The Prestige

2006 Directed by Christopher Nolan

Are You Watching Closely?

A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.

Christian Bale Hugh Jackman Michael Caine Scarlett Johansson Rebecca Hall David Bowie Andy Serkis Piper Perabo Jim Piddock Samantha Mahurin Mark Ryan Jamie Harris Daniel Davis Roger Rees Ricky Jay Christopher Neame Monty Stuart Ron Perkins Anthony De Marco Chao Li Chi John B. Crye William Morgan Sheppard Ezra Buzzington James Lancaster Johnny Liska Russ Fega Kevin Will Edward Hibbert James Otis Show All…

Alternative Titles

El Truco Final, حیثیت, 顶尖对决, プレステージ, El Truco Final (El Prestigio), Престиж, El gran truco, 프레스티지, Prestiż, Le Prestige, Prestige - Die Meister der Magie, Prestige, The, O Grande Truque, O Terceiro Passo, Le prestige, Prestij

drama mystery thriller

130 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★½ 37

Second unexpected Radiohead in the credits moment THIS WEEK, i need a break
Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★½ 11

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Sometimes you just gotta ruin your life to own the other guy so hard
Review by Austin Gorski ★★★★★ 34

Forget "The Dark Knight". Forget "The Dark Knight Rises". Forget even "Inception". This film matches the levels of greatness that "Memento", my favorite Nolan film, manages to reach, and it does it without telling the story backwards. This is dark, mysterious, captivating, intelligent, and is easily one of Nolan's most under rated films so far.
Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★

when the prank war just goes too damn far :(
Review by robert ★★★★ 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

producer: but we already have a dead wife in this film!
nolan: *dj khaled voice* ANOTHER ONE!!!!
Review by CinemaClown ★★★★½ 35

An ingeniously crafted tale of twists & turns, a fascinating vignette of obsession & jealousy, and an interesting portrait of friendship & rivalry, The Prestige is a magical piece of thrilling cinema by Christopher Nolan which comes with its own set of pledge, turn & prestige moments just like any great magic trick and cleverly manages to take its ordinary premise & turn it into something truly extraordinary.
The Prestige is the story of a friendship that became a rivalry which later turned deadly. The plot concerns two renowned stage magicians in London near the end of the 19th century who engage in competitive one-upmanship in an attempt to create the ultimate illusion but their increasing obsession to best each other's tricks eventually leads them…
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★★

Making something disappear isn’t enough. You have to bring it back.
Review by brat pitt ★★★★½ 2

magic isn't real you idiots
Review by mia ★½ 10

white male gets tricked into thinking
Review by nickusen

they should remake this movie with danny mcbride and walton goggins
Review by YI JIAN ★★★★½

Nolan asks us to watch his film closely but knows very well that we won't because deep down, we actually want to be fooled. The bastard is mocking us from behind the scenes, revealing the secret right at the very beginning and laugh hysterically as we still scratch our heads throughout the film.
He doesn't even try to disguise his trick, we literally hear and see the answer yet we choose to mislead ourselves. Now that I've stepped back and looked at the bigger picture, I realize there wasn't even any puzzle to begin with.
The real mystery here is why was I so dense the first time around to not see something so obvious! Nolan, you clever bastard, you -- pulling off one of the most fascinating sleight-of-hand in the history of film editing.
Review by Adam Cook ★★★★½ 43

After the disappointment of The Dark Knight Rises I wanted to revisit Nolan at his best. Whilst the film’s narrative structure is fragmented, much like the elusive puzzle at the heart of the story, it is deftly plotted where each component is revealed to fit neatly together and create a satisfying whole. The brilliance of the film is that it reveals everything to the audience at the very beginning. It tells you exactly how the trick is achieved early on, you just need to be paying attention. Yet, despite knowing how every twist and turn will play out the film still rewards repeated viewings which is very rare for this type of film. The twists are never cheap, they are…

Recent reviews

Review by brook ★★★½

The one time Wolverine and Batman worked together with David Bowie to make powerful magicks. I honestly forgot this was a Nolan film, but I’ve loved it every time I’ve watched it. Just so fun and clever. I wonder how Golem’s cats are doing?
Review by Ishan Morris-Gray ★★★★½

Almost a year later I get around to watching this on a proper screen, uncensored. And it's better than alright. It's amazing.
Despite having a few of the problems that typically exist in Nolan films - most obviously the overwhelmingly masculine perspective and instances of fridging - these are issues that while worth noting, do not in any significant way detract from the story being told. It is not, after all, the job of art to be a moral arbiter of society. It is the job of art to present a pure aesthetic vision, however repugnant such a vision might be (in this case - not especially). Christopher Nolan's The Prestige presents such a vision brilliantly.
Wally Pfister's photography is…
Review by Branson Reese

These guys care so much about magic, it’s crazy.
Probably my favorite Nolan. Not a ton of competition on that front but it’s a fun movie that plays to his strengths (serious guys who live in a puzzle they could walk away from at any moment if they were normal) and only indulges a few of his weaknesses (several characters give their farewells with slightly reworded “here’s to the wild ones” speeches.) All in all, it’s about two hours long and the accents are all over the place, which I am forced to love due to the glass house I live in.
Review by natlud ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Hard to review as a rewatch. Fun to watch and notice all the misdirects. But this time, maybe due to not being caught up in the mystery, the Tesla actual magic cloning machine came off as really lame and ill-fitting.
I love the idea of a man driven so far by obsession that he would kill himself over and over again. And I understand that this Tesla device or something like it is the only way to tell that story. However even though I really want it to, it just doesn’t fit into the rest of this movie for me.
Anyways, I still like the movie. Exceptionally well made and a lot of really fun performances and accents. Loved seeing Gil Chesterton from Frasier make an appearance. Plus we can take home the lesson that you should never split a life between you and your twin brother if you are unable to not be suicide-inducingly mean to your sister in law.
Review by sethwood ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

David Bowie's entrance in this movie is so rad it ALMOST makes me forgive that his invention totally gamebreaks the movie.
Review by divya ★★★★

the way that every bit of confusion i had in the middle of this movie was gone by the end of it is incredible
Review by sonnierjack ★★★★

Favorite from Nolan. Does the twist ending in a perfect way.
Review by nicole silverberg ★★★★

rebecca hall army rise up!!!
Review by Wu ★★ 1

Nolan's paradoxes at their strongest. Taking what could be an evocative, strange, fun, or dramatic premise is rendered listless by his inability to write even remotely human characters or draw any emotion from their circumstances. A continual vehicle for Nolan's angst for his own creative process and methodology for storytelling, time, and performative identity, the same fallback for most of his original movies, just boring.
Review by CrimsonEP1 ★★★★

None of this would’ve happened if these mfs knew how to recognize faces
Review by Jehrls ★★★★

such a banger of a movie. seen a million times and "the prestige" still hits hard. even better watching after first time so can catch things. couldn't understand Bale for 1/2 the movie. my friend mark has a tattoo of the movie.
Review by mehmet baylan ★★★★★

are you watching closely?