The Prestige ending explained (spoilers)

[ivan]

		If we assume, as your spoiler does, that the man left in the machine after the duplication process isthe duplicate rather than the original, then the real Angier died when he first tested the machine. In that test,Angierplaced a gun next to the machine, then stepped into the machine andcreated a duplicate. The man who remained on the machine's platform - the duplicate, according to the logic of yourspoiler - thenpicked up the gun and shot/killed the transported man, who - againaccording to the logic of your spoiler - would have been theoriginal Angier (we only see this scene in flashback-toward the end of the movie, after Angier has been shot and he and Borden are talking). 			If we assume, on the other hand, that the man left standing on the machine's platform isthe original and the duplicate is transported to the back of the theater, then Robert Angier died when he first performed the trick for Cutter and Ackerman (we have to assume that there was a trap door in the floor with a water tank below it; otherwise, what happened to the man who was on the platform- where did he disappear to inthat performance?). 			My personal belief: the plot's intention is that theduplicate did indeed drown every night. But theplot has a fatalflaw in the fact that the transported man(the realAngier) rather than theduplicate, was killed the first time the machine was used.

[edgar]

Alfred Borden has a twin, and lives the act even at home with his wife and child. He and the twin switch places often, with one portraying the others assistant Fallon. This also explains why he seems to be two different people around his wife, who kills herself. The machine that Tesla builds for Angier turns out to be a cloning machine, which transports the clone in the process. So, each night Angier uses the machine onstage, he is actually cloning himself, with the copy falling through the trap door into a water tank and drowning. Angier uses this to frame Borden for his murder. Angier takes on the name Lord Caldlow and is granted custody of Bordens daughter after the trial, so apparently, he has suceeded in taking everything from Borden as he set out to do. At this point, Angier is still unaware that Borden has a twin. One of the Borden/Fallon twins is hanged for the crime, while the other returns to shoot Angier, setting fire to his dead body and the duplicating machine. As Angier is dying he states You dont see where you are, do you?, and, as the fire burns, Borden/Fallon looks around and realizes that he is in the underground holding area for the water tanks with the dead Angier clones inside of them. We are then shown Borden/Fallon reuniting with his daughter who is with Cutter, (who knew that Borden was a twin the entire time). The movie ends with a quick shot of one of the dead clones in a water tank.