The Prestige: They are not clones

More about The Prestige:

[histguy]

"It's a sitchological thriller, no science fiction"

[lilbeans]

This video is entirely dishonest, the times we see him use the machine are specifically not in the diary. Angiar only gave Bordon the pledge and the turn. He purposely never told him how he did it, that's why Bordon thought the diary was a fake. This video is poorly written and relies on a faulty premise. Also, this movie clearly showed that finding even one double that sort of resembled a person was hard, but finding someone who looks and talks the same is almost impossible unless you have a twin. This just isn't true

[Velt]

If the machine didn’t make clones who died in the tank to frame him for the murder ?? They actually showed a body on the table.

[WorthTalking]

Possibly the most overlooked underlying possibility of this story: Alfred Borden and Bernard Fallon are not brothers/twins. One of them is a clone.
The audience is being given this truth in the very first images of the hats(copies) and the birds.
We observe Borden, after a performance of the bird trick, discarding into a garbage can, what used to be a living bird, *seeming to exhibit indifference to life, while in contrast, Angier explicitly says 'I don't want to kill doves.' Angier is disgusted by Borden's seeming inhumanity over his wife's death in failing to recall which knot he'd tied, when in truth, Borden is genuinely saddened by Piper's drowning as Fallon was working on stage that night, hence Borden truly does not know which knot was tied.
There are so many switches that take place and mirrored reflections in so many layers of this movie, it is just amazing. An obvious example is Angier's repeated death, by drowning, mirroring his wife's drowning, and Fallon's hanging, mirroring Sarah's.
When Angier meets with Mr. Alley(Tesla's assistant), what Angier wants(a transporter machine), he identifies as what Tesla had built for another magician.
That 'other magician' was Borden.
When Borden long ago used a machine Tesla had built for him created a clone, his respect for human life and dedication to his ability to create magic for people led him to decide to sacrifice enjoying his life wholly, as a single person, to live in duality(live with his clone, not killing him). Angier, chose the other path.... exterminating a human on each night of his trick, not willing to share the spotlight(applause) with a clone of himself. That is what makes the early dialog around the birds is diversionary, misrepresenting the mens' true natures, and why Borden, with such ease, recognized the China man's sacrifice for his magic, living perpetually in an act of appearing to be decerped/weak, sacrificing the ability to just live life before/after his act as he actually is...normal/strong.
Cutter and Angier are the two that theorized that Borden an Fallon are twins/brothers. .... It is never stated by Fallon/Borden that they are brothers. It is arguably the most substantive misdirection in the movie hurled at the viewer, as, if the viewer presumes that theory of Cutter and Angier's, then you miss out on the key to understanding the message of morality. Watch this movie again, with this theory in mind, and your experience will be different than it has ever been, beginning with the very first seconds of the film.

[cameronmaclaren]

christian bale was NOT a clone.. they were TWINS… but in saying tesla christian bale inadvertently lead hugh jackman down the path to find REAL CLONING, where he then cloned HIMSELF many times, but christian bale had such great success because they were not clones just TWINS….

[jaywelsh]

The most logical thing would be to clone once and use that clone as a double, show after show. Then no one has to die.

[jasongoodacre]

It's a nice theory but not true. Algiers clearly dies in the end and there is a murder trial. The story only works with the premise that the machine creates duplicates. That's the whole reason for the tanks. There aren't endless doppelgangers walking around.

[MendigoLouco]

In my mind the trick of the film is that you can't actually know whether or not the machine is real, and if it is real, whether Angier, Borden or both used it. Maybe I missed something, but I think it's left open to interpretation.

[DirtyDivinity]

So he went around finding doubles all over the country?

[yuhanwang]

This theory, if true, would undermine the narrative purpose of the movie, which is to showcase obsession and how it drives people to do terrible things. If this were all a trick and the machine does not clone Angier and Angier basically just uses a double, he is not really obsessed is he? He basically reigns himself to his fate and settles for less.

[rickdff]

How come when Borden/Fallon confronts Algiers at the end he's surprised then? If he knew Borden had a clone (or even suspected Tesla made him a machine too) he'd have known the "clone" trick and would have been like oh, so are you the clone or the real one? Instead he's shocked and says "a brother, a twin all this time".

[GarethVaughan-myfw]

Haven't seen this since it came out, but weren't they just twins ? Where did you get clones from ???

[kronictonic]

Interesting theory but it requires more mental gymnastics and questions then the truth of the clone/doubles machine. I don't agree but cool anyway

[Uppernorwood]

A clone made this video.

Nice try, but you can’t fool me.

[cabudagavin]

Na, they show the magic of Tesla in the beginning, to rule this out.
Tesla created a duplication machine, but time doesnt like doubles, so time devised a way to remove them.
Via misdirection, mainly, time confused the brothers, making them think that they killed Angiers wife, when in fact, it was time itself that forced it.
This was convenient for time, any other way creates more ripples.

[naveengta]

Brilliant. I never saw it that way.
Also the videos from channel are short and to the point unlike a 10 minute uninteresting video essays from YouTubers like CineRanter.

[AbdoAbdo-dbl]

Sorry but totally wrong.. Tesla did made the machine for Angier and Angier used it..if you have any brain's you'll notice that lord coldlow or whatever only shows up after the real transporter trick limited show so Angier got more risher by this show and started to call him self lord codlow