Can someone explain please? *Spoilers*

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coin shows Silver can see
Buckley did the earthquake, lights smashing etc
Silver didn't know Buckley was psychic

Is this it?

I had the same questions. I don't think they executed the ending as well as they could have. It all was too vague. Here's one for you. Why didn't Simon just act like he did all the earthquake and lights smashing, and not catch the coin in the end? Making everyone there still believe in him. He was a pro at faking it for 30 plus years... Why not fake it for five minutes more?

Alright, from the top:

How did Simon Silver know where Buckley was during the first show when he went to investigate Silver?


Two thoughts:

Leonard Palladino, the other psychic who was in jail, told Silver or passed along the information to Silver's assistant that the theater was bugged and because Silver was not really blind he simply looked around and saw the two way mirror and through film editing it appears to be much more dramatic.

or

Silver, being a good actor, turns his head and looks towards the two way mirror and "hears" the click or some sort of noise. This is the less likely explanation as there is no way to know if Silver can really "hear" what's going on in that room or was he just making educated guesses.

If Buckley knew he's had powers all along, does that mean he also knew that he was the reason behind everything? Why couldn't he control it?

Buckley didn't know he had powers until the end of the film when he connected his strange dreams with the video evidence that the student was going through and realizing that Silver was a fake. We can take this further and say that Buckley was reading the student's mind as the student was going through the video footage, so he knew then and he probably suspected that Silver was a fraud in the strange exchange that the two had in Silver's meeting room. If you watch the film with subtitles, how did Silver know that Buckley stepped into the room and not the man who made the strange growling noise....because Silver could see and just played off as if he was psychic.

The reason Buckley couldn't control his powers was due to his anger/frustration that his mom had sought a fraud psychic for medical treatment rather than going to the hospital. The last line of the film is "You can't deny yourself forever" and Buckley had been in denial.

What was the importance of the birds? Why did he keep shouting out "Silver"?


He was in denial and his anger and frustration was the cause of the freak happenings. The birds were being drawn to or controlled by his power. The repeated shouting of Silver's name ties into the denial angle. Silver is causing Buckley to have doubts that psychic power/telekinesis is, in fact, real and so he's acting out as if Silver is just tormenting him as a way of saying "back off". Buckley thinks that Silver really has powers, but is in denial and is causing things to happen, but blames Silver because he's confused/in denial.

How did he figure out in the end that Silver wasn't psychic like him?

I think it's a combination of Buckley going through the video footage, getting beat up at the show and then confronting Silver with no strange occurrences. If Silver really had powers he wouldn't have a reason to have Buckley terrorized in the bathroom nor would he have allowed Buckley's interruption at the last show to rattle him.

Why did Silver shout out "How did you do that?" at the end?
What did Buckley do?
Why did he throw a coin?

Silver obviously had no power and was not blind, so he may have been yelling "how did you do that" as a genuine reaction to further provoke Buckley into destroying more things so that Silver could confuse the audience into thinking that it was really him and not Buckley. Silver also may have been genuinely interested in how Buckley was doing it.

Buckley was using extreme telekinesis to physically damage the theater, cause earthquakes, etc. Silver could see this, he wasn't really blind, and as a true showman he was interested in Buckley's trick, so to speak.

Buckley throwing the coin was a cheap shot and a genius move at the same time. While Silver was trying to maintain his control on the show Buckley took advantage of the situation and simply played on a reflex: a blind person wouldn't see the coin coming, but Silver was not blind and the subconscious mind would react to an incoming object, so Buckley called Silver's bluff. As to why Buckley threw the coin, the coin was a recurring image and Buckley was always rolling off of his fingers so it was an easy image to use. Also, coin tricks using sleight of hand are easy tricks to learn and it can also be taken symbolically that a simple trick such as a hiding a coin could also be used to take down a giant of a fraud.