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Angier travels to [[Colorado Springs]] to meet [[Nikola Tesla]] and learn the secret of Borden's illusion. Tesla constructs a teleportation machine that resembles a [[Magnifying Transmitter|magnifying transmitter]], but the device fails to work. Angier learns from Borden's notebook that he has been sent on a wild goose chase. Tesla's rivalry with [[Thomas Edison]] forces him to leave Colorado Springs soon after that, but he leaves Angier an improved version of the machine. In a letter, however, he warns Angier to destroy it.
[[Image:TheNewTransportedMan.jpg|thumb|200px|Angier tries out Tesla's machine]]
Sarah's relationship with Borden takes its toll, driving her to drink. Borden's apparent erratic behavior and a suspicion of an extramarital relationship between Borden and Olivia leads her to hang herself. Angier returns to London to produce a final set of 100 performances of his new act, "The Real Transported Man." He insists that Cutter remain front stage for these shows and that only blind stagehands help backstage. In the new illusion, Angier disappears under huge arcs of electricity and instantaneously "teleports" 50 yards from the stage to the balcony. Borden is baffled but spots a trap door. After a show one night, Fallon follows Angier's stagehands. They move a large, concealed water tank across town to an abandoned building. Borden attends Angier's performance again. He slips backstage and discovers a locked water tank with a drowning Angier inside. Borden tries to save him, but Angier drowns. But this drowning was part of the trick; in order to prevent duplicates of himself co-existing,
In prison, Borden reads Angier's diary from Colorado which notes that Angier hopes he will rot in prison for his murder. Jess will become a [[Ward (law)|ward of the state]] unless he gives up the secret of his illusion to a certain [[Lord]] Caldlow. He is forced to oblige but refuses to reveal all unless he can see Jess before his execution. When Lord Caldlow visits with Jess, Borden realizes that he is Angier. Beaten, Borden gives him a note containing the secret of the original Transported Man trick, but Angier rejects it. When Cutter meets Angier again, he realizes the grim cost of Angier's obsession when he sees he has adopted Jess. Borden is subsequently hanged. Cutter accompanies Angier to the abandoned building where the replicants in their water tanks are hidden, and helps him store the teleportation machine. After learning of the dead, replicated Angiers, Cutter leaves in disgust, silently acknowledging the arrival of Borden, who shoots Angier. Borden reveals that he and "Fallon" were twins who lived as a single individual, alternating lives as needed: one twin loved Sarah, the other Olivia. For the original illusion, a twin acted as the double. They were so committed to the illusion that they amputated the other twin's fingers to match his brother's injury; they also suffered the loss of Sarah as a result of their dedication to the illusion. Similarly, flashbacks recount (only to the audience) Angier's method: that each time he disappeared during his illusion, he fell into a locked tank and drowned, and the machine created a duplicate who teleported to the balcony and basked in the applause. Before leaving, Borden looks back at the aisles of tanks and then leaves Angier to die as a fire begins to consume the building. Although, right before the fire seen cuts you can see Angier hiding, leaving you to believe either he or one of the replicants is still alive. Borden reunites with his daughter.
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