百年50部英文燒腦電影賞析:[48]The Prestige 致命魔術(shù)

A magician shows a girl a magic trick, causing a bird to vanish and then reappear in his hand. Magician Alfred Borden（Christian Bale）is sentenced for the murder of rival Robert Angier（Hugh Jackman）.Both were assistants for “Milton the Magician”（Ricky Jay）with ingénieur John Cutter（Michael Caine）. Angier's wife Julia（Piper Perabo）drowned performing a water cell act and Angier blames Borden, who professes not to remember if he had tied her with an inappropriate knot. The two become bitter competitors, disrupting each other's acts. Borden becomes “The Professor” with the enigmatic Bernard Fallon as his ingénieur while Angier becomes “The Great Danton” with the lovely Olivia Wenscombe（Scarlett Johansson）and Cutter assisting. The magic trick from the beginning of the movie is explained: the original bird is crushed and replaced with a double. Angier is incensed when Borden meets and marries Sarah（Rebecca Hall）and they have a daughter, Jess（Samantha Mahurin）. Angier sabotages Borden's bullet catch, costing Borden two fingers. Borden then ruins Angier's victimless bird cage act, maiming an audience member, killing the dove, and damaging Angier's reputation.
Borden soon surprises with “The Transported Man”, where he enters one cabinet and exits another. Angier and Cutter argue over its possibility, with Cutter insisting it is a double and Angier refusing to accept the possibility. Unable to understand Borden's trick, Angier hires a look-alike（but dissolute drunk）actor Root（also played by Jackman）to allow him to steal Borden's general idea. “The New Transported Man” is a success, but Angier resents hiding under the stage as Root gets the applause. He sends Olivia to discover Borden's secret but she resents the obsession and falls in love with Borden instead; she leaves Borden's encrypted diary of tricks to Angier as a parting gift. Borden already understood Angier's trick, but Olivia allows him to influence Root to ask for more pay; Borden then completely ruins the act by removing a pad below the stage's trap door, crippling Angier, and displaying a tied-up Root before the audience, turning the routine into an advertisement for his own show. Borden professes that both Fallon and him are “Tesla” and Angier pursues Nikola Tesla（David Bowie）to Colorado Springs alone after Cutter abandons him to his obsession. Angier pays Tesla to make a copy of a teleportation machine that he believed Borden used, providing the inventor with much-needed financing after Edison's smear campaign proves successful in drying up other sources. Angier finishes deciphering Borden's diary to discover it was a fraud supplied by Olivia, but an angry confrontation with Tesla reveals that his machine actually works, but creates duplicates. Thomas Edison's henchmen arrive to torch the lab and Tesla leaves, although not before completing Angier's machine and warning him to destroy it. Meanwhile, Borden's preoccupation with magic and affair with Olivia alienate Sarah, who hangs herself. Borden's cold response then leaves Olivia disaffected.
Angier returns to London, electrifying audiences with “The Real Transported Man”, vanishing within the machine and reappearing in the back of the hall. ln reality, the machine creates a duplicate; it is left unclear whether the original Angier is teleported or remains in the machine, but the one left in the machine falls through a trap door and plunges into a water cell, drowning. The tanks are disposed of by blind stage hands every night. Borden witnesses Angier drown while snooping backstage and tries to save him but is caught and convicted of murder, the opening of the film. In prison, Borden is visited by the agent of a Lord Caldlow, who offers to care for Jess in exchange for Borden's secrets. Borden is given Angier's diary and finds his conviction has been orchestrated, then discovers that Lord Caldlow is the yet-living Angier when the lord arrives to collect the secrets. Borden attempts to give them but Caldlow rips them to pieces without reading them, before leaving with Jess. Borden is hanged, after commanding Fallon to live for them both.
Cutter learns that Caldlow has bought all of Angier's tricks, including the machine, and visits Caldlow's estate to plead for its destruction. He recognises Angier, who admits he has always been Lord Caldlow but pretended to be the American Robert Angier to spare his family the embarrassment of his theatrical career. Cutter realises Borden's death was planned but, unable to have Caldlow come forward, accompanies him to store Tesla's machine beneath his theatre among the tanks previously used for the duplicates. On his way out, Cutter recognises and nods to Fallon as Fallon enters and shoots Caldlow. Fallon's disguise removed, he tells the dying Caldlow that he and Borden were identical twins who shared their lives on stage and off. He removed the ends of his own fingers to duplicate Borden's injury and the two shared lovers to maintain the illusion of being a single man. Fallon reveals they each loved one woman — Borden loved their late wife Sarah and died, while Fallon loved their mistress Olivia and survived. Caldlow reveals his machine's own trick, repeatedly recreating Julia's suffering in order to bask in the admiration of the crowd. Borden leaves him to die as a fire consumes the building. The first scene of the film replays, with the magician（now known to be Cutter）vanishing（killing）the bird for the delight of the little girl（Jess）. This time, the scene continues and Fallon/ Borden appears to reclaim his daughter.
魔術(shù)師給小女孩表演了一個(gè)魔術(shù)，讓一只小鳥消失，然后又出現(xiàn)在魔術(shù)師的手里。魔術(shù)師阿爾弗雷德·波登（克里斯蒂安·貝爾飾）因謀殺他的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者羅伯特·安吉爾（休·杰克曼飾）被判刑。兩人都是道具師約翰遜·卡特（邁克爾·凱恩飾）和“米爾頓魔術(shù)師”（雷基·杰伊飾）的助手。安吉爾的妻子朱莉婭（派珀·佩拉博飾）在表演水箱逃生時(shí)溺亡。安吉爾責(zé)怪波登，波登聲稱不記得當(dāng)時(shí)是否給朱莉亞系了不合適的繩結(jié)。兩人開始變成相互仇恨的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者，破壞彼此的魔術(shù)表演。波登成為“教授”，以神秘的伯納德·法隆作為他的道具師，而安吉爾成為“偉大的丹東”，以可愛(ài)的奧利維亞·溫斯康貝（斯嘉麗·約翰遜飾）和卡特為助手。電影的開始，就解密了魔術(shù)：原來(lái)的鳥被殺死，用一摸一樣的另一只鳥作為替代。波登和薩拉（麗貝卡·豪爾飾）相遇、結(jié)婚，并有了女兒杰西（薩曼莎·馬胡林飾），安吉爾為此感到憤怒。安吉爾破壞波登的接子彈魔術(shù)，使波登付出了失去兩根手指的代價(jià)。然后，波登毀壞了安吉爾“毫發(fā)無(wú)損的鳥籠”的魔術(shù)，傷害了一個(gè)觀眾，殺死鴿子，損壞安吉爾的名譽(yù)。
不久，波登表演的“遁形術(shù)”讓人嘖嘖稱奇，那是一種進(jìn)入一個(gè)柜子，從另一個(gè)柜子出來(lái)的魔術(shù)。安吉爾和卡特爭(zhēng)論它的可能性，卡特堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為這是兩個(gè)人合作，安吉爾拒絕接受這個(gè)可能。不能洞穿波登的戲法，安吉爾雇傭了一個(gè)酷似演員，實(shí)際是墮落酒鬼的魯特（也由杰克曼出演），讓他去偷波登的大概想法。“新遁形術(shù)”獲得成功，但是安吉爾討厭藏在舞臺(tái)下，讓魯特得到掌聲。他派奧利維亞去發(fā)現(xiàn)波登的秘密，但是她憎惡這種做法，反而愛(ài)上了波登。她把波登關(guān)于魔術(shù)的加密日記留給了安吉爾，作為分手的禮物。波登已經(jīng)明白了安吉爾的魔術(shù)，但是奧利維亞讓他影響魯特，索要更多的報(bào)酬；然后波登徹底地破壞了表演，通過(guò)移除舞臺(tái)陷阱門下面的護(hù)墊，殘害安吉爾，并且在觀眾面前展現(xiàn)捆綁的魯特，把整個(gè)表演變成自己表演的廣告。波登自稱法隆和他都是“特斯拉”，卡特因困擾放棄之后，安吉爾獨(dú)自追蹤尼古拉·特斯拉（大衛(wèi)·鮑伊飾）到科羅拉多斯普林斯。在愛(ài)迪生斷絕其資金來(lái)源的誹謗運(yùn)動(dòng)成功之后，安吉爾支付特斯拉資金，讓他造一個(gè)他認(rèn)為波登曾使用過(guò)的“瞬間轉(zhuǎn)移機(jī)器”的復(fù)制品。安吉爾完成了波登日記的解密工作，發(fā)現(xiàn)奧利維亞給他提供的是假的，但是和特斯拉進(jìn)行一場(chǎng)憤怒的爭(zhēng)執(zhí)之后，安吉爾發(fā)現(xiàn)他的機(jī)器其實(shí)好用，只是生產(chǎn)的是復(fù)制品。托馬斯·愛(ài)迪生的仆人來(lái)到這里，燒了實(shí)驗(yàn)室，特斯拉離開了，雖然在此之前，他已經(jīng)完成了安吉爾的機(jī)器，并且警告他毀掉它。同時(shí)，由于波登關(guān)注魔術(shù)，且與奧利維亞曖昧，疏遠(yuǎn)了薩拉，薩拉上吊自殺了。波登對(duì)待這件事很冷淡，然后，不滿地離開了奧利維亞。

安吉爾回到了倫敦，“真正的遁形”使觀眾震驚，在機(jī)器中消失，在大廳的后面重新出現(xiàn)。實(shí)際上，機(jī)器創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)復(fù)制品；原本的安吉爾是被轉(zhuǎn)移，還是仍在機(jī)器中，目前仍不清楚。但是留在機(jī)器中的一個(gè)，從陷阱門中掉下去，陷入了一個(gè)水箱，溺亡了。每天晚上，水箱會(huì)被幕后黑手清理。當(dāng)波登窺探后臺(tái)時(shí)，見(jiàn)證了安吉爾的溺亡，他嘗試去救他，但因謀殺獲罪逮捕，就像電影的開場(chǎng)那樣。在獄中，貴族卡爾德羅的代理人來(lái)探訪波登，他提供對(duì)杰西的照顧，來(lái)交換波登的秘密，并給了他安吉爾的日記本。波登發(fā)現(xiàn)他的犯罪是精心策劃的，貴族來(lái)搜集秘密時(shí)，波登才發(fā)現(xiàn)，貴族卡爾德羅實(shí)際上是還活著的安吉爾。在離開杰西之前，波登試圖給他們，但是卡爾德羅沒(méi)有看，直接撕成碎片。確認(rèn)法隆會(huì)為他們兩個(gè)活著之后，波登吊死了。
卡特得知卡爾德羅買了安吉爾所有的魔術(shù)，包括機(jī)器。他來(lái)到卡爾德羅的莊園，請(qǐng)求他將機(jī)器銷毀。他認(rèn)出了安吉爾。安吉爾承認(rèn)他一直是貴族卡爾德羅，為了不讓自己的劇場(chǎng)事業(yè)為家族蒙羞，他假裝成了美國(guó)人羅伯特·安吉爾?？ㄌ匾庾R(shí)到波登的死亡是設(shè)計(jì)好的，但是他卻不能讓卡爾德羅自己承認(rèn)，跟隨他到他的劇場(chǎng)下，在箱子中，發(fā)現(xiàn)之前特斯拉用來(lái)復(fù)制的機(jī)器。出門時(shí)，法隆破門而人，并槍殺了卡爾德羅，卡特認(rèn)出他并向他點(diǎn)頭。法隆去掉偽裝，告訴將要死去的卡爾德羅，他和波登是共享舞臺(tái)和生活的同卵雙胞胎兄弟。為復(fù)制波登的傷，他砍掉了自己的兩根手指，共享愛(ài)人來(lái)維持一個(gè)人的假象。法隆指出，他們兩人都各自愛(ài)一個(gè)女人——波登愛(ài)他的亡妻薩拉，已經(jīng)去世；而法隆愛(ài)他們的情婦奧利維亞，還活著。卡爾德羅說(shuō)出了他的機(jī)器的秘密，重復(fù)地重現(xiàn)朱莉婭的遭遇，以博取大眾的欽佩。波登一把火燒了這棟建筑，讓他在里面死去。電影開始的場(chǎng)景重現(xiàn)，一個(gè)魔術(shù)師（現(xiàn)在知道是卡特）把小鳥變消失（實(shí)際上是殺死）來(lái)讓小女兒（杰西）高興。這時(shí)候，場(chǎng)景繼續(xù)，法隆/波登出現(xiàn)，要回他的女兒。