Vanishing Bird Cage Analysis

Vanishing Bird Cage In the movie The Prestige Christopher Nolan uses the vanishing bird cage trick to establish the themes of secrecy and sacrifice throughout the movie. In the bigger spectrum of the movie the bird trick is a motif used to represent Borden and Angier’s methods for the transporting man. The first bird being smashed to death represents sacrifice and being replaced by a different bird without common knowledge represents the secrecy and lying that comes along with being a magician. With Borden the bird cage relates directly between him and his twin brother with whom he uses to trick everyone, including his family, friends, and the audience. Killing the first bird and sacrificing it represents the twin that is later hung; the second bird that comes out of the trick alive represents the twin that ends up living and gaining custody over their daughter. Borden sacrificed his …show more content…
The first bird dying represents the Angier that gets locked in the tank and drowns. The second bird that comes out alive relates to the Angier that shows up after and receives the applause. Angier sacrifices his morals, money, and self-respect in order to pull of the transporting man trick that he was so obsessed with discovering. He also risks being the sacrifice of the trick every time it’s preformed and never knows if he’ll be the one that suffers or the one that gets the approval of the crowd. Angier keeps his trick secret from Cutter and Borden until the very end of the movie to convince everyone Borden killed him so he would be hung and lose the only person left he loved. For Angier framing Borden stole away the only person left that Borden loved much like how Borden stole away Angier’s fame. It could be argued that it was revenge for Julia but Angier clearly states that at one point it stopped being about her and more about the