The Adaptation Of The Prestige

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The book published in 1995 was written by author Christopher Priest, an English writer who has written mainly books in the science fiction category. Amongst his other works are  Fugue for a Darkening Island,  The Affirmation, Inverted World, The Glamour and The Separation spanning from 1970 till date. His style of writing is strongly influenced, by admission, and vividly reminiscent of H.G. Wells.

The Prestige is presented through the journal entries of four characters, two of which, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, are the principle characters of the novel. The story revolves around the ‘feud’, as termed in the book, or the fierce rivalry between two illusionists, Angier and Borden, in the intense and competitive field of stage magic. In the end, their legacy passes on for generations to descendants who must, for their sanity's sake, untangle the puzzle left to them.1

The book is introduced by the journal of Borden’s grandson, Andrew Westley, who has just learned that he was born Nicky Borden, before he was given up for adoption. His entry describes how he has chanced upon a meeting with Kate Angier, the granddaughter of Rupert Angier. Upon his meeting he learns of the ravenous relationship between the ancestry and how it may explain his intra-psychological yearnings since birth. The two read the accounts left behind by both magicians, first Borden and then Angier detailing their first meeting where the former disrupt a fraudulent séance. What ensues is a long series of one-upmanship as both magicians try and sabotage the show of the other with petty interruptions over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This continues until Borden performs his master-piece ‘The Transported Man’ and later, a polished and dressed up version of the name ‘The New Transported Man’ a trick wherein he teleports in an instant from one part of the stage to another. Angier is enamored by the same and becomes obsessed with finding out the secret behind his trick. His ‘ingienieur’ suggests the use of a double or the possibility of a twin brother. But Angier investigates to find out that there was no record of Borden having a twin brother and the man who teleported to the new location looked exactly similar to Borden for him to be a double. In his obsession he sends his assistant Olivia to go work for Borden undercover in an espionage mission, but Olivia falls in love with Borden and sends Angier a letter trying to misguide him with a single word ‘Tesla’. The Tesla being referred to is the real life eccentric scientist who developed the ‘Alternating’ model of current which is used present day. Angier, still obsessed with the secret decides to make a trip to Colorado, where Tesla’s lab is located. Over there he asks Tesla to build him a machine that would help teleport him. Tesla, for an exquisite price, builds him the machine. But through the machine, when Angier teleports, a cadaver of him stays behind, while a clone of his is generated in the specified location. When Borden sees Angier perform the ‘trick’, called ‘In A Flash’, he is driven to an obsession of his own, in finding out what Angier’s secret was. He smuggles himself backstage and while Angier is performing, inadvertently switches off the machine which leads to only a small part of Angier teleporting. As a result two Angier’s exist. The story ends in a dramatic and incredibly eerie fashion which I do not wish to reveal to not spoil the book.

The Book is notable for its rich detail in characters, which are numerable. Though the ultimate ending is haunting in nature, the secrets behind both tricks of the great illusionists turn out to be disappointing as both were hinted at in the initial stages of the book itself. Based in the late 19th and early 20th century, the book describes the background and setting perfectly, but even though it was a first person narration, the language used was as plain as current tongue. The classification of the book under sci-fi is also particularly puzzling for most part of the book but fits in the last quarter of it.

‘The Prestige’ is an intriguing tale told with, much like its subjects, ingenious misdirection and has a plot which twists and turns like a slithering snake to keep the reader flipping the pages inexhaustibly.

The Prestige – Film Review

The Prestige is a 2006 mystery, thriller, science fiction movie which has been written, co-produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan’s other work includes Memento, Inception and The Batman Trilogy, all of which, along with The Prestige have been critically acclaimed. The Cast constitutes of Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, the two principle characters of the movie and includes David Bowie, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, and Andy Serkis.

The movie follows a non-chronological, non-linear form of storytelling which shrouds the plot in mystery. The movie begins with Borden witnessing Angier drowning under his stage following which there is a trial scene wherein Borden is accused of the murder of Angier. In flashback, with Borden reading Angier’s diary, who in turn had penned don his diary after reading Borden’s, the movie shows how the two met while working under ‘Milton The Magician’ along with John Cutter. During one of the performances Angier’s wife, Julia, who is the assistant to Milton, dies. Angier blames Borden, who could not remember whether he had tried the correct not. Following this an intense feud ensues wherein both illusionists try and sabotage the other. Angier spoils Borden’s ‘bullet catch’ trick as a result of which the latter loses two fingers. Angier, with his new assistant Olivia, who he has also been attached romantically with, and Cutter performs his first gig at a theatre but is outdone by Borden who ruins his finale trick as a disguised volunteer. As a result Angier loses all credibility as a performer. Borden soon develops a new and impressive trick called The Transported Man, wherein he enters one cabinet and exits another across the stage in an instant. Angier and Cutter argue as to what the technique behind the trick was which Angier hails as the greatest magic trick he had seen. Cutter insists that Borden is using a double but Angier does not believe him since the ‘double’ also seemed to lack the two fingers which Borden was bereft of. Cutter develops Angier a similar trick which he begins performing using a lookalike named Root. Though Angier continues to be obsessed regarding how Borden performs the trick. Angier sends Olivia, his assistant and lover to investigate Borden’s secret, but Olivia has grown weary of his obsession and decides to betray Angier to Borden, with whom she soon begins an affair. Olivia, on the direction of Borden gives Angier an encoded diary of Borden's which contains the secret behind all of Borden’s tricks including the ‘The Transported Man’. To find the key to the cypher, Angier and Cutter kidnap Fallon, Borden’s assistant. It is revealed that the key word is "Tesla" and so Angier travels to Colorado in America to find Nikola Tesla and asks him to make a teleportation machine. Tesla makes him the machine but both discover that the machine does not work as a teleporter, rather creating duplicates at the calculated distance. Angier returns to perform ‘The Real Transported Man’ vanishing from the stage and then reappearing in the balcony. In reality, the machine creates a duplicate while the Angier on stage falls through the trap door and drowns. Borden while snooping backstage sees, back to the opening scene, Angier drowning inside the tank and tries to break the tank in order to save him but is caught. As Angier, who has survived, helps actively convict Borden but there turns out to be a final twist in the plot.

The film tells the story in a clever manner, confusing the audience for the larger part of it due to its nonlinear form but as the movie progresses to the end and the pieces come together an exhilarating tail is sewn together concluded by a truly shocking climax.

Though the movie is incredibly innovative, with excellent and exquisite props and sets and stunning visual effects, the movie though fails to build the characters, other than that of the principal two. The movie is defined by the obsession of the two magicians and fails to offer a deeper image.

Overall the movie is impressive with a baffling plot weaved with the aid of actors giving great performances and is definitely an entertaining and thrilling watch.

Analysis as an Adaptation

Right from the beginning Christopher Nolan makes no pretense that the movie is the story of the book relayed on the screen, unscathed. There is an incredibly vast amount of discrepancies between the storylines of the Nolan and Priest.

An intrinsic part of the novel by Priest was that it presented the events that took place from the point of view of both the principle characters, retelling certain events twice as to display the details and perception of both sides. Unlike the movie the two characters do not begin with the firm knowledge of the other and prove to rather be enigmatic figures to each other. With the availability of more space and time Priest not only develops a rich background to each character, which the movie fails to do, but in fact actually does have many more characters which were omitted entirely by the movie which was constrained by time. The book also proves to be more of a rollercoaster ride and in fact has multiple climaxes. Since the story is reflected upon by the grandchildren of the principle character there exists a climax in the backstory as well as the current time frame. Though the first climax fails to deliver the second climax, dwelling half into the genre of horror, leaves the reader with chills and goosebumps.

What the movie does do is that, through the power of visual media, creates a stunning image in the mind of the viewer which the author fails to even through his tireless description of the setting. Certain elements of the movie, which have been added prove to add another layer to the plot which is refreshingly innovative in nature. The movie also delivers a much more ‘thrilling’ and awe-striking climax to the story. Ironically though the book has been classified under sci-fi and the movie, not so strictly, the sci-fi element is amiss in the book for the most part but is directly relevant in the movie.

Both methods of storytelling are deeply enthralling and I strongly recommend both reading and watching it. Rather bizarrely, in my opinion, one is better off actually watching the movie first and then reading the book since the book has matter additional to the plot and the plot that is covered by the movie does not include, what I suppose the most brilliant part of the book.