The Prestige Ending Explained: Here's What Actually Happened. What is it with Christopher Nolan and his endings? The celebrated director frequently drops a dénouement that forces the audience to continue the conversation long after the lights have come up and the crowd has shuffled into the parking lot. What did Alfred (Michael Caine) really see in that Italian café at the end of The Dark Knight Rises? What does the spinning top mean at the conclusion of Inception? Where was Matthew Mc. Conaughey going as Interstellar wrapped?

And seriously, what the hell happened at the end of The Prestige? Nolan's 2. 00. 6 standoff between rival magicians, The Prestige, is the film I widely consider his masterpiece - - and revisiting it again for the benefit of this column did nothing to sway that opinion. Nolan loves creating intricate screenplays with his brother, Jonathan Nolan, and we usually don't have the complete story until the final piece of the story has clicked into place. It's not surprising that the ending to The Prestige is still frequently discussed on message boards and in chat rooms nearly a decade after the film's release. The conclusion seems fairly cut- and- dried. But is it? Let's dig in to The Prestige and try to unlock its many secrets!

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Obviously, this feature will reveal multiple spoilers about The Prestige. You have been warned!

What Happens At The End. The Prestige follows a rivalry waged between one- time partners and stage illusionists Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). The death of Angier's wife (Piper Perabo) during an earlier trick drove a wedge between the two men. Since, they have been playing a dangerous game of one- upmanship, and it's finally leading to their demise. As the movie concludes, Borden is on trial for Angier's murder. The magician snuck below the stage one night to see how Angier pulls off the latest iteration of The Disappearing Man.

Only, Angier ends up in a tank of water, and Borden's set to hang for the crime. Nolan saves a number of rug- pulling reveals as The Prestige races to a close, and if you aren't paying attention to them all, you might have left confused. Essentially, both men had created ways to deceive the audience using doubles, duplicates or clones to help them pull off each trick. Was Angier using a duplicate in the finale staging of his Disappearing Man? Did he really die in the tank of water that night? Or was Borden ultimately tricked by his rival.

I'm pretty sure I have the answers to all of Nolan's riddles. Read on! What It Means. Obviously, if you have made it this far, you know that Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) had a twin brother, and the two siblings took turns playing both Borden and his manservant, Fallon. Bale, the actor, plays both characters throughout The Prestige, and the siblings go to incredible lengths to hide the identity of the twin so as to protect the integrity of their stage trick. This means that the one brother, the one who loved Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), is the one who is behind bars for Angier's "murder." And the real Borden - - the man who got his fingers blown off earlier by the "Catch A Bullet" trick - - is left on the outside while his sibling hangs for a crime that didn't happen.

Angier, meanwhile, followed a red herring left by Borden that sends the struggling magician to Colorado, and the workshop of unconventional inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie). In a nutshell, Angier believes that Tesla built a machine for Borden, and he demands that the inventor replicate it. Tesla finally relents, and creates a machine that allows Angier to clone himself. Finally, Angier can pull off his magic trick. Each night, he clones himself on stage by stepping into Tesla's machine. The "original" Angier drops into a tank of water waiting below the stage. Meanwhile, the "clone" emerges in the balcony seconds after, completing the trick.

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We see Angier's blind assistants taking tanks of Angier "clones" out of the theater each night and dumping them in a deserted theater, where Angier and Borden will have their final encounter. Angier, as you see, survives his final act. He drops a "clone" in the tank, allows Borden to be captured at the scene of the crime, knows that his rival will be charged with murder, and then chooses to disappear. Earlier in the film, Angier reveals that his family is wealthy, and that they are embarrassed by his pursuit of magic. So at the end of the film, we see "Angier" assuming the role of the wealthy Lord Caldlow - - who actually is the last created Angier clone. This final deception is revealed to Angier's longtime associate, Cutter (Michael Caine). Cutter, upset by the betrayal, tips off Borden - - who is able to reunite with his daughter.

Borden confronts Angier/Caldlow in the abandoned theater where the bodies of the "Angier" clones are left. He shoots Angier/Caldlow in the chest and leaves him to die.. Angier clones and, finally, emerging victorious in the battle of the two men. Why is Borden victorious? I mean, he has lost a ton in his life, including his brother and his true love, Sarah (Rebecca Hall), who hung herself because she believed her husband was cheating. Watch Aloft Online more. But even through that, he is reunited with the daughter he believed would end up in Angier/Caldlow's care, and he's finally rid of his rival.

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Isn't he? Wild Theories. Revisiting The Prestige, the ending struck me as clear cut, as far as Nolan's conclusions go. There wasn't a lot of room for interpretation, and the reveal of the Angier body in the floating tank of water was just confirmation that the illusionist was "killing" himself night after night, but creating a fresh clone who would live until the next performance. Of course, as Cutter says in the final bit of narration: Now, you're looking for the secret.

But you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. The Philly Kid Full Movie Part 1. You don't really want to work it out.

You want to be fooled. So, I dug around. And I tumbled down a spectacular Reddit hole of alternate theories. Fans of the film raised a lot of fantastic questions and points that film either doesn't address, or doesn't answer well enough.

For example, if Angier really wants to perfect The Disappearing Man, why doesn't he just clone himself once, use the clone in the trick night after night, and never have to drown anyone? There's the fact that Angier dies symbolically this way because it's how his wife died. And Cutter has a line where he told Angier how drowning was like "going home," only Cutter lately reveals that he was lying.

That dialogue is in the movie for a reason. Still, without a natural twin, Angier could have cloned himself once, then performed the trick from now until infinity with Borden never being the wiser. However, that would mean he never could have framed Borden for "murder."Another prevalent theory online states that Tesla's machine never worked, and that he was stringing the wealthy Angier along so he could fund his next project. When the government got too close to Tesla, the inventor left, leaving Angier with a broken machine. Those who follow that thread point out that Angier's "clones" should have had the same limp that the Angier Prime had, from a brutal fall earlier in the film. There are a surprising amount of people who believe that the real trick to The Prestigeis making the audience believe that a machine capable of cloning another human actually exists. What do you believe?

Is there a deeper twist at the end of The Prestige that we aren't seeing? Or did Christopher Nolan leave his cards on the table this time, for all to see? Weigh in below with your best guess and wild theories. And go watch The Prestige again if you haven't in a while.

Dunkirk review: 'A prestige pic with guts and glory that demands multiple views – especially in IMAX'A real- life retelling of a pivotal moment during WW2 might seem an unexpected choice for the writer/director/world- builder of original blockbuster fictions. Yet the classical, elegiac Dunkirk is still unmistakably a Christopher Nolan film. Like many of Nolan’s previous projects, it’s multi- layered, non- linear, precision- calibrated, epic in scale – and even boasts Bane himself rocking a shearling coat and shouting through a face- obscuring mask. But while many of those clever, clockwork creations thrilled and confounded, Nolan has long been criticised for a certain clinical coldness. No such problem here – heartfelt and moving, Dunkirk may be teeth- clenching stuff, but it’s also the auteur’s most unapologetically emotional and accessible film to date… and it could be the movie to finally get him into the Oscar- winners’ circle. Rather than take an impersonal God’s- eye overview of the events of May 1. German forces to the beaches of Dunkirk to face death and defeat if they weren’t rescued, Nolan dissects his film into three separate narrative tracts.

The respective strands cover land, sea and air – an approach that immerses you in the boots- on- the- ground reality for the blood- and- guts men (civilian and military) battling to change history. After opening with a young soldier – with the aptronym Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) – escaping gunfire through the streets of Dunkirk only to arrive at the crowded, desperate beaches, those narratives unfurl in different times: the story of troops on the shore begins a week before the climax; the journey of Dorset sailor Mr. Dawson’s (Mark Rylance) sea- based rescue mission starts a day ahead; and the tale of two fighter pilots, Farrier and Collins (Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden), kicks off an hour before in the skies over the Channel. As the stories weave in and out of each other, we see key life- threatening incidents (a downed Spitfire, a torpedoed ship, a sinking fishing boat) from different perspectives, with each replay informed by increasing investment in characters and a 3. The cumulative effect is both thrilling and devastating.

We’re deftly shown the misinterpretations that fuelled troop hostility towards the RAF (unseen from the beach, it was assumed the fighter squadrons had simply abandoned their comrades) and the constant peril every man was in despite apparent deliverance. Think you’re safe aboard a naval medic ship? Watch Collapse Streaming on this page. That a bailout went OK? That the proximity of help will save you in oil- slick water? Think again…Playing as briskly and tensely as any escape thriller with mouth- agape- impressive in- camera effects, the movie constantly asks audiences to consider what they would do in a series of relentless, deadly situations while highlighting the acts of bravery, honour and kindness that exemplify the famous Dunkirk Spirit. A white lie to protect a shell- shocked soldier here, a last- ditch fight despite running on empty there, the faith of an ordinary father speeding to save a man in memory of his fallen son… small moments in the bigger picture that build to the ultimate show of British stoicism in a flotilla of little ships as Hans Zimmer’s insistent, Shepard tone score (driven by the sampled ticking of Nolan’s own wristwatch) gives way to the stirring strains of Elgar’s emotive ‘Nimrod’ variation – challenging viewers not to shed a tear. Manipulative? Probably.

Flawlessly executed? Yes. A true ensemble piece, Dunkirk’s cast may have little dialogue, and limited individual screen time, but all are (pardon the pun) uniformly excellent – yes, cynics, even that One Direction bloke. While the young guns provide the derdoing, the more seasoned cast bring the gravitas and feels. Special mention must go to Rylance’s delightful, nuanced patriot, Hardy’s dexterity in portraying emotions from behind an oxygen mask in the confines of a cockpit and Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean naval commander – when, eyes brimming, he utters the word “home”, it’ll break you. But they, of course, are not the stars of the show.

What really makes Dunkirk so immediate, so visceral, are the period- correct vintage planes and boats fitted with innovative cameras to create literally breath- holding moments underwater, in the sky and on the sea. Hoyte Van Hoytema’s beautiful, terrifying lensing – dizzying dogfights, suffocating sinkings and a cinematography- award moment when a Spitfire lands on sun- gilted sand – ensure that what could have been complicated and depressing is rendered with clarity. Thoroughly modern in its approach, yet classical in style, it’s a film that will appeal as much to Batman fans as WW2 scholars, and ultimately, the Academy come gong time.