Arthur Tressler presents Jack Wilder, Henley Reeves, Merritt McKinney, Andrea Atlas, And Daniel Atlas. The Five Horsemen.
As their names were announced as spotlight revealed them onstage, slowly lighting up the entire thing.
"What is magic?" Danny asked as they all lined up behind him. "Our argument, nothing but targeted deception. So I want you to look. Look as closely as possible. Because the tricks that you are about to see may not seem connected. But we assure you, they are. Is what follows a 100 different tricks? Or is it one giant illusion?"
The light began to strobe as the real show started.
For a starting trick, Henley and Danny came back on stage with a rabbit and a box.
"Now, for one of the oldest tricks in the book," Henley began. "Danny, if you wouldn't mind opening up the box," Danny flipped down the side to show a completely empty box. "And showing everybody that it is completely empty."
He then put the side back in place.
"I'm gonna take sweet little Fluffy here," Henley continued. "And put her inside this mystery box."
Danny closed the box. "And now, you will say the magic word."
Henley looked at him. "Abracadabra."
Danny then pulled out a fake magicians wand, waving it around. "Yes, and I will wave this magic wand, for no reason." He threw it behind him as the crowd laughed. "And then…"
He opened the box to reveal that Fluffy was gone. "Fluffy has magically vanished before your very eyes."
The crowd clapped a they went on to reveal how the trick was done.
"And now we are gonna debunk a few magic myths this evening," Henley told the crowd as Danny made eye contact with Thaddeus Bradley, the man who debunks magicians.
"We all know that Fluffy is, in fact, alive and well," she continued as Danny slid down a mirror in the box.
"And Fluffy has miraculously appeared!" Henley called into the awing crowd.
"As has the mirror," Danny continued, picking up said mirror. "Which makes the box only appear as though it's empty."
Later in the show, Merritt was performing his own trick.
"Now, we're gonna need 12 courageous volunteers."
Volunteers went up and after they lined up, Merritt began.
"If you haven't experienced mass hypnosis, you're about to."
He went along the line and told each of the people to sleep.
"When you hear the word 'Freeze'," Merritt told his sleeping volunteers. "You are all football players. And your job is to tackle, dismantle, crush, tear limb from limb, the quarterback.
"You will know who the quarterback is. He will be the one saying that word. Freeze."
Merritt turned to the laughing crowd before telling the volunteers to huddle around him.
"Put your hands in the middle. One, two three..."
"Kill the quarterback!" they all yelled before going back to their seats.
"I got a feeling I'm gonna be seeing you soon," he told them with a smile.
Jack was on stage performing his own act.
"There are two pencils out there," he told the crowd, shuffling a deck of cards. "Hold 'em up high. Let me see 'em"
"Here!" came two replies as two women stood up with the pencils. Jack told the woman closest to the stage to sign a card and hold out her pencil. He then shuffled the deck and flicked them all towards the point of the pencil. The woman's card she signed, a three of hearts, impaled itself on the lead.
He then whipped another card at the other woman. The card cut through the pencil, causing the woman to gasp in shock.
As one of the final tricks, Danny stood on stage, creating giant bubbles with his bare hands. He then spread his hands slowly apart, creating a bigger bubble and nodded at Andy to start running. She jumped as she neared him and he pushed the bubble around her, causing her to float inside it.
She flew up, striking poses before laying flat on her back. The bubble suddenly popped causing her to let out a short scream as she fell.
The crowd was unaware that Danny had moved so he was right under her, and caught her in his arms. The crowd clapped as the two shared a small kiss before heading back stage.
For the final act, Merritt came on stage.
"At the intermission," he began. "We asked you to write down you current bank balance, and seal it in an envelope. Now it's time to take those envelopes out."
The crowd all grabbed their envelopes holding them in their hands.
"Now, everybody, shout out your name. All at once. Go."
Name blurred together in a confusing symphony as everyone began to shout.
Merritt tilted his head, listening. "Clement? Frannick?"
"Yeah! Up here!" a man said on the balcony of the second floor.
"Oh. Way up there," Merritt commented. "Okay. Dina? Robertson?"
A woman stood up, right beside Agent Rhodes who was in the audience.
'That's me!"
"Okay, names! Lets go!" Merritt continued.
"Josepha Hickey?"
A pretty black woman stood up close to the stage. "That's me!"
Merritt then made her count to ten three times and determined her bank balance as $562.
"Unfortunately, you're wrong," he told her before turning to Dina.
"1,477?"
"Yeah." She said, shocked.
"You think it is. But in fact, you, too are wrong." Merritt informed her.
"Clemment, You do not have $6,500 in your account. In fact," Merritt started again. "Everybody stand up. Everybody."
Everyone moved and got to their feet holding their envelopes in their hands.
"Yeah. Put your envelopes to your forehead," he told them tapping into his 'powers'. "Focus on your number. This is… Oh, dear. Just as I feared. Oh this is strange. You know, I hate to say this, but you're all wrong. Every last one of you is dead wrong about what you think is in your account. You can all sit down now."
The group then came out on stage and Danny tapped Merritt on the shoulder gesturing into the audience.
'Oh yeah. I almost forgot," Merritt rubbed his hands together. "This evening would not be possible if it weren't for out great benefactor Arthur Tressler."
The crowd clapped pleased that the man had brought such great magicians into light for their viewing pleasure.
"Art, actually," Danny took over. "Why don't you come up on stage for the finale?"
"Come on down Art!" Henley and Andy said at the same time, clapping with the audience.
"There he goes," Danny commented as the man got up.
Henley went and grabbed Art's hand, pulling him onto the stage.
"Now, Art," Andy began. "Did you fill out your envelope?" he shook his head at her with a smile.
"Well no need," Henley patted his hand. "We've done it for you."
Jack came out, holding onto a big envelope.
"Now, Art, I took a guess," Merritt admitted. "North of $140. Am I right?"
Arthur nodded, slightly confused.
"That's $140 million, by the way," Merritt continued as Andy and Henley pulled the 'cheque' out of the envelope.
"I'm sorry Merritt," Henley interrupted.
"Yeah," Andy continued. "How can he be right about his balance, and everyone else be wrong?"
"I think possibly because he, too, is wrong." Art turned to stare at the mentalist.
"Everybody, take out your paper," Merritt told the crowd. "And using the flashlight under your seat, start to warm up that paper. I think your correct balance begins to appear.
"Now, Art, don't worry, we have a flashlight for you." Merritt said as Jack came onstage with a big flashlight.
Turning it on, he hit Danny directly in the face with the light before putting it on the paper.
Very quickly the numbers changed, causing Arthur to stare shocked.
"Look," Danny pointed out.
"What's going on there, Daniel?" Merritt asked.
"Wait. This is weird. A second ago it said, $144,579,651. But now, now it says $70,000 less."
Merritt turned to the audience. 'Now, Josepha, can you stand up?" the woman rose quickly, excited. "Now what is your new number?"
"$70,562 now in my account," she said, fighting back tears.
"Is it possible that Josepha's balance went up, the exact amount that Art's went down?" Andy asked.
"Hey. Check it out,' Jack told them. "It's happening again."
"Is it?"
"Wow," Henley supplied. "It is. Art's balance has gone down another 280K."
Merritt called to the woman, Dina, who told him her balance went up $280 thousand dollars.
"We have a confession to make," Henley said as Jack and Danny put down the cheque and flashlight.
"She's right," Jack agreed. "We lied about something."
"Yes," Danny continued. "None of you were chosen at random."
"All of you have one thing in common," Merritt hinted.
"Everyone in this room was a victim," Andy revealed. "Of the hard times that hit one of America's most treasured cities."
"Some of you lost your house, your cars," Merritt listed.
"Your businesses," Jack added.
"Your loved ones," Danny and Andy said together and they stood side-by-side, linking hands.
"But all of you," Danny continued. "were insured by the same company."
"Tressler Insurance!" the five of them said together.
"You were abandoned!" Merritt reminded them.
"You were loop holed!" Henley added.
"Out of your settlements." Jack supplied.
Arthur whispered a question to Henley only to receive a snarky reply. Suddenly Clemment stood up, telling everyone to check their online backing to see how much they got. Everyone began to use his or her phones in a hurry to confirm. The crowd began to cheer, happy as the horsemen looked one.
"Hey!" Art yelled at Merritt. "Did you do this?"
"How could we, Art?" Jack asked as he walked by. "We don't have your password."
"We'd need access to information we could never get our hands one." Henley told him, following Jack.
"Yes," Danny interjected, tugging Andy along. "security questions, for instance, like, I don't know, your mother's maiden name."
"Or the name of your first pet," Andy smirked at him and they walked to the back of the stage.
'Where would we get that information, Art?" Merritt questioned with a grin. "You certainly would never tell us."
Art went to grab Merritt only to find that he was chained to the floor.
"Hey," Merritt informed him. "We left you the jet and the Rolls."
Merritt then walked to stand beside the rest of his accomplices as Agent Rhodes came barrelling down the stairs.
Danny waved, smug at the agents causing the man to yell 'Freeze!'
The people hypnotized from before began to chase him, because he was the 'quarterback'.
"We are the Five Horsemen!" the group said, grabbing an individual rope beside them as Rhodes got tackled. "Good night!" they were then pulled into the air as people piled onto the helpless agent.