Quotes from The Prestige - Kelly Inglis's Weblog



Quotes from The Prestige

Borden: Are you watching closely?

Cutter: Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: 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"."

Alfred Borden: A real magician tries to invent something new, that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over.

Cutter: You're a magician, not a wizard.

after showing a little boy how to do a coin trick]

Alfred Borden (showing a little boy a coin trick): Never show anyone. They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them.

Borden: The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.

Angier: He lives his act.

Bordon: The sacrifice... that's the price of a good trick.

Fallon: Sacrifice is the best trick man ever has.

Alfred Borden (about a bird in a trick): See? He's fine!

Boy: But where's his brother?

Alfred Borden: He's a smart player, your son.

Cutter: I knew a sailor once, got tangled in the rigging. We pulled him out, but it took him five minutes to cough. He said it was like going home.

Borden: He came in to demand an answer and I told him the truth. That I have fought with myself over that night, one half of me swearing blind that I tied a simple slipknot, the other half convinced that I tied the Langford double. I can never know for sure.

Borden: Everything's going to be alright, because I love you very much.

Sarah: Say it again.

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.

Alfred Borden: I love you.

Sarah: You mean it today.

Borden: Of course.

Sarah: It just makes it so much harder when you don't.

Robert Angier: What knot did you tie?

Alfred Borden: I don't know.

Robert Angier: You don't know?

Robert Angier: You don't know?

Angier (pointing a gun at Bordon): What knot did you tie?

Alfred Borden: I don't know.

Robert Angier shoots him.

Cutter (about Root): He's perfect. He needs some work, but when I get through with him, he could be your brother.

Robert Angier: I don't need him to be my brother, I need him to be me!

Cutter: Ready to meet yourself, Mr Angier?

Gerald Root: Did you think you were unique, Mr Angier? I've been Caesar. I've played Faust. How hard could it possibly be to play the Great Danton?

Gerald Root: You would drink, too, if you knew the world half as well as I do.

Cutter: You can go back to being yourself now, Root. For nothing.

Gerald Root: I'd rather be him for now. I find it... amusing.

Robert Angier: Many of you may be familiar with this technique, but for those of you who aren't, do not be alarmed. What you're about to see is considered safe.

Olivia Wenscombe (about Angiers): 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?

Alfred Borden: Does he enjoy taking his bows under the stage?

Olivia Wenscombe: It won't bring your wife back.

Robert Angier: I don't care about my wife. I care about his secret.

Olivia Wenscombe: I have fallen in love with him, Robert.

Robert Angier: Then I know how hard this has been for you.

Hotel Manager: I thought they might work for the government.

Robert Angier: No?

Hotel Manager: Worse. They work for Thomas Edison.

Tesla: You're familiar with the phrase "Man's reach exceeds his grasp"? It's a lie. Man's grasp exceeds his nerve. The only limits on scientific progress are those imposed by society. The first time I changed the world, I was hailed as a visionary. The second time I was asked politely to retire. The world only tolerates one change at a time. And so here I am. Enjoying my "retirement". Nothing is impossible, Mr. Angier, what you want is simply expensive.

Nikola Tesla: Exact science, Mr Angier, is not an exact science.

Nikola Tesla: Society tolerates only one change at a time.

Nikola Tesla: Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine?

Robert Angier: Price is not an object.

Nikola Tesla: Perhaps not, but have you considered the cost?

Robert Angier: I'm not sure I follow.

Nikola Tesla: Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.

Robert Angier: Why, haven't good come of your obsessions?

Nikola Tesla: Well at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave... and one day they'll choose to destroy me.

Robert Angier: If you understand an obsession then you know you won't change my mind.

Robert Angier: My passion is equal to the task.

Nikola Tesla: Things don't always go as planned, Mr. Angier. That's the beauty of science.

Nikola Tesla: Don't forget your hat, Mr. Angier.

Robert Angier: Which hat is mine?

Nikola Tesla: They are all your hat, Mr. Angier.

Nikola Tesla: I apologize for leaving without saying goodbye, but I seem to have outstayed my welcome in Colorado. The truly extraordinary is not permitted in science and industry. Perhaps you'll find more luck in your field, where people are happy to be mystified. You will find what you are looking for in this box. Alley has written you a thorough set of instructions. I add only one suggestion on using the machine: destroy it. Drop it to the bottom of the deepest ocean. Such a thing will bring you only misery.

Ackerman: We'll have to dress it up a little. Disguise it. Give them enough reason to doubt it.

Robert Angier: Man's reach exceeds his imagination!

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 dreadful significance.

Cutter: I came here to beg Lord Caldlow to destroy that machine. I am not going to beg you for anything.

Robert Angier: But here, at the turn, I must leave you Borden. Yes, you, Borden, sitting there in your cell, awaiting your death. For my murder.

Robert Angier: No one cares about the man in the box, the man who disappears.

Robert 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.

Robert Angier: Would I be the man in the box or the prestige?

Cutter: Take a minute to consider your achievement. I once told you about a sailor who drowned.

Robert Angier: Yes, he said it was like going home.

Cutter: I lied. He said it was agony.

Alfred Borden: Simple maybe, but not easy.

Sarah: I know what you really are, and Alfred, I can't live like this.

Alfred Borden: Oh, you think I can live like this? You think I bloody enjoy, living like this? We have a beautiful house, lovely little girl, we're married, what is so wrong with your life?

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)

Sarah: Do you - do you love me?

Alfred Borden: Not today. No.

Alfred Borden: Secrets are my life.

Alfred Borden: You're not afraid to get your hands dirty anymore, are you?

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: Goodbye.

[pic]

Sarah: I know what you really are. And Alfred, I can't live like this.

Alfred Borden: Oh, you think I can live like this? You think I bloody enjoy, living like this? We have a beautiful house, lovely little girl, we're married, what is so wrong with your life?

Robert Angier: [to Borden] You always were the better magician. We both know that. Whatever your secret was, you have to agree, mine is better.

Angier: If anybody really believed the things I did on stage, they wouldn't clap, they'd scream.

Olivia Wenscombe: You married her. You had a child with her.

Alfred Borden: Yes. Part of me did. But the other part... the other part didn't. The part that found you, the part that's sitting here right now.

Olivia Wenscombe: You could be in some other cafe saying the same thing about me right now. It's inhuman to be so cold.

Alfred Borden: We both had half of a full life, which was somehow enough for us. But not for them.

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?

Borden: Yeah

Angier: You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special... you really don't know?... it was... it was the look on their faces...

Cutter: 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 work it out. You want to be fooled.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download