Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) is a much less explicit character. He is the epitome of actual knowing. The man who possesses the ‘secret’. This is the man that Angier envies the most. Seemingly cool, calm, collected, and in control. Borden allures Angier by creating a new, obviously impossible magic trick called “The Transported Man”. Borden never gives away his simple ‘secret’. As a matter of fact, he leads Angier to believe that he has a real secret. Angier falls for the trap.
The only reason that a moral trap like this is possible in the first place, is the gullibility of the subject. There would be no movie without Angier’s insistence to ‘get the secret’. Most people relate to Angier, because many of us feel that we are missing something. We need someone else’s secret to feel happy. We need the gawking of others at our ‘magic show’ in order to feel