- Eisenheim: From the moment we enter this life we are in the flow of it. We measure it and we mark it, but we cannot defy it. We cannot even speed it up or slow it down. Or can we? Have we not each experienced the sensation that a beautiful moment seemed to pass to quickly, and wished that we could make it linger? Or felt time slow on a dull day, and wished that we could speed things up a bit?
- [last lines]
- [the illusionist's voice in the inspector's memory]
- Eisenheim: Everything you've seen is an illusion, it's a trick.
- Chief Inspector Uhl: Promise me you won't do it again.
- Eisenheim: I promise you you'll enjoy this next show.
- Crown Prince Leopold: He has tricked you, it is all an illusion!
- Chief Inspector Uhl: Perhaps there is truth in this illusion.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Well done.
- Eisenheim: Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoyed it.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Oh, we more than enjoyed it. Stimulated great debate among us, hasn't it? Except of course for your assistant Duchess Von Teschen. You seem to have struck her quite speechless. A feat in itself. Did you hypnotize her?
- Eisenheim: In a fashion.
- Crown Prince Leopold: I'd like to learn that trick. Rainer here seems to think you have supernatural powers. Do you claim supernatural powers?
- Eisenheim: I've never said anything of that kind.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Then you won't mind a question or two?
- Sophie: Now let's not ruin it.
- Crown Prince Leopold: You needn't divulge anything I can't guess.
- Eisenheim: As you wish.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Your assistants are behind the mirrors somewhere, in robes obviously. Lights in the frame perhaps to illuminate them, or angled mirrors.
- Eisenheim: That would be one way to do it.
- Crown Prince Leopold: I think I understand it all except the ghost. That was very, very good.
- Josef Fischer: Another viewing, perhaps?
- Crown Prince Leopold: You must come to the Hofburg next time. We'll make an evening of it.
- Eisenheim: That would be my pleasure.
- Crown Prince Leopold: So be it.
- [motions to Sophie]
- Crown Prince Leopold: Sophie?
- [leaves with Sophie, then turns]
- Crown Prince Leopold: And we'll gather our best minds next time. You'll really have a challenge then.
- Eisenheim: Then I shall prepare something special. Perhaps I'll make you disappear.
- Crown Prince Leopold: You're late.
- Chief Inspector Uhl: My apologies, your Highness. I was attending to loose ends of the case.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Are there still loose ends?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: Very few.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Did he do it again?
- [Uhl nods]
- Crown Prince Leopold: How does he do it?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: I'm afraid I still don't know.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Did you ask him?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: He's not talking at this point.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Well, I'm sure you have methods for that kind of thing. I want you to put an end to it. Surely you have something on him. Something from his past?
- Crown Prince Leopold: What do you want?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: Nothing.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Then you shall get nothing.
- Eisenheim: [Angrily] Are you completely corrupt?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: No, not completely, which is why I'll advise you not to accuse anyone.
- Chief Inspector Uhl: [pacing] Eisenheim, I don't want to arrest you. I'm a cynical man, God knows... but if your manifestations are somehow real... then even I'm willing to admit, you're a very special person. And if it's a trick, then it's equally impressive. Either way, you have a gift. So don't make me put you in jail!
- Chief Inspector Uhl: As you know... we some times follow Duchess Von Teschen for her protection... Yesterday she was seen in the company of another man...
- Crown Prince Leopold: What man?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: Eisenheim, the illusionist.
- Crown Prince Leopold: What were they doing?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: Well they were meeting and uh...
- Crown Prince Leopold: Touching? Kissing?... Fornicating?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: As a boy, I'm told, he had a chance encounter with a travelling magician. One version of the story was that the man himself vanished... along with the tree. People began to think he had some sort of special power... or at least that he was a bit different. And then he met her.
- Eisenheim: I thought we might end this evening with a discussion of the soul. All of the greatest religions speak of the soul's endurance before the end of life. So what then does it mean to die?
- Crown Prince Leopold: I know you've been with him.
- Sophie: It has nothing to do with you.
- Crown Prince Leopold: It has EVERYTHING to do with me!
- Chief Inspector Uhl: As a boy, I'm told, he had a chance encounter with a traveling magician.
- Traveling Magician: Boy!
- Chief Inspector Uhl: One version of the story was that the man himself then vanished. Along with the tree! Who knows what actually happened.
- Josef Fischer: Life and death. Space and time. Fate and chance. Theses are the forces of the universe. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a man who has unlocked these mysteries. From the furthest corners of the world where the dark arts still hold sway he returns to us to demonstrate how nature's laws may be bent. I give you Eisenheim.
- Chief Inspector Uhl: In the name of his Imperial Majesty in the city of Vienna, I hereby arrest Edward Abramovich, also known as Eisenheim The Illusionist, on charges of disturbing public order, charlatanism and threats against the empire.
- Spiritualist Leader: [Regarding Eisenheim's latest stage performance, in which he conjured up lifelike apparitions of dead people] With these spirits, these manifestations, Eisenheim has given us hard proof of the soul's immortality. The spirit has been reaffirmed in the face of modern scientific materialism. The work of spiritualism will rouse humanity to a new moral earnestness! It is a revolutionary movement and we will turn the Empire into a spiritual republic.
- Young Eisenheim: [When showing Young Sophie the locket he made for her] There's a secret way to open it.
- [first lines]
- woman in audience: It's her. I know it's her! She wants to tell us something.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Has he tricked you? Is that it?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: No, Your Highness.
- Crown Prince Leopold: Then why are you failing me? I thought I could trust you. I thought you were a man I could bring with me when I took the throne. Am I wrong about you?
- Chief Inspector Uhl: No. You're not wrong, Your Highness. No.
- Crown Prince Leopold: [shouting and gesticulating] I need men who can complete the tasks assigned to them!
- Crown Prince Leopold: [Now calmly and quietly] Instead I am surrounded by fools. In the end I must do everything myself. I can see this case will be no different.
- Young Eisenheim: In China there's a magician that could make anything disappear. A house, a wagon, anything.
- Young Sophie: We'll go visit him. They can't stop us if we want to be together.
- Young Eisenheim: They'll never find us.
- Young Sophie: Do you promise you'll take me with you?
- Young Eisenheim: One day, I will.
- Young Sophie: One day we'll run away together. We'll disappear.
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