What exactly happened to Dylan Rhodes's father in Now You See Me?
Disclaimer: If you haven't seen the the movies yet I suggest not to continue reading as there might be a minor spoiler within my question.
So we are revealed in the course of the two movies that Dylan's father was performing a Houdini's escape alike trick of getting out of what looked like a safe submerged into water. We are also shown in Now You See Me 2 that he did not make it out of the safe in time and died.
Have I missed it or was there any explanation of what really went wrong and why did Dylan's father fail to get out of the safe? This really bothers me as we are shown how Dylan without much practice was able to open the same safe.
Best Answer
It was explained by the end of the first movie
From the script
And Elkhorn? What's the connection to Shrike?
Elkhorn started as a safe manufacturer. They used cheap steel. They cut corners. When he got to the bottom of the river, the safe warped.
And he was trapped.
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Is Dylan Rhodes Lionel Shrike?
The Fifth Horseman, And Why He Pulled Off This Caper By the end of the film we learn that Dylan Rhodes is actually the son of deceased magician Lionel Shrike, a man who lost his life trying to rebuild a reputation destroyed by Morgan Freeman's Thaddeus Bradley.Why was Thaddeus Bradley framed?
After the Horsemen's third and last show, Thaddeus went to his car and discovered it was full of stolen cash. He was put in jail for robbery, and accusations of being the fifth member of the Horsemen, but he was innocent.Clifton Suspension Bridge Base Jump | INSTA 360 | RAW
More answers regarding what exactly happened to Dylan Rhodes's father in Now You See Me?
Answer 2
[Spoiler Contained in the Answer]
In the first movie they establish that Bradley tried to expose Lionel Shrike's tricks and in an attempt to rebuild his image he performed his final trick. The safe manufacturer had built a faulty safe which warped underwater disabling Lionel Shrike to open the safe and got him killed.
In the second movie, it is revealed that Bradley was working with Lionel and the duo planned the whole thing where Bradley would expose Shrike which would only add more publicity to Lionel's next performance. However, when Shrike dies, Bradley rushes towards the water and see young Dylan and in some moment of realization, just does not act further and walks away.
So when finally Dylan meets Bradley in the climax of the second movie, he confesses to Dylan about the mutual partnership between him and Lionel Shrike and tells Dylan how he has turned out as good a magician as his father and asks Dylan to take his place.
*Curtain Scene*
Answer 3
My guess is Lionel Shrike faked his death for some larger as yet unknown purpose.
Short answer is that he used a trick safe developed by the Eye and has been hiding in the backgrounds for the past two movies. This is corroborated by the second movie where Max Shrike finds a prototype safe at the Macau magic store and is able to withstand the same scenario his father was put through when Tressler and Mabry try to kill him. Meaning the safe wasn't made by Elkhorn, it had a trick opening from the inside, and is easy to escape without detection using SCUBA gear. As to why, the answer seems to be about initiation into The Eye and whether its' political beliefs would call for such a measure. Due to their anti-authoritarianism beliefs, they would need to carefully vet every candidate and make sure they would be up to the effort. Hence the reference the Interpol agent makes to new recruits needing to carry out blind commands. It could be Lionel Shrike had to fake his death to show his devotion, much like Jack Wilder.
Here's a full theory on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/a0ve4b/now_you_see_me_too_lionel_shrike_faked_his_death/
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Images: Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas, Dominika Roseclay, Pixabay, Josh Willink