剧情虽然多处难经推敲，但片子里的事如果是件真事，那么无论用小说、歌剧、音乐等等形式，都无法达到影片所达到的效果；艺术家们终究用属于自己的最浓烈的语言向观众传达了剧情以外的话——真和善是生活的第一要素；这个片子的电影要素一应俱全，观众的视觉、听觉和观感心理也都被塞得忒满。
《致命魔术》中最伟大的魔术师，显然不是Angier或者Borden，而是导演克里斯托弗·诺兰。
迄今为止，克里斯托弗·诺兰的电影都重复着相同的母题：复仇，这种复仇又往往与偏执、孤独、异于常人，等特性相联系。正如《失忆》中患有短期记忆丧失的主人公的复仇，《失眠》中患有失眠症的主人公的复仇，以及《蝙蝠侠》中双重身份的主人公的复仇。《致命魔术》中，复仇被转化为两主人公的针锋相对，而这场针锋相对的引子，也正是Angier对Borden的复仇。
克里斯托弗·诺兰在《致命魔术》中，再次展示了自己对于电影叙事结构的精妙操作。影片的开始采用类比蒙太奇，将老道具师Cutter为女孩讲解鸟笼魔术和时间轴上更为推前的Angier最后一场演出联系到一起，完成了倒叙开场，比《失忆》中轰炸式的倒叙，更加圆润自如，并由Cutter的“prestige”一词，呼应主题同时完成转场，电影自然过渡到法庭部分。Borden因被目击在水箱旁看着Angier溺毙而被捕，有重大杀人嫌疑。在狱中Borden得到了Angier生前的日记，由日记引出时间轴比最后演出更为推前的Angier科罗拉多之行部分，结构再次进入倒叙，更为巧妙的是：Angier的日记中，记载了他对于Borden日记的破译过程，并由Borden的日记，话说从头，开始了整个故事的正叙。这样讲起来似乎有些晦涩，我尝试着做了如下的简图：
1、Borden日记所记载的二人成长恩怨史在时间轴上最为靠前，定义为A段，最后到Borden写给Angier关键词Tesla。
2、Angier日记从科罗拉多之行开始，记录了他前往科罗拉多寻找Tesla，一边破译Borden日记，以及第一次试验Angier版瞬间移动魔术，此段紧接A段，定义为B段。
3、在Angier科罗拉多之行开始后，到第一次试验瞬间移动，也就是B段的时间里，Borden的生活也在继续，主要讲了他和妻子Sarah以及情人Olivia之间的问题，定义为B段。
4、Angier回到伦敦开始，直到他最后一场演出时消失在舞台上，定义为C段。
5、Borden的妻子在争吵后自杀，到Borden多次去看Angier表演瞬间移动，直到最后一场之前，是C段平行的Borden部分，定义为C\'段。
6、D段为Borden在后台看到Angier溺毙，受审，遇到Caldlow爵士的律师，阅读Angier的日记，绞刑。
7、E段为最后的高潮戏，Angier的死。其中有多次闪回，并交待了重要剧情，但不做详细分解了。
8、F段为Cutter为小女孩讲解鸟笼魔术，直到电影结束。
以上为按时间轴顺序的剧情，在电影中，大体上变成如下结构：
|.F1.||.C2.||.D1.||.B1.||.A.||.B2.||.B\'.||.C1.||.C\'.||.D2.||.E.||.F2.|
从这个结构轴上可以看出电影的叙事结构是多么的复杂，实际上在A、B、D三部分是相互交叉的，比上图更复杂，E部分也多次闪回到A、B、B\'等部分，不做详细分解。
电影在母题：“复仇”之下，还探讨了“Obseion（痴迷） & Sacrifice（牺牲）”痴迷使得Angier和Borden不断的追求提升，达到个人的极限，为此他们都做出了超出寻常的牺牲。在两人观看中国魔术师表演后，Borden的话已经暗示了这一观点：“完全的为他的艺术献身，巨大的自我牺牲。”而随后Angier在家同妻子的话，又包含着暗示。他说：Borden马上就看出来了（中国魔术师的秘密），而我却不行。让我一生都装成另一个人（我受不了）。” Borden能看出来，是因为他已经具有做出这样牺牲的准备，而且实际上他到死都装成另一个
人。
与诺兰高超的结构操作相比，Jonathan Nolan的剧本同样出色。除了精心构建出令人惊奇的故事内容外，类似上面提到的暗示在电影中比比皆是，只待细心的观众逐一发现。首先，在电影开头Cutter给小女孩演示了鸟笼魔术，这个魔术正是整部电影中最重要的一个魔术。Borden和Angier的瞬间移动，和鸟笼魔术在本质上没有任何区别，只不过把笼子变成箱子，一个消失掉，另一个跳出来。在随后的监狱部分，Borden说Fallon会照顾他女儿，律师紧接着说：Fallon，A man with a past as obscure as you own（一个有着和你一样卑贱过去的人），obscure同时还有模糊不清的意思，暗示两人之间的秘密。
当Cutter应法官的要求解释Angier魔术的秘密时，Cutter说了这样的一句话：玩杂耍的人，他们靠掩盖一些简单，有时也是残酷的事实为生。这句话暗示了最主要的剧情。Angier和Borden都通过掩盖一些简单，但是残酷的事实获得了事业的成功。
在回忆部分中，Borden在演出后台说：“真正的魔术师会创造出他的同行绞尽脑汁也想不出的新花样。”这句话随后成为了Borden和Angier最大的心魔。后来，Cutter嘲笑他说：你一定有这样伟大的魔术，你可以把它卖给我么？Borden说：“我当然有。但别人变不了我这个魔术。”这句话暗示了Borden最大的秘密，并提示在学徒时，他已经在那样做了。Borden先一步离开后，Angier问Cutter关于Borden从哪里来的问题。Cutter反问：你从哪里来？结合后面妻子问Angier的话：你不是也在装成别人么？Angier回答：我觉得换个名字算不上伪装。以及最后的Caldlow爵士剧情。表明Angier学徒时也掩饰了自己的过去，他本就出身贵族。这是两个人最初为魔术做出的牺牲。
Borden和Sarah在鸟笼魔术后相识，这一段为观众演示了真正的鸟笼魔术，实际上是两只相同的鸟，其中一只在魔术中被杀死。这个魔术和最后Angier的瞬间移动几乎一模一样。在Borden送Sarah回家时，Borden没法到Sarah家做客而离开，Sarah关门，发现Borden已经在屋子里了。这一剧情，实际上正是后面Borden的瞬间移动魔术。也是几乎一模一样。以上仅是电影前20分钟内出现的隐喻情节，已基本暗示了整部电影的内容。此后，Angier的妻子在魔术事故中丧生，两人的恩仇故事正式展开。
另外，导演在电影中还故意放置了彩蛋，当Angier从科罗拉多回到伦敦后，Cutter按他的提示，到他的排练场找他。Cutter一进屋，盲人看守听到动静，问“是谁？”在随后短暂的两个镜头中，你会看到两个一模一样的盲人看守，一个坐在杂物上，一个在瞬间移动的箱子边弯着腰。
这部电影由于剧情的关系，也存在一些争议之处。比如：到底哪个Angier是真的的问题。第一次试验时，他射杀了出现在远处的Angier，但后来的表演中，每次都是在道具内的被杀。也许这里面没有真假主次之分，总之不好解释，Tesla不是说过科学存在随机性么。
(仅作补充，是我的理解，不一定正确，其实你一直关注影片反应的主题，忽视了它真实的一面，其实Angie早就说过：这是真正的科学！我们通过前面的细节已经可以看到其实Tesla发明的交流电装置并非能让人瞬间移动，而是在另外一个地方创造出一个完美的复制品，【比如猫经过放电之后在山中又出现了一只一样的猫，帽子经过放电，屋后出现了好多一样的帽子，Tesla说：这都是你的帽子。】可称之为“克隆”【这是影片反映出来的，根据网友和某些人猜测，特斯拉可能发现了能量的无线传输方式，可以将能量无损地传输到指定地方——通古斯大爆炸，进而可以将人无损地传输到另一个地方】，所以Angier每次表演之后都要杀死自己的复制品，最后一次表演，Angier被溺杀，后来出现的是他的完美复制品，这就是真正的科学，因此一后果，Tesla告诫他少用。结果他并非每次都能准确知道自己的复制品产生于何处，最终留下了幸存的，就是影片结尾展现的水箱中的Angier了。)
电影中的Tesla在历史上确有其人，早年是爱迪生的同事，曾在爱迪生公司负责研发直流电发电机，但他后来在西木公司的资助下发明了交流电。随后引发直流电和交流电之争，
Tesla和爱迪生决裂。这一段隐藏在剧情后的历史事件与剧情又有几分神似。天知道剧本里，到底还有多少秘密。
Christopher Nolan\'s \"The Prestige\" has just about everything I require in a movie about magicians, except ...the Prestige.We are instructed at the outset, in a briefing by Michael Caine, that every magic trick consists of three acts: (1) the Pledge, in which a seemingly real situation is set up, (2) the Turn, in which the initial reality is challenged, and (3) the Prestige, where all is set right again.An example, one not used in the film, would be (1) a woman, and it\'s always a woman, except with Penn and Teller, who is placed into a box; (2) the box is sawed in half, and the halves separated, and (3) magically, the \"victim\" is restored in one piece.
The pledge of Nolan\'s \"The Prestige\" is that the film, having been metaphorically sawed in two, will be restored; it fails when it cheats, as, for example, if the whole woman produced on the stage were not the same one so unfortunately cut in two.Other than that fundamental flaw, which leads to some impenetrable revelations toward the end, it\'s quite a movie -- atmospheric, obseive, almost satanic.
It takes place in Victorian London, at a time and place where seances and black magic were believed in by the credulous.Somerset Maugham\'s novel The Magician captures that period perfectly in its fictional portrait of Aleister Crawley, \"the most evil man in the world,\" who created the illusion that he really was an occult practitioner of dark forces.He had a gift for persuading women to materialize in his bed.These days, when most of us are le superstitious, it is the technical craft of a David Copperfield that imprees us.We see the trick done, but do not for a moment believe it is happening.
Houdini, the great transitional figure between \"magical\" acts and ingenious tricks, was at pains to explain that everything he did was a trick; he offered rewards, never collected, for any \"supernatural\" act he could not explain.The Amazing Randi carries on in the same tradition, bending spoons as easily as Uri Geller.And yet in Houdini\'s time, there were those who insisted he was doing real magic; how else could his effects be achieved?
Daniel Mark Epstein wrote about the Houdini believers in a 1986 iue of the New Criterion, which I read as I read everything I can get my hands on about Houdini.The thing was, Houdini really did free himself from those fetters and chains and sealed trunks dropped into the river, and survived the Chinese Water Torture (an effect used prominently in \"The Prestige\" night after night).But there were those who argued his tricks were physically impoible, and thus must be supernatural.
Houdini would have been active at the time of \"The Prestige,\" but his insights would have been fatal to the movie\'s plot, which is the problem with the plot.We meet two apprentice magicians, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), who work as fake \"volunteers\" from the audience for Milton the Magician (the invaluable Ricky Jay).They aist in tying up a helple damsel, in reality, Robert\'s wife, Julia (Piper Perabo), and lowering her into the Chinese Water Torture box.Concealed by curtains, she somehow escapes, as Houdini always did, but one night, Alfred ties her knots too tightly, she cannot escape, and by the time a manager (Michael Caine) rushes onstage with an ax, it is too late to save her from drowning.
This sets off a lifelong hatred between Robert and Alfred, during which the frigid and ominous Alfred rises to the top of the profeion.The haple Alfred (now in love with his new aistant Olivia, played by Scarlett Johanon) falls to the bottom, is reduced to performing in flea pits, and yet presents an illusion named the Transported Man in which he walks into a door on one side of the stage and instantly emerges from a door
at the other.How is that physically poible? It\'s the sort of thing that made his fans claim Houdini was supernormal.Robert becomes obseed with finding the secret of the trick.
But magicians do not explain their illusions, not even to their peers, unle money changes hands (\"The trick is told when the trick is sold\").The Transported Man begins, you will agree, with a terrific Pledge.Now how will Robert ever discover the secret of the Prestige? He treks into the snows of Colorado to visit the hidden laboratory of the (real-life) Nikola Tesla (David Bowie), who may have manufactured the trick for Alfred.Tesla, the discoverer/inventor of alternating current, was believed at the time to be capable of all manner of wonders with the genie of electricity, but how could AC, or even DC, explain the Transported Man?
You will not learn here.What you will learn in the movie is, I believe, a disappointment -- nothing but a trick about a trick.With a sinking heart, I realized that \"The Prestige\" had jumped the rails, and that rules we thought were in place no longer applied.
I have been in love with magic all my life.I\'m no good at it, even though I bored my friends for years with cheesy illusions, and even today can make a dime disappear from your forehead.These days I am most impreed with the skills required for close-up magic.Teddy Nava, the son of writer-directors Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas, can make cards change while I am holding them in my hands.Now how does he do that? Not through divine intervention, I am fairly sure.But I was holding them! The trick is told when the trick is sold.Yes, but what if it takes months of practice after you\'re told the trick? Nikola Tesla isn\'t going to help me then, by running alternating current down Teddy\'s arm and up mine.
