THE PRESTIGE
- Era
- HIGH-CONCEPT
- Genres
- Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi
- Released
- 2006-10-20
- Runtime
- 2h 10m
SIGNAL SUMMARY
- Released
- 2006-10-20
- Runtime
- 2h 10m
- Budget
- $40.0M
- Worldwide gross
- $109M
- IMDb
- 8.5 (1.6M votes)
- RT critics
- 77%
- Metacritic
- 66
- Oscars
- 0 wins / 2 noms
ARE YOU WATCHING CLOSELY?
The Prestige follows two rival magicians in Victorian London, and it does not merely depict a magic trick — it is built as one. The film itself is constructed as a Pledge, a Turn, and a Prestige. The edit hides the method in plain sight; the audience wants to be fooled, and the cut obliges.
The structure: Two rival diaries read inside each other — a nested structure mirroring the three parts of a magic trick.
THE RIVALS — DUAL SIGNAL
The story is a duel: two magicians, one obsession, each act the mirror image of the other. The rivalry is also the architecture — two rival diaries read inside each other, each man decoding the other while the audience decodes both. In the supporting cast: Michael Caine as the ingénieur Cutter, and David Bowie — cast as Tesla — supplying the machine.
SLEIGHT OF BUDGET
- Budget
- $40.0M
- Worldwide gross
- $109M
- Return
- ×2.7
- Academy
- 0 wins / 2 noms
Nolan made this period piece for $40.0M in the gap between two Batman pictures — only 2 of his films (Following, Memento) cost less. It returned $109M and left the Oscars with two craft nominations and no statue. As the movie itself argues, the audience does not really want the trick worked out.