The Weekly Planet - The Prestige - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

Christopher Nolan is responsible for some of the best modern blockbusters and in anticipation of Tenet we're taking a look for some of his best. This week we tackle The Prestige from 2006 which pits two magicians against each other in a full on wizarding war! I mean not a war just like two guys (three) wearing beards and trying to shoot each other. Anyways this is our Caravan Of Garbage review.Help support the show and get early episodes at https://bigsandwich.co/SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ►James' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownTWP Itunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4TWP Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetTWP YouTube Channel ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGHPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4T-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies#ChristopherNolan #Tenet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Welcome back to Caravan of Garbage, everybody. We've got the movie Tenant coming up, don't we, Mason? That's how you pronounce it, yes.

Christopher Nolan, mind-twisting events. Yeah. Future, time travel, masks, flipping cars, but backwards. Who knows? Maybe it's an allegory for the environment? It could be. It could be the environment. So we thought, why don't we take a look at three classic, but big budget

Christopher Nolan films. Let's do a Nolanpalooza. Exactly! That's what he'd want it to be called, right? The Nolanpalooza. Definitely. And we want the Nolanpalooza text to be in 3D! Oh yeah, like bubble font. Yeah. It's like word art.

It's going back and forth. I like it, yes. So, for people who don't know, The Illusionist is a 2006 magician-centric epic set in the late

19th century starring Edward Norton and Jessica Buehler. It revolves around unravelling the mysteries concerning magician secrets. Mason, do you remember the movie The Illusionist?

James, James, you have confused two very similar movies that came out in the same year. Correct. Both based on books. That's true. But one of them goes, that's going to make you disappear.

But it's not The Prestige. Not the one we saw. I just watched The Prestige, and I don't remember that movie. What I do know about this movie is that it is a classic slobs versus snobs movie. Wow, why do you say that? In the tradition of Animal House. One of them's a slob. Christian Bale's Borden. He's a bit of a slobs versus snobs movie. Wow, why do you say that? In the tradition of Animal House.

One of them's a slob, Christian Bale's Borden. He's a bit of a slob. Sure. He's a working class man. Yes. But Hugh Jackman's Angier is a real posh toff, but he's pretending to be the common man, isn't he? He's quite well to do.

He is well to do. Sometimes he has a regular moustache, but sometimes he has that moustache where you trim it real fine at the top and you've got that extra lip space there. You've got that lip space. Yeah. You know? That's how you know you're fancy.

That's how you know. Because you've got to get that special razor. That's right. Well handled. Well, I was going to say, like, if you love movies about men wearing different beards, tricking each other over the course of two and a bit hours, you've got to love this. I do. Look, initially, when this came out at cinemas,

I did not like this movie. For reasons we'll get into, I'm sure. Let's just say spoilers. Yeah, okay, sure. Because there's some pretty big twists in this. I was the same. I liked everything about this except the core conceit that you have to believe is that David Bowie builds

a cloning machine or replicator. Yes. But if you can get past that and watching this again, I really enjoyed this like a lot yeah i love the idea of just the inner workings of this magical world and what it takes to be famous in the 19th century and the mechanics behind how do you how do you how do you make a bird disappear with like a weird mechanical kind of vest happening i've decided that i james there's room in the market now in the marketplace for i'm going to bring back the

collapsible bird smasher. Just the device. Just buy it on, like, you know, buy it through Instagram or whatever. I'm going to start selling them. They're due for a comeback, I think. Yeah. But you're right. I feel like it's sort of amazing to me, you know,

just as an aside that in this era, imagine being an audience member who is so innocent and sort of bereft of cynicism that you can applaud the reveal of a big machine on stage yeah just a curtain pulls down like oh my goodness very good yeah but i i love that idea that it was in an era where the blending of the mystic arts and magic and science was like racism and racism racism that's right but the idea that people would buy into this like maybe we can commune with the dead. Maybe there's forces at work that we don't even know about. But nowadays, people are like, no, it's fake.

Straight away. There'll be a Twitter thread. It's fine. Yeah, there's a pretty big element of this movie is, you know, one of the characters saying, well, actually, you know, the audience doesn't want to know how it's done because they're swept up in the magic of it.

And I'm like, no, these days. These days they're like, it's CGI. There's a magnet. There's a magnet. He's got a magnet in his butt. There's two Christian Bales. There's two Christian Bales. There's two Christian Bales in this movie.

There's two Christian Bales. That's a twist that when it's revealed to me, it's not, I mean, it's not the point of the movie, but it's not a big reveal because for a lot of this movie there's a man standing behind christian bale who looks a lot like christian bale you know what i mean and you're like is that christian bale's dad is he here to provide moral support i don't know but i like the idea of these two men who are so obsessed with the craft they are living this one life like that to me is super interesting. And that's based on, again, that's based on a real life character.

You know, in this movie we have a Chinese magician. Yes. And he is, that character is based on a real man who wasn't Chinese at all. No, his name was William Ellsworth Robinson. Not the most Chinese name I've ever heard. But yeah, he pretended to be an elderly sort of decrepit Chinese man his entire life. Yes. As I understand it, he never said a word in English until he died. pretended to be a Chinese an elderly sort of decrepit Chinese man his entire life yes as I understand it he

never said a word in English yeah until he died and those words were oh I've been shot yeah so there's a few different interpretations of this but yeah he

did the bullet catch the famous bullet catch that we saw in this movie by the way here's a picture of this guy he is obviously not Chinese but again that was

the era when kind of world the world was becoming smaller. You know what I mean? And you were getting all these different influences from around the world. So you'd go, I guess this is what a Chinese person looks like. I've never been to China, so maybe. But yeah, so the bullet catch went wrong and he went, oh my God, something's happened.

Love of the curtain. So yeah. And it was the, yeah, like you said, the only spoken English words he'd said for decades. Crikey, he said. Me guts are all over the stage. Yeah, that's it. So yeah, it was also, obviously, it wasn't just the bird smashing that was dangerous.

A lot of the stuff that they used to do, it was quite dangerous. And what's the crux of this film though, Mason? What's the turning point that sets these three magicians against each other? First of all, it's the death of Angie's wife in a not-related accident. She would have died in that Curly Ugly movie anyway. She would have slipped on the bar. Exactly, that's right. Just on a river of tequila.

What I enjoyed about... Look, I didn't enjoy that death. Obviously grisly and not a great scene obviously but what I did like about it is that prior to that happening the two

aspiring magicians are just arguing over knots like that's that's their pop culture trivia back in the day at one point Bale says

oh so you know more about knots than me do you like maybe it's their game of thrones in the day oh sure do you

what I find fascinating about that is there's a theory behind the reason that she couldn't get out of it is because the one who had the argument about what nots what

will you know more about nots than me people love our accents that the one who was in that argument wasn't the one that tied it so he didn't hear that

so she thought that he was going to tie a certain knot went to do it, watched it. Yeah, right. And it happened that way. Well, that's why I guess we'll never know because it was many years ago and not real. That's right.

So we'll never know anyway. There's probably a knot expert on YouTube who's just looked through it, who's watched the movie intently and is like, I know exactly what it is. I looked into it. It's quite ambiguous. Oh, dear. Yeah. So what I think is pretty terrible about this movie is, though,

Christian Bale probably murders Cody Ugly in this movie, right? And Hugh Jackman's like, I'm not having it. I'm not having it, quite frankly. And he'll shoot some of his fingers off, which I find justified. But the way that he then keeps coming after Hugh Jackman, like he shatters that woman's hand on stage, he completely obliterates Hugh Jackman's knee. You killed his wife.

Right. So it's kind of like, do you want to back up a little from this? Right. But I think it's one twin that's more obsessed than the other. Obviously. I mean, that's how we find out at the end. James, here's a list of actors I forgot were in this movie until the rewatch. Let's go.

Scarlett Johansson. Yes. Thought she was in The Illusionist. Surprised to be. You're thinking of Edward Norton. Piper Perabo, as previously mentioned. Rebecca Hall. Andy Serkis. Yep. Niles from The Nanny. That's right.

An element that I also forgot about this movie, a lot of it is people reading each other's journals. Yes. There's a moment where Borden is in prison and he's reading the Journal of Angier and in that journal Angier is reading the Journal of Borden. Well, yeah, if you've read the book,

which I have in preparation for this, I go above and beyond. Sometimes I do insane things for these videos that never make it in, including reading a book for a couple of days. We might even cut this out. That's right. But it's just reading journals.

It's them reading each other's journals and then in the modern day of 1996, a descendant of Christian Bale then fighting out about this whole situation. But the inciting incident isn't a murder of Hugh Jackman's wife. Christian Bale's character, I'm just going by actor's name, it's just easier. He shoves his wife at like a fake seance and causes her to miscarry.

And that's how it kind of kicks off. Interesting. Yeah. And there's other elements that are different because the cloning machine or replicator, whatever you want to call it. It's not a cloning machine in the book. That's the thing I was wondering about. Well, it's sort of the same.

You still get the leftover empty husk of a person, but there's no personality in it. It's just gone and what happens when christian bale interferes with the machine and it splits them into two so there's two hugh jackmans one's like this sallow kind of dying human being and the other is like this ethereal kind of spirit kind of like the illusionist the movie the illusionist 2006 and then he continues to live on for centuries so yeah but in this one it's just two two Hugh Jackman's two Jackman's oh what do you think of that David Bowie by the way good to see him apparently the only uh person Christopher Nolan had in mind for this is like if I don't get

David Bowie I burn this movie to the ground where am I from Boston or England doesn't matter imagine being any of the other actors or crew on this movie and getting that phone call. I couldn't get Bowie, so good luck on the unemployment line. Good luck, idiots. The core of this movie, which I really enjoy, is just someone's obsession just ruining a good thing that you have. Oh, yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, you could just get to a point where you could let it go or at the very least not have it consume your life. Like, does it matter how he does the transporting man? Like, ultimately not, I guess. But the fact that... I mean, you know, technology was limited back then. Odds are, probably a wire.

Yeah, that's right. Probably some wires. Or a trapdoor. Or two people that look similar. Two people, yeah. Yeah. Speaking of, one thing that I'd, again, I'd forgotten about this movie that I very much enjoyed was Hugh Jackman's cameo role as his own body double, George Root. Yes.

He's doing some incredible teeth acting. Just some big teeth happening, isn't there? Just a big, real. Don't mind if I do, sir. There's a lot of that. There really is. There's a lot of, Jackman really just, he's made to be. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors like high blood pressure developed during pregnancy which can put us two times more

at risk of heart disease or stroke know your risks visit heartandstroke.ca fx is the veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX is the veil starring Elizabeth Moss is now streaming on Disney Plus. Incredible transformations in the sort of teeth lip area that I really respect. You should bring that back for something. You should bring that back for Wolverine. Yeah, absolutely.

You should have brought that back for Logan. Oh, my God. Oh, Logan. Oh, Logan, you're the past and I'm the future. You're more powerful than. Are you talking about the clone of Logan in Logan? Yeah, that's right. So he's talking in British.

Yes. I'm here to destroy you. Do you know there's 146... No, Professor X, it's just me, Logan. No, no, stay there. I'm killing you now. I'm a different Logan. A different Logan.

What I find incredible about these movies and a lot of Christopher Nolan's movies, they're so intricate the way that they're connected, as opposed to, say, the Michael Bay Transformers movies, which we recently endured. If you take a bit out of it, it won't really come together. And there's 146 time jumps during this movie. And the fact that you can follow it is incredible to me.

That is true, yeah. There's not a point where you're like, wait, what point in time? But you had a different bit. Is this Hugh Jackman or too Jackman? How many Jackmans are in this movie? Just check the teeth. That is true, yeah. There's not a point where you're like, wait, what point in time? But he had a different bit. Is this Hugh Jackman or 2 Jackman? How many Jackmans are in this movie? Just check the teeth, that's how you know. That's how you know. They don't explicitly

say it, but if you concentrate on the teeth you know what time you're in. Yes. I want to also talk about that clothing machine and what I find interesting about the Hugh Jackman character in that. Yes. There is no original Hugh Jackman by the end of this movie. To the best of our knowledge. Well, exactly.

Yes. Because the first time he goes in the machine, the one who stays put shoots the other one. Yes. Kills him. Right? Every other time that he does it, it's the one who stays in the machine that drowns.

That's right. So that means whatever way you look at it, whichever one is the real Hugh Jackman. Probably long dead by now. Probably long dead by now. I mean, he's long dead at the end anyway. What I don't understand anyway, he's so obsessed with show business, much like the real Hugh Jackman, no doubt.

That's right. That he could have just made two of him and be done with it. Yes. But he had to drown 60. Like, that's crazy, right? Well, I mean, that's true. But, you know, what's he going to share the spotlight? He's the greatest showman.

Yeah, but you know he's going to wear a beard and he'll shoot the other one, won't he? Well, that's true. But I think what happened there is he panicked initially. The first one was out of panic. Yeah. And then after that, he's like, well, I did it once. I did it. So I drowned 60.

Yep, that's right. Well, he planned to drown 100. But it just seems if you made a copy of yourself, the other one would be on board for what you're doing. Do you know what I mean? But if one of you is that obsessed then the other one's also that obsessed so i think i think they would both be that paranoid as well yeah and as one became more paranoid the other would also become more paranoid see where i'm going with that yeah no i think it's an it's an inevitability that one would try to kill the other so why not start early you know

that's fine so there's one you're probably right that maybe he knows that about himself that if he lets two Jackmen run around in the universe, eventually he's going to wear a fake beard and try and shoot it. Yeah, or his gums are going to recede. That's right. Oh my goodness.

But there's so much that could be done with a replicating machine. That's what I dislike about this. That's the only element. Magic trick. Magic trick. Infinite money. Babes. Babes for days element. Magic trick. Magic trick. Infinite money. Babes.

Babes for days. Oh my God. Babes for days, did you say? Look, again, you're absolutely right. And on the one hand, it is a measure of this man's obsession. It's given him tunnel vision that even though it would have incredible applications, he's focused so hard on it being, he's just using this for magic tricks. But you're absolutely right. Infinite everything. it's a world-changing device yeah because not even tesla's

like i could make a couple anti-circuses couldn't i that'd be pretty good do you know what i'm like even tesla kind of dismisses the machine it's like i made the machine and now i'm leaving tesla what are you doing which makes it which makes me wonder what else is he building exactly maybe that's his maybe that's just one he just tossed off over a long weekend. Like, Jackman shows up again and he's like, oh, jeez, I didn't make anything. Let me just see what's in the back room. Clothing machine?

I don't know. Maybe we should see, maybe if there's a sequel to this, it could just be like the insane stuff Tesla's been up to. I think Christian Bale, because one Christian Bale gets murdered at the end. He he gets hung i think you should have just made another version himself and just go good enough there's two of us together that's cool yeah yeah you know whatever you'd be the reckless one it seems like the reckless one and the callous one though is the one that dies right the one who's like i'm married but whatever he's like he's the one who's obsessed

with finding out how the trick is done. Yes, he is the magic obsessor. That is true, yes. Yeah. I just think that's fascinating as well, that even within twins, there's one that keeps pushing it too far. And eventually, again, it's that obsession that's like, you've done this, haven't you?

Michael Caine's good in this as well. At the end, he's like, your wife drowned and it wasn't good. Like I lied earlier. She would have hated that. Yeah. I mean, there's very few people who would love it to be honest

and to be fair me you dozens of times probably wouldn't have loved it honestly yeah also me Michael Caine maybe you should have

taken the axe off me because I'm a 75 year old man maybe you could have smashed the glass case Hugh Jackman that's all I'm saying anyway he's great at this movie as he is at all things

Quora Quora the internet website that answers all your questions. That's right. It poses the question, is the story of the film The Prestige real? And what I want to say to people is

that we can leave that up to you. That's up to your interpretation of these film events. How much is real or how much isn't? Oh. I mean, it's not. None of it's real. None of it's real. I mean, it was a cloning machine.

Based off a book. Yeah, that's true. That's definitely fiction. That Chinese-English guy, he was real. None of it's real. I mean, it was a cloning machine. Based off a book. Yeah, that's true. That's definitely fiction. That Chinese-English guy, he was real. Yep. Shot in real life. They should have put that in, if I'm honest. I don't know, man.

I just think I didn't not like this movie. But going back to it, I appreciated it so much more than when I just went, when I was quite young and I saw it, I went, oh, cloning machine, as if. Right, yeah. Just make infinite babes, man. That's what I mean. That's right yeah but i think yeah and again in a rewatch because it is in self a closed system like it's the the

machine is built then the machine is packed away forever and we never it's never encountered again kind of like that the story begins the story ends that i'm i guess i'm in in in terms of a rewatch i'm like okay well that's, you know, it is, the obsession died with the man kind of thing. Would you say that this is one of the better Christopher Nolan films? Yes. I think it is. Oh yeah, look, honestly, spoiler alert,

it's quite rare for me to watch a Christopher Nolan movie that I dislike. So well done, renowned movie maker Christopher Nolan. You've pleased me, the viewer. Do you think there could be one coming up in this trilogy of Christopher Nolan movies that you're like, maybe not this week, Christopher Nolan, not a fan? Oh, maybe. I don't know what else is coming up. Well, next week we're going to be doing...

It's actually, I like that one. No, we're going to be reviewing noises. This is the noise we'll be reviewing. I'd have to listen to it a few more times, but I think I like it. I think it's ripe for being overused in movie trailers for the next five to ten years, probably. Initially, you're like,

this is quite compelling. What a fascinating use of sound design. And then you're like, get this the fuck away from me. Please. It's assaulting my ears. Anyway, this has been The Illusionist. Sorry we didn't mention Jessica Biel much, but I feel like she didn't play that much of a role in this movie,

if I'm honest. Now, James, I have a little extra segment here. I love segments. Well, here's the thing. So this movie ultimately is about how this obsession turns to tragedy and danger and evil and wrongdoing and tragedy. And ultimately, there are no winners. Sure.

But that's loser talk. So what I'm thinking is we should determine on points who is the actual winner of this movie. In the style of Civil War and Batman v Superman, there's got to be a winner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So is it Team Angier or is it Team Borden? So all we have to do is tabulate the results.

Okay, so are you ready? I'm ready. Okay, Angier gets to smooch his beautiful wife, Piper Perabo. One point. Pretty good. Borden gets to murder Angier's beautiful wife, Piper Perabo. One point. Borden's on the board.

Raven, you ready? All right, Angier. This is neck and neck. Angier shoots off Borden's fingers. That's a point, but it's double points. Why? The second Borden has to chop off his own fingers. That's true.

I would even argue you could even go quadruple points because of four fingers. Four fingers. But let's stick to what you've got. Rules are rules, Jase. Borden ruins Angier's act and crushes that lady's fingers. Very embarrassing. That's true.

Remember that? That's a point for him. Also, that woman, negative one point. Oh, yeah. She's off the board. She's probably not going to win this. Also, that woman, negative one point. Oh, yeah. She's off the board. She's probably not going to win this. Borden. Oh, he's back.

He tells Angia's double, Gumbs McGee, that he can make some demands. Angia's got that perfect act. Ruined now. That's right. Angia gets to smooch Scarlett Johansson. Oh, hello. Borden gets to smooch Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett Johansson.

She's got two on the board for that, doesn't she? Two on the board, Scarlett Johansson. Maybe she's coming up from the back. She's going to win this. There's three ofson. Scarlett Johansson. She's got two on the board for that, doesn't she? Two on the board, Scarlett Johansson. Maybe she's coming up from the back. She's going to win this. There's three of them. Yeah, that's true. Let's see. Angia gets to meet Nikola Tesla.

Yes. I thought for a second you were going to say Nikola Skage. Angia has to meet Tesla's dumb magic fanboy assistant. Ooh. Negative points. No, no. Come on. Negative points.

Borden gets to smooch Rebecca Hall. Hello. That's right. Borden has beautiful daughter with Rebecca Hall. That's true.

Angia gets to purchase Borden's beautiful daughter. The dream. That's right. Angia gets one half of team Borden framed

for murder and executed. That's worth 10 points, I reckon. Oh, definitely. Borden lives at the end. Only one to live at Borden framed for murder and executed. That's worth 10 points, I reckon. Oh, definitely. Borden lives at the end.

Only one to live at the end. Murders Angier. One million points. Yeah, that's, yeah. He's the winner. Borden's the winner. Wow, that was like watching a race car. Pretty tense, except for the million points at the end,

which kind of ruined it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Made it a foregone conclusion, I think. How many Angiers do you think he killed? I think he ended up doing about 60 shows, from memory. That's too many. But he was gone for 100. Yeah, right.

Also Hugh Jackman, what are you doing? Yeah, come on, man. You're too dedicated to show business. Yeah, right. That's your problem, mate. Do you mean the actor or the character? Just both. I can't separate them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Often also I didn't know it was Hugh Jackman because it was just a sea of beards and mustaches and fake teeth just swirling about in my mind. Anyway, this has been Caravanser Garbage. We do this every week. This has been fun.

I really like talking about this one. It's nice to reprieve to be like, oh, good movies again. Isn't it amazing that this movie featured a number of actors playing near identical characters and they were still less confusing than the Transformers movie. Isn't that wild? Well, Stanley Tucci played a wizard in Stanley Tucci, if you recall. That's true. The Transformers have their own thing going on, don't they? They really do, don't they?

Anyways, if you go to bigsandwich.co and sign up, you can actually get these videos early. Next week, of course, as mentioned, Inception. That's very exciting. Wow. That's very exciting. That's right. Very excited to come back for that. You also can get there some exclusive podcasts. Early videos. Did I already say that?

Movie commentaries. Oh my goodness, subscribe if you could, but even to this channel. You know what I mean? Yeah, just subscribe. Just go on a subscribing rampage. Become obsessed with subscribing. And then it'll lead to tragedy. But not for us. We'll get $9 a month.

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I mean, if you want. It's up to you. I mean, if you want. It's up to you. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.