The Prestige Page #9

- Angier!

Run along now.

Sir, there's a gentleman waiting.

- Dear God.

- Hello, Cutter.

You're still alive.

How is it you're still alive?

I saw you on a slab, for God's sake.

- Child.

- Good night, sir.

Good night, Jess.

I've seen her before.

I saw her in court with...

...Fallon.

- What have you done?

- She needs looking after.

She needs her father.

You're letting him hang,

and I helped you.

I came here to beg Lord Caldlow

to let me destroy that machine.

I am not going to beg you for anything.

You don't have to. I'm gonna

make sure it is never used again.

Then, Lord Caldlow...

...where do you want me to deliver it?

My theater. It belongs

with the prestige materials.

John, I tried not to involve you.

So...

We go alone now.

Both of us.

I mean, I don't have

as far to go as you.

No.

You were right. I should have

left him to his damn trick.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for a lot of things.

I'm sorry about Sarah.

Didn't mean to hurt her, I didn't.

You go live your life in full now,

all right? You live for both of us.

Goodbye.

Are you watching closely?

Put it down on the end.

Take a minute to consider

your achievement.

I once told you about a sailor

who described drowning to me.

Yes, he said it was like going home.

I was lying. He said it was agony.

Alfred Borden, this day,

in the name of the king

and the High Court of England,

you will meet your end.

No one cares about the man in the box.

Cutter?

Cutter!

Do you have anything to say?

Abracadabra.

A brother? A twin?

You were Fallon.

- The whole time?

- No.

We were both Fallon.

We were both Borden.

Were you the one who went into the box?

Or the one who came back out?

We took turns.

The trick is where we would swap.

Cutter knew. Cutter knew.

But I told him it was

too simple, too easy.

No.

Simple, maybe, but not easy.

There's nothing easy

about two men sharing one life.

I don't understand,

how it can be bleeding again?

Wha... What about Olivia and your wife?

We each loved one of them.

I loved Sarah.

He loved Olivia.

We each had half of a full life,

really, which was enough for us...

...just.

But not for them.

See, sacrifice, Robert,

that's the price of a good trick.

You wouldn't know

anything about that, would you?

I've... I've made sacrifices.

- No.

- Yes.

It takes nothing

to steal another man's work.

Yeah, it takes everything.

No, no, wait, I'm not...

It took courage.

It took courage to climb

into that machine every night,

not knowing...

...if I'd be the man in the box...

...or in the prestige.

Do you want to see...

...what it cost me?

You didn't see where you are, did you?

Look. Look.

I don't care.

You went halfway around the world.

You spent a fortune.

You did terrible things.

Really terrible things, Robert.

And all for nothing.

For nothing?

Yeah.

You never understood...

...why we did this.

The audience knows the truth.

The world is simple.

It's miserable.

Solid... Solid all the way through.

But if you could fool them,

even for a second...

...then you could make them wonder.

And then you...

Then you got to see something

very special.

You really don't know.

It was...

...it was the look on their faces.

Every magic trick

consists of three parts, or acts.

The first part is called "the pledge."

The magician shows you

something ordinary.

The second act is called "the turn."

The magician takes

the ordinary something

and makes it into

something extraordinary.

But you wouldn't clap yet,

because making something disappear

isn't enough. You have to bring it back.

Now you're looking for the secret.

But you won't find it, because,

of course, you're not really looking.

You don't really want to work it out.

You want to be fooled.

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