The movie as a whole works as a magic trick

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Credit: Lionsgate

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t director Ruben Fleischer says the film’s big twist ending is the greatest magic trick of all.

Warning: Mild spoilers for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t below!

“It definitely was not in the original script, but it was always an idea that was really important to me, that the movie as a whole works as a magic trick, not just featuring tricks throughout,” Fleischer tells GamesRadar+.

“But that the entire movie functions as a magic trick and the reveal, like any good magic trick, when it comes in the third act…I had the opportunity to watch the movie with an audience, like a public audience, and I heard that same audible gasp, and you can’t imagine the delight that I had as a filmmaker just knowing that the trick I had played on the audience worked. And so I guess to a degree, although I claim I don’t do magic tricks, that was certainly one that I was really proud of and happy to participate in.”

Fleischer directed the third installment in the magician-heist franchise from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie, the writing duo of Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, and Seth Grahame-Smith. After a 10-year hiatus, the Four Horsemen, played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Isla Fisher, are forced to reunite after receiving a series of mysterious tarot cards. Their new mission leads to a team-up with three young con-artists/magicians (played by Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith, and Ariana Greenblatt), and together they must travel the world in order to retrieve a priceless diamond from an evil billionaire (played by none other than Rosamund Pike).

We won’t spoil it for you, but the ending is one you definitely won’t see coming. In fact, the series of clues that are left for the audience throughout the film doesn’t even register until a clever montage shows us that the big reveal was right under our noses the entire time. If you think you’ve got it figured out…you don’t. Trust me.

Continues Fleischer: “And maybe it gives me a little insight into what the experience of a magician has. Whenever they perform a trick and get to see that astonishment on the face of the audience they’re performing to, to a lesser degree, we got to have a taste of that here.”

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t will levitate into theaters on November 14, 2025. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond, or check out our list of movie release dates.