百年50部英文燒腦電影賞析:[48]The Prestige 致命魔術

A magician shows a girl a magic trick, causing a bird to vanish and then reappear in his hand. Magician Alfred Borden（Christian Bale）is sentenced for the murder of rival Robert Angier（Hugh Jackman）.Both were assistants for “Milton the Magician”（Ricky Jay）with ingénieur John Cutter（Michael Caine）. Angier's wife Julia（Piper Perabo）drowned performing a water cell act and Angier blames Borden, who professes not to remember if he had tied her with an inappropriate knot. The two become bitter competitors, disrupting each other's acts. Borden becomes “The Professor” with the enigmatic Bernard Fallon as his ingénieur while Angier becomes “The Great Danton” with the lovely Olivia Wenscombe（Scarlett Johansson）and Cutter assisting. The magic trick from the beginning of the movie is explained: the original bird is crushed and replaced with a double. Angier is incensed when Borden meets and marries Sarah（Rebecca Hall）and they have a daughter, Jess（Samantha Mahurin）. Angier sabotages Borden's bullet catch, costing Borden two fingers. Borden then ruins Angier's victimless bird cage act, maiming an audience member, killing the dove, and damaging Angier's reputation.
Borden soon surprises with “The Transported Man”, where he enters one cabinet and exits another. Angier and Cutter argue over its possibility, with Cutter insisting it is a double and Angier refusing to accept the possibility. Unable to understand Borden's trick, Angier hires a look-alike（but dissolute drunk）actor Root（also played by Jackman）to allow him to steal Borden's general idea. “The New Transported Man” is a success, but Angier resents hiding under the stage as Root gets the applause. He sends Olivia to discover Borden's secret but she resents the obsession and falls in love with Borden instead; she leaves Borden's encrypted diary of tricks to Angier as a parting gift. Borden already understood Angier's trick, but Olivia allows him to influence Root to ask for more pay; Borden then completely ruins the act by removing a pad below the stage's trap door, crippling Angier, and displaying a tied-up Root before the audience, turning the routine into an advertisement for his own show. Borden professes that both Fallon and him are “Tesla” and Angier pursues Nikola Tesla（David Bowie）to Colorado Springs alone after Cutter abandons him to his obsession. Angier pays Tesla to make a copy of a teleportation machine that he believed Borden used, providing the inventor with much-needed financing after Edison's smear campaign proves successful in drying up other sources. Angier finishes deciphering Borden's diary to discover it was a fraud supplied by Olivia, but an angry confrontation with Tesla reveals that his machine actually works, but creates duplicates. Thomas Edison's henchmen arrive to torch the lab and Tesla leaves, although not before completing Angier's machine and warning him to destroy it. Meanwhile, Borden's preoccupation with magic and affair with Olivia alienate Sarah, who hangs herself. Borden's cold response then leaves Olivia disaffected.
Angier returns to London, electrifying audiences with “The Real Transported Man”, vanishing within the machine and reappearing in the back of the hall. ln reality, the machine creates a duplicate; it is left unclear whether the original Angier is teleported or remains in the machine, but the one left in the machine falls through a trap door and plunges into a water cell, drowning. The tanks are disposed of by blind stage hands every night. Borden witnesses Angier drown while snooping backstage and tries to save him but is caught and convicted of murder, the opening of the film. In prison, Borden is visited by the agent of a Lord Caldlow, who offers to care for Jess in exchange for Borden's secrets. Borden is given Angier's diary and finds his conviction has been orchestrated, then discovers that Lord Caldlow is the yet-living Angier when the lord arrives to collect the secrets. Borden attempts to give them but Caldlow rips them to pieces without reading them, before leaving with Jess. Borden is hanged, after commanding Fallon to live for them both.
Cutter learns that Caldlow has bought all of Angier's tricks, including the machine, and visits Caldlow's estate to plead for its destruction. He recognises Angier, who admits he has always been Lord Caldlow but pretended to be the American Robert Angier to spare his family the embarrassment of his theatrical career. Cutter realises Borden's death was planned but, unable to have Caldlow come forward, accompanies him to store Tesla's machine beneath his theatre among the tanks previously used for the duplicates. On his way out, Cutter recognises and nods to Fallon as Fallon enters and shoots Caldlow. Fallon's disguise removed, he tells the dying Caldlow that he and Borden were identical twins who shared their lives on stage and off. He removed the ends of his own fingers to duplicate Borden's injury and the two shared lovers to maintain the illusion of being a single man. Fallon reveals they each loved one woman — Borden loved their late wife Sarah and died, while Fallon loved their mistress Olivia and survived. Caldlow reveals his machine's own trick, repeatedly recreating Julia's suffering in order to bask in the admiration of the crowd. Borden leaves him to die as a fire consumes the building. The first scene of the film replays, with the magician（now known to be Cutter）vanishing（killing）the bird for the delight of the little girl（Jess）. This time, the scene continues and Fallon/ Borden appears to reclaim his daughter.
魔術師給小女孩表演了一個魔術，讓一只小鳥消失，然后又出現(xiàn)在魔術師的手里。魔術師阿爾弗雷德·波登（克里斯蒂安·貝爾飾）因謀殺他的競爭者羅伯特·安吉爾（休·杰克曼飾）被判刑。兩人都是道具師約翰遜·卡特（邁克爾·凱恩飾）和“米爾頓魔術師”（雷基·杰伊飾）的助手。安吉爾的妻子朱莉婭（派珀·佩拉博飾）在表演水箱逃生時溺亡。安吉爾責怪波登，波登聲稱不記得當時是否給朱莉亞系了不合適的繩結。兩人開始變成相互仇恨的競爭者，破壞彼此的魔術表演。波登成為“教授”，以神秘的伯納德·法隆作為他的道具師，而安吉爾成為“偉大的丹東”，以可愛的奧利維亞·溫斯康貝（斯嘉麗·約翰遜飾）和卡特為助手。電影的開始，就解密了魔術：原來的鳥被殺死，用一摸一樣的另一只鳥作為替代。波登和薩拉（麗貝卡·豪爾飾）相遇、結婚，并有了女兒杰西（薩曼莎·馬胡林飾），安吉爾為此感到憤怒。安吉爾破壞波登的接子彈魔術，使波登付出了失去兩根手指的代價。然后，波登毀壞了安吉爾“毫發(fā)無損的鳥籠”的魔術，傷害了一個觀眾，殺死鴿子，損壞安吉爾的名譽。
不久，波登表演的“遁形術”讓人嘖嘖稱奇，那是一種進入一個柜子，從另一個柜子出來的魔術。安吉爾和卡特爭論它的可能性，卡特堅持認為這是兩個人合作，安吉爾拒絕接受這個可能。不能洞穿波登的戲法，安吉爾雇傭了一個酷似演員，實際是墮落酒鬼的魯特（也由杰克曼出演），讓他去偷波登的大概想法。“新遁形術”獲得成功，但是安吉爾討厭藏在舞臺下，讓魯特得到掌聲。他派奧利維亞去發(fā)現(xiàn)波登的秘密，但是她憎惡這種做法，反而愛上了波登。她把波登關于魔術的加密日記留給了安吉爾，作為分手的禮物。波登已經明白了安吉爾的魔術，但是奧利維亞讓他影響魯特，索要更多的報酬；然后波登徹底地破壞了表演，通過移除舞臺陷阱門下面的護墊，殘害安吉爾，并且在觀眾面前展現(xiàn)捆綁的魯特，把整個表演變成自己表演的廣告。波登自稱法隆和他都是“特斯拉”，卡特因困擾放棄之后，安吉爾獨自追蹤尼古拉·特斯拉（大衛(wèi)·鮑伊飾）到科羅拉多斯普林斯。在愛迪生斷絕其資金來源的誹謗運動成功之后，安吉爾支付特斯拉資金，讓他造一個他認為波登曾使用過的“瞬間轉移機器”的復制品。安吉爾完成了波登日記的解密工作，發(fā)現(xiàn)奧利維亞給他提供的是假的，但是和特斯拉進行一場憤怒的爭執(zhí)之后，安吉爾發(fā)現(xiàn)他的機器其實好用，只是生產的是復制品。托馬斯·愛迪生的仆人來到這里，燒了實驗室，特斯拉離開了，雖然在此之前，他已經完成了安吉爾的機器，并且警告他毀掉它。同時，由于波登關注魔術，且與奧利維亞曖昧，疏遠了薩拉，薩拉上吊自殺了。波登對待這件事很冷淡，然后，不滿地離開了奧利維亞。

安吉爾回到了倫敦，“真正的遁形”使觀眾震驚，在機器中消失，在大廳的后面重新出現(xiàn)。實際上，機器創(chuàng)造了一個復制品；原本的安吉爾是被轉移，還是仍在機器中，目前仍不清楚。但是留在機器中的一個，從陷阱門中掉下去，陷入了一個水箱，溺亡了。每天晚上，水箱會被幕后黑手清理。當波登窺探后臺時，見證了安吉爾的溺亡，他嘗試去救他，但因謀殺獲罪逮捕，就像電影的開場那樣。在獄中，貴族卡爾德羅的代理人來探訪波登，他提供對杰西的照顧，來交換波登的秘密，并給了他安吉爾的日記本。波登發(fā)現(xiàn)他的犯罪是精心策劃的，貴族來搜集秘密時，波登才發(fā)現(xiàn)，貴族卡爾德羅實際上是還活著的安吉爾。在離開杰西之前，波登試圖給他們，但是卡爾德羅沒有看，直接撕成碎片。確認法隆會為他們兩個活著之后，波登吊死了。
卡特得知卡爾德羅買了安吉爾所有的魔術，包括機器。他來到卡爾德羅的莊園，請求他將機器銷毀。他認出了安吉爾。安吉爾承認他一直是貴族卡爾德羅，為了不讓自己的劇場事業(yè)為家族蒙羞，他假裝成了美國人羅伯特·安吉爾。卡特意識到波登的死亡是設計好的，但是他卻不能讓卡爾德羅自己承認，跟隨他到他的劇場下，在箱子中，發(fā)現(xiàn)之前特斯拉用來復制的機器。出門時，法隆破門而人，并槍殺了卡爾德羅，卡特認出他并向他點頭。法隆去掉偽裝，告訴將要死去的卡爾德羅，他和波登是共享舞臺和生活的同卵雙胞胎兄弟。為復制波登的傷，他砍掉了自己的兩根手指，共享愛人來維持一個人的假象。法隆指出，他們兩人都各自愛一個女人——波登愛他的亡妻薩拉，已經去世；而法隆愛他們的情婦奧利維亞，還活著?？柕铝_說出了他的機器的秘密，重復地重現(xiàn)朱莉婭的遭遇，以博取大眾的欽佩。波登一把火燒了這棟建筑，讓他在里面死去。電影開始的場景重現(xiàn)，一個魔術師（現(xiàn)在知道是卡特）把小鳥變消失（實際上是殺死）來讓小女兒（杰西）高興。這時候，場景繼續(xù)，法隆/波登出現(xiàn)，要回他的女兒。