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Use Of Deception In Now You See Me 2

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Magic – a form of deception designed to entertain and distract people from seeing the full picture. Deception is the foundations of all magic tricks and the 2016 thriller film, Now You See Me 2 is centred around this concept. After retreating from a stage show, the illusionists J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Jack Wilder and Lula May, known collectively as the Four Horsemen, find themselves in Macau, China. Here, Walter Mabry, a technological genius, forces the magicians to steal a computer chip, that can give the user total control of all electronic information. Director Jon M. Chu excellently uses semiotic elements and cinematography to showcase the idea of how powerful information is and how it can be used to deceive people, just as the …show more content…

The main symbol / prop within this excerpt is unmistakably the computer chip attached to a playing card. This is not only a well-known symbol for magicians, but similarly for sleight-of-hand and deception, which evidently is the main focus. Moreover, the director deliberately chose to dress the actors in clothes unusual for the characters, as they are disguised as other people. Nevertheless, the costumes additionally act as a symbol for the Horsemen’s fake upper-class status, which inadvertently fools the guards in the facility into believing their performance. Another symbol which is also a part of the costume, are the guards uniforms and badges. The uniforms show authority and, as the Horsemen are wanted criminals, it gives the audience a sense of unease when they are forced to break into a high-tech facility with this predisposition of the potential to be apprehended. Mis-en-scene, additional semiotic elements and cinematography, all assist the director with showing the importance of this piece to the

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