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Examining the Realism Behind Hollywood's Most Famous Magic Tricks!

Who doesn't love a good magic trick?

By Jonathan SimPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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Before I ever became a film critic and before I discovered my passion for movies, I was a magician. Yes, the most respectable, well-paying job on the planet.

I've always loved magic tricks, and since I still do my fair share of magic along with film criticism, I decided to combine my love for both into one article, where I delve into how realistic the magic tricks we see in movies and TV actually are, while also revealing a bit here and there.

Now You See Me

I'm gonna start with Now You See Me because this series is a huge guilty pleasure for me and I don't know why it's taking so long for them to make a third movie because I love these movies so much.

Anyways, let's start with our opening act.

This is a real card trick. A variation of it was performed by David Blaine in his first TV special, Street Magic. There are many different methods and approaches for this, and I believe for this one, they simply had about 10-15 seven of diamonds in the deck together so that when Atlas riffled through, you could see the seven for a lot longer than other cards.

And as for the seven getting onto the building, Atlas later says that he bribed the electrician to to do that.

For this stage effect, Henley is locked in a water tank for a minute. The locks are fake, and when the piranha fall into the tank, Henley wasn't in real danger because piranhas don't actually attack people in a tank, as proven by magicians/skeptics Penn & Teller in their show, Penn & Teller Tell a Lie.

As the water is poured into the tank, a trapdoor from underneath the tank opened up where Henley was able to fall through. She could then enter the audience as everyone was distracted with the blood-filled tank.

There are three magic tricks in this scene: the first is the vanishing rabbit inside a box, which the Horsemen explain in the show. The second is a trick where Merritt hypnotizes audience members to tackle anyone who says, "Freeze!"

Unfortunately, hypnotizing someone doesn't give you that kind of control over a person, so this can't happen. And the final trick is one where Henley flies into the air in a bubble, which doesn't make sense at all, but is very good for cinematic purposes.

Now You See Me 2

Here we have a very famous scene from the film where the Horsemen hide a card from security using a lot of sleight of hand. In the scene, they use back palms, card throwing, palming, and elastic thread, and I'd say about 90% of the scene is technically possible.

But that doesn't mean it's realistic, as no one noticed the computer missing its chip, there were no security cameras, and the bit where Atlas sends the card flying down his sleeves and pant legs, which I think would be impossible. Still, this is one of the most entertaining scenes I've watched in a film.

There are four routines in this video; the first is the trick where Atlas freezes rain. It was explained that the effect was done with rain machines and strobe lights, and if this was the case, the audience members would still feel the rain hitting them and many would wonder why it was only raining in one small section of London.

The second and third routines are Jack's Three-Card Monte routine and Lula's bird trick. These two are both plausible, with Jack using twins and Lula using methods I can't reveal but can be performed by anyone with the correct props and practice.

And the final effect is when Chase reads Merritt's body language to find out that the Horsemen are going to the Thames. This is complete B.S. unless Chase already knew beforehand. That's not how body language works.

The Prestige

This is a very famous film and I'm a HUGE Nolan fan, and as for this magic trick where Angler appears to teleport from one door on the stage to another door, it gets explained in the film that it uses a trapdoor and an identical actor.

However, this trick isn't actually good for a stage as one may think because when one thinks about it, an identical actor is the only possible way the trick could have been done, and the actual trick lasts for less than five seconds, which is why magicians wouldn't actually perform this and only this as a trick in their show.

Mission: Impossible

The Mission: Impossible films have evolved quite a bit from Tom Cruise doing mind-blowing close-up magic to mind-blowing death-defying stunts. And in this scene where Ethan makes a disk disappear and reappear.

He could have done this using a device that could pull the disc in his jacket, which is a method that isn't always used by magicians to make objects vanish, but has similar concepts spread throughout the world of magic.

Okay, one more!

The Dark Knight

Ah, yes. One of the most famous magic tricks in film history. As a magician, I can confirm that magicians shove pencils through people's heads at least once a week. It's a real show-stopper. I heard from an anonymous source that this trick was performed by David Blaine, Criss Angel, and David Copperfield in their TV specials but it got cut for censorship reasons.

In fact, I did this trick once and people were telling me, "You really killed out there, man," and they're not wrong.

Anyways, that was my very natural, smooth segue into Joker, the newest DC film that has just hit theaters and I will be watching and reviewing it soon.

It's gonna be hard to top Ledger.

But anyways, thank you so much for reading, and I hoped you learned a little bit of magical wisdom from me today. Signed, your friendly neighborhood magician/film critic.

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About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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