History Film / ThePrestige

* SlobsVersusSnobs: Working-class cockney Borden and aristocratic Lord Cawdlow ([[spoiler:who turns out to be Angier]]).

** In the film version, Borden purposely allows his journal to fall into Angier's hands. The journal [[RedHerring contains none of Borden's secrets]] and is intended to send Angier on a wild goose chase, however his discovery of one word within the journal - [[spoiler:Tesla]] - ultimately leads to the creation of the Real Transported Man and his final scheme to bring down Borden.

* KillingYourAlternateSelf: [[spoiler:The machine creates a perfect clone of Angier each time he uses it. Every time he did the trick, however, it was apparently random as to who would wind up in the box and who would wind up on stage. This is highlighted in the final shot of the movie, which depicts rows and rows of water tanks, with the implication that there's a dead Angier in ''every single one of them''.]]

Also, this film has UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla [[JustForFun/MadeOfWin played by]] Music/DavidBowie.

* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Angier's clone is a perfect replica in every part from clothes to memories, created instantaneously. Of ''course'' he thinks he's the original, all the way until the next performance when he clones and drowns himself.]]

* BedTrick: Notably {{AvertedTrope averted.]] [[spoiler: Despite the Borden twins presenting themselves as one person to everyone including their lovers, there is a scene where one twin refuses Olivia's advances, with her response indicating this isn't the first time. Additionally, when Sarah informs her husband('s brother) she's pregnant, he joyfully exclaims they should have told Fallon, implying that he himself is certain that he isn't the father.]]

* WeddingRingRemoval: During TheReveal that Borden's having an affair with Olivia, there's a scene where he kisses her while rolling his wedding ring across his knuckles with his free hand. [[spoiler: Then again, Borden is secretly a pair of identical twins and only one of them, Alfred, is in love with his wife, Sarah, unlike the other twin Frederick.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: Both Angier and Borden were considerably more sympathetic in the book.

* DoingItForTheArt:
** InUniverse, Angier is after the Transported Man trick simply because it'll make a great show, while Borden wants to try and push the limits of the art of magic. Arguably, the whole movie could be seen as a debate on the nature of art in general. However, over the course of the film they become more and more like each other, their obsessions causing mild cases of MotiveDecay for both of them.
** Also present in the book where Borden's disgust at Angier is fueled [[spoiler: by Angier being paid for spiritism sessions. Borden hates that Angier pretends to have supernatural skills because it's disingenuous but also because it undermines the actual skills needed for the illusions.]]

** The English Lord Caldlow, on the other hand, [[spoiler:pretty perfectly plays himself as the [[TheReveal American Robert Angier throughout the film]] with no clues given to the deception save for one line spoken to his wife, alongside his seemingly inexhaustible funds, (and even then, a first time viewer may assume he’s simply from a wealthy American family rather than English nobility) thus performing at a higher and more intuitive level than Borden in his disguise.]]

* BookEnds: Michael Caine showing the bird trick to the little girl in both the beginning and the end. Interestingly, it's a bit creepier at the end because you know how it's done.

* InsaneTrollLogic: [[spoiler:Angier didn't need multiple clones to perform his last trick, as one would have sufficed. The whole killing of the copies in water tanks served one purpose: to entrap Borden as his "killer", as the latter wouldn't be able to resist the curiosity of snooping around to figure out how Angier pulled it off.]]

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Deliberately invoked. Tesla's invention of [[spoiler:a perfect matter replicator [[CutLexLuthorACheck could be put to many more benevolent and/or lucrative uses than a stage performance]]. However, Angier only cared about the show and taking on revenge against Borden, and Tesla, aware of Angier's obsession, wants him to destroy the machine to stop him from going too far.]] The story also deliberately cuts off all further developments by having Edison's men destroying Tesla's lab.

** Quite often, especially when Borden is telling Olivia that a part of him loves his wife, but a part of him love her.

** The English Lord Caldlow, on the other hand, [[spoiler:pretty perfectly plays himself as the [[TheReveal American Robert Angier throughout the film]] with no clues given to the deception save for one line spoken to his wife, alongside his seemingly inexhaustible funds, thus performing at a higher and more intuitive level than Borden in his disguise.]]

* {{Fingore}}: Borden jamming Angier's harmless birdcage trick, causing a poor volunteer's hand to get crushed, then Borden losing two fingers, [[spoiler:and subsequently his twin brother.]]

* BulletCatch: One of Borden's tricks is faking this. The act gets butchered by Angier who deliberately uses a real bullet to blow two of Borden's fingers off.

* TechnicianVersusPerformer: A key thematic element of the rivalry between Borden (the technician) and Angier (the performer). There's also a bit of this between Angier and his double (whose drunken antics have quite the theatric touch). [[spoiler: There are hints that the two Bordens differ on this as well--one is a technician, the other more or less along for the ride.]] The above is proved even more by the movie-long and incredibly spoilerific deceptions of Lord Caldlow and Fallon:

** [[spoiler:Angier and the audience have no way of knowing which of the doubles from Tesla's machine has the original person's consciousness. They're both exactly the same, so they both feel that they are the original.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: After the FaceHeelDoubleTurn described above, Borden destroys audience sympathy by [[spoiler:driving his brother's beloved wife to suicide to keep her from meddling in his own affair with Olivia.]]

** [[spoiler:Borden telling Olivia, "Part of me loves Sarah."]]