The Prestige - Christopher Nolan - 2006

★★★★★-"Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled." OMFG. This blew my fucking mind in when I saw it in 2006. Knowing the twists and stuff just made it more mind-blowing this time around. Holy shit, this is a great movie, and Christopher Nolan is fucking sick. 

Gist of the movie is Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians in late Victorian era England. They start out as friends before becoming rivals. It all starts when Jackman's wife, played by Piper Perabo--who will always be the Coyote Ugly girl to me, dies in an on-stage accident. The bit is one where Bale and Jackman tie her up, and she is submerged in a tank of water. They do this bit a lot, apparently, but this time something goes wrong, and she can't get out and drowns. Jackman blames Bale. It starts this whole thing that keeps escalating. Meanwhile, they are both creating the ultimate illusion ("they are illusions, Michael, a trick is something a whore does for money"). 

The cast is fucking sick. Not only do you have Bale and Jackman, but you also have the ever-lovely Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, David Bowie (perfectly cast as Nikola Tesla), and Michael Cain (who's always bomb). 

Movie is completely fucked. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale's characters are fucking horrible human beings. Dudes that hate each other so much that they would rather see the other fail than live happily. What the fuck, man? Get over your shit—some Cure at Troy type stuff. Jackman definitely distances himself in the all-time prick department, though, come the end of the movie. 

Ok. Fuck it. Huge spoiler. Dude gets a machine from Tesla that was supposed to teleport Jackman from one place to another. Instead, it clones whatever is in the device. So Jackman starts cloning himself for the trick. How does he deal with all these clones of himself? He kills them. Every night. Kills a clone. It isn't super clear, but he might be killing himself and letting the clone live. It's weird. Anyway, this eventually leads to him setting up Christian Bale for murder. Also, there are two Christian Bale's living one life. This movie is a huge mindfuck, and you can never be sure which version is which, but one of the Christian Bales, I'm pretty sure, is evil. All the Hugh Jackmans are evil, though. This movie is crazy and fucking genius. Also, seriously complex. If you want your mind seriously fucked, watch this and try to figure out which brother is which at different points in the movie. 

Rewatching all of his flicks again, sort of in order. All of them are great. However, so far, this one is my second favorite, after Interstellar.