Now you see me (Movie review)

Now You See Me is a movie about a group of illusionists called the Four Horsemen. They are brought together by a mysterious benefactor and perform a series of heists during their shows, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. An FBI agent named Dylan Rhodes is assigned to the case, but he struggles to catch them. Along the way, he teams up with an Interpol agent named Alma Dray. The Four Horsemen are eventually captured, but they escape and pull off one final heist. In the end, it’s revealed that the FBI agent was actually working with the Four Horsemen and that everything was part of an elaborate illusion. The Four Horsemen disappear, leaving behind a message for the FBI agent and the audience.

Magicians J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves, and Jack Wilder each receive a tarot card leading them to a New York City apartment, where they discover hologram technology with instructions from an unknown benefactor. A year later, at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, 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. Stacks of euros 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 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. Thirty years ago, Lionel Shrike, a magician exposed by Thaddeus, attempted to relaunch his career, but died inside a safe 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 New Orleans, where the magicians transfer more than $140 million from Tressler’s private accounts to certain members of the audience, composed of people whose insurance claims were denied by Tressler’s company in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 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-like, elite group of magicians so skilled that many think they have access to real magic, who steals 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. 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 been 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 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 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.

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.

Plot

Exposition: The Four Horsemen, a group of illusionists, are brought together by a mysterious benefactor.

Rising Action: They perform a series of heists during their shows, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. An FBI agent is assigned to the case, but he struggles to catch them.

Climax: The Four Horsemen are captured, but they escape and pull off one final heist.

Falling Action: The FBI agent realizes that everything was part of an elaborate illusion and that he was working with the Four Horsemen all along.

Resolution: The Four Horsemen disappear, leaving behind a message for the FBI agent and the audience.

Directed by Louis Leterrier

Edited by

Robert Leighton

Vincent Tabaillon

Production companies

Summit Entertainment

K/O Paper Products

Distributed by Lionsgate

Screenplay by

Ed Solomon

Boaz Yakin

Edward Ricourt

Story by

Boaz Yakin

Edward Ricourt

Produced by

Alex Kurtzman

Roberto Orci

Bobby Cohen

Starring

Jesse Eisenberg

Mark Ruffalo

Isla Fisher

Mélanie Laurent

Morgan Freeman

Common

Larry Fong

Dave Franco

Cinematography

Mitchell Amundsen

Michael Caine

Release dates

May 21, 2013 (New York City)

May 31, 2013 (United States)

Country United States

Language English

Budget $75 million

Box office $351.7 million