Question: Why was Angier's first name of Rupert in the novel changed to Robert for the film?
Phaneron
1st Jan 2022
The Prestige (2006)
5th Apr 2007
The Prestige (2006)
Question: When Tesla first tests the 'machine', the original hat stays in place, while the copies appear in the woods. Does this mean that whenever Hugh Jackman's character uses the machine during his show, he is actually sending a copy of himself up into the balcony, and sending himself to drown below the stage? If this is so, the implication would be that the 'copies' contain every memory, etc. of the original Hugh, up to and including the point at which the copies are made.
Answer: Tesla himself suggests the mechanism is not so much "a copy" as "a pair of duplicates." Neither is the original and neither is a copy. They are both the same individual, there are just two of then now. One got teleported and the other did not. Admittedly, it requires a pretty abstract point of view to understand it.
18th Jan 2018
The Prestige (2006)
8th Apr 2015
The Prestige (2006)
Question: In the beginning, Angier's wife dies in the tank. Even if Borden did tie a knot for her that she couldn't get out of, someone had changed the lock of the tank before the act. Who changed the lock? Was it Borden? And if it was Borden, why would he want to kill Angier's wife?
Chosen answer: The lock on the tank is just a dummy lock. It's there to make the audience believe that the tank is actually locked during the trick. Julia couldn't escape because she couldn't slip the knot that Borden tied. He didn't intend to kill her. The revelation of the lock being changed was from a different scene altogether and was part of Angier's plot to frame Borden, it had nothing to do with Julia or the trick she performed.
Answer: Before the incident, Borden and Julia had an argument that she can escape from any kind of knot. So, Borden ties a different knot, Julia is unable to untie it. There is no issue with the tank.
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Answer: I learned the answer to this today while reading the novel, in which Angier states that the name "Rupert" attracts amused inquisitiveness from Americans, so while traveling in the United States, he goes by Robert or Robbie.
Phaneron ★