The Prestige (2006)

Hugh Jackman: Robert Angier

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Nikola Tesla : Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine?

  Robert Angier : Price is not an object.

  Nikola Tesla : Perhaps not, but have you considered the *cost*?

  Robert Angier : I'm not sure I follow.

  Nikola Tesla : Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.

  Robert Angier : Why, haven't good come of your obsessions?

  Nikola Tesla : Well, at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave... and one day they'll choose to destroy me.

  Robert Angier : If you understand an obsession, then you know you won't change my mind.

• 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...

• Robert Angier : No one cares about the man in the box, the man who disappears.

• Cutter : Take a minute to consider your achievement. I once told you about a sailor who drowned.

  Robert Angier : Yes, he said it was like going home.

  Cutter : I lied. He said it was agony.

• [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] 

• Robert Angier : But here, at the turn, I must leave you Borden. Yes, you, Borden, sitting there in your cell, awaiting your death. For my murder.

• Robert Angier : Which hat is mine?

  Nikola Tesla : They are all your hat, Mr. Angier.

• Robert Angier : He's a dreadful magician.

  Cutter : No, he's a wonderful magician. He's a dreadful showman.

• Alfred Borden : [realizes Fallon's buried after trading him back]  Alive?

  Robert Angier : How fast can you dig?

• Robert Angier : Man's reach exceeds his imagination!

• 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.

• Robert Angier : [to Borden]  You always were the better magician. We both know that. Whatever your secret was, you have to agree, mine is better.

• Gerald Root : Did you think you were unique, Mr Angier? I've been Caesar. I've played Faust. How hard could it possibly be to play the Great Danton?

• Gerald Root : You would drink, too, if you knew the world half as well as I do.

• [after finding Gerald Root, Angier's new double] 

  Cutter : He's perfect. He needs some work, but when I get through with him, he could be your brother.

  Robert Angier : I don't need him to be my brother, I need him to be *me*!

• Robert Angier : Would I be the man in the box or the prestige?

• Robert Angier : The man stole my life. I steal his trick.

• Robert Angier : I thought you said I'd have to get my hands dirty.

  Cutter : Maybe someday you will; I just needed to know that you could.

• Robert Angier : My passion is equal to the task.

• Robert Angier : Where are the wires?

  Alley : Exactly.

• 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*?

• Robert Angier : It was the greatest magic trick I've ever seen.

• Hotel Manager : I thought they might work for the government.

  Robert Angier : No?

  Hotel Manager : Worse. They work for Thomas Edison.

• Olivia Wenscombe : He says that it's even between you.

  Robert Angier : Even? My wife for a few of his fingers?

• Robert Angier : I never thought I'd find an answer at the bottom of a pint glass.

  Cutter : Hasn't stopped you looking, has it?

• Cutter : You settled on a name yet?

  Robert Angier : Yes, I have. The Great Danton.

  Cutter : Bit old-fashioned isn't it?

  Robert Angier : No. It's sophisticated.

• [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?

• Olivia Wenscombe : It won't bring your wife back.

  Robert Angier : I don't care about my wife. I care about his secret.

• Robert Angier : He lives his act.

• Julia McCullough : I thought up a name for you: The Great Danton. Do you like it? It's sophisticated.

  Robert Angier : [scoffs]  It's French.

• Robert Angier : I haven't had a chance yet to compliment you on your beautiful theatre.

  Merrit : It'll be a lot more beautiful when it's full, Mr Angier.

• Robert Angier : Many of you may be familiar with this technique, but for those of you who aren't, do not be alarmed. What you're about to see is considered safe.

• [Root is performing as Angier's double] 

  Cutter : You can go back to being yourself now, Root. For nothing.

  Gerald Root : I'd rather be him for now. I find it... amusing.

• 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!

• [Discussing Borden's trick] 

  Robert Angier : How does he do it?

  Cutter : He uses a double.

  Robert Angier : No, no, no, no. It's too simple. This is a complex illusion.

  Cutter : You only say that because you don't know the method. It's a double that comes out of the other end, I promise you.

  Robert Angier : I've seen the show three times now, Mr. Cutter, and the prestige is the same man coming out of the second box.

  Cutter : No, it's not.

  Olivia Wenscombe : It's the same man. He wears gloves to hide his fingers, but if you look closely you can tell.

• Robert Angier : [about Borden]  Where is he from?

  Cutter : Where are *you* from?

• [Angier gives a speech to the audience about The Real Transported Man magic trick] 

  Robert Angier : In my travels, I have seen the future... And it is a strange future indeed. The world, ladies and gentleman, is on the brink of new, terrifying possibilities.

  [Angier taps the stage floor and the curtain rises behind him] 

  Robert Angier : What you are about to witness is not magic. It is purely science. I would like to invite you to come up on stage now so that you can examine the machine for yourselves.

  [audience members go up on stage and examine the machine, finally, Angier calmly takes off his jacket, makes his way into the machine alone, in a matter of seconds he vanishes as the audience members murmur amongst each other] 

  Robert Angier : [on the top balcony Angier appears in the spotlight with his arms up]  Man's reach exceeds his imagination!

  [the audience continuously roars and applauds his magic trick] 

• Robert Angier : [has Alfred at gunpoint]  What knot did you tie?

  Alfred Borden : I don't know.

  Robert Angier : [shoots him] 

• Robert Angier : So what's going to be the climax of our show?

  Merrit : Show? You don't have a show.

• Olivia Wenscombe : I *have* fallen in love with him, Robert.

  Robert Angier : Then I know how hard this has been for you.

• [Discussing Borden's show] 

  Robert Angier : He had a new trick today.

  Olivia Wenscombe : Was it good?

  Robert Angier : It was the most amazing magic trick I've ever seen.

• Olivia Wenscombe : Why would he trust me?

  Robert Angier : Because you're going to tell him the truth.