History YMMV / ThePrestige

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Hence.

-->'''Tesla''': Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.
-->'''Angier''': Why, haven't good come of your obsessions?
-->'''Tesla''': Well at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave... and one day they'll choose to destroy me.

* RoleAssociation: This is the closest we'll ever get to {{Wolverine}} vs. {{Batman}} on the big screen. Also throw in some Alfred. [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]] is working for [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} the Goblin King]]. Oh, and Batman falls in love with [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse the Black Widow]].
* SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery: DavidBowie and MichaelCaine, the former of whom only appears for maybe ten minutes.

** Precisely. This calls back to a thought experiment done by Derek Parfit: [[spoiler: In the experiment, a scenario in the near future is envisaged where a device is made that transports you to Mars by you going into a booth, the technology first scanning and then disintegrating your atoms, and this scan being sent to the corresponding booth on Mars, where a pile of atoms is reconstituted as you. From the perspective of the person coming out of the booth on Mars, they stepped into the booth on earth, and a moment later they stepped out of the one on Mars. It appears then, that P2 (Mars you) at t2 (when they step out of the Mars booth) is identical to P1 (Earth you) at t1 (when they step into the Earth booth) However, a second scenario is thought up - the booth on earth no longer immediately disintegrates you, but rather radiates you to the point that you will inevitably die within a few days. In this scenario, P2 cannot be identical to P1, because P1 is still there, on earth - the property of identity is not passed on to P2 at the point of P1's death, since P2 exists before P1 dies. So, Parfit points out, does not the same hold for the first scenario? There is no continuation of conciousness, merely a clone who has the exact same memories, and so is convinced that they are P1, whereas the actual P1, who was P1 all their life up until then, died on Earth in both scenarios. Similarly, Cauldlow died the first time that the man in the box was killed by his prestige.]]
** While it is highly probably that you are correct it is important to note that [[spoiler: Angier said that every time he didn't know if he would be the man in the box or the man on stage. To me that implies that it is not a given that the machine is necessarily consistent as to which is which and further discussion really gets into a Wibbly-Wobbly-Consciousness-Wonsciousness territory.]]
*** I don't agree. [[spoiler: The point is that both Cauldlows are identical at the moment of transportation - they both have the same memories and both think of themselves as the real one. They are the same consciousness, duplicated. As Tesla puts it, "they are both your hat." Odds are that in each trick, the one in the machine dies and the duplicate survives, but the surviving Caldlow's memories are - could only be - being successfully teleported night after night.]]

** Before that, even. In the book, the "twist" isn't a secret, you're in on it pretty much from the start. It's the tale of how it gets used which makes it compelling.

* NightmareFuel: The extents that both Angier and Borden went to to pull off [[spoiler:the Transported Man]].

* AwardSnub: It was nominated for only ''two'' AcademyAwards - Best Art Direction for Nathan Crowley and Best Cinematography for Wally Pfister, losing both.

* AdultFear What if you married someone who [[spoiler: shared their identity with an identical twin, and you never knew which one you were talking to, arguing with, possibly even having sexual encounters with]].

* SeinfeldianConversation: Some of the lengthy philosophizing among fans (including on this very page) as to which [[spoiler:Angier is the "real" one]] comes off as this. They're [[spoiler:''exact duplicates'', and therefore have precisely the same claim to any "identity".]] Bam, done, stop writing essays!

* MoralEventHorizon: TheReveal. [[spoiler:The fact that Lord Cauldlow killed his clones hundreds of times just to beat his long-standing rival.]]
** Though, on the other hand, its a little unclear if ''thats'' what happened, [[spoiler: or if the machine worked the same way it always did, with the clone created some distance away. In that case the real Angier died ages ago, and he and his clones have been commited ''suicide'' over and over again, until Borden could be framed, and the surviving one at the end is another clone. This makes him less a CompleteMonster and more completely, batshit insane.]]

* RoleAssociation: This is the closest we'll ever get to {{Wolverine}} vs. {{Batman}} on the big screen. Also throw in some Alfred. Not to mention [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]] is working for [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} the Goblin King]]. Oh, and Batman falls in love with [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse the Black Widow]].

* SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery: DavidBowie and MichaelCaine are in the movie for maybe 15-20 minutes each '''MAX''', but that short amount of time is all that is needed.

* RoleAssociation: This is the closest we'll ever get to {{Wolverine}} vs. {{Batman}} on the big screen. Also throw in some Alfred. Not to mention [[TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]] is working for [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} the Goblin King]]. Oh, and Batman falls in love with [[Film/IronMan the Black Widow]].

* MoralEventHorizon: TheReveal. [[spoiler:The fact that Lord Cauldlow killed his clones hundreds of times just to beat his long-standing rival makes him a CompleteMonster, really.]]

* FridgeLogic / FridgeBrilliance: Relates to MoralEventHorizon below. [[spoiler: Lord Cauldlow is definitely dead ''before'' Borden kills him at the end. The original one, anyway. How do we know this? The first time Cauldlow uses the machine, he leaves a revolver right next to where he stands as he turns the machine on. The man who shoots the double of Cauldlow is standing in this spot when he picks up the gun and fires at the double, who is 40 feet away. Either Cauldlow was transported away, in which case he was the one to be shot, or he stayed where he was, in which case the clone was shot. In either case, the way the trick works on stage is that the man who is standing in the machine at the completion of the trick is dropped into the tank of water and drowns. So, either Cauldlow was transported the first time he ever used the machine and was shot by his close, or the clone is the one transported to safety, and the "real" Cauldlow died the first time he used the trick onstage.]]

* FridgeLogic / FridgeBrilliance: Relates to MoralEventHorizon below. [[spoiler: Lord Cauldlow is definitely dead ''before'' Borden kills him at the end. The original one, anyway. How do we know this? The first time Cauldlow uses the machine, he leaves a revolver right next to where he stands as he turns the machine on. The man who shoots the double of Cauldlow is standing in this spot when he picks up the gun and fires at the double, who is 40 feet away. Either Cauldlow was transported away, in which case he was the one to be shot, or he stayed where he was, in which case the clone was shot. In either case, the way the trick works on stage is that the man who is standing in the machine at the completion of the trick is dropped into the tank of water and drowns. So, either Cauldlow was transported the first time he ever used the machine and was shot by his close, or the clone is the one transported to saftey, and the "real" Cauldlow died the first time he used the trick onstage.]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The extents that both Angier and Borden went to to pull off [[spoiler:the Transported Man]].
** The final shot of the seemingly endless pile of hats and the rows of [[spoiler:dead clones]] shows just how far Angier went for vengeance.

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

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The extents that both Angier and Borden went to to pull off [[spoiler:the Transported Man]].
** The final shot of the seemingly endless pile of hats and the rows of [[spoiler:dead clones]] shows just how far Angier went for vengeance.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Edison is hinted to be a ruthless, violent man who crushes his foes by sending FacelessGoons to their labs to destroy everything and run them out of town. Even way up in the mountains, Tesla couldn't escape his wrath.

* MemeticBadass: Edison is hinted to be a ruthless, violent man who crushes his foes by sending FacelessGoons to their labs to destroy everything and run them out of town. Even way up in the mountains, Tesla couldn't escape his wrath.
** More like Memetic JerkAss.

** The final shot of the seemingly endless pile of hats and the rows of Dead clones shows just how far Angier went for vengeance.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The extents that both Angier and Borden went to to pull off [[spoiler:the Transported Man]].

* FridgeLogic / FridgeBrilliance: Relates to MoralEventHorizon below. [[spoiler: Lord Cauldlow is definitely dead ''before'' Angier kills him at the end. The original one, anyway. How do we know this? The first time Cauldlow uses the machine, he leaves a revolver right next to where he stands as he turns the machine on. The man who shoots the double of Cauldlow is standing in this spot when he picks up the gun and fires at the double, who is 40 feet away. Either Cauldlow was transported away, in which case he was the one to be shot, or he stayed where he was, in which case the clone was shot. In either case, the way the trick works on stage is that the man who is standing in the machine at the completion of the trick is dropped into the tank of water and drowns. So, either Cauldlow was transported the first time he ever used the machine and was shot by his close, or the clone is the one transported to saftey, and the "real" Cauldlow died the first time he used the trick onstage.]]

* RoleAssociation: This is the closest we'll ever get to {{Wolverine}} vs. {{Batman}} on the big screen. Also throw in some Alfred. Not to mention [[TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]] is working for [[{{Labyrinth}} the Goblin King]]. Oh, and Batman falls in love with [[Film/IronMan the Black Widow]].