"Are You Watching Closely?"
The Prestige - Easter Eggs & Hidden Details
Easter Eggs
The main characters' initials, Alfred Borden (A.B.) and Robert Angier (R.A.), spell out 'ABRA' when combined, as in 'Abracadabra'.
This is a subtle nod to the world of magic the film inhabits, embedding a classic magical incantation within the names of the rival magicians.
The opening shots of the film spoil the methods of both magicians' tricks.
The film opens with a shot of dozens of identical top hats in a forest, followed by a shot of two identical canaries in a cage. This visually represents the central conflict and the secrets of their respective illusions: Angier uses clones (mass-produced duplicates like the hats), while Borden uses a twin (a pair, like the birds).
In the scene where Sarah's nephew figures out the bird trick, he cries out, "Where's his brother?"
This seemingly innocent line of dialogue is a direct piece of foreshadowing that reveals the entire secret of the Borden twins. The boy intuits the cruel truth of the trick—that a duplicate is used—and in doing so, spells out the central twist of the plot long before the final reveal.
Both Angier and one of the Borden twins die in a manner that mirrors the death of their respective wives.
Angier's wife, Julia, drowns in a water tank. Angier's clones suffer the same fate in every performance. Borden's wife, Sarah, hangs herself. The Borden twin who loved Sarah is ultimately executed by hanging. This creates a dark, fatalistic symmetry, suggesting their obsessions led them to the same tragic ends as the loved ones they lost along the way.