The plot of Christopher Nolan's 2006 movie The Prestige containing the best Nolan twist, to me, within his extensive filmography that continues to shock and amaze audiences.
Many of those audiences largely the shifts and turns the narrative took, especially The Prestige's ending twists that both tilted who you rooted for and your understanding of the rivalry between Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). Few other stories have pulled that off since then, Nolan's unique way of playing with time making it difficult to replicate. Yet one classic fantasy novel not only creates that same tense storyline but did so before Nolan's film ever came to screen: Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
Susanna Clarke's 2004 Book Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Has The Same Premise As Christopher Nolan's 2006 Movie The Prestige
Both Tell The Story Of A Deadly Magical Rivalry
Clarke's 2004 novel has the same premise as Nolan's The Prestige, but takes it a step further by adding what would be considered proper magic. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, much like The Prestige, is a period piece that examines the ever-shifting rivalry between the titular characters who are vying for the title of London's premier magician, which becomes their main battleground. Unlike Nolan's film, though, the magic in Clarke's novel is quite real, albeit as hard to master as The Transported Man trick from The Prestige.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell won several awards, including the Hugo Award, a year after its publication.
Magic in Clarke's novel faded centuries ago, so when both Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are able to resurrect it through differing academic approaches, the results are astonishing and deadly. Both stories utilize that sense of wonder and drive for success and showcase its toll on the two personally and the larger city of London, amplifying the story through shifting perspectives to create a compelling mystery. That being said, Clarke's book gets truly creative with each moment and its consequences, expanding the world and characters beyond even The Prestige.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Has A More Fleshed-Out World & Nuanced Characters Than The Prestige
Clarke's Book Truly Combines The Fantastic With The Historic
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, through both its fantastic inclusions and further integration of the history of its time period, makes the world and characters feel more fleshed out and layered than The Prestige did onscreen. As mentioned, Clarke's book makes the magic between her rivals a real, historical part of London, the footnotes throughout adding more details on that fairytale-esque history. Combining that with the fact that its historic setting of the Napoleonic Wars is heavily integrated into the plot makes each magical act more resounding and makes the overall story feel more like historical fiction than fantasy.
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That combination aids the character arcs as well, grounding and elevating each moment of one-upmanship that Strange and Norrell attempt to perform, keeping the story engaging despite being one of many long fantasy books out there. You see how vast the ripples of their rivalry go as it reaches places and people you would not expect to be affected, making the conclusion and the lessons each man learns all the more poignant. The Prestige, while brilliant, only captured the surface of this, but the novel Nolan's film was based on does touch closer to what Clarke's book achieved years before.
Christopher Nolan's Movie Was Actually Based On A 1995 Novel By Christopher Priest
Priest's Novel Reflects More Of Clarke's Style Over Nolan's
Nolan's The Prestige was based on Christopher Priest's 1995 novel of the same name, though Priest's work touches a bit more on what Clarke examined over Nolan. According to Goodreads, Priest's novel also tells the story of Angier and Borden and their years-long rivalry, albeit with differing details, such as the two meeting at a botched seance over working together under another magician. However, Priest's framing device for the novel lets the story reach past the rivalry, much like Clarke's story did, highlighting some of the themes Nolan's film did not fully explore.
By doing so, Priest was able to really showcase how power can corrupt and poison everything around you, with each man's hatred of the other creating even more damage to their wider circles.
Priest's framing device follows Angier and Borden's descendants, studying how their actions rippled down through their families and the powerful toll their respective tricks took. By doing so, Priest was able to really showcase how power can corrupt and poison everything around you, with each man's hatred of the other creating even more damage to their wider circles. Though Nolan's The Prestige did look at this somewhat, the larger focus on Angier and Borden themselves took away some of that examination, leaving more of the trick over the explanation behind.
The Prestige
- Release Date
- October 20, 2006
- Runtime
- 130 minutes
- Director
- Christopher Nolan
WHERE TO WATCH
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, The Prestige follows the lives of two stage magicians in Victorian London. Once colleagues, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden become hated rivals after a tragedy involving Angier's wife tears them apart. The two magicians each go on to have their own lives and careers while competing to see who can pull off a seemingly impossible teleportation trick. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale star as Angier and Borden.
- Writers
- Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan
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