Thaddeus Bradley


 * "Seeing is believing. But is it truth? Depends on your point of view. Are you listening, Horsemen? When you emerge, and you will, I will be there waiting. Because mark my words, you will get what's coming to you in ways you can't expect. But very much deserve. Because one thing I believe in is an eye for an eye."

- Thaddeus Bradley 

Thaddeus Bradley is the main antagonist of the 2013 film Now You See Me, a supporting antagonist turned anti-villain in it's 2016 sequel Now You See Me 2. He is portrayed by Morgan Freeman.

Biography
Thaddeus Bradley is a former magician who now makes a living by revealing the secrets behind other magicians' tricks. In secret, he was actually the Grandmaster of The Eye, an ancient and powerful society of magicians. He and Lionel Shrike were close friends. However, the pair pretended to be rivals in public. Thaddeus revealed Shrike's tricks, causing Shrike to perform a magic trick in which he would break out of a safe from the bottom of a river. The safe that Shrike used was made of cheap metal, causing him to drown. After the disaster Thaddeus felt very guilty.

Now You See Me
Thaddeus attended the Four Horsemen's first show in Las Vegas. He was recording the show when a man told him to stop. However, Thaddeus had a spare recorder and filmed the entire show. Dylan Rhodes, an FBI agent, and Alma Dray, his assistant from Interpol, asked Thaddeus for help after the capture and release of the Four Horsemen caused by their first show: robbing a french bank. Thaddeus concluded that they did not rob the bank then and there. Some time before their first show, the Horsemen robbed the Crédit Républicain de Paris and changed the bank's money with fake notes. The notes were burned with a burning card on which they put a copy of Étienne Forcier's signature. He also said that the supposedly random audience was psychologically pushed, tracked, and studied by the Horsemen, and noticed that Merritt hypnotized Étienne on the stage.

Arthur Tressler went to Thaddeus to put a stop on his 'trick revealing show', as he was the benefactor of the Horsemen. Thaddeus denied this. In the Horsemen's next show, the Four Horsemen robbed Tressler's money and gave it to the people that his insurance company had denied insurance claims to. After that, Tressler talked to Thaddeus, asking him to reveal the secrets behind their tricks.

Thaddeus followed Dylan Rhodes, Alma Dray, and the Four Horsemen almost everywhere. He managed to catch the shock on Dylan's face when he realized the Horsemen's safe he had been chasing was full of balloons while the real safe was likely already in the hands of the Horsemen.

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.

Dylan met him in his cell where he revealed the Horsemen's tricks for the third show: Horseman Jack Wilder was still alive, and the burned body believed to be his was a corpse stolen from a morgue. The safe was actually still in the back of the room; the Horsemen just put a very big mirror in the room to hide the safe. This allowed Jack to take the real safe while the FBI was 'playing with balloon animals'.

Thaddeus was able to figure out that there was a fifth Horseman, but he didn't know who. Dylan said that there was an organization called the Eye that was supposedly a group of truly great magicians. He has a theory that perhaps Thaddeus debunks other magicians because deep down, he wanted to be part of The Eye but was never invited in. Thaddeus said that The Eye is fake, and the fifth Horsemen must be someone with an obsession--but also with connections. He said that the Horsemen had always been one step ahead of him and the FBI. He then realized that the fifth Horseman must be working from inside the FBI. Dylan, somewhat giddy, left without much explanation, leaving Thaddeus asking "Why?" without an answer in his cell.

Now You See Me 2
It is revealed that Bradley is the leader of the Eye and was Shrike's partner. The two played the roles of the idealist (Shrike) and the realist (Thaddeus). Thaddeus also states that he had goaded Lionel to perform his revival performance, which they had rehearsed beforehand. But, much to his lament, they had not planned on the safe being faulty. Dylan Rhodes, Shrike's son, asks why he did not reveal the truth to him when he framed Thaddeus. Thaddeus claims that he felt guilty, but he later states that he is proud of him and the Horsemen and that they have completed their training. He then leaves the room, announcing his retirement. He advises Rhodes to choose a successor and directs Rhodes and the Horsemen to a secret chamber accessible through a massive spiral staircase behind a curtain.