You are correct, that we only see one tank with a body in it. The only issue is that we saw one body at the morgue when Angier died. So that makes at least two bodies.

What I didn't understand was Angier's line of not knowing if he was the one that was going to die each night or the one that would appear to the audience. If he kills himself every night, isn't he always going to die? There are never two of him at anytime, if he keeps killing himself.

One of my favorite movies of all time. If you loved the movie, I highly reccomend the book, although it loses some of its suspense since we know the "secret".

however, it is darker and very well written. it won some big science fiction award of the year.

I always felt that the award category for best adapted screenplay was such BS. I mean someone else has written and thought of a great story, and another basically rewrites a great idea. However, after watching this and the Departed I am beginning to feel adapting a previous story and reworking it does take skill, even though the original idea was not yours. Nolan almost wrote a new story and chaged the ending to one I preferred.

Bale was awesome in Empire of the Sun as a kid and has continued to kick butt since. Besides 3:10 and Laurel Canyon I cant think of a crappy Bale movie.

As to the discussion in the thread, I think they relate to one of themes in the movie, passion vs obsession.

Bale was so obssessed with his craft that he forced himself to live a half life with his twin.

Jackman was so obssessed(albeit b/c his wife died) with his craft/outdoing Bale, that he went to Colorado and Tessler on a wild goose hunt. However, when tesla came through he chose to gamble with his life every single night, basking in the glow of the audience's approval or suffering the same painful death as his wife.

Didn't really like the book tbh, at least compared to the movie. The big reveal of his twin was just like thrown in there/assumed right off the bat. And the ending with the modern day stuff? Wtf? Meh.

This.

And this is could be a another one of those litmus test IMO.

If you prefer paul giametti to hugh jackman BUT you also prefer the prestige to the illusionist, then you have good taste.

I completely disagree with this interpretation.

The machine is legit, and Angier is literally killing himself for his craft at each performance.

still waiting for GuyOnTilt to expound his prestige theory

It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I agree with gumpzilla.

I think the machine was a hoax and only on the day Bale's character went backstage someone died in the tank (Jackman's lookalike). He wanted Bale convicted for "killing him" the same way he thinks Bale killed his wife.

This all is not that easy to get, since the film itself is a magic trick on the audience, and a good magic trick shouldn't be that easy to figure out, hence it is not heavily suggested in the movie, so that there will always be doubters, like in a real good magic trick.

Man, I wish I had just recently watched this so I could go into more detail, but when you watch it next time think of it as a magic trick you don't understand and are left alone to figure out how it worked. That's what the audience is supposed to do here. Well, either that or believe it was a functioning cloning machine (i.e. believing in the impossible), then the film is a succesfully performed magic trick on you.

Jackman was unable to figure out how Bale did the trick, so HE had to turn to the unbelievable, since that was the only logical explanation for him. Jackman abandons the craft of performance/illusion in favor of a strictly scientific solution, and in doing so abandons the previously defined magician's code.

Re: the machine working, there's really no evidence presented on screen that it doesn't work(multiple cats/hats outside the lab, etc.).

Yeah, that's what the filmmakers or Angier or whoever performs this filmmagictrick wants you to believe. That's the whole thing. The story to backup your trick, thus turning the audience away from the trying to figure out how the trick really worked.

It's like someone who tells you he can read your mind. "Write down something on this piece of paper and we later use it to see if I'm right". He will then go on about how he studied psychology, the movement of the eyes (or some go into some spiritual bull**** story, it really doesn't matter). It really only serves the purpose to make you believe something else is going on that there really is, like he will in reality be peaking at the paper by some folding technique or some other tricky way.

It's how magicians and magic tricks work, and in my opinion this movie uses similar techniques to achieve it's goal, which it apperently does quiet well (even though at first glance kinda counterproductive, in light of all the people who think that in the movie there are more things possible than in reality and it goes sci-fi, which makes many people believe the film is less brilliant than it actually is).

he clones himself every night, there is plenty of evidence, wtf at "he didn't clone himself, he randomly did the trick some how teleported to the other side of the stage instantly, then he knew to pick Bale so that time he used the double, and its so obvious ldo!" seriously wtf?

I agree with samjjones which is to say I believe it "went sci-fi," but I don't think that detracts from it's brilliance because it still all fits together.

I agree though that your explanation is plausible.

I like how "he cloned himself" is so much more plausible to you that trying to come up with an actual explanation merits confusion.

you don't know what the word coincidentally means

this movie confused the ****ing **** out of me

plus, the ed norton one had cool magic stuff and ed norton which are two badass things.