This isn't a review, this is a decision…

PART 1 – The Nutshell – If you haven’t seen it

A spoiler-free breakdown of The Prestige, but more importantly, a breakdown of whether this is your kind of movie and if it's worth your time.

An exploration of what makes this episode different: the tension in the room, the immediate disagreement, and the feeling that this film demands more from you than most.

A look at the type of movie night this creates, not passive viewing, not background noise, but something that requires attention and rewards it.

By the end of Part 1, you’ll know whether this is a film you should queue up… and whether you’re ready for it.

PART 2 – The Unboxing – If you’ve seen it

What Did You Miss?

We dig into:

The subtle details that completely reframe your interpretation.

The element that divided us most in the studio.

Whether emotional connection matters more than technical brilliance.

And the one question that turned into a genuine back-and-forth.

This isn’t surface-level praise. It’s a proper discussion about what makes something great and what just makes it clever.

You’ll hear:

The moment Darren changed his stance mid-discussion

Marc pushing back hard on one specific point

Paul trying to keep the peace… and then choosing a side

It’s one of our most balanced — and most split — debates.

Paul’s Facts of the Day

A tightly packed set of production insights and behind-the-scenes details, including:

How Christopher Nolan positioned this film within his career.

Casting decisions that shaped the tone, including Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman.

And the context that explains why this film still sparks discussion nearly two decades later.

Hate It or Rate It?

This is where it gets interesting.

The scores are close… but the reasoning couldn’t be more different.

Finally we reveal where it lands in the Legend League and the Listener League.

Does this long-awaited Listener Choice live up to expectation?

PART 3 – Listener Lounge

Joe Lamb’s year-long campaign finally pays off.

We read out your responses to last week’s Question of the Week and share a real-life story that genuinely felt cinematic — one that Marc forgot to tell before and finally delivers here.

Question of the Week

Best movie rivalries?

On-screen. Off-screen. Even your own real-life ones.

We want your stories.

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See how listeners rated the movies they chose

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View the Legend League

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All music licensed under Creative Commons.

We were friends, but it was like that friendship where you would throw a

shin with a bus at the drop of a hat.

I do that with most people.

We're next.

I was gonna say. He's lining us up. Keep saying here in the notes, sir Christopher Nolan. Did that happen?

I hope so.

Well, it seems to be in the notes, so there you go.

You got the last one wrong. Didn't we?

Yeah, we did. We said that can be right and it.

Hello and welcome to Movies in a Nutshell with me, Marc Farquhar, myself, Darren

Horn, and I, Paul Day.

We help you spend less time browsing and more time watching.

If you've seen the movie, we'll reveal what you might have missed.

If you haven't, we'll give you a quick spoiler free breakdown.

We've got behind the scenes trivia, including Paul's facts of the day host ratings

and our legend league table.

Plus your chance to choose a movie.

This is the listener choice that he's been trying to get for how long?

Since day one.

Wow.

He listened to our episodes that we put out before we launched the pilot episodes.

Wow.

Which may come out as bonus episodes at some point. That'd be a good idea. I think.

Maybe. It's been a while since I've heard him, but yeah.

And he has requested this movie every. Apart from the Christmas ones, obviously. So he has been requesting the prestige since. For over a year.

Finally, we're here.

Here we are, February 26th.

Amazing listener choice. That's good persistence.

It is fair play. Joe Lamb. I want to find. I need to find out from him what his celebrations were like when he found out.

Well, you reckon he had proper party, don't you?

We'll find out.

It's funny giving up. He doesn't listen anymore. It's just gone.

He's on auto. But the entry's coming automatically on a loop. He's not even here anymore.

He's just encoded it with a binary thing that just sends it off. Yeah, what they called the bottom.

He's a bit of AI. Okay, so we're in part one, which we like to call the nutshell, where we break the movie down. Spoiler free.

To help you decide if this movie is your kind of movie and if it's worth your time. In a nutshell. How do we break this down for someone, let's say someone has not seen this movie. Let's give them what they need.

What would you say, Darren?

It's just about the rivalry between two magicians, as in magic show magicians, and the extent that they will go to outperform each other. And it's very similar to Christian Bale's been in a similar one. Is that Lamborghini versus Ford or Ford

versus Ford versus Ferrari?

Sweet.

So, yeah, that's it. And then what's that movie? The other magic movie? Is it now you see it.

Now you see it. And they've done a sequel to it and I think there's another one coming up.

So it's. Now you see it meets Fight Club.

Good. I had. What did I have? I had Amadeus meets Seven.

Oh, David Fincher movie in there. And then Fight Clubs is David Fincher movies.

Amadeus is the. Isn't it?

Yeah, I think so.

I had to look it up. I was like. I was looking for movies that were like in the same vein. I was like, don't know what that is. I looked it up. Oh, yeah, I'll go for that.

I knew what seven was.

I've got Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes meets Inception meets the Illusionist, which I haven't seen, but I imagine it's similar.

Well, on the surface it's about magic, but deep down it's about obsession.

Yeah, absolutely. Obsession and rivalry and what it takes to be the best. Kind of going back to Devil Wears Prada, like, what does greatness cost?

Also touching on the Greatest Showman because it's also about, you know, who's the greatest magician, but also who's the greatest showman. It is, obviously Hugh Jackman is the greatest Showman.

It's the ultimate high risk game of one upmanship between two rivals in Victorian times.

And it's really. It's Christopher Nolan as a director who's done Tenant and Inception and other movies that really, you have to be paying attention to follow it.

So this probably isn't a movie that you want to be drinking.

It's not a background movie.

No, not a background movie. You're going to be leaning in and ideally taking notes.

Yeah. Maybe watch it again.

And like many of Chris Nolan's films, it's one of those that it doesn't have a linear time structure. It jumps around in the timeline. So you have to really do get

a payoff with your. With your attention. But yeah, you've got a. It's not straightforward.

But the reason we do this is because some people now go, oh, that's not for me then. Yeah. They've already. Which is fine.

I want to watch it whilst we do.

Some people are going, oh, that sounds interesting. Other people going, no, that's too much work for me. I don't want to. I'm like, that's absolutely fine.

And you know, Chris Nolan's one of those directors who does have sort of a specific. He does very different films, but he has a very specific style. And people who've seen Chris Nolan films will know you have to pay attention, even.

Even that his Batman films, you still have to pay attention. So you're gonna have to pay attention. Or to quote the film. Can I quote the film in the nutshell? Are you watching closely?

Yeah, that's like. It's like a metaphor for. As well, for the film and for the audience. But it's core. This is two bruised egos locked in mutual obsession.

So it's a weird mix of genre because it's kind of like a period drama in terms of the clothing and the time.

Victoria, isn't it? Yeah.

But then it's also a bit of a mystery because it's like, wait, what is going on? But there's a bit of a thriller because as the plot unfolds, the stakes get higher. Then it does this weird, slightly steampunk sci fi thing.

Yeah, definitely sci fi in there, which is.

There's a lot in there which is,

you know, if you read those genres out loud in order, you come on, you've got to go give it a watch.

I brought down the tagline that's on the Blu Ray case because that kind of summed it up nicely. A friendship that became a rivalry, a

rivalry that turned deadly. Nice.

Or something like that.

You should get paid for that.

Right. I can do it better, probably, but.

So what questions does this movie ask? The first one I wrote down was, how far would you go to be better than someone else or be better than your rival?

I would say, yeah, it's a good call.

And also the danger with entertainment industry, the danger of perform, live performance, especially in the magician world, and how it can go potentially in the days before

health and safety as well.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

There's also that line that one of them says, you've got to get your hands dirty if you want to achieve the impossible.

So I think that was Michael Caine.

I think maybe Christian Bale repeats it as well.

Oh, yeah, maybe it's. It's one of the themes, isn't it?

Yeah, it's classed as a clever movie because there's parts where you told what's happening you're warned you're being fooled and yet you still lean forward. Yeah, it's that kind of draw you in kind of spectacle.

The other one I wrote down was there's a film I watched.

Oh, yeah? What films could it be compared to?

We've said a lot of them there. We've, you know, the Nolan films, the Illusionists.

There's another one I watched called the Current War that was more a historical film around AC and DC Current back in the day. And I think it was Benedict Gumberbatch and Tom Holland.

And that was a very slow film and it was very kind of historically talking about Edison and Tesla and that whole war between, you know, which Current was going to win. So that was a serious film. It was kind of slow, but however, some of the themes were in this film as well.

And the other one, Yeah, I didn't think of it till later on, but the, the Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes because that kind of put a modern spin on an old school thing and this kind of puts a sci fi spin on an old school thing. And almost there's a bit of X Files in there. I thought, okay, yeah, the X Files. I know, I'm watching. I'm kind of watching that at the moment.

So I've got X Files on the brain. But I did think, oh, actually parts of it could be the sci fi mystery as well. The mystery very much translate into an episode of.

Of the X Files or something.

Also has a fantastic cast, obviously the main two Christian Bale. So Batman versus Wolverine as Hugh Jackman, like that. And then Michael Caine, another Chris Nolan regular.

Batman's like Butler.

Yeah, he's Alfred.

Alfred, yeah.

Then Piper Parabo. I don't remember seeing him much since Coyote Ugly. Is that her?

To her?

Yeah, I think so, yeah. Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie.

Yeah.

And Andy Serkis, all of whom are acting their asses off.

But what.

What was interesting was Andy Serkis is American in this and Scarlett Janssen is English in this.

I don't like it.

It just doesn't seem right, does it?

Didn't think their accents were terrible in this.

No, I thought they were actually pretty solid.

Pretty solid, but it just doesn't seem right.

There we go. Anything else on the nutshell?

No, I think that's it. It's Chris Nolan film. So it's craftsmanship. Fantastic cast, all bringing their A game because they're working with Chris.

It's not an easy watch. It's not a straightforward, simple.

No, it's by Christopher Priest and yeah, it's Intelligent, interesting storytelling, and you're gonna want to be paying attention.

The only other thing I would say is, obviously it doesn't matter because this is you deciding whether you want to watch it with a nutshell. But it's one of those films that on a repeat watch, you're going to see things that you may have missed on the first watch.

Potentially I definitely did. So it definitely bears repeat watching potentially.

So if you enjoy it the first time, I feel like you'll get something out of it a second time or multiple watch times as well.

We hope we've helped you make your mind if this movie is for you. Okay, that takes us on to part two, which is the unboxing spoiler territory ahead. So from this point forward, there will be spoilers.

So if we've helped you decide that you want to go and watch it, we recommend that you go and do so now because we don't want any spoilers to come your way. Okay, so in part two, we have what did you miss? Where we reveal things you may have missed, even if you've seen the movie many times.

Paul has his fantastic facts of the day.

And then we round off with Hate it or Rate it, where we each give our brief opinion score out of 10, and we see where it lands on the Listener League this time and the Legend League. Okay, so what did you miss? I twigged about just near the end that this movie is structured like a magic trick.

We've got the pledge, which is what you're shown, which is basically them and their situation.

I feel like you should be talking in the Michael Caine voice to explain this as you. You got the pledge. I can't do his voice.

Then there's the turn, the things that seem impossible, which is, you know, how are they going to do each other? These tricks that they're trying to do, like just not going to happen.

And then there's the prestige, which is the thing that distracts you from the truth at the very end, the big reveal. I didn't know that was a term, like, for magic tricks. I didn't know that.

But that's a very Nolan thing, isn't it? To be on theme within the structure of the film. And you're absolutely right. And we're in spoiler territory. Just checking listeners.

We're definitely in spoiler territory because we don't want to spoil it for you. Go and watch it first. This is one of them films. You don't want the spoilers.

No.

Before we start telling them so, just an extra warning if you're thinking, oh, well, I'll listen to the spoilers and watch the film. No, no, go now, watch the film, then come back, please listen to the rest of it.

But I didn't realize on my first watch, the whole Christian Bale switcheroo. I didn't spot it when I'm watching it now I spot it and I can see it a mile away. And I'm like, how did I miss this? They told me to watch closely.

I watched it closely, and I just didn't see that switch.

And now I watch it, and there's so many little hints as you're going through, and I'm writing them down going, there's a hint, there's a hint, there's a hint. But the first time I watched it, the Prestige, like you're saying, was like, oh, yes. That's why I said before as well. Bears repeat watching.

Because I've seen this movie a few times now, and even now I'm still going, aha.

It's like a movie to watch with a notepad.

I really did. I write in the dark. I can't read my own notes.

Yeah.

What do you think, Darren? Is there other things we missed that Nolan's put in there that we. Well, it should have picked up.

It's tough because it's good filmmaking. And you're right. Like, there's so many clues to tell you what's going to happen. But then we're not used to that level of craftsmanship anymore.

And so we think that when they're showing a little boy, a canary trick, and the canary is like, oh, but where's his brother? We think it's just background noise, but every single line is giving you a clue as to what is going on.

And you're blatantly told what the twist is over and over and over again.

And the one that I've seen this film a lot over the years, and I still hadn't.

It's only this time I watched it where I'm like, yeah, the little girl that Michael Caine's doing the magic trick to in the very first scene is Borden's little lass because he hands her over, doesn't it? I'm like, of course. So from the first scene, again, the showing is it?

Yep.

They're saying, watch closely. So Chris Nolan is a magician. That's. That's all we're saying here. He is the filmmaker wizard.

But it also. I love an unreliable narrator, I think, as you know. And this goes to kind of beach levels, because most of this film didn't happen.

Because most of this film is narrated through each of the two characters reading the other one's diary, which are both faked.

Yeah.

So none of that happened.

And then they get to the end and they're like, ah, yeah, on both of the diaries.

Exactly. So none of that happens, but it could have happened. No, they're just messing with each other. They're fucking with each other and they know it.

Because I'm not entirely sure there's clones. I think he just wanted him to think there was clones because it's ridiculous that he would do that.

But if there isn't clones, how come there's all the tanks at the end with all the clones?

It's just wax models in there to fuck with them. Just props. It's magic.

I don't know. I don't know. I believe in the sci fi element of it all.

It tells a lot that with a. Still questions and debates now, even after we've seen it, we know the story

because it doesn't make any sense. Like, literally.

I think that's the point.

You would. You would clone yourself. Now you've got another one who is you. So you're like, hey, you know what? I've got a really cool thing we can do.

Let's do magic and just pretend we don't have this clone. Because no one knows that you exist. So you just do. Like Hugh Jackman could just do what

Christian Bale was doing, but it's the same person, so.

So it's even easier. Which. What scares me about that is it reminds me of like Umbrella Academy.

And there's a bit where they go through time and I can't remember the younger. The little guy, I can't remember his name. And he sees like himself and he's saying to like the team, I don't trust that guy.

And they're like, yeah, but he's you. He's like, exactly. I don't trust him. And I just.

Maybe that's why he kills him.

Exactly. Hugh Jackman's like, I don't trust that guy. And. Which is exactly what I would do. Like, I've got a lot of.

A lot of kind of empathy or sympathy or I just understand where Hugh Jackman characters coming from. Like, if a copy of me came in, I'm like, you can't be trusted.

See, I'm thinking more like. Have you either seen Multiplicity with Michael Keaton? Oh, yes, great rom com.

And I love the fact that the more clones he makes, the last one is just because he's a copy of a copy.

Yeah.

Is like, I like pizza.

Hey, Steve.

And he calls him. Yeah. The whole thing with Michael Keaton, I'm thinking, well, maybe. Yeah, maybe Hugh Jackman's worried about that.

Yeah, but Hugh Jackman. What's his name? I can't remember. But he's dead because, like, in the beginning bit, was he.

He.

So he clones himself. So he drops. Yeah, the first time. And then he sees another one of himself and he shoots that one.

So if the clone that is kind of teleported is the original, he's just died.

If he hasn't, it's the same person because it's the same hat. When Tesla. David Bowie. Yeah.

So it's. But which one is the original?

We'll never know.

Well, they were dead because. Because in the. The first time, he kills the one that teleports. Then every other time he kills the one that drops.

So whether the real one drops or teleports, they die. But anyway, he's not cloned.

It's a trick and he's not. Well, that was the other twist, isn't it? That Hugh Jackman was actually playing the magician.

He's actually some posh nobleman who just wanted to see if he could do it. And that's another twist. And again, we're fed this all the way through the lines of when they go and see the Chinese magician.

And Bale and Hugh Jackman are both there.

And he's also based on a real guy that's not Chinese.

Oh, is that right?

Yeah, he's American.

Ah, okay.

And he. He dies in. The real guy is Duck, gets killed in a bullet. In a bullet that goes wrong. And then he says in American, something's gone wrong.

Drop the curtain. I don't know why I sounded like Count Duckula.

I bought it. I bought it. But, yeah, they're telling us again there, he's like, this is the act now. He's still playing a character.

He's just committed to it all time.

Which, of course, they're both doing at that point as well. So they're telling us what they're doing. Yeah, that's the beauty of this film, is all there. But you don't piece it together till prestige.

The end bit.

And if it was real, if that machine could duplicate things from cats to hats to people, you. You would duplicate gold or Scarlett Johansson.

That wins the Internet today.

So, yeah, they're not being cloned. It's an unreliable narrator, and it doesn't hold up.

Mark, you've not seen this Before?

No. Had you both seen this many times before?

No, I've seen it like once.

I've seen it a few times.

You own it?

I do own it. I'd own DVD and I've now got on Blu Ray.

Did you also catch that one character is called Alfred Borden and the other one is called Robert Angier.

I knew that's what they were called. But what's the connection?

So Alfred A. Borden, B. Robert R. Angier. A. Abra.

Abra Kadabra. Yes. Doesn't he say that when he's being hanged? Doesn't he say Abracadabra or something?

I didn't catch it.

I think he does mum with it. Something like that. So how did you. How did you go into this, then, as a first watch? Completely.

I didn't even know it was about magic. I literally looked at nothing, which I always do.

Yeah, that's good.

Didn't want any preconceived notions. So I was actually presently surprised and happy that it was gonna be about something different. It's quite a different movie.

Anything we've done, I'd say, well, there's

not that many films about, like, the Zones we've said. It's the. I haven't seen.

But even the structure of it, the setup of it's quite unique.

Oh, yeah, There's.

So there's a lot to it. As many layers to it. Like you say you could watch it several times and reveal new things every time.

Well, like, I've seen it.

I can't remember, but I've seen it a lot over the years and I was still watching it last night, I think I watched it last year, so I was more familiar with it. I think last year when I watched it, I'd forgot all the stuff all over again. I was like, oh, yeah. But this year it was more present in my head.

But even now it was all the clues. This year when I was sort of watching it, like, of course, they're telling you it as it is.

And like the bit with the fingers, I remembered that when she said the whole. It's as if the wound is fresh again today, that came back to me, like, oh, yes. But the first time I watched it, it just over my head, as it would.

Yeah.

They're also not the only rivalry, because there's lots of. I think we know enough from our kind of limited information about Tesla, but Edison didn't like him.

That's what this other film was about, the current war. I was going to ask their rivalry,

real rivalry between Edison And Tesla?

Well, I believe so.

It was made up.

Just sounds too convenient. Like made up for this film.

Like really was based on real.

From what I know, Tesla was pro giving away things for free, wasn't he?

He was like, well, not for free.

What did he want? He want. He lived at their whole town in exchange for doing his testing. Was it?

Yeah.

Or did he. Because it's an unreliable narrator now. So none of it could be true.

But Edison's obsession with beating Tesla was like another one. He said, man.

And just.

You notice all these guys are men as well.

Absolutely.

Just male.

But at the time that would. That would have been the case. That's exactly how it would have been. Sure.

But I just feel like guys a lot of times, like a dick measuring contest. It is like, can you guys.

I didn't know whether to lead with that. That was one of the first things like, like in the nutshell, I was like a pissing contest or a dick waving contest for magicians trying to do one.

Just basically one upmanship.

Yeah. But I am very pro. The level of vengeance that Hugh Jackham's character goes to. I'd be that level. Killed his wife. Well, I'm gonna forget that.

I tell you what else this reminded me of. The Devil Wears Prada.

Yes.

That level of what sacrifices were you prepared to make to get what you want or to get where you want? But this is all about getting one over on your rival. That's. That's all that matters.

Yeah.

Being number one.

And then the twists and turns, of course, with Scarlet as to. She's gone over there. A spy.

Is she spying? Is she spying?

And then, no, she has fallen in love with him because she's pissed off that Hugh Jackman actually sent her to spy. But that twist comes over time. So you're not quite sure whether a trust there. And then Michael Caine again.

I hope you're watching this before you're in spoiler territory, kids, but Michael Caine at the end then sort of sides with Christian Bale's character because all the way through the film he's very loyal to Hugh Jackman's character.

But then at the end he obviously thinks Hugh's gone too far or whatever and he changes to look after the child of Christian Bale's character, seeing how much he's screwed over him. Vengeance. That's a good word for it.

It's all just clues. Everyone watching it will have their own clues that they picked up on.

But yeah, you'll pick up some. You'll miss.

We could do an show just being like. And then this line foreshadows this, and then they do this and that foreshadows this. But it was well put together.

Do you know who would maybe like this film? Taylor Swift fans. Because they like picking up clues in her music videos and she is a mastermind.

And that just gave me an excuse to mention Taylor Swift on the podcast again.

I'm sure that word means what you think it means.

You keep saying it, I'll tell you.

Also like this. Joe Lamb.

Joel Han's gonna love this.

Thank you, gentlemen. Okay, that takes us on to Paul's magical facts of the day.

I see what you did there. So did you know that this was nominated for two Academy Awards?

I did not know that, no.

Yeah, I don't think it wouldn't either. But it was Best achievement in cinematography for Wally Fishster. I think I'm saying that right.

And best achievement in art direction for Nathan Crowley and Julie Ochepinti. I'm really bad at pronouncing them.

We never noticed. We never knew that.

No.

So, yeah, it didn't want to either. So the word prestige we were on about before, it originally meant a trick from the Latin pragnesium, meaning illusion.

I'm probably saying that wrong, too.

Interesting.

Maybe it's something we haven't heard of before. So the editing includes 146 time jump cuts in which the next shot either flashes back or skips ahead to another time period of the storyline.

There was a lot of that.

This averages to almost one timeline jump per minute of the movie. We did warn you of this in the nutshell. Yeah, there's a lot of back and forth. So if you thought Batman Begins had a lot of back and forth, this

one's on the level.

On another level, scarily, this was the film he did after Batman Begins, before Dark Knight, I think. I don't think he fit anymore in there. I think he did Batman Begins prestige, then the Dark Knight.

Yeah, he was due to do this before Batman Begins.

That's interesting because he was writing, I think was writing for about five years before, and then he realized he didn't have quite enough time to squeeze it in. So did Batman Begins first and then made this after.

So Nikola Tesla was a world renowned inventor, physicist and engineer for a while. He conducted electrical experiments at his lab in Colorado Springs where he was known for his eccentric behavior. So that bit of it, he's a

really fascinating character that I wish we learned more of and I wish I knew more about him now. And I really Wish that Elon Musk hadn't tainted the name of Tesla by naming his company after. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Paul is not going to comment on that.

No, let's not comment on any of these political issues. We'll move on forward. Did you know that the characters Abra. No, we've done that.

The in the Hands Vanishing Birdcage was developed and performed successfully for many years by Harry Blackstone Senior. His son, Harry Blackstone Jr. Also performed the trick successfully for many years.

So some of the tricks that you've seen in the film are actual tricks.

That's one of those tricks. It's fantastic when it goes right, horrific when it goes wrong.

Right.

I thought that was quite shocking actually, the bit where they set up the whole suit and the cage and everything and then he comes in and just knackers it up.

Yeah.

The cast includes two Oscar winners. Christian Bale, Michael. Sir Michael Cohen and two Oscar nominees. Hugh Jackman.

Should make them a quiz when we have them.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Scarlett Hansen's Black Widow as well. It's like three superheroes.

Ah, yeah. Now you've hit on something. So Christian Bale and to Michael Caine were obviously Bruce Wayne and Batman and Alfred.

You mentioned Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine. You mentioned Scarlet Johansson. Are there any more things?

Yes. Andy Serkis deals in Vibranium in Black Panther and a couple of other movies

in Avengers and stuff. That's very good. And there's one more who's been in a Marvel movie. I know you're out.

Don't look at me.

You haven't seen any of those yet.

Rebecca. Who?

Yeah. Was she in Iron Man 3?

That's what character.

She was like a scientist.

Cool.

Yeah, we got a bit sick of him.

So what happened?

What were they?

I don't know.

Was it Real Steel?

Yeah.

Jude Law and Guy Pearce were actually keep saying here in the notes, Sir Christopher Nolan. Did that happen?

I hope so.

Well, it seems to be in the notes. So there you go.

You got the last one wrong. Didn't we?

Yeah, we did. We said that can be right. And it was.

Who was that?

Wasn't it Stanley Kubrick?

No, Hitchcock.

Hitchcock.

That's what he was. Sorry.

He didn't realize he was British.

No, totally.

Yeah.

So apparently Sir Christopher Nolan.

Yeah.

Pierce himself admitted that his performance in the film was subpar. I realized I hate what I did. And so all the stuff about an exec at Warners being why I've not worked with Chris Nolan again, it came crashing down.

I know why I didn't work with Chris again because I'm no good in Memento.

He's phenomenal in momentum.

Well, Pierce says he doesn't. Guy Pierce says he wasn't good in.

But he's wrong.

Yeah, there you go. If you're listening to this, if you listen, and if Darren says you're good, you're good. All right.

So Scarlet and Piper Pierrebro both individually worked with Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay in two different movies made by the two. By the same two companies that made this movie.

So she was in Coyote Ugly, Pierrot, produced by Bruckheimer and released by Touchstone Pictures through Warner Brothers through Walt Disney Studios.

Same as any mistake.

Yes.

And Johansson starred in the island, directed by Bay and released by DreamWorks and Warner Brothers and touched on later on became DreamWorks as a Disney to. Do you forget about all the switches and switches and the mergers and things don't. Yeah. So David Bowie. Bowie. Bowie.

Bowie.

I saw an interview where it was like, is it Bowie or Bowie? And he's like, I don't care. Just either. He was so chilled. He's like, ah, I don't know.

But he initially declined the role of Nikola Tesla when it was offered to him. Christopher Nolan flew out to see him personally to tell him that he was the only person he imagined for a role.

I had that fact. I've got a few. Only choice.

Only choice. Because if he's larger than life, Persona would make the idea of building a cloning device believable. So Ricky J. Is actually a real magician.

So he's the guy who plays the character who they're the assistant to at the start. I always think of him for some reason as the guy in Tomorrow Never Dies because he has the red box that Pierce Brosnan has to get.

But be that as he may, he's a. He's a Guinness record holder, magic historian and accomplished close up performer.

And he does not usually perform stage illusions, but I believe he taught Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale some up close magic stuff whilst he was on the set.

Yeah, because they got to know some small tricks as well as the big. Yeah, the way up to the big one, haven't they?

Well, so he's actually a magician, which I didn't know I'd seen him in different films. He does like lots of bit parts but I didn't realize he was a full on magician. Last one.

This is one of two of Chris Nolan's films where a character has a two headed coin. The other one of course was the Dark Knight, which Harvey Dent uses one and of course Christian Bale and Michael Caine are in that as well.

So two headed coins. There's a pattern. Oh, and Josh Harnett was apparently considered for the point of Robert Angier, which is Hugh Jackman. Which one do you couple?

So Christopher Nolan adapted the novel but completely restructured it specifically to be like a magic trick. The whole structure of the film, that's

so that's a Chris Nolan thing to do, isn't it?

I don't know what the writer of the book thought of that, but. No.

Well, he probably was flattered that Chris Nolan made it into this.

Maybe. But like I always wonder that, like it's.

Yeah, it's an honor that someone wants to make a movie out of your book, but not if they're going to completely change it. It's like, is it not your. But it's not really not your work then, is it?

That's true.

Is that, Is that an insult?

If they're listening, they can write in and let us know on the usual channels.

Christian Bale played dual performances without most of the cast knowing the full truth. Hugh Jackman has said this is one of his darkest and most emotionally damning demanding roles he's ever done.

It's pretty dark at times.

Most of the magic effects were done practically to preserve realism and weight, which. That makes sense. Yeah. Especially with the time. You don't want too many obvious effects at the time, do you? That's all I got.

No, that's cool.

Thanks for your facts, Paul. That takes us on to hate it or rate it. I'm going to go straight to Mr. Darren Horn.

I was just a bit mid with this. Like, it's great. Obviously it's a really, really well made film and there's lots to like, but I just.

Were you bored?

A bit in places. I really didn't like many of the characters and the stuff I would normally Respond to wasn't really there.

I don't think you're meant to like these characters. They're not likable people.

No, not at all.

They're selfish.

Like, Hugh Jackman has the edge because he is a psycho kind of venge driven, clone killing guy, basically. He's probably a Gemini, is what I'm thinking. But then I didn't really like anyone else. And then you saw.

You saw a lot of yourself in the.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, have you been cloning yourself again, Aaron?

Like it would. You said the wrong one tonight.

Yeah, yeah, it would be. But I did like that.

That's a very Gemini thing as well, with Christian Bale being where he said, you know, I love you, and she's like, not today you don't. I'm like, that's how I feel. Or I'm told I am like, people don't know what version of my personality they're going to get.

He said he loved us earlier, but I don't believe.

I don't believe him now.

Not today.

Yeah, exactly. Then Scarlett Johansson was like, oh, I've fallen in love with him. When the fuck did you do that? Like, there's no chemistry. No, no.

Even stupid holiday. Like, oh, look over there. Run away. There was no. There was nothing to suggest that they were falling in love at all.

But there wasn't really that much chemistry between any of the cast, really. I just. I didn't believe it. I didn't even believe friendships. It didn't feel like friendships. It felt like they were just in the same gang.

It reminded me a little bit of Sherrod where it was like, I love him. It's in the middle of based on. You want a montage? Don't you want love montage?

I love montage. It just seems to have to be like, I believe, like, you know movies like Before Sunset and stuff like that, you know, it's believable. I get that.

Totally. So, yeah, that didn't work for me.

And then once I was kind of not swept away in the movie and I started being like, why isn't he just like, start a hat company? Why is it just like clone Gold or something?

Or Scarlet. That was a good point.

Yeah. Scarlett. You know, this could be amazing. And. And then the other thing is, it's been a while since I forgot what the twist was.

And then as soon as I started watching it, I was like, oh, yeah, they're brothers, aren't they? And I was like, why have I just wiped that out so quick? Is it because I know. And then I was, oh no, wait.

This movie has got Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie and Andrew Circus in. So if there's a character that isn't a famous actor, it's Sus. So who's that guy? Oh, he's back in again. Oh, he's still here.

Yeah, that's Christian Bale in makeup. I don't know, I'm not gonna on it. And it is a really well crafted movie and I think the performances are solid outside of no chemistry. But I.

It didn't sweep me away and make me feel like I had a good two hours kind of. Although I wasn't checking the time a lot. So for me it's like a mid 5 out of 10.

Oh yeah, I like it.

That's okay.

You're wrong.

See, see the backlash.

You can't be wrong over your own opinion.

I do like this film.

I feel like the biggest impact is the first time you watch it where if you're not really studying it, you do miss the fact that it's being feeded to on a plate because there's

been a few things that it's become tonight that I was like, oh, didn't realize that. Yeah, I am going to watch it. I'm definitely going to watch it again. Definitely.

I almost feel like it's that kicking yourself thing because clearly it's Christian Baylor makeup when I watch it now because I know the twist. But the first time I watched it I did not pick up on that. I was just like, oh, it's just some guy who's like his servant or whatever.

And now I watch in. I'm like, there he is. There's the Michael Caine's telling you the whole time, isn't he?

Oh, it's called brother and that's. That whole storyline is gross because they're sleeping with each other's girlfriends and wives and stuff.

Yeah, it's. The whole thing is very dark when you start deconstructing it. And I like the sci fi elements.

What about that kid? Like what dad has the kid got as the kid got these actual dad.

Oh no, I worked that out this time. So the dad that she ends up with unfortunately isn't the uncle. Well, no, it's not the one who was like in love with the wife.

Okay.

Because you know, there was two brothers and one love. Scarlet and one love actually both sleeping with the wife.

How they gonna know who the kid is anyway?

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. But there's the one who says I love you but doesn't really mean it.

Yeah.

So this time I was really studying the nuances of the two characters because one of them's a bit more hot headed and one of them's a bit more in love with Rebecca Hall's character and everything else I was really watching to figure out which was which. And the one who actually goes back and gets caught at the theater, who gets set up and framed, is the one who says I love you and means it.

And the hot headed one, there's the scene where he says, it's enough, leave it, we're done, we don't need to know. But he still goes back and he checks and he's the one who kind of dies.

And the one who's left with the kid is actually the one who was more into the magic, but then he admits defeat. So I saw different layers in it this time that maybe I haven't seen before because I was probably studying it even more.

We all watch with different lenses on now, don't we?

Yeah, but first time I watched it, yeah, the whole twists and everything were just like, oh, there's a lot of them.

I think it's naturally you're gonna miss, you're not gonna catch everything.

I also thought the timeline jumps are too subtle.

Too subtle?

Yeah. I'd Wait, wait, where are we now? Or is this the past, is this the future? Like there wasn't. There wasn't a device to show that they'd switched times.

Yeah. Nolan does quite a bit that in his films, doesn't he? Where he just relies on you to figure out where the jumps are.

I miss the old days where it'd be like sepia if it was old and you'd know black and white and color.

I prefer when it goes six months ago.

Yeah.

But talking about the editing, it sounds like they'd have to throw that up every, like every minute, every couple of times. So, no, I think it's a really well made film. I like the cast, even though they're not particularly likable within it.

I feel like Scarlett could have been maybe given more to do. She's sort of in it, but not like she's a headliner in the cast. But then she's sort of a side character in it.

So I feel like maybe they could have give more time to her, but then they probably couldn't because of all the other tricks going on. Cut to the chase. Yeah, I think it's really solid movie. I'M going to give it an 8.

And I like the fact that even though I have seen it a lot of times, there's still the clues and the things and the sci fi. And to be honest, Darren's given me more food for thought as he often does by saying the unreliable narrator thing.

So now next time I watch it again, I'm gonna have that in my head. So there's another read on it. Yeah. Hey, good film. Like it?

Cool. Yeah.

It'll be interesting for you, Mark, because you'd not seen this before, so.

No, I'd never seen it. Didn't know it was going to be anything to do with. Yeah. Circle of Trust or anything like that. I acted I similar to you. I really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed how hard I had to work to keep up. There's a lot of times like what's happened here, but then something happened. Oh, so that's him, right? Okay. Yeah.

And I watched this in two sittings and when I got to the second one I went back about 10 minutes. Yeah.

Just to refresh your memory, there's not

many films that have to do that. So I was like, I could have the note. At least I was joking before I could have the notepad. I like the cast. There wasn't much chemistry.

You're right, Darren. But for me I don't think that mattered in relation to the story. It's quite a deep, layered film.

Makes you do a lot of burn mental calories to keep up. And I don't think the characters are meant to be likable. There's nothing to like about them now.

They're very driven by the magic, aren't they?

And they just get lost in the whole. The rivalry, the obsession, the twists were good. I enjoyed that and I thought it was a very well put together movie. So I'm going to give it 8.1.

Oh, and that I've already done the total. That gives us 21 and I'm about to put it in the listener league.

And if, if you found this one, you had to concentrate on. I don't know, you got on with this. But Tenant, I haven't watched 10.

I've not seen that.

That one really. It's what we've said about this one where you have to concentrate but on

a whole other level I find like Christopher Nolan is a fantastically talented director but I have to have almost be on holiday to watch his movies. I can't do it after a day of teaching. I can't get in like eat and then be like, you know, I'm gonna sit down and watch Chris Nolan.

Like, yes, Pitch Perfect. I can do it with that. But not like Tenant or Prestige. I haven't even watched Shuttle island for the same reason, probably.

Yeah. That's quite a twisty turny, dark film as well.

I'm just saying I was too sleepy.

Yeah. Okay, so at 21 points, that puts the prestige at number five in our listener league, which is now of 14.

Nice. Well done.

So it's just behind Predator and Alien. Good. And it's just above the Crow and Margin Call. Good listener company there.

Yeah. You didn't like the Crow, did you?

No, not at all.

Crazy times.

So in the Legend League, 22nd out of 59.

That's not too bad.

That's pretty good.

So it's just behind the Vikings and Collateral. And it's just ahead of Margin Call and Minority Report.

Do you think we should do another table? Because I don't feel like we've got enough. And where it's just our individual league.

So it's like, well, what's top of Darren's league and Paul's league and Mark's league.

Any of you listening to this? Can you do that?

It'll be a lot of, I guess, tens. I guess, like, it'll be a lot with the same score because you can only have. Well, you guys do lots of points. That's crazy. Yeah.

But otherwise, lots of movies would have exactly the same score.

Yeah.

So it differentiates. Sometimes it's not quite a seven or it's just more than a sum, but

it's not an 8 because obviously there's going to be fans who are like, you know what? Paul's got great taste in movies. I need to find out what one's Paul likes rather than the average of the three.

If anyone listening to this now, the links to the Listener League and the Legend League are both in the show notes. So if somebody wants to go and collate, take out the movies from each of us, be our guest. I'd love that.

Hang on. So we're giving work to the listeners.

I don't have time to do that.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm very tired.

Darren is always tired. He's old.

It's true. Weary.

There we go.

And we made him watch a Chris Nolan film and concentrate as well.

Yeah.

So that's what we thought of the movie. We'd love to know what you thought. So send us your message in. Email us, hello, moviesinnutshell.com and we'll read out your responses next time. Okay.

That takes Us on to part three, which is the listener lounge.

In part three, which we call the listener lounge, we start with a lobby where we share your comments, we answer your questions, and then we ask our question of the week. And we finish off by revealing next week's movie. So we all missed this. A few people have messaged in saying that I forgot.

Therefore, we all forgot that I had a story to tell about a certain movie.

Yeah, you had a story to tell about a certain movie.

What was the movie?

I can't remember. But you forgot to tell it anyway, this date, that's what it was.

So I will tell that story.

I like that they picked up on that.

We had a couple of emails and we had a few messages. So people want to hear the story. I'm really hoping it's not seeming like a disappointment now, but.

So when that movie came out, I went to the cinema to see it. I think I went twice. And the second time I took my cousin. So I was 98. So I was 17. And I took my cousin who was 14, 13, and a couple of his friends.

This is in Newcastle City center. And we went to the cinema. And we came out and we're playing the arcades afterwards.

And this guy just come, like a bit older than me, came up and just pulled out the biggest knife I've ever seen. Like, it was like a. What you call it? Machete.

Whoa.

But it wasn't a machete. It was the size of machete, but it was a different shape. And he was just like, gives you money. And I just.

Rather than just like going, okay, take my money. I just grabbed my cousin and I just. We just ran out the door because I don't know. I don't know why fight off light, but we just ran out the door.

There was a big, like, bridge. You know, you see people, bridges. We're walking over the road. So we ran across that and then he was behind me.

He had a couple of other people with him. He was behind us. And I kept looking back. I felt like I was in a movie. Like we just come out of any mistake.

That's what I'm thinking. It's like you live in the movie.

Have I got a hard drive that someone slipped onto me or something? So we ran close to the city center and then I looked back and then we're getting closer.

So I run into like a big department store and just hide and buy some clothes. And I could see them through the door and they were like milling around outside.

Obviously they're not going to come up with a knife in a big department store. Are they? I didn't know them. And then so we went to the other side of the store. I thought.

And I was thinking they'll be expecting us to come out the other side of the store. Maybe they're waiting for us. So we went back and went back. I actually went back to the cinema cuz that's when my car was parked. So.

No, because it was before I drove. Obviously we get it picked up, but that's where I needed to be. So we went back and we didn't see them. So that was my cousin Stu.

If you listen to this Stu, I had your back.

Wowzers.

Yeah. So I mean living in Newcastle, I mean things like happen all the time. But it never happened to me before. I'd never seen it. I've.

I've heard of things like that before but I've never been in. That was the first time you see a knife that you know someone's like pointing at you and you're like shit. And I reacted really quickly. Like that was.

That was an instant. I just grabbed him, ran out the door before anyone could react.

You reckon that's because you just watched any of the day?

I don't know.

You're in Will Smith mode.

Run. I'll be very impressed if you survive another day.

Right, so there we go.

That was my story that I forgot to tell.

Nice story.

Yeah. So thanks for reminder. I forgot about that one. Hope it was worth the wait. Recap from last week's question was movies which made you paranoid?

We've had a few messages. This is a weird name. Emily Horner. There won't be any relation, I don't think. No, a lot of these are very specific. Paranoid about specific things.

Not like Jeopardy. Paranoid about the world. Which is kind of. What? Which is fine after watching arachnophobia. Now there's a film you've seen that

I don't want to watch it.

John Goodman got him in it. It's got a few there. You've seen it? Are the two seat.

I might have seen it once a long time ago.

I'm not watching spiders.

Well, I'm not a big fan of them.

Do you not watch this?

I'm not scared of them, but I'm not a big fan of them either. So I don't think I want to watch it.

Even if you're not. It like makes you like check the bottom.

That's what I'm thinking.

Yeah, but that's. Tell me what this says. After watching Arachnophobia I couldn't go any in my garage without checking the corners of spiders.

Even little shadows would make me freak out.

So there you go.

It's just a mental thing, isn't it? Once you see things like that, it's in there. You can't get out. Scott Wigglesworth, friend of the show now.

Hey, Scott.

He's said hereditary. I don't know what film. I don't know. He put. That was one for me as I was researching my family tree at the time.

Maybe that should be your next request, Scott.

Okay. Hereditary. It's. It's Tony Koller and Gabriel Byrne. Like a psychological drama horror.

There we go.

And that's obviously freaked out, Scott.

It must have something to do with family trees or something because that's what he was doing at the time. And Tom Anderson has messaged and said signs, the movie signs.

Signs had me triple checking every window and door at night and kept me imagining crop circles in my own lawn. Probably just the cat.

Did you get like the tinfoil hat thing going on as well?

That is a good film. I might recommend that one time. So that takes us on to this week's question of the week.

I thought, what about based off this movie, best movie rivalries.

That's good.

So it could be professional rivals or creative rivals. Friends turned enemies.

I had a rival at uni who was like, we were both mature students

and well, yeah, I was thinking in movies, but that's a good show. Like, have you got any, like, if you're listening to this now, have you got stories of like personal rivals in real life or give us your movies.

Movies that. Your favorite movie rivalries in movies as well. That'd be cool.

It was like he was. He was the pace car for me. And I don't think we were both got. We were the only people in the class who got firsts. And it's because we were rivals.

We were friends, but it was like that friendship where you would throw a

genre of the bus at the drop of a hat.

Yeah, well, I do that with most people.

Yeah, we're next.

I was going to say, he's lining up.

Cool. Give us your best movie rivalry or your own real life rivalries. Send them in and we'll read them out on the show.

Okay, that takes us on to next week's movie, which is over to me. I'm going for a movie which is just a marquee classic. I'm going for the Terminator.

Oh, wow. Okay.

It is currently available on the ITV player noise. So it's completely free for everyone. If you listen to this outside of the uk, I'm not sure for you where it's available.

How familiar are you with Terminator?

Very. Okay, I've got them all on dvd. How familiar are you, Darren? Have you seen them all?

No, not all. Because they turn to shite.

Well, this is. That might be the case, but this is one of the few franchises I've seen them all.

Okay.

But yeah, I'm very, very familiar with it. But I'm looking forward to like I always watch. Look forward now to watching them with our new. Yeah, this movie in a shell lenses,

thinking how you're gonna break it down.

Yeah.

There's also a really great course by James Cameron. I think it's on Masterclass. It's like the BBC courses and it's another one called Masterclass, I think. And it's on one of those.

And deep into scene breaks down.

Have you ever used this to teach Terminator?

Yeah, yeah, did it this year.

Oh, cool. I'll be interested to if you could give us some insight into that next time.

Yeah, it's only one scene, but I'm. Yeah, but it's an interesting. It's an interesting movie for sure.

Cool. Okay, next week's movie is the Terminator. If you want to help us here, the best thing you can do is to share the show.

Please tell your friends if you think of someone, if you can think of someone who would like this show or this particular episode of your movie, loving friends, please spread the word. That's how we grow audience and that's how we keep going. And it makes us gives the opportunity to keep going forever. We're gonna keep going forever.

That's the plan. So we need your help by spreading the word. Okay, this episode is now officially over. This is Mark say goodbye.

And it's Darren saying goodbye for now.

Never show anyone. They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it, you'll be nothing to them.

That's the Danny Dyer version of the Prestige.