The Transported Hog

This is my fourth time watching the Prestige and, while I don’t pretend to have every single plot twist worked out, the plot twists of this film aren’t what I find most fascinating about the film. What interested me most about this film when I first viewed it originally and still captivates me is the transported man. It is not simply the magic trick of the transported man however; it is the reactions of Angier and Cutter, and the subsequent strife it creates between them.

Angier’s reaction to seeing the illusion is not only to exclaim that it is the greatest magic trick he has ever seen, but also refusal to accept the notion that the trick is preformed using a double as Cutter claims. What interests me most about this continued exchange between two characters is that it is, keeping in mind Lock’s discussion of identity, akin to a conversation between two platonic interlocutors entrenched in debate.

            The first comment that Cutter makes about the Transported man is that it is simple. He informs a flabbergasted Angier, who notes he has just seen the greatest magic trick ever preformed, that the secret of the act requires little more than a stunt double. Angier passionately rejects this claim arguing that the “double” was not just a imposter but indeed Borden himself. The trouble is, Angier also agrees that for him to transport himself is impossible. Here, Angier is pointing out the same argument made by Lock that all the particles of Borden’s matter are identical in both cases, thus negating Cutter’s double theory.

            Seemingly proven wrong, Cutter admits he cannot duplicate the Transported man without a double. Unfortunately for Angier when he acts on this advice, the resulting performance of “The Great Danton” ultimately fails. At this point, Angier goes to find Tessla and figure out what has become his greatest obsession, the mystery of the transported man. As we know, what Angier discovers is that the machine is not only a teleportation device, but in addition to transportation the machine duplicates the subject. In this way, Angier has solved his first problem of understanding how Borden can be in two places at once.

            It is not until much later in the film that Borden’s true secret is revealed however and we finally see that Cutter was right all along. Namely, the trick only required a double. While Fallon was an identical mass of atoms at the time of his conception, we learn that Borden and he were separated by space, which as Lock informs us makes all of the difference. By affirming that the mass of atoms, however identical, are separated by space proves that they are in fact not the same being. While it is true that at the time of Fallon’s genesis both he and Borden were the same mass of atoms, this separation of space affirms that they are not entirely identical.

            What the machine seems to have reproduced, but not duplicated, according to Lock, must have been the soul. This puzzled me for a long while after watching the Prestige. It is the notion that these two men can be the exact same person, but not be bound to the same actions. For example, while it makes little sense that Fallon would be a marionette that simply duplicates Borden’s actions, it does seem plausible that Fallon would be a kind of tabula rasa that simply took Borden’s orders. I thought it was even more likely that he would be, as a complete and exact clone, inclined to the same tendencies and motivations as Borden. This, as we learn by their having truly loved two different women, is not the case and they were indeed, lock would claim, separate souls.

            This is because; more important than the arrangement of atoms, according to Lock what constitutes an Identity is the prolonged contribution of the subject in a life or continued series of events. While Lock had not seen the Prestige he have given us a similar example of a man becoming trapped in his hogs’ body.  He claims that if this were to happen, we would call such a hog by the name of the man who inhabits the animal shell. In the same was, Fallon is addressed as such through out the entire film, he loves a different woman, and has an existence independent of Borden’s: He is a unique soul in another’s body. In this way, Lock finally sheds light my question about the Prestige, and settles the argument between Borden and Cutter simultaneously.  

           

When I watched the film this time, however, another question arose: Is the Angier we meet at the beginning of the film the same one who we see in the last scene of the film? I don’t know that this was intended to be ambiguous, however, it is still unclear to me. At the end of the film, Angier exclaims that he never knew weather he was going to be the one in the box at the end of the night, and indeed in some instances he seems to imply that he was. However, since we know that they used the same duplication method as Borden and Borden was not the same identity as his duplicate, is it possible for this Angier to be the same one as the one we saw at the beginning of the film, considering of course that the Angier who went through the trap door was random? Is this a plot hole, or has someone else figured it out?