The Prestige Trivia Quiz

Answer: Christopher Priest

Christopher Priest was an English novelist. His work on the novel earned him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for best fiction and also the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Priest was one of the 20 Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 1983.

Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan was the director of this movie. Samuel Mendes (the director of "Cabaret", "Road to Prediction" and "American Beauty") showed interest to adapt the novel for the screen after reading the novel, but Priest turned down the offer.

Priest eventually chose Nolan to be the director of the movie because he loved Nolan's works in both "Following" and "Memento".

Answer: "What knot did you tie?"

Alfred Borden and Robert Angier were both good friends in the beginning. They both worked for Milton the Magician with his helpers, Julia (Robert's wife) and Cutter. During the performance, both of them would disguise as audiences and they two would be picked as the "volunteers" to go onto the stage. Alfred tied Julia's wrists while Robert tied her legs.

After each show, Alfred, Robert, Julia and Cutter would discuss their performance behind the stage. Cutter noticed that Alfred used a different type of knot to tie Julia's wrists so he warned him not to use that knot since Julia might not be able to untie the knot.

During the show where the tragedy happened, Alfred was halfway tying Julia's wrists when he changed his mind. He untied it quickly and tied them up again using another type of knot. Then, Julia was lifted up and dropped into a Chinese torture water cell. The curtain was drawn and Cutter began his timing on his stopwatch. It was just a matter of time before he realized that something had gone terribly wrong.

He pulled up the curtain to find out Julia was still in the cell, struggling and gasping for air. He used his axe to break the glass but it was too late. Julia died in the performance. The audiences were shocked; while Robert mourned over her death on the stage.

Robert suspected Alfred was using a different knot to tie Julia's wrists. During his wife's funeral, he asked Alfred what knot he tied. Alfred said he did not know. There were two possible explanations for his answer which was not revealed in the movie. One was that it was Alfred's twin who was tying up Julia's wrists during the show, so Alfred was telling the truth when Robert asked him that question. Another one was that it was really Alfred who tied the knot, but he was confused at the moment. He was probably thinking about Cutter's word during the show.

Answer: The Great Danton

Robert performed under the name of The Great Danton. This name was suggested by his late wife. Robert thought the name was too French when Julia told him this idea. Cutter thought that the name was too old-fashioned, but Robert insisted on that name to commemorate his wife.

Answer: He lost two fingers.

Still grieving over his wife's death, Robert disguised himself in a beard and attended Alfred's performance. Alfred was performing the bullet catch trick for that night.

Before Robert fired the gun, he asked Alfred once again what knot did he tie. This was overheard by Fallon who was standing nearby, and he recognized the "volunteer" as Robert. He dived in and pushed Alfred away. The shot hit Alfred's fingers.

In order to make their performance more appealing to the audiences, the Borden brothers went to the great extent of cutting off the other twin's fingers.

Answer: Sacrifice

Alfred met his wife, Sarah during a parlor magic show. At that time, Sarah was bringing her nephew to the show but Alfred thought that he was Sarah's son. They were watching the vanishing bird cage magic trick and the boy cried and shouted that the magician had killed the bird. Sarah comforted him and said that the magician would bring back the bird, but the boy insisted that the bird was dead.

In fact, the bird was really killed by the magician. The second bird that was shown by the magician was another bird of the same color and size, but the audiences thought that it was the same bird. The first bird in the cage sacrificed itself in order for the second bird to make its appearance and win the audiences' hearts. This sacrifice bore great resemblance with the act of Alfred's twin brother (known as "Fallon") who was sentenced to death by the court. He did this in order to save his brother.

Answer: Yes

Borden came out with his latest trick, called The Transported Man to astonish the audiences. After bouncing a rubber ball across the stage, he went in through a door and appeared on another door at the other end of the stage, catching the very same rubber ball. Even Robert who went to the show was mesmerized by his latest trick and he told his new assistant, Olivia that it was the best magic trick he had ever seen. However, he just could not figure out the secret behind the trick. Olivia was also sure that it was the same person who appeared on the other side of the door.

Actually, Alfred had a twin brother, who acted as his body double during the show. This secret was only known to the twin brothers, not even to Alfred's wife, Sarah. However, Robert thought that Cutter's explanation was too simple and he insisted that there were other secrets behind the trick.

Answer: TESLA

Robert was desperate to know Alfred's secret for his version of The Transported Man, so he sent his assistant, Olivia to work for Alfred to be his spy. Olivia fell in love with Alfred and she double-crossed Angier. Under Alfred's instruction, Olivia took Alfred's diary to Robert. The diary contained all the secrets of Alfred's magic tricks. However, it was an enciphered diary that needed a five-letter word to decode it.

Robert and Cutter tricked Fallon into a street where he fell into a big wooden box. Cutter nailed the box. Robert set up a meeting with Alfred, asking him to give him the code in exchange for Fallon, who was actually Alfred's twin brother in disguise. Alfred gave him the code-TESLA. Soon, Robert embarked on his journey to Colorado Springs to meet Nikola Tesla, asking him to build the very same box for him for his magic show, but little did he know that this was actually a trap set up by Alfred. Robert eventually knew about this set up when he read Alfred's diary.

Answer: "No, not today."

Throughout the movie, Sarah asked Alfred whether he loved her or not. From Alfred's answer, Sarah could tell whether he really meant what he said or not. Little did Sarah know that sometimes she was talking to Alfred, but sometimes she was actually talking to Alfred's twin. She had a big fight with Alfred's twin brother before she committed suicide. She thought that she was talking to Alfred but it was Alfred's twin brother she was talking to. Her daughter, Jess was crying outside the room when she heard them quarreling. She was then approached and comforted by Fallon, who was the real Alfred; Sarah's real husband and Jess' real father.

Actually, the real Alfred loved his wife, Sarah very much; while his twin brother was really in love in Olivia. Alfred did not cheat on this wife and neither did his twin brother.

Answer: Alfred's twin brother and Robert

Alfred's twin brother was watching Robert's version of The Transported Man. He volunteered himself to go onto the stage to check the equipment. Then he sneaked backstage, only to find out that Robert was trapped in the Chinese torture water cell.

Alfred's twin brother was sentenced to death by the court. Alfred visited him in the jail. His twin brother said he was sorry for everything, including Sarah's death. He said after he died, Alfred would live for both of them.

Alfred later showed up and shot Angier. Before he died, Alfred revealed his secret of The Transported Man to Robert. He also confronted Robert with the fact that he had made great sacrifice for his dedication to his art and magic performance. Robert said that he needed great courage to walk onto the stage every night, because he did not know whether he would be the man who would drown to death, or the man who appeared on the balcony as The Prestige.

Answer: Prestige

The full quote is "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"."

Cutter was Angier's illusion engineer. In the beginning of the movie, he was seen performing a magic trick for a kid, who was later revealed to be Jess, Alfred's daughter.

For "The Pledge", he showed the girl a bird. He continued with "The Turn", where he made the bird disappear from the girl's view. Lastly, for "The Prestige", he brought back the bird that had vanished into thin air earlier on.

After this scene, we saw that Alfred ended up in a jail. Then, through his diary, the storyline unfolded and eventually this very same scene where Cutter was performing a magic trick to Jess was shown again towards the end of the movie where Alfred was reunited with his daughter.