It stars Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier and Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in Victorian London who feud over a perfect teleportation illusion.

The cast also features Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla.

The film reunites Nolan with actors Bale and Caine from Batman Begins and returning cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, and editor Lee Smith.

At Angier's house, Cutter explains that the hardest and final part of any magic trick is the re-appearance, also called the 'prestige', where the magician brings back the object he made to vanish.

The film ends with a shot of Angier's burning theater, the walls lined with water tanks containing the corpses of his clones.

The development process for The Prestige began as a reversal of their earlier collaboration: Jonathan Nolan had pitched his initial story for Memento to his brother during a road trip.

"[14] Although the film is thematically faithful to the novel, two major changes were made to the plot structure during the adaptation process: the novel's spiritualism subplot was removed, and the modern-day frame story was replaced with Borden's wait for the gallows.

[19] Crowley and his crew searched Los Angeles for almost seventy locations that resembled fin de siècle London.

[12] Nathan Crowley helped design the scene for Tesla's invention; It was shot in the parking lot of the Mount Wilson Observatory.

[22] Nolan built only one set for the film, an "under-the-stage section that houses the machinery that makes the larger illusions work,"[23] preferring to simply dress various Los Angeles locations and sound stages to stand in for Colorado and Victorian England.

[6] Costume designer Joan Bergin chose attractive, modern Victorian fashions for Scarlett Johansson; cinematographer Wally Pfister captured the mood with soft earth tones as white and black colors provided background contrasts, bringing actors' faces to the foreground.

Obsession, secrecy, and sacrifice fuel the battle, as both magicians contribute their fair share to a deadly duel of one-upmanship, with disastrous results.

Their struggle is also expressed through class warfare: Borden as The Professor, a working-class magician who gets his hands dirty, versus Angier as The Great Danton, a classy, elitist showman whose accent makes him appear American.

Outside the film, similar rivalries include magicians John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Kellar's dispute over a levitation illusion.

[28] Gary Westfahl of Locus Online also notes a "new proclivity for mayhem" in the film over the novel, citing the murder/suicide disposition of Angier's duplicates and intensified violent acts of revenge and counter-revenge.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Full of twists and turns, The Prestige is a dazzling period piece that never stops challenging the audience.

"[38] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

"[41] Drew McWeeny gave the film a glowing review, saying it demands repeat viewing,[42] with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone agreeing.

[44][45] Todd Gilchrist of IGN applauded the performances of Jackman and Bale whilst praising Nolan for making "this complex story as easily understandable and effective as he made the outwardly straightforward comic book adaptation (Batman Begins) dense and sophisticated... any truly great performance is almost as much showmanship as it is actual talent, and Nolan possesses both in spades.

[47] Philip French of The Observer recommended the film, comparing the rivalry between the two main characters to that of Mozart and Salieri in the highly acclaimed Amadeus.

On a simpler note, Emanuel Levy has said: "Whether viewers perceive The Prestige as intricately complex or just unnecessarily complicated would depend to a large degree on their willingness to suspend disbelief for two hours."

He wrote, "The pledge of Nolan's The Prestige is that the film, having been metaphorically sawed in two, will be restored; it fails when it cheats, as, for example, if the whole woman produced on the stage were not the same one so unfortunately cut in two.

[61] All music is composed by David JulyanSome critics were disappointed with the score, acknowledging that while it worked within the context of the film, it was not enjoyable by itself.

"[62] Christopher Coleman of Tracksounds felt that though it was "...a perfectly fitting score," it was completely overwhelmed by the film, and totally unnoticed at times.

Clemmensen called the score lifeless, "constructed on a bed of simplistic string chords and dull electronic soundscapes.

Special features are minimal, with the documentary Director's Notebook: The Prestige – Five Making-of Featurettes, running roughly twenty minutes combined, an art gallery and the trailer.

Nolan did not contribute to a commentary as he felt the film primarily relied on an audience's reaction and did not want to remove the mystery from the story.