This is an attempt to list the differences between the book and the movie, The Prestige. I have recently read the book for the first time and watched the movie again. They are both great, but the differences are interesting. Heavily inspired by The Prestige Book vs Movie. Presented somewhat chronologically. Spoilers!
| Book | Movie |
| Abbreviations: Robert Angier (RA) and Alfred Borden (AB). | |
| The story is in 5 parts. Each part has its own chronology. The parts are clearly separated and sequential. Several parts may cover the same time. Mostly the different parts are told from different points of view. The secret of both RA and AB are kept secret for a long time, but not until the very end. The climax isn’t in the movie. | The story is roughly in 3 parts. The parts cover different parts of the time line. The parts are separated by geography and locations, and a limp is in some parts. We cut back and forth between the parts, and there are occasional flashbacks as well. The climax is the reveal of the secrets of first AB, then RA. |
| We learn about RA and AB’s childhood. We learn about RA’s family and his relationship to a lord. | |
| We learn a lot about how RA met and married Julia. | |
| RA and AB became aware of each other as they were both starting out as magicians. | RA and AB became aware of each other while working as assistants for another magician. |
| For a while, RA works as a spiritualist. AB sees a big difference between working this way and as a magician. | |
| Trying to sabotage RA, AB ends up causing (probably) the miscarriage of RA and Julia’s child. Julia has 3 other children, and then RA and Julia become estranged. | Trying to prove a point, AB ends up causing (probably) the death of Julia. |
| RA and AB regularly sabotage each other, but mostly not violently. | RA shoots AB, causing him to lose 2 fingers. AB interferes in an act, causing RA to break a leg. |
| We learn a lot about how AB and Sarah met, and how she feels about the double life of AB. | |
| The alternate AB mainly keeps away. | The alternate AB is called Fallon and is disguised. At one point, Fallon is kidnapped by RA. |
| RA’s double, Root, is manipulated by AB. | |
| Olive is American and joins RA in USA. | Olive is British. |
| Olive agrees to spy on AB, and gives RA one word: Tesla. | Olive agrees to spy on AB, and gives RA AB’s diary and later a word to decipher it: Tesla. |
| Sarah doesn’t suspect the double life of AB. | Sarah suspects plenty and commits suicide. |
| Tesla’s machine duplicates a metal rod. | Tesla’s machine duplicates RA’s tophat. |
| When duplicating someone alive, the original almost dies. | When duplicating someone alive, the original is basically exactly like the copy. |
| It has a great effect on RA being duplicated, first great pain and depression, later exhilaration. Sometimes he does it for fun. | |
| When doing the act, the original is first hidden, then quietly killed and stored in a family tomb. | When doing the act, the original is drowned immediately and then stored in an unused theatre. |
| RA makes amends and reconnects with Julia. | |
| AB sneaks behind the scenes. He shuts down the machine for safety reasons, without knowing this interfers with the act. He then leaves. | AB sneaks behind the scenes. He sees an original RA drowning and tries to save him. He is unsuccessful and is framed for murdering RA. |
| While in prison, AB reads RA’s diary. RA takes steps to adopt AB’s daughter. AB is executed. | |
| After the interference of AB, RA has to end his career, and the burial of the magician is conducted. The botched copy has a separate life for a while, among other things trying to kill AB. 3 days later the alternate AB dies of a heart attack, but this is completely hushed up. | The surviving AB kills RA. He then gets his daughter back. |
| Facing economic problems, Olive decides to sell AB’s diary to RA. RA reads it and has an edited version published. | |
| Seriously ill, the original RA later dies for real. | |
| Part of the story takes place in “our time”, 3 generations after the main story between AB and RA. | The story is only about AB and RA. |
| There’s an argument to be made, that one difference between book and movie is, who the protagonist is. |
As always, it’s a satisfying exercise to write something like this down. It sort of crystallizes for me, whether I accept the changes made. Like, some of the changes seem big, but are actually cases of combining elements.
Hopefully it proves useful to someone else as well.
Stuff from ommadawn.dk (Lise Andreasen) 