Water
Quite atypically, water is used subversively in the film as a symbol of death. Generally, water is a pretty solid symbol of life, being the stuff without which all life would end. The associations with water and death are made palpably clear at the beginning and end: first with the death of Angier’s wife due to the wrong knot in water tank escape. And then, of course, at the end when the grim reality of the price to be paid for Angier’s transported man trick becomes clear.
The Coded Journal
Borden’s secretly coded diary which winds up in Angier’s hand is symbolic of the rivalry between the two. In the first place, it is an actual mechanism designed to give one the upper hand while creating for the other the illusion that it is he who has outwitted the other. More importantly, however, is how the diary represents both the negative and positive consequences of such intense rivalries: on the negative spectrum, Angier had been led on a wild goose chase which earned him none of the knowledge he was seeking, but is ultimately a net positive because it leads him to Tesla.
The Birdcage
The birdcage trick is not just fancy foreshadowing that hints at the way both magicians pull off their grand illusions, it is also a symbol of how each man is trapped by their own self-destruction ambition. Both Angier and Borden are trapped in the cages of their trickery and both must willingly sacrifice other lives in order to keep the cage from collapsing in upon themselves.
The Hats
The film cryptically opens with images of a bunch of tops on the ground in what appears to be a forest. No context is given and the movie will be half-over before they are even seen again and their meaning won’t be fully revealed until near the end. One must know the full meaning behind the hats, including how they created and how they got where they are—before their symbolic value can fully appreciated. Suffice to say in the absence of spoilers that much of what passes for magic in the film is merely crude and cheap gimmickry illusion. The hats are symbol of the real magic in the world around us that goes unnoticed everyday because it is magic performed without showmanship.
The Knot
The use of the wrong knot during a trick in the movie’s opening is responsible for the death of Angier’s wife. Borden tied the knot and Angier rightfully blames him, but what angers Angier to the point a murder plot years in the making is that Angier insists he doesn’t know whether which knot he tied that night: whether it was the right one or the wrong. Even at gunpoint, he maintains that he simply does not know. The literal knot becomes a symbolic knot for the rest of the movie; any viewer who can successful pull free the knot explaining how Borden could really and genuinely not be sure if he used a knot he was quite explicitly shown being told was too dangerous—in full view and hearing range of Angier—will unravel one of the movie’s biggest secrets which isn’t revealed until the end. He who discovers the secret of the knot discovers the source of the illusion that even Angier cannot definitively solve.
