Lots of people talk about "movie magic," but when films need a little actual abracadabra they call on David Kwong.

Kwong is the founder of the Misdirectors Guild, a firm that has offered magical advice on films ranging from Red Lights to The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. You can see his latest tricks in the film Now You See Me, which opens today and follows a group of magicians known as the Four Horsemen who magically rob the rich and give to the poor. Although his advice is usually limited to individual tricks, Kwong got involved with the film very early on and made sure director Louis Leterrier layered magic concepts into the story itself. The fact that the magicians are always one step ahead of everyone? That's his doing. So is one very special part of the movie's final heist involving a rabbit box.

So how does someone become a magic consultant? For Kwong, it started at Harvard University, where he convinced the history department to let him get his degree in magic studies. "They're now so proud that I've done something interesting with my history degree, when they welcome freshmen into the department or try to convince them, rather, to join, they say, 'Look, when you study history you don't have to become a professor, you can be a magician,'" Kwong told Wired. From there he went on to do marketing for HBO, study magic in China, and move to Los Angeles to work in film development – which lead to founding the Misdirectors Guild.

To find out what was "real" magic in Now You See Me and what was just movie magic, Wired asked Kwong to explain a few of the film's best tricks. He didn't give everything away, naturally, but he did share some of his secrets.

Oh, and before you ask, yes the cast did learn a least a little magic in order to pull off their roles. (Watch them in action in the clips above.) Jesse Eisenberg learned card tricks for his J. Daniel Atlas; Isla Fisher learned how to hold her breath for her Houdini-like role as Henley Reeves; Woody Harrelson learned a few hypnosis moves; and Dave Franco mastered card-throwing – something that came in handy with his "sleight-of-hand-to-hand-combat" scene (see below) with Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent Dylan Rhodes.

"Dave Franco was an incredible workhorse, he had the most athletic uses of slight of hand in that fight scene," Kwong said. "He's really producing hands of cards and throwing them. … Maybe not the wisest choice."

Here are some of the other tricks they pulled off in Now You See Me.

Atlas' "Pick a Card" Trick

Now You See Me opens with a card trick by a magician named Atlas, played by Jesse Eisenberg. (Watch him perform it in the clip above.) While throwing up his subject's card on the side of a building is bit of a twist, the way he suggested which card she should see is a bit of what Kwong calls "riffle selection," along with some other techniques he won't reveal. "It's the first time you can be part of the audience. And Jesse, who plays Atlas, looks right at the camera as if he's speaking to the young woman and he suggests that you pick a playing card," Kwong said. "If you notice the one that he intends, it appears on the building behind him."

The Paris Bank Heist

While (presumably) no foursome of Las Vegas magicians have ever transported someone to a bank in Paris to rob it blind, the concept of disappearing from a stage and showing up elsewhere is actually a classic David Copperfield illusion. "The original trick where someone disappears in one place and the movie screen comes down and that person appears in a far-off place on the movie screen, that is based on his original trick that he did many years ago called Portal," Kwong said.

Being Handcuffed in a Water Tank

When the audience first meets Isla Fisher's Henley, she's doing a trick at a gig in Los Angeles where she's shackled and put in a tank of water. If she doesn't escape in under a minute, she'll be attacked by piranhas. The trick is based on a Harry Houdini trick... mostly. "It's based on the water-torture cell, which Houdini made famous: escaping from shackles while submerged," Kwong said. "But [producer] Alex Kurtzman added in the extra danger of the piranhas and it's a brilliant notion."

Trick Like an Egyptian

Morgan Freeman's "debunker" Thaddeus Bradley tells a story about Egyptians using sleight-of-hand to steal food for slaves. "This is debatable, but many people say that the first magic trick was in ancient Egyptian times," Kwong said. "And there are real hieroglyphics that appear to be the cups and the balls routine, which evolved into the shell game, which we still see magicians perform today with cups and balls."

You'll Never See the Eye

In Now You See Me, there's a mysterious ancient order of magicians known as The Eye. Unfortunately, you'll never see it in the real world. "[The Eye] is made up but it's certainly something we all fantasize about. As a real magician I can tell you I wish there was a secret order out there," said Kwong.