Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Prestige

The movie The Prestige follows an intricate and remarkable story about the rivalry between the two 20th century magicians, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this movie’s story grows from simple acquaintances to taking drastic measures just to one-up each other, and be the better magician. The movie contains many plot twists, the largest of which was that Borden and his ingénieur Fallon were actually twins in disguise. This and some of the other plot twists were heavily foreshadowed in the movie. This is demonstrated in Fallon’s relationship with Jess, Fallon’s importance to Borden, and with some theatrical foreshadowing. Fallon’s close relationship with Jess, Borden’s daughter, is an example of this foreshadowing. This relationship is shown when Fallon comforts Jess while Borden and his wife, Sarah, are fighting. It’s abnormal that his ingénieur be so involved in …show more content…
One example is presented early in the film. After one of the shows, where a bird is made to disappear then reappear, a young boy asks Borden a question, “But where’s his brother?”. This connects because of how the bird is made to disappear and is replaced, and so are Borden and Fallon. It foreshadows how they also disappear and replace each other periodically. It even connects to ending, one Borden is killed, as is the bird, but another appears to everyone’s amaze. Furthermore, another example of theatrical foreshadowing is with the Chinese magician. Borden quickly identified the chinaman’s trick, that his life is not as it seems, that he dedicates himself to the act. This resembles how Borden and Fallon are dedicated to their act. It is also interesting to note how Borden caught his trick immediately, but companion Angier, needed some convincing that it was possible. In some ways the ideas presented in this movie had underlying meanings, and foreshadowed the truth about Borden and