Who is the original in the movie The Prestige?

In the movie The Prestige, Hugh Jackman plays a magician who, when he performs a trick, gets cloned and becomes two people. But who is who? Is the one appearing on the balcony in the audience the original one or the clone? It would be logical if the clone was destroyed but how do we know it's not the clone that ends up continuing the trick / show?

Answer

Since we see that Tesla's device clones objects at a distance, it stands to reason that it's the original that is drowned and killed, while the clone lives.

However, I don't think it really matters, except for the one that is killed of course, since the "original" that is killed today is the clone that lived yesterday.

The movie makes an explicit choice in the age-old "who is the real me" cloning dilemma, opting for the "both the clone and the original are equivalent" choice.

Comments

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