Quotes

Cutter

a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course...it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

Dialogue

Judge: What a way to kill someone. Cutter: They're magicians, your honor. Men who live by dressing up plain and simple truths to shock, to amaze. Judge: Even without an audience? Cutter: There was an audience. You see, this water tank was of particular significance to these two men. Particularly awful significance.

Dialogue

Alfred Borden: Everything's going to be alright, because I love you very much. Sarah: Say it again. Alfred Borden: I love you. Sarah: Not today. Alfred Borden: What do you mean? Sarah: Well some days it's not true. Maybe today you're more in love with magic. I like being able to tell the difference, it makes the days it is true mean something.

Dialogue

Angier: I thought you said I'd have to get my hands dirty. Cutter: Maybe someday you will; I just needed to know that you could.

Dialogue

Olivia Wenscombe: [referring to Angier] He wants me to come work for you and steal your secrets. Alfred Borden: What does he need my secrets for? His trick is top-notch. He vanishes, and then he reappears instantly on the other side of the stage—mute, overweight, and unless I'm mistaken, very drunk. It's astonishing; how does he do it?

Dialogue

Sarah: Alfred, I can't live like this! Alfred Borden: Well, what do you want from me? Sarah: I want... I want you to be honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets. (pause) Do you... do you love me? Alfred Borden: Not today. No.

Dialogue

Cutter: Take a minute to consider your achievement. I once told you about a sailor who described drowning to me. Angier: Yes, he said it was like going home. Cutter: I was lying. He said it was agony.

Dialogue

Alfred Borden: So, we go alone now. Both of us. Only I don't have as far to go as you. Go. You were right, I should have left him to his damn trick. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry about Sarah. I didn't mean to hurt her, I didn't. You go and live your life in full now, all right? You live for both of us. Fallon Borden: Goodbye.

Dialogue

Angier: [breathing heavily] Cutter knew. Cutter knew. But I told him it was too simple, too easy. Fallon Borden: No... simple, maybe, but not easy. There's nothing easy about two men sharing one life.

Dialogue

Fallon Borden: You went half way around the world, you spent a fortune, you did terrible things - really terrible things, Robert, and all for nothing. Angier: For nothing? Fallon Borden: Yeah Angier: You never understood... why we did this. The audience knows the truth: The world is simple, miserable, solid all the way through. But if you can fool them, even for a second... then you can make them wonder. And you get to see something very special... You really don't know... It was the look on their faces.