic. I like being able to tell the difference, it makes the days it is true mean something.
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Alfred Borden : You went half way around the world, you spent a fortune, you did terrible things - really terrible things, Robert, and all for nothing.
Robert Angier : For nothing?
Alfred Borden : Yeah
Robert Angier : You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces...
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Alfred Borden : I love you.
Sarah : You mean it today.
Alfred Borden : Of course.
Sarah : It just makes it so much harder when you don't.
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Olivia Wenscombe : You married her. You had a child with her.
Alfred Borden : Yes. Part of me did. But the other part... the other part didn't. The part that found you, the part that's sitting here right now.
Olivia Wenscombe : You could be in some other cafe saying the same thing about me right now. It's inhuman to be so cold.
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Alfred Borden : We both had half of a full life, which was somehow enough for us. But not for them.
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Alfred Borden : Simple maybe, but not easy.
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Alfred Borden : See, sacrifice, Robert. That's the price of a good trick. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
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Sarah : Alfred, I can't live like this!
Alfred Borden : Well, what do you want from me?
Sarah : I want... I want you to be honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets.
[pause]
Sarah : Do you... do you love me?
Alfred Borden : Not today. No.
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[Borden shoots Angier in the waist, picking up the red rubber ball, when the two reveal their prestige to one another]
Robert Angier : A brother... a twin. You were Fallon... the whole time?
Alfred Borden : No. We were both Fallon. And we were both Borden.
Robert Angier : [panting] Were you - were you the one who went into the box or the one who came back out?
Alfred Borden : We took turns. The trick is where we would swap.
[we see the flashback of both twins performing The Transported Man]
Robert Angier : [breathing heavily] Cutter knew. Cutter knew. But I told him it was too simple, too easy.
Alfred Borden : No... simple, maybe, but not easy. There's nothing easy about two men sharing one life.
[we see the flashback showing one of the twins cutting the other twins' fingers off]
Robert Angier : Wh-What about Olivia? And your wife?
Alfred Borden : We each loved one of them.
[we see the flashback of both lovers]
Alfred Borden : I loved Sarah. He loved Olivia. We each had half a full life, really, which was enough for us. Just... but not for them. You see, sacrifice, Robert - that's the price of a good trick. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
Robert Angier : [labored breathing] I've - I've made sacrifices.
[wheezing]
Robert Angier : Yes.
Alfred Borden : It takes nothing to steal another man's work.
Robert Angier : It takes everything.
[we see the flashback of Angier killing the clone of himself while doing The Real Transported Man trick]
Robert Angier : It took courage... it took courage to climb into that machine every night... not knowing... if I'd be the man in the box... or the prestige. Do you want - want to see. What it cost me? Y-you didn't see where you are, did you? Look. Look
Alfred Borden : Look here... you went halfway around the world. You spent a fortune. You did terrible things... really terrible things, Robert. And all for nothing.
Robert Angier : For nothing?
Alfred Borden : Yeah.
Robert Angier : You never understood... why we did this? The audience knows the truth - the world is simple... and miserable... solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder. And then you... then you got to see something very special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces.
[Angier wheezes and exhales, collapsing dead, and Borden walks out of the theatre alone]
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Olivia Wenscombe : [referring to Angier] He wants me to come work for you and steal your secrets.
Alfred Borden : What does he need my secrets for? His trick is top-notch. He vanishes, and then he reappears instantly on the other side of the stage - mute, overweight, and unless I'm mistaken, very drunk. It's astonishing, how does he do it?
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Alfred Borden : Does he enjoy taking his bows under the stage?
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[repeated line]
Alfred Borden : Are you watching closely?
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Alfred Borden : [realizes Fallon's buried after trading him back] Alive?
Robert Angier : How fast can you dig?
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Alfred Borden : He's progressive, he's predictable, he's boring. I mean, Milton's got success, whatever that means, and now he's scared, he won't take any risks at all. I mean, he's squandering the goodwill of the audience with these tired, second-rate tricks...
Robert Angier : They're all favorites, please...
Alfred Borden : Favorites? Come on, give me something fresh, he wont even try a bloody bullet catch!
Cutter : A bullet catch is suicide, all it takes is some smart-ass volunteer to put a button in the barrel...
Alfred Borden : Fine, use a plant!
Robert Angier : You can't use plants for every trick!
Julia McCullough : There'll be no seats left for the punters!
[laughs]
Alfred Borden : Fine, no bullet catch, whatever, but the point is... a real magician tries to invent something new, that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over, you know?
Cutter : Right, then you sell it to him for a small fortune?
Alfred Borden : All right...
Cutter : I suppose you have such a trick?
Alfred Borden : Actually, I do.
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Sarah : No more lies. No more secrets.
Alfred Borden : Secrets are my life.
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Robert Angier : What knot did you tie?
Alfred Borden : I don't know.
Robert Angier : You don't know?
[Alfred walks off]
Robert Angier : You don't *know*?
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Alfred Borden : You're not afraid to get your hands dirty anymore, are you?
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Alfred Borden : He came in to demand an answer and I told him the truth. That I have fought with myself over that night, one half of me swearing blind that I tied a simple slipknot, the other half convinced that I tied the Langford double. I can never know for sure.
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Sarah : I know what you really are. And Alfred, I can't live like this.
Alfred Borden : Oh, you think I can live like this? You think I bloody enjoy living like this? We have a beautiful house, lovely little girl, we're married, what is so wrong with your life?
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[Borden is explaining how he used a double in his act]
Alfred Borden : What I didn't count on was that, when I incorporated this bloke into my act, he had complete power over me.
Gerald Root : Complete power, you say?
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Burly Stagehand : Hey you! Where do you think you're going?
Alfred Borden : I'm part of the bloody act, you fool!
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Sullen Warder : How did you get so famous then, eh?
Alfred Borden : Magic.
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Cutter : I saw you, drop the knot again...?
Julia McCullough : I think I turned my wrist...
Cutter : Some nights you just don't get it, do you? I mean, if that knot slips and Julia's on the hoist, she'll break her leg!
Alfred Borden : It's a wrong knot.
[pause, Cutter stares at him]
Alfred Borden : Like I said, the Langfeld Double will hold tighter!
Cutter : The Langfeld Double isn't a wet knot! It's too dangerous - if the rope swells up, she won't be able to slip it!
Julia McCullough : I can slip a Langfeld underwater.
Alfred Borden : [looks at Julia] She can slip it, we can practice...
Robert Angier : Hey, Borden, he said no!
Alfred Borden : [scoffs] Oh well, you know knots better than me, do you?
Cutter : Listen! No more mistakes!
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Alfred Borden : The key! Where's the bloody key?
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[Olivia visits Alfred Borden in his workshop. Bernard Fallon is there too]
Olivia Wenscombe : I'm here to give your show what's still missing.
Alfred Borden : Yeah? What might that be?
Olivia Wenscombe : Me.
[Borden laughs]
Alfred Borden : I was just saying that; weren't I, Bernard? Woman's touch.
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Sarah : I know what you really are, and Alfred, I can't live like this.
Alfred Borden : Oh, you think I can live like this? You think I bloody enjoy living like this? We have a beautiful house, lovely little girl, we're married, what is *so* wrong with your life?
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Robert Angier : [has Alfred at gunpoint] What knot did you tie?
Alfred Borden : I don't know.
Robert Angier : [shoots him]
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Sarah : Alfred I can't live like *this*!
Alfred Borden : Well, what do you want from me?
Sarah : I want - I want you to be, honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets.
[pause]
Sarah : Do you - do you love me?
Alfred Borden : Not today. No.
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Executioner : Any last words?
Alfred Borden : Abracadabra.
