NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens in Bushwick, NY. After a ten year absence, the Four Horsemen – J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) – have reunited for a show to an excited audience. They bring an audience member, Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa), to be part of their act. The Horsemen appear to possess him and call out a crypto bro in the audience named Brett (Andrew Santino), who was doubting the Horsemen’s act. They expose his and his buddies’ scams and redistribute their assets among the audience, then make it seem like the police are arriving and cause everyone to disperse. Brett tries to confront the Horsemen, only to find their projectors and screens, showing that the Horsemen were never there and leaving him to scream in rage.

The heist was pulled off by Bosco and his best friends, June (Arianna Greenblatt) and Charlie (Justice Smith). The trio take their earnings and go to their secret apartment. They are then surprised to find Atlas has made it into their apartment after being in the audience for their little impersonation act. He reads the three of their backgrounds (Bosco being a former aspiring actor stuck in student loan debts, June being a rebellious anti-authority teen, and Charlie being an orphan) and points out that they deepfaked the Horsemen’s appearance for their act. Atlas reveals that he has been assigned a tarot card by The Eye to steal the Heart Diamond, and he recruits the trio since he has split up from the other Horsemen.

The Heart Diamond is benig kept in Limpopo, South Africa by Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), who runs a diamond smuggling operation inherited from her father Peter. She holds a board meeting where she demonstrates her threats by forcing one of the men opposed to her plans to hold a sharp diamond in his mouth and scare him into not swallowing it. Later, Veronika receives an anonymous phone call from someone demanding the Heart, or her dark secrets will be exposed to the public.

Atlas and the three infiltrate a gala in Antwerp where the Heart Diamond is being shown off before it is set to be auctioned. Bosco, Charlie, and June pretend to be part of a photography crew taking pictures of Veronika ahead of the Heart’s exhibition. Atlas also takes time to throw barbs towards Veronika and her network of criminals. After the fake shoot, the young Horsemen join Atlas as the auction begins. They pull off a trick by making it seem like the Heart explodes in Veronika’s hand, and Atlas has the real one. The four outrun Veronika’s guards and make their way out with the diamond, running into Jack, Henley, and Merritt on the way to the roof since they each received their own tarot cards from The Eye like Atlas did. They manage to escape by pulling a fake helicopter trick on the guards. Veronika observes the case and realizes that the Horsemen switched the case that held the diamond.

The Horsemen, new and old, are now gathered on a boat trying to figure out their next move. Among the things that each missed about each other since their split is that Henley is now married with three kids, Jack has been dumped by Lula May (Lizzy Caplan) after she moved to Paris, France, and the reason the Horsemen split was because of a heist gone wrong that got Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) stuck in a Russian prison, and the guilt caused them to separate. Charlie then notices that the original Horsemen’s cards form a map when put together.

The map guides the seven Horsemen to an estate in France, which happens to be owned by the Horsemen’s ally Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman). He has also received a card from The Eye to aid the Horsemen. After going through the mansion’s elaborate tricks, the group finds Thaddeus in his private room. Charlie then finds a painting that is hiding documents about Veronika’s past, such as how she inherited the business from her father and his ties to the Nazis, and how her mother committed suicide, and how later their housekeeper and her son were killed in a car accident after someone cut the brakes.

The group then hears the police arriving outside the mansion, forcing them to split up and find a way out. Atlas and Bosco outrun some cops by going through a rotating hallway. Jack and June evade a few in a room of illusions (which make certain things big or small depending where they are in the room). Merritt, Henley, and Charlie get past the cops in a hall of mirrors. Thaddeus is cornered in his room but seemingly disappears through a roof. He runs into Atlas, Bosco, Charlie, and Henley, revealing he was shot by one of the cops. He urges them to keep going and to not let him die in vain. Atlas and Henley weep for their fallen friend but keep going. Meanwhile, Merritt, Jack, and June are all arrested.

Merritt is interrogated by Veronika. Using his talents, he is able to read Veronika and learn that her mother committed suicide because Peter was engaging in an affair with the housekeeper, and Veronika is strongly implied to have been the one to cut the housekeeper’s brakes and lead to her death. Outside, the guards bring in a seemingly drunk old beggar woman, who then seems to fall and gruesomely break her arm. It is actually Lula in disguise, as Atlas and Henley called upon her to help break their friends out. She gets Jack out first before they go rescue June. Merritt fights off some guards but remains in captivity.

The Horsemen reconvene, with Lula feeling out of the loop due to her absence from them (but she and Henley already know each other). Atlas thinks it’s best to just hand the Heart back over to Veronika in exchange for Merritt, but the others are dead set on exposing her once and for all.

The exchange is set to be made in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina Circuit, at a party for Veronika’s Formula 1 team. Bosco and Charlie disguise themselves as photographers, and Bosco drives the car out into the streets to create a distraction. The Horsemen meet with Veronika and get Merritt back after making the swap, but she then drops the five of them into a tank that she starts to fill up with sand to kill The Horsemen. Thinking quickly, Jack spots a pipe up above and manages to break it so that the tank can fill up with water and expand the sand to break through the glass. This only makes the tank fill up faster with water, so Henley uses her wedding ring to cut into the glass. With some help from The Horsemen, they break through and free themselves.

Bosco is chased through the streets by police until he is eventually surrounded. While in captivity, he frees himself from his cuffs and fights off Veronika’s goons to crash their van and make his escape.

Veronika goes to meet with her mysterious caller to give him the Heart…and it turns out to be CHARLIE. The truth is that he and Veronika are half-siblings due to Peter’s affair with his mother, and he survived the car accident but knew it was Veronika who cut the brakes as revenge for her mother’s death. Veronika shoots Charlie, but her gun is filled with blanks. The walls around the room fall down, revealing that this was a setup by Charlie and his friends to expose Veronika to an audience of people. He was also the one who summoned the Horsemen and orchestrated everything, even setting up to find everything in Thaddeus’s mansion. Her Nazi ties, murder and attempted murders, and overall shady dealings are exposed, and Veronika is arrested. Charlie tells the audience that, as Peter Vanderberg’s sole non-incarcerated heir, he plans to use the Heart’s profits and redistribute it among the people of South Africa and give back what the Vanderbergs stole from them. Everyone cheers.

Sometime later, the now eight horsemen are gathered in Bosco, June, and Charlie’s apartment. Henley, Lula, and June discuss forming a lady magicians group, while Jack and Lula get back together. They then receive a mysterious package containing a hologram message from Dylan. He faked his imprisonment and welcomes Bosco, June, and Charlie into The Eye. He then informs the Horsemen that their work is just getting started.

Ten years after their last appearance, the Horsemen - J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Jack Wilder, Henley Reeves, and Lula May - have split up since their last mission ended with leader Dylan Rhodes getting trapped in a Russian prison. A trio of young illusionists - Bosco, June, and Charlie - use The Horsemen's image for their own heists, which gets Atlas's attention. He recruits the trio after receiving a tarot card from The Eye to go after Veronika Vanderberg, a South African diamond smuggler whose father had Nazi ties.

Atlas and the young Horsemen steal the Heart Diamond from Veronika and reunite with Jack, Merritt, and Henley since they also were called upon by The Eye. They all go to the home of Thaddeus Bradley so he can help them figure things out. The Horsemen learn about Veronika's father's Nazi affiliations, as well as how her mother committed suicide and their housekeeper was killed under mysterious circumstances. Police arrive, causing the Horsemen to split up. Thaddeus is fatally shot, while Merritt, Jack, and June are arrested.

Atlas and Henley call Lula for help, and she manages to get Jack and June out, but Merritt remains in Veronika's captivity. The Horsemen agree to swap her diamond for Merritt in Abu Dhabi, but she traps the five original Horsemen in a tank that she fills up with sand. After some struggles, the Horsemen free themselves.

Veronika goes to deliver the Heart to a caller that has been threatening her. It turns out to be Charlie, who was the mastermind behind the entire scheme. He summoned the Horsemen to expose Veronika because she is his half-sister as a result of her father having an affair with his mother, the housekeeper. Veronika cut the brakes of her car when her mother killed herself because of the affair, but Charlie survived. Veronika is exposed and arrested, while Charlie agrees to redistribute the Heart's profits to the people of South Africa.

The now eight Horsemen gather as one big team and are later sent a message from Dylan, who was never really in prison, as he welcomes Bosco, Charlie, and June into the team and has bigger plans for everyone.