What Does The Ending Of The Prestige Really Mean?
1. Key Themes
Secrets are my life - Borden to Sarah
Nolan explores and dissects The Prestiges key themes of secrecy, obsession, duality, rebirth and sacrifice against the backdrop of the gradually escalating tension and animosity between the two magicians. The initial tension between the two stems from the fact that both seem to recognise that, though Borden is the greater magician, Angier is the better showman. This rivalry spirals out of control though after the accident with Angiers wife and the water cell. Many movies have their narrative buoyed by portraying both an out-and-out hero and villain, but its key to Nolans vision here- certainly for the first two thirds of the movie- to portray both leads as antagonist and protagonist, since their drive for glory has eroded their morality and destroyed not only their own lives but the lives of the ones they love too. Its another clever example of Nolans use of ambiguity. The magicians embody the motif that great art often comes at a cost of terrible sacrifice- Borden lives a double life, whilst Angier not only hides his true aristocratic origins but commits murder every night (perversely via the same method which claimed his wife's life). After his wife dies, Angier begins to realise that the true way to beat Borden is to become the seemingly better magician- this will destroy Borden more than mere sticks and stones. He relentlessly and obsessively embarks on this task, willing to stop at nothing to ensure his success, figuratively and literally destroying himself in the process. Tesla helps in this task, and its difficult not to see the animosity between the two magicians as being representative of the real life rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. The concept of twins, pairs and duality is central to the movie too. Angier represents the upper-class with Borden representing the working-class. Bordens key to his Transported Man trick is the use of a twin. Likewise, in a rather warped symmetry, so is Angiers- since Teslas machine duplicates him- effectively creating a twin each time it is used. Ultimately the viewer sides with Borden because we realise how depraved Angier has become: Angier has slowly poisoned his humanity and diluted his soul each time he used the machine and murdered his duplicate. This is in stark antithesis to the twins who effectively reaffirm their humanity by the use hard work and natural sacrifice (compared to Angier's enforced sacrifice). Refusing to take unnatural shortcuts in the way that Angier does ultimately leads to the victory of Borden over his rival.