Now You See Me (film)

Now You See Me is a 2013 American heist film directed by Louis Leterrier from a screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, and Edward Ricourt and a story by Yakin and Ricourt. It is the first installment in the Now You See Me series. The film features an ensemble cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Mélanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, Common, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman. The plot follows an FBI agent and an Interpol detective who track and attempt to bring to justice a team of magicians who pull off bank heists and robberies during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

Now You See Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Louis Leterrier
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 Woody Harrelson Mélanie Laurent Isla Fisher Common Dave Franco Michael Caine Morgan Freeman
Cinematography	Larry Fong Mitchell Amundsen
Edited by	Robert Leighton Vincent Tabaillon
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	Summit Entertainment K/O Paper Products
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release dates	May 21, 2013 (2013-05-21) (New York City) May 31, 2013 (2013-05-31) (United States)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$75 million
Box office	$351.7 million

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. The film received mixed reviews with criticism being focused on the ending, but became a box office success, grossing $351.7 million worldwide against a budget of $75 million. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Thriller Movie and also received nominations for the Empire Award for Best Thriller and the Saturn Award for Best Thriller Film and Best Music.

A sequel, Now You See Me 2, was released on June 10, 2016.

A third installment to the franchise, Now You See Me 3, has begun filming in 2024 and is expected to be released in late 2025.

Plot

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 involves transporting an audience member inside a Crédit Républicain bank vault in Paris, and stacks of euros are drawn into the vault's air vents and showered on the Las Vegas crowd; the trick appears to have happened as the Paris vault is found empty of its recent shipment.

FBI agent Dylan Rhodes and French Interpol agent Alma Dray arrest the Horsemen but release them due to lack of evidence. They turn to Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician turned magic debunker. Thaddeus demonstrates how the Horsemen used a mock vault under the stage and explains that they stole the money beforehand, replacing it with flash paper designed to resemble the money. He also reveals that they manipulated the participant, who was intentionally selected before the heist, to attend the show, where he was hypnotized into helping to perform the final trick. The Horsemen forged his signature on the card in the real vault using his credit card.

Thaddeus and the FBI follow the Horsemen to their next show in New Orleans, where the Horsemen transfer millions from Tressler's private accounts to certain members of the audience whose insurance claims were denied by Tressler's company after Hurricane Katrina. Rhodes attempts to capture the magicians, but the magicians escape, and a vengeful Tressler hires Thaddeus to expose them for robbing him. Alma suspects that the Horsemen are part of a secret organization called “the Eye”, a group of magicians who are so skilled in magic that they steal from the powerful to those who are vulnerable, and she believes there may be someone helping the Horsemen.

Discovering that the Horsemen replaced Dylan's cell phone with a bugged clone to remain ahead of the investigation, the FBI tracks 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 and is seemingly killed in a crash on the Queensboro Bridge. Dylan manages to recover papers pointing to the Horsemen's next crime: stealing millions in cash from a safe of a manufacturing company called Elkhorn. After answering a call from Thaddeus, Dylan suspects that Alma may be helping the Horsemen, which she denies. The FBI head to Elkhorn's warehouse, but find the safe missing, having been loaded on a truck under orders of one of the FBI agents, who was also hypnotized, and intercepted it. They open the safe, only to discover that it is a decoy full of balloon animals. The FBI converge on the Horsemen's final show at 5 Pointz, where the Horsemen appear with a farewell message to the crowd. As they leap off the roof, Alma stops Dylan from shooting them before the Horsemen disappear in a shower of counterfeit money.

The real money from the Elkhorn safe is found in Thaddeus's car and he is arrested, presumed to be an accomplice for the Horsemen. Dylan visits him in jail, where Thaddeus realizes that Dylan is the true mastermind behind the Horsemen's plots, having to help them dupe 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, and was hidden behind a giant mirror to trick the FBI into believing that it was missing and frame Thaddeus with the stolen money. At the Central Park Carousel, the Horseman are welcomed by Dylan as the newest members of the Eye.

At the Pont des Arts in Paris, Dylan meets with Alma, who has also deduced his involvement with the Horsemen. Dylan reveals that he is the son of Lionel Shrike, a magician exposed by Thaddeus thirty years prior. Shrike attempted to relaunch his career but died inside a safe during a failed escape trick. Dylan instrumented the Horsemen tricks as retribution for his father's death: Elkhorn's faulty safe led to the accident; Thaddeus destroyed his father's career' and Crédit Républicain and Tressler's insurance company denied his father's life insurance. Alma, having feelings for Dylan, agrees to keep his secret.

Cast

• Jesse Eisenberg as J. Daniel Atlas: An arrogant illusionist and street magician, and the ostensible leader of the Four Horsemen.
• Woody Harrelson as Merritt McKinney: A hypnotist, mentalist, and a self-proclaimed psychic. Originally more famous in his youth, his manager brother absconded with all his money, leaving McKinney with a long hard trek back to his former glory. Middle-aged, McKinney is the oldest of the Four Horsemen.
• Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves: An escapist and stage magician. She is also Danny's former assistant and ex-lover.
• Dave Franco as Jack Wilder: A sleight of hand illusionist, street magician, and a talented impressionist of other people's voices. Additionally, he is a pickpocket, and is able to pick locks. In his early twenties, Jack is the youngest of the Four Horsemen.
• Mark Ruffalo as Dylan Rhodes: an FBI agent struggling to capture and bring the Four Horsemen to justice for their unique heist agenda.
• Mélanie Laurent as Alma Dray, a French Interpol agent who is partnered up with Dylan to investigate the Four Horsemen.
• Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician who, for thirty years, has profited by revealing the secrets behind other magicians' tricks.
• Jessica C. Lindsey as Hermia, Thaddeus Bradley's assistant.
• Michael Caine as Arthur Tressler, an insurance magnate and the Four Horsemen's sponsor.
• David Warshofsky as Cowan, an FBI agent.
• Michael Kelly as Agent Fuller, an FBI agent and Dylan's partner.
• Common as Agent Evans, Dylan's supervisor at the FBI.
• José Garcia as Étienne Forcier, the account holder at the Crédit Républicain de Paris.
• Caitriona Balfe as Jasmine Tressler, Arthur Tressler's young wife.
• Conan O'Brien as himself

Elias Koteas appears, uncredited, as Lionel Shrike, a magician who drowned while performing an escape trick thirty years earlier.

Production

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

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.

Isla Fisher "nearly drowned" while filming the water tank scene. "My chain got stuck. I had to really swim to the bottom; I couldn't get up. Everyone thought I was acting fabulously. I was actually drowning," she said during an interview on Chelsea Lately. "No one realized I was actually struggling." A stuntman standing nearby used a quick-release switch to save her.

Music

Main article: Now You See Me (soundtrack)

The official soundtrack, titled Now You See Me (Original Motion Picture 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. The film's soundtrack song "Entertainment", performed by French rock band Phoenix, was featured in the film's end credits.

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.

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.

Reception

Box office

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

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

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval percentage of 50% based on 171 reviews and a rating of 5.80 out of 10. The critics consensus reads: "Now You See Me's thinly sketched characters and scattered plot rely on sleight of hand from the director to distract audiences." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100 based on 35 critic reviews, meaning "Mixed or Average". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average 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."

The film was criticized for its twist ending, with several critics citing it as too farfetched and illogical. Critic Lee Cassanell claimed the creators "ran out of top hats and rabbits and decided to saw their audiences' brains in half." Eric D. Snider was more positive towards the rest of the film, but felt that "the story moves jauntily toward its destination; the destination, unfortunately, is a disappointing wreck." Kent Garrison was far more critical, claiming the film to rely on "one of the worst, if not the worst twist in cinema history, and literally erases everything that it builds up to."

Accolades

List of awards and nominations
Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
People's Choice Awards	January 8, 2014	Favorite Thriller Movie	Now You See Me	Won
Empire Awards	30 March 2014	Best Thriller	Now You See Me	Nominated
Saturn Awards	June 26, 2014	Best Thriller Film	Now You See Me	Nominated
		Best Music	Brian Tyler	Nominated

Sequel

Main article: Now You See Me 2

On July 3, 2013, after the box office success of the film, Lionsgate's CEO Jon Feltheimer 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 were set to reprise their roles for the sequel. Fisher was unable to participate because of her third pregnancy and was replaced by Lizzy Caplan. On October 2, 2014, Michael Caine said in an interview that Daniel Radcliffe would be playing his son in the film. Filming began in late November. The film was released on June 10, 2016, titled Now You See Me 2.

On May 22, 2015, Lionsgate revealed details about the development of the second sequel, when CEO Jon Feltheimer announced that they had "already begun early planning for Now You See Me 3". It will be released on November 14, 2025.

External links

• Official website
• Now You See Me at IMDb
• Now You See Me at AllMovie
• Now You See Me at Box Office Mojo