Nolan Countdown Part 5 - The Prestige

Hello everyone and welcome to Some Like It Scott's latest limited series: Nolan Countdown. Each week in the lead up to Christopher Nolan's latest film, Tenet, the two Scotts and countdown special guest, Jay Habib, will be working their way through Christopher Nolan's full filmography in chronological order, starting from his humble beginnings making "budget" films like Following and Memento, all the way to his most recent days making mega-blockbusters like his Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, and Dunkirk. This time, Jay Habib has actually seen these films (quite a few of them, quite a few times actually), but there will be fresh takes, crazy theories, and deep conversations about one of the most interesting auteur filmmakers of this generation all along the way. Join us each week!

 

On part 5 of the countdown, Scott, Scott, and Jay take a look back at Christopher Nolan's 2006 ~magical~ psychological thriller, The Prestige. Starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as two rival magicians - the more working-class Borden and the more aristocratic Angier respectively - in late-19th century London, The Prestige follows the two magicians' careers, first as fellow apprentices of John Cutter, a renowned stage ingenieur played by Michael Caine. However, when one of their usual magic tricks goes wrong, Angier's wife is unable to escape the water tank used as part of the trick and drowns. Angier blames Borden for his wife's death, as he believes Borden tied a more complicated knot around her wrists, and the two become bitter rivals. What follows is a series of escalating tricks, one-ups, and showdowns with costs and outcomes that are constantly rising, all of which leads to a finale with a twist that has come to be expected from a more experimental Nolan film, like this one. With a supporting cast of Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, and Andy Serkis to complement Bale, Jackman, and Caine, The Prestige weaves a narrative that ultimately comes down to its ending, its prestige, and the countdown trio give their thoughts on all the technical aspects, the performances, the characters, and yes, the twist ending.

 

Sign up for our newsletter here!

Patreon: www.patreon.com/MediaPlugPods

Twitter: @MediaPlugPods