3. The Prestige (2006)
If you're going to change the genre of your movie suddenly, you may as well do it using David Bowie. That's presumably what Christopher Nolan thought when he came around to adapting Christopher Priest's novel for the big screen. Given that its premise is based around two magicians, it's no wonder that
The Prestige emerged as something of a tricky one: what begins as a picture about two rival magicians - Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale - and their constant attempts to one up each other, the movie soon verges into unexpected territory at the arrival of real-life scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, as played by David Bowie. And suddenly
The Prestige is a science-fiction movie? This occurs when Hugh Jackman's character, Angier, hires Tesla to build him a machine of frightening capabilities. Up until this point, though, there's no hint that the movie will be anything but a mystery thriller, and the arrival of the "machine" storyline feels slightly at odds. These feelings pass relatively quickly, though, as the movie reveals itself to have been a science-fiction yarn all along. But it's not until halfway through that we truly understand the world of Nolan's movie in its entirety. Not everyone liked
The Prestige's secret sci-fi movie change-up, though. R.J. Carter, writing for
The Trades, wrote: "I love a good science fiction story; just tell me in advance." It's a fair point.