Agent Dylan Rhodes: You wanna know who sat in that chair before you? Mob bosses, murderers, and thieves. And you know who put 'em there? The guy who's sitting in this chair. So I warn you: I can maintain my resolve much longer than you can maintain that phony arrogance, and the instant that you even show the slightest crack in that smug facade, I'll be there. I'll be all over you like-
J. Daniel Atlas: Like white on rice? Sorry, that's unfair. Let me warn you: I want you to follow. Because no matter what you think you might know, we will always be one step, three steps, seven steps ahead of you and just when you think you're catching up, that's when we'll be right behind you. And at no time will you be anywhere other than exactly where I want you to be so come close, get- get all over me because the closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see... First rule of magic: always be the smartest guy in the room.
J. Daniel Atlas: Like white on rice? Sorry, that's unfair. Let me warn you: I want you to follow. Because no matter what you think you might know, we will always be one step, three steps, seven steps ahead of you and just when you think you're catching up, that's when we'll be right behind you. And at no time will you be anywhere other than exactly where I want you to be so come close, get- get all over me because the closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see... First rule of magic: always be the smartest guy in the room.
The closer you try to look at a magic trick, the less you'll actually see—a fact that the Horsemen and their magical adversary all utilize as they endeavor to be the smartest thief in the room.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
- J. Daniel Atlas, already a capable magician on his own, becomes the Horsemen's leader upon their formation. Using Dylan's plans, Atlas and the Horsemen create such magic as robbing a bank from a whole continent away by robbing a truck prior to the show, tricking Arthur Tressler into giving up the security questions to his bank account under the guise of performing mentalism, and faking Jack's death in order to get the FBI off their tail, ultimately succeeding in their heists and escaping scot-free. Remaining just as devious a year later, Atlas masterminds the group's theft of a security microchip through utilizing their various talents, including subverting the entourage of a South African gangster and once more escaping without resistance. Though he learns he was duped by Walter Mabry, Atlas then saves Dylan's life before the group begins their grand finale; for the trick, Atlas disappears into thin air, helps lure Walter and Tressler out of hiding, and escapes the FBI once more.
- Merritt McKinney is a mentalist who operates as a stick-up artist on his own. Once allied with the Horsemen, Merritt's skills of mentalism and hypnosis prove vital to the team, including luring a mark to the Vegas show with his suggestions, hypnotizing the audience to protect them from the FBI, and even managing to hypnotize FBI agents in order to lure them away from their target. Using nothing but his analytical abilities, Merritt is also capable of deducing Alma Dray's inexperience to sow dissension between her and her partner, as well as Dylan's issues with his father. Though he's tricked by his twin brother Chase before the Horsemen's reappearance, Merritt's ability to lie tricks his brother into believing an imaginary threat is real, resulting in Merritt setting Chase up to be hypnotized for the final trick.
- Jack Wilder is the youngest and most brutal of the Horsemen, capable of outsmarting and defeating even FBI agents. While originally a thief who used magic in his routines, Jack continues his innovative uses of magic throughout the shows, serving as the group's muscle, fighter, and pickpocket. Left by the group to destroy evidence, Jack uses flash paper, a belt, and playing cards to take on Rhodes and Fuller, even stealing another agent's car to lure agents into his faked death. Later breaking into an FBI-guarded warehouse unaccosted and stealing millions of dollars, Jack's card skills prove vital in stealing the microchip, with his quick thinking allowing them to escape the facility and his burgeoning hypnotism allowing him to trick Chase into becoming their pawn in the finale.
- Henley Reeves is an Escape Artist who rose from Atlas's assistant to her own solo act. Introduced performing a death-defying act that fools the audience into believing her dead, Henley keeps up with her allies in every respect, successfully stealing from an armored truck with Atlas and getting a mark's measurements just from briefly touching him. Working together with Atlas in their show, Henley helps the group escape from the FBI several times, most notably in the end when they burst into money while the Horsemen escape off a nearby building.
- Lula May, despite her eccentric nature, is just as effective as her new allies, with a specialty in faking deaths and injuries of herself and others. Introduced managing to mug Atlas following a fake decapitation, Lula officially joins the Horsemen, helping them during the Octa reveal by faking an injury to cause a distraction. She later manages to convincingly play an electronics expert to get into the microchip's facility. Helping the team become a single organism, Lula provides a vital part of the final trick by faking the deaths of the entire team at Walter's hands, tricking them into exposing themselves in the process.
- Dylan Rhodes is the Fifth Horseman and the mastermind behind the plot of the first film. Born Dylan Shrike, son of Lionel Shrike, he sought revenge on the companies and men who he blamed for the death of his father, chief among them the corrupt CEO Arthur Tressler and magician debunker Thaddeus Bradley. Becoming a member of the secret magician society, The Eye, Dylan guides the Four Horsemen into performing magic tricks to steal money from the companies and distribute them to the audience, eventually publicly humiliating Tressler for his role in denying relief to Hurricane Katrina victims, while inserting himself into, and sabotaging, the FBI efforts to catch the Horsemen. Fooling everyone with his bumbling detective act, Dylan frames Thaddeus for being the Fifth Horseman and leaves him to rot in jail. Having succeeded at his revenge, Dylan later launches an operation to expose a plot to steal everyone's personal information; when it turns out to be a trap and puts the team in peril, Dylan teams up with Thaddeus and ultimately foils Arthur's revenge plot, using one last grand magic trick to deceive Arthur and his son Walter into exposing themselves and evading the police once again.
- Thaddeus Bradley is the Grandmaster of The Eye. A former magician and Lionel Shrike's rival/best friend, Thaddeus turned to exposing magic tricks by other magicians for money after Lionel's tragic death. Seeking to test the Four Horsemen to see if they are capable of joining The Eye, Thaddeus allies with law enforcement and engages the Horsemen in a chase, figuring out the truth behind each of their magic tricks and relentlessly pursuing them. When framed for Dylan's crimes, Thaddeus spends a year preparing to strike back against both Dylan and Arthur Tressler, creating a fake software that will supposedly hack everyone's personal information and leading the Horsemen into a trap by sending them to steal the software. Extorting Dylan into breaking him out of prison by promising to help find his friends, Thaddeus pretends to betray Dylan by leading him into a trap by Arthur and Walter while secretly giving him the means to escape the trap. Finally, he has his subordinates reveal to Dylan that the software is fake, then, with Dylan's help, lures Arthur and Walter into publicly exposing their misdeeds and makes up with Dylan, successfully evading the law this time.
