The Illusionist

Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) finds a gem from Prince Leopold's (Rufus Sewell) sword and Sophie's (Jessica Biel) necklace at the stable. With this evidence, he's convinced that the prince murdered Sophie. He confronts the prince and he says that it's all Eisenheim's (Edward Norton) doing and that it's all a trick. Uhl mentions that he wrote to the prince's father, the Emperor, telling him what's happened and just as the Emperor's guards are approaching, the prince shoots himself. Eisenheim, in disguise, heads to the train station. A little boy gives to inspector Uhl the instructions to the orange tree illusion and he suddenly realizes that Eisenheim's acts really are illusions and are not real. He heads to the train station, hoping to catch Eisenheim and he figures it all out. The "physician" that inspected Sophie's "corpse" is really a friend of Eisenheim (he appears when Uhl is following and eavesdropping on Eisenheim before he reports to the prince that he saw Sophie with Eisenheim). Sophie faked her death and took some kind of drug so that she would look dead, Eisenheim took a gem from the prince's sword on the night that he did the "sword in the stone" trick. Sophie drugged the wine before being "murdered" and she put blood on the horse. Uhl smiles now that he's realized that Eisenheim fooled everyone. The last scene is Eisenheim and Sophie happily reunited...

Alex

Continuity mistake: When Inspector Uhl is inspecting the theater prior to the arrival on the prince, he is speaking with Eisenheim. When Uhl says "I have been puzzling over how it works", Eisenheim is standing with his arms behind his back. When it cuts his arms are crossed. (00:20:15)

Mortug

More mistakes in The Illusionist

Eisenheim: My intention has only been to entertain, nothing more.

More quotes from The Illusionist

Trivia: The girl playing young Sophie was only 13 when they filmed Eisenheim and her kissing. The kisses filmed were her first and second kisses. (00:09:50)

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Question: Can you see the gemstones missing from the royal sword after Eisenheim holds it and secretly steals them? If you can still see them then Sophie must have taken them when The Crown Prince was passed out in the stable but I don't know which it is without seeing the scene.

Answer: You never see the sword closely enough to notice if Eisenheim took them during the performance. It is likely that he did not since this was a bit early in his planning (if he had started at all) and the Crown Prince could easily have noticed and replaced them or investigated that they were stolen. It is more likely than Sophie took them after the Crown Prince was passed out and then planted the green one in the stable and the red one in the folds of her dress.

Zwn Annwn

Answer: I'm no expert but I honestly thought the sword was wedged in a gap in the floor by the tip of the blade and slight pressure of foot on the floorboards would have clenched 2 boards together around the sword tip and then when the pressure released the sword comes out but the 2 sides of the floor boards slice one of the jewels off! Lol when you look at the floor with the tip of the sword there's a kind of optical illusion with the woodwork pattern but I'm probably completely wrong but I thoroughly enjoy the film it is truly magic the whole thing for me anyway. Greetings from Middle Earth.

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