Now You See Me (film)


Now You See Me is a 2013 American heist thriller 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, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Mélanie Laurent, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman. The plot follows an FBI agent and an Interpol detective who track a team of magicians who pull off bank heists and robberies during their performances and reward their audiences with the money, attempting to bring them to justice.
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 from critics 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.

Plot

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 in Las Vegas, they perform as “the Four Horsemen” in a show funded by insurance magnate Arthur Tressler. Their final trick appears to transport an audience member inside the vault of the Crédit Républicain bank in Paris. Stacks of euros are drawn into the vault’s air vents and showered on the Las Vegas crowd; the Paris vault is found empty of its recent shipment of euros.
FBI agent Dylan Rhodes and Interpol agent Alma Dray question the Horsemen but have no evidence to hold them, and turn to Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician turned magic debunker. Thirty years ago, Lionel Shrike, a magician exposed by Thaddeus, attempted to relaunch his career, but died inside a safe during a failed escape trick. Thaddeus demonstrates how the Horsemen used a mock vault under the Las Vegas stage, and explains that they stole the money before it arrived at the bank, replacing it with flash paper which ignited without a trace. He reveals that they manipulated the audience participant to attend the show, where he was hypnotized into helping to perform the final trick.
Thaddeus and the FBI follow the Horsemen to their next show in New Orleans, where the magicians transfer over $140 million from Tressler's private accounts to the audience, made up of people whose insurance claims were denied by Tressler's company in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The magicians elude arrest, and a vengeful Tressler hires Thaddeus to expose them. Alma suspects the Horsemen are connected to “the Eye”, a mythical, elite group of magicians rumored to have access to real magic, who steal from the rich to give to the poor. Dylan discovers the Horsemen replaced his cell phone with a bugged clone, allowing them to remain ahead of the investigation.
The FBI track Dylan’s real phone to the New York apartment, where three of the Horsemen escape while Jack destroys their documents. Pursued by the authorities, he loses control of his car in a fiery crash. Unable to save Jack, Dylan recovers papers pointing to the Horsemen's next crime: stealing millions in cash from the Elkhorn Company’s safe. The FBI find the safe missing and intercept it, only to discover that it contains nothing but balloon animals. They converge on the Horsemen’s final show at 5 Pointz, where the magicians appear with a farewell message to the crowd. As they leap off the roof, Dylan attempts to shoot them but Alma intervenes, so he misses. The three Horseman disappear in a shower of counterfeit money.
The real money from the Elkhorn safe is found in Thaddeus’ car and he is arrested, presumed to be in league with the Horsemen. Dylan visits him in jail, and Thaddeus deduces that the Horsemen duped the FBI into following a duplicate safe, allowing Jack, who faked his death, to break into the real safe and frame Thaddeus with the stolen money. Thaddeus realizes that Dylan is the mastermind behind the Four Horsemen. At the Central Park Carousel, Daniel, Merritt, Henley, and Jack are welcomed by Dylan as the newest members of the Eye.
Meeting Alma at the Pont des Arts, Dylan reveals that he is Shrike's son. He created the Horsemen to seek retribution for his father’s death: the Elkhorn Company’s faulty safe led to the accident; Thaddeus ruined his father’s career; and the Crédit Républicain and Tressler's insurance company failed to pay out his father’s life insurance. Alma, having fallen in love with Dylan, agrees to keep his secret, and they attach a love lock to the railing, throwing the key into the Seine.
In a post-credits scene, the Horsemen drive to a desert junkyard, presumably their new headquarters, and find a set of locked crates with the symbol of the Eye.

Cast

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.

Music

The official soundtrack, titled Now You See Me , 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.

Track listing

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

Now You See Me received mixed reviews from critics. The most common criticism is that various plot points were insufficiently resolved at the film's conclusion, leaving some questions unanswered or answered unclearly. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 50%, based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Now You See Mes 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."
The film was highly criticised 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

Sequel

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. The film was released on June 10, 2016, 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. 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."