2006. Victorian London, built out of Los Angeles picture palaces, a Beverly Hills mansion and a studio backlot. The cipher above is the title; the key is further down.
Downtown Los Angeles · South Broadway
Nathan Crowley chose four theatres in the Broadway district for the stage magic; the Los Angeles Theatre and the Belasco are 0.9 km apart. The film is built in three acts, the pledge, the turn and the prestige. Perform each theatre the same way.
Crowley chose four Broadway-district theatres: the Los Angeles, the Palace, the Belasco and the Tower; the screenplay is built in three acts named the pledge, the turn and the prestige.
615 South Broadway, Los Angeles
The pledge: the building.
It opened in January 1931 with the premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Chaplin helped pay to finish it.
630 South Broadway, Los Angeles
The pledge: the building.
It opened in 1911 as the Orpheum circuit’s third Los Angeles home, and is the oldest original Orpheum theatre left in the United States.
802 South Broadway at 8th Street, Los Angeles
The pledge: the building.
S. Charles Lee’s first theatre, it opened in 1927 and was the first in Los Angeles wired for talking pictures.
1050 South Hill Street, Los Angeles
The pledge: the building.
Morgan, Walls & Clements designed it, and it opened in November 1926.
Pershing Square, Los Angeles · $25 · $18 youth and members
A walk of about 2 hours 45 minutes and 1.5 miles, every Saturday at 10am from Pershing Square, ending near Broadway and 8th Street by the Tower. Some weeks it goes inside a movie palace; that is not guaranteed. Registration required.
Saturdays: 24 and 31 October, 7, 14, 21 and 28 November 2026
Book the walk1060 South Broadway, Los Angeles
174 rooms in the old Los Angeles Railway headquarters on Broadway, with a rooftop pool and the Inanna bar over the street. The Belasco is round the corner and the Herald Examiner Building just south. The photograph is the Herald Examiner, not the hotel.
See the hotelBorden’s notebook
In the film Borden keeps his secrets in a diary written in cipher, and one word opens it. These seven lines are written the same way. The word is the name of the inventor Angier goes to Colorado to find.
In the film, Borden’s diary is in code and the keyword TESLA decrypts it.
The key is empty. Every line is still in cipher.
Set the key to read the lines.
Westlake · Beverly Hills · Universal City · Hollywood
607 South Park View Street, by MacArthur Park
Its lobby and steps are the entrance to London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The Terrace Room holds the failed demonstration of Tesla’s machine, and the wood-panelled ballroom is the Colorado hotel where Angier finds it.
Claud Beelman designed it for the Elks. It faces MacArthur Park and is now called The MacArthur.
An events building. See the front and the steps from Park View Street and MacArthur Park.
905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills
It plays Robert Angier’s mansion.
Finished in 1928 to Gordon Kaufmann’s design, it was Edward L. Doheny’s gift to his son.
Beverly Hills bought it in 1965, and the estate became a city park in 1971.
The grounds open 10am to 6pm daily; the first floor and the theatre open one weekend day a month, January to November.
The gardens are a city park, open 10am to 6pm daily. The house opens on set days.
100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City
Nathan Crowley turned part of the Universal backlot into Victorian London for the street scenes.
The Studio Tour, run from the theme park next door, takes visitors round the historic lot.
A working studio. You see the lot from the Studio Tour at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.
Universal City
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6838 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The Prestige had its premiere here on 17 October 2006.
It opened on 3 May 1926 and is where most Walt Disney Studios films now have their premieres.
A working cinema on Hollywood Boulevard.
The San Gabriel Mountains · the Crystal River valley
The film’s Colorado is a car park on a Los Angeles mountain and a castle in the Rockies. The castle is about 214 km from Colorado Springs, where Tesla really worked.
In California
The scene of Tesla’s machine was shot in the observatory car park.
The 60-inch telescope saw first light in 1908 and the 100-inch Hooker in 1917; Edwin Hubble worked with it.
The grounds open daily from 10am. Parking needs a Forest Service Adventure Pass; docent tours run at weekends in spring and summer.
Up the Angeles Crest Highway at about 5,715 feet. Snow and fog come quickly.
In Colorado
The castle, also called Osgood Castle and Cleveholm, was a location for the film.
It was built in 1903 for John C. Osgood, founder of Colorado Fuel and Iron.
It has been a ten-room hotel since November 2018, and runs daily public tours.
A small hotel above the Crystal River, with daily public tours.
Colorado Springs, 1899
Tesla began building his laboratory on Knob Hill in May 1899 and used it until January 1900. It made artificial lightning, with discharges up to 135 feet long.
A man reads in a chair while sparks many times his height cross the room.
It was razed in 1904 to pay his debts.
Nothing marks the exact spot, near East Kiowa Street and North Foote Avenue; a plaque in Memorial Park gives its general location.
The plaque is in Memorial Park. The lab’s site is a residential corner a short walk north; look from the street.
As themselves
Hugh Jackman six weeks after the shoot, David Bowie a month before the film opened, Christopher Nolan the year before. Christian Bale’s photograph is from March 2007.
Shot from 16 January to 9 April 2006; almost 70 locations were looked at; one set was built, under the stage; a $40 million budget and $109 million worldwide. Jackman plays Angier, Bale Borden and Bowie Tesla.
12 places you can visit or see from the street: 5 on Broadway, 5 across Los Angeles and 2 in Colorado.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Closed to the public since 1994 and hired out for events and filming. See the front and its sign from Broadway.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A live venue on Broadway. See the front from the street, or buy a ticket for a show.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now an Apple store: walk in during shop hours.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A concert venue. The way to see the auditorium is to go to a show.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A university building now. See the tower and the arcade from Broadway.
615 South Broadway, Los Angeles
The opening trick, the Transported Man, was filmed here; its red and gilt lobby is often on screen.
Closed to the public since 1994 and hired out for events and filming. See the front and its sign from Broadway.
630 South Broadway, Los Angeles
Its loft became Alfred Borden’s workshop.
A live venue on Broadway. See the front from the street, or buy a ticket for a show.
802 South Broadway at 8th Street, Los Angeles
Its exterior plays the “Pantages”. The film borrows the names of real Los Angeles theatres, but the Pantages itself was not used.
Now an Apple store: walk in during shop hours.
1050 South Hill Street, Los Angeles
It is the deserted theatre where Angier performs the Real Transported Man for an audience of one, Ackerman.
A concert venue. The way to see the auditorium is to go to a show.
1111 South Broadway, Los Angeles
Its interior plays a London restaurant.
A university building now. See the tower and the arcade from Broadway.
Stay
A hotel round the corner from the Belasco and just north of the Herald Examiner.
1060 South Broadway, Los Angeles
174 rooms in the old Los Angeles Railway headquarters on Broadway, with a rooftop pool and the Inanna bar over the street. The Belasco is round the corner and the Herald Examiner Building just south. The photograph is the Herald Examiner, not the hotel.
See the hotelGo there
The Conservancy’s Saturday theatre walk, the Universal Studio Tour and marketplace film tours.
Pershing Square, Los Angeles · $25 · $18 youth and members
A walk of about 2 hours 45 minutes and 1.5 miles, every Saturday at 10am from Pershing Square, ending near Broadway and 8th Street by the Tower. Some weeks it goes inside a movie palace; that is not guaranteed. Registration required.
Saturdays: 24 and 31 October, 7, 14, 21 and 28 November 2026
Book the walkUniversal City
Live marketplace results for theme-park tickets, which include the Studio Tour round the backlot where the film’s London streets were built.
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Compare ticketsLos Angeles
Live marketplace results for film-location tours of Los Angeles. None is built round The Prestige; check each itinerary for downtown Broadway.
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Greystone’s self-guided house tour in November.
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Take it home
Christopher Priest’s novel and David Julyan’s score.
Christopher Priest · Tor
Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel, which the film adapts and which he approved of; this is the 1997 Tor edition.
Find the bookDavid Julyan · CD, Hollywood Records, 2006
David Julyan’s score, arranged in three parts: the Pledge, the Turn and the Prestige.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 13 of 13 Moments
615 South Broadway, Los Angeles
The opening trick is performed in the Los Angeles Theatre.
630 South Broadway, Los Angeles
The Palace’s loft becomes Borden’s workshop.
802 South Broadway at 8th Street, Los Angeles
The Tower Theatre’s front plays a theatre named after the Pantages.
1050 South Hill Street, Los Angeles
Angier performs for Ackerman in an empty theatre.
1111 South Broadway, Los Angeles
The Herald Examiner’s interior plays a London restaurant.
607 South Park View Street, by MacArthur Park
The Park Plaza’s lobby and steps are the way into the Royal Albert Hall.
The ballroom plays the Colorado hotel where Angier finds Tesla’s machine; the Terrace Room holds its failed demonstration.
905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills
Greystone plays Robert Angier’s house.
100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City
Part of the Universal backlot is turned into Victorian London.
6838 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The film opens at the El Capitan on 17 October 2006.
Mount Wilson, San Gabriel Mountains
The scene of Tesla’s machine is shot in the observatory car park.
Redstone, Pitkin County, Colorado
Osgood Castle in Colorado is used as a location.
Memorial Park and Knob Hill, Colorado Springs
Jonathan Nolan goes to Colorado Springs to research Tesla, the real inventor behind the machine.
