The Matrix
The Matrix is a
science-fiction/
action film written and directed by
Larry and Andy Wachowski and starring
Keanu Reeves,
Laurence Fishburne,
Carrie-Anne Moss and
Hugo Weaving. It was first released in the
USA on
March 31,
1999, and is the first entry in
the Matrix series of films,
comics,
video games and
animations.
The film describes a world in which the
Matrix is an
artificial reality created by
sentient machines in order to pacify, subdue and make use of the
human population as an energy source by growing them and connecting them to the Matrix with
cybernetic implants. It contains numerous references to
philosophical and
religious ideas, the
hacker subculture, and
homages to
Hong Kong action movies,
Japanese animation and
cyberpunk.
A telephone call from a woman,
Trinity (
Carrie-Anne Moss) in a dark hotel room is interrupted as a group of police officers attempt to arrest her. Using
superhuman speed, she fights and escapes from them, fleeing across rooftops. The officers pursue her, along with three
sinister government agents possessing similarly incredible abilities. At street level, she reaches a ringing
telephone booth, answering it just as a garbage truck driven by one of the Agents smashes into it. Examining the wreckage, the Agents discover no body, but state that they have gained "the name of their next target": "
Neo".
This is the alias of Thomas A. Anderson (
Keanu Reeves), a computer programmer for a software company who leads a secret life as a
hacker under that
screen name. One night he wakes to find messages appearing on his computer monitor, "The Matrix has you" and "Follow the white rabbit". This cryptic instruction leads Neo to a nightclub, where he is met by Trinity, who is aware of his desire to learn the answer to the question: "What is the Matrix?" Neo believes that a man named
Morpheus (
Laurence Fishburne) is somehow connected to the answer.
At work, Neo receives a telephone call from Morpheus, warning that three agents are searching for him. Despite Morpheus' guidance, Neo is apprehended by the agents, who present evidence of his criminal activities as a hacker. They explain that Morpheus is a wanted terrorist, considered by many to be the most dangerous man alive. The agents request Neo's help in locating him; in return they will erase his criminal record. He refuses to cooperate and the scene turns nightmarish as his lips melt together and the agents implant a robotic bug in his navel. Neo wakes up at home, assuming the event to be a dream, but immediately receives a call from Morpheus, requesting a meeting. He is picked up by
Apoc, Trinity and
Switch, who remove the bug from Neo and take him to meet Morpheus. During their meeting, Morpheus explains that he has been searching for Neo his entire life, and offers him a choice between two pills: one blue, which would enable him to wake up safe in his bed but never learn the truth about the Matrix; the other red, which would allow him to "see how deep
the rabbit-hole goes". Neo accepts the red pill, and abruptly wakes up naked in a liquid-filled chamber, his body connected by wires to a vast mechanical tower bristling with pods identical to his. The wires, the largest of which is connected to a plug in the back of his head, are disconnected and Neo is ejected out of the pod into a pool of water. He is rescued by Morpheus and taken aboard his hovercraft, the
Nebuchadnezzar. As Neo passes in and out of consciousness, Morpheus urges him to rest while his atrophied muscles are rebuilt.
When recovered, Neo is introduced to the crew of the ship, and is told that it is not the year 1999 as he believed, but some time estimated to be 2199 â€" the exact year is unknown. Sitting in a chair on the ship's main deck, a wire is plugged into the socket in the back of Neo's head. Instantly, he appears in a blank white expanse, his appearance back to normal. Morpheus is also there, and explains that they are in "the Construct", a virtual reality environment used for training. He explains that humanity is fighting a war against
intelligent machines created early in the
21st century. After being denied their primary power source, the Sun, by the human race, the machines responded by enslaving human beings and using them as their source for energy, growing countless people in immense fields of pods identical to the one in which Neo awoke. It turns out that the world which Neo has inhabited since birth, the
Matrix, is an illusory
simulated reality construct of the world of 1999, developed by the machines to keep the human population docile whilst they are connected to generators and their energy is harvested. Morpheus and Trinity are part of a group of free humans who "unplug" humans from the Matrix and recruit them to their resistance against the machines. Neo refuses to believe him, fainting when he is unplugged from the chair.
Neo awakens in his bed on the ship, Morpheus at his side. He confirms that Neo cannot go back to his life in Matrix, and apologises for the stress he has caused him. However, he explains that he disconnected Neo for a reason: he believes that he is "the One", a man prophesied by the
Oracle to "hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people". Morpheus believes that Neo has the power to free humankind from its enslavement through complete mastery of the Matrix, but Neo is skeptical.
In the morning, Neo speaks to the ship's "operator",
Tank (
Marcus Chong), who describes
Zion, the last human city and a refuge for unplugged humans. In order for Neo to join the group, he must learn how to bend or break the rules of the Matrix in order to subvert the simulation's laws of
physics. He is plugged back into the chair on the main deck, and Tank demonstrates that Neo can instantly learn new skills by uploading training programs directly into his mind. Over a period of ten hours, he learns
martial arts disciplines such as
Jujitsu and
Kung Fu, then demonstrates his skills by entering another simulated environment similar to the Matrix and
sparring with Morpheus. Despite a speed which impresses the crew, Neo is unable to land a strike and is defeated. Morpheus encourages Neo to understand the idea that the Matrix is nothing more than a computer program with rules which can be bent or broken by mental effort; muscles have nothing to do with a person's abilities within the Matrix. In a second round Neo moves faster and finally manages to get past Morpheus's defenses, leaving the crew amazed.
They are then transferred to "the jump program", a simulation of two skyscrapers a significant distance apart. Morpheus tells Neo to "free his mind" and jump from one building to the other, a leap Morpheus easily achieves, but Neo attempts and fails. After being unplugged from the simulation, he is bleeding. He questions Morpheus about this, as he thought the training program was not real, and is told that any injuries suffered in the Matrix are reflected in the real world: if he is killed in the Matrix, his physical body will also die, as "the body cannot live without the mind".
In another training program Morpheus warns Neo of the rebels' main hazard in the Matrix:
Agents. The men in suits who interrogated Neo earlier were actually self-aware programs who behave as
anti-virus utilities; their purpose is to seek out and eliminate any problems within the Matrix in order to keep it stable. Anyone who has not been unplugged from the Matrix is potentially an Agent, because they have the ability to take over the body of anyone still connected to the system. They possess incredible martial arts skills, superhuman strength, agility, and speed, but Morpheus explains that Agents are still nonetheless limited by the physical rules of the Matrix. Once Neo, being "the One", fully understands the true nature of the Matrix, the Agents will be no match for him. However, later, another member of the crew,
Cypher (
Joe Pantoliano), advises Neo to disregard Morpheus's advice, telling him that if he sees an Agent, his only chance of survival is to run away. Cypher is later seen having dinner inside of the Matrix with
Agent Smith (
Hugo Weaving). Cypher strikes a deal with Smith that he will arrange for Morpheus to be captured if the machines will reinsert him into the Matrix as a celebrity and with no memory of true reality.
The group enters the Matrix and takes Neo to the apartment of the Oracle (
Gloria Foster), a woman Morpheus describes as being very old and with the rebels "since the beginning ... of the resistance". Neo is puzzled at her ability to predict future actions. She then implies that Neo is not the One, and that he seems to be waiting for something â€" his next life, perhaps. She states that Morpheus believes Neo is "the One" so blindly, he would sacrifice his life to save Neo's, and predicts that Neo must make a choice between his life and that of Morpheus. As they leave, Morpheus explains to Neo that the Oracle's words were for him alone.
After the meeting, the crew heads toward the nearest "hard line", a
telephone line in the Matrix which may be used by the rebels to safely exit from the virtual world. As they approach the exit they realise that the line has been cut and they have become trapped, with Agents and a
police SWAT team in pursuit. In their attempt to escape, an unarmed Morpheus saves Neo from Agent Smith's grasp, but is effortlessly beaten and captured himself. The others manage to escape, but Cypher is separated from the group and is the first to reach a new hard line. After exiting the Matrix, Cypher wounds Tank and kills Tank's older brother,
Dozer (
Anthony Ray Parker). The crew discovers that Morpheus was captured due to a betrayal by Cypher, who preferred living in ignorance within the Matrix and blames Morpheus for giving him the red pill. Cypher murders Apoc and Switch by unplugging them, but before he can kill Neo and Trinity, Tank recovers and shoots Cypher. Meanwhile, Morpheus has been imprisoned in a government building. Three Agents attempt to use a
serum to gain information from him regarding access codes to the
mainframe of Zion. During this time, Smith confesses to Morpheus that despite being a computer program he hates the Matrix and he demands the codes, so that Zion can be destroyed and he can leave. Neo decides to rescue Morpheus despite Tank's warnings. Trinity accompanies him. Entering the building, Neo and Trinity kill the dozens of soldiers guarding Morpheus. In the process Neo becomes more confident and familiar with manipulating the Matrix, allowing him to perform feats such as dodging bullets fired at him by an Agent. They finally succeed in rescuing their leader, and in an abandoned subway station Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix through a hard line. However, before Neo can follow, the phone being used is destroyed by Agent Smith. Instead of fleeing from him as Cypher advised, Neo duels with Smith, eventually managing to force him onto the tracks in front of a moving subway train. However, Agent Smith quickly possesses another body and pursues Neo.
Neo is chased through the city by the three Agents while Sentinels (robots used by the machines to "search and destroy" human ships) locate the
Nebuchadnezzar's position in the real world and close in fast. However, the ship's
electromagnetic pulse device, the crew's only weapon against the Sentinels, cannot be activated until Neo has left the Matrix. As they prepare to use it, Tank guides Neo towards an "old exit", but Smith is already waiting. He shoots him several times, and Neo collapses to the floor in the Matrix as a
flatline readout of his heartbeat appears on a screen inside the
Nebuchadnezzar. Trinity whispers to Neo that she refuses to accept his death, since the Oracle told her that the man she would fall in love with would be the One, she confesses that she is in love with him and kisses him. Neo's heart monitor begins to beat again, and within the Matrix he stands up. The Agents shoot at him, but he raises his palm and stops their bullets in mid-air. As they fall to the ground, Neo looks up and sees the artificial Matrix as lines of streaming
green code: he finally becomes "the One". Agent Smith makes one last ditch attempt to physically attack him, but Neo effortlessly blocks his punches with one hand. He then plunges directly into Smith's body, causing it to rupture and then explode, leaving Neo standing. The other two Agents flee, and Neo returns to the real world barely in time for the ship's electromagnetic pulse to destroy the Sentinels.
A short
epilogue shows him back in the Matrix, making a telephone call promising:
"I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you... a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world... where anything is possible. Where we go from here is a choice I leave to you."
Neo hangs up the phone, looks up, and flies into the sky above the city.
[The film's screenplay describes this final moment with the words "faster than a speeding bullet", a reference to Superman.]The Matrix was a co-production of
Warner Bros Studios and Australian
Village Roadshow Pictures, and was filmed in
Sydney, Australia.
Visual effects
The film is known for popularizing and evolving the use of a visual effect known as
bullet time, which allows the viewer to explore a moment progressing in
slow-motion while the camera appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed.
One proposed technique for creating these effects involved accelerating a high-frame-rate motion picture camera along a fixed track at a high speed to capture the action as it occurred. However, this was discarded as unfeasable, as the destruction of the camera in the attempt was all but inevitable. Instead, the method used was a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which a large number of cameras are placed around an object and fired simultaneously. When the sequence of shots is viewed as a movie, the viewer sees what is in effect two-dimensional "slices" of a
three-dimensional moment. Watching such a "time slice" movie is akin to the real-life experience of walking around a statue to see how it looks at different angles.
Some scenes in
The Matrix feature the "time-slice" effect with completely frozen characters and objects.
Interpolation techniques improved the fluidity of the apparent "camera motion". The effect was further expanded upon by the Wachowski brothers and visual effects supervisor
John Gaeta to create
bullet time, which incorporates temporal motion, so that rather than being totally frozen the scene progresses in slow and variable motion. Engineers at
Manex Visual Effects pioneered 3D visualization planning methods to move beyond mechanically fixed views towards complex camera paths and flexibly moving interest points. There is also an improved fluidity through the use of non-linear interpolation, digital compositing and the introduction of computer generated "virtual" scenery.
|
Neo's confrontation with Agent Smith features the bullet time effect |
The objective of bullet time shots in
The Matrix was to creatively illustrate "mind over matter" type events as captured by a "
virtual camera". However, the original technical approach was physically bound to pre-determined perspectives, and the resulting effect only suggested the capabilities of a true virtual camera.
The evolution of photogrametric and image based CGI background approaches in
The Matrix's bullet time shots set the stage for later innovations unveiled in the sequels
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions. Virtual Cinematography (CGI-rendered characters, locations and events) and the high-definition
Universal Capture process completely replaced the use of still camera arrays, thus realising the virtual camera.
This film upset the juggernaut release of
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace by winning the
Academy Award for Visual Effects.
The Matrix makes numerous references to recent films and literature, and to historical myths and philosophy including
Messianism,
Buddhism and
Gnosticism. The film's premise resembles
Plato's
Allegory of the Cave, while
Jean Baudrillard's
Simulacra and Simulation is featured in the film.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is frequently referenced, and there are similarities to
cyberpunk works such as
Neuromancer by
William Gibson.
["The Matrix: Fair Cop". URL retrieved 7 July 2006.]Japanese director
Mamoru Oshii's
Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence. Producer
Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowski brothers first described their intentions for
The Matrix by showing him this anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real".
[Joel Silver, interviewed in "Scrolls to Screen: A Brief History of Anime" featurette on The Animatrix DVD.][Joel Silver, interviewed in "Making The Matrix" featurette on The Matrix DVD.]Grant Morrison's comic series
The Invisibles had a clear influence on the
Matrix trilogy, visible from thematic and aesthetic similarities between the two. Some examples visual similarities include the interogation scene with
Agent Smith and
Morpheus, which appears in its entirety in the graphic novel(involving identical character themes), and the more subtle use of a "Magic Mirror" type substance earlier in the film. Morrison believes that the
Wachowski brothers essentially plagiarized his work to create the first film.
["Poor Mojo Newswire: Suicide Girls Interview with Grant Morrison". URL retrieved 31 July 2006.]In a less well-known fashion, The Matrix also draws heavily on inspiration from David Cronenberg's 1981
Scanners. For instance, the black and green
Matrix source code that has become the movie's trademark are litterally the same as those in the end credits for
Scanners. Both movies share a strong common theme of mind-over-matter fighting through the use of computers.
Trace program
In the first scene we see a green cursor blinking on a black screen. In this first
metaphor is hidden the most profound meaning of the entire film, a living machine, the
duality of human and
Artificial Intelligence. In a 1996 version of the film's
screenplay, the Wachowski brothers described the cursor as pulsating like a heart (A common effect with
greenscreen terminals due to the phosphorous' persistance):
A blinking cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath the derma of black-neon glass
Mirrors and music
Mirrors appear frequently in the movie: reflections of the blue and red pills are seen in Morpheus's glasses; Neo's capture by Agents is viewed through the rear-view mirror of Trinity's motorcycle; the broken mirror that mends itself as Neo is looking at it; reflections warp as a spoon is bent; the reflection of a helicopter is visible as it approaches a skyscraper. The film also frequently references the book
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which has a sequel entitled
Through the Looking-Glass.
Composer Don Davis focused on the film's theme of reflections when creating his
score, alternating between sections of the
orchestra and attempting to incorporate
contrapuntal ideas.
[Don Davis, interviewed in The Matrix Revisited (Chapter 28). A transcript of his comments may be found online: [1]]Colors and patterns
Grid-patterns were incorporated into the
sets for scenes inside the Matrix, intended to convey the cold, logical, artificial nature of that environment. The
production design of the film placed an emphasis on the color blue during the scenes set in the real world, whereas in the Matrix there is a bias towards green, the color of the downward-flowing
Matrix source code.
[Costume designer Kym Barret, production designer Owen Paterson and cinematographer Bill Pope, interviewed in The Matrix Revisited (Chapter 7).] This code includes mirror images of half-width
katakana characters and Western letters and numbers, and is strongly reminiscent of similar computer code in the film
Ghost in the Shell, an acknowledged influence on the
Matrix series. The linking of the color green to computers may also have been intended to evoke the green tint of old
monochrome computer monitors.
Also, the
Chroma key screens used for shooting special effects scenes were
bluescreen for
Matrix scenes and
greenscreen for
real world scenes. This was done to ensure that the predominant colors of the sets did not interfere with the CGI editing processes.
The pattern of rain emulating "
Matrix Code" can be seen in several scenes set within the
Matrix Series. One notable scene is in the first movie. Rain can be seen dripping down the car windows in the same fashion as the code when Neo is in the car, headed to meet Morpheus.
Names
In the
Matrix series, the name of a character often refers to their role in the story.
*
Neo comes from the
Greek word meaning "new", and is an
anagram of "One", Neo's title in the story. Neo's last name and hacker alias combined, Neo Anderson, might be read as "New Son of Man" (Greek "andros" meaning man, human), another reference to religion. His first name, Thomas, refers to the disciple Thomas, who, after his resurrection, wanted proof that Jesus died on the cross, which mirrors Neo's doubt in himself throughout the movie.
*
Morpheus ("he who forms, shapes, molds", from the Greek
morphe) is the principal Greek god of dreams and sleep. He is the one who awakens Neo from his
dormant state, giving him a new life.
*
Trinity commonly refers to the equal union of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost in one
Godhead. It also is the cardinal number "that is the sum of one and one and one." Just as Christianity maintains that life comes from
the Trinity, so is Neo brought back to life through his Trinity.
*
Cypher differs from the rest of the crew from various aspects. He is the only one with
facial hair, and during Neo's introduction to his new comrades, Cypher is the only one to speak. "Cypher" undoubtedly comes from the word
cipher, meaning the set of rules used to encrypt a set of data. It also literally means "zero", a reference to Cypher's faithlessness. "Cypher" may also be a play-on-words as short for "Lucifer". Cypher betrays his crew in return for re-immersion into the Matrix.
*
Smith,
Jones and
Brown are common surnames in Western English speaking countries. It indicates the
seriality and the lack of identity of the Agents, who are programs.
*
Tank and his brother,
Dozer, are the only two main characters naturally born. This reflects in their names being earthy in nature.
*
Switch and
Mouse, in the same routine, are computer-like.
The Matrix earned $171 million in the USA and $460 million worldwide,
[Box Office Mojo: The Matrix. URL retrieved 8 March 2006.] and also became the first
DVD to sell more than three million copies in the USA.
[''"Press release - August 1, 2000 - The Matrix DVD: The first to sell 3 million". URL retrieved 26 July 2006.]Critical reception
The Matrix was released into competition with the highly anticipated
Star Wars: Episode I and was a revelation for critics. The combination of special-effects-laden action and philosophical meandering was considered fresh and exciting
["Positive review of The Matrix"].
Roger Ebert praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the third act's focus on action
["Roger Ebert's review of The Matrix"]. Other reviewers criticised the comparative humourlessness and self-indulgence of the movie
["Critical review of The Matrix"]["Negative review of The Matrix"].
Awards and nominations
The Matrix received
Oscars for
film editing,
sound effects editing,
visual effects, and
sound. Furthermore, the film won these awards in the year that
Star Wars: Episode I â€" The Phantom Menace was released, making it the first film to win the special effects Oscars when competing with an entry in the
Star Wars series.
It also received
BAFTA awards for Best Sound and Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects.
The film's mainstream success led to the greenlighting of the next two films of what the
Wachowskis maintain was conceived as a trilogy,
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions. These were filmed simultaneously during one
shoot and released in two parts in 2003.
The first film's introductory tale is replaced by a story centred on the impending attack of the human enclave of
Zion by a vast machine army. Neo also learns more about the history of the Matrix, his role as the One and the prophecy that he will end the war. The sequels also incorporate longer and more ambitious action scenes, as well as improvements in bullet time and other visual effects.
Also released was
The Animatrix, a collection of nine
animated short films, many of which were created in the same
Japanese animation style that was a strong influence on the live trilogy.
The Animatrix was overseen and approved by the Wachowski brothers but they only wrote four of the segments themselves and did not direct any of them; much of the project was created by notable figures from the world of animé. Four of the films were originally released on the series'
official website; one was shown in cinemas with the Warner Bros movie
Dreamcatcher; the others first appeared with the DVD release of all nine shorts.
The franchise contains three video games:
Enter the Matrix (
2003), which contains footage shot specifically for the game and chronicles events taking place before and during
The Matrix Reloaded;
The Matrix Online (
2004), a
MMORPG which continues the story beyond
The Matrix Revolutions; and
The Matrix: Path of Neo, which was released
8 November 2005 and focuses on situations based on Neo's journey through the trilogy of films.
Available on the official website are a number of free
comics set in the world of
The Matrix, written and illustrated by figures from the comics industry
[The Matrix Comics at the official Matrix website]. Some of these comics are also available in two printed volumes.
The Matrix has a strong effect on action film-making in Hollywood. It upped the ante for cinematic
fight scenes by hiring acclaimed
choreographers (such as
Yuen Woo-ping) from the
Hong Kong action cinema scene, well-known for its production of martial arts films. The success of
The Matrix put those choreographers in high demand by other filmmakers who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, Yuen Woo-ping's brother
Cheung-Yan Yuen was choreographer on
Daredevil (2003). There was a surge in movies, commercials and pop videos copying "the
Matrix look", usually without the training and attention to detail that made it successful in the first place.
Following
The Matrix, films made abundant use of slow-motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the famed
bullet time effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera panning around them. The effect has been
parodied in many
comedy films such as
Scary Movie (in which a character hurts his back while leaning backwards like Neo),
Shrek and
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. Parodies of the effect have also appeared in
TV series such as
The Simpsons and
Family Guy, and in the video game
Conker's Bad Fur Day, which includes a sequence with Matrix-like moves and black leather clothing.
The
Matrix source code has been adopted in logos, advertisements and used in various media (e.g.,
computer screensavers) to denote the 'digital era.'
In 2003, GRACE, the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, commissioned
Free Range Studios to produce
The Meatrix, a dark satire of
The Matrix, to encourage the purchase and consumption of
organic foods and sustainable,
free-range meats. In the
Adobe Flash short, Leo, a pig on a seemilgy bucolic farm, is approached by Moopheus, an anthropomorphic bull, who reveals to him that the farm he has known is an illusion, and in reality he is trapped in a horrific "
factory farm". The animated short has won numerous awards, been reported in major international media, has been viewed over 10,000,000 times and translated into 13 languages. In 2006, this was followed by a sequal,
The Meatrix II: Revolting, themed around the factory farm treatment of dairy cows.
On
October 4,
2004, a California court granted
Sophia Stewart leave to continue her case against Warner Brothers and
The Wachowski brothers. The case was filed by Stewart on
April 24,
2003. Stewart claims that the story of
The Matrix was based on a manuscript she wrote titled "The Third Eye" which she allegedly submitted to the Wachowskis in response to an advertisement. One account misreported the October 4th decision as Stewart winning her lawsuit, rather than simply winning permission to continue with the case. The case has since been dismissed
["Report on Sophia Stewart's lawsuit against the Wachowski brothers"].
*
Will Smith turned down the role of
Neo in favor of
Wild Wild West.*The mobile phone used throughout this film is the modified
Nokia 8110 with the spring loaded mechanism from the
Nokia 7110. It is not available in the U.S.
*The Matrix source code is a combination of numbers and reversed Japanese
katakana characters.
*The Matrix script had been written with late actor
Brandon Lee in mind for the character of Neo.
*The locations mentioned in the film are all named after places in
Chicago, Illinois. Maps of the city shown in the film also resemble Chicago, although most filming was done in
Sydney, Australia. Landmarks were purposely not included in order to maintain the setting of a generic American city. However, at the beginning of the scene where Neo is talking with his boss, the
Sears Tower is visible in a picture on the wall.
*A Sydney
Commonwealth Bank branch can be seen as Neo and Morpheus walk through the streets, and in the final scene, some of the
Sydney Harbour Bridge can be seen. The 'girl in the red dress' scene is filmed in
Martin Place, Sydney.
*Some of the rooms shown early in the film are featured again later. Room 303 in the Heart O' the City Hotel, where the police officers find Trinity, is the same room where Neo is killed by Agent Smith and resurrected as the One; the building in which Neo meets Morpheus for the first time is the place in which the group later appears before meeting the Oracle; and the room in which Neo takes the pill is the same room in which Mouse dies.
*The rooftop set that Trinity uses to escape from Agent Jones is one left over from the production of
Dark City.
*One of the very last wide releases of a film on
laserdisc. It sold out and was never re-issued.
*According to
The Art of the Matrix, only one filmed scene was omitted from the final cut. In the scene, Cypher explains to Neo that he is not the first person Morpheus has singled out as the One.
*In 1993,
Carrie-Anne Moss appeared in a short-lived
science fiction television series called
Matrix.
["IMDB entry for the TV show called Matrix starring Carrie-Anne Moss"]*In the beginning of the movie Neo's room number is 101, a clear reference to
George Orwell's
dystopian novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which room 101 is where people are taken to be tortured with whatever their greatest fear is, and effectively brainwashed.
*In an elevator scene with Neo and Morpheus, costume designer Kym Barrett's first name can be seen etched into the wall of the elevator car as graffitti.
*While running from the three Agents and contacting Tank, Neo says "Mr. Wizard! Get me the hell out of here!" a reference to the popular catchphrase of Tooter Turtle from the cartoon series
King Leonardo and his Short Subjects.
*Scenes depicting giant rabbits, briefly visible on the television in the Oracle's apartment the first time Neo goes to visit her, are from
Night of the Lepus.
*The first phone call from the Matrix between Cypher and Trinity is shown as:
Call trans opt: received. 2-19-98 13:24:18 REC:Log >, and Neo's final call from The Matrix at the end of the movie is:
Call trans opt: received 9-18-99 14:32:21 REC:Log >, which is approximately 576 days of Matrix time.
* Towards the beginning of the film, Neo hears the knock at the door in his apartment in the Matrix he goes to get a disk for the person at the door. The disk is
hidden in a book with a hole cut into it. The book is
Simulacra and Simulation by the French Philosopher
Jean Baudrillard. This book was required reading for most of the principal cast and crew involved in the film.
*Towards the end of the film, just after escaping from the subway, Neo steals a phone from a man in a suit. The man then starts yelling, "That's my phone." As Neo runs away, the man is in the background pointing in Neo's direction, though now it is clearly agent Smith and not the man, as the suit is Smith's and the haircut is different. Just after this the man transforms into Smith.
*
The Matrix series*
The Matrix Reloaded*
The Matrix Revolutions*
The Animatrix*
The Matrix Revisited*
Official website*http://www.dictionary-of-matrix.com/ - Matrix Wiki
*
The Matrix multiple scripts by Andy & Larry Wachowski*
Complete list of actors who were considered for rolesArticles and books
*Stacy Gillis (Editor),
The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded, Wallflower, 2005. ISBN 1904764320
*
The Many Meanings of The Matrix,
Larry Wachowski in a dialogue with
Ken Wilber. This costs $10.00 to stream or download.
*
The Matrix: A Christian Review*
Dark City and The Matrix - A Spanish site that compares the similarities between
The Matrix and
Dark City, a film directed by
Alex Proyas and released a year earlier that used the same sets.
*
Unplugging The Matrix, an article on
Slate.
*
Technology - The Shadow of the Matrix*
- Essays on Reloaded and Revolutions*
Matthew Kapell and
William G. Doty have edited a volume on the entire franchise entitled
Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation (NY: Continuum 2004).
*
The Rebel Sell (
2004) a nonfiction criticism by
Canadian authors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, of '
counter-culture' is highly critical of The Matrix movies' philosophical underpinnings as being essentially individualistic and only artificially in opposition to our
capitalist paradigm.
*
Synchronistic Linguistics in The MatrixReligion/philosophy/theory of The Matrix
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Philosophy of The Matrix (official Warner Brothers Site, mentioned previously)
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Idealism, the Philosophy of the Matrix, and the True Nature of Matter by
Harun Yahya*
Man as the World-Builder, one of many philosophical articles inspired by the movie
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Possible Connections with Judaism History*
The Matrix and issues in modern philosophy*
The Matrix in Advaita Vedanta*
The Matrix in Fusion Anomaly*
Network Forensics Evasion: How to Exit the Matrix*
The Shadow of the Matrix*
"Matrix - a modern parable" Two books on gnosticism in the Matrix (IT)
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Which pill would you take, the red or the blue?
