The Prestige
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50 free The Prestige trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Prestige is the Christopher Nolan film that rewards a second viewing more than almost any other. On the surface it is a story about a pair of rival magicians in Victorian London, each determined to perform the perfect teleportation illusion. Underneath, it is a puzzle about obsession, secrecy and how much a person will give up to be the best. This quiz covers the whole story: the feud and how it starts, the characters and the stars who play them, the famous inventor who steps into the story, and the reveals that change everything you thought you saw. It also goes behind the curtain, to the locations, the camera work, the music, the awards and the book the film is based on. The questions run from easy openers for anyone who has watched the film once to deep cuts for people who have read the novel too. Be warned that the answers spoil the ending. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up something new even when you guess.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Prestige, what secret lets Alfred Borden vanish and reappear across the stage almost instantly?
An identical twin
An identical twin shares the single identity of Alfred Borden, each man living half a life so that nobody suspects there are two. One loves Sarah and the other loves Olivia.
Q 02Which rock star plays the inventor Nikola Tesla in The Prestige after first turning the part down?
David Bowie
David Bowie agreed within minutes once Christopher Nolan, a lifelong fan, flew out to pitch the part in person. Nolan said he was the only person he had in mind for Tesla.
Q 03What does Nikola Tesla's machine really do to anything placed inside it in The Prestige?
Creates a duplicate
The machine creates a duplicate a short distance away and leaves the original where it stood. Tesla sends it with a letter urging Angier to destroy it rather than use it.
Q 04What does Alfred Borden lose when Robert Angier fires a loaded pistol at him on stage in The Prestige?
Two fingers
Two fingers are blown off during the pistol trick, Angier's revenge for the death of his wife. From then on the two men sabotage each other's shows whenever they can.
Q 05Which US city doubled for Victorian London during most of the filming of The Prestige?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles supplied almost 70 locations that could pass for London at the end of the 19th century, including four old theatres in its downtown Broadway district.
Q 06How does Robert Angier's wife Julia die during a stage escape gone wrong in The Prestige?
She drowns
She drowns in a tank of water when she cannot slip the knot Borden tied around her wrists. Angier blames him, and that grief starts the feud that runs through the whole film.
Q 07Which real inventor's rivalry with Nikola Tesla runs in parallel to the magicians' feud in The Prestige?
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison is the unseen enemy whose agents hound Tesla in the film, a mirror of the magicians' feud. The script leans on the popular idea that the two inventors fought the war of the currents head to head.
Q 08Which actor plays Robert Angier, the magician with a gift for showmanship, in The Prestige?
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman was cast because Christopher Nolan felt he shared Angier's feel for a live audience. He also plays the alcoholic lookalike Angier hires for his act.
Q 09In The Prestige, what name does Cutter give the first of the three parts of every magic trick?
The pledge
The pledge comes first, followed by two more steps that end with the prestige itself. The Nolans deliberately built the screenplay's own three acts around those three parts.
Q 10Which 2006 Edward Norton film shared its stage-magician theme with The Prestige and Scoop?
The Illusionist
The Illusionist, set in Vienna, opened in US cinemas in August 2006, two months ahead of its rival. That year produced three films about stage magicians.
Q 11Which actor plays Alfred Borden in The Prestige, having ignored advice not to read the novel first?
Christian Bale
Christian Bale won the part by contacting Christopher Nolan about the script himself. Nolan had not considered him until then, and afterwards called anyone else unthinkable.
Q 12Which actor plays Cutter, the stage engineer who mentors both young magicians in The Prestige?
Michael Caine
Michael Caine changed his voice and posture to play Cutter, a part Christopher Nolan had written before the two men ever met.
Q 13Which actress plays the assistant Robert Angier sends to spy on Alfred Borden in The Prestige?
Scarlett Johansson
Q 21What is the name of the failed actor hired as Robert Angier's lookalike in The Prestige?
Root
Root is an alcoholic, and the film's leading man plays him as well as Angier, which gives the star a second role.
Q 22Under which stage name does the working-class magician Alfred Borden perform in The Prestige?
The Professor
The Professor gets his hands dirty building tricks, and critics read his feud with a polished, elitist showman as a kind of class war.
Q 23Which stage name does Robert Angier use for his polished magic act in The Prestige?
The Great Danton
The Great Danton is all showmanship: Angier's strength lies in selling a trick to the crowd, and he relies on Cutter as his stage engineer.
Scarlett Johansson plays Olivia Wenscombe, who falls in love with the man she is sent to spy on and changes sides. Christopher Nolan said he was very keen to cast her.
Q 14Which 2005 superhero film had Christopher Nolan directed just before he made The Prestige?
Batman Begins
Batman Begins pushed the magician film back: Nolan had planned to direct it in 2003, then returned to the project once his superhero film was out.
Q 15Which British author wrote the 1995 novel that the film The Prestige is based on?
Christopher Priest
Christopher Priest approved of the film, calling the script an extraordinary and brilliant adaptation, and he had seen it three times within months of its release.
Q 16What name does Alfred Borden give the teleportation illusion that obsesses his rival in The Prestige?
The Transported Man
The Transported Man seems to carry Borden from one side of the stage to the other almost instantly. Angier's first attempt to match it relies on a lookalike.
Q 17To which US town does Robert Angier travel to find the inventor Nikola Tesla in The Prestige?
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is where the real Tesla built an experimental station in 1899 to study wireless power. He used it for only one year.
Q 18In The Prestige, how is Alfred Borden executed after being convicted of murdering Robert Angier?
Hanging
Hanging frames the whole film: the screenplay swapped the novel's modern-day frame story for Borden's wait for the gallows.
Q 19Under which aristocratic name does Robert Angier visit Alfred Borden in prison in The Prestige?
Lord Caldlow
Lord Caldlow is who Angier really is: a wealthy English nobleman, with the showman on the posters as his invented public persona.
Q 20What is the name of the enigmatic assistant Alfred Borden hires to help with his act in The Prestige?
Fallon
Fallon matters so much that Angier later seizes him and holds him to ransom in a cemetery, hoping to trade him for the secret of his rival's best trick.
Q 24What is the name of Alfred Borden's daughter, whom a wealthy stranger offers to raise in The Prestige?
Jess
Jess is the bargaining chip: the offer to care for her comes at a price, the secret behind her father's most famous trick.
Q 25Which English actress landed her breakthrough film role as Alfred Borden's wife Sarah in The Prestige?
Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall had made her film debut that same year in Starter for 10, and she went on to The Town and Iron Man 3.
Q 26Which actor appears as Nikola Tesla's assistant Mr. Alley in The Prestige?
Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis imagined Alley as a former corporation man who jumped ship to follow a maverick, and described him as a gatekeeper and a conman.
Q 27Which Coyote Ugly star plays Julia, the wife Robert Angier loses early in The Prestige?
Piper Perabo
Piper Perabo's Julia starts out as an assistant to Milton the Magician, the older performer who employs both rivals at the beginning of their careers.
Q 28Which relative of director Christopher Nolan co-wrote the screenplay of The Prestige with him?
His brother
His brother Jonathan worked on the script on and off for five years from late 2001, and the pair finished the shooting draft just three days before filming began.
Q 29What does Olivia pass to Robert Angier that sends him across the Atlantic in The Prestige?
A coded diary
A coded diary belonging to Borden reaches Angier even though Olivia has changed sides. Its key word turns out to be TESLA, which points him towards the inventor.
Q 30Which act of Robert Angier's does Alfred Borden wreck before a live audience in The Prestige?
A bird trick
A bird trick goes violently wrong once Borden interferes, and a member of the audience is hurt. It is his payback for the shot Angier fired at him during an earlier show.