J. Daniel Atlas

-"The more you think you see, the easier it'll be to fool you. "

''"The closer you look, the less you actually see." ''

-J. Daniel Atlas

J. Daniel Atlas is a main character in Now You See Me. He is portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg.

Now You See Me
Atlas goes to the location on the card, a rundown apartment building, and runs into his former assistant, Henley Reeves. They enter the building and see that mentalist Merritt McKinney has been given a card as well. Jack Wilder arrives late and introduces himself as a fan of Atlas. Jack picks the lock to the apartment, and they enter. Inside, they find blueprints for a show from a mysterious benefactor.

One year later, he, Henley, Merritt, and Jack are performing as a magic group called "The Four Horsemen" at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They tell everyone that they will rob a bank. Seat B-5-13 is randomly selected by the audience. Étienne Forcier is sitting there. He goes to the stage. Atlas has him select a card and sign it. The Horsemen teleport him from Las Vegas to his bank, Crédit Républicain of Paris. Atlas tells him to take the playing card he signed and the ticket stub from the performance and drop them in the middle of 3 million euros worth of money. The money flies through a vent from Paris to Vegas and is given to the audience.

The Four Horsemen are later arrested. Atlas is interrogated by Dylan Rhodes and Alma Dray. However, Atlas points out to Dylan that if he was imprisoned, that would mean he and his FBI friends actually believed in magic. Dylan starts toward him in anger. Atlas throws the handcuffs off of himself, and they fall on Dylan's wrists. He and the other members are released.

While on Arthur Tressler's private jet, Atlas begins mocking Merritt's mentalism. He begins to try and read the mind of Tressler. Atlas tricks Tressler into telling him the name of his first pet and the name of his mother's maiden name. At their second show in New Orleans, all four Horsemen begin with several different tricks. Merritt hypnotizes twelve people into attacking anyone who says the word "freeze". Atlas and Henley do a trick in which they put a rabbit in a box and make it vanish. They then reveal that it was done by placing a mirror in the box. Later, Atlas makes large bubbles with his hands and Henley jumps into a bubble. She floats to the balcony, but the bubble pops. However, she is caught by Atlas, who has miraculously appeared on the balcony.

After the intermission, the Horsemen have Tressler go down on stage with them. The audience members have written down their bank balance on a piece of paper. The Horsemen have written a large check with Tressler's bank balance, which was north of $140 million. A female volunteer with a little over $562 gets $70,000 added to her account as $70,000 is deducted from Tressler's account. Tressler's account gets deducted by another $280,000 and another audience member gets $280,000 added to her account. The Horsemen reveal that all of the audience members were victims of Hurricane Katrina and that they were loopholed out of their settlements by Tressler Insurance. Tressler is left with nothing but his jet and his car, while all of the audience members get substantial amounts of money added to their accounts.

Dylan gets confirmation that Tressler was robbed. Dylan runs down to the stage and yells out "Freeze!". The twelve audience members that were hypnotized earlier all attack Dylan as the Horsemen escape. Dylan and Alma begin to pursue the Horsemen, but they once again evade capture. Dylan later finds out that during Atlas' interrogation, he had stolen Dylan's phone and replaced it with a duplicate phone. The duplicate had a bug inside, and they had been listening and reading Dylan's calls and texts. The Horsemen are tracked down to New York City. Dylan orders all the officers to go to New York City to capture the Horsemen. The Horsemen see them through the window. Atlas, Henley, and Merritt escape while Jack stays in the apartment to destroy evidence.

Jack and Dylan fight and Dylan and Alma chase Jack in a car. On the 59th Street Bridge however, Jack's car begins to flip and it catches fire. Jack is believed to die in the car, but Dylan manages to get papers from the car that reveal that for their third show, the Horsemen would be getting money from an Elkorn safe in Queens. Dylan and his police force discover that the safe had already been moved and was headed to 5 Pointz, which is where the Horsemen would be doing their final show. But at the show, they find out the contents of the safe had been replaced with balloon animals.

The third show begins and Atlas, Merritt, and Henley appear on the roof. They jump off the roof and shower their fans with money once again. However, the money ends up being counterfeit. The actual money from the safe had all been stuck in the car of Thaddeus Bradley, a debunker who exposes the tricks of magicians. Bradley is arrested and Dylan visits him in his cell. Dylan then reveals himself as the fifth Horsemen. He was helping the Horsemen with their tricks and he had brought them together and devised their acts.

Atlas, Merritt, and Henley meet up with Jack ,who had faked his death, in Central Park. They all put their tarot cards together and it turns out to be a key for the Eye, a magic organization. Dylan meets up with them and he welcomes all four of them to the Eye.

Now You See Me 2
Atlas visits the Eye, saying that he is tiredN of waiting for instructions from Dylan. They have been hiding for over a year and he wants to do something. Later, Atlas returns home and finds a magician named Lula May there. She reveals that she knows all about the Four Horsemen and then pretends to have her head cut off. Later, Dylan reveals that she is the new member of the Four Horsemen, replacing Henley. Dylan gives them an assignment to return to the stage and expose corrupt businessman Owen Case, whose new software secretly steals data on its users for Case's benefit.

The show is stopped when the lights turn off and a face reveals that Jack is still alive and that Dylan is the Fifth Horsemen. Atlas, Merritt, Jack, and Lula all go to the roof and slide down a tube that was supposed to lead them to an escape bus. However, they land in Macau, China, where Merritt's twin brother, Chase McKinney, is waiting for them. His men bring the Four Horsemen to a building where they find Walter Mabry waiting for them. He explains how they were sent to China and says that they have to steal a computing device that is the key to every computer system on the planet. It was called the "stick". Jack, Merritt, and Lula refuse, but Atlas agrees because in America, they were criminals, but in China, they could go unrecognized.

The Four Horsemen successfully steal the stick, hiding it on the back of a playing card. Meanwhile, Dylan springs Thaddeus from prison and Thaddeus tells him that the Horsemen are in Macau. They go there and Atlas tells Dylan that he isn't the leader of the Horsemen anymore and if he wanted to help them, he would leave. Walter confronts Atlas and tells him to give him the stick. Atlas refuses and Dylan grabs him. He takes the stick from Atlas and shoves him through the door. However, Atlas later reaches into his pocket and sees that he still has the stick.

Walter's men capture Dylan and they put him in the safe in which his father died. They drop the safe in the water, hoping that Dylan would drown and die the same way his father did. However, Dylan is able to pick the lock and escape the safe just as it fills up with water. Atlas jumps in and brings him to the surface, saving his life. Dylan explains that he took the stick from Atlas and when he threw Atlas out the door, he slipped it back in his pocket. He, the Four Horsemen, Li, and Bu Bu team up to take Walter down.

They all set up tricks around London. Atlas does a trick in which he stops the rain from pouring, freezing it in mid-air. He makes it go up and back to normal. He later reveals that the trick was done with rain machines and strobe lights and tells the audience to remember how he did the trick for the final. He, Lula, Dylan, Jack, and Merritt are later captured and put on Walter's plane. They threaten to kill Lula, and Atlas then gives him the stick. All five of them are thrown out of the plane and are presumably killed. But then, they see the Horsemen out their plane window.

It is revealed that the plane had never taken off. Walter, Arthur, and Chase were tricked into believing they had taken off because of machines that had simulated flying in the sky and the driver of the plane had been replaced. Their criminal activities were broadcast to live audiences around the world and they are arrested. Dylan and the Four Horsemen visit Li's secret library. Thaddeus joins them and they all walk into a secret chamber, which leads to a spiral staircase shaped as the Eye, and they disappear.

Henley Reeves
Daniel's relationship with Henley Reeves is complicated. She was his assistant, but left after a conflict between the two. When they first saw each other again, Merritt assumed that they were once more than partners and asked if they were no longer a couple, causing both of them to jump and deny the fact. He later holds Henley in his arms when she had plummeted from the air during a show and compliments on her loss of weight, suggesting that he had held her bridal-style many times before. At the end of the first film, they are seen holding hands as they jump into the merry-go-round. In the second installment, when Lula mentioned the absence of Henley to Daniel, he flinches and tightens the rope he was tying Lula with. It has been hinted numerous times that he misses his old assistant and friend throughout the movie. Assumed that he always wanted to get back together with, Henley.

Merritt McKinney
Atlas is shown to have known Merritt before meeting him. Merritt believes that Atlas is a control freak. Throughout the two instalments, they grow a friendly relationship, where Merritt follows and respects J. Daniel Atlas and he, in return, respects him as an individual mentalist.

Jack Wilder
Daniel is somewhat of a mentor to Jack. Even before they met, Jack knew all about Daniel and thought very highly of him. Jack was some sort of a superfan throughout the first half of the movie but he later developed a friendly relationship with J. Daniel Atlas. Although in the second movie, he was slightly disappointed by Daniel's lack of attention towards his fellow teammates after the Eye kept him impatient.

Dylan Rhodes
Daniel shows a certain arrogance towards Dylan believing that he is a simple cop who does not know what is coming to him. Soon after discovering Dylan's true identity, Daniel creates a certain jealousy towards Dylan seeing as he wishes to be the leader of Horsemen. After Henley leaves, Daniel believes Dylan should not be the magician. His distrust and frustrations builds to the point where Daniel doesn't believe in anything Dylan says. But after Dylan offers himself abducted in order to save Daniel's life and preserve the card, Daniel's thoughts towards the ex-FBI agent flips a 180 and the two grow an unlikely friendship.

Lula May
Daniel doesn’t seem to show that he doesn’t like her at all. Though he does. Though at first, he is somewhat hurt by Lula replacing Henley, but as the film progresses, he slowly learns to respect her as the Horseman as well as developing a friendly relationship.

SKILLS
Daniel is the Horseman with perhaps the most varied skills as a magician; escapologist, and slight of hand, as well as cardistry. Though he tends to specialize in bigger illusions, involving much more set up and special effects. Doesn't seem to be skilled at mentalism, however.