Movie pulled off mind-blowing 'is this your card' magic trick which you're likely to fall for

When it comes to your average magic trick, let’s face it, plenty of us reckon we could do it ourselves. Yeah, cool mate, you got my card right – bet anyone could.

But the reality is, we all get caught out by magicians and illusionists every now and again.

And one film definitely left plenty of us baffled when it first came out back in 2013 with its extravagant tricks and illusions. Yes, obviously, I’m talking about Now You See Me.

The first of two films (so far), the thriller sees a team of illusionists who pull of bank heists during their legendary performances.

And it’s got an absolutely mega cast with the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Dave Franco, Michael Caine and Isla Fisher.

One of the very first scenes of Now You See Me has Eisenberg fulling of a mind-blowing ‘is this your card’ magic trick which you’re pretty likely to fall for if you take part while watching along.

His character asks a member of the public to pick a card while he flicks through a deck.

Then, he holds them out in a fan and asks if she can see her card.

Mysteriously, she can’t as he reminds the crowd: “The closer you look, the less you see.”

As he throws the deck up into the air, rather theatrically obviously, a towering skyscraper above in Chicago then lights up in a pattern to reveal her card.

And viewers pointed out on YouTube that when you watch it for the first time the trick ‘blows your mind’.

Lionsgate Films

Because it’s not just the character in the film, the trick works on, but you as a viewer too.

As one commented: “I was like wtf when I saw this scene for the first time, I wasn't expecting it to work on the people watching too!!”

And another added: “I finally sat down and watched this movie. First scene had me SCREAMING I was so excited. Wish I had seen it in theatres.”

As others called it one of their ‘favourite scenes’, many added that when you ‘re-watch it it’s very easy to figure out how they did it’.

Lionsgate Films

The ‘mind-reading’ trick is done by ‘forcing a card’ on the person, as in the film that chosen seven of diamonds is made more visible than the other cards, staying in your mind the most.

By forcing the card on us, it becomes the ‘chosen’ one.

Viewers encourage people to watch the scene at a slower speed and it’ll become clearer but it still gets people each time as one writes: “When I watched it for the first time, i was like WTF THAT'S SO COOL.”

Topics: YouTube, TV and Film, Optical Illusion

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_