The Prestige turns 20 this week, and the film’s own making is as carefully staged as the rival magicians at its centre. Christopher Nolan’s mystery thriller took a long road to the screen, then used a three-part structure that mirrors the stage illusion. Here is the breakdown of how the rival magicians’ tricks and toll were staged.
The screenplay was built like a three-part illusion
Jonathan and Christopher Nolan developed the script intermittently over five years. The three-act screenplay was deliberately structured around the three elements of the film’s illusion: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige.
Christopher Nolan told Variety that finding cinematic equivalents for the novel’s shifting points of view, journals within journals and stories within stories was very complex.
Christopher Priest called the script brilliant
Producer Valerie Dean brought Christopher Priest’s novel to Nolan’s attention. Priest was impressed with Nolan’s Following and Memento, and later described the script as “an extraordinary and brilliant script, a fascinating adaptation of my novel.”
The novel changed in two major ways
The film is thematically faithful to the book. During adaptation, the spiritualism subplot was removed, and the modern-day frame story was replaced with Borden’s wait for the gallows.
LA’s Tower Theatre doubled for London
The historic Tower Theatre in Los Angeles was used as the location for the Pantages Theatre in London. Highgate later featured in the scene where Angier ransoms Borden’s stage engineer in Highgate Cemetery.
Nolan cast his leads after Batman Begins
In early 2003, Nolan planned to direct the film before Batman Begins accelerated. Following the release of Batman Begins, he restarted the project, negotiating with Jackman and Bale in October 2005. Josh Hartnett pitched Nolan for a role.
The score followed the Pledge, Turn and Prestige
David Julyan, who had scored Following, Memento and Insomnia, wrote the film’s music. The soundtrack was split into the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige. Thom Yorke’s “Analyse” played over the credits, while Gackt’s “Returner” was the theme song in the Japanese version.
The rivalry was also class warfare
Borden was The Professor, a working-class magician who gets his hands dirty. Angier was The Great Danton, a classy, elitist showman whose accent made him appear American. Their struggle was expressed through class warfare.
It opened at #1 and now gets a 20th-anniversary return
Touchstone Pictures moved the release date forward by a week, from October 27 to October 20, 2006. The film earned $14.8 million on opening weekend in the United States, debuting at #1, and grossed $109 million worldwide, including $53 million from the United States.
The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. In July 2026, it was announced that The Prestige would be theatrically re-released in January 2027 for the film’s 20th anniversary.
Which of these details surprised you most? Share your own favourite fact about The Prestige.
Facts from Wikipedia: The Prestige, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.