Tesla Movie Storyline. In New York City in 1884, Nikola Tesla works for Thomas Edison where neither gets along with one another. Tesla pitches his idea to those who will pay him much more than Edison. Edison meets his second wife Mina in 1885. Tesla continues work on his induction motor, assisted by his friend Anthony Szigeti from Budapest. Tesla meets Anne, the daughter of J. P. Morgan.
Tesla presents his findings to George Westinghouse and he buys the patents for Tesla’s inventions and brings Tesla to Pittsburgh to oversee production. Westinghouse updates Tesla on the rivalry between Edison’s findings and Tesla’s. Edison insists on his, for the matters of execution. Edison says, direct current is better and dismisses Tesla’s alternating current.
William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed with electric induction, but it is completely gruesome. Edison blames the doctors. Meanwhile, Tesla begins dating Anne, despite her father being one of Edison’s incredibly wealthy funders.
Westinghouse tells Tesla that Edison has failed, but that their business is still failing, and that they need a merger. The only merger he could get requires Tesla to give up his horsepower clause, but then the entire country will be using his machines. Tesla chooses to tear up their contract to go forward with the merger.
The famous traveling actress Sarah Bernhardt performs her act. After the performance, Tesla seems attracted to Sarah, concerning Anne. Tesla and Edison have an uncomfortable and tense run-in where Edison seems bitter and resentful of Tesla’s success, and Edison leaves with Sarah’s group.
Tesla tells Anne he is planning on moving to Colorado. There, he begins work developing the Tesla coil. Its first debut is impressive and unsettling, blowing up the local generator, which Tesla offers to pay for. Tesla then presents his discoveries to J.P. Morgan showing him all the advantages his machines can provide the world. He is skeptical and doesn’t like Tesla very much, but invests one hundred thousand dollars into Tesla’s work.
Edison gets out of the electricity business and goes into mining, which ends up being a complete failure that loses him four million dollars. After Tesla gives an interview saying his equipment is picking up signals that could potentially be from Mars, Anne confronts him about this idea, noting her father reads the interviews he gives.
Tesla is a 2020 American biographical drama film written and directed by Michael Almereyda. It stars Ethan Hawke as Nikola Tesla. Eve Hewson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jim Gaffigan, and Kyle MacLachlan also star. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020, and was released in selected theaters and via Premium VOD on August 21, 2020, by IFC Films.
Tesla (2020)
Directed by: Michael Almereyda
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Eve Hewson, Jim Gaffigan, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Hannah Gross, Josh Hamilton, James Urbaniak, Rebecca Dayan, Donnie Keshawarz, Lucy Walters
Screenplay by: Michael Almereyda
Production Design by: Carl Sprague
Cinematography by: Sean Price Williams
Film Editing by: Kathryn J. Schubert
Costume Design by: Sofija Mesicek
Set Decoration by: Tricia Peck
Music by: John Paesano
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some thematic material and nude images.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: January 27, 2020 (Sundance). August 21, 2020 (United States)
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