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If you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder...
then you got to see something really special...it was the look on their faces...
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Created on 2014-03-16 23:27:08 (#2223229), last updated 2014-03-16 (591 weeks ago)
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| Name: | Robert Angier {The Great Danton, Lord Caldlow} |
|---|---|
| Birthdate: | Mar 26 |
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"."
"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..."
MOVIE CANON: Robert Angier is a well known magician from the late 19th century, performing under the name of The Great Danton. Famed for his showmanship and aristocratic bearing, his career was also heavily influenced by his rivalry with the technically gifted Professor, aka Alfred Borden.
Angier started his career as a friend of Borden's, both men studying under Milton the Magician, working as his confederates (or stooges). Angier's wife, Julia, also worked as Milton's assistant, and later perished in a performance of the Water Torture cell gone wrong. The trick was blown when Julia couldn't escape from her bonds, tied with knots done by Borden himself.
Infuriated when Borden claimed he did not know if he tied a traditional slip knot or a more difficult Langford double during the act that killed Julia, Angier succumbed to a rabid obsession with his new rival. Though he began with attempts to extract the truth about Julia's death from Borden (one of which resulted in shooting off two of Borden's fingers during a botched bullet catch), his focus shifted when Borden debuted a new illusion called The Transported Man. Though Angier was initially more successful with his superior showmanship, Borden's technical prowess made him a worthy contender, though Borden was still relegated to the working class parlor shows.
Angier's attempt to steal the trick by using a similar routine and a stage double was, at first, successful. Unhappy with taking his bows beneath the stage every night, however, when he was certain Borden did not use his method, Angier's obsession ultimately ruined his success. After sending his assistant and lover, Olivia, to Borden as a spy, Olivia turned on him and gave Angier's secrets to Borden. Borden later sabotaged Angier's act, turning his double against him and moving a landing pad beneath stage. Falling through a trapdoor without anything to break his fall, Angier's left leg was permanently crippled as a result.
Angier finally sought out Nikola Tesla for help when he was led to believe that Borden and his engineer, Bernard Fallon, employed him to help with their version of The Transported Man. Angier spent many months in Colorado Springs and invested without care in the legendary inventor's research until he discovered he'd been tricked. Though Tesla misled Angier, he still built the teleportation machine he commissioned...or so he thought. Tesla failed to duplicate the trick, but in the process developed a machine that would produce a duplicate of whatever was placed inside, and produce it some distance away.
Danton went on to return to London with the machine, preparing an exclusive run of one hundred performances, swearing to retire after it was done. Unable to stay away, Borden snuck into one such show to try and devise the secret, but was later accused of Angier's murder when he was found with Angier, drowned in a torture cell full of water that locked during the execution of the trick. In truth, Angier survived under an assumed name, having used the cell to kill off his doubles during each performance of the illusion. Later, while storing the Tesla device for good, Angier is killed by none other than Borden himself, learning that the man had a twin brother...the man ultimately executed for Angier's alleged murder.
ADDITIONS TO CANON:
* Robert Angier is an American native, born in the US and later moving to London to further his career (BASIS: Robert speaks with an American accent, actor Hugh Jackman attests to character being based off American magic legend Channing Pollock.)
* * * * *
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Robert enters the village during his first performance of "The Real Transported Man," arriving just as he steps into Tesla's machine, robbing him of The Prestige.
Angier is a good looking man, roughly six feet or so with brown hair and hazel eyes. He is clean shaven and favors formal dress, with suits and hats from his period. When he does go more casual, it is again in the style of his period, with slacks, jackets, and vests, but with collarless shirts and no tie. Angier walks with a cane and a pronounced limp, his left leg badly and permanently injured during a performance of "The Transported Man" that was sabotaged by Borden.
DISCLAIMER: Not Jackman, Danton, Angier, or anybody else. THE PRESTIGE and all its shiny belongs to Christopher Nolan and others. Don't steal, don't sue, don't hate. Thx. ;p
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