The Prestige Movie Quotes
Cutter
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. 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 know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."
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[last lines]
Cutter
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.
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[first lines]
Alfred Borden
Are you watching closely?
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Officer
Do you have anything to say?
Alfred Borden
Abracadabra.
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Alfred Borden
The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.
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Alfred Borden
You went half way around the world, you spent a fortune, you did terrible things - really terrible things, Robert, and all for nothing.
Robert Angier
For nothing?
Alfred Borden
Yeah
Robert Angier
You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces...
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Alfred Borden
So... we go alone now. Both of us. Only I don't have as far to go as you. Go. You were right, I should have left him to his damn trick. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry about Sarah. I didn't mean to hurt her... I didn't. You go and live your life in full now, all right? You live for both of us.
Fallon
Goodbye.
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Nikola Tesla
You're familiar with the phrase "man's reach exceeds his grasp"? It's a lie: man's grasp exceeds his nerve.
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Cutter
Take a minute to consider your achievement. I once told you about a sailor who drowned.
Robert Angier
Yes, he said it was like going home.
Cutter
I lied. He said it was agony.
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[after showing a little boy how to do a coin trick]
Alfred Borden
Never show anyone. They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them.
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Nikola Tesla
Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine?
Robert Angier
Price is not an object.
Nikola Tesla
Perhaps not, but have you considered the *cost*?
Robert Angier
I'm not sure I follow.
Nikola Tesla
Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.
Robert Angier
Why, haven't good come of your obsessions?
Nikola Tesla
Well, at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave... and one day they'll choose to destroy me.
Robert Angier
If you understand an obsession, then you know you won't change my mind.
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Alfred Borden
Everything's going to be alright, because I love you very much.
Sarah
Say it again.
Alfred Borden
I love you.
Sarah
Not today.
Alfred Borden
What do you mean?
Sarah
Well some days it's not true. Maybe today you're more in love with magic. I like being able to tell the difference, it makes the days it is true mean something.
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Robert Angier
No one cares about the man in the box, the man who disappears.
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Alfred Borden
I love you.
Sarah
You mean it today.
Alfred Borden
Of course.
Sarah
It just makes it so much harder when you don't.
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Sarah
Alfred, I can't live like this!
Alfred Borden
Well, what do you want from me?
Sarah
I want... I want you to be honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets.
[pause]
Sarah
Do you... do you love me?
Alfred Borden
Not today. No.
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Olivia Wenscombe
You married her. You had a child with her.
Alfred Borden
Yes. Part of me did. But the other part... the other part didn't. The part that found you, the part that's sitting here right now.
Olivia Wenscombe
You could be in some other cafe saying the same thing about me right now. It's inhuman to be so cold.
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Nikola Tesla
Nothing is impossible, Mr. Angier. What you want is simply expensive.
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Alfred Borden
We both had half of a full life, which was somehow enough for us. But not for them.
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Nikola Tesla
Society tolerates only one change at a time.
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Nikola Tesla
I apologize for leaving without saying goodbye, but I seem to have outstayed my welcome in Colorado. The truly extraordinary is not permitted in science and industry. Perhaps you'll find more luck in your field, where people are happy to be mystified. You will find what you are looking for in this box. Alley has written you a thorough set of instructions. I add only one suggestion on using the machine: destroy it. Drop it to the bottom of the deepest ocean. Such a thing will bring you only misery.
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[last lines]
Cutter
Every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts. The first part is called the pledge, the magician shows you something ordinary. The second act is called the turn, the magician takes the ordinary something and makes it into something extraordinary. But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it BACK. 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.
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Alfred Borden
Simple maybe, but not easy.
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Cutter
Obsession is a young man's game
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[repeated line]
Alfred Borden
Are you watching closely?
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Robert Angier
Which hat is mine?
Nikola Tesla
They are all your hat, Mr. Angier.
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Alfred Borden
See, sacrifice, Robert. That's the price of a good trick. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
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[Borden shoots Angier in the waist, picking up the red rubber ball, when the two reveal their prestige to one another]
Robert Angier
A brother... a twin. You were Fallon... the whole time?
Alfred Borden
No. We were both Fallon. And we were both Borden.
Robert Angier
[panting]
Were you - were you the one who went into the box or the one who came back out?
Alfred Borden
We took turns. The trick is where we would swap.
[we see the flashback of both twins performing The Transported Man]
Robert Angier
[breathing heavily]
Cutter knew. Cutter knew. But I told him it was too simple, too easy.
Alfred Borden
No... simple, maybe, but not easy. There's nothing easy about two men sharing one life.
[we see the flashback showing one of the twins cutting the other twins' fingers off]
Robert Angier
Wh-What about Olivia? And your wife?
Alfred Borden
We each loved one of them.
[we see the flashback of both lovers]
Alfred Borden
I loved Sarah. He loved Olivia. We each had half a full life, really, which was enough for us. Just... but not for them. You see, sacrifice, Robert - that's the price of a good trick. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
[wheezing]
Robert Angier
Yes.
Alfred Borden
It takes nothing to steal another man's work.
Robert Angier
It takes everything.
[we see the flashback of Angier killing the clone of himself while doing The Real Transported Man trick]
Robert Angier
It took courage... it took courage to climb into that machine every night... not knowing... if I'd be the man in the box... or the prestige. Do you want - want to see. What it cost me? Y-you didn't see where you are, did you? Look. Look
Alfred Borden
Look here... you went halfway around the world. You spent a fortune. You did terrible things... really terrible things, Robert. And all for nothing.
Robert Angier
For nothing?
Alfred Borden
Yeah.
Robert Angier
You never understood... why we did this? The audience knows the truth - the world is simple... and miserable... solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder. And then you... then you got to see something very special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces.
[Angier wheezes and exhales, collapsing dead, and Borden walks out of the theatre alone]
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Alfred Borden
What does he need my secrets for? His trick is top-notch. He vanishes, and then he reappears instantly on the other side of the stage - mute, overweight, and unless I'm mistaken, very drunk. It's astonishing, how does he do it?
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Nikola Tesla
Things don't always go as planned, Mr. Angier. That's the beauty of science.
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Robert Angier
But here, at the turn, I must leave you Borden. Yes, you, Borden, sitting there in your cell, awaiting your death. For my murder.
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Alfred Borden
Does he enjoy taking his bows under the stage?
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Robert Angier
He's a dreadful magician.
Cutter
No, he's a wonderful magician. He's a dreadful showman.
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Nikola Tesla
Exact science, Mr Angier, is not an exact science.
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Gerald Root
You would drink, too, if you knew the world half as well as I do.
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[after finding Gerald Root, Angier's new double]
Cutter
He's perfect. He needs some work, but when I get through with him, he could be your brother.
Robert Angier
I don't need him to be my brother, I need him to be *me*!
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Robert Angier
How fast can you dig?
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Robert Angier
Would I be the man in the box or the prestige?
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Robert Angier
Man's reach exceeds his imagination!
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Sarah
No more lies. No more secrets.
Alfred Borden
Secrets are my life.
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Cutter
I knew a sailor once, got tangled in the rigging. We pulled him out, but it took him five minutes to cough. He said it was like going home.
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Alfred Borden
He came in to demand an answer and I told him the truth. That I have fought with myself over that night, one half of me swearing blind that I tied a simple slipknot, the other half convinced that I tied the Langford double. I can never know for sure.
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Alfred Borden
He's progressive, he's predictable, he's boring. I mean, Milton's got success, whatever that means, and now he's scared, he won't take any risks at all. I mean, he's squandering the goodwill of the audience with these tired, second-rate tricks...
Robert Angier
They're all favorites, please...
Alfred Borden
Favorites? Come on, give me something fresh, he wont even try a bloody bullet catch!
Cutter
A bullet catch is suicide, all it takes is some smart-ass volunteer to put a button in the barrel...
Alfred Borden
Fine, use a plant!
Robert Angier
You can't use plants for every trick!
Julia McCullough
There'll be no seats left for the punters!
[laughs]
Alfred Borden
Fine, no bullet catch, whatever, but the point is... a real magician tries to invent something new, that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over, you know?
Cutter
Right, then you sell it to him for a small fortune?
Alfred Borden
All right...
Cutter
I suppose you have such a trick?
Alfred Borden
Actually, I do.
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Robert Angier
[to Borden]
You always were the better magician. We both know that. Whatever your secret was, you have to agree, mine is better.
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Gerald Root
Did you think you were unique, Mr Angier? I've been Caesar. I've played Faust. How hard could it possibly be to play the Great Danton?
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Judge
What a way to kill someone.
Cutter
They're magicians, your honor. Men who live by dressing up plain and simple truths to shock, to amaze.
Judge
Even without an audience?
Cutter
There was an audience. You see, this water tank was of particular significance to these two men. Particularly dreadful significance.
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Robert Angier
He lives his act.
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Robert Angier
I thought you said I'd have to get my hands dirty.
Cutter
Maybe someday you will; I just needed to know that you could.
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Robert Angier
Where are the wires?
Alley
Exactly.
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Robert Angier
What knot did you tie?
Alfred Borden
I don't know.
Robert Angier
You don't know?
[Alfred walks off]
Robert Angier
You don't *know*?
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Robert Angier
The man stole my life. I steal his trick.
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Olivia Wenscombe
It won't bring your wife back.
Robert Angier
I don't care about my wife. I care about his secret.
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Burly Stagehand
Hey you! Where do you think you're going?
Alfred Borden
I'm part of the bloody act, you fool!
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Robert Angier
My passion is equal to the task.
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Hotel Manager
I thought they might work for the government.
Robert Angier
No?
Hotel Manager
Worse. They work for Thomas Edison.
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Alfred Borden
You're not afraid to get your hands dirty anymore, are you?
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Robert Angier
It was the greatest magic trick I've ever seen.
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Sarah
I know what you really are. And Alfred, I can't live like this.
Alfred Borden
Oh, you think I can live like this? You think I bloody enjoy living like this? We have a beautiful house, lovely little girl, we're married, what is so wrong with your life?
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Cutter
You're a magician, not a wizard.
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Olivia Wenscombe
He says that it's even between you.
Robert Angier
Even? My wife for a few of his fingers?
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Robert Angier
I never thought I'd find an answer at the bottom of a pint glass.
Cutter
Hasn't stopped you looking, has it?
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Judge
How large do you think this tank was?
Cutter
Eh... 400, 500 gallons, maybe.
Judge
And how do you think he was able to move ta tank of this size?
Cutter
He's the magician. Why don't you ask him?
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Cutter
You settled on a name yet?
Robert Angier
Yes, I have. The Great Danton.
Cutter
Bit old-fashioned isn't it?
Robert Angier
No. It's sophisticated.
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Nikola Tesla
Don't forget your hat, Mr. Angier.
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[Borden is explaining how he used a double in his act]
Alfred Borden
What I didn't count on was that, when I incorporated this bloke into my act, he had complete power over me.
Gerald Root
Complete power, you say?
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Alfred Borden
I don't know.
Robert Angier
[shoots him]
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Sullen Warder
How did you get so famous then, eh?
Alfred Borden
Magic.
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Robert Angier
I haven't had a chance yet to compliment you on your beautiful theatre.
Merrit
It'll be a lot more beautiful when it's full, Mr Angier.
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Robert Angier
Many of you may be familiar with this technique, but for those of you who aren't, do not be alarmed. What you're about to see is considered safe.
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Julia McCullough
I thought up a name for you: The Great Danton. Do you like it? It's sophisticated.
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Sarah
Alfred I can't live like *this*!
Alfred Borden
Well, what do you want from me?
Sarah
I want - I want you to be, honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets.
[pause]
Sarah
Do you - do you love me?
Alfred Borden
Not today. No.
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[Root is performing as Angier's double]
Cutter
You can go back to being yourself now, Root. For nothing.
Gerald Root
I'd rather be him for now. I find it... amusing.
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Cutter
I came here to beg Lord Caldlow to destroy that machine. I am not going to beg you for anything.
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Ackerman
We'll have to dress it up a little. Disguise it. Give them enough reason to doubt it.
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Cutter
I saw you, drop the knot again...?
Julia McCullough
I think I turned my wrist...
Cutter
Some nights you just don't get it, do you? I mean, if that knot slips and Julia's on the hoist, she'll break her leg!
Alfred Borden
It's a wrong knot.
[pause, Cutter stares at him]
Alfred Borden
Like I said, the Langfeld Double will hold tighter!
Cutter
The Langfeld Double isn't a wet knot! It's too dangerous - if the rope swells up, she won't be able to slip it!
Julia McCullough
I can slip a Langfeld underwater.
Robert Angier
Hey, Borden, he said no!
Cutter
Listen! No more mistakes!
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[Discussing Borden's trick]
Robert Angier
How does he do it?
Cutter
He uses a double.
Robert Angier
No, no, no, no. It's too simple. This is a complex illusion.
Cutter
You only say that because you don't know the method. It's a double that comes out of the other end, I promise you.
Robert Angier
I've seen the show three times now, Mr. Cutter, and the prestige is the same man coming out of the second box.
Cutter
No, it's not.
Olivia Wenscombe
It's the same man. He wears gloves to hide his fingers, but if you look closely you can tell.
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Cutter
Ready to meet yourself, Mr Angier?
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[Angier gives a speech to the audience about The Real Transported Man magic trick]
Robert Angier
In my travels, I have seen the future... And it is a strange future indeed. The world, ladies and gentleman, is on the brink of new, terrifying possibilities.
[Angier taps the stage floor and the curtain rises behind him]
Robert Angier
What you are about to witness is not magic. It is purely science. I would like to invite you to come up on stage now so that you can examine the machine for yourselves.
[audience members go up on stage and examine the machine, finally, Angier calmly takes off his jacket, makes his way into the machine alone, in a matter of seconds he vanishes as the audience members murmur amongst each other]
Robert Angier
[on the top balcony Angier appears in the spotlight with his arms up]
Man's reach exceeds his imagination!
[the audience continuously roars and applauds his magic trick]
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Cutter
Could I talk to Lord Caldlow in person?
Owens
Out of the question, I'm afraid. Although I suppose if, in the course of your deliveries, your paths were to cross... I can't help you speaking your mind.
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Alfred Borden
The key! Where's the bloody key?
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[Olivia visits Alfred Borden in his workshop. Bernard Fallon is there too]
Olivia Wenscombe
I'm here to give your show what's still missing.
Alfred Borden
Yeah? What might that be?
Olivia Wenscombe
Me.
[Borden laughs]
Alfred Borden
I was just saying that; weren't I, Bernard? Woman's touch.
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Sarah
I know what you really are, and Alfred, I can't live like this.
Alfred Borden
Oh, you think I can live like this? You think I bloody enjoy living like this? We have a beautiful house, lovely little girl, we're married, what is *so* wrong with your life?
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Cutter
Where are *you* from?
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[Discussing Borden's show]
Robert Angier
He had a new trick today.
Olivia Wenscombe
Was it good?
Robert Angier
It was the most amazing magic trick I've ever seen.
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Merrit
I've hired a comedian. You know I hate comedians.
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Robert Angier
So what's going to be the climax of our show?
Merrit
Show? You don't have a show.
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Olivia Wenscombe
I *have* fallen in love with him, Robert.
Robert Angier
Then I know how hard this has been for you.
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Olivia Wenscombe
Why would he trust me?
Robert Angier
Because you're going to tell him the truth.
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Olivia Wenscombe
The Great Danton is a blind fool!
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Sullen Warder
The only way Borden's going to disappear is if I leave him out there with the other inmates.
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Nikola Tesla
Society only tolerates one change at the time. First time I tried to change to world, I was hailed as a visionary. Second time, I was asked politely to retire. So here I am, enjoying my retirement.
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Executioner
Any last words?
Alfred Borden
Abracadabra.
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Ackerman
Give them cause enough to doubt it.
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