20 Years Later, The Prestige Remains Christopher Nolan’s Most Underrated Movie

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Christopher Nolan is an exceptional director who consistently creates both commercially successful and critically acclaimed films. His recent movie, Oppenheimer, was a massive hit, earning nearly $1 billion globally and winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Nolan’s next project, The Odyssey, is even grander in scope, adapting the classic ancient epic that helped shape storytelling itself.

Christopher Nolan is known for creating visually stunning films, and his 2006 movie, The Prestige, is a perfect example – it’s a truly exceptional film that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Released between the first two Batman movies, The Prestige has Nolan’s best storytelling and a truly surprising twist.

The Prestige Isn’t Considered One Of Nolan’s Best Movies, But It Should Be

People often argue about which Christopher Nolan film is his best – options like The Dark Knight, Inception, Oppenheimer, and Dunkirk are frequently mentioned. However, The Prestige doesn’t usually come up in those conversations. While it has a respectable 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s often seen as a lesser-known film that preceded the huge success of The Dark Knight.

In The Prestige, director Christopher Nolan demonstrates remarkable focus. The film explores his signature ideas – intense dedication, competition, self-sacrifice, and the price of success – without feeling overly long or complicated, as some of his later movies do. The story’s non-traditional structure isn’t just for show; it cleverly uses competing journals and untrustworthy storytellers to drive the plot.

Both Christian Bale and Michael Caine give excellent, layered performances in The Prestige, released just a year after Batman Begins. This film is one of Nolan’s most rewarding to watch again and again, and it’s surprisingly his most overlooked masterpiece.

The Prestige Has Nolan’s Best Twist Ever

Christopher Nolan is known for plot twists, but many of them focus on characters’ true identities (like Miranda Tate in The Dark Knight Rises), get bogged down in lengthy explanations (Tenet), or are so complicated you can’t possibly figure them out the first time you watch (Memento). The Prestige is different. Its final reveal isn’t just surprising—it changes how you understand everything that happened earlier in the film. The ending is straightforward, shocking, and feels completely justified, making the whole story even better without needing a lot of backstory or a complicated, puzzle-like plot.

There are lots of subtle details in The Prestige that you might miss on a first viewing – like Borden quickly figuring out Chung Ling Soo’s trick, his wife noticing his injuries always look new, and many seemingly unimportant moments that become significant later. Plus, the film features what many consider to be Christopher Nolan’s most surprising plot twist.

Nolan Shines In Contained Adaptations Like The Prestige

The film The Prestige is adapted from Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel, but director Christopher Nolan simplifies the novel’s overall structure and saves the biggest surprise for the very end. When Nolan creates original stories, his complex themes can sometimes overwhelm the plot, causing the characters to feel more like symbols than real people.

Christopher Nolan’s most puzzling movies are often his own ideas – think Memento, Interstellar, and Tenet. Interestingly, some of his biggest successes come from when he adapts existing stories, like with Batman, Oppenheimer, and Dunkirk. This suggests his next project, an adaptation of The Odyssey, could be another triumph.

The film The Prestige gained a lot from starting with a compelling story. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan were able to make the story more focused and impactful. They achieved this by simplifying the plot and tightening the narrative, resulting in a more dramatic and visually striking ending than the book’s original, more thoughtful conclusion.

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2026-01-25 20:58