''Now You See Me'' is a 2013 American
heist drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...
directed by
Louis Leterrier from a screenplay by
Ed Solomon,
Boaz Yakin, and Edward Ricourt and a story by Yakin and Ricourt. It is the first installment in the
''Now You See Me'' series. The film features an
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast t ...
of
Jesse Eisenberg,
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...
,
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
,
Isla Fisher,
Dave Franco,
Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent (; born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, filmmaker, and singer. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she is an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Globally, she is best known for her rol ...
,
Michael Caine, and
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
. The plot follows an
FBI agent and an
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...
detective who track and attempt to bring to justice a team of magicians who pull off bank heists and robberies during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.
The film premiered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on May 21, 2013 before its official release in the United States on May 31, 2013, by
Summit Entertainment. The film received mixed reviews with criticism being focused on the ending, but became a box office success, grossing $351.7 million worldwide against a budget of $75 million. The film won the
People's Choice Award for Favorite Thriller Movie and also received nominations for the
Empire Award for
Best Thriller and the
Saturn Award
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
for
Best Thriller Film and
Best Music
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporation ...
.
A sequel, ''
Now You See Me 2'', was released on June 10, 2016.
Plot
Magicians J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves, and Jack Wilder each receive a
tarot card
The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, ...
leading them to a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
apartment, where they discover
hologram technology with instructions from an unknown benefactor. A year later, at the
MGM Grand Las Vegas
The MGM Grand Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The MGM Grand is the largest single hotel in the world with 6,852 rooms. It is also the List of largest hotels, third-largest hotel complex in the w ...
, they perform as "The Four Horsemen" in a show funded by insurance magnate Arthur Tressler. Their final trick appears to transport an audience member inside the vault of the Crédit Républicain bank in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. Stacks of
euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s are drawn into the vault's air vents and showered on the Las Vegas crowd; the trick is shown to have actually happened as the Paris vault is found empty of its recent shipment of Euros.
FBI agent Dylan Rhodes and French
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...
agent Alma Dray seize and interrogate the Horsemen about the robbery but, having no evidence to hold them, have no choice but to release them. They turn to Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician turned magic
debunker
A debunker is a person or organization that exposes or discredits claims believed to be false, exaggerated, or pretentious. "to expose or excoriate (a claim, assertion, sentiment, etc.) as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated: to debunk adv ...
. Thirty years ago, Lionel Shrike, a magician exposed by Thaddeus, attempted to relaunch his career, but died inside a
safe
A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...
during a failed
escape trick. Thaddeus demonstrates how the Horsemen used a mock vault under the Las Vegas stage, and explains that they stole the money ''before'' it arrived at the bank, replacing it with
flash paper designed to look like the money, which ignited when the vents were activated without creating any smoke or residue. He reveals that they manipulated the audience participant (who was ''intentionally'' selected beforehand) to attend the show, where he was hypnotized into helping to perform the final trick, also revealing that he was actually dropped into the duplicate vault below the stage.
Thaddeus and the FBI follow the Horsemen to their next show in
, where the magicians transfer more than $140 million from Tressler's private accounts to certain members in the audience, composed of people whose insurance claims were denied by Tressler's company in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
. Rhodes attempts to capture the magicians, but members of the audience who were hypnotized tackle him when he says a certain word, allowing the magicians to escape, and a vengeful Tressler hires Thaddeus to expose them for robbing him. Alma suspects the Horsemen are connected to "the Eye", a
Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
-like, elite group of magicians so skilled that many think they have access to real magic, who steal from the rich to give to the poor. Alma also suspects that there may be someone helping the Horsemen.
Discovering that the Horsemen replaced Dylan's cell phone with a
bugged clone, allowing them to remain ahead of the investigation, the FBI track Dylan's ''real'' phone to the New York apartment, where three of the Horsemen escape while Jack stays back to destroy their documents. Pursued by the authorities, he loses control of his car in a fiery crash on the
Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper Ea ...
. Unable to save Jack, Dylan recovers papers pointing to the Horsemen's next crime: stealing millions in cash from the Elkhorn Company's safe. After answering a call from Thaddeus, Dylan suspects that Alma may be helping the Horsemen, which she denies. The FBI head to the Elkhorn Company, but find the safe missing (having being loaded on a truck under orders of one of the FBI agents, who was ''also'' hypnotized) and intercept it, only to discover that it contains nothing but balloon animals; it is revealed to be a decoy. They converge on the Horsemen's final show at
5 Pointz, where the magicians appear with a farewell message to the crowd. As they leap off the roof, Alma disrupts Dylan's attempt to shoot them; the Horseman disappear in a shower of counterfeit money.
The ''real'' money from the Elkhorn safe is found in Thaddeus' car and he is apprehended, presumed to be an accomplice with the Horsemen. Dylan visits him in jail, and Thaddeus deduces that the Horsemen duped the FBI into following the duplicate safe, allowing Jack, who faked his death using a decoy car and a cadaver stolen from a morgue, to break into the ''real'' safe (which was in fact ''never'' stolen but was actually ''hidden'' behind a giant mirror to trick the FBI into thinking that it ''was'' indeed missing) and frame Thaddeus with the stolen money. Thaddeus realizes that ''Dylan'' is the mastermind behind the Four Horsemen's plots, which proves Alma's suspicions correct. At the
Central Park Carousel, Daniel, Merritt, Henley, and Jack are welcomed by Dylan as the newest members of the Eye.
Meeting Alma in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
at the
Pont des Arts, Dylan reveals that ''he'' is Lionel Shrike's son. He is also the mastermind behind Horsemen tricks in order to seek retribution for his father's death: the Elkhorn Company's faulty safe led to the accident; Thaddeus Bradley who ruined his father's career; and the Crédit Républicain and Tressler's insurance company failed to pay out his father's life insurance. Alma, having fallen in love with Dylan, agrees to keep his secret and they attach a
love lock to the railing, throwing the key into the
Seine
)
, mouth_location = Le Havre/ Honfleur
, mouth_coordinates =
, mouth_elevation =
, progression =
, river_system = Seine basin
, basin_size =
, tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle
, tributa ...
.
In a
mid-credits scene, the Horsemen drive to a deserted junkyard, and find a set of locked crates with the symbol of the Eye.
Cast
*
Jesse Eisenberg as J. Daniel "Danny" Atlas /
The Lover: An arrogant illusionist and
street magic
Street magic falls into two genres; traditional street performance and guerrilla magic.
Traditional street performance
The first definition of street magic refers to a traditional form of magic performance – that of busking. In this, the m ...
ian, and the ostensible leader of the Four Horsemen.
*
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
as Merritt McKinney /
The Hermit: A
hypnotist
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
,
mentalist, and a self-proclaimed psychic. Originally more famous in his youth, his manager brother absconded with all his money, leaving McKinney with a long hard trek back to his former glory. Middle-aged, McKinney is the oldest of the Four Horsemen.
*
Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves / The
High Priestess: An
escapist and
stage magician. She is also Danny's former assistant and ex-lover.
*
Dave Franco as Jack Wilder /
Death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
: A
sleight of hand
Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' ()) refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card ...
illusionist, street magician, and a talented
impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...
of other people's voices. Additionally, he is a pickpocket, and is able to
pick locks. In his early twenties, Jack is the youngest of the Four Horsemen.
*
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...
as Dylan Rhodes / The
Fool: an FBI agent struggling to capture and bring the Four Horsemen to justice for their unique heist agenda. In the end, he is revealed to be an illusionist, a member of the Eye himself, Lionel Shrike's son and the mastermind behind the entire heist mission.
*
Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent (; born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, filmmaker, and singer. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she is an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Globally, she is best known for her rol ...
as Alma Dray, a French Interpol agent who is partnered up with Dylan to investigate the Four Horsemen.
*
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
as Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician who, for thirty years, has profited by revealing the secrets behind other magicians' tricks.
* Jessica Lindsey as Hermia, Thaddeus Bradley's assistant.
*
Michael Caine as Arthur Tressler, an insurance magnate and the Four Horsemen's sponsor.
*
David Warshofsky as FBI Agent Cowan.
*
Michael Kelly as Agent Fuller, an FBI agent who serves as Dylan's sidekick.
*
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally ...
as Agent Evans, Dylan's supervisor at the FBI.
*
José Garcia as Étienne Forcier, the account holder at the Crédit Républicain de Paris.
*
Caitriona Balfe
Catriona (pronounced "ka-TREE-nah" is a feminine given name in the English language. It is an Anglicisation of the Irish Caitríona or Scottish Gaelic Catrìona, which are forms of the English Katherine.
Bearers of the name
Caitríona
* Ca ...
as Jasmine Tressler, Arthur Tressler's young wife.
*
Elias Koteas as Lionel Shrike, a magician who drowned while performing an escape trick thirty years earlier. Dylan is revealed to be his son at the end of the film.
*
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' ( ...
as himself
Production
On October 25, 2011,
Summit Entertainment announced the release date for ''Now You See Me'' for July 18, 2013. On November 3, 2011, the company revealed the film's first synopsis and teaser poster.
On January 16, 2012, shooting began in
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...
, which lasted until March 26, 2012. Additional filming took place in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on February 13 and in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...
from April 9, 2012 to the following day.
Isla Fisher "nearly drowned" while filming the water tank scene. "My chain got stuck. I had to really swim to the bottom; I couldn't get up. Everyone thought I was acting fabulously. I was actually drowning," she said during an interview on ''
Chelsea Lately''. "No one realized I was actually struggling." A
stuntman
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...
standing nearby used a quick-release switch to save her.
Music
The official soundtrack, titled ''Now You See Me (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'', for the film was composed by
Brian Tyler
Brian Theodore Tyler (born May 8, 1972) is an American composer, conductor, arranger, and record producer, best known for his film, television, and video game scores. In his 24-year career, Tyler has scored '' Transformers: Prime'', ''Eagle E ...
and was released by
Glassnote Records on May 28, 2013 for physical purchase and digital download. The film's soundtrack song "
Entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...
", performed by French rock band
Phoenix, was featured in the film's end credits.
Soundtrack
Release
The film premiered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on May 21, 2013 before its official release in the United States on May 31, 2013 by
Summit Entertainment.
''Now You See Me'' was released on
DVD and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
on September 3, 2013 through
Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The Blu-ray release contains an extended version of the film featuring ten additional minutes.
It also contains two featurettes: a behind-the-scenes and a "History of Magic", plus 30 minutes of
deleted scene
A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar ...
s.
Reception
Box office
By the end of its box office run, ''Now You See Me'' had grossed $117.7 million in the U.S. and Canada and $234 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $351.7 million, against a budget of $75 million.
The film had a successful box office run, placing second behind ''
Fast & Furious 6'' and taking $29,350,389 on its opening weekend from 2,925 theaters. By the end of June, it had grossed double its production budget.
The film stayed in the top 10 of the North American box office for six weeks after release.
The biggest markets in other territories were France, China, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom and Australia where the film grossed $25.7 million, $22.9 million, $21.2 million, $17.1 million, $16.8 million and $16.1 million, respectively.
Critical response
''Now You See Me'' received mixed reviews from critics. The most common criticism is that various plot points were insufficiently resolved at the film's conclusion, leaving some questions unanswered or answered unclearly (although some suggested that this was intentional, leaving room for a sequel). On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Now You See Me''s thinly sketched characters and scattered plot rely on sleight of hand from the director to distract audiences." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a score of 50 out of 100, based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audience polls conducted by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
give the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Hammond from
Movieline
''Movieline'' was a website, formerly a Los Angeles-based film and entertainment magazine, launched in 1985 as a local magazine, which went national in 1989. Known for its cult status and popularity among film critics,Saba, Michael''Movieline'' ...
wrote, "Pure summer movie magic—literally. More fun than ''
Ocean's 11'', ''
12'', and ''
13'' combined. You won't believe your eyes—and that's the point."
The film was criticized for its twist ending, with several critics citing it as too farfetched and illogical. Critic Lee Cassanell claimed the creators "ran out of top hats and rabbits and decided to saw their audiences' brains in half." Eric D. Snider was more positive towards the rest of the film, but felt that "The story moves jauntily toward its destination; the destination, unfortunately, is a disappointing wreck." Kent Garrison was far more critical, claiming the film to rely on "one of the worst, if not the worst twist in cinema history, and literally erases everything that it builds up to."
Accolades
Sequel
On July 3, 2013, after the box office success of the film, Lionsgate's CEO
Jon Feltheimer confirmed that there would be a
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
to the film with production beginning in 2014 for an unspecified release date.
Louis Leterrier stated that he would return to direct the sequel; however, in September 2014, it was confirmed that
Jon M. Chu
Jonathan Murray Chu (born November 2, 1979) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the director of 2018's ''Crazy Rich Asians'', the first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of Asi ...
would replace Leterrier as director. Eisenberg, Ruffalo, Harrelson, Franco, Caine and Freeman were set to reprise their roles for the sequel. Fisher was unable to participate because of her third pregnancy and was replaced by
Lizzy Caplan. The film was released on June 10, 2016, titled ''Now You See Me 2''. On October 2, 2014, Michael Caine said in an interview that
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. He rose to fame at age twelve, when he began portraying Harry Potter in the film series of the same name; and has held various other film and theatre roles. Over his career, Rad ...
would be playing his son in the film. Filming began in late November.
On May 22, 2015, Lionsgate revealed the details about the development of the sequel, when CEO
Jon Feltheimer announced that they had "already begun early planning for ''Now You See Me 3''."
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Now You See Me
2013 films
2013 crime thriller films
2010s English-language films
2010s heist films
American crime thriller films
American films about revenge
American heist films
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Films about con artists
Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Films about Interpol
Films about magic and magicians
Films directed by Louis Leterrier
Films produced by Roberto Orci
Films scored by Brian Tyler
Films set in 2012
Films set in 2013
Films set in the Las Vegas Valley
Films set in Los Angeles
Films set in New Orleans
Films set in New York City
Films set in Queens, New York
Films set in Paris
Films shot in the Las Vegas Valley
Films with screenplays by Boaz Yakin
Films with screenplays by Ed Solomon
Summit Entertainment films
2010s American films