well, just speaking theoretically (and it doesn't really matter), but just bear with me:

jackman remembers being transported to the top of the stage for every performance (since the person that gets transported remembers walking into the machine). from this person's perspective, it actually seems that he has been transported and not materialized out of thin air. As he's speaking that line, he has always been the prestige (he never has drowned in the tank).

[Edited on January 24, 2007 at 5:32 PM. Reason : he could also be speaking methaphorically, not literally (i don't remember the exact context)]

1/24/2007 5:31:53 PM

Exactly. And the other(original) Angier also remembers walking into the machine as he slowly drowns. It's a thought-provoking idea that the filmmakers managed to screw up for me before the flick was even over.

I've heard that in the novel the machine leaves behind a lifeless shell of a person. Not as engaging as the thought of nightly suicide.
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I give them credit for the scene early on where Angier tries to drown himself in the washpan after his wife is killed(but fails). He is obviously terrified of drowning, yet does the trick at the end anyway.

[Edited on January 24, 2007 at 9:21 PM. Reason : .]

1/24/2007 9:18:16 PM

tttwista

6/17/2007 11:35:27 AM

read the book, amazing. I'd say the best book I've read all year.

6/17/2007 11:42:04 AM

cool ass movie...all types of plot twists that i did not expect

6/18/2007 1:12:26 PM