Good movie.

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2016)

In early 1900s London, magician Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) performs his trick, 'The Real Transported Man' to a sold out theater. A disguised Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) sneaks under the stage. At the trick's culmination, Angier drops through a trap door and into a waiting water tank, where Borden watches him drown.
At Borden's murder trial, Angier's ingénieur, John Cutter, testifies that he believes Borden pushed the water tank under the trap door to catch and kill Angier during his Transported Man trick. In prison, Borden is visited by an agent of Lord Caldlow, who offers to care for Borden's daughter Jess in exchange for all of Borden's secrets. As a show of good faith, Caldlow gives Borden a copy of Angier's diary, which he begins reading.
In flashback, Angier and Borden work as shills for "Milton the Magician," alongside John Cutter (Michael Caine) then Milton's ingénieur, and Julia (Piper Perabo), Milton's assistant and Angier's wife. Milton's famous trick is the water tank trick, where Julia is bound in ropes and dropped in a water tank, from which she frees herself and escapes. Borden, with Julia's consent, ties her hands with a more secure, yet difficult knot. Julia fails to slip the knot and drowns, infuriating Angier and fueling his deep-seated grudge against Borden.