Here’s a thread about one of my favourite films, The Prestige, and why it’s probably Christopher Nolan’s best. Below is a theory which became apparent on about the tenth viewing. So look away now if you haven’t watched it. Otherwise... (1/11)

That line, “Are you watching closely?” is banded about so many times during the film. There are plot twists that emerge on the surface (eg. the twins) but I don’t think I was *really* watching closely until that aforementioned awakening. (2/11)

The whole film is about how magic isn’t real, but rather about keeping up a pretence until the very end, no matter what. Just like the Chinese magician and the giant fish bowl. Magic isn’t real, but the illusion is what keeps us interested as an audience. (3/11)

Caine says it himself in the film, “Never show anyone. They’ll beg and flatter you for the secret but as soon as you give it up, you’ll be nothing to them... The secret impresses no one.” (4/11)

So why would Nolan go against that? Why, most crucially, would Tesla’s cloning magic trick ever be possible? Well, guess what? It’s not... (5/11)

The hats in the field are the equivalent of the live budgies in the workshop. The only time the Tesla cloning ever works in the film is when it’s being described in Hugh Jackman’s diary (which we know is a trap full of lies) or supposedly on stage at the end of the film. (6/11)

If you take the diary as being designed to fool Christian Bale (an obvious plot point) then why not extend that to the final magic trick? Jackman knew Bale would be there that night, so used and killed his stunt double. (7/11)

Jackman’s character says to Caine when challenged about how much time/money he’s wasted, “You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. But if you could fool them for a second and make them wonder.. it was the look on their faces.”(8/11)

All the other containers at the end of the film are steamed up or the bodies are supposedly decomposed. I say there’s nothing in them. Hugh Jackman took his magic to the death with him. It was the ultimate trick. (9/11)

And so let’s end with the final lines of the film from Michael Caine’s character, “Now you’re looking for the secret but you won’t find it because you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.” (10/11)

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Over to you, @CarlItAsISeeIt. (11/11)