Now You See Me (film)

Plot

Four stage magicians, J. Daniel "Danny" Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), are each given a tarot card that lead them to the same empty New York City apartment, where they find information from an unknown benefactor.

A year later, the four perform their first major performance as the Four Horsemen in an elaborate Las Vegas show funded by insurance magnate Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine). Their final trick appears to transport one of the audience members to the vault of his bank, the Crédit Républicain in Paris, where stacks of new euro bills are stored. At the magicians' commands, the fans in the vault activate, drawing the bills into the vents and then showering the Las Vegas crowd with them. The euros are shown to be real, and the vault in Paris is found to be empty of its recent shipment of euros. FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), and Interpol agent Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent), are then partnered to investigate the Horsemen. The two question the magicians but have no evidence to hold them. Dylan and Alma turn to Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a former magician who now helps to explain the tricks behind other magic acts. Thaddeus demonstrates how they used a mock vault under the Las Vegas stage, and that the group must have stolen the money in Paris before it arrived at the bank, replacing it with flash paper that left no evidence.

Dylan, Alma, and Thaddeus follow the Horsemen to their next show in New Orleans, where their final trick appears to transfer millions of dollars from Tressler's private accounts to those in the audience, made up of people that were denied insurance claims by Tressler's company in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Dylan and Alma attempt to apprehend the four, but the magicians elude capture. Tressler hires Thaddeus to expose the Horsemen in revenge for the loss of his money. Alma investigates the Horsemen and determines they are connected to a group called the Eye, a small group of magicians that claim to have access to real magic. She finds out one of the Eye's members, Lionel Shrike, had previously been exposed by Thaddeus but died in a locked-safe escape trick he was performing to try to regain his standing. Alma suspects a fifth person is aiding the Horsemen.

Alma's research leads the FBI to the New York City apartment. When they raid it, the other three escape while Jack recovers numerous documents and then leads the authorities on a high-speed car chase. Jack loses control of his car, causing it to flip and catch fire. Dylan is unable to save Jack, but manages to recover the papers, pointing to the Horsemen's next planned crime, stealing millions of dollars in cash out of a large Elkhorn safe. Dylan, Alma, and Thaddeus find the safe has already been stolen, and when they track it down, its contents have been replaced with balloon animals. The Horsemen broadcast they will perform their final show that night at 5 Pointz, inviting the public to attend. The FBI and police converge on the scene and amid the chaos search for the Horsemen. The remaining Horsemen appear to the crowd, giving their fans a farewell and a message about an ulterior purpose, and then run to jump off a roof; Dylan attempts to shoot them but Alma holds him back. The three jump, turning into a shower of money over the crowd. The money is counterfeit, but the audience's race to collect it prevents the authorities from tracking the real Horsemen.

After the show, Thaddeus walks to his car, only to find it full of the money stolen from the Elkhorn safe, and he is arrested. Dylan speaks to Thaddeus in jail, where Thaddeus slowly comes to realize that Alma's theory was correct, and Dylan was the fifth Horseman. Dylan quietly walks away. Elsewhere, the Horsemen, including Jack, who had faked his death, meet at the carousel in Central Park, and use their tarot cards to turn it on. Dylan arrives and welcomes the four to the Eye.

Later, at the Pont des Arts, Dylan meets with Alma and reveals he is Shrike's son. He brought the Horsemen together to get retribution for his father's death: the Elkhorn Safe Company for providing a faulty safe that led to the accident, Thaddeus for humiliating him, and the Crédit Républicain and Tressler's insurance companies for failing to pay out afterwards. Alma, who has come into a romantic relationship with Dylan, decides not to turn him in. She takes a lock and a key that Dylan produces, attaching the lock among the other love locks on the railings and throwing the key into the Seine.

Cast

Production

On October 25, 2011, Summit Entertainment officially announced a release date for Now You See Me, set for July 18, 2013. On November 3, 2011, the company revealed the film's first synopsis and teaser poster.

Filming and on-set incident

On January 16, 2012, shooting began in New Orleans, Louisiana, which lasted until March 26, 2012. Additional filming took place in New York City on February 13 and in Las Vegas from April 9, 2012 to the following day. During filming of the scene where Henley Reeves tries to escape from a tank of water and piranhas, Isla Fisher came close to drowning. Fisher had become stuck and tried to alert the crew by banging on the window she was facing, but the cast and crew did not think anything of it because that was what the character was supposed to be doing. She was able to untangle the chain and get out of the tank safely.

Music

The official soundtrack for the film was composed by Brian Tyler and was released by Glassnote Records on May 28, 2013 for physical purchase and digital download.

All music composed by Brian Tyler, except where noted.

Release

The film premiered in New York City on May 21, 2013 before its official release in the United States on May 31, 2013 by Summit Entertainment.

Home media

Now You See Me was released on DVD and Blu-ray 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 scenes.

Box office

At the end of its box office run, Now You See Me 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.

Despite mixed reviews, 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 film's 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 the film has an approval rating of 49%, based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. 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." Metacritic assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audience polls conducted by CinemaScore give the film a grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Hammond from 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."

Sequels

On July 3, 2013, after the box office success of the film, Lionsgate's CEO Jon Feltheimer officially confirmed that there would be a sequel 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 would replace Leterrier as director. Eisenberg, Ruffalo, Harrelson, Franco, Caine and Freeman are set to reprise their roles for the sequel. Fisher was unable to reprise her role due to her third pregnancy and was replaced by Lizzy Caplan. It was released on June 10, 2016, and was titled Now You See Me: The Second Act. On October 2, 2014, Michael Caine said in an interview that Daniel Radcliffe would be playing his son in the film and that shooting was expected to begin that December in London. 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."