The film features an ensemble cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Mélanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, Common, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman.

The plot follows an FBI agent and an Interpol detective who track and attempt to bring to justice a team of magicians who pull off bank heists and robberies during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

[6] Four highly talented magicians - J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves, and Jack Wilder - each receive tarot cards leading them to an apartment in New York City.

Their final trick involves transporting an audience member inside a Crédit Républicain bank vault in Paris.

They also manipulated the participant, who was selected long before the heist to attend the show, and was hypnotized into helping perform the final trick; the Horsemen forged his signature using his credit card.

Aided by Thaddeus, the FBI follows the Horsemen to their next show in New Orleans, where they transfer millions from Tressler's private accounts to audience members whose insurance claims were denied by his company following Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile, Alma suspects that the Horsemen are part of a secret organization called “the Eye”, a group of skilled magicians who steal from the powerful to give to those who are vulnerable and believe that someone is helping them.

Dylan recovers papers pointing to the Horsemen's next crime: stealing millions from a safe manufactured by Elkhorn Security.

As they leap off the roof, Alma stops Dylan from shooting them before the Horsemen disappear in a shower of counterfeit money.

The real money from the Elkhorn safe is found in Thaddeus's car, so he is arrested, presumed to be the Horsemen's accomplice.

Dylan visits him in jail, where Thaddeus realizes he is the true mastermind behind the Horsemen's plots, having helped them dupe the FBI into following the duplicate safe.

The Horsemen tricked the FBI into believing that the safe was missing; it was actually hidden behind a giant mirror and framed Thaddeus with the stolen money.

Elias Koteas appears, uncredited,[citation needed] as Lionel Shrike, a magician who drowned while performing an escape trick thirty years earlier.

[1] The film had a successful box office run, placing second behind Fast & Furious 6 and taking $29,350,389 on its opening weekend from 2,925 theaters.

The critics consensus reads: "Now You See Me's thinly sketched characters and scattered plot rely on sleight of hand from the director to distract audiences.

Critic Lee Cassanell claimed the creators "ran out of top hats and rabbits and decided to saw their audiences' brains in half.

[31] On May 22, 2015, Lionsgate revealed details about the development of the second sequel, when CEO Jon Feltheimer announced that they had "already begun early planning for Now You See Me 3".