3 Best Magic Tricks in the Now You See Me Franchise, Explained
Now You See Me is all about illusions and clever magic tricks, which keep fans guessing how they are made even over a decade after its release.
Released in 2013, the first Now You See Me movie presented a unique story about magicians, calling themselves the Four Horseman (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco), who used their illusions to steal money from the rich and their corporations.
This one-of-a-kind film and its 2016 sequel are full of tricks, which are mostly based on illusions from real life. Let’s discuss our top-3 of them.
The Handcuff Trick
In the first movie we follow the interrogation of Danny, Eiesenberg’s character, who artfully gets himself unhandcuffed, asking an FBI officer to check her soda bottle, from which she retrieves the cuff key.
Such an illusion is a hallmark for many street magicians and the illusion here lies in the fact that a small object is inconspicuously placed into a can or into a special hole in it before showing it to the audience.
The Water Tank
The next outstanding trick is performed by another character, Henley (Fisher), who gets chained up inside a locked glass box, full of water, sentencing herself to be eaten by piranhas if she can’t escape it. She initially pretends to lose the battle and enacts a bloody spectacle but then comes out from a different part of the room untouched.
Even though this trick is partly made-up by the movie screenwriters, as the piranhas were put there by computer graphics, some variations of it are played by real-life illusionists.
According to movie’s magician consultant’s Wired interview, the basic trick is “based on the water-torture cell ... escaping from shackles while submerged.”
The Card Trick
One of the most outstandingly directed scenes of the whole series has to be the "disappearing card" trick, which required precise command work of the Four Horseman.
It features their successful attempt to steal a special computer chip that they have attached to the back of a playing card, which they perform by skillfully passing a card to each other during the process of a thorough examination of them conducted by securities. It displays a real-life art of cardistry, which is done by the greatest magicians.
Source: Wired