The supporting cast includes Michael Caine as Cutter, the stage engineer, who explains to Borden’s daughter how magic tricks are founded on a three-act structure: the pledge, the turn and the prestige, Nolan implicitly suggesting that filmmakers are in the great tradition of illusionists. Also featured are Scarlett Johansson as Angier’s assistant and David Bowie as the real-life inventor Nikola Tesla. Nolan employs a deft sleight of camera in a non-linear narrative in which both the audience in the film and the cinema audience are willing dupes in a bravura battle of wits.