The Matrix: Difference between revisions
No edit summary Tags: Reverted Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
GreenC bot (talk | contribs) Move 1 url. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#ew.com |
||
(26 intermediate revisions by 23 users not shown) | |||
Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}} |
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}} |
||
{{Infobox film |
{{Infobox film |
||
| name = The |
| name = The Matrix |
||
| image = The Matrix Poster.jpg |
| image = The Matrix Poster.jpg |
||
| alt = The characters of the film (Cypher, Morpheus, Thomas Anderson/Neo, and Trinity) in an alleyway holding guns and weapons, with bullets on the ground. Lines of computer code (known as digital rain) can be seen scattered around the poster. The tagline on the bottom reads "ON APRIL 2ND THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE BEGINS." |
| alt = The characters of the film (Cypher, Morpheus, Thomas Anderson/Neo, and Trinity) in an alleyway holding guns and weapons, with bullets on the ground. Lines of computer code (known as digital rain) can be seen scattered around the poster. The tagline on the bottom reads "ON APRIL 2ND THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE BEGINS." |
||
Line 34: | Line 34: | ||
| runtime = 136 minutes<!--Theatrical runtime: 136:00 + 0:10 (136:10)--><ref>{{cite web |title=The Matrix |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/matrix-1970-3 |access-date=May 12, 2013 |website=[[British Board of Film Classification]] |archive-date=August 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130815002730/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/matrix-1970-3 |url-status=live }}</ref> |
| runtime = 136 minutes<!--Theatrical runtime: 136:00 + 0:10 (136:10)--><ref>{{cite web |title=The Matrix |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/matrix-1970-3 |access-date=May 12, 2013 |website=[[British Board of Film Classification]] |archive-date=August 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130815002730/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/matrix-1970-3 |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
| country = {{ubl|United States<ref name="Lumiere">{{cite web |title=Film: The Matrix |url=http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/film_info/?id=12005 |access-date=March 21, 2017 |website=[[Lumiere (database)|Lumiere]] |archive-date=June 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624104815/http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/film_info/?id=12005 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="AFI">{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/61230|title=The Matrix|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|access-date=June 22, 2021|archive-date=June 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612074726/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/61230|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BFI">{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81295544|title=The Matrix|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|access-date=June 22, 2021|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203352/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81295544|url-status=dead}}</ref>| |
| country = {{ubl|United States<ref name="Lumiere">{{cite web |title=Film: The Matrix |url=http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/film_info/?id=12005 |access-date=March 21, 2017 |website=[[Lumiere (database)|Lumiere]] |archive-date=June 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624104815/http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/film_info/?id=12005 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="AFI">{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/61230|title=The Matrix|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|access-date=June 22, 2021|archive-date=June 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612074726/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/61230|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BFI">{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81295544|title=The Matrix|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|access-date=June 22, 2021|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203352/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81295544|url-status=dead}}</ref>| |
||
Australia<ref name="Lumiere" |
Australia<ref name="Lumiere"/><ref name="AFI"/><ref name="BFI"/>}} |
||
| language = English |
| language = English |
||
| budget = $63 million<ref name="Mojo">{{cite web |title=''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0133093/ |access-date=December 19, 2021 |website=[[Box Office Mojo]] |publisher=[[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] |archive-date=May 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527135737/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0133093/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
| budget = $63 million<ref name="Mojo">{{cite web |title=''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0133093/ |access-date=December 19, 2021 |website=[[Box Office Mojo]] |publisher=[[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] |archive-date=May 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527135737/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0133093/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
| gross = $467. |
| gross = $467.6 million<ref name="Mojo"/> |
||
}} |
}} |
||
'''''The Matrix''''' is a 1999 [[science fiction film|science fiction]] [[action film]]<!--as per AFI, Box office mojo, AllMovie and all leading sources--><ref name="Mojo" |
'''''The Matrix''''' is a 1999 [[science fiction film|science fiction]] [[action film]]<!--as per AFI, Box office mojo, AllMovie and all leading sources--><ref name="Mojo"/><ref>{{cite web |title=The Matrix laid the template for the gritty, gravity-defying, self-seriously cerebral modern blockbuster |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/the-matrix-laid-the-template-for-the-modern-blockbuster.html |website=[[Vulture.com]] |date=February 4, 2019 |access-date=May 17, 2019 |archive-date=December 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220094745/https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/the-matrix-laid-the-template-for-the-modern-blockbuster.html |url-status=live }}</ref> written and directed by [[the Wachowskis]].<!--Do not change without consensus. See [[Talk:The Matrix (franchise)#Request for Comment – Crediting The Wachowskis]]. -->{{efn|name=Credited|}} It is the first installment in the [[The Matrix (franchise)|''Matrix'' film series]], starring [[Keanu Reeves]], [[Laurence Fishburne]], [[Carrie-Anne Moss]], [[Hugo Weaving]] and [[Joe Pantoliano]], and depicts a [[dystopia]]n future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a [[simulated reality]] that [[artificial intelligence|intelligent machines]] have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source.<ref name="Jamie Allen">{{cite web |last=Allen |first=Jamie |date=November 28, 2012 |title=The Matrix and Postmodernism |url=https://prezi.com/ybxwvr21r9lz/the-matrix-and-postmodernism/ |website=Prezi.com |access-date=April 15, 2019 |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221063150/https://prezi.com/ybxwvr21r9lz/the-matrix-and-postmodernism/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the [[Security hacker|hacker]] alias "[[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo]]", uncovers the truth, he joins a rebellion against the machines along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix. |
||
''The Matrix'' is an example of the [[cyberpunk]] [[subgenre]] of science fiction.<ref name="williamgibson" |
''The Matrix'' is an example of the [[cyberpunk]] [[subgenre]] of science fiction.<ref name="williamgibson"/> The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes was influenced by [[anime]]<ref name="Wachowski transcript"/> and [[martial arts film]]s (particularly [[Fight choreography|fight choreographers]] and [[wire fu]] techniques from [[Hong Kong action cinema]]); other influences include [[Allegory of the cave|Plato's cave]] and 1990s [[Telnet]] hacker communities. The film popularized terms such as the [[red pill]], and introduced a visual effect known as "[[bullet time]]", in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a [[Shot (filmmaking)|shot]] to progress in [[slow motion]] while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed, allowing the sped-up movements of certain characters to be perceived normally. |
||
''The Matrix'' opened in theaters in the United States on March 31, 1999, to widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its innovative visual effects, action sequences, cinematography and entertainment value.<ref name="RottenTomatoes">{{cite web |title=''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/matrix/ |access-date=July 5, 2019 |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media|Fandango]] |archive-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627023909/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/matrix/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="meta">{{cite web |title=''The Matrix'' (1999): Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-matrix |access-date=July 11, 2008 |website=[[Metacritic]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |archive-date=April 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414184459/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-matrix |url-status=live }}</ref> The film was a box office success, grossing over $460 million on a $63 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the [[1999 in film|fourth |
''The Matrix'' opened in theaters in the United States on March 31, 1999, to widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its innovative visual effects, action sequences, cinematography and entertainment value.<ref name="RottenTomatoes">{{cite web |title=''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/matrix/ |access-date=July 5, 2019 |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media|Fandango]] |archive-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627023909/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/matrix/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="meta">{{cite web |title=''The Matrix'' (1999): Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-matrix |access-date=July 11, 2008 |website=[[Metacritic]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |archive-date=April 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414184459/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-matrix |url-status=live }}</ref> The film was a box office success, grossing over $460 million on a $63 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the [[1999 in film|fourth-highest-grossing film of that year]]. The film received nominations at the [[72nd Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]], [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]], [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound]] and [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound Editing]], winning all four categories. The film was also the recipient of numerous other accolades, including [[BAFTA Award for Best Sound|Best Sound]] and [[BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects|Best Special Visual Effects]] at the [[53rd British Academy Film Awards]], and the Wachowskis were awarded [[Saturn Award for Best Director|Best Director]] and [[Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film|Best Science Fiction Film]] at the [[26th Saturn Awards]]. ''The Matrix'' is considered to be among the greatest science fiction films of all time,<ref name="heritage1">{{Cite news |last=Heritage |first=Stuart |date=October 21, 2010 |title=The Matrix: No 13 best sci-fi and fantasy film of all time |work=Guardian.co.uk |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/matrix-wachowskis-science-fiction |access-date=December 13, 2016 |archive-date=October 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009062236/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/matrix-wachowskis-science-fiction |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web |title=Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/11/15/top-25-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time |access-date=January 29, 2012 |website=IGN |archive-date=April 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414142253/https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/11/15/top-25-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Genre's Best"/><!--<ref name="Entertainment Weekly"/>--> and in 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."<ref name="NFR"/> |
||
The film's success led to two feature film sequels being released in 2003, ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'', which were also written and directed by the Wachowskis. The ''Matrix'' franchise was further expanded through the production of comic books, video games |
The film's success led to two feature film sequels being released in 2003, ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'', which were also written and directed by the Wachowskis. The ''Matrix'' franchise was further expanded through the production of comic books, video games and an animated [[anthology film]], ''[[The Animatrix]]'', with which the Wachowskis were heavily involved. The franchise has also inspired books and theories expanding on some of the religious and philosophical ideas alluded to in the films. A fourth film, titled ''[[The Matrix Resurrections]]'', was released on December 22, 2021. |
||
== Plot == |
== Plot == |
||
Line 53: | Line 53: | ||
[[Programmer|Computer programmer]] Thomas Anderson, known by his [[Security hacker|hacking]] [[Alter ego|alias]] "[[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo]]", is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase "the Matrix". Trinity contacts him and tells him a man named [[Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus]] has the answers Neo seeks. A team of Agents and police, led by [[Agent Smith]], arrives at Neo's workplace in search of him. Though Morpheus attempts to guide Neo to safety, Neo surrenders rather than risk a dangerous escape. The Agents offer to erase Neo's criminal record in exchange for his help with locating Morpheus, who they claim is a terrorist. When Neo refuses to cooperate, they fuse his mouth shut, pin him down, and implant a robotic "bug" in his abdomen. Neo wakes up from what he believes to be a nightmare. Soon after, Neo is taken by Trinity to meet Morpheus, and she removes the bug from Neo. |
[[Programmer|Computer programmer]] Thomas Anderson, known by his [[Security hacker|hacking]] [[Alter ego|alias]] "[[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo]]", is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase "the Matrix". Trinity contacts him and tells him a man named [[Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus]] has the answers Neo seeks. A team of Agents and police, led by [[Agent Smith]], arrives at Neo's workplace in search of him. Though Morpheus attempts to guide Neo to safety, Neo surrenders rather than risk a dangerous escape. The Agents offer to erase Neo's criminal record in exchange for his help with locating Morpheus, who they claim is a terrorist. When Neo refuses to cooperate, they fuse his mouth shut, pin him down, and implant a robotic "bug" in his abdomen. Neo wakes up from what he believes to be a nightmare. Soon after, Neo is taken by Trinity to meet Morpheus, and she removes the bug from Neo. |
||
Morpheus offers Neo [[red pill and blue pill|a choice between two pills]]: red to reveal the truth about the Matrix, or blue to make Neo forget everything and return to his former life. Neo takes the red pill, and his reality begins to distort |
Morpheus offers Neo [[red pill and blue pill|a choice between two pills]]: red to reveal the truth about the Matrix, or blue to make Neo forget everything and return to his former life. Neo takes the red pill, and his reality begins to distort until he awakes in a liquid-filled pod among countless other pods, containing other humans. He is then brought aboard Morpheus's flying ship, the ''[[Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)|Nebuchadnezzar]]''. As Neo recuperates from a lifetime of physical inactivity in the pod, Morpheus explains the history: in the early 21st century, humanity had developed [[artificial intelligence|intelligent machines]] before war broke out between two sides. After humans blocked the machines' access to solar energy, the machines responded by enslaving humankind and harvesting their [[Bioelectricity|bioelectric]] power while keeping their minds pacified in the Matrix, a shared [[simulated reality]] modeled on the world as it was in 1999. In the years following, the remaining free humans took refuge in the underground city of [[Zion (The Matrix)|Zion]]. |
||
Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to "unplug" enslaved humans and recruit them; their understanding of the Matrix's simulated nature allows them to bend its physical laws. Morpheus warns Neo that death within the Matrix kills the physical body too and explains that the Agents are sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system, while machines called Sentinels eliminate rebels in the real world. Neo's prowess during virtual training cements Morpheus's belief that Neo is "the One", a human prophesied to free humankind. The group enters the Matrix to visit [[The Oracle (The Matrix)|the Oracle]], a prophet-like program who predicted that the One would emerge. She implies to Neo that he is not the One and warns that he will have to choose between Morpheus's life and his own. Before they can leave the Matrix, Agents and police ambush the group, tipped off by Cypher, a disgruntled crew member who has betrayed Morpheus in exchange for a deal to be plugged back into the Matrix to live a comfortable life. |
Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to "unplug" enslaved humans and recruit them; their understanding of the Matrix's simulated nature allows them to bend its physical laws. Morpheus warns Neo that death within the Matrix kills the physical body too and explains that the Agents are sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system, while machines called Sentinels eliminate rebels in the real world. Neo's prowess during virtual training cements Morpheus's belief that Neo is "the One", a human prophesied to free humankind. The group enters the Matrix to visit [[The Oracle (The Matrix)|the Oracle]], a prophet-like program who predicted that the One would emerge. She implies to Neo that he is not the One and warns that he will have to choose between Morpheus's life and his own. Before they can leave the Matrix, Agents and police ambush the group, tipped off by Cypher, a disgruntled crew member who has betrayed Morpheus in exchange for a deal to be plugged back into the Matrix to live a comfortable life. |
||
Line 59: | Line 59: | ||
To buy time for the others, Morpheus fights Smith and is captured. Cypher exits the Matrix and murders the other crew members as they lie unconscious. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills him before pulling Neo and Trinity from the Matrix. The Agents interrogate Morpheus to learn his access codes to the [[mainframe computer]] in Zion, which would allow them to destroy it. Neo resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus, as the Oracle prophesied; Trinity insists she accompany him. While rescuing Morpheus, Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats comparable to those of the Agents. |
To buy time for the others, Morpheus fights Smith and is captured. Cypher exits the Matrix and murders the other crew members as they lie unconscious. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills him before pulling Neo and Trinity from the Matrix. The Agents interrogate Morpheus to learn his access codes to the [[mainframe computer]] in Zion, which would allow them to destroy it. Neo resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus, as the Oracle prophesied; Trinity insists she accompany him. While rescuing Morpheus, Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats comparable to those of the Agents. |
||
After Morpheus and Trinity safely exit the Matrix, Smith ambushes and appears to kill Neo. While a group of Sentinels attack the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', Trinity confesses her love for Neo and says the Oracle told her she would fall in love with the One. Neo is revived, with newfound abilities to perceive and control the Matrix; he easily defeats Smith, prompting the other Agents to flee and he leaves the Matrix just as the ship's [[electromagnetic pulse]] disables the Sentinels. Back in the Matrix, Neo makes a telephone call, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible |
After Morpheus and Trinity safely exit the Matrix, Smith ambushes and appears to kill Neo. While a group of Sentinels attack the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', Trinity confesses her love for Neo and says the Oracle told her she would fall in love with the One. Neo is revived, with newfound abilities to perceive and control the Matrix; he easily defeats Smith, prompting the other Agents to flee and he leaves the Matrix just as the ship's [[electromagnetic pulse]] disables the Sentinels. Back in the Matrix, Neo makes a telephone call, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible", before he hangs up and flies away. |
||
== Cast == |
== Cast == |
||
{{ |
{{Also see|List of Matrix series characters}} |
||
*[[Keanu Reeves]] as [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo]]: A computer programmer, born Thomas A. Anderson, who secretly operates as a hacker named Neo. Reeves described his character as someone who felt that something was wrong, and was searching for Morpheus and the truth to break free.<ref name="Screenplay">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Screenplay |medium=DVD}}</ref> [[Will Smith]] turned down the role of Neo to make ''[[Wild Wild West]]'', because of skepticism over the film's ambitious bullet time special effects.<ref name="empire will smith">{{Cite magazine |last=Lawrence |first=Will |date=February 2007 |title=The Empire Interview: In conversation with Will Smith |magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] |publisher=[[Emap]] |issue=212 |page=109 |quote=Honestly, I didn't think they could do it, it was too ambitious. I saw ''Bound'' and I loved it. ''The Matrix'' is exactly what they pitched, but they were designing those cameras to get those freeze-frames, and I was like, "If that doesn't work, the movie looks ridiculous." I didn't feel comfortable with the level of importance placed on that effect working properly. ... That's probably the only one that I turned down that I shouldn't have, but when you see somebody do it like Keanu you think, "Thank God." I don't think I was mature enough as an actor at that point to get out of the way and just let it be and allow the directors to make the movie. I would have been trying to make jokes. Now I would have loved to take a shot and see what I would have done with it and I know now I could absolutely have been mature enough to get out the way. But back then I don't think I was.}}</ref> He later stated he was "not mature enough as an actor" at that time,<ref name="empire will smith" |
*[[Keanu Reeves]] as [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo]]: A computer programmer, born Thomas A. Anderson, who secretly operates as a hacker named Neo. Reeves described his character as someone who felt that something was wrong, and was searching for Morpheus and the truth to break free.<ref name="Screenplay">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Screenplay |medium=DVD}}</ref> [[Will Smith]] turned down the role of Neo to make ''[[Wild Wild West]]'', because of skepticism over the film's ambitious bullet time special effects.<ref name="empire will smith">{{Cite magazine |last=Lawrence |first=Will |date=February 2007 |title=The Empire Interview: In conversation with Will Smith |magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] |publisher=[[Emap]] |issue=212 |page=109 |quote=Honestly, I didn't think they could do it, it was too ambitious. I saw ''Bound'' and I loved it. ''The Matrix'' is exactly what they pitched, but they were designing those cameras to get those freeze-frames, and I was like, "If that doesn't work, the movie looks ridiculous." I didn't feel comfortable with the level of importance placed on that effect working properly. ... That's probably the only one that I turned down that I shouldn't have, but when you see somebody do it like Keanu you think, "Thank God." I don't think I was mature enough as an actor at that point to get out of the way and just let it be and allow the directors to make the movie. I would have been trying to make jokes. Now I would have loved to take a shot and see what I would have done with it and I know now I could absolutely have been mature enough to get out the way. But back then I don't think I was.}}</ref> He later stated he was "not mature enough as an actor" at that time,<ref name="empire will smith"/> and that if given the role, he "would have messed it up".<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Hillner |first=Jennifer |date=July 2004 |title=I, Robocop |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/smith_pr.html |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=March 11, 2017 |archive-date=March 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320180752/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/smith_pr.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Riggs |first=Ransom |date=October 20, 2008 |title=5 million-dollar mistakes by movie stars |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/20/mf.rejected.movies/index.html?iref=mpstoryview |access-date=January 4, 2013 |publisher=CNN |archive-date=December 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223155323/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/20/mf.rejected.movies/index.html?iref=mpstoryview |url-status=live }}</ref> Smith praised Reeves for his portrayal.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/will-smith-reveals-he-turned-down-the-matrix-and-h/1100-6465037/ |title=Will Smith Reveals He Turned Down the Matrix, and Here's Why |work=Gamespot |last=Makuch |first=Eddie |date=February 14, 2019 |access-date=April 11, 2022 |archive-date=April 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411033642/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/will-smith-reveals-he-turned-down-the-matrix-and-h/1100-6465037/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Nicolas Cage]] also turned down the part because of "family obligations".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Larry |date=December 7, 2007 |title=Will Smith Snagged 'I Am Legend' From Schwarzenegger, But Can You Imagine Nicolas Cage In 'The Matrix'? |publisher=MTV |url=http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1576048/20071207/story.jhtml |access-date=December 8, 2007 |archive-date=December 11, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211004920/http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1576048/20071207/story.jhtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> Warner Bros. sought [[Brad Pitt]] or [[Val Kilmer]] for the role.<ref name="Davis-interview"/> When both declined, [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] initially accepted the role, but ultimately turned it down because he did not want to do a visual effects film directly after ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]''.<ref name="Cast-Bullock-DiCaprio"/> The studio pushed for Reeves, who won the role over [[Johnny Depp]], the Wachowskis' first choice.<ref name="Davis-interview">{{cite web |last=Redpill |date=July 2000 |title=Don Davis – Composer |url=http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/rl_interview_don_davis.html |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040422173208fw_/http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/rl_interview_don_davis.html |archive-date=April 22, 2004 |access-date=September 9, 2021 |website=whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com |quote=As far as casting goes, Keanu Reeves wasn't Larry and Andy's first choice, Johnny Depp was their first choice for Neo. Warner Bros. was going for this thing where they didn't want Johnny Depp, they wanted Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. They told Larry and Andy if Brad Pitt would do the picture, they'd green light it right then. After Kilmer and Brad Pitt said no, Warner Bros. was willing to consider Johnny Depp, so it sort of came down to between Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, who Warner Bros. was pushing. Keanu was always really tuned in to the concept and that made a big difference for Larry and Andy. I think it was a brilliant choice. Gary Oldman was considered as Morpheus at one point, and Samuel Jackson as well. For Trinity, I think they were generally looking at lesser known names for that character.}}</ref> [[Lorenzo di Bonaventura]] stated that the screenplay was also sent to [[Sandra Bullock]], with the suggestion of rewriting Neo as a female.<ref name="Cast-Bullock-DiCaprio">{{cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/the-matrix-filmmakers-wanted-sandra-bullock-as-neo-before-keanu-reeves-took-the-role/|title='The Matrix' Wanted Sandra Bullock as Neo Before Keanu Reeves Took the Role|last=Williams|first=Trey|date=March 26, 2019|accessdate=September 9, 2021|website=[[TheWrap]]|quote="We went to Sandy Bullock and said 'We'll change Neo to a girl.' [Producer] Joel Silver and I worked with Sandy on 'Demolition Man' and she was and continues to be a very good friend of mine. It was pretty simple. We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it. And if she was interested in it we would try to make the change."..."The first movie star who says yes is Brad Pitt, he’s doing 'Seven Years in Tibet' and then he’s coming out of it and he’s like 'I'm way too exhausted to take this on,' so he's gone," di Bonaventura said. "Then we go to Leonardo [DiCaprio]. He says yes, we have meetings with him and then he goes, 'You know, I can't go do another visual effects movie having just finished 'Titanic,' and he drops out. Then Will Smith joins it and he drops out."|archive-date=August 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819005711/https://www.thewrap.com/the-matrix-filmmakers-wanted-sandra-bullock-as-neo-before-keanu-reeves-took-the-role/|url-status=live}}</ref> |
||
*[[Laurence Fishburne]] as [[Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus]]: A human freed from the Matrix and captain of the ''Nebuchadnezzar''. Fishburne stated that once he read the script, he did not understand why other people found it confusing. However, he doubted if the movie would ever be made, because it was "so smart".<ref name="Screenplay" |
*[[Laurence Fishburne]] as [[Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus]]: A human freed from the Matrix and captain of the ''Nebuchadnezzar''. Fishburne stated that once he read the script, he did not understand why other people found it confusing. However, he doubted if the movie would ever be made, because it was "so smart".<ref name="Screenplay"/> The Wachowskis instructed Fishburne to base his performance on the character [[Dream (comics)|Morpheus]] in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[The Sandman (comic book)|Sandman]]'' comics.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gaiman |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Gaiman |date=June 10, 2003 |title=Neil Gaiman's Journal: You must be this tall to ride this website... |url=http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2003/06/you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride-this.asp |access-date=December 30, 2012 |website=neilgaiman.com |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213152958/http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2003/06/you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride-this.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Gary Oldman]], [[Samuel L. Jackson]] and [[Val Kilmer]] were also considered for the part.<ref name="Davis-interview"/> |
||
*[[Carrie-Anne Moss]] as [[Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity]]: A human freed by Morpheus, a crewmember of the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', and later Neo's romantic interest. After reading the script, Moss stated that at first, she did not believe she had to do the extreme acrobatic actions as described in the script. She also doubted how the Wachowskis would get to direct a movie with a budget so large, but after spending an hour with them going through the storyboard, she understood why some people would trust them.<ref name="Screenplay" |
*[[Carrie-Anne Moss]] as [[Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity]]: A human freed by Morpheus, a crewmember of the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', and later Neo's romantic interest. After reading the script, Moss stated that at first, she did not believe she had to do the extreme acrobatic actions as described in the script. She also doubted how the Wachowskis would get to direct a movie with a budget so large, but after spending an hour with them going through the storyboard, she understood why some people would trust them.<ref name="Screenplay"/> Moss mentioned that she underwent a three-hour physical test during casting, so she knew what to expect subsequently.<ref name="Training">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Training |medium=DVD}}</ref> The role made Moss, who later said, "I had no career before. None."<ref name="Influence EW2"/> [[Janet Jackson]] was initially approached for the role but scheduling conflicts prevented her from accepting it.<ref name="janet">Wonderland Magazine, February 2010, page 148</ref><ref name="janet2">{{cite web |date=February 2, 2010 |title=Janet Jackson: 'I was in Matrix talks' |website=[[Digital Spy]] |url=http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a200856/janet-jackson-i-was-in-matrix-talks.html |access-date=September 20, 2013 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923230443/http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a200856/janet-jackson-i-was-in-matrix-talks.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In an interview, she stated that turning down the role was difficult for her, so she later referenced ''The Matrix'' in the 'Intro' and 'Outro' interludes on her tenth studio album ''[[Discipline (Janet Jackson album)|Discipline]]''.<ref name="janet1">{{cite web |date=February 28, 2008 |title=The Janet Jackson Interview – The Daily Voice |url=http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/02/the-janet-jackson-interview-000258.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041454/http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/02/the-janet-jackson-interview-000258.php |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |access-date=September 20, 2013}}</ref> [[Sandra Bullock]], who was previously approached for the role of Neo, was also offered the role of Trinity, but she turned it down.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/america-asks-sandra-bullock-answers-wbna29125424|title=America asks, Sandra Bullock answers|date=February 10, 2009 |access-date=January 14, 2022|archive-date=January 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114165020/https://www.today.com/popculture/america-asks-sandra-bullock-answers-wbna29125424|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Rosie Perez]], [[Salma Hayek]] and [[Jada Pinkett Smith]] (who would later play [[Niobe (The Matrix)|Niobe]] in the sequels) auditioned for the role.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Nolfi |first1=Joey |last2=Lenker |first2=Maureen Lee |title=Salma Hayek recalls bombing her athletic audition for 'The Matrix': 'I'm lazy!' |url=https://ew.com/movies/salma-hayek-recalls-bombing-matrix-audition/ |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=October 17, 2021 |date=June 22, 2021 |archive-date=October 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028081132/https://ew.com/movies/salma-hayek-recalls-bombing-matrix-audition/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/story/the-matrix-legacy-book-excerpt/ |title=How The Matrix Built a Bullet-Proof Legacy |magazine=Wired |date=March 29, 2019 |access-date=December 6, 2022 |archive-date=March 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312024920/https://www.wired.com/story/the-matrix-legacy-book-excerpt/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/rosie-perez-spike-lee-matrix-audition-1235566016/ | title=Rosie Perez on Making Peace with Spike Lee, Bombing Her 'Matrix' Audition and Why Hollywood's Latino Representation Still 'Sucks' | date=March 29, 2023 | access-date=March 31, 2023 | archive-date=March 31, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331125542/https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/rosie-perez-spike-lee-matrix-audition-1235566016/ | url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
*[[Hugo Weaving]] as [[Agent Smith]]: A sentient "Agent" program of the Matrix whose purpose is to destroy Zion and stop humans from getting out of the Matrix. Unlike other Agents, he has ambitions to free himself from his duties. Weaving stated that he found the character amusing and enjoyable to play. He developed a neutral accent but with more specific character for the role. He wanted Smith to sound neither robotic nor human, and also said that the Wachowskis' voices had influenced his voice in the film. When filming began, Weaving mentioned that he was excited to be a part of something that would extend him.<ref name="Interrogation Room">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Interrogation Room |medium=DVD}}</ref> [[Jean Reno]] was offered the role, but declined, unwilling to move to [[Australia]] for the production.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=WENN |date=May 12, 2006 |title=Reno Said No To ''The Matrix'' |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/reno-said-no-to-the-matrix_12_05_2006 |magazine=[[Contactmusic.com]] |access-date=August 15, 2013 |archive-date=December 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214051123/http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/reno-said-no-to-the-matrix_12_05_2006 |url-status=live }}</ref> |
*[[Hugo Weaving]] as [[Agent Smith]]: A sentient "Agent" program of the Matrix whose purpose is to destroy Zion and stop humans from getting out of the Matrix. Unlike other Agents, he has ambitions to free himself from his duties. Weaving stated that he found the character amusing and enjoyable to play. He developed a neutral accent but with more specific character for the role. He wanted Smith to sound neither robotic nor human, and also said that the Wachowskis' voices had influenced his voice in the film. When filming began, Weaving mentioned that he was excited to be a part of something that would extend him.<ref name="Interrogation Room">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Interrogation Room |medium=DVD}}</ref> [[Jean Reno]] was offered the role, but declined, unwilling to move to [[Australia]] for the production.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=WENN |date=May 12, 2006 |title=Reno Said No To ''The Matrix'' |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/reno-said-no-to-the-matrix_12_05_2006 |magazine=[[Contactmusic.com]] |access-date=August 15, 2013 |archive-date=December 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214051123/http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/reno-said-no-to-the-matrix_12_05_2006 |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
*[[Joe Pantoliano]] as Cypher: Another human freed by Morpheus, and a crewmember of the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', but one who regrets taking the red pill and seeks to be returned to the Matrix, later betraying the rebels to Agent Smith. Pantoliano had worked with the Wachowskis prior to appearing in ''The Matrix'', starring in their 1996 film ''[[Bound (1996 film)|Bound]]''. |
*[[Joe Pantoliano]] as Cypher: Another human freed by Morpheus, and a crewmember of the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', but one who regrets taking the red pill and seeks to be returned to the Matrix, later betraying the rebels to Agent Smith. Pantoliano had worked with the Wachowskis prior to appearing in ''The Matrix'', starring in their 1996 film ''[[Bound (1996 film)|Bound]]''. |
||
Line 82: | Line 82: | ||
=== Development === |
=== Development === |
||
In 1994, the Wachowskis presented the script for the film ''[[Assassins (1995 film)|Assassins]]'' to [[Warner Bros. Pictures]]. After [[Lorenzo di Bonaventura]], the president of production of the company at the time, read the script, he decided to buy rights to it and included two more pictures, ''[[Bound (1996 film)|Bound]]'' and ''The Matrix'', in the contract. The first movie the Wachowskis directed, ''Bound'', then became a critical success. Using this momentum, they later asked to direct ''The Matrix''.<ref name="Influence Screened" |
In 1994, the Wachowskis presented the script for the film ''[[Assassins (1995 film)|Assassins]]'' to [[Warner Bros. Pictures]]. After [[Lorenzo di Bonaventura]], the president of production of the company at the time, read the script, he decided to buy rights to it and included two more pictures, ''[[Bound (1996 film)|Bound]]'' and ''The Matrix'', in the contract. The first movie the Wachowskis directed, ''Bound'', then became a critical success. Using this momentum, they later asked to direct ''The Matrix''.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Reeves said that the Matrix avatar would have been a "different sex than the Zion reality" in the early draft of the script, but the studio wasn't ready for that version.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ew.com/movies/the-matrix-theories-lana-wachowski-keanu-reeves-carrie-anne-moss |title=What even is 'The Matrix'? Lana Wachowski and her stars address decades of theories |last=Romano |first=Nick |website=EW.com}}</ref> |
||
In 1996, the Wachowskis pitched the role of Neo to [[Will Smith]]. Smith explained on his [[YouTube]] channel that the idea was for him to be Neo, while Morpheus was to be played by [[Val Kilmer]]. He later explained that he did not quite understand the concept and he turned down the role to instead film ''[[Wild Wild West]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title=Why I Turned Down The Matrix {{!}} STORYTIME|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2szuXKgL8|language=en|access-date=September 29, 2021|archive-date=September 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929083519/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2szuXKgL8|url-status=live}}</ref> |
In 1996, the Wachowskis pitched the role of Neo to [[Will Smith]]. Smith explained on his [[YouTube]] channel that the idea was for him to be Neo, while Morpheus was to be played by [[Val Kilmer]]. He later explained that he did not quite understand the concept and he turned down the role to instead film ''[[Wild Wild West]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title=Why I Turned Down The Matrix {{!}} STORYTIME|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2szuXKgL8|language=en|access-date=September 29, 2021|archive-date=September 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929083519/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2szuXKgL8|url-status=live}}</ref> |
||
Producer [[Joel Silver]] soon joined the project. Although the project had key supporters, including Silver and Di Bonaventura, to influence the company, ''The Matrix'' was still a huge investment for Warner Bros., which had to invest $60 million to create a movie with prominent actors and difficult special effects.<ref name="Influence Screened" |
Producer [[Joel Silver]] soon joined the project. Although the project had key supporters, including Silver and Di Bonaventura, to influence the company, ''The Matrix'' was still a huge investment for Warner Bros., which had to invest $60 million to create a movie with prominent actors and difficult special effects.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> The Wachowskis therefore hired underground comic book artists [[Geof Darrow]] and [[Steve Skroce]] to draw a 600-page, shot-by-shot storyboard for the entire film.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Miller |first=Mark |date=November 2003 |title=Matrix Revelations; The Wachowski Brothers FAQ |url=https://www.wired.com/2003/11/matrix/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120101020/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/matrix.html |archive-date=November 20, 2012 |access-date=December 4, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/the-wachowskis-jupiter-ascending-the-matrix-cloud-atlas |title=The Wachowskis Refuse To Take No For An Answer |work=BuzzFeed |last=Vary |first=Adam B. |date=February 5, 2015 |access-date=December 6, 2022 |archive-date=September 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910054233/https://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/the-wachowskis-jupiter-ascending-the-matrix-cloud-atlas |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |date=1999-04-05 |title=Brothers Unleash the Comic Book of Ideas |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/05/movies/brothers-unleash-the-comic-book-of-ideas.html |access-date=2023-09-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The storyboard eventually earned the studio's approval, and it was decided to film in Australia to make the most of the budget.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Soon, ''The Matrix'' became a co-production of Warner Bros. and [[Village Roadshow Pictures]].<ref name="Museum">{{cite web |last=Powerhouse Museum |title='The Matrix' film poster |url=http://from.ph/422513 |access-date=December 24, 2012 |publisher=Powerhouse Museum, Australia |archive-date=February 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205081603/http://from.ph/422513 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to editor [[Zach Staenberg]] on the DVD audio commentary track, the production team sent an edit of the film's first minutes (featuring Trinity's encounter with police and Agents) to Warner executives, and secured Warner's "total support of the movie" from then on.<ref>''The Matrix'' DVD Audio Commentary featuring actress Carrie Ann Moss, film editor Zach Staenberg, and visual effects supervisor John Gaeta. At time 3:30–5:11</ref> |
||
=== Pre-production === |
=== Pre-production === |
||
The cast were required to be able to understand and explain ''The Matrix''.<ref name="Influence Screened" |
The cast were required to be able to understand and explain ''The Matrix''.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> French philosopher [[Jean Baudrillard]]'s ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'' was required reading for most of the principal cast and crew.<ref name="Simulacra">{{Cite news |last=Rothstein, Edward |date=May 24, 2003 |title=Philosophers Draw on a Film Drawing on Philosophers |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/24/movies/philosophers-draw-on-a-film-drawing-on-philosophers.html |access-date=December 5, 2012 |archive-date=April 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407104440/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/24/movies/philosophers-draw-on-a-film-drawing-on-philosophers.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In early 1997, the Wachowskis had Reeves read ''Simulacra and Simulation'', [[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]]'s ''[[Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World]]'', and [[Dylan Evans]]'s ideas on [[evolutionary psychology]] even before they opened up the script,<ref name="Screenplay"/> and eventually he was able to explain all the philosophical nuances involved.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Moss commented that she had difficulty with this process.<ref name="Screenplay"/> |
||
The directors had long been admirers of [[Hong Kong action cinema]], so they decided to hire the Chinese [[fight choreography|martial arts choreographer]] and film director [[Yuen Woo-ping]] to work on fight scenes. To prepare for the [[wire fu]], the actors had to train hard for several months.<ref name="Influence Screened" |
The directors had long been admirers of [[Hong Kong action cinema]], so they decided to hire the Chinese [[fight choreography|martial arts choreographer]] and film director [[Yuen Woo-ping]] to work on fight scenes. To prepare for the [[wire fu]], the actors had to train hard for several months.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> The Wachowskis first scheduled four months for training, beginning in October 1997.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Mind-Bending Story of How 'The Matrix' Came to Be|language=en-us|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/the-matrix-legacy-book-excerpt/|access-date=March 15, 2021|issn=1059-1028|archive-date=March 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302053828/https://www.wired.com/story/the-matrix-legacy-book-excerpt/|url-status=live}}</ref> Yuen was optimistic but then began to worry when he realized how unfit the actors were.<ref name="Training"/> |
||
Yuen let their body style develop and then worked with each actor's strength. He built on Reeves's diligence, Fishburne's resilience, Weaving's precision |
Yuen let their body style develop and then worked with each actor's strength. He built on Reeves's diligence, Fishburne's resilience, Weaving's precision and Moss's feminine grace.<ref name="Training"/> Yuen designed Moss's moves to suit her deftness and lightness.<ref name="Trinity">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Trinity |medium=DVD}}</ref> Prior to the pre-production, Reeves underwent a two-level fusion of his cervical (neck) spine due to spinal cord compression from a herniated disc ("I was falling over in the shower in the morning").<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Heath |first=Chris |date=August 31, 2000 |title=The Quiet Man: The Riddle of Keanu Reeves |magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> He was still recovering by the time of pre-production, but he insisted on training, so Yuen let him practice punches and lighter moves. Reeves trained hard and even requested training on days off. However, the surgery still made him unable to kick for two out of four months of training. As a result, Reeves did not kick much in the film.<ref name="Training"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sploid.gizmodo.com/keanu-reeves-couldnt-kick-in-the-matrix-and-six-other-1681941448|title=Keanu Reeves couldn't kick in The Matrix--and six other factoids|date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212175210/https://sploid.gizmodo.com/keanu-reeves-couldnt-kick-in-the-matrix-and-six-other-1681941448 |archive-date=February 12, 2017 }}</ref> Weaving had to undergo [[Hip replacement|hip surgery]] after he sustained an injury during the training process.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> |
||
=== Filming === |
=== Filming === |
||
All but a few scenes were filmed at [[Fox Studios Australia|Fox Studios]] in Sydney, as well as in the city itself, although recognizable landmarks were not included to maintain the impression of a generic American city. The filming helped establish [[New South Wales]] as a major film production center.<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=HBO First Look: Making the Matrix |publisher=HBO |place=United States |medium=Cable TV documentary}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/the-matrix-timeline.html |title=How The Matrix Got Made |work=Vulture |last=Phipps |first=Keith |date=December 22, 2001 |access-date=February 2, 2023 |archive-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124052554/https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/the-matrix-timeline.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Filming began in March 1998 and wrapped in August 1998; [[principal photography]] took 118 days.<ref name="The Power Plant" |
All but a few scenes were filmed at [[Fox Studios Australia|Fox Studios]] in Sydney, as well as in the city itself, although recognizable landmarks were not included to maintain the impression of a generic American city. The filming helped establish [[New South Wales]] as a major film production center.<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=HBO First Look: Making the Matrix |publisher=HBO |place=United States |medium=Cable TV documentary}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/the-matrix-timeline.html |title=How The Matrix Got Made |work=Vulture |last=Phipps |first=Keith |date=December 22, 2001 |access-date=February 2, 2023 |archive-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124052554/https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/the-matrix-timeline.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Filming began in March 1998 and wrapped in August 1998; [[principal photography]] took 118 days.<ref name="The Power Plant"/> Some filming also occurred at [[Culver Studios]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Mears|first=Hadley|date=November 21, 2019|url=https://la.curbed.com/2019/11/21/20965989/culver-studios-history-amazon-studios|title=Culver Studios before Amazon|publisher=’’LA Curbed’’|accessdate=February 1, 2024}}</ref> |
||
Due to Reeves's neck injury (see above), some of the action scenes had to be rescheduled to wait for his full recovery. As a result, the filming began with scenes that did not require much physical exertion,<ref name="The Shooting Begins" |
Due to Reeves's neck injury (see above), some of the action scenes had to be rescheduled to wait for his full recovery. As a result, the filming began with scenes that did not require much physical exertion,<ref name="The Shooting Begins"/><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/movies/1999/04/09/how-matrix-made-it-big-screen/ |title=How The Matrix made it to the big screen |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |first=Rebecca |last=Ascher-Walsh |date=April 9, 1999 |access-date=February 2, 2023 |archive-date=January 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125132223/https://ew.com/movies/1999/04/09/how-matrix-made-it-big-screen/ |url-status=live }}</ref> such as the scene in Thomas Anderson's office, the interrogation room,<ref name="Interrogation Room"/> or the car ride in which Neo is taken to see the Oracle.<ref name="Car Ride to the Oracle">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Car Ride to the Oracle |medium=DVD}}</ref> Locations for these scenes included [[Martin Place, Sydney|Martin Place's]] fountain in Sydney, halfway between it and the adjacent Colonial Building, and the Colonial Building itself.<ref name="CNN location">{{cite web |last=Delaney, Colin |date=April 26, 2011 |title=5 Sydney film sites you didn't know you knew |url=http://travel.cnn.com/sydney/visit/five-famous-film-sites-sydney-053166 |access-date=December 24, 2012 |publisher=CNN |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213040238/http://travel.cnn.com/sydney/visit/five-famous-film-sites-sydney-053166 |url-status=live }}</ref> During the scene set on a government building rooftop, the team filmed extra footage of Neo dodging bullets in case the [[bullet time]] process did not work. The bullet-time fight scene was filmed on the roof of [[NortonLifeLock|Symantec]] Corporation building in Kent Street, opposite [[Sussex Street, Sydney|Sussex Street]].<ref name="Government Roof">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Government Roof |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
||
Moss performed the shots featuring Trinity at the beginning of the film and all the wire stunts herself.<ref name="Trinity" |
Moss performed the shots featuring Trinity at the beginning of the film and all the wire stunts herself.<ref name="Trinity"/> The rooftop set that Trinity uses to escape from Agent Brown early in the film was left over from the production of ''[[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]]'', which has prompted comments due to the thematic similarities of the films.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=November 6, 2005 |title=Great Movies: Dark City |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]] |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20051106%2FREVIEWS08%2F511060302%2F1023 |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=February 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205090823/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20051106%2FREVIEWS08%2F511060302%2F1023 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the rehearsal of the lobby scene, in which Trinity runs on a wall, Moss injured her leg and was ultimately unable to film the shot in one take. She stated that she was under a lot of pressure at the time and was devastated when she realized that she would be unable to do it.<ref name="Government Lobby">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Government Lobby |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
||
Fishburne later said that while being in Sydney to shoot the film, he experienced a racist vibe and that it felt like America in the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/matrix-actor-felt-racist-vibe-20030505-gdvneu.html|title=Matrix actor felt racist 'vibe'|date=May 5, 2003|website=The Age}}</ref> |
Fishburne later said that while being in Sydney to shoot the film, he experienced a racist vibe and that it felt like America in the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/matrix-actor-felt-racist-vibe-20030505-gdvneu.html|title=Matrix actor felt racist 'vibe'|date=May 5, 2003|website=The Age}}</ref> |
||
Line 106: | Line 106: | ||
The [[Dōjō|dojo]] set was built well before the actual filming. During the filming of these action sequences, there was significant physical contact between the actors, earning them bruises. Reeves's injury and his insufficient training with wires prior to filming meant he was unable to perform the triple kicks satisfactorily and became frustrated with himself, causing the scene to be postponed. The scene was shot successfully a few days later, with Reeves using only three takes. Yuen altered the choreography and made the actors pull their punches in the last sequence of the scene, creating a training feel.<ref name="Construct Kung Fu">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Construct Kung Fu |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
The [[Dōjō|dojo]] set was built well before the actual filming. During the filming of these action sequences, there was significant physical contact between the actors, earning them bruises. Reeves's injury and his insufficient training with wires prior to filming meant he was unable to perform the triple kicks satisfactorily and became frustrated with himself, causing the scene to be postponed. The scene was shot successfully a few days later, with Reeves using only three takes. Yuen altered the choreography and made the actors pull their punches in the last sequence of the scene, creating a training feel.<ref name="Construct Kung Fu">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Construct Kung Fu |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
||
The filmmakers originally planned to shoot the subway scene in an actual [[Metro station|subway station]], but the complexity of the fight and related wire work required shooting the scene on a set. The set was built around an existing train storage facility, which had real train tracks. Filming the scene when Neo slammed Smith into the ceiling, [[Chad Stahelski]], Reeves's stunt double, sustained several injuries, including [[Rib fracture|broken ribs]], knees |
The filmmakers originally planned to shoot the subway scene in an actual [[Metro station|subway station]], but the complexity of the fight and related wire work required shooting the scene on a set. The set was built around an existing train storage facility, which had real train tracks. Filming the scene when Neo slammed Smith into the ceiling, [[Chad Stahelski]], Reeves's stunt double, sustained several injuries, including [[Rib fracture|broken ribs]], knees and a [[dislocated shoulder]]. Another stuntman was injured by a hydraulic puller during a shot in which Neo was slammed into a booth.<ref name="El Fighting">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=El Fighting |medium=DVD}}</ref> The office building in which Smith interrogated Morpheus was a large set, and the outside view from inside the building was a large, three story high [[cyclorama]]. The helicopter was a full-scale, light-weight mock-up suspended by a wire rope operated a tilting mechanism mounted to the studio roofbeams. The helicopter had a real minigun side-mounted to it, which was set to cycle at half its regular (3,000 rounds per minute) firing rate.<ref name="Helicopter Rescue">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Helicopter Rescue |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
||
To prepare for the scene in which Neo wakes up in a pod, Reeves lost 15 |
To prepare for the scene in which Neo wakes up in a pod, Reeves lost {{Convert|15|lb|0}} and shaved his whole body to give Neo an emaciated look. The scene in which Neo fell into the sewer system concluded the principal photography.<ref name="The Power Plant"/> According to ''The Art of the Matrix'', at least one filmed scene and a variety of short pieces of action were omitted from the final cut of the film.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wachowski |first1=Larry |title=The Art of The Matrix |last2=Wachowski |first2=Andy |last3=Darrow, Geof; Skroce, Steve; Kunitake, Tani; Manser, Warren; Grant, Colin; Staenberg, Zach; Oesterhouse, Phil; [[William Gibson|Gibson, William]] |publisher=Titan Books Ltd |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-84023-173-1 |editor-last=Lamm |editor-first=Spencer |publication-date=November 24, 2000}}</ref><!-- Nevertheless, the [[Sydney Harbour Bridge]], [[ANZAC Bridge]], [[University of Technology, Sydney]], [[AWA Tower]], [[Martin Place, Sydney|Martin Place]] and a [[Commonwealth Bank]] branch are visible in some shots, as is signage on buildings for the Sydney offices of MMI Insurance (now [[Allianz]]), [[Aon Corporation|AON]], [[Citigroup]], [[Telstra]], [[Westpac]], [[KPMG]], [[Ernst & Young]] and [[IBM Corporation]] among others. Other clues to the filming location include [[Right- and left-hand traffic|left-hand traffic flow]] and signs featuring [[Australian English]] terminology and spellings such as "lift" and "authorised" (rather than the [[American English]] "elevator" and "authorized").{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} --><!-- Subtle nods were included to [[Chicago, Illinois]], the home city of the directors, through a subtly placed picture of the Chicago [[skyline]], [[city map]]s, the destination of the subway train during the subway station fight between Neo and Agent Smith saying "[[Chicago Loop|Loop]]", and the names of streets: Wells, Lake, Franklin, Erie, State, Balbo, Wabash, Adams.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} --> |
||
=== Sound effects and music === |
=== Sound effects and music === |
||
Line 115: | Line 115: | ||
The film's [[film score|score]] was composed by [[Don Davis (composer)|Don Davis]].<ref>{{AllMusic|album|mw0000239692|''The Matrix {{bracket|Score}}''}}.</ref><ref>{{Discogs master|298381|The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score}}</ref> He noted that mirrors appear frequently in the film: 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; Neo observes a broken mirror mending itself; 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]]''.) --> Davis focused on this theme of reflections when creating his score, alternating between sections of the orchestra and attempting to incorporate [[Counterpoint|contrapuntal]] ideas. Davis' score combines orchestral, choral and synthesizer elements; the balance between these elements varies depending on whether humans or machines are the dominant subject of a given scene.<ref name="The Score">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=The Score |medium=DVD}}</ref><!-- We no longer need this ref, now that we have the DVD as ref.<ref name="mirrors">Don Davis, interviewed in ''[[The Matrix Revisited]]'' (Chapter 28). A transcript of his comments may be found online: {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429165147/http://www.geocities.com/dondavismatrixnl/Dvdfeaturesdavis.html |date=April 29, 2007 }}</ref> --> |
The film's [[film score|score]] was composed by [[Don Davis (composer)|Don Davis]].<ref>{{AllMusic|album|mw0000239692|''The Matrix {{bracket|Score}}''}}.</ref><ref>{{Discogs master|298381|The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score}}</ref> He noted that mirrors appear frequently in the film: 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; Neo observes a broken mirror mending itself; 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]]''.) --> Davis focused on this theme of reflections when creating his score, alternating between sections of the orchestra and attempting to incorporate [[Counterpoint|contrapuntal]] ideas. Davis' score combines orchestral, choral and synthesizer elements; the balance between these elements varies depending on whether humans or machines are the dominant subject of a given scene.<ref name="The Score">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=The Score |medium=DVD}}</ref><!-- We no longer need this ref, now that we have the DVD as ref.<ref name="mirrors">Don Davis, interviewed in ''[[The Matrix Revisited]]'' (Chapter 28). A transcript of his comments may be found online: {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429165147/http://www.geocities.com/dondavismatrixnl/Dvdfeaturesdavis.html |date=April 29, 2007 }}</ref> --> |
||
In addition to Davis' score, ''The Matrix'' soundtrack also features music from acts such as [[Rammstein]], [[Rob Dougan]], [[Rage Against the Machine]], [[Propellerheads]], [[Ministry (band)|Ministry]], [[Lunatic Calm]], [[Deftones]], [[Monster Magnet]], [[The Prodigy]], [[Rob Zombie]], [[Meat Beat Manifesto]] |
In addition to Davis' score, ''The Matrix'' soundtrack also features music from acts such as [[Rammstein]], [[Rob Dougan]], [[Rage Against the Machine]], [[Propellerheads]], [[Ministry (band)|Ministry]], [[Lunatic Calm]], [[Deftones]], [[Monster Magnet]], [[The Prodigy]], [[Rob Zombie]], [[Meat Beat Manifesto]] and [[Marilyn Manson (band)|Marilyn Manson]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Coleman |first=Christopher |title=Essence of Cool |url=http://www.tracksounds.com/reviews/matrix_music_from.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515045038/http://www.tracksounds.com/reviews/matrix_music_from.htm |archive-date=May 15, 2013 |access-date=December 28, 2012 |publisher=Tracksounds.com }}</ref><ref>{{AllMusic|album|mw0000238626|''The Matrix {{bracket|Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture}}''}}.</ref><ref>{{Discogs master|view/63357|The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture}}</ref><!-- Other pieces from artists such as [[Duke Ellington]], [[Django Reinhardt]], and [[Massive Attack]] are included in the film, but not featured on the soundtrack.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} --> |
||
=== Production design === |
=== Production design === |
||
{{See also|Matrix digital rain}} |
{{See also|Matrix digital rain}} |
||
In the film, the code that composes the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters.<ref>[https://cactus.black/matrix The Matrix — cactus.black (Black Cactus)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903040638/https://cactus.black/matrix |date=September 3, 2021 }}, cactus.black</ref> This code uses a custom typeface designed by Simon Whiteley,<ref name="Museum" |
In the film, the code that composes the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters.<ref>[https://cactus.black/matrix The Matrix — cactus.black (Black Cactus)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903040638/https://cactus.black/matrix |date=September 3, 2021 }}, cactus.black</ref> This code uses a custom typeface designed by Simon Whiteley,<ref name="Museum"/> which includes mirror images of [[half-width kana]] characters and Western Latin letters and Arabic numerals.<ref name="Look of the Matrix">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Look of the Matrix |medium=DVD}}</ref> In a 2017 interview at [[CNET]], he attributed the design to his wife, who is from Japan, and added, "I like to tell everybody that The Matrix's code is made out of Japanese sushi recipes".<ref>{{cite web |last=Bisset |first=Jennifer |date=October 19, 2017 |title=Creator of The Matrix code reveals its mysterious origins |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/lego-ninjago-movie-simon-whiteley-matrix-code-creator/ |access-date=November 5, 2018 |website=[[CNET]] |archive-date=May 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509142745/https://www.cnet.com/news/lego-ninjago-movie-simon-whiteley-matrix-code-creator/ |url-status=live }}</ref> "The color green reflects the green tint commonly used on early [[monochrome monitor|monochrome computer monitors]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clover |first=Joshua |url=https://archive.org/details/matrix0000clov |title=The Matrix |publisher=[[British Film Institute|BFI Publishing]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-84457-045-4 |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/matrix0000clov/page/8 8–9] |quote=In the denouement [of ''The Thirteenth Floor''], Douglas Hall simply crests a hill to discover that what he had thought was the real world has, beyond this point, yet to be constructed. In lieu of landscape, only crude phosphor-green polygons, the basic units of video graphics rendering, in the primal monochrome of an old CRT. The raw material of the simulation is even more basic in ''The Matrix'' – machine language itself, in the same familiar green{{nbsp}}... |url-access=registration}}</ref> Lynne Cartwright, the Visual Effects Supervisor at [[Animal Logic]], supervised the creation of the film's opening title sequence, as well as the general look of the Matrix code throughout the film, in collaboration with Lindsay Fleay and Justen Marshall.<ref name="Museum"/> The portrayal resembles the opening credits of the 1995 [[Japanese cyberpunk]] film, ''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]'', which had a strong influence on the ''Matrix'' series. It was also used in the subsequent films, on the related website, and in the game ''[[The Matrix: Path of Neo]]'', and its drop-down effect is reflected in the design of some posters for the ''Matrix'' series. The code received the Runner-up Award in the 1999 Jesse Garson Award for In-film typography or opening credit sequence.<ref name="Museum"/> |
||
''The Matrix''{{'}}s [[production design]]er, [[Owen Paterson (production designer)|Owen Paterson]], used methods to distinguish the "real world" and the Matrix in a pervasive way. The production design team generally placed a bias towards the Matrix code's distinctive green color in scenes set within the simulation, whereas there is an emphasis on the color blue during scenes set in the "real world". In addition, the Matrix scenes' sets were slightly more decayed, monolithic |
''The Matrix''{{'}}s [[production design]]er, [[Owen Paterson (production designer)|Owen Paterson]], used methods to distinguish the "real world" and the Matrix in a pervasive way. The production design team generally placed a bias towards the Matrix code's distinctive green color in scenes set within the simulation, whereas there is an emphasis on the color blue during scenes set in the "real world". In addition, the Matrix scenes' sets were slightly more decayed, monolithic and grid-like, to convey the cold, logical and artificial nature of that environment. For the "real world", the actors' hair was less styled, their clothing had more textile content, and the cinematographers used longer lenses to soften the backgrounds and emphasize the actors.<ref name="Look of the Matrix"/> |
||
The ''[[Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)|Nebuchadnezzar]]'' was designed to have a patched-up look, instead of clean, cold and sterile space ship interior sets as used on productions such as ''[[Star Trek]]''. The wires were made visible to show the ship's working internals, and each composition was carefully designed to convey the ship as "a marriage between Man and Machine".<ref name="The Nebuchadnezzar">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=The Nebuchadnezzar |medium=DVD}}</ref> For the scene when Neo wakes up in the pod connected to the Matrix, the pod was constructed to look dirty, used |
The ''[[Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)|Nebuchadnezzar]]'' was designed to have a patched-up look, instead of clean, cold and sterile space ship interior sets as used on productions such as ''[[Star Trek]]''. The wires were made visible to show the ship's working internals, and each composition was carefully designed to convey the ship as "a marriage between Man and Machine".<ref name="The Nebuchadnezzar">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=The Nebuchadnezzar |medium=DVD}}</ref> For the scene when Neo wakes up in the pod connected to the Matrix, the pod was constructed to look dirty, used and sinister. During the testing of a breathing mechanism in the pod, the tester suffered hypothermia in under eight minutes, so the pod had to be heated.<ref name="The Power Plant">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=The Power Plant |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
||
[[Kym Barrett]], costume designer, said that she defined the characters and their environment by their costume.<ref name="Costume">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Costume |medium=DVD}}</ref> For example, Reeves's office costume was designed for Thomas Anderson to look uncomfortable, disheveled |
[[Kym Barrett]], costume designer, said that she defined the characters and their environment by their costume.<ref name="Costume">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Costume |medium=DVD}}</ref> For example, Reeves's office costume was designed for Thomas Anderson to look uncomfortable, disheveled and out of place.<ref name="The Shooting Begins">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=The Shooting Begins |medium=DVD}}</ref> Barrett sometimes used three types of fabric for each costume, and also had to consider the practicality of the acting. The actors needed to perform martial art actions in their costume, hang upside-down without people seeing up their clothing, and be able to work the wires while strapped into the harnesses.<ref name="Costume"/> For Trinity, Barrett experimented with how each fabric absorbed and reflected different types of light, and was eventually able to make Trinity's costume mercury-like and oil-slick to suit the character.<ref name="Trinity"/> For the Agents, their costume was designed to create a secret service, undercover look, resembling the film ''[[JFK (film)|JFK]]'' and classic [[men in black]].<ref name="Interrogation Room"/> |
||
The sunglasses, a staple of the film's aesthetics, were commissioned for the film by designer Richard Walker from sunglasses maker Blinde Design.<ref>{{cite web |last=Navratil, Wendy |date=May 4, 2003 |title=Neo's cool and so are his shades |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-05-04/features/0305040269_1_matrix-glasses-morpheus |access-date=July 7, 2012 |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |publisher=[[Tribune Company]] |archive-date=May 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516010955/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-05-04/features/0305040269_1_matrix-glasses-morpheus |url-status=live }}</ref> |
The sunglasses, a staple of the film's aesthetics, were commissioned for the film by designer Richard Walker from sunglasses maker Blinde Design.<ref>{{cite web |last=Navratil, Wendy |date=May 4, 2003 |title=Neo's cool and so are his shades |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-05-04/features/0305040269_1_matrix-glasses-morpheus |access-date=July 7, 2012 |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |publisher=[[Tribune Company]] |archive-date=May 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516010955/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-05-04/features/0305040269_1_matrix-glasses-morpheus |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
Line 132: | Line 132: | ||
[[File:The Matrix Bullet Time Effect.ogv|thumb|The "[[bullet time]]" effect was created for the film. A scene would be computer-modeled to decide the positioning of the physical cameras. The actor then provided their performance in a [[chroma key]] setup, while the cameras were fired in rapid succession, with fractions of a second delay between each shot. The result was combined with CGI backgrounds to create the final effect at (0:33).|alt=Video sample of the film]] |
[[File:The Matrix Bullet Time Effect.ogv|thumb|The "[[bullet time]]" effect was created for the film. A scene would be computer-modeled to decide the positioning of the physical cameras. The actor then provided their performance in a [[chroma key]] setup, while the cameras were fired in rapid succession, with fractions of a second delay between each shot. The result was combined with CGI backgrounds to create the final effect at (0:33).|alt=Video sample of the film]] |
||
{{blockquote|As for artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit [[Otomo Katsuhiro]], who co-wrote and directed ''[[Akira (1988 film)|Akira]]'', which definitely blew me away, along with director [[Michel Gondry]]. His music videos experimented with a different type of technique called view-morphing and it was just part of the beginning of uncovering the creative approaches toward using still cameras for special effects. Our technique was significantly different because we built it to move around objects that were themselves in motion, and we were also able to create slow-motion events that 'virtual cameras' could move |
{{blockquote|As for artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit [[Otomo Katsuhiro]], who co-wrote and directed ''[[Akira (1988 film)|Akira]]'', which definitely blew me away, along with director [[Michel Gondry]]. His music videos experimented with a different type of technique called view-morphing and it was just part of the beginning of uncovering the creative approaches toward using still cameras for special effects. Our technique was significantly different because we built it to move around objects that were themselves in motion, and we were also able to create slow-motion events that 'virtual cameras' could move around—rather than the static action in Gondry's music videos with limited camera moves.|[[John Gaeta]]<ref name="gaeta-empire">{{Cite journal |date=February 2006 |title=200 Things That Rocked Our World: Bullet Time |journal=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] |issue=200 |page=136}}</ref>}} |
||
The film is known for popularizing a [[visual effect]]<ref name="Lane City of God" |
The film is known for popularizing a [[visual effect]]<ref name="Lane City of God"/> known as "[[bullet time]]", which allows a [[shot (filmmaking)|shot]] to progress in [[slow motion]] while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed.<ref name="guardian-sfx">{{Cite news |last=Green |first=Dave |date=June 5, 1999 |title=Better than SFX |work=Guardian.co.uk |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jun/05/features2 |access-date=December 18, 2009 |archive-date=December 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223102908/https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jun/05/features2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Shields |first=Meg |date=2021-12-23 |title=How They Shot the "Bullet-Time" Effect in 'The Matrix' |url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/the-matrix-bullet-time/ |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Film School Rejects |language=en-US}}</ref> Bullet time has been described as "a visual analogy for privileged moments of consciousness within the Matrix",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clover |first=Joshua |url=https://archive.org/details/matrix0000clov |title=The Matrix |publisher=[[British Film Institute|BFI Publishing]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-84457-045-4 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/matrix0000clov/page/35 35] |url-access=registration}}</ref> and throughout the film, the effect is used to illustrate characters' exertion of control over time and space.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Aylish |title=Digital Encounters |date=April 17, 2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-41066-3 |edition=New}}</ref> The Wachowskis first imagined an action sequence that slowed time while the camera pivoted rapidly around the subjects, and proposed the effect in their screenplay for the film. When [[John Gaeta]] read the script, he pleaded with an effects producer at [[Manex Visual Effects|Mass.Illusion]] to let him work on the project, and created a prototype that led to him becoming the film's visual effects supervisor.<ref name="Wired VFX">{{Cite magazine |last=Silberman, Steve |date=May 2003 |title=Matrix2 |url=https://www.wired.com/2003/05/matrix2/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=December 25, 2012 |archive-date=March 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304014830/https://www.wired.com/2003/05/matrix2/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-03-31 |title=Bullet Time before Bullet Time - beforesandafters.com |url=https://beforesandafters.com/2019/04/01/bullet-time-before-bullet-time/ |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=befores & afters |language=en-US}}</ref> |
||
The method used for creating these effects involved a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which an array of cameras are placed around an object and triggered simultaneously. Each camera captures a still picture, contributing one frame to the video sequence, which creates the effect of "virtual camera movement"; the illusion of a viewpoint moving around an object that appears frozen in time.<ref name="guardian-sfx" |
The method used for creating these effects involved a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which an array of cameras are placed around an object and triggered simultaneously. Each camera captures a still picture, contributing one frame to the video sequence, which creates the effect of "virtual camera movement"; the illusion of a viewpoint moving around an object that appears frozen in time.<ref name="guardian-sfx"/> |
||
The bullet time effect is similar but slightly more complicated, incorporating temporal motion so that rather than appearing totally frozen, the scene progresses in slow and variable motion.<ref name="gaeta-empire" |
The bullet time effect is similar but slightly more complicated, incorporating temporal motion so that rather than appearing totally frozen, the scene progresses in slow and variable motion.<ref name="gaeta-empire"/><ref name="Wired VFX"/> The cameras' positions and exposures were [[Previsualization|previsualized]] using a 3D simulation. Instead of firing the cameras simultaneously, the visual effect team fired the cameras fractions of a second after each other, so that each camera could capture the action as it progressed, creating a super slow-motion effect.<ref name="guardian-sfx"/> When the frames were put together, the resulting slow-motion effects reached a [[frame frequency]] of 12,000 per second, as opposed to the normal 24 frames per second of film.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Standard movie cameras were placed at the ends of the array to pick up the normal speed action before and after. Because the cameras circle the subject almost completely in most of the sequences, computer technology was used to edit out the cameras that appeared in the background on the other side.<ref name="guardian-sfx"/> To create backgrounds, Gaeta hired George Borshukov, who created 3D models based on the geometry of buildings and used the photographs of the buildings themselves as texture.{{fact|date=February 2024}} |
||
The photo-realistic surroundings generated by this method were incorporated into the bullet time scene,<ref name="Wired VFX" |
The photo-realistic surroundings generated by this method were incorporated into the bullet time scene,<ref name="Wired VFX"/> and algorithms based on [[optical flow]] were used to interpolate between the still images to produce a fluent dynamic motion;<ref>{{cite web |last=Seymour |first=Mike |title=Art of Optical Flow |url=https://www.fxguide.com/featured/art_of_optical_flow/ |access-date=March 25, 2019 |website=fxguide |date=February 28, 2006 |archive-date=March 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325005829/https://www.fxguide.com/featured/art_of_optical_flow/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Buckley |first=Robert |title=Film Essay on The "Bullet Time" Scene In "The Matrix" |url=http://scis.nova.edu/~rbuckley/Film%20Essay.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515001756/http://scis.nova.edu/~rbuckley/Film%20Essay.pdf |archive-date=May 15, 2013 |access-date=December 27, 2012 |publisher=Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Nova Southeastern University }}</ref> the computer-generated "lead in" and "lead out" slides were filled in between frames in sequence to get an illusion of orbiting the scene.<ref>{{cite web |last=Tiwari |first=Abhishek |title=Bullet Time Technique |url=http://www.sbc.ac.in/voice/bullet.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915002004/http://www.sbc.ac.in/voice/bullet.htm |archive-date=September 15, 2012 |access-date=December 27, 2012 |website=Voice |publisher=School of Broadcasting and Communication |location=Mumbai }}</ref> Manex Visual Effects used a [[cluster (computing)|cluster]] farm running the [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]] [[FreeBSD]] to render many of the film's visual effects.<ref>{{cite web |date=January 23, 2008 |title=Comment about the use of FreeBSD (5:50) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAsYz5pVwyc#t=5m45s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/bAsYz5pVwyc| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live|access-date=January 29, 2012 |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=April 22, 1999 |title=FreeBSD Used to Generate Spectacular Special Effects |url=http://www.freebsd.org/news/press-rel-1.html |access-date=July 19, 2012 |archive-date=August 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818022437/http://www.freebsd.org/news/press-rel-1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
Manex also handled creature effects, such as Sentinels and machines in real world scenes; [[Animal Logic]] created the code hallway and the exploding Agent at the end of the film. DFilm managed scenes that required heavy use of digital compositing, such as Neo's jump off a skyscraper and the helicopter crash into a building. The ripple effect in the latter scene was created digitally, but the shot also included practical elements, and months of extensive research were needed to find the correct kind of glass and explosives to use. The scene was shot by colliding a quarter-scale helicopter mock-up into a glass wall wired to concentric rings of explosives; the explosives were then triggered in sequence from the center outward, to create a wave of exploding glass.<ref name="Post-production">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Post-production |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
Manex also handled creature effects, such as Sentinels and machines in real world scenes; [[Animal Logic]] created the code hallway and the exploding Agent at the end of the film. DFilm managed scenes that required heavy use of digital compositing, such as Neo's jump off a skyscraper and the helicopter crash into a building. The ripple effect in the latter scene was created digitally, but the shot also included practical elements, and months of extensive research were needed to find the correct kind of glass and explosives to use. The scene was shot by colliding a quarter-scale helicopter mock-up into a glass wall wired to concentric rings of explosives; the explosives were then triggered in sequence from the center outward, to create a wave of exploding glass.<ref name="Post-production">{{Cite AV media |title=[[The Matrix Revisited]] |date=November 20, 2001 |last=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |section=Post-production |medium=DVD}}</ref> |
||
The [[Photogrammetry|photogrammetric]] and image-based [[computer-generated imagery|computer-generated]] background approaches in ''The Matrix''{{'}}s bullet time evolved into innovations unveiled in the sequels ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]''. The method of using real photographs of buildings as texture for 3D models eventually led the visual effect team to digitize all data, such as scenes, characters' motions and expressions. It also led to the development of "Universal Capture", a process which samples and stores facial details and expressions at high resolution. With these highly detailed collected data, the team were able to create virtual cinematography in which characters, locations |
The [[Photogrammetry|photogrammetric]] and image-based [[computer-generated imagery|computer-generated]] background approaches in ''The Matrix''{{'}}s bullet time evolved into innovations unveiled in the sequels ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]''. The method of using real photographs of buildings as texture for 3D models eventually led the visual effect team to digitize all data, such as scenes, characters' motions and expressions. It also led to the development of "Universal Capture", a process which samples and stores facial details and expressions at high resolution. With these highly detailed collected data, the team were able to create virtual cinematography in which characters, locations and events can all be created digitally and viewed through virtual cameras, eliminating the restrictions of real cameras.<ref name="Wired VFX"/> |
||
== Release== |
== Release== |
||
=== Home media === |
=== Home media === |
||
''The Matrix'' was released on [[DVD]] and [[Laserdisc]] in its original [[aspect ratio]] of [[2.39:1]] on September 21, 1999, in the US from [[Warner Home Video]] as well as in [[Aspect ratio (image)|1.33:1]] aspect ratio in [[Hong Kong]] from ERA Home Entertainment. It was also released on [[VHS]] in both [[Fullscreen (filmmaking)|full screen]] and [[widescreen]] formats followed on {{Nowrap|December 7}}, 1999.<ref name="Mojo" |
''The Matrix'' was released on [[DVD-Video|DVD]] and [[Laserdisc]] in its original [[aspect ratio]] of [[2.39:1]] on September 21, 1999, in the US from [[Warner Home Video]] as well as in [[Aspect ratio (image)|1.33:1]] aspect ratio in [[Hong Kong]] from ERA Home Entertainment. It was also released on [[VHS]] in both [[Fullscreen (filmmaking)|full screen]] and [[widescreen]] formats followed on {{Nowrap|December 7}}, 1999.<ref name="Mojo"/> After its DVD release, it was the first DVD to sell more than one million copies in the US.<ref name="Million sales">{{Cite news |last=Warner Home Video |date=March 23, 2007 |title=The Matrix is Coming to HD DVD |work=Comingsoon.net |publisher=CraveOnline Media |url=https://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=19508 |access-date=March 23, 2007 |archive-date=May 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529085500/http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=19508 |url-status=dead }}</ref><!--<ref name="dvdsales">{{Cite web |date=August 1, 2000 |title=Press release – August 1, 2000 – The Matrix DVD: The first to sell 3 million |url=http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/rl_press_August_01_00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305104849/http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/rl_press_August_01_00.html |archive-date=March 5, 2008 |access-date=April 10, 2012 |website=Whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |location=Burbank}}</ref> --> By 2000, the film went on to become the first to sell more than three million copies in the US.<ref name="Influence Screened">{{cite web |last=Godoski |first=Andrew |title=Under The Influence: The Matrix |url=http://www.screened.com/news/under-the-influence-the-matrix/2218/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205085233/http://www.screened.com/news/under-the-influence-the-matrix/2218/ |archive-date=February 5, 2013 |access-date=December 22, 2012 |website=[[Screened.com]] }}</ref> At that point, it became the top-selling DVD release of all time, holding this record for a few months before being surpassed by ''[[Gladiator (2000 film)|Gladiator]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106805458/gladiator-hits-dvd-highs/ |title='Gladiator' Hits DVD Highs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802162021/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106805458/gladiator-hits-dvd-highs/ |date=January 10, 2001 |access-date=August 2, 2022 |archive-date=August 2, 2022 |page=64 |work=[[The Los Angeles Times]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> By {{Nowrap|November 10}}, 2003, one month after ''The Matrix Reloaded'' DVD was released, the sales of ''The Matrix'' DVD had exceeded 30 million copies.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holson, Laura |date=November 10, 2003 |title=An Elf and a Bear Trip Up the Final 'Matrix' |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/business/an-elf-and-a-bear-trip-up-the-final-matrix.html |access-date=December 21, 2012 |archive-date=May 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516015856/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/business/an-elf-and-a-bear-trip-up-the-final-matrix.html |url-status=live }}</ref> It then debuted on both VHS and DVD formats in the UK on {{Nowrap|November 29}}, 1999. ''The Matrix'' sold more than 107,000 DVD copies in just two weeks, breaking ''[[Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon]]''{{'}}s record for becoming the country's best-selling DVD title.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boehm |first=Erich |date=December 13, 1999 |title='Matrix' DVD breaks sales records in U.K. |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/matrix-dvd-breaks-sales-records-in-u-k-1117759936/ |access-date=May 26, 2022 |archive-date=May 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528163852/https://variety.com/1999/film/news/matrix-dvd-breaks-sales-records-in-u-k-1117759936/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[The Ultimate Matrix Collection]] was released on [[HD DVD]] on {{Nowrap|May 22}}, 2007,<ref name="Million sales"/> and on [[Blu-ray]] on {{Nowrap|October 14}}, 2008.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Warner Home Video |date=July 25, 2008 |title='Ultimate Matrix' Blu-ray Coming in October |publisher=highdefdigest.com |url=http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disc_Announcements/Warner/Ultimate_Matrix_Blu-ray_Coming_in_October/1944 |access-date=August 18, 2008 |archive-date=August 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080818012754/http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disc_Announcements/Warner/Ultimate_Matrix_Blu-ray_Coming_in_October/1944 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="DVD Release Date">{{cite web |title=The Matrix DVD Release Date |url=https://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/movies/2585/The-Matrix-(1999).html |access-date=May 21, 2018 |website=DVDs Release Dates |language=en-US |archive-date=May 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522041643/https://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/movies/2585/The-Matrix-(1999).html |url-status=live }}</ref> The film was also released standalone in a 10th-anniversary edition Blu-ray in the Digibook format on {{Nowrap|March 31}}, 2009, ten years to the day after the film was released theatrically.<ref>{{cite web |title=Warner Home Video sends over details on a 10th Anniversary Blu-ray release |url=http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/the-matrix.html |access-date=December 13, 2009 |publisher=Dvdactive.com |archive-date=July 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710155456/http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/the-matrix.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2010, the film had another DVD release along with the two sequels as ''The Complete Matrix Trilogy''. It was also released on 4K HDR Blu-ray on May 22, 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Matrix – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (German Import) |url=https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/56871/thematrix4kultrahdbluraygermanimport.html |access-date=May 21, 2018 |website=ultrahd.highdefdigest.com |archive-date=December 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223215131/https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/56871/thematrix4kultrahdbluraygermanimport.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The film as part of ''The Matrix Trilogy'' was released on [[4K resolution|4K]] [[Ultra HD Blu-ray]] on October 30, 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Matrix Trilogy – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review {{!}} High Def Digest |url=https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/62394/thematrixtrilogy4kultrahdbluray.html |access-date=January 24, 2019 |website=ultrahd.highdefdigest.com |language=en |archive-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015163159/https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/62394/thematrixtrilogy4kultrahdbluray.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
===Other media=== |
===Other media=== |
||
Line 157: | Line 157: | ||
==Reception== |
==Reception== |
||
=== Box office === |
=== Box office === |
||
''The Matrix'' grossed $27.8 million during its opening weekend, as well as earning $37.4 million in its first five days. It surpassed ''[[Lost in Space (film)|Lost in Space]]'' and ''[[Indecent Proposal]]'' for having the biggest April and [[Easter]] opening weekends. The film also had the second-highest opening weekend for a spring starter film, trailing only behind ''[[Liar Liar]]''.<ref name="ShowsMuscle">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-05-ca-24239-story.html|title='Matrix' Shows Its Muscle|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 5, 1999|access-date=March 10, 2022|archive-date=March 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310202202/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-05-ca-24239-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Three years later in 2002, ''The Matrix''{{'}}s records for having the largest April and Easter opening weekends would be taken by ''[[The Scorpion King]]'' and ''[[Panic Room]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title='Scorpion King' dominates US box office |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/04/21/Scorpion-King-dominates-US-box-office/8971019361600/ |access-date=March 6, 2022 |work=[[United Press International]] |date=April 21, 2002 |archive-date=March 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306182625/https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/04/21/Scorpion-King-dominates-US-box-office/8971019361600/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Room' dominates US box office |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/03/31/Room-dominates-US-box-office/4471017550800/ |access-date=May 11, 2022 |work=[[United Press International]] |date=March 31, 2002 }}</ref> Upon its opening, it had the highest opening weekend of any 1999 film, easily topping ''[[Payback (1999 film)|Payback]]''.<ref name="ShowsMuscle" |
''The Matrix'' grossed $27.8 million during its opening weekend, as well as earning $37.4 million in its first five days. It surpassed ''[[Lost in Space (film)|Lost in Space]]'' and ''[[Indecent Proposal]]'' for having the biggest April and [[Easter]] opening weekends. The film also had the second-highest opening weekend for a spring starter film, trailing only behind ''[[Liar Liar]]''.<ref name="ShowsMuscle">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-05-ca-24239-story.html|title='Matrix' Shows Its Muscle|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 5, 1999|access-date=March 10, 2022|archive-date=March 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310202202/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-05-ca-24239-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Three years later in 2002, ''The Matrix''{{'}}s records for having the largest April and Easter opening weekends would be taken by ''[[The Scorpion King]]'' and ''[[Panic Room]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title='Scorpion King' dominates US box office |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/04/21/Scorpion-King-dominates-US-box-office/8971019361600/ |access-date=March 6, 2022 |work=[[United Press International]] |date=April 21, 2002 |archive-date=March 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306182625/https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/04/21/Scorpion-King-dominates-US-box-office/8971019361600/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Room' dominates US box office |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/03/31/Room-dominates-US-box-office/4471017550800/ |access-date=May 11, 2022 |work=[[United Press International]] |date=March 31, 2002 }}</ref> Upon its opening, it had the highest opening weekend of any 1999 film, easily topping ''[[Payback (1999 film)|Payback]]''.<ref name="ShowsMuscle"/> Additionally, this was the biggest opening weekend for a [[Keanu Reeves]] film since ''[[Speed (1994 film)|Speed]]'' in 1994.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112652165/matrix-tops-weekend-box-office/ |title='Matrix' tops weekend box office |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221106220842/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112652165/matrix-tops-weekend-box-office/ |newspaper=[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]] |page=33 |date=April 5, 1999 |access-date=November 6, 2022 |archive-date=November 6, 2022 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> It was also ranked number one at the box office ahead of ''[[Forces of Nature (1999 film)|Forces of Nature]]''.<ref name="ShowsMuscle"/> The film would remain at the top of the box office for two weeks until it was overtaken by ''[[Life (1999 film)|Life]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Welkos |first=Robert W. |date=April 20, 1999 |title=Eddie Murphy's Charmed 'Life' |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-20-ca-29063-story.html |access-date=2012-05-31}}</ref> During its fourth weekend, ''The Matrix'' briefly returned to the number one spot.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-des-moines-register-weekend-moviegoe/124978370/ |title=Weekend moviegoers make 'Matrix' No. 1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519202919/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-des-moines-register-weekend-moviegoe/124978370/ |date=April 26, 1999 |access-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-date=May 19, 2023 |page=27 |publisher=[[The Des Moines Register]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/article/ed3983803396/|title=Forecast: Matrix Reclaims #1|first=Brandon|last=Gray|publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]]|access-date=May 19, 2022|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519044745/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/article/ed3983803396/|url-status=live}}</ref> The following week, the film would be displaced by ''[[Entrapment (film)|Entrapment]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-03-ca-33435-story.html|title='Entrapment' Snares Top Spot With Charismatic Stars' Help|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=May 3, 1999|access-date=July 3, 2022|archive-date=July 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703152230/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-03-ca-33435-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> |
||
In its original run, the film earned $171,479,930 (37.0%) in the United States and Canada and $292,037,453 (63.0%) in other countries, for a worldwide total of $463,517,383.<ref name="Mojo" |
In its original run, the film earned $171,479,930 (37.0%) in the United States and Canada and $292,037,453 (63.0%) in other countries, for a worldwide total of $463,517,383.<ref name="Mojo"/> In [[North America]], it went on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of 1999 and the highest-grossing R-rated film of that year. Worldwide, it was the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year, after ''[[Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace]]'', ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' and ''[[Toy Story 2]]''.<ref name="Mojo"/> ''The Matrix'' became the second-highest-grossing [[Warner Bros.]] film of all time, behind ''[[Twister (1996 film)|Twister]]''.<ref name="ResurrectionsHistory">{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2021/11/17/matrix-resurrections-keanu-reeves-carrie-anne-moss-lana-box-office-2b-wachowski/?sh=183535ba698a|title=How 'The Matrix Resurrections' Can Make R-Rated Box Office History|website=[[Forbes]]|access-date=March 10, 2022|archive-date=March 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310202203/https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2021/11/17/matrix-resurrections-keanu-reeves-carrie-anne-moss-lana-box-office-2b-wachowski/?sh=183535ba698a|url-status=live}}</ref> Overall, it was the third-highest-grossing R-rated film at the time, just after ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'' and ''[[Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]''.<ref name="ResurrectionsHistory"/> Following re-releases, the worldwide gross of the film is $466,621,824.<ref name="Mojo"/> In 2012, it was placed 122nd on the list of highest-grossing films of all time, and the second-highest-grossing film in the ''Matrix'' franchise after ''The Matrix Reloaded'' ($742.1 million).<ref name="Mojo"/> |
||
=== Critical response === |
=== Critical response === |
||
''The Matrix'' was praised by many critics, as well as filmmakers, and authors of science fiction,<ref name="meta" |
''The Matrix'' was praised by many critics, as well as filmmakers, and authors of science fiction,<ref name="meta"/> especially for its "spectacular action" scenes and its "groundbreaking special effects". Some have described ''The Matrix'' as one of the best [[science fiction film]]s of all time;<ref name="heritage1"/><ref name="autogenerated1"/><!--<ref name="Genre's Best"/><ref name="Entertainment Weekly"/>--> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' called ''The Matrix'' "the most influential action movie of the generation".<ref name="Influence EW2">{{cite magazine |last=Fierman, Daniel |date=May 12, 2003 |title=EW hacks into ''The Matrix Reloaded'' |url=https://ew.com/article/2003/05/12/ew-hacks-matrix-reloaded/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602162059/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,450805,00.html |archive-date=June 2, 2013 |access-date=December 22, 2012 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |publisher=Time Warner |quote=''The Matrix'' is the most influential action movie of its generation. ... since the movie's release in March 1999, every 360-degree sweep of a camera, every black-clad hero, every sexy yet deadly heroine, every bullet rippling slowly through the air, is a rip-off that can be traced back to writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski. ... They triggered countless pale imitations and dull-witted parodies.}}</ref> There have also been those, including philosopher [[William Irwin (philosopher)|William Irwin]], who have suggested that the film explores significant philosophical and spiritual themes. On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 207 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thanks to the Wachowskis' imaginative vision, ''The Matrix'' is a smartly crafted combination of spectacular action and groundbreaking special effects".<ref name=RottenTomatoes/> At [[Metacritic]], which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received a score of 73 based on 35 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref name="meta"/> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.<ref name="CinemaScore">{{cite web |title=CinemaScore |url=https://www.cinemascore.com/ |website=cinemascore.com |access-date=October 17, 2017 |archive-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413083139/https://www.cinemascore.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It ranked 323rd among critics, and 546th among directors, in the [[The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time|2012 ''Sight & Sound'' polls of the greatest films ever made]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Votes for ''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81295544/sightandsoundpoll2012 |access-date=November 26, 2018 |website=[[Sight & Sound]] |publisher=British Film Institute |archive-date=November 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126221509/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81295544/sightandsoundpoll2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> |
||
Philip Strick commented in ''[[Sight & Sound]]'', if the Wachowskis "claim no originality of message, they are startling innovators of method," praising the film's details and its "broadside of astonishing images".<ref name="sightandsound">{{cite web |last=Strick |first=Philip |title=''Sight & Sound'' – ''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/151 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003061452/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/151 |archive-date=October 3, 2018 |access-date=October 30, 2012 |website=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three stars out of four: he praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the [[Three-act structure|third act]]'s focus on action.<ref name="rogerebert" |
Philip Strick commented in ''[[Sight & Sound]]'', if the Wachowskis "claim no originality of message, they are startling innovators of method," praising the film's details and its "broadside of astonishing images".<ref name="sightandsound">{{cite web |last=Strick |first=Philip |title=''Sight & Sound'' – ''The Matrix'' (1999) |url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/151 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003061452/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/151 |archive-date=October 3, 2018 |access-date=October 30, 2012 |website=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three stars out of four: he praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the [[Three-act structure|third act]]'s focus on action.<ref name="rogerebert"/> Similarly, ''[[Time Out Group|Time Out]]'' praised the "entertainingly ingenious" switches between different realities, [[Hugo Weaving]]'s "engagingly odd" performance, and the film's cinematography and production design, but concluded, "the promising premise is steadily wasted as the film turns into a fairly routine action pic ... yet another slice of overlong, high-concept hokum."<ref name="timeout">{{cite web |title=Time Out Film Review – The Matrix |url=https://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/72947/the-matrix.html |access-date=January 16, 2012 |website=Time Out Film Guide |publisher=[[Time Out (company)|Time Out]] |archive-date=December 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227173045/http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/72947/the-matrix.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
[[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] of the ''[[Chicago Reader]]'' reviewed the film negatively, criticizing it as "simpleminded fun for roughly the first hour, until the movie becomes overwhelmed by its many sources ... There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome."<ref name="Rosenbaum review">{{cite web |last=Rosenbaum, Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=The Matrix |url=http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/17448_MATRIX.html |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=[[Chicago Reader]] |publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]]|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060421101934/http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/17448_MATRIX.html|archive-date= April 21, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> |
[[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] of the ''[[Chicago Reader]]'' reviewed the film negatively, criticizing it as "simpleminded fun for roughly the first hour, until the movie becomes overwhelmed by its many sources ... There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome."<ref name="Rosenbaum review">{{cite web |last=Rosenbaum, Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=The Matrix |url=http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/17448_MATRIX.html |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=[[Chicago Reader]] |publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]]|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060421101934/http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/17448_MATRIX.html|archive-date= April 21, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> |
||
Line 172: | Line 172: | ||
''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]''{{'}}s reviewer Andrew O'Hehir acknowledged that although ''The Matrix'' is in his view a fundamentally immature and unoriginal film ("It lacks anything like adult emotion... all this pseudo-spiritual hokum, along with the over-ramped onslaught of special effects—some of them quite amazing—will hold 14-year-old boys in rapture, not to mention those of us of all ages and genders who still harbor a 14-year-old boy somewhere inside"), he concluded, "as in ''[[Bound (1996 film)|Bound]]'', there's an appealing scope and daring to the Wachowskis' work, and their eagerness for more plot twists and more crazy images becomes increasingly infectious. In a limited and profoundly geeky sense, this might be an important and generous film. The Wachowskis have little feeling for character or human interaction, but their passion for ''movies''—for making them, watching them, inhabiting their world—is pure and deep."<ref name="Salon review">{{cite web |last=O'Hehir, Andrew |date=April 2, 1999 |title=Short attention spawn |url=http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/reviews/1999/04/02reviewa.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090523103506/http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/reviews/1999/04/02reviewa.html |archive-date=May 23, 2009 |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]}}</ref> |
''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]''{{'}}s reviewer Andrew O'Hehir acknowledged that although ''The Matrix'' is in his view a fundamentally immature and unoriginal film ("It lacks anything like adult emotion... all this pseudo-spiritual hokum, along with the over-ramped onslaught of special effects—some of them quite amazing—will hold 14-year-old boys in rapture, not to mention those of us of all ages and genders who still harbor a 14-year-old boy somewhere inside"), he concluded, "as in ''[[Bound (1996 film)|Bound]]'', there's an appealing scope and daring to the Wachowskis' work, and their eagerness for more plot twists and more crazy images becomes increasingly infectious. In a limited and profoundly geeky sense, this might be an important and generous film. The Wachowskis have little feeling for character or human interaction, but their passion for ''movies''—for making them, watching them, inhabiting their world—is pure and deep."<ref name="Salon review">{{cite web |last=O'Hehir, Andrew |date=April 2, 1999 |title=Short attention spawn |url=http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/reviews/1999/04/02reviewa.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090523103506/http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/reviews/1999/04/02reviewa.html |archive-date=May 23, 2009 |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]}}</ref> |
||
Filmmakers and science fiction creators alike generally took a complimentary perspective of ''The Matrix''. [[William Gibson]], a key figure in cyberpunk fiction, called the film "an innocent delight I hadn't felt in a long time," and stated, "Neo is my favourite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wachowski |first1=Larry |title=The Art of The Matrix |last2=Wachowski |first2=Andy |last3=Darrow, Geof; Skroce, Steve; Kunitake, Tani; Manser, Warren; Grant, Colin; Staenberg, Zach; Oesterhouse, Phil; [[William Gibson|Gibson, William]] |publisher=Titan Books Ltd |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-84023-173-1 |editor-last=Lamm |editor-first=Spencer |publication-date=November 24, 2000 |page=451}}</ref> [[Joss Whedon]] called the film "my number one" and praised its storytelling, structure and depth, concluding, "It works on whatever level you want to bring to it."<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 2006 |title=The 201 Greatest Movies of all Time |page=98 |work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] |publisher=[[Emap]] |issue=201}}</ref> [[Darren Aronofsky]] commented, "I walked out of ''The Matrix'' ... and I was thinking, 'What kind of science fiction movie can people make now?' The Wachowskis basically took all the great sci-fi ideas of the 20th century and rolled them into a delicious pop culture sandwich that everyone on the planet devoured."<ref name="Aronofsky:">{{Cite news |last=Silberman |first=Steve |date=November 2006 |title=The Outsider |volume=14 |page=224 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast Publications]] |issue=11 |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/outsider.html |access-date=January 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103224923/https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/outsider.html|archive-date=January 3, 2007}}</ref> [[M. Night Shyamalan]] expressed admiration for the Wachowskis, stating, "Whatever you think of ''The Matrix'', every shot is there because of the passion they have! You can see they argued it out!".<ref name="Shyamalan:">{{cite web |last=Malanowski |first=Jamie |date=March 12, 2000 |title=Oscar films/First timers; A Director With a Sense of Where He's Going |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3DE1038F931A25750C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 |access-date=January 4, 2012 |website=[[The New York Times]] }}</ref> [[Simon Pegg]] said that ''The Matrix'' provided "the excitement and satisfaction that ''[[ |
Filmmakers and science fiction creators alike generally took a complimentary perspective of ''The Matrix''. [[William Gibson]], a key figure in cyberpunk fiction, called the film "an innocent delight I hadn't felt in a long time," and stated, "Neo is my favourite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wachowski |first1=Larry |title=The Art of The Matrix |last2=Wachowski |first2=Andy |last3=Darrow, Geof; Skroce, Steve; Kunitake, Tani; Manser, Warren; Grant, Colin; Staenberg, Zach; Oesterhouse, Phil; [[William Gibson|Gibson, William]] |publisher=Titan Books Ltd |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-84023-173-1 |editor-last=Lamm |editor-first=Spencer |publication-date=November 24, 2000 |page=451}}</ref> [[Joss Whedon]] called the film "my number one" and praised its storytelling, structure and depth, concluding, "It works on whatever level you want to bring to it."<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 2006 |title=The 201 Greatest Movies of all Time |page=98 |work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] |publisher=[[Emap]] |issue=201}}</ref> [[Darren Aronofsky]] commented, "I walked out of ''The Matrix'' ... and I was thinking, 'What kind of science fiction movie can people make now?' The Wachowskis basically took all the great sci-fi ideas of the 20th century and rolled them into a delicious pop culture sandwich that everyone on the planet devoured."<ref name="Aronofsky:">{{Cite news |last=Silberman |first=Steve |date=November 2006 |title=The Outsider |volume=14 |page=224 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast Publications]] |issue=11 |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/outsider.html |access-date=January 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103224923/https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/outsider.html|archive-date=January 3, 2007}}</ref> [[M. Night Shyamalan]] expressed admiration for the Wachowskis, stating, "Whatever you think of ''The Matrix'', every shot is there because of the passion they have! You can see they argued it out!".<ref name="Shyamalan:">{{cite web |last=Malanowski |first=Jamie |date=March 12, 2000 |title=Oscar films/First timers; A Director With a Sense of Where He's Going |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3DE1038F931A25750C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 |access-date=January 4, 2012 |website=[[The New York Times]] }}</ref> [[Simon Pegg]] said that ''The Matrix'' provided "the excitement and satisfaction that ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' failed to inspire. ''The Matrix'' seemed fresh and cool and visually breathtaking; making wonderful, intelligent use of CGI to augment the on-screen action, striking a perfect balance of the real and the hyperreal. It was possibly the coolest film I had ever seen."<ref name="simonpegg">{{Cite book |last=Pegg |first=Simon |title=Nerd Do Well |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84605-811-0 |location=London |page=323}}</ref> [[Quentin Tarantino]] counted ''The Matrix'' as one of his twenty favorite movies from 1992 to 2009.<ref name="Tarantino:">{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Lane |title=Team America, Anything Else Among the Best Movies of the Past Seventeen Years, Claims Quentin Tarantino |url=https://www.vulture.com/2009/08/speed_and_team_america_among_q.html |access-date=May 25, 2013 |website=[[New York (magazine)|Vulture]] |date=August 17, 2009 |publisher=New York Media LLC |archive-date=February 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213073053/http://www.vulture.com/2009/08/speed_and_team_america_among_q.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[James Cameron]] called it "one of the most profoundly fresh science fiction films ever made".<ref>{{cite web |last=Boucher |first=Geoff |date=August 29, 2019 |title='Terminator: Dark Fate': James Cameron On Rewired Franchise, Possible New Trilogy |url=https://deadline.com/2019/08/terminator-dark-fate-james-cameron-on-re-wired-franchise-possible-new-trilogy-1202707063/ |access-date=August 30, 2019 |archive-date=August 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831031105/https://deadline.com/2019/08/terminator-dark-fate-james-cameron-on-re-wired-franchise-possible-new-trilogy-1202707063/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Christopher Nolan]] described it as "an incredibly palpable mainstream phenomenon that made people think, Hey, what if this isn't real?"<ref>{{cite web |last=Itzkoff |first=Dave |date=June 30, 2010 |title=A Man and His Dream: Christopher Nolan and 'Inception' |url=https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/a-man-and-his-dream-christopher-nolan-and-inception/ |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=August 30, 2019 |archive-date=March 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324170554/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/a-man-and-his-dream-christopher-nolan-and-inception/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
=== Accolades === |
=== Accolades === |
||
{{anchor|Awards}} |
{{anchor|Awards}} |
||
{{Main|List of accolades received by the Matrix franchise}} |
{{Main|List of accolades received by the Matrix franchise}} |
||
''The Matrix'' received [[Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]], [[Academy Award for Best Sound |
''The Matrix'' received [[Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]], [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound Editing]], [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]] and [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Rinaldi |first=Ray Mark |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-crystal-has-a-si/124979015/ |title=Crystal has a sixth sense about keeping overhyped, drawn-out Oscar broadcast lively |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519205244/https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-crystal-has-a-si/124979015/ |date=March 27, 2000 |access-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-date=May 19, 2023 |page=27 |work=Off the Post-Dispatch |publisher=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/entertainment/2000/oscars_2000/691746.stm |title=Oscar winners in full |date=March 27, 2000 |publisher=BBC |access-date=March 12, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329024535/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/entertainment/2000/oscars_2000/691746.stm|archive-date=March 29, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> The filmmakers were competing against other films with established franchises, like ''[[Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace]]'', yet they won all four of their nominations.<ref name="Oscars2000">{{cite web |title=The 72nd Academy Awards (2000) Nominees and Winners |url=http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/72nd-winners.html |access-date=November 19, 2011 |website=oscars.org |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006111921/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/72nd-winners.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="oscars2">{{cite web |title=The Wachowski Brothers biography |url=https://www.tribute.ca/people/the-wachowski-brothers/10799/ |access-date=December 31, 2006 |website=[[Tribute (magazine)|Tribute]] |publisher=Tribute Entertainment Media Group |archive-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616025239/https://www.tribute.ca/people/the-wachowski-brothers/10799/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''The Matrix'' also received [[BAFTA]] awards for [[BAFTA Award for Best Sound|Best Sound]] and [[BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects|Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects]], in addition to nominations in the [[BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography|cinematography]], [[BAFTA Award for Best Production Design|production design]] and [[BAFTA Award for Best Editing|editing]] categories.<ref name="baftas">{{cite web |title=BAFTA Film Winners 1990–1999 |url=http://www.bafta.org/site/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/import/Film_Winners_1990-1999.pdf |access-date=December 31, 2006 | publisher=British Academy of Film and Television Arts | website=bafta.org |archive-date=February 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202074453/http://www.bafta.org/site/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/import/Film_Winners_1990-1999.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1999, it won [[Saturn Awards]] for [[Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film|Best Science Fiction Film]] and [[Saturn Award for Best Director|Best Direction]].<ref name="Saturn Award">{{cite web |title=Saturn Awards |url=http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html#film |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209012608/http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html#film |archive-date=February 9, 2010 |access-date=December 31, 2006 |publisher=SaturnAwards.org }}</ref> In February 2022, the film was named one of the five finalists for Oscars Cheer Moment as part of the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]' "[[Oscars Fan Favorite]]" contest, for the "bullet time" scene, finishing in fifth place.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oscarsfanfavorite.com/cheer |title=Oscars Fan Favorite |publisher=Oscars Fan Favorite |date= |accessdate=February 26, 2022 |archive-date=February 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225214941/https://www.oscarsfanfavorite.com/cheer |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbr.com/zack-snyders-justice-league-oscars-cheer-moment-winner/ |title=Zack Snyder's Justice League Tops 'Oscars Cheer Moment' List |publisher=CBR |date=March 28, 2022 |accessdate=March 28, 2022 |archive-date=April 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401193531/https://www.cbr.com/zack-snyders-justice-league-oscars-cheer-moment-winner/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
===Awards and nominations=== |
===Awards and nominations=== |
||
Line 189: | Line 189: | ||
| [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound]] || [[John T. Reitz|John Reitz]], [[Gregg Rudloff]], [[David E. Campbell (sound engineer)|David Campbell]], [[David Lee (Australian sound engineer)|David Lee]] || {{Won}} |
| [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound]] || [[John T. Reitz|John Reitz]], [[Gregg Rudloff]], [[David E. Campbell (sound engineer)|David Campbell]], [[David Lee (Australian sound engineer)|David Lee]] || {{Won}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| [[Academy Award for Best Sound |
| [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound Effects Editing]]|| [[Dane A. Davis]] || {{Won}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]] || [[John Gaeta]], [[Janek Sirrs]], [[Steve Courtley]], [[Jon Thum]] || {{Won}} |
| [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]] || [[John Gaeta]], [[Janek Sirrs]], [[Steve Courtley]], [[Jon Thum]] || {{Won}} |
||
Line 229: | Line 229: | ||
| {{Nom}} |
| {{Nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| [[Saturn Award for Best Costume|Best Costumes]] |
| [[Saturn Award for Best Costume Design|Best Costumes]] |
||
| [[Kym Barrett]] |
| [[Kym Barrett]] |
||
| {{Nom}} |
| {{Nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| [[Saturn Award for Best Make-up|Best Make- |
| [[Saturn Award for Best Make-up|Best Make-up]] |
||
| [[Nikki Gooley]], [[Bob McCarron]], Wendy Sainsbury |
| [[Nikki Gooley]], [[Bob McCarron]], Wendy Sainsbury |
||
| {{Nom}} |
| {{Nom}} |
||
Line 252: | Line 252: | ||
{{See also|The Matrix (franchise)#Influences and interpretations|The Wachowskis#Personal lives}} |
{{See also|The Matrix (franchise)#Influences and interpretations|The Wachowskis#Personal lives}} |
||
''The Matrix'' draws from and alludes to numerous cinematic and literary works, and concepts from mythology, religion and philosophy, including the ideas of [[Buddhism]], [[Christianity]], [[Gnosticism]], [[Hinduism]] |
''The Matrix'' draws from and alludes to numerous cinematic and literary works, and concepts from mythology, religion and philosophy, including the ideas of [[Buddhism]], [[Christianity]], [[Gnosticism]], [[Hinduism]] and [[Judaism]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stucky |first=Mark |date=October 2005 |title=He is the One: The Matrix Trilogy's Postmodern Movie Messiah |url=https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1654&context=jrf |journal=The Journal of Religion and Film |volume=9 |issue=2 |access-date=February 21, 2018 |archive-date=November 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124162223/https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1654&context=jrf |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
=== Film and television === |
=== Film and television === |
||
The pods in which the machines keep humans have been compared to images in ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', and the work of [[M. C. Escher]].<ref name="Luddism">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Steven Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC |title=Against Technology. From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism |publisher=CRC Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-97868-2 |page=131 |chapter=Simulacra in ''the Matrix'' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC&q=%22The+Matrix%22+Metropolis+%22M.+C.+Escher%22&pg=PA131}}</ref> A resemblance to the eerie worlds of Swiss artist [[H.R. Giger]] was also recognized.<ref>{{Cite news|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|title=We Are All Living in H.R. Giger's Nightmare|last=Calia|first=Michael|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/05/13/we-are-all-living-in-h-r-gigers-cinematic-nightmare/|access-date=December 23, 2021|archive-date=September 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911072442/http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/05/13/we-are-all-living-in-h-r-gigers-cinematic-nightmare/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=The Pop Mythologist |title=Of sex, death and biomachinery: H. R. Giger's legacy in pop culture |date=May 14, 2014 |url=https://www.popmythology.com/of-sex-death-and-biomachinery-h-r-gigers-legacy-in-pop-culture/ |access-date=December 23, 2021 |archive-date=December 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223213333/https://www.popmythology.com/of-sex-death-and-biomachinery-h-r-gigers-legacy-in-pop-culture/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The pods can be seen in ''[[Welcome to Paradox]]'' Episode 4 "News from D Street" from a 1986 short story<ref>{{cite web |title=Title: The News from D Street |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?42568 |access-date=July 14, 2019 |website= |
The pods in which the machines keep humans have been compared to images in ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', and the work of [[M. C. Escher]].<ref name="Luddism">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Steven Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC |title=Against Technology. From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism |publisher=CRC Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-97868-2 |page=131 |chapter=Simulacra in ''the Matrix'' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC&q=%22The+Matrix%22+Metropolis+%22M.+C.+Escher%22&pg=PA131}}</ref> A resemblance to the eerie worlds of Swiss artist [[H.R. Giger]] was also recognized.<ref>{{Cite news|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|title=We Are All Living in H.R. Giger's Nightmare|last=Calia|first=Michael|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/05/13/we-are-all-living-in-h-r-gigers-cinematic-nightmare/|access-date=December 23, 2021|archive-date=September 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911072442/http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/05/13/we-are-all-living-in-h-r-gigers-cinematic-nightmare/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=The Pop Mythologist |title=Of sex, death and biomachinery: H. R. Giger's legacy in pop culture |date=May 14, 2014 |url=https://www.popmythology.com/of-sex-death-and-biomachinery-h-r-gigers-legacy-in-pop-culture/ |access-date=December 23, 2021 |archive-date=December 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223213333/https://www.popmythology.com/of-sex-death-and-biomachinery-h-r-gigers-legacy-in-pop-culture/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The pods can be seen in ''[[Welcome to Paradox]]'' Episode 4 "News from D Street" from a 1986 short story<ref>{{cite web |title=Title: The News from D Street |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?42568 |access-date=July 14, 2019 |website=isfdb.org |archive-date=December 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220123257/http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?42568 |url-status=live }}</ref> of the same name by [[Andrew Weiner (writer)|Andrew Weiner]] which aired on September 7, 1998, on the [[Syfy (TV channel)|SYFY Channel]] and has a remarkably similar concept. In this episode the hero is unaware he is living in virtual reality until he is told so by "the code man" who created the simulation and enters it knowingly. The Wachowskis have described [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' as a formative cinematic influence, and as a major inspiration on the visual style they aimed for when making ''The Matrix''.<ref name="ebert-wachowskis">{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=The Wachowskis: From "2001" to "The Godfather" to "The Matrix"|date=October 2, 2008|website=[[RogerEbert.com]] |publisher=Ebert Digital LLC|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/the-wachowskis-from-2001-to-the-godfather-to-the-matrix |access-date=September 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306111600/https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/the-wachowskis-from-2001-to-the-godfather-to-the-matrix|archive-date=March 6, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Hemon |first=Aleksandar |title=Beyond the Matrix |url=https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/10/120910fa_fact_hemon |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=September 3, 2012 |access-date=September 4, 2012 |archive-date=July 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707153526/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/10/120910fa_fact_hemon |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kubrick">{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert |date=September 9, 2012 |title=Toronto #3: "Cloud Atlas" and a new silent film |website=[[RogerEbert.com]]|publisher=Ebert Digital LLC|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/toronto-3-cloud-atlas-and-a-new-silent-film |url-status=live |access-date=September 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125214746/https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/toronto-3-cloud-atlas-and-a-new-silent-film |archive-date=January 25, 2021 }}</ref> [[Rainer Werner Fassbinder]]s German TV Miniseries ''[[World on a Wire]]'' from 1973, an adaption of the novel [[Simulacron-3]], served as inspirational source for some details of The Matrix, such as the transfer between the real world and the Matrix-simulation via telephone / phonebooth.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} Reviewers have also commented on similarities between ''The Matrix'' and other late-1990s films such as ''[[Strange Days (film)|Strange Days]]'', ''[[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]]'' and ''[[The Truman Show]]''.<ref name="rogerebert">{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=March 31, 1999 |title=The Matrix |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-matrix-1999 |access-date=September 17, 2012 |website=RogerEbert.com |quote="The Matrix" recycles the premises of "Dark City" and "Strange Days,"... |archive-date=August 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816064423/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-matrix-1999 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=August 17, 2015 |title=''Dark City vs The Matrix'' |url=http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/214/dark-city-vs-the-matrix |access-date=September 18, 2015 |publisher=RetroJunk |archive-date=September 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925092434/http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/214/dark-city-vs-the-matrix |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Tyridal |first=Simon |date=January 28, 2005 |title=''Matrix City: A Photographic Comparison of The Matrix and Dark City'' |url=http://www.electrolund.com/2004/10/matrix-city-a-photographic-comparison-of-the-matrix-and-dark-city/ |access-date=September 18, 2015 |publisher=ElectroLund |archive-date=September 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925103041/http://www.electrolund.com/2004/10/matrix-city-a-photographic-comparison-of-the-matrix-and-dark-city/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="channel4review">{{cite web |title=The Matrix (1999) – Film Review from FilmFour |url=http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=105863 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525142638/http://www.film4.com/reviews/1999/the-matrix |archive-date=May 25, 2010 |access-date=September 17, 2012 |website=[[Film4]] |publisher=[[Channel Four Television Corporation]] |quote=The film is a perfect product of its time. It is a very modern conspiracy thriller, a film based, like The Truman Show, on the appealingly terrifying notion of a universal conspiracy – that life itself and everything that we know and take for granted are lies. It's also a film steeped in the traditionals of Japanese anime and megamixed philosophy and semiotics (spot the Baudrillard references kids).}}</ref><ref name="rowley review">{{cite web |last=Rowley, Stephen |date=June 18, 2003 |title=What Was the Matrix? |url=http://www.sterow.com/?p=229 |access-date=January 9, 2012 |website=sterow.com |quote=The Matrix was the third in a cycle of movies to arrive in the late nineties with a strikingly similar theme. Like its predecessors from the previous year, Dark City and The Truman Show, it tells the story of a seemingly ordinary man who suddenly finds that his whole life is faked: he is trapped in an artificially created environment designed to keep him in submission. Like the heroes of those earlier movies, Keanu Reeves' Neo starts to realise that he is somehow special, and tries to escape the confines of his prison. |archive-date=January 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120004250/http://www.sterow.com/?p=229 |url-status=live }}</ref> The similarity of the film's central concept to a device in the long-running series ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has also been noted. As in the film, the [[Matrix (Doctor Who)|Matrix]] of that series (introduced in the 1976 serial ''[[The Deadly Assassin]]'') is a massive computer system which one enters using a device connecting to the head, allowing users to see representations of the real world and change its laws of physics; but if killed there, they will die in reality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Condon |first=Paul |title=The Matrix Unlocked |date=July 26, 2003 |publisher=Contender Books |isbn=978-1-84357-093-6 |pages=141–3}}</ref> The action scenes of ''The Matrix'' were also strongly influenced by live-action films such as those of director [[John Woo]].<ref name="Wired PK Dick"/> The martial arts sequences were inspired by ''[[Fist of Legend]]'', a critically acclaimed 1995 martial arts film starring [[Jet Li]]. The fight scenes in ''Fist of Legend'' led to the hiring of Yuen as fight choreographer.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fist of Legend |url=http://www.bigbearacademy.com/fist-of-legend.html |access-date=December 13, 2012 |publisher=Bigbearacademy.com |archive-date=March 29, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329150626/https://www.bigbearacademy.com/fist-of-legend.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Colman |first=Dan |date=October 7, 2011 |title=The Matrix: What Went Into The Mix |url=http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/the_matrix_what_went_into_the_mix.html |access-date=December 13, 2012 |publisher=Open Culture |archive-date=December 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218213249/http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/the_matrix_what_went_into_the_mix.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for [[anime|Japanese animation]] such as ''[[Ninja Scroll]]'' and ''[[Akira (1988 film)|Akira]]''.<ref name="Wachowski transcript">{{cite web |date=November 6, 1999 |title=Matrix Virtual Theatre |url=http://www.warnervideo.com/matrixevents/wachowski.html |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=Warnervideo.com |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]]|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006041445/http://www.warnervideo.com/matrixevents/wachowski.html|archive-date=October 6, 2012|url-status=dead|at=Interview with the Wachowski Brothers |quote=We liked Ghost in the Shell and the Ninja Scroll and Akira in anime. One thing that they do that we tried to bring to our film was a juxtaposition of time and space in action beats.}}</ref> Director [[Mamoru Oshii]]'s 1995 animated film ''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]'' was a particularly strong influence;<ref name="Wachowski transcript" |
The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for [[anime|Japanese animation]] such as ''[[Ninja Scroll]]'' and ''[[Akira (1988 film)|Akira]]''.<ref name="Wachowski transcript">{{cite web |date=November 6, 1999 |title=Matrix Virtual Theatre |url=http://www.warnervideo.com/matrixevents/wachowski.html |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=Warnervideo.com |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]]|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006041445/http://www.warnervideo.com/matrixevents/wachowski.html|archive-date=October 6, 2012|url-status=dead|at=Interview with the Wachowski Brothers |quote=We liked Ghost in the Shell and the Ninja Scroll and Akira in anime. One thing that they do that we tried to bring to our film was a juxtaposition of time and space in action beats.}}</ref> Director [[Mamoru Oshii]]'s 1995 animated film ''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]'' was a particularly strong influence;<ref name="Wachowski transcript"/> producer [[Joel Silver]] has stated that the Wachowskis first described their intentions for ''The Matrix'' by showing him that anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real".<ref name="silver-anime-1">{{Cite AV media |title=The Animatrix |date=June 3, 2003 |last=Jones Andrew; Morimoto, Kôji; Maeda, Mahiro; Chung, Peter; Watanabe, Shinichirô |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |at=Scrolls to Screen: A Brief History of Anime featurette |medium=DVD}}</ref><ref name="silver-anime-2">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ |title=The Matrix |date=September 21, 1999 |last=Wachowski, Larry (Director); Wachowski, Andy (Director) |publisher=[[Warner Bros. Pictures]] |place=United States |at=Making The Matrix featurette |medium=DVD |access-date=July 21, 2018 |archive-date=June 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604170709/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Mitsuhisa Ishikawa]] of [[Production I.G]], which produced ''Ghost in the Shell'', noted that the anime's high-quality visuals were a strong source of inspiration for the Wachowskis. He also commented, "...{{nbsp}}cyberpunk films are very difficult to describe to a third person. I'd imagine that ''The Matrix'' is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios". He stated that since ''Ghost in the Shell'' had gained recognition in America, the Wachowskis used it as a "promotional tool".<ref name="south bank show">{{Cite episode |title=Manga Mania |series=[[The South Bank Show]] |network=[[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] |airdate=February 19, 2006}}</ref> |
||
=== Literary works === |
=== Literary works === |
||
The film makes several references to [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''.<ref name="Salon review" |
The film makes several references to [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''.<ref name="Salon review"/> Comparisons have also been made to [[Grant Morrison]]'s comic series ''[[The Invisibles]]'', with Morrison describing it in 2011 as "(it) seemed to me (to be) my own combination of ideas enacted on the screen".<ref name="supergods">{{Cite book |last=Morrison |first=Grant |title=Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero |publisher=[[Random House]]/[[Jonathan Cape]] |year=2011 |location=London |page=315 |quote=I was taken to see ''The Matrix'' ... and saw what seemed to me my own combination of ideas enacted on the screen: fetish clothes, bald heads, kung fu, and magic, witnessing the Gnostic invasion of the Hollywood mainstream. |author-link=Grant Morrison}}</ref> Comparisons have also been made between ''The Matrix'' and the books of [[Carlos Castaneda]].<ref>{{cite web |date=December 4, 2006 |title=Matrix and Carlos Castaneda |url=http://www.consciencia.org/castaneda/castaneda-matrix.html |access-date=January 29, 2012 |publisher=Consciencia.org |archive-date=January 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118092655/http://www.consciencia.org/castaneda/castaneda-matrix.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
''The Matrix'' belongs to the [[cyberpunk]] genre of science fiction, and draws from earlier works in the genre such as the 1984 novel ''[[Neuromancer]]'' by [[William Gibson]].<ref name="williamgibson" |
''The Matrix'' belongs to the [[cyberpunk]] genre of science fiction, and draws from earlier works in the genre such as the 1984 novel ''[[Neuromancer]]'' by [[William Gibson]].<ref name="williamgibson"/> For example, the film's use of the term "Matrix" is adopted from Gibson's novel,<ref name="Neuromancer Natali interview">{{cite web |last=Leiren-Young, Mark |date=January 6, 2012 |title=Is William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' the Future of Movies? |url=https://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2012/01/06/Neuromancer-Movie/ |access-date=January 16, 2012 |website=[[The Tyee]] |quote=One of the obstacles in the selling of this movie to the industry at large is that everyone says, 'Oh, well, ''The Matrix'' did it already.' Because ''The Matrix'' – the very word 'matrix' – is taken from ''Neuromancer'', they stole that word, I can't use it in our movie. |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221140035/https://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2012/01/06/Neuromancer-Movie/ |url-status=live }}</ref> though [[L. P. Davies]] had already used the term "Matrix" fifteen years earlier for a similar concept in his 1969 novel ''[[The White Room (novel)|The White Room]]'' ("It had been tried in the States some years earlier, but their 'matrix' as they called it hadn't been strong enough to hold the fictional character in place").<ref>L. P. Davies. ''The White Room.'' Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1969. Page 168.</ref> After watching ''The Matrix'', Gibson commented that the way that the film's creators had drawn from existing cyberpunk works was "exactly the kind of creative cultural osmosis" he had relied upon in his own writing;<ref name="williamgibson"/> however, he noted that the film's [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] themes distinguished it from ''Neuromancer'', and believed that ''The Matrix'' was thematically closer to the work of science fiction author [[Philip K. Dick]], particularly Dick's speculative ''Exegesis''.<ref name="williamgibson"/> Other writers have also commented on the similarities between ''The Matrix'' and Dick's work;<ref name="Wired PK Dick">{{Cite magazine |last=Rose |first=Frank |date=December 2003 |title=The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick |url=https://www.wired.com/2003/12/philip/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=December 4, 2012 |quote=His influence is pervasive in The Matrix and its sequels, which present the world we know as nothing more than an information grid; Dick articulated the concept in a 1977 speech in which he posited the existence of multiple realities overlapping the "matrix world" that most of us experience. ... They probably don't realize that the Matrixseries [sic] contains almost as many references to Woo as to Dick. (Fluttering pigeons heralding a fight, a shooter with two guns blazing – pure Woo.) |archive-date=June 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626105115/https://www.wired.com/2003/12/philip/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Zenko |first=Darren |date=April 29, 2007 |title=Not another Philip K. Dick movie |work=The Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/208471 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-date=April 17, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417074054/http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/208471 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Axmaker |first=Sean |date=June 25, 2002 |title=Philip K. Dick's dark dreams still fodder for films |work=Seattle Post Intelligencer |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/movies/76011_dick26.shtml |quote=Even the seeds of his concepts, however, sprout resonant ideas that the biggest special effects can't destroy, and they have pollinated the creative ground of many other films, from the moral quandaries posed by technology in "The 6th Day" to the paranoia and sanity-threatening conspiracies of "The Truman Show" and "The Matrix." |access-date=February 14, 2011 |archive-date=March 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318170241/https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/movies/article/Philip-K-Dick-s-dark-dreams-still-fodder-for-1089996.php |url-status=live }}</ref> one example of such influence is a Philip K. Dick's 1977 conference, in which he stated: "We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in our reality occurs".<ref>{{cite web |last=South Berkshire Research Institute |date=August 23, 2015 |title=Author Philip K. Dick – "We are living in a computer-programmed reality{{nbsp}}..." |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q01Om0r1ZPY |access-date=March 15, 2017 |via=YouTube |archive-date=October 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003061314/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q01Om0r1ZPY |url-status=dead }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=theduderinok2 |date=June 26, 2010 |title=Did Philip K. Dick disclose the real Matrix in 1977? |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111022200040/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=October 22, 2011 | url-status=dead|access-date=March 15, 2017 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Philip K. Dick Theorizes The Matrix in 1977, Declares That We Live in "A Computer-Programmed Reality" |url=http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/philip-k-dick-theorizes-the-matrix-in-1977-declares-that-we-live-in-a-computer-programmed-reality.html |access-date=March 15, 2017 |website=openculture.com |archive-date=March 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315013334/http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/philip-k-dick-theorizes-the-matrix-in-1977-declares-that-we-live-in-a-computer-programmed-reality.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wagner |first=David |title=Building A Digital Worm Is Harder (And More Important) Than You Might Think |url=http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/feb/11/building-a-digital-worm-is-harder-than-you-think/ |access-date=March 15, 2017 |website=kpbs.org |date=February 11, 2014 |archive-date=March 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314171745/http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/feb/11/building-a-digital-worm-is-harder-than-you-think/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
=== Philosophy === |
=== Philosophy === |
||
In ''The Matrix'', a copy of [[Jean Baudrillard]]'s philosophical work ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'', which was published in French in 1981, is visible on-screen as [[Concealing objects in a book|"the book used to conceal]] disks",<ref name="Jamie Allen" |
In ''The Matrix'', a copy of [[Jean Baudrillard]]'s philosophical work ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'', which was published in French in 1981, is visible on-screen as [[Concealing objects in a book|"the book used to conceal]] disks",<ref name="Jamie Allen"/><ref name="Simulacra"/> and Morpheus quotes the phrase "desert of the real" from it.<ref name="Poole Baudrillard">{{cite web |last=Poole |first=Steven |date=March 7, 2007 |title=Obituary: Jean Baudrillard |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/mar/07/guardianobituaries.france |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=Guardian.co.uk |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]] |archive-date=May 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511020223/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/mar/07/guardianobituaries.france |url-status=live }} The term "desert of the real" first originated from [[Jorge Luis Borges]]' short story "[[On Exactitude in Science]]" (1946), which Baudrillard references in his essay.</ref> "The book was required reading"<ref name="Jamie Allen"/> for the actors prior to filming.<ref name="Simulacra"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Jobs |first=Post |date=March 14, 2007 |title=Remember Baudrillard |url=http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee135 |access-date=January 29, 2012 |website=Inside Higher Ed |archive-date=February 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211225117/https://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee135 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Baudrillard himself said that ''The Matrix'' misunderstands and distorts his work.<ref name="Poole Baudrillard"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Le Nouvel Observateur with Baudrillard |url=http://www.empyree.org/divers/Matrix-Baudrillard_english.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113012028/http://www.empyree.org/divers/Matrix-Baudrillard_english.html |archive-date=January 13, 2008 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |website=Le Nouvel Observateur}}</ref> Some interpreters of ''The Matrix'' mention Baudrillard's philosophy to support their claim "that the [film] is an [[allegory]] for contemporary experience in a heavily commercialized, media-driven society, especially in developed countries".<ref name="Jamie Allen"/> The influence of ''[[The Matrixial Gaze]]'', the philosophical-psychoanalytical concept of [[Bracha L. Ettinger]] on the archaic matrixial space that resists the field of simulacra,<ref>Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg, The Matrixial Gaze, Leeds University 1995.</ref><ref>Ettinger, Bracha L., The Matrixial Borderspace. [Selected Essays from 1994-1999). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.</ref><ref>Ettinger, Bracha L., Matrixial Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Ethics. Vol I : 1990-2000. Edited with Introductions by Griselda Pollock. Pelgrave Macmillan, 2020.</ref> "was brought to the public's attention through the writings of art historians such as [[Griselda Pollock]] and film theorists such as Heinz-Peter Schwerfel".<ref>Schwerfel, Heinz-Peter, Kino und Kunst. Koln: Dumont, 2003.</ref><ref name="Jamie Allen"/> In addition to Baudrillard and Ettinger, the Wachowskis were also significantly influenced by [[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]]'s ''[[Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World]]'', and [[Dylan Evans]]'s ideas on [[evolutionary psychology]].<ref name="Screenplay"/> |
||
Philosopher [[William Irwin (philosopher)|William Irwin]] suggests that the idea of the "Matrix" – a generated reality invented by malicious machines – is an allusion to [[Descartes]]' "[[First Meditation]]", and his idea of an [[evil demon]]. The Meditation hypothesizes that the perceived world might be a comprehensive illusion created to deceive us.<ref name="Salon philosophy">{{cite web |last=Miller, Laura |date=December 5, 2002 |title="The Matrix and Philosophy" by William Irwin, ed. |url=http://www.salon.com/2002/12/05/matrix_2/ |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |archive-date=March 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328194611/https://www.salon.com/2002/12/05/matrix_2/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The same premise can be found in [[Hilary Putnam]]'s [[brain in a vat]] scenario proposed in the 1980s.<ref name="Salon philosophy" |
Philosopher [[William Irwin (philosopher)|William Irwin]] suggests that the idea of the "Matrix" – a generated reality invented by malicious machines – is an allusion to [[Descartes]]' "[[First Meditation]]", and his idea of an [[evil demon]]. The Meditation hypothesizes that the perceived world might be a comprehensive illusion created to deceive us.<ref name="Salon philosophy">{{cite web |last=Miller, Laura |date=December 5, 2002 |title="The Matrix and Philosophy" by William Irwin, ed. |url=http://www.salon.com/2002/12/05/matrix_2/ |access-date=November 15, 2012 |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |archive-date=March 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328194611/https://www.salon.com/2002/12/05/matrix_2/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The same premise can be found in [[Hilary Putnam]]'s [[brain in a vat]] scenario proposed in the 1980s.<ref name="Salon philosophy"/> A connection between the premise of ''The Matrix'' and [[Plato]]'s [[Allegory of the Cave]] has also been suggested. The allegory is related to Plato's [[theory of Forms]], which holds that the true essence of an object is not what we perceive with our senses, but rather its quality, and that most people perceive only the shadow of the object and are thus limited to false perception.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> |
||
The philosophy of [[Immanuel Kant]] has also been claimed as another influence on the film, and in particular how individuals within the Matrix interact with one another and with the system. Kant states in his ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' that people come to know and explore our world through synthetic means (language, etc.), and thus this makes it rather difficult to discern truth from falsely perceived views. This means people are their own agents of deceit, and so in order for them to know truth, they must choose to openly pursue truth. This idea can be examined in Agent Smith's monologue about the first version of the Matrix, which was designed as a human [[utopia]], a perfect world without suffering and with total happiness. Agent Smith explains that, "it was a disaster. No one accepted the program. Entire crops [of people] were lost." The machines had to amend their choice of programming in order to make people subservient to them, and so they conceived the Matrix in the image of the world in 1999. The world in 1999 was far from a utopia, but still humans accepted this over the suffering-less utopia. According to William Irwin this is Kantian, because the machines wished to impose a perfect world on humans in an attempt to keep people content, so that they would remain completely submissive to the machines, both consciously and subconsciously, but humans were not easy to make content.<ref>Irwin, William. "We Are (the) One!" ''The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real''. Chicago: Open Court, 2002. 138–54. Print.</ref> |
The philosophy of [[Immanuel Kant]] has also been claimed as another influence on the film, and in particular how individuals within the Matrix interact with one another and with the system. Kant states in his ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' that people come to know and explore our world through synthetic means (language, etc.), and thus this makes it rather difficult to discern truth from falsely perceived views. This means people are their own agents of deceit, and so in order for them to know truth, they must choose to openly pursue truth. This idea can be examined in Agent Smith's monologue about the first version of the Matrix, which was designed as a human [[utopia]], a perfect world without suffering and with total happiness. Agent Smith explains that, "it was a disaster. No one accepted the program. Entire crops [of people] were lost." The machines had to amend their choice of programming in order to make people subservient to them, and so they conceived the Matrix in the image of the world in 1999. The world in 1999 was far from a utopia, but still humans accepted this over the suffering-less utopia. According to William Irwin this is Kantian, because the machines wished to impose a perfect world on humans in an attempt to keep people content, so that they would remain completely submissive to the machines, both consciously and subconsciously, but humans were not easy to make content.<ref>Irwin, William. "We Are (the) One!" ''The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real''. Chicago: Open Court, 2002. 138–54. Print.</ref> |
||
=== Religion and mythology === |
=== Religion and mythology === |
||
Andrew Godoski sees allusions to [[Christ]], including Neo's "[[Miraculous births|virgin birth]]", his doubt in himself, the prophecy of his coming, along with many other [[Christianity|Christian]] references.<ref name="Influence Screened" |
Andrew Godoski sees allusions to [[Christ]], including Neo's "[[Miraculous births|virgin birth]]", his doubt in himself, the prophecy of his coming, along with many other [[Christianity|Christian]] references.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Amongst these possible allusions, it is suggested that the name of the character [[Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity]] refers to Christianity's doctrine of the [[Trinity]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Babenko |first=Yelyzaveta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPY--YwYmMgC |title=Analysis of the film "The Matrix" |publisher=GRIN Verlag |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-640-91285-8 |location=Munich |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XPY--YwYmMgC&pg=PA6&dq=%22In+Christian+Theology+there+are+three+entities+forming+a+single+God:+Father,+Son+and+Holy+Spirit,+this+is+The+trinity+of+God%22 6]}}</ref> It has also been noted that the character Morpheus paraphrases the Chinese [[Taoist]] philosopher [[Zhuang Zhou|Zhuangzi]] when he asks Neo, "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference from the real world and the dream world?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toropov |first=Brandon |url=https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu00toro_1/page/241 |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taoism |publisher=The Penguin Group |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-02-864262-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu00toro_1/page/241 241] |url-access=registration}}</ref> |
||
[[Matrixism]] is a fan-based possibly satirical religion created as "the matrix religion". |
[[Matrixism]] is a fan-based possibly satirical religion created as "the matrix religion". |
||
=== Transgender themes === |
=== Transgender themes === |
||
Years after the release of ''The Matrix'', both of the Wachowskis came out as [[transgender]] [[trans woman|women]].<ref name="TransMasterpiece">{{cite web |last=Pitre |first=Jake |date=March 27, 2019 |title=How ''The Matrix'' Has Gone from Men's Rights Dream to Formative Trans Masterpiece |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-the-matrix-has-gone-from-mens-rights-dream-to-formative-trans-masterpiece |access-date=April 1, 2019 |website=SyFy Wire |language=en |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401102609/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-the-matrix-has-gone-from-mens-rights-dream-to-formative-trans-masterpiece |url-status=live }}</ref> The red pill has been compared with red [[estrogen]] pills.<ref name="Vulture">{{cite web |last=Chu |first=Andrea Long |date=February 7, 2019 |title=What We Can Learn About Gender From ''The Matrix'' |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/what-the-matrix-can-teach-us-about-gender.html |access-date=April 1, 2019 |website= |
Years after the release of ''The Matrix'', both of the Wachowskis came out as [[transgender]] [[trans woman|women]].<ref name="TransMasterpiece">{{cite web |last=Pitre |first=Jake |date=March 27, 2019 |title=How ''The Matrix'' Has Gone from Men's Rights Dream to Formative Trans Masterpiece |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-the-matrix-has-gone-from-mens-rights-dream-to-formative-trans-masterpiece |access-date=April 1, 2019 |website=SyFy Wire |language=en |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401102609/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-the-matrix-has-gone-from-mens-rights-dream-to-formative-trans-masterpiece |url-status=live }}</ref> The red pill has been compared with red [[estrogen]] pills.<ref name="Vulture">{{cite web |last=Chu |first=Andrea Long |date=February 7, 2019 |title=What We Can Learn About Gender From ''The Matrix'' |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/what-the-matrix-can-teach-us-about-gender.html |access-date=April 1, 2019 |website=vulture.com |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401072332/https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/what-the-matrix-can-teach-us-about-gender.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Morpheus's description of the Matrix creating a sense that something is fundamentally wrong, "like a splinter in your mind", has been compared to [[gender dysphoria]].<ref name="Vulture"/> In the original script, Switch was a woman in the Matrix and a man in the real world, but this idea was removed.<ref>{{cite web |last=Guida |first=Matthew |date=January 7, 2018 |title=The Matrix: 15 Dark Behind-The-Scenes Secrets |url=https://screenrant.com/matrix-dark-behind-the-scenes-secrets/ |access-date=April 1, 2019 |website=ScreenRant |language=en-US |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401072333/https://screenrant.com/matrix-dark-behind-the-scenes-secrets/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
In a 2016 [[GLAAD Media Award]]s speech, Lilly Wachowski said: "There's a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I's |
In a 2016 [[GLAAD Media Award]]s speech, Lilly Wachowski said: "There's a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I's {{sic}} work through the lens of our transness. This is a cool thing because it's an excellent reminder that art is never static."<ref>{{cite web |last=Lachenal |title=lilly wachowski encourages viewers to reconsider 'the matrix' through the lens of transness |date=April 4, 2016 |url=https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/43vmvp/lilly-wachowski-encourages-viewers-to-reconsider-the-matrix-through-the-lens-of-transness |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401072355/https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/43vmvp/lilly-wachowski-encourages-viewers-to-reconsider-the-matrix-through-the-lens-of-transness |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2020, Lilly said ''The Matrix'' was intended as an allegory for gender transition, but that "the corporate world wasn't ready".<ref name="trans-metaphor"/> She said it was "all about the desire for transformation but it was all coming from a closeted point of view", but that she did not know "how present my transness was in the background of my brain" when the Wachowskis were writing it.<ref name="trans-metaphor">{{Cite news |date=August 7, 2020 |title=The Matrix is a 'trans metaphor', Lilly Wachowski says |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53692435 |access-date=November 25, 2020 |archive-date=February 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203075310/https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53692435 |url-status=live }}</ref> In an interview with ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', Reeves said he did not know the film was an allegory for transgender identity during production.<ref name="reeves' awareness">{{Cite news |date=August 26, 2020 |title=Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter on How the Beatles Secretly Helped 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' (Watch) |language=en-GB |work=Variety |url=https://variety.com/2020/film/podcasts/keanu-reeves-alex-winter-bill-ted-face-the-music-1234748438/ |access-date=August 5, 2020 |archive-date=August 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200826175728/https://variety.com/2020/film/podcasts/keanu-reeves-alex-winter-bill-ted-face-the-music-1234748438/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
== Legacy == |
== Legacy == |
||
===Filmmaking=== |
===Filmmaking=== |
||
Following ''The Matrix'', films made abundant use of slow |
Following ''The Matrix'', films made abundant use of slow motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the [[bullet time]] effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera dollying around them.<ref name="Lane City of God">{{Cite magazine |last=Lane |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Lane |date=January 20, 2003 |title=The Current Cinema: Trouble in the Streets |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/01/20/030120crci_cinema |access-date=December 4, 2012 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |quote=What I think of as the "Matrix" shot, a lone figure frozen while the camera circles around him, has travelled quickly from novelty to cliché, but Meirelles just about keeps it alive by using it to track the passage of time. |archive-date=December 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212135218/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/01/20/030120crci_cinema |url-status=live }}</ref> The ability to slow down time enough to distinguish the motion of bullets was used as a central gameplay mechanic of several video games, including ''[[Max Payne (video game)|Max Payne]]'', in which the feature was explicitly referred to as "bullet time".<ref name="Influence BBC"/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Max Payne: Official Police Dossier (game manual) |year=2001 |series=PC CD ROM version |page=19 |chapter=The Game World: Bullet Time |quote=When pressed into a tight spot, Max can activate Bullet Time, which will slow the action around him, while allowing him to aim his weapons in real-time. This ... even allows Max to dodge oncoming bullets.}}</ref><!-- although the game went into production before the film was released.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} --> It was also the defining game mechanic of the game ''[[Superhot]]'' and its sequels. ''The Matrix''{{'}}s signature special effect, and other aspects of the film, have been [[parody|parodied]] numerous times,<ref name="Influence EW2"/> in comedy films such as ''[[Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo]]'' (1999),<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=May 26, 2000 |title=Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/au/deuce-bigalow-male-gigolo-review/ |url-status=live |magazine=Total Film |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909233538/https://www.gamesradar.com/au/deuce-bigalow-male-gigolo-review/ |archive-date=September 9, 2021 |access-date=September 10, 2021 }}</ref> ''[[Scary Movie]]'' (2000),<ref>{{cite web |last=Dinning, Mark |date=January 2000 |title=Scary Movie |url=https://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=6152 |access-date=December 26, 2012 |website=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire Online]] |publisher=[[Bauer Media Group|Bauer Consumer Media]] |archive-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526073857/http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=6152 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Shrek]]'' (2001),<ref name="Influence BBC"/> ''[[Kung Pow! Enter the Fist]]'' (2002),<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Schwarzbaum |first=Lisa |date=January 30, 2002 |title=Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist |url=https://ew.com/article/2002/01/30/kung-pow-enter-fist/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218005415/https://ew.com/article/2002/01/30/kung-pow-enter-fist/ |archive-date=February 18, 2020 |access-date=September 10, 2021 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |publisher=Time Warner }}</ref> ''[[Lastikman (2003 film)|Lastikman]]'' (2003); ''[[Marx Reloaded]]'' in which the relationship between Neo and Morpheus is represented as an imaginary encounter between [[Karl Marx]] and [[Leon Trotsky]];<ref>{{cite web|last=Korsic|first=Nemanja|date=May 26, 2011|title=Marx Enters the Matrix|url=https://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/marx-enters-the-matrix/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418182415/https://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/marx-enters-the-matrix/|archive-date=April 18, 2015|access-date=September 10, 2021|website=Greek Left Project}}</ref> <!-- in animated TV series such as ''[[The Simpsons]]'',{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]''{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} and ''[[Family Guy]]'';{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} in the [[Original video animation|OVA]] series ''[[FLCL]]'';{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} --> and in video games such as ''[[Conker's Bad Fur Day]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Casamassina |first=Matt |date=March 2, 2001 |title=Conker's Bad Fur Day |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/03/03/conkers-bad-fur-day |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130222032943/http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/03/03/conkers-bad-fur-day |archive-date=February 22, 2013 |access-date=December 30, 2012 |website=[[IGN]] }}</ref> It also inspired films featuring a black-clad hero, a sexy yet deadly heroine, and bullets ripping slowly through the air;<ref name="Influence EW2"/> these included ''[[Charlie's Angels (2000 film)|Charlie's Angels]]'' (2000) featuring [[Cameron Diaz]] floating through the air while the cameras flo-mo around her; ''[[Equilibrium (film)|Equilibrium]]'' (2002), starring [[Christian Bale]], whose character wore long black leather coats like Reeves' Neo;<ref name="Influence BBC"/> ''[[Night Watch (2004 film)|Night Watch]]'' (2004), a [[Russia]]n megahit heavily influenced by ''The Matrix'' and directed by [[Timur Bekmambetov]], who later made ''[[Wanted (2008 film)|Wanted]]'' (2008), which also features bullets ripping through air; and ''[[Inception]]'' (2010), which centers on a team of sharply dressed rogues who are able to enter other people's dreams by "wiring in". The original ''[[Tron]]'' (1982) paved the way for ''The Matrix'', and ''The Matrix'', in turn, inspired [[Disney]] to make its own Matrix with a ''Tron'' sequel, ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' (2010).<ref name="Influence EW">{{cite magazine |last=Vary |first=Adam |date=April 1, 2011 |title='The Matrix': A Groundbreaking Cyberthriller |url=https://ew.com/article/2011/04/01/matrix-groundbreaking-cyberthriller/ |access-date=June 7, 2020 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |archive-date=June 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607190138/https://ew.com/article/2011/04/01/matrix-groundbreaking-cyberthriller/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Also, the film's lobby shootout sequence was recreated in the 2002 Indian action comedy ''[[Awara Paagal Deewana]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=20 Years Of 'The Matrix': 5 Times Bollywood Got Inspired By It |date=March 31, 2019 |url=https://www.news18.com/news/movies/20-years-of-the-matrix-5-times-bollywood-got-inspired-by-it-2083183.html |website=[[News18]] |access-date=May 17, 2019 |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401134943/https://www.news18.com/news/movies/20-years-of-the-matrix-5-times-bollywood-got-inspired-by-it-2083183.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
===Choreographers and actors=== |
===Choreographers and actors=== |
||
''The Matrix'' had a strong effect on action filmmaking in Hollywood. The film's incorporation of [[wire fu]] techniques, including the involvement of [[fight choreography|fight choreographer]] [[Yuen Woo-ping]] and other personnel with a background in [[Hong Kong action cinema]], affected the approaches to fight scenes taken by some subsequent Hollywood action films,<ref name="xmen">{{Cite magazine |last=Jensen, Jeff |date=July 21, 2000 |title=Generating ''X'' |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |publisher=Time Warner |url=https:// |
''The Matrix'' had a strong effect on action filmmaking in Hollywood. The film's incorporation of [[wire fu]] techniques, including the involvement of [[fight choreography|fight choreographer]] [[Yuen Woo-ping]] and other personnel with a background in [[Hong Kong action cinema]], affected the approaches to fight scenes taken by some subsequent Hollywood action films,<ref name="xmen">{{Cite magazine |last=Jensen, Jeff |date=July 21, 2000 |title=Generating ''X'' |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |publisher=Time Warner |url=https://ew.com/article/2000/07/21/x-men-0/ |access-date=December 31, 2008 |quote=There was also debate over the style of the film's fight sequences, thanks to the new standard set by The Matrix, which hit while X-Men was in pre-production. Hence, the movie features some high-flying Matrix-y martial-arts choreography by Corey Yuen ([[Romeo Must Die]]). |archive-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505040519/http://ew.com/article/2000/07/21/x-men-0 |url-status=live }}</ref> moving them towards more Eastern approaches.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> The success of ''The Matrix'' created high demand for those choreographers and their techniques from other filmmakers, who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, wire work was employed in ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' (2000)<ref name="xmen"/> and ''[[Charlie's Angels (2000 film)|Charlie's Angels]]'' (2000),<ref name="Influence EW"/> and Yuen Woo-ping's brother [[Yuen Cheung-yan]] was choreographer on ''[[Daredevil (film)|Daredevil]]'' (2003).<ref>{{cite web|last=Reid|first=Craig|title=From Angels to Devils|url=https://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=364|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224024903/http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=364|archive-date=February 24, 2020|access-date=September 10, 2021|website=[[Kung Fu Magazine]]|publisher=TC Media, Inc}}</ref> ''The Matrix''{{'}}s Asian approach to action scenes also created an audience for Asian action films such as ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]'' (2000) that they might not otherwise have had.<ref name="Influence BBC">{{Cite news |last=Dowling, Stephen |date=May 21, 2003 |title=Under The Matrix influence |work=BBC.co.uk |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3028249.stm |access-date=December 22, 2012 |archive-date=March 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330103051/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3028249.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
Chad Stahelski, who had been a stunt double on ''The Matrix'' prior to directing Reeves in the [[John Wick|''John Wick'' series]], acknowledged the film's strong influence on the ''Wick'' films,<ref>{{cite web |last=Vineyard |first=Jennifer |date=March 25, 2019 |title=The Matrix's stunt coordinators and choreographers reveal how the iconic fight scenes were made |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-matrixs-stunt-coordinators-and-choreographers-reveal-how-the-iconic-fight-scenes-were |access-date=October 9, 2019 |website=[[Syfy Wire]] |archive-date=December 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222220829/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-matrixs-stunt-coordinators-and-choreographers-reveal-how-the-iconic-fight-scenes-were |url-status=live }}</ref> and commented, "''The Matrix'' literally changed the industry. The influx of martial-arts choreographers and fight coordinators now make more, and are more prevalent and powerful in the industry, than stunt coordinators. ''The Matrix'' revolutionized that. Today, action movies want their big sequences designed around the fights."<ref>{{cite web |last=Ebiri |first=Bilge |date=February 4, 2019 |title=Neo's Stunt Guy Chad Stahelski on How The Matrix Changed Movie Action Forever |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/neo-stunt-double-on-how-the-matrix-changed-action-forever.html |access-date=October 9, 2019 |website=[[New York (magazine)|Vulture]] |publisher=New York Media, LLC |archive-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315122253/https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/neo-stunt-double-on-how-the-matrix-changed-action-forever.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
Chad Stahelski, who had been a stunt double on ''The Matrix'' prior to directing Reeves in the [[John Wick|''John Wick'' series]], acknowledged the film's strong influence on the ''Wick'' films,<ref>{{cite web |last=Vineyard |first=Jennifer |date=March 25, 2019 |title=The Matrix's stunt coordinators and choreographers reveal how the iconic fight scenes were made |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-matrixs-stunt-coordinators-and-choreographers-reveal-how-the-iconic-fight-scenes-were |access-date=October 9, 2019 |website=[[Syfy Wire]] |archive-date=December 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222220829/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-matrixs-stunt-coordinators-and-choreographers-reveal-how-the-iconic-fight-scenes-were |url-status=live }}</ref> and commented, "''The Matrix'' literally changed the industry. The influx of martial-arts choreographers and fight coordinators now make more, and are more prevalent and powerful in the industry, than stunt coordinators. ''The Matrix'' revolutionized that. Today, action movies want their big sequences designed around the fights."<ref>{{cite web |last=Ebiri |first=Bilge |date=February 4, 2019 |title=Neo's Stunt Guy Chad Stahelski on How The Matrix Changed Movie Action Forever |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/neo-stunt-double-on-how-the-matrix-changed-action-forever.html |access-date=October 9, 2019 |website=[[New York (magazine)|Vulture]] |publisher=New York Media, LLC |archive-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315122253/https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/neo-stunt-double-on-how-the-matrix-changed-action-forever.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
[[Carrie-Anne Moss]] asserted that prior to being cast in ''The Matrix'', she had "no career". It launched Moss into international recognition and transformed her career; in a ''[[New York Daily News]]'' interview, she stated, "''The Matrix'' gave me so many opportunities. Everything I've done since then has been because of that experience. It gave me so much".<ref name="cany">{{cite web |date=June 8, 2007 |title=She's walked with a zombie |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/walked-zombie-article-1.220372 |access-date=June 11, 2018 |website=New York Daily News |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140016/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/walked-zombie-article-1.220372 |url-status=live }}</ref> The film also created one of the most devoted movie fan-followings since ''[[Star Wars]]''.<ref name="Influence EW2" |
[[Carrie-Anne Moss]] asserted that prior to being cast in ''The Matrix'', she had "no career". It launched Moss into international recognition and transformed her career; in a ''[[New York Daily News]]'' interview, she stated, "''The Matrix'' gave me so many opportunities. Everything I've done since then has been because of that experience. It gave me so much".<ref name="cany">{{cite web |date=June 8, 2007 |title=She's walked with a zombie |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/walked-zombie-article-1.220372 |access-date=June 11, 2018 |website=New York Daily News |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140016/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/walked-zombie-article-1.220372 |url-status=live }}</ref> The film also created one of the most devoted movie fan-followings since ''[[Star Wars]]''.<ref name="Influence EW2"/> The combined success of the ''Matrix'' trilogy, the [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''Lord of the Rings'' films]] and the [[Prequel trilogy|''Star Wars'' prequels]] made Hollywood interested in creating trilogies.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Stephen Dowling from the [[BBC]] noted that ''The Matrix''{{'}}s success in taking complex philosophical ideas and presenting them in ways palatable for impressionable minds might be its most influential aspect.<ref name="Influence BBC"/> |
||
===Cultural impact=== |
===Cultural impact=== |
||
Line 297: | Line 297: | ||
===Modern reception=== |
===Modern reception=== |
||
In 2001, ''The Matrix'' placed 66th in the [[American Film Institute]]'s "[[AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills|100 Years...100 Thrills]]" list.<ref name="AFIThrills">{{Cite press release |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills |date=June 21, 2001 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/thrills400.pdf |access-date=April 14, 2011 |archive-date=August 13, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050813100710/http://www.afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/thrills400.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2007, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' called ''The Matrix'' the best science-fiction piece of media for the past 25 years.<ref name="Genre's Best">{{Cite magazine |last=Jensen |first=Jeff |date=May 7, 2007 |title=The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since '82 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |url=https://ew.com/article/2008/12/12/sci-fi-25-best-82/ |access-date=May 7, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070508042743/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036782_20037403_20037541_25,00.html |archive-date=May 8, 2007}}</ref> In 2009, the film was ranked 39th on ''[[Empire ( |
In 2001, ''The Matrix'' placed 66th in the [[American Film Institute]]'s "[[AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills|100 Years...100 Thrills]]" list.<ref name="AFIThrills">{{Cite press release |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills |date=June 21, 2001 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/thrills400.pdf |access-date=April 14, 2011 |archive-date=August 13, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050813100710/http://www.afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/thrills400.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2007, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' called ''The Matrix'' the best science-fiction piece of media for the past 25 years.<ref name="Genre's Best">{{Cite magazine |last=Jensen |first=Jeff |date=May 7, 2007 |title=The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since '82 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |url=https://ew.com/article/2008/12/12/sci-fi-25-best-82/ |access-date=May 7, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070508042743/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036782_20037403_20037541_25,00.html |archive-date=May 8, 2007}}</ref> In 2009, the film was ranked 39th on ''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]''{{'}}s reader-, actor- and critic-voted list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".<ref>{{cite web |title=Empire Features |url=https://www.empireonline.com/500/89.asp |access-date=December 13, 2009 |website=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire Online]] |publisher=[[Bauer Media Group|Bauer Consumer Media]] |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924011921/http://www.empireonline.com/500/89.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> ''The Matrix'' was voted as the fourth best science fiction film in the 2011 list ''Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time'', based on a poll conducted by [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and ''[[People (American magazine)|People]]''. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."<ref name="NFR">{{Cite news |last=King, Susan |date=December 19, 2012 |title=National Film Registry selects 25 films for preservation |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-national-film-registry-20121217,0,1057524.story |access-date=December 21, 2012 |archive-date=March 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306160304/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-national-film-registry-20121217,0,1057524.story |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
=== Conspiracy theories and fringe groups === |
=== Conspiracy theories and fringe groups === |
||
{{Main|Red pill and blue pill}} |
{{Main|Red pill and blue pill}} |
||
The premise of ''The Matrix'' has been repurposed for multiple [[conspiracy theories]] and [[alt-right]] fringe groups. For example, some online [[Men's rights|men's rights groups]] use the term "redpill" to mean men realizing that they are supposedly being subjugated by feminism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-01 |title=Andrew Tate arrest: TikTok and Twitter under fire over false posts from fans |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/01/fans-andrew-tate-king-of-toxic-masculinity-flood-web-arrest |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=January 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101092011/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/01/fans-andrew-tate-king-of-toxic-masculinity-flood-web-arrest |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marche |first=Stephen |date=2016-04-14 |title=Swallowing the Red Pill: a journey to the heart of modern misogyny |url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |archive-date=January 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101075707/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men |url-status=live }}</ref> The term has been used in discussion forums for right-wing topics such as [[Gamergate (harassment campaign)|Gamergate]], [[white supremacy]], [[incel]] subculture |
The premise of ''The Matrix'' has been repurposed for multiple [[conspiracy theories]] and [[alt-right]] fringe groups. For example, some online [[Men's rights|men's rights groups]] use the term "redpill" to mean men realizing that they are supposedly being subjugated by feminism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-01 |title=Andrew Tate arrest: TikTok and Twitter under fire over false posts from fans |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/01/fans-andrew-tate-king-of-toxic-masculinity-flood-web-arrest |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=January 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101092011/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/01/fans-andrew-tate-king-of-toxic-masculinity-flood-web-arrest |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marche |first=Stephen |date=2016-04-14 |title=Swallowing the Red Pill: a journey to the heart of modern misogyny |url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |archive-date=January 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101075707/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men |url-status=live }}</ref> The term has been used in discussion forums for right-wing topics such as [[Gamergate (harassment campaign)|Gamergate]], [[white supremacy]], [[incel]] subculture and [[QAnon]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |last=Tiffany |first=Kaitlyn |date=2021-04-13 |title=The Alt-Right Has Lost Control of 'Redpill' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/04/red-pill-meme-alt-right-twitter/618577/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=December 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220020501/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/04/red-pill-meme-alt-right-twitter/618577/ |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2021, the verb "pill" and suffix "-pilled" had entered more mainstream use and had come to mean developing a sudden interest in something.<ref name="auto"/> |
||
===Sequels and adaptations=== |
===Sequels and adaptations=== |
||
{{Main|The Matrix (franchise)}} |
{{Main|The Matrix (franchise)}} |
||
The film's mainstream success led to the making of two sequels, ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'', both directed by the Wachowskis. These were [[Back to back film production|filmed back-to-back]] in one [[Production (film)|shoot]] and released on separate dates in 2003.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ojumu, Akin |date=May 18, 2003 |title=Observer Profile: Andy and Larry Wachowski |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/may/18/comment.features |access-date=November 28, 2012 |website=Guardian.co.uk |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]] |quote=The Matrix Reloaded, which opens here on Friday. ... Andy and Larry Wachowski were apparently busy working on the third part of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, which will be released in November. ... With the resources of Warner Bros. at their disposal, the siblings indulged themselves on the next two, which were shot back-to-back in Australia. |archive-date=September 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911023108/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/may/18/comment.features |url-status=live }}</ref> The first film's introductory tale is succeeded by the story of the impending attack on the human enclave of [[Zion (The Matrix)|Zion]] by a vast machine army.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=May 14, 2003 |title=The Matrix Reloaded |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030514/REVIEWS/305140301/1023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205085315/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030514/REVIEWS/305140301/1023 |archive-date=February 5, 2013 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]] }}</ref><ref name="The Matrix Reloaded BBC Review">{{cite web |last=Pierce |first=Nev |date=May 22, 2003 |title=The Matrix Reloaded (2003) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/05/15/the_matrix_reloaded_2003_review.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728003044/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/05/15/the_matrix_reloaded_2003_review.shtml |archive-date=July 28, 2012 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=BBC.co.uk |publisher=BBC }}</ref> <!-- Neo also learns more about the history of the Matrix, his role as the One and the prophecy that he will end the war.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} --> The sequels also incorporate longer and more ambitious action scenes, as well as improvements in bullet time and other visual effects.<ref name="The Matrix Reloaded BBC Review" |
The film's mainstream success led to the making of two sequels, ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'', both directed by the Wachowskis. These were [[Back to back film production|filmed back-to-back]] in one [[Production (film)|shoot]] and released on separate dates in 2003.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ojumu, Akin |date=May 18, 2003 |title=Observer Profile: Andy and Larry Wachowski |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/may/18/comment.features |access-date=November 28, 2012 |website=Guardian.co.uk |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]] |quote=The Matrix Reloaded, which opens here on Friday. ... Andy and Larry Wachowski were apparently busy working on the third part of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, which will be released in November. ... With the resources of Warner Bros. at their disposal, the siblings indulged themselves on the next two, which were shot back-to-back in Australia. |archive-date=September 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911023108/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/may/18/comment.features |url-status=live }}</ref> The first film's introductory tale is succeeded by the story of the impending attack on the human enclave of [[Zion (The Matrix)|Zion]] by a vast machine army.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=May 14, 2003 |title=The Matrix Reloaded |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030514/REVIEWS/305140301/1023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205085315/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030514/REVIEWS/305140301/1023 |archive-date=February 5, 2013 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]] }}</ref><ref name="The Matrix Reloaded BBC Review">{{cite web |last=Pierce |first=Nev |date=May 22, 2003 |title=The Matrix Reloaded (2003) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/05/15/the_matrix_reloaded_2003_review.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728003044/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/05/15/the_matrix_reloaded_2003_review.shtml |archive-date=July 28, 2012 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=BBC.co.uk |publisher=BBC }}</ref> <!-- Neo also learns more about the history of the Matrix, his role as the One and the prophecy that he will end the war.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} --> The sequels also incorporate longer and more ambitious action scenes, as well as improvements in bullet time and other visual effects.<ref name="The Matrix Reloaded BBC Review"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Taub, Eric |date=June 3, 2003 |title=The 'Matrix' Invented: A World of Special Effects |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/03/business/the-matrix-invented-a-world-of-special-effects.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |access-date=December 5, 2012 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305231821/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/03/business/the-matrix-invented-a-world-of-special-effects.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
Also released was ''[[The Animatrix]]'', a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same [[anime|Japanese animation]] style<ref name="The Animatrix IGN Review">{{cite web |last=Conrad |first=Jeremy |date=May 23, 2003 |title=The Animatrix |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/05/23/the-animatrix |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529051705/http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/05/23/the-animatrix |archive-date=May 29, 2014 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=[[IGN]] |publisher=[[News Corporation (1980–2013)|News Corporation]] }}</ref> that was a strong influence on the live action trilogy. ''The Animatrix'' was overseen and approved by the Wachowskis, who only wrote four of the segments themselves but did not direct any of them; much of the project was developed by notable figures from the world of anime.<ref name="The Animatrix IGN Review" |
Also released was ''[[The Animatrix]]'', a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same [[anime|Japanese animation]] style<ref name="The Animatrix IGN Review">{{cite web |last=Conrad |first=Jeremy |date=May 23, 2003 |title=The Animatrix |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/05/23/the-animatrix |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529051705/http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/05/23/the-animatrix |archive-date=May 29, 2014 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |website=[[IGN]] |publisher=[[News Corporation (1980–2013)|News Corporation]] }}</ref> that was a strong influence on the live action trilogy. ''The Animatrix'' was overseen and approved by the Wachowskis, who only wrote four of the segments themselves but did not direct any of them; much of the project was developed by notable figures from the world of anime.<ref name="The Animatrix IGN Review"/><!--(Remove this tag only after we can find a source to support these sentences.) Four of the films were originally released on the series' official website;{{dead link|date=November 2012}} one was shown in cinemas with the Warner Bros. film ''[[Dreamcatcher (film)|Dreamcatcher]]''; the others first appeared with the DVD release of all nine shorts. Several of the films were shown first on UK television prior to their DVD release.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} --> |
||
In March 2017, Warner Bros. was in early stages of developing a relaunch of the franchise with [[Zak Penn]] in talks to write a treatment and interest in getting [[Michael B. Jordan]] attached to star. According to ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' neither the Wachowskis nor Joel Silver were involved with the endeavor, although the studio would like to get at minimum the blessing of the Wachowskis.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Borys Kit |last2=Kim Masters |last3=Rebecca Ford |title='The Matrix' Reboot in the Works at Warner Bros. (Exclusive) |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/matrix-reboot-works-at-warner-bros-986292 |access-date=March 15, 2017 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=March 14, 2017 |archive-date=March 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315031900/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/matrix-reboot-works-at-warner-bros-986292 |url-status=live }}</ref> On August 20, 2019, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman [[Toby Emmerich]] officially announced that a [[The Matrix Resurrections|fourth Matrix film]] was in the works, with [[Keanu Reeves]] and [[Carrie-Anne Moss]] set to reprise their roles as Neo and Trinity respectively.<ref>{{cite web |date=August 20, 2019 |title=Whoa: 'The Matrix 4' is Happening With Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski Returning |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/the-matrix-4/ |access-date=August 23, 2019 |website=/Film |language=en-US |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821020646/https://www.slashfilm.com/the-matrix-4/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[The Matrix Resurrections]]'' was released on December 22, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max. |
In March 2017, Warner Bros. was in early stages of developing a relaunch of the franchise with [[Zak Penn]] in talks to write a treatment and interest in getting [[Michael B. Jordan]] attached to star. According to ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' neither the Wachowskis nor Joel Silver were involved with the endeavor, although the studio would like to get at minimum the blessing of the Wachowskis.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Borys Kit |last2=Kim Masters |last3=Rebecca Ford |title='The Matrix' Reboot in the Works at Warner Bros. (Exclusive) |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/matrix-reboot-works-at-warner-bros-986292 |access-date=March 15, 2017 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=March 14, 2017 |archive-date=March 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315031900/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/matrix-reboot-works-at-warner-bros-986292 |url-status=live }}</ref> On August 20, 2019, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman [[Toby Emmerich]] officially announced that a [[The Matrix Resurrections|fourth Matrix film]] was in the works, with [[Keanu Reeves]] and [[Carrie-Anne Moss]] set to reprise their roles as Neo and Trinity, respectively.<ref>{{cite web |date=August 20, 2019 |title=Whoa: 'The Matrix 4' is Happening With Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski Returning |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/the-matrix-4/ |access-date=August 23, 2019 |website=/Film |language=en-US |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821020646/https://www.slashfilm.com/the-matrix-4/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[The Matrix Resurrections]]'' was released on December 22, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max. |
||
In September 2022, [[Danny Boyle]] was announced to be directing a dance adaptation of the film, titled ''Free Your Mind'', and debuted in October 2023 in [[Manchester]], England.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Yossman |first1=K. J. |date=September 29, 2022 |title=Danny Boyle to Direct Dance Adaptation of 'The Matrix' |url=https://variety.com/2022/legit/global/danny-boyle-dance-adaptation-the-matrix-1235388106/ |access-date=September 30, 2022 |website=Variety |language=en-US |archive-date=September 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930020638/https://variety.com/2022/legit/global/danny-boyle-dance-adaptation-the-matrix-1235388106/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
In September 2022, [[Danny Boyle]] was announced to be directing a dance adaptation of the film, titled ''Free Your Mind'', and debuted in October 2023 in [[Manchester]], England.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Yossman |first1=K. J. |date=September 29, 2022 |title=Danny Boyle to Direct Dance Adaptation of 'The Matrix' |url=https://variety.com/2022/legit/global/danny-boyle-dance-adaptation-the-matrix-1235388106/ |access-date=September 30, 2022 |website=Variety |language=en-US |archive-date=September 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930020638/https://variety.com/2022/legit/global/danny-boyle-dance-adaptation-the-matrix-1235388106/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
{{cols |
{{cols}} |
||
* [[Cyberspace]] |
* [[Cyberspace]] |
||
* [[Henosis]] |
* [[Henosis]] |
||
Line 324: | Line 324: | ||
* [[Virtual reality]] |
* [[Virtual reality]] |
||
* [[Virtual world]] |
* [[Virtual world]] |
||
{{colend}} |
|||
;TV |
|||
* ''[[The Deadly Assassin]]'', 1976 episode of [[Doctor Who]] in a virtual reality called the "Matrix" |
|||
;Films |
;Films |
||
{{cols}} |
|||
* ''[[World on a Wire]]'', 1973 German science fiction series |
* ''[[World on a Wire]]'', 1973 German science fiction series |
||
* ''[[Tron (film)|Tron]]'', 1982 film |
* ''[[Tron (film)|Tron]]'', 1982 film |
||
* ''[[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]]'', 1998 film |
|||
* ''[[The Thirteenth Floor]]'', 1999 film |
* ''[[The Thirteenth Floor]]'', 1999 film |
||
* ''[[Existenz]]'', 1999 film |
* ''[[Existenz]]'', 1999 film |
||
Line 333: | Line 338: | ||
* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', 2003 French animated series |
* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', 2003 French animated series |
||
* ''[[Infinity Train]]'', 2019 American animated series |
* ''[[Infinity Train]]'', 2019 American animated series |
||
{{colend}} |
{{colend}} |
||
Revision as of 03:26, 13 July 2024
The Matrix | |
---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | The Wachowskis[a] |
Written by | The Wachowskis |
Produced by | Joel Silver |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Bill Pope |
Edited by | Zach Staenberg |
Music by | Don Davis |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by |
|
Release dates |
|
Running time | 136 minutes[1] |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $63 million[5] |
Box office | $467.6 million[5] |
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction action film[5][6] written and directed by the Wachowskis.[a] It is the first installment in the Matrix film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving and Joe Pantoliano, and depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source.[7] When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he joins a rebellion against the machines along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix.
The Matrix is an example of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.[8] The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes was influenced by anime[9] and martial arts films (particularly fight choreographers and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema); other influences include Plato's cave and 1990s Telnet hacker communities. The film popularized terms such as the red pill, and introduced a visual effect known as "bullet time", in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed, allowing the sped-up movements of certain characters to be perceived normally.
The Matrix opened in theaters in the United States on March 31, 1999, to widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its innovative visual effects, action sequences, cinematography and entertainment value.[10][11] The film was a box office success, grossing over $460 million on a $63 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of that year. The film received nominations at the 72nd Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Sound Editing, winning all four categories. The film was also the recipient of numerous other accolades, including Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects at the 53rd British Academy Film Awards, and the Wachowskis were awarded Best Director and Best Science Fiction Film at the 26th Saturn Awards. The Matrix is considered to be among the greatest science fiction films of all time,[12][13][14] and in 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."[15]
The film's success led to two feature film sequels being released in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, which were also written and directed by the Wachowskis. The Matrix franchise was further expanded through the production of comic books, video games and an animated anthology film, The Animatrix, with which the Wachowskis were heavily involved. The franchise has also inspired books and theories expanding on some of the religious and philosophical ideas alluded to in the films. A fourth film, titled The Matrix Resurrections, was released on December 22, 2021.
Plot
At an abandoned hotel, a police squad corners Trinity, who overpowers them with superhuman abilities. She flees, pursued by the police and a group of suited Agents capable of similar superhuman feats. She answers a ringing public telephone and vanishes.
Computer programmer Thomas Anderson, known by his hacking alias "Neo", is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase "the Matrix". Trinity contacts him and tells him a man named Morpheus has the answers Neo seeks. A team of Agents and police, led by Agent Smith, arrives at Neo's workplace in search of him. Though Morpheus attempts to guide Neo to safety, Neo surrenders rather than risk a dangerous escape. The Agents offer to erase Neo's criminal record in exchange for his help with locating Morpheus, who they claim is a terrorist. When Neo refuses to cooperate, they fuse his mouth shut, pin him down, and implant a robotic "bug" in his abdomen. Neo wakes up from what he believes to be a nightmare. Soon after, Neo is taken by Trinity to meet Morpheus, and she removes the bug from Neo.
Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills: red to reveal the truth about the Matrix, or blue to make Neo forget everything and return to his former life. Neo takes the red pill, and his reality begins to distort until he awakes in a liquid-filled pod among countless other pods, containing other humans. He is then brought aboard Morpheus's flying ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. As Neo recuperates from a lifetime of physical inactivity in the pod, Morpheus explains the history: in the early 21st century, humanity had developed intelligent machines before war broke out between two sides. After humans blocked the machines' access to solar energy, the machines responded by enslaving humankind and harvesting their bioelectric power while keeping their minds pacified in the Matrix, a shared simulated reality modeled on the world as it was in 1999. In the years following, the remaining free humans took refuge in the underground city of Zion.
Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to "unplug" enslaved humans and recruit them; their understanding of the Matrix's simulated nature allows them to bend its physical laws. Morpheus warns Neo that death within the Matrix kills the physical body too and explains that the Agents are sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system, while machines called Sentinels eliminate rebels in the real world. Neo's prowess during virtual training cements Morpheus's belief that Neo is "the One", a human prophesied to free humankind. The group enters the Matrix to visit the Oracle, a prophet-like program who predicted that the One would emerge. She implies to Neo that he is not the One and warns that he will have to choose between Morpheus's life and his own. Before they can leave the Matrix, Agents and police ambush the group, tipped off by Cypher, a disgruntled crew member who has betrayed Morpheus in exchange for a deal to be plugged back into the Matrix to live a comfortable life.
To buy time for the others, Morpheus fights Smith and is captured. Cypher exits the Matrix and murders the other crew members as they lie unconscious. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills him before pulling Neo and Trinity from the Matrix. The Agents interrogate Morpheus to learn his access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, which would allow them to destroy it. Neo resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus, as the Oracle prophesied; Trinity insists she accompany him. While rescuing Morpheus, Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats comparable to those of the Agents.
After Morpheus and Trinity safely exit the Matrix, Smith ambushes and appears to kill Neo. While a group of Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity confesses her love for Neo and says the Oracle told her she would fall in love with the One. Neo is revived, with newfound abilities to perceive and control the Matrix; he easily defeats Smith, prompting the other Agents to flee and he leaves the Matrix just as the ship's electromagnetic pulse disables the Sentinels. Back in the Matrix, Neo makes a telephone call, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible", before he hangs up and flies away.
Cast
- Keanu Reeves as Neo: A computer programmer, born Thomas A. Anderson, who secretly operates as a hacker named Neo. Reeves described his character as someone who felt that something was wrong, and was searching for Morpheus and the truth to break free.[16] Will Smith turned down the role of Neo to make Wild Wild West, because of skepticism over the film's ambitious bullet time special effects.[17] He later stated he was "not mature enough as an actor" at that time,[17] and that if given the role, he "would have messed it up".[18][19] Smith praised Reeves for his portrayal.[20] Nicolas Cage also turned down the part because of "family obligations".[21] Warner Bros. sought Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer for the role.[22] When both declined, Leonardo DiCaprio initially accepted the role, but ultimately turned it down because he did not want to do a visual effects film directly after Titanic.[23] The studio pushed for Reeves, who won the role over Johnny Depp, the Wachowskis' first choice.[22] Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that the screenplay was also sent to Sandra Bullock, with the suggestion of rewriting Neo as a female.[23]
- Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus: A human freed from the Matrix and captain of the Nebuchadnezzar. Fishburne stated that once he read the script, he did not understand why other people found it confusing. However, he doubted if the movie would ever be made, because it was "so smart".[16] The Wachowskis instructed Fishburne to base his performance on the character Morpheus in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.[24] Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Val Kilmer were also considered for the part.[22]
- Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity: A human freed by Morpheus, a crewmember of the Nebuchadnezzar, and later Neo's romantic interest. After reading the script, Moss stated that at first, she did not believe she had to do the extreme acrobatic actions as described in the script. She also doubted how the Wachowskis would get to direct a movie with a budget so large, but after spending an hour with them going through the storyboard, she understood why some people would trust them.[16] Moss mentioned that she underwent a three-hour physical test during casting, so she knew what to expect subsequently.[25] The role made Moss, who later said, "I had no career before. None."[26] Janet Jackson was initially approached for the role but scheduling conflicts prevented her from accepting it.[27][28] In an interview, she stated that turning down the role was difficult for her, so she later referenced The Matrix in the 'Intro' and 'Outro' interludes on her tenth studio album Discipline.[29] Sandra Bullock, who was previously approached for the role of Neo, was also offered the role of Trinity, but she turned it down.[30] Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek and Jada Pinkett Smith (who would later play Niobe in the sequels) auditioned for the role.[31][32][33]
- Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith: A sentient "Agent" program of the Matrix whose purpose is to destroy Zion and stop humans from getting out of the Matrix. Unlike other Agents, he has ambitions to free himself from his duties. Weaving stated that he found the character amusing and enjoyable to play. He developed a neutral accent but with more specific character for the role. He wanted Smith to sound neither robotic nor human, and also said that the Wachowskis' voices had influenced his voice in the film. When filming began, Weaving mentioned that he was excited to be a part of something that would extend him.[34] Jean Reno was offered the role, but declined, unwilling to move to Australia for the production.[35]
- Joe Pantoliano as Cypher: Another human freed by Morpheus, and a crewmember of the Nebuchadnezzar, but one who regrets taking the red pill and seeks to be returned to the Matrix, later betraying the rebels to Agent Smith. Pantoliano had worked with the Wachowskis prior to appearing in The Matrix, starring in their 1996 film Bound.
- Marcus Chong as Tank: The "operator" of the Nebuchadnezzar and Dozer's brother; they are both "natural" (as opposed to bred) humans, born outside of the Matrix.
- Matt Doran as Mouse: A freed human and a programmer on the Nebuchadnezzar.
- Rowan Witt as The Spoon Boy, a young prophet who has learnt how to manipulate the world of the Matrix. Seemingly wise beyond his years, he teaches Neo how to develop his powers and provides him with wisdom and motivation across the films and graphic novels.
- Gloria Foster as The Oracle: A prophet who still resides in the Matrix, helping the freed humans with her foresight and wisdom.
- Anthony Ray Parker as Dozer: Pilot of the Nebuchadnezzar. He is Tank's brother, and like him was born outside of the Matrix.
- Julian Arahanga as Apoc: A freed human and a crew member on the Nebuchadnezzar.
- Belinda McClory as Switch: A human freed by Morpheus, and a crew member of the Nebuchadnezzar.
- Paul Goddard as Agent Brown: One of two sentient "Agent" programs in the Matrix, who works with Agent Smith to destroy Zion and stop humans from escaping the system.
- Robert Taylor as Agent Jones: One of two sentient "Agent" programs in the Matrix who works with Agent Smith to destroy Zion and stop humans from escaping the system.
- Ada Nicodemou as DuJour: A reference to the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Production
Development
In 1994, the Wachowskis presented the script for the film Assassins to Warner Bros. Pictures. After Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the president of production of the company at the time, read the script, he decided to buy rights to it and included two more pictures, Bound and The Matrix, in the contract. The first movie the Wachowskis directed, Bound, then became a critical success. Using this momentum, they later asked to direct The Matrix.[36] Reeves said that the Matrix avatar would have been a "different sex than the Zion reality" in the early draft of the script, but the studio wasn't ready for that version.[37]
In 1996, the Wachowskis pitched the role of Neo to Will Smith. Smith explained on his YouTube channel that the idea was for him to be Neo, while Morpheus was to be played by Val Kilmer. He later explained that he did not quite understand the concept and he turned down the role to instead film Wild Wild West.[38]
Producer Joel Silver soon joined the project. Although the project had key supporters, including Silver and Di Bonaventura, to influence the company, The Matrix was still a huge investment for Warner Bros., which had to invest $60 million to create a movie with prominent actors and difficult special effects.[36] The Wachowskis therefore hired underground comic book artists Geof Darrow and Steve Skroce to draw a 600-page, shot-by-shot storyboard for the entire film.[39][40][41] The storyboard eventually earned the studio's approval, and it was decided to film in Australia to make the most of the budget.[36] Soon, The Matrix became a co-production of Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures.[42] According to editor Zach Staenberg on the DVD audio commentary track, the production team sent an edit of the film's first minutes (featuring Trinity's encounter with police and Agents) to Warner executives, and secured Warner's "total support of the movie" from then on.[43]
Pre-production
The cast were required to be able to understand and explain The Matrix.[36] French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation was required reading for most of the principal cast and crew.[44] In early 1997, the Wachowskis had Reeves read Simulacra and Simulation, Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, and Dylan Evans's ideas on evolutionary psychology even before they opened up the script,[16] and eventually he was able to explain all the philosophical nuances involved.[36] Moss commented that she had difficulty with this process.[16]
The directors had long been admirers of Hong Kong action cinema, so they decided to hire the Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director Yuen Woo-ping to work on fight scenes. To prepare for the wire fu, the actors had to train hard for several months.[36] The Wachowskis first scheduled four months for training, beginning in October 1997.[45] Yuen was optimistic but then began to worry when he realized how unfit the actors were.[25]
Yuen let their body style develop and then worked with each actor's strength. He built on Reeves's diligence, Fishburne's resilience, Weaving's precision and Moss's feminine grace.[25] Yuen designed Moss's moves to suit her deftness and lightness.[46] Prior to the pre-production, Reeves underwent a two-level fusion of his cervical (neck) spine due to spinal cord compression from a herniated disc ("I was falling over in the shower in the morning").[47] He was still recovering by the time of pre-production, but he insisted on training, so Yuen let him practice punches and lighter moves. Reeves trained hard and even requested training on days off. However, the surgery still made him unable to kick for two out of four months of training. As a result, Reeves did not kick much in the film.[25][48] Weaving had to undergo hip surgery after he sustained an injury during the training process.[36]
Filming
All but a few scenes were filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, as well as in the city itself, although recognizable landmarks were not included to maintain the impression of a generic American city. The filming helped establish New South Wales as a major film production center.[49][50] Filming began in March 1998 and wrapped in August 1998; principal photography took 118 days.[51] Some filming also occurred at Culver Studios.[52]
Due to Reeves's neck injury (see above), some of the action scenes had to be rescheduled to wait for his full recovery. As a result, the filming began with scenes that did not require much physical exertion,[53][54] such as the scene in Thomas Anderson's office, the interrogation room,[34] or the car ride in which Neo is taken to see the Oracle.[55] Locations for these scenes included Martin Place's fountain in Sydney, halfway between it and the adjacent Colonial Building, and the Colonial Building itself.[56] During the scene set on a government building rooftop, the team filmed extra footage of Neo dodging bullets in case the bullet time process did not work. The bullet-time fight scene was filmed on the roof of Symantec Corporation building in Kent Street, opposite Sussex Street.[57]
Moss performed the shots featuring Trinity at the beginning of the film and all the wire stunts herself.[46] The rooftop set that Trinity uses to escape from Agent Brown early in the film was left over from the production of Dark City, which has prompted comments due to the thematic similarities of the films.[58] During the rehearsal of the lobby scene, in which Trinity runs on a wall, Moss injured her leg and was ultimately unable to film the shot in one take. She stated that she was under a lot of pressure at the time and was devastated when she realized that she would be unable to do it.[59]
Fishburne later said that while being in Sydney to shoot the film, he experienced a racist vibe and that it felt like America in the 1950s.[60]
The dojo set was built well before the actual filming. During the filming of these action sequences, there was significant physical contact between the actors, earning them bruises. Reeves's injury and his insufficient training with wires prior to filming meant he was unable to perform the triple kicks satisfactorily and became frustrated with himself, causing the scene to be postponed. The scene was shot successfully a few days later, with Reeves using only three takes. Yuen altered the choreography and made the actors pull their punches in the last sequence of the scene, creating a training feel.[61]
The filmmakers originally planned to shoot the subway scene in an actual subway station, but the complexity of the fight and related wire work required shooting the scene on a set. The set was built around an existing train storage facility, which had real train tracks. Filming the scene when Neo slammed Smith into the ceiling, Chad Stahelski, Reeves's stunt double, sustained several injuries, including broken ribs, knees and a dislocated shoulder. Another stuntman was injured by a hydraulic puller during a shot in which Neo was slammed into a booth.[62] The office building in which Smith interrogated Morpheus was a large set, and the outside view from inside the building was a large, three story high cyclorama. The helicopter was a full-scale, light-weight mock-up suspended by a wire rope operated a tilting mechanism mounted to the studio roofbeams. The helicopter had a real minigun side-mounted to it, which was set to cycle at half its regular (3,000 rounds per minute) firing rate.[63]
To prepare for the scene in which Neo wakes up in a pod, Reeves lost 15 pounds (7 kg) and shaved his whole body to give Neo an emaciated look. The scene in which Neo fell into the sewer system concluded the principal photography.[51] According to The Art of the Matrix, at least one filmed scene and a variety of short pieces of action were omitted from the final cut of the film.[64]
Sound effects and music
Dane A. Davis was responsible for creating the sound effects for the film. The fight scene sound effects, such as the whipping sounds of punches, were created using thin metal rods and recording them, then editing the sounds. The sound of the pod containing a human body closing required almost fifty sounds put together.[65]
The film's score was composed by Don Davis.[66][67] He noted that mirrors appear frequently in the film: 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; Neo observes a broken mirror mending itself; reflections warp as a spoon is bent; the reflection of a helicopter is visible as it approaches a skyscraper. Davis focused on this theme of reflections when creating his score, alternating between sections of the orchestra and attempting to incorporate contrapuntal ideas. Davis' score combines orchestral, choral and synthesizer elements; the balance between these elements varies depending on whether humans or machines are the dominant subject of a given scene.[68] In addition to Davis' score, The Matrix soundtrack also features music from acts such as Rammstein, Rob Dougan, Rage Against the Machine, Propellerheads, Ministry, Lunatic Calm, Deftones, Monster Magnet, The Prodigy, Rob Zombie, Meat Beat Manifesto and Marilyn Manson.[69][70][71]
Production design
In the film, the code that composes the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters.[72] This code uses a custom typeface designed by Simon Whiteley,[42] which includes mirror images of half-width kana characters and Western Latin letters and Arabic numerals.[73] In a 2017 interview at CNET, he attributed the design to his wife, who is from Japan, and added, "I like to tell everybody that The Matrix's code is made out of Japanese sushi recipes".[74] "The color green reflects the green tint commonly used on early monochrome computer monitors".[75] Lynne Cartwright, the Visual Effects Supervisor at Animal Logic, supervised the creation of the film's opening title sequence, as well as the general look of the Matrix code throughout the film, in collaboration with Lindsay Fleay and Justen Marshall.[42] The portrayal resembles the opening credits of the 1995 Japanese cyberpunk film, Ghost in the Shell, which had a strong influence on the Matrix series. It was also used in the subsequent films, on the related website, and in the game The Matrix: Path of Neo, and its drop-down effect is reflected in the design of some posters for the Matrix series. The code received the Runner-up Award in the 1999 Jesse Garson Award for In-film typography or opening credit sequence.[42]
The Matrix's production designer, Owen Paterson, used methods to distinguish the "real world" and the Matrix in a pervasive way. The production design team generally placed a bias towards the Matrix code's distinctive green color in scenes set within the simulation, whereas there is an emphasis on the color blue during scenes set in the "real world". In addition, the Matrix scenes' sets were slightly more decayed, monolithic and grid-like, to convey the cold, logical and artificial nature of that environment. For the "real world", the actors' hair was less styled, their clothing had more textile content, and the cinematographers used longer lenses to soften the backgrounds and emphasize the actors.[73]
The Nebuchadnezzar was designed to have a patched-up look, instead of clean, cold and sterile space ship interior sets as used on productions such as Star Trek. The wires were made visible to show the ship's working internals, and each composition was carefully designed to convey the ship as "a marriage between Man and Machine".[76] For the scene when Neo wakes up in the pod connected to the Matrix, the pod was constructed to look dirty, used and sinister. During the testing of a breathing mechanism in the pod, the tester suffered hypothermia in under eight minutes, so the pod had to be heated.[51]
Kym Barrett, costume designer, said that she defined the characters and their environment by their costume.[77] For example, Reeves's office costume was designed for Thomas Anderson to look uncomfortable, disheveled and out of place.[53] Barrett sometimes used three types of fabric for each costume, and also had to consider the practicality of the acting. The actors needed to perform martial art actions in their costume, hang upside-down without people seeing up their clothing, and be able to work the wires while strapped into the harnesses.[77] For Trinity, Barrett experimented with how each fabric absorbed and reflected different types of light, and was eventually able to make Trinity's costume mercury-like and oil-slick to suit the character.[46] For the Agents, their costume was designed to create a secret service, undercover look, resembling the film JFK and classic men in black.[34]
The sunglasses, a staple of the film's aesthetics, were commissioned for the film by designer Richard Walker from sunglasses maker Blinde Design.[78]
Visual effects
As for artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit Otomo Katsuhiro, who co-wrote and directed Akira, which definitely blew me away, along with director Michel Gondry. His music videos experimented with a different type of technique called view-morphing and it was just part of the beginning of uncovering the creative approaches toward using still cameras for special effects. Our technique was significantly different because we built it to move around objects that were themselves in motion, and we were also able to create slow-motion events that 'virtual cameras' could move around—rather than the static action in Gondry's music videos with limited camera moves.
The film is known for popularizing a visual effect[80] known as "bullet time", which allows a shot to progress in slow motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed.[81][82] Bullet time has been described as "a visual analogy for privileged moments of consciousness within the Matrix",[83] and throughout the film, the effect is used to illustrate characters' exertion of control over time and space.[84] The Wachowskis first imagined an action sequence that slowed time while the camera pivoted rapidly around the subjects, and proposed the effect in their screenplay for the film. When John Gaeta read the script, he pleaded with an effects producer at Mass.Illusion to let him work on the project, and created a prototype that led to him becoming the film's visual effects supervisor.[85][86]
The method used for creating these effects involved a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which an array of cameras are placed around an object and triggered simultaneously. Each camera captures a still picture, contributing one frame to the video sequence, which creates the effect of "virtual camera movement"; the illusion of a viewpoint moving around an object that appears frozen in time.[81]
The bullet time effect is similar but slightly more complicated, incorporating temporal motion so that rather than appearing totally frozen, the scene progresses in slow and variable motion.[79][85] The cameras' positions and exposures were previsualized using a 3D simulation. Instead of firing the cameras simultaneously, the visual effect team fired the cameras fractions of a second after each other, so that each camera could capture the action as it progressed, creating a super slow-motion effect.[81] When the frames were put together, the resulting slow-motion effects reached a frame frequency of 12,000 per second, as opposed to the normal 24 frames per second of film.[36] Standard movie cameras were placed at the ends of the array to pick up the normal speed action before and after. Because the cameras circle the subject almost completely in most of the sequences, computer technology was used to edit out the cameras that appeared in the background on the other side.[81] To create backgrounds, Gaeta hired George Borshukov, who created 3D models based on the geometry of buildings and used the photographs of the buildings themselves as texture.[citation needed]
The photo-realistic surroundings generated by this method were incorporated into the bullet time scene,[85] and algorithms based on optical flow were used to interpolate between the still images to produce a fluent dynamic motion;[87][88] the computer-generated "lead in" and "lead out" slides were filled in between frames in sequence to get an illusion of orbiting the scene.[89] Manex Visual Effects used a cluster farm running the Unix-like operating system FreeBSD to render many of the film's visual effects.[90][91]
Manex also handled creature effects, such as Sentinels and machines in real world scenes; Animal Logic created the code hallway and the exploding Agent at the end of the film. DFilm managed scenes that required heavy use of digital compositing, such as Neo's jump off a skyscraper and the helicopter crash into a building. The ripple effect in the latter scene was created digitally, but the shot also included practical elements, and months of extensive research were needed to find the correct kind of glass and explosives to use. The scene was shot by colliding a quarter-scale helicopter mock-up into a glass wall wired to concentric rings of explosives; the explosives were then triggered in sequence from the center outward, to create a wave of exploding glass.[92]
The photogrammetric and image-based computer-generated background approaches in The Matrix's bullet time evolved into innovations unveiled in the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The method of using real photographs of buildings as texture for 3D models eventually led the visual effect team to digitize all data, such as scenes, characters' motions and expressions. It also led to the development of "Universal Capture", a process which samples and stores facial details and expressions at high resolution. With these highly detailed collected data, the team were able to create virtual cinematography in which characters, locations and events can all be created digitally and viewed through virtual cameras, eliminating the restrictions of real cameras.[85]
Release
Home media
The Matrix was released on DVD and Laserdisc in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on September 21, 1999, in the US from Warner Home Video as well as in 1.33:1 aspect ratio in Hong Kong from ERA Home Entertainment. It was also released on VHS in both full screen and widescreen formats followed on December 7, 1999.[5] After its DVD release, it was the first DVD to sell more than one million copies in the US.[93] By 2000, the film went on to become the first to sell more than three million copies in the US.[36] At that point, it became the top-selling DVD release of all time, holding this record for a few months before being surpassed by Gladiator.[94] By November 10, 2003, one month after The Matrix Reloaded DVD was released, the sales of The Matrix DVD had exceeded 30 million copies.[95] It then debuted on both VHS and DVD formats in the UK on November 29, 1999. The Matrix sold more than 107,000 DVD copies in just two weeks, breaking Armageddon's record for becoming the country's best-selling DVD title.[96] The Ultimate Matrix Collection was released on HD DVD on May 22, 2007,[93] and on Blu-ray on October 14, 2008.[97][98] The film was also released standalone in a 10th-anniversary edition Blu-ray in the Digibook format on March 31, 2009, ten years to the day after the film was released theatrically.[99] In 2010, the film had another DVD release along with the two sequels as The Complete Matrix Trilogy. It was also released on 4K HDR Blu-ray on May 22, 2018.[100] The film as part of The Matrix Trilogy was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 30, 2018.[101]
Other media
The franchise also contains four 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;[102] The Matrix Online (2004), an MMORPG which continued the story beyond The Matrix Revolutions;[103][104] The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005), which focuses on Neo's journey through the trilogy of films;[105] and The Matrix Awakens (2021), an interactive technology demonstration developed by Epic Games using Unreal Engine 5.[106]
The franchise also includes The Matrix Comics, a series of comics and short stories set in the world of The Matrix, written and illustrated by figures from the comics industry. Most of the comics were originally presented for free on the official Matrix website;[107] they were later republished, along with some new material, in two printed trade paperback volumes, called The Matrix Comics, Vol 1 and Vol 2.[108]
Reception
Box office
The Matrix grossed $27.8 million during its opening weekend, as well as earning $37.4 million in its first five days. It surpassed Lost in Space and Indecent Proposal for having the biggest April and Easter opening weekends. The film also had the second-highest opening weekend for a spring starter film, trailing only behind Liar Liar.[109] Three years later in 2002, The Matrix's records for having the largest April and Easter opening weekends would be taken by The Scorpion King and Panic Room.[110][111] Upon its opening, it had the highest opening weekend of any 1999 film, easily topping Payback.[109] Additionally, this was the biggest opening weekend for a Keanu Reeves film since Speed in 1994.[112] It was also ranked number one at the box office ahead of Forces of Nature.[109] The film would remain at the top of the box office for two weeks until it was overtaken by Life.[113] During its fourth weekend, The Matrix briefly returned to the number one spot.[114][115] The following week, the film would be displaced by Entrapment.[116]
In its original run, the film earned $171,479,930 (37.0%) in the United States and Canada and $292,037,453 (63.0%) in other countries, for a worldwide total of $463,517,383.[5] In North America, it went on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of 1999 and the highest-grossing R-rated film of that year. Worldwide, it was the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year, after Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, The Sixth Sense and Toy Story 2.[5] The Matrix became the second-highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of all time, behind Twister.[117] Overall, it was the third-highest-grossing R-rated film at the time, just after Saving Private Ryan and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.[117] Following re-releases, the worldwide gross of the film is $466,621,824.[5] In 2012, it was placed 122nd on the list of highest-grossing films of all time, and the second-highest-grossing film in the Matrix franchise after The Matrix Reloaded ($742.1 million).[5]
Critical response
The Matrix was praised by many critics, as well as filmmakers, and authors of science fiction,[11] especially for its "spectacular action" scenes and its "groundbreaking special effects". Some have described The Matrix as one of the best science fiction films of all time;[12][13] Entertainment Weekly called The Matrix "the most influential action movie of the generation".[26] There have also been those, including philosopher William Irwin, who have suggested that the film explores significant philosophical and spiritual themes. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 207 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thanks to the Wachowskis' imaginative vision, The Matrix is a smartly crafted combination of spectacular action and groundbreaking special effects".[10] At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received a score of 73 based on 35 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[118] It ranked 323rd among critics, and 546th among directors, in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made.[119]
Philip Strick commented in Sight & Sound, if the Wachowskis "claim no originality of message, they are startling innovators of method," praising the film's details and its "broadside of astonishing images".[120] Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four: he praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the third act's focus on action.[121] Similarly, Time Out praised the "entertainingly ingenious" switches between different realities, Hugo Weaving's "engagingly odd" performance, and the film's cinematography and production design, but concluded, "the promising premise is steadily wasted as the film turns into a fairly routine action pic ... yet another slice of overlong, high-concept hokum."[122]
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader reviewed the film negatively, criticizing it as "simpleminded fun for roughly the first hour, until the movie becomes overwhelmed by its many sources ... There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome."[123]
Ian Nathan of Empire described Carrie-Anne Moss as "a major find", praised the "surreal visual highs" enabled by the bullet time (or "flo-mo") effect, and described the film as "technically mind-blowing, style merged perfectly with content and just so damn cool". Nathan remarked that although the film's "looney plot" would not stand up to scrutiny, that was not a big flaw because "The Matrix is about pure experience".[124] Maitland McDonagh said in her review for TV Guide, the Wachowskis' "through-the-looking-glass plot... manages to work surprisingly well on a number of levels: as a dystopian sci-fi thriller, as a brilliant excuse for the film's lavish and hyperkinetic fight scenes, and as a pretty compelling call to the dead-above-the-eyeballs masses to unite and cast off their chains... This dazzling pop allegory is steeped in a dark, pulpy sensibility that transcends nostalgic pastiche and stands firmly on its own merits."[125]
Salon's reviewer Andrew O'Hehir acknowledged that although The Matrix is in his view a fundamentally immature and unoriginal film ("It lacks anything like adult emotion... all this pseudo-spiritual hokum, along with the over-ramped onslaught of special effects—some of them quite amazing—will hold 14-year-old boys in rapture, not to mention those of us of all ages and genders who still harbor a 14-year-old boy somewhere inside"), he concluded, "as in Bound, there's an appealing scope and daring to the Wachowskis' work, and their eagerness for more plot twists and more crazy images becomes increasingly infectious. In a limited and profoundly geeky sense, this might be an important and generous film. The Wachowskis have little feeling for character or human interaction, but their passion for movies—for making them, watching them, inhabiting their world—is pure and deep."[126]
Filmmakers and science fiction creators alike generally took a complimentary perspective of The Matrix. William Gibson, a key figure in cyberpunk fiction, called the film "an innocent delight I hadn't felt in a long time," and stated, "Neo is my favourite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely."[127] Joss Whedon called the film "my number one" and praised its storytelling, structure and depth, concluding, "It works on whatever level you want to bring to it."[128] Darren Aronofsky commented, "I walked out of The Matrix ... and I was thinking, 'What kind of science fiction movie can people make now?' The Wachowskis basically took all the great sci-fi ideas of the 20th century and rolled them into a delicious pop culture sandwich that everyone on the planet devoured."[129] M. Night Shyamalan expressed admiration for the Wachowskis, stating, "Whatever you think of The Matrix, every shot is there because of the passion they have! You can see they argued it out!".[130] Simon Pegg said that The Matrix provided "the excitement and satisfaction that The Phantom Menace failed to inspire. The Matrix seemed fresh and cool and visually breathtaking; making wonderful, intelligent use of CGI to augment the on-screen action, striking a perfect balance of the real and the hyperreal. It was possibly the coolest film I had ever seen."[131] Quentin Tarantino counted The Matrix as one of his twenty favorite movies from 1992 to 2009.[132] James Cameron called it "one of the most profoundly fresh science fiction films ever made".[133] Christopher Nolan described it as "an incredibly palpable mainstream phenomenon that made people think, Hey, what if this isn't real?"[134]
Accolades
The Matrix received Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound.[135][136] The filmmakers were competing against other films with established franchises, like Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, yet they won all four of their nominations.[137][138] The Matrix also received BAFTA awards for Best Sound and Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects, in addition to nominations in the cinematography, production design and editing categories.[139] In 1999, it won Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.[140] In February 2022, the film was named one of the five finalists for Oscars Cheer Moment as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' "Oscars Fan Favorite" contest, for the "bullet time" scene, finishing in fifth place.[141][142]
Awards and nominations
Award | Category | Name | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards | Best Film Editing | Zach Staenberg | Won |
Best Sound | John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, David Lee | Won | |
Best Sound Effects Editing | Dane A. Davis | Won | |
Best Visual Effects | John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, Jon Thum | Won | |
British Academy Film Awards | Best Cinematography | Bill Pope | Nominated |
Best Editing | Zach Staenberg | Nominated | |
Best Production Design | Owen Paterson | Nominated | |
Best Sound | David Lee, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, Dane A. Davis | Won | |
Best Special Visual Effects | John Gaeta, Steve Courtley, Janek Sirrs, Jon Thum | Won | |
Saturn Awards | Best Science Fiction Film | — | Won |
Best Director | The Wachowskis[a] | Won | |
Best Writer | Nominated | ||
Best Actor | Keanu Reeves | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Carrie-Anne Moss | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actor | Laurence Fishburne | Nominated | |
Best Costumes | Kym Barrett | Nominated | |
Best Make-up | Nikki Gooley, Bob McCarron, Wendy Sainsbury | Nominated | |
Best Special Effects | John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, Jon Thum | Nominated |
Thematic analysis
The Matrix is arguably the ultimate cyberpunk artifact.
The Matrix draws from and alludes to numerous cinematic and literary works, and concepts from mythology, religion and philosophy, including the ideas of Buddhism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Hinduism and Judaism.[143]
Film and television
The pods in which the machines keep humans have been compared to images in Metropolis, and the work of M. C. Escher.[144] A resemblance to the eerie worlds of Swiss artist H.R. Giger was also recognized.[145][146] The pods can be seen in Welcome to Paradox Episode 4 "News from D Street" from a 1986 short story[147] of the same name by Andrew Weiner which aired on September 7, 1998, on the SYFY Channel and has a remarkably similar concept. In this episode the hero is unaware he is living in virtual reality until he is told so by "the code man" who created the simulation and enters it knowingly. The Wachowskis have described Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as a formative cinematic influence, and as a major inspiration on the visual style they aimed for when making The Matrix.[148][149][150] Rainer Werner Fassbinders German TV Miniseries World on a Wire from 1973, an adaption of the novel Simulacron-3, served as inspirational source for some details of The Matrix, such as the transfer between the real world and the Matrix-simulation via telephone / phonebooth.[citation needed] Reviewers have also commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City and The Truman Show.[121][151][152][153][154] The similarity of the film's central concept to a device in the long-running series Doctor Who has also been noted. As in the film, the Matrix of that series (introduced in the 1976 serial The Deadly Assassin) is a massive computer system which one enters using a device connecting to the head, allowing users to see representations of the real world and change its laws of physics; but if killed there, they will die in reality.[155] The action scenes of The Matrix were also strongly influenced by live-action films such as those of director John Woo.[156] The martial arts sequences were inspired by Fist of Legend, a critically acclaimed 1995 martial arts film starring Jet Li. The fight scenes in Fist of Legend led to the hiring of Yuen as fight choreographer.[157][158]
The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for Japanese animation such as Ninja Scroll and Akira.[9] Director Mamoru Oshii's 1995 animated film Ghost in the Shell was a particularly strong influence;[9] producer Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowskis first described their intentions for The Matrix by showing him that anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real".[159][160] Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G, which produced Ghost in the Shell, noted that the anime's high-quality visuals were a strong source of inspiration for the Wachowskis. He also commented, "... cyberpunk films are very difficult to describe to a third person. I'd imagine that The Matrix is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios". He stated that since Ghost in the Shell had gained recognition in America, the Wachowskis used it as a "promotional tool".[161]
Literary works
The film makes several references to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.[126] Comparisons have also been made to Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles, with Morrison describing it in 2011 as "(it) seemed to me (to be) my own combination of ideas enacted on the screen".[162] Comparisons have also been made between The Matrix and the books of Carlos Castaneda.[163]
The Matrix belongs to the cyberpunk genre of science fiction, and draws from earlier works in the genre such as the 1984 novel Neuromancer by William Gibson.[8] For example, the film's use of the term "Matrix" is adopted from Gibson's novel,[164] though L. P. Davies had already used the term "Matrix" fifteen years earlier for a similar concept in his 1969 novel The White Room ("It had been tried in the States some years earlier, but their 'matrix' as they called it hadn't been strong enough to hold the fictional character in place").[165] After watching The Matrix, Gibson commented that the way that the film's creators had drawn from existing cyberpunk works was "exactly the kind of creative cultural osmosis" he had relied upon in his own writing;[8] however, he noted that the film's Gnostic themes distinguished it from Neuromancer, and believed that The Matrix was thematically closer to the work of science fiction author Philip K. Dick, particularly Dick's speculative Exegesis.[8] Other writers have also commented on the similarities between The Matrix and Dick's work;[156][166][167] one example of such influence is a Philip K. Dick's 1977 conference, in which he stated: "We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in our reality occurs".[168][169][170][171]
Philosophy
In The Matrix, a copy of Jean Baudrillard's philosophical work Simulacra and Simulation, which was published in French in 1981, is visible on-screen as "the book used to conceal disks",[7][44] and Morpheus quotes the phrase "desert of the real" from it.[172] "The book was required reading"[7] for the actors prior to filming.[44][173] However, Baudrillard himself said that The Matrix misunderstands and distorts his work.[172][174] Some interpreters of The Matrix mention Baudrillard's philosophy to support their claim "that the [film] is an allegory for contemporary experience in a heavily commercialized, media-driven society, especially in developed countries".[7] The influence of The Matrixial Gaze, the philosophical-psychoanalytical concept of Bracha L. Ettinger on the archaic matrixial space that resists the field of simulacra,[175][176][177] "was brought to the public's attention through the writings of art historians such as Griselda Pollock and film theorists such as Heinz-Peter Schwerfel".[178][7] In addition to Baudrillard and Ettinger, the Wachowskis were also significantly influenced by Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, and Dylan Evans's ideas on evolutionary psychology.[16]
Philosopher William Irwin suggests that the idea of the "Matrix" – a generated reality invented by malicious machines – is an allusion to Descartes' "First Meditation", and his idea of an evil demon. The Meditation hypothesizes that the perceived world might be a comprehensive illusion created to deceive us.[179] The same premise can be found in Hilary Putnam's brain in a vat scenario proposed in the 1980s.[179] A connection between the premise of The Matrix and Plato's Allegory of the Cave has also been suggested. The allegory is related to Plato's theory of Forms, which holds that the true essence of an object is not what we perceive with our senses, but rather its quality, and that most people perceive only the shadow of the object and are thus limited to false perception.[36]
The philosophy of Immanuel Kant has also been claimed as another influence on the film, and in particular how individuals within the Matrix interact with one another and with the system. Kant states in his Critique of Pure Reason that people come to know and explore our world through synthetic means (language, etc.), and thus this makes it rather difficult to discern truth from falsely perceived views. This means people are their own agents of deceit, and so in order for them to know truth, they must choose to openly pursue truth. This idea can be examined in Agent Smith's monologue about the first version of the Matrix, which was designed as a human utopia, a perfect world without suffering and with total happiness. Agent Smith explains that, "it was a disaster. No one accepted the program. Entire crops [of people] were lost." The machines had to amend their choice of programming in order to make people subservient to them, and so they conceived the Matrix in the image of the world in 1999. The world in 1999 was far from a utopia, but still humans accepted this over the suffering-less utopia. According to William Irwin this is Kantian, because the machines wished to impose a perfect world on humans in an attempt to keep people content, so that they would remain completely submissive to the machines, both consciously and subconsciously, but humans were not easy to make content.[180]
Religion and mythology
Andrew Godoski sees allusions to Christ, including Neo's "virgin birth", his doubt in himself, the prophecy of his coming, along with many other Christian references.[36] Amongst these possible allusions, it is suggested that the name of the character Trinity refers to Christianity's doctrine of the Trinity.[181] It has also been noted that the character Morpheus paraphrases the Chinese Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi when he asks Neo, "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference from the real world and the dream world?"[182]
Matrixism is a fan-based possibly satirical religion created as "the matrix religion".
Transgender themes
Years after the release of The Matrix, both of the Wachowskis came out as transgender women.[183] The red pill has been compared with red estrogen pills.[184] Morpheus's description of the Matrix creating a sense that something is fundamentally wrong, "like a splinter in your mind", has been compared to gender dysphoria.[184] In the original script, Switch was a woman in the Matrix and a man in the real world, but this idea was removed.[185]
In a 2016 GLAAD Media Awards speech, Lilly Wachowski said: "There's a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I's [sic] work through the lens of our transness. This is a cool thing because it's an excellent reminder that art is never static."[186] In 2020, Lilly said The Matrix was intended as an allegory for gender transition, but that "the corporate world wasn't ready".[187] She said it was "all about the desire for transformation but it was all coming from a closeted point of view", but that she did not know "how present my transness was in the background of my brain" when the Wachowskis were writing it.[187] In an interview with Variety, Reeves said he did not know the film was an allegory for transgender identity during production.[188]
Legacy
Filmmaking
Following The Matrix, films made abundant use of slow motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the bullet time effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera dollying around them.[80] The ability to slow down time enough to distinguish the motion of bullets was used as a central gameplay mechanic of several video games, including Max Payne, in which the feature was explicitly referred to as "bullet time".[189][190] It was also the defining game mechanic of the game Superhot and its sequels. The Matrix's signature special effect, and other aspects of the film, have been parodied numerous times,[26] in comedy films such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999),[191] Scary Movie (2000),[192] Shrek (2001),[189] Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (2002),[193] Lastikman (2003); Marx Reloaded in which the relationship between Neo and Morpheus is represented as an imaginary encounter between Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky;[194] and in video games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day.[195] It also inspired films featuring a black-clad hero, a sexy yet deadly heroine, and bullets ripping slowly through the air;[26] these included Charlie's Angels (2000) featuring Cameron Diaz floating through the air while the cameras flo-mo around her; Equilibrium (2002), starring Christian Bale, whose character wore long black leather coats like Reeves' Neo;[189] Night Watch (2004), a Russian megahit heavily influenced by The Matrix and directed by Timur Bekmambetov, who later made Wanted (2008), which also features bullets ripping through air; and Inception (2010), which centers on a team of sharply dressed rogues who are able to enter other people's dreams by "wiring in". The original Tron (1982) paved the way for The Matrix, and The Matrix, in turn, inspired Disney to make its own Matrix with a Tron sequel, Tron: Legacy (2010).[196] Also, the film's lobby shootout sequence was recreated in the 2002 Indian action comedy Awara Paagal Deewana.[197]
Choreographers and actors
The Matrix had a strong effect on action filmmaking in Hollywood. The film's incorporation of wire fu techniques, including the involvement of fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping and other personnel with a background in Hong Kong action cinema, affected the approaches to fight scenes taken by some subsequent Hollywood action films,[198] moving them towards more Eastern approaches.[36] The success of The Matrix created high demand for those choreographers and their techniques from other filmmakers, who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, wire work was employed in X-Men (2000)[198] and Charlie's Angels (2000),[196] and Yuen Woo-ping's brother Yuen Cheung-yan was choreographer on Daredevil (2003).[199] The Matrix's Asian approach to action scenes also created an audience for Asian action films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) that they might not otherwise have had.[189]
Chad Stahelski, who had been a stunt double on The Matrix prior to directing Reeves in the John Wick series, acknowledged the film's strong influence on the Wick films,[200] and commented, "The Matrix literally changed the industry. The influx of martial-arts choreographers and fight coordinators now make more, and are more prevalent and powerful in the industry, than stunt coordinators. The Matrix revolutionized that. Today, action movies want their big sequences designed around the fights."[201]
Carrie-Anne Moss asserted that prior to being cast in The Matrix, she had "no career". It launched Moss into international recognition and transformed her career; in a New York Daily News interview, she stated, "The Matrix gave me so many opportunities. Everything I've done since then has been because of that experience. It gave me so much".[202] The film also created one of the most devoted movie fan-followings since Star Wars.[26] The combined success of the Matrix trilogy, the Lord of the Rings films and the Star Wars prequels made Hollywood interested in creating trilogies.[36] Stephen Dowling from the BBC noted that The Matrix's success in taking complex philosophical ideas and presenting them in ways palatable for impressionable minds might be its most influential aspect.[189]
Cultural impact
The Matrix was also influential for its impact on superhero films. John Kenneth Muir in The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television called the film a "revolutionary" reimagination of movie visuals, paving the way for the visuals of later superhero films, and credits it with helping to "make comic-book superheroes hip" and effectively demonstrating the concept of "faster than a speeding bullet" with its bullet time effect.[203] Adam Sternbergh of Vulture.com credits The Matrix with reinventing and setting the template for modern superhero blockbusters, and inspiring the superhero renaissance in the early 21st century.[204]
Modern reception
In 2001, The Matrix placed 66th in the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Thrills" list.[205] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly called The Matrix the best science-fiction piece of media for the past 25 years.[14] In 2009, the film was ranked 39th on Empire's reader-, actor- and critic-voted list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".[206] The Matrix was voted as the fourth best science fiction film in the 2011 list Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, based on a poll conducted by ABC and People. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."[15]
Conspiracy theories and fringe groups
The premise of The Matrix has been repurposed for multiple conspiracy theories and alt-right fringe groups. For example, some online men's rights groups use the term "redpill" to mean men realizing that they are supposedly being subjugated by feminism.[207][208] The term has been used in discussion forums for right-wing topics such as Gamergate, white supremacy, incel subculture and QAnon.[209] As of 2021, the verb "pill" and suffix "-pilled" had entered more mainstream use and had come to mean developing a sudden interest in something.[209]
Sequels and adaptations
The film's mainstream success led to the making of two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both directed by the Wachowskis. These were filmed back-to-back in one shoot and released on separate dates in 2003.[210] The first film's introductory tale is succeeded by the story of the impending attack on the human enclave of Zion by a vast machine army.[211][212] The sequels also incorporate longer and more ambitious action scenes, as well as improvements in bullet time and other visual effects.[212][213]
Also released was The Animatrix, a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same Japanese animation style[214] that was a strong influence on the live action trilogy. The Animatrix was overseen and approved by the Wachowskis, who only wrote four of the segments themselves but did not direct any of them; much of the project was developed by notable figures from the world of anime.[214]
In March 2017, Warner Bros. was in early stages of developing a relaunch of the franchise with Zak Penn in talks to write a treatment and interest in getting Michael B. Jordan attached to star. According to The Hollywood Reporter neither the Wachowskis nor Joel Silver were involved with the endeavor, although the studio would like to get at minimum the blessing of the Wachowskis.[215] On August 20, 2019, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich officially announced that a fourth Matrix film was in the works, with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss set to reprise their roles as Neo and Trinity, respectively.[216] The Matrix Resurrections was released on December 22, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max.
In September 2022, Danny Boyle was announced to be directing a dance adaptation of the film, titled Free Your Mind, and debuted in October 2023 in Manchester, England.[217]
See also
- TV
- The Deadly Assassin, 1976 episode of Doctor Who in a virtual reality called the "Matrix"
- Films
- World on a Wire, 1973 German science fiction series
- Tron, 1982 film
- Dark City, 1998 film
- The Thirteenth Floor, 1999 film
- Existenz, 1999 film
- Computer Boy, 2000 parody
- The Meatrix, 2003 parody
- Code Lyoko, 2003 French animated series
- Infinity Train, 2019 American animated series
Notes
References
- ^ "The Matrix". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
- ^ a b "Film: The Matrix". Lumiere. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ^ a b "The Matrix". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 12, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ a b "The Matrix". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Matrix (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Archived from the original on May 27, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
- ^ "The Matrix laid the template for the gritty, gravity-defying, self-seriously cerebral modern blockbuster". Vulture.com. February 4, 2019. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Allen, Jamie (November 28, 2012). "The Matrix and Postmodernism". Prezi.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Gibson, William (January 28, 2003). "The Matrix: Fair Cop". williamgibsonbooks.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ^ a b c "Matrix Virtual Theatre". Warnervideo.com. Warner Bros. Pictures. November 6, 1999. Interview with the Wachowski Brothers. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
We liked Ghost in the Shell and the Ninja Scroll and Akira in anime. One thing that they do that we tried to bring to our film was a juxtaposition of time and space in action beats.
- ^ a b "The Matrix (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ a b c "The Matrix (1999): Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
- ^ a b Heritage, Stuart (October 21, 2010). "The Matrix: No 13 best sci-fi and fantasy film of all time". Guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
- ^ a b "Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time". IGN. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ^ a b Jensen, Jeff (May 7, 2007). "The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since '82". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
- ^ a b King, Susan (December 19, 2012). "National Film Registry selects 25 films for preservation". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Screenplay". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Lawrence, Will (February 2007). "The Empire Interview: In conversation with Will Smith". Empire. No. 212. Emap. p. 109.
Honestly, I didn't think they could do it, it was too ambitious. I saw Bound and I loved it. The Matrix is exactly what they pitched, but they were designing those cameras to get those freeze-frames, and I was like, "If that doesn't work, the movie looks ridiculous." I didn't feel comfortable with the level of importance placed on that effect working properly. ... That's probably the only one that I turned down that I shouldn't have, but when you see somebody do it like Keanu you think, "Thank God." I don't think I was mature enough as an actor at that point to get out of the way and just let it be and allow the directors to make the movie. I would have been trying to make jokes. Now I would have loved to take a shot and see what I would have done with it and I know now I could absolutely have been mature enough to get out the way. But back then I don't think I was.
- ^ Hillner, Jennifer (July 2004). "I, Robocop". Wired. Archived from the original on March 20, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
- ^ Riggs, Ransom (October 20, 2008). "5 million-dollar mistakes by movie stars". CNN. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- ^ Makuch, Eddie (February 14, 2019). "Will Smith Reveals He Turned Down the Matrix, and Here's Why". Gamespot. Archived from the original on April 11, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
- ^ Carroll, Larry (December 7, 2007). "Will Smith Snagged 'I Am Legend' From Schwarzenegger, But Can You Imagine Nicolas Cage In 'The Matrix'?". MTV. Archived from the original on December 11, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- ^ a b c Redpill (July 2000). "Don Davis – Composer". whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com. Archived from the original on April 22, 2004. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
As far as casting goes, Keanu Reeves wasn't Larry and Andy's first choice, Johnny Depp was their first choice for Neo. Warner Bros. was going for this thing where they didn't want Johnny Depp, they wanted Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. They told Larry and Andy if Brad Pitt would do the picture, they'd green light it right then. After Kilmer and Brad Pitt said no, Warner Bros. was willing to consider Johnny Depp, so it sort of came down to between Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, who Warner Bros. was pushing. Keanu was always really tuned in to the concept and that made a big difference for Larry and Andy. I think it was a brilliant choice. Gary Oldman was considered as Morpheus at one point, and Samuel Jackson as well. For Trinity, I think they were generally looking at lesser known names for that character.
- ^ a b Williams, Trey (March 26, 2019). "'The Matrix' Wanted Sandra Bullock as Neo Before Keanu Reeves Took the Role". TheWrap. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
We went to Sandy Bullock and said 'We'll change Neo to a girl.' [Producer] Joel Silver and I worked with Sandy on 'Demolition Man' and she was and continues to be a very good friend of mine. It was pretty simple. We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it. And if she was interested in it we would try to make the change."..."The first movie star who says yes is Brad Pitt, he's doing 'Seven Years in Tibet' and then he's coming out of it and he's like 'I'm way too exhausted to take this on,' so he's gone," di Bonaventura said. "Then we go to Leonardo [DiCaprio]. He says yes, we have meetings with him and then he goes, 'You know, I can't go do another visual effects movie having just finished 'Titanic,' and he drops out. Then Will Smith joins it and he drops out.
- ^ Gaiman, Neil (June 10, 2003). "Neil Gaiman's Journal: You must be this tall to ride this website..." neilgaiman.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Training". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e Fierman, Daniel (May 12, 2003). "EW hacks into The Matrix Reloaded". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. Archived from the original on June 2, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
The Matrix is the most influential action movie of its generation. ... since the movie's release in March 1999, every 360-degree sweep of a camera, every black-clad hero, every sexy yet deadly heroine, every bullet rippling slowly through the air, is a rip-off that can be traced back to writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski. ... They triggered countless pale imitations and dull-witted parodies.
- ^ Wonderland Magazine, February 2010, page 148
- ^ "Janet Jackson: 'I was in Matrix talks'". Digital Spy. February 2, 2010. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ^ "The Janet Jackson Interview – The Daily Voice". February 28, 2008. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ^ "America asks, Sandra Bullock answers". February 10, 2009. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Nolfi, Joey; Lenker, Maureen Lee (June 22, 2021). "Salma Hayek recalls bombing her athletic audition for 'The Matrix': 'I'm lazy!'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 28, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
- ^ "How The Matrix Built a Bullet-Proof Legacy". Wired. March 29, 2019. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ "Rosie Perez on Making Peace with Spike Lee, Bombing Her 'Matrix' Audition and Why Hollywood's Latino Representation Still 'Sucks'". March 29, 2023. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ a b c Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Interrogation Room". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ WENN (May 12, 2006). "Reno Said No To The Matrix". Contactmusic.com. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Godoski, Andrew. "Under The Influence: The Matrix". Screened.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
- ^ Romano, Nick. "What even is 'The Matrix'? Lana Wachowski and her stars address decades of theories". EW.com.
- ^ Why I Turned Down The Matrix | STORYTIME, archived from the original on September 29, 2021, retrieved September 29, 2021
- ^ Miller, Mark (November 2003). "Matrix Revelations; The Wachowski Brothers FAQ". Wired. Archived from the original on November 20, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
- ^ Vary, Adam B. (February 5, 2015). "The Wachowskis Refuse To Take No For An Answer". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on September 10, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Weinraub, Bernard (April 5, 1999). "Brothers Unleash the Comic Book of Ideas". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Powerhouse Museum. "'The Matrix' film poster". Powerhouse Museum, Australia. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- ^ The Matrix DVD Audio Commentary featuring actress Carrie Ann Moss, film editor Zach Staenberg, and visual effects supervisor John Gaeta. At time 3:30–5:11
- ^ a b c Rothstein, Edward (May 24, 2003). "Philosophers Draw on a Film Drawing on Philosophers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
- ^ "The Mind-Bending Story of How 'The Matrix' Came to Be". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ a b c Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Trinity". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Heath, Chris (August 31, 2000). "The Quiet Man: The Riddle of Keanu Reeves". Rolling Stone.
- ^ "Keanu Reeves couldn't kick in The Matrix--and six other factoids". February 12, 2017. Archived from the original on February 12, 2017.
- ^ HBO First Look: Making the Matrix (Cable TV documentary). United States: HBO.
- ^ Phipps, Keith (December 22, 2001). "How The Matrix Got Made". Vulture. Archived from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ a b c Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "The Power Plant". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Mears, Hadley (November 21, 2019). "Culver Studios before Amazon". ’’LA Curbed’’. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
- ^ a b Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "The Shooting Begins". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca (April 9, 1999). "How The Matrix made it to the big screen". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 25, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Car Ride to the Oracle". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Delaney, Colin (April 26, 2011). "5 Sydney film sites you didn't know you knew". CNN. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Government Roof". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Ebert, Roger (November 6, 2005). "Great Movies: Dark City". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Government Lobby". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Matrix actor felt racist 'vibe'". The Age. May 5, 2003.
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Construct Kung Fu". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "El Fighting". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Helicopter Rescue". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Wachowski, Larry; Wachowski, Andy; Darrow, Geof; Skroce, Steve; Kunitake, Tani; Manser, Warren; Grant, Colin; Staenberg, Zach; Oesterhouse, Phil; Gibson, William (2000). Lamm, Spencer (ed.). The Art of The Matrix. Titan Books Ltd (published November 24, 2000). ISBN 978-1-84023-173-1.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Sound effects". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ The Matrix [Score] at AllMusic.
- ^ The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score at Discogs (list of releases)
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "The Score". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Coleman, Christopher. "Essence of Cool". Tracksounds.com. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
- ^ The Matrix [Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture] at AllMusic.
- ^ The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture at Discogs (list of releases)
- ^ The Matrix — cactus.black (Black Cactus) Archived September 3, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, cactus.black
- ^ a b Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Look of the Matrix". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Bisset, Jennifer (October 19, 2017). "Creator of The Matrix code reveals its mysterious origins". CNET. Archived from the original on May 9, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
- ^ Clover, Joshua (2004). The Matrix. London: BFI Publishing. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-1-84457-045-4.
In the denouement [of The Thirteenth Floor], Douglas Hall simply crests a hill to discover that what he had thought was the real world has, beyond this point, yet to be constructed. In lieu of landscape, only crude phosphor-green polygons, the basic units of video graphics rendering, in the primal monochrome of an old CRT. The raw material of the simulation is even more basic in The Matrix – machine language itself, in the same familiar green ...
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "The Nebuchadnezzar". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Costume". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Navratil, Wendy (May 4, 2003). "Neo's cool and so are his shades". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Company. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
- ^ a b "200 Things That Rocked Our World: Bullet Time". Empire (200): 136. February 2006.
- ^ a b Lane, Anthony (January 20, 2003). "The Current Cinema: Trouble in the Streets". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
What I think of as the "Matrix" shot, a lone figure frozen while the camera circles around him, has travelled quickly from novelty to cliché, but Meirelles just about keeps it alive by using it to track the passage of time.
- ^ a b c d Green, Dave (June 5, 1999). "Better than SFX". Guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2009.
- ^ Shields, Meg (December 23, 2021). "How They Shot the "Bullet-Time" Effect in 'The Matrix'". Film School Rejects. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
- ^ Clover, Joshua (2004). The Matrix. London: BFI Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-84457-045-4.
- ^ Wood, Aylish (April 17, 2007). Digital Encounters (New ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-41066-3.
- ^ a b c d Silberman, Steve (May 2003). "Matrix2". Wired. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
- ^ "Bullet Time before Bullet Time - beforesandafters.com". befores & afters. March 31, 2019. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
- ^ Seymour, Mike (February 28, 2006). "Art of Optical Flow". fxguide. Archived from the original on March 25, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
- ^ Buckley, Robert. "Film Essay on The "Bullet Time" Scene In "The Matrix"" (PDF). Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Nova Southeastern University. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 15, 2013. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ Tiwari, Abhishek. "Bullet Time Technique". Voice. Mumbai: School of Broadcasting and Communication. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ "Comment about the use of FreeBSD (5:50)". YouTube. January 23, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ^ "FreeBSD Used to Generate Spectacular Special Effects". April 22, 1999. Archived from the original on August 18, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
- ^ Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) (November 20, 2001). "Post-production". The Matrix Revisited (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Warner Home Video (March 23, 2007). "The Matrix is Coming to HD DVD". Comingsoon.net. CraveOnline Media. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
- ^ "'Gladiator' Hits DVD Highs". The Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2001. p. 64. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Holson, Laura (November 10, 2003). "An Elf and a Bear Trip Up the Final 'Matrix'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
- ^ Boehm, Erich (December 13, 1999). "'Matrix' DVD breaks sales records in U.K." Variety. Archived from the original on May 28, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
- ^ Warner Home Video (July 25, 2008). "'Ultimate Matrix' Blu-ray Coming in October". highdefdigest.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2008. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
- ^ "The Matrix DVD Release Date". DVDs Release Dates. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
- ^ "Warner Home Video sends over details on a 10th Anniversary Blu-ray release". Dvdactive.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
- ^ "The Matrix – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (German Import)". ultrahd.highdefdigest.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
- ^ "The Matrix Trilogy – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review | High Def Digest". ultrahd.highdefdigest.com. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
- ^ Gerstmann, Jeff (May 20, 2003). "Enter the Matrix Review". Gamespot. Archived from the original on October 18, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ Butts, Steve (April 15, 2005). "The Matrix Online, I changed my mind; I want the blue pill". IGN. News Corporation. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ Kasavin, Greg (April 4, 2005). "The Matrix Online Review". Gamespot. Archived from the original on September 8, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ Dunham, Jeremy (November 17, 2005). "The Matrix: Path of Neo, There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path". IGN. News Corporation. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ Hornshaw, Phil (December 9, 2021). "The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 Demo Might Make You Wonder What's Real". Gamespot. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
- ^ "Comics". whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com. Archived from the original on August 15, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
- ^ The Matrix Comics. Vol. 1. Burlyman Entertainment. November 2003. ISBN 978-1-84023-806-8.
- ^ a b c "'Matrix' Shows Its Muscle". Los Angeles Times. April 5, 1999. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ "'Scorpion King' dominates US box office". United Press International. April 21, 2002. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
- ^ "'Room' dominates US box office". United Press International. March 31, 2002. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ^ "'Matrix' tops weekend box office". The Cincinnati Enquirer. April 5, 1999. p. 33. Archived from the original on November 6, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Welkos, Robert W. (April 20, 1999). "Eddie Murphy's Charmed 'Life'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
- ^ "Weekend moviegoers make 'Matrix' No. 1". The Des Moines Register. April 26, 1999. p. 27. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Gray, Brandon. "Forecast: Matrix Reclaims #1". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
- ^ "'Entrapment' Snares Top Spot With Charismatic Stars' Help". Los Angeles Times. May 3, 1999. Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ a b "How 'The Matrix Resurrections' Can Make R-Rated Box Office History". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
- ^ "Votes for The Matrix (1999)". Sight & Sound. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
- ^ Strick, Philip. "Sight & Sound – The Matrix (1999)". Sight & Sound. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
- ^ a b Ebert, Roger (March 31, 1999). "The Matrix". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
"The Matrix" recycles the premises of "Dark City" and "Strange Days,"...
- ^ "Time Out Film Review – The Matrix". Time Out Film Guide. Time Out. Archived from the original on December 27, 2011. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "The Matrix". Chicago Reader. Sun-Times Media Group. Archived from the original on April 21, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ^ Nathan, Ian (January 1, 1999). "The Matrix Review". Empire. Bauer Consumer Media. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ^ McDonagh, Maitland. "The Matrix: Review". TV Guide. Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
- ^ a b O'Hehir, Andrew (April 2, 1999). "Short attention spawn". Salon. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ^ Wachowski, Larry; Wachowski, Andy; Darrow, Geof; Skroce, Steve; Kunitake, Tani; Manser, Warren; Grant, Colin; Staenberg, Zach; Oesterhouse, Phil; Gibson, William (2000). Lamm, Spencer (ed.). The Art of The Matrix. Titan Books Ltd (published November 24, 2000). p. 451. ISBN 978-1-84023-173-1.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "The 201 Greatest Movies of all Time". Empire. No. 201. Emap. March 2006. p. 98.
- ^ Silberman, Steve (November 2006). "The Outsider". Wired. Vol. 14, no. 11. Condé Nast Publications. p. 224. Archived from the original on January 3, 2007. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- ^ Malanowski, Jamie (March 12, 2000). "Oscar films/First timers; A Director With a Sense of Where He's Going". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
- ^ Pegg, Simon (2010). Nerd Do Well. London: Random House. p. 323. ISBN 978-1-84605-811-0.
- ^ Brown, Lane (August 17, 2009). "Team America, Anything Else Among the Best Movies of the Past Seventeen Years, Claims Quentin Tarantino". Vulture. New York Media LLC. Archived from the original on February 13, 2013. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
- ^ Boucher, Geoff (August 29, 2019). "'Terminator: Dark Fate': James Cameron On Rewired Franchise, Possible New Trilogy". Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave (June 30, 2010). "A Man and His Dream: Christopher Nolan and 'Inception'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 24, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
- ^ Rinaldi, Ray Mark (March 27, 2000). "Crystal has a sixth sense about keeping overhyped, drawn-out Oscar broadcast lively". Off the Post-Dispatch. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 27. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Oscar winners in full". BBC. March 27, 2000. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
- ^ "The 72nd Academy Awards (2000) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
- ^ "The Wachowski Brothers biography". Tribute. Tribute Entertainment Media Group. Archived from the original on June 16, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
- ^ "BAFTA Film Winners 1990–1999" (PDF). bafta.org. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 2, 2007. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
- ^ "Saturn Awards". SaturnAwards.org. Archived from the original on February 9, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
- ^ "Oscars Fan Favorite". Oscars Fan Favorite. Archived from the original on February 25, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
- ^ "Zack Snyder's Justice League Tops 'Oscars Cheer Moment' List". CBR. March 28, 2022. Archived from the original on April 1, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
- ^ Stucky, Mark (October 2005). "He is the One: The Matrix Trilogy's Postmodern Movie Messiah". The Journal of Religion and Film. 9 (2). Archived from the original on November 24, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
- ^ Jones, Steven Edward (2006). "Simulacra in the Matrix". Against Technology. From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism. CRC Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-415-97868-2.
- ^ Calia, Michael. "We Are All Living in H.R. Giger's Nightmare". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
- ^ The Pop Mythologist (May 14, 2014). "Of sex, death and biomachinery: H. R. Giger's legacy in pop culture". Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
- ^ "Title: The News from D Street". isfdb.org. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (October 2, 2008). "The Wachowskis: From "2001" to "The Godfather" to "The Matrix"". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.
- ^ Hemon, Aleksandar (September 3, 2012). "Beyond the Matrix". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (September 9, 2012). "Toronto #3: "Cloud Atlas" and a new silent film". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ "Dark City vs The Matrix". RetroJunk. August 17, 2015. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ Tyridal, Simon (January 28, 2005). "Matrix City: A Photographic Comparison of The Matrix and Dark City". ElectroLund. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ "The Matrix (1999) – Film Review from FilmFour". Film4. Channel Four Television Corporation. Archived from the original on May 25, 2010. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
The film is a perfect product of its time. It is a very modern conspiracy thriller, a film based, like The Truman Show, on the appealingly terrifying notion of a universal conspiracy – that life itself and everything that we know and take for granted are lies. It's also a film steeped in the traditionals of Japanese anime and megamixed philosophy and semiotics (spot the Baudrillard references kids).
- ^ Rowley, Stephen (June 18, 2003). "What Was the Matrix?". sterow.com. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
The Matrix was the third in a cycle of movies to arrive in the late nineties with a strikingly similar theme. Like its predecessors from the previous year, Dark City and The Truman Show, it tells the story of a seemingly ordinary man who suddenly finds that his whole life is faked: he is trapped in an artificially created environment designed to keep him in submission. Like the heroes of those earlier movies, Keanu Reeves' Neo starts to realise that he is somehow special, and tries to escape the confines of his prison.
- ^ Condon, Paul (July 26, 2003). The Matrix Unlocked. Contender Books. pp. 141–3. ISBN 978-1-84357-093-6.
- ^ a b Rose, Frank (December 2003). "The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick". Wired. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
His influence is pervasive in The Matrix and its sequels, which present the world we know as nothing more than an information grid; Dick articulated the concept in a 1977 speech in which he posited the existence of multiple realities overlapping the "matrix world" that most of us experience. ... They probably don't realize that the Matrixseries [sic] contains almost as many references to Woo as to Dick. (Fluttering pigeons heralding a fight, a shooter with two guns blazing – pure Woo.)
- ^ "Fist of Legend". Bigbearacademy.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
- ^ Colman, Dan (October 7, 2011). "The Matrix: What Went Into The Mix". Open Culture. Archived from the original on December 18, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
- ^ Jones Andrew; Morimoto, Kôji; Maeda, Mahiro; Chung, Peter; Watanabe, Shinichirô (June 3, 2003). The Animatrix (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Wachowski, Larry (Director); Wachowski, Andy (Director) (September 21, 1999). The Matrix (DVD). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
{{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Manga Mania". The South Bank Show. February 19, 2006. ITV.
- ^ Morrison, Grant (2011). Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero. London: Random House/Jonathan Cape. p. 315.
I was taken to see The Matrix ... and saw what seemed to me my own combination of ideas enacted on the screen: fetish clothes, bald heads, kung fu, and magic, witnessing the Gnostic invasion of the Hollywood mainstream.
- ^ "Matrix and Carlos Castaneda". Consciencia.org. December 4, 2006. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ^ Leiren-Young, Mark (January 6, 2012). "Is William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' the Future of Movies?". The Tyee. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
One of the obstacles in the selling of this movie to the industry at large is that everyone says, 'Oh, well, The Matrix did it already.' Because The Matrix – the very word 'matrix' – is taken from Neuromancer, they stole that word, I can't use it in our movie.
- ^ L. P. Davies. The White Room. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1969. Page 168.
- ^ Zenko, Darren (April 29, 2007). "Not another Philip K. Dick movie". The Toronto Star. Archived from the original on April 17, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ Axmaker, Sean (June 25, 2002). "Philip K. Dick's dark dreams still fodder for films". Seattle Post Intelligencer. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
Even the seeds of his concepts, however, sprout resonant ideas that the biggest special effects can't destroy, and they have pollinated the creative ground of many other films, from the moral quandaries posed by technology in "The 6th Day" to the paranoia and sanity-threatening conspiracies of "The Truman Show" and "The Matrix."
- ^ South Berkshire Research Institute (August 23, 2015). "Author Philip K. Dick – "We are living in a computer-programmed reality ..."". Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2017 – via YouTube.[permanent dead link]
- ^ theduderinok2 (June 26, 2010). "Did Philip K. Dick disclose the real Matrix in 1977?". Archived from the original on October 22, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2017 – via YouTube.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Philip K. Dick Theorizes The Matrix in 1977, Declares That We Live in "A Computer-Programmed Reality"". openculture.com. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ Wagner, David (February 11, 2014). "Building A Digital Worm Is Harder (And More Important) Than You Might Think". kpbs.org. Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ a b Poole, Steven (March 7, 2007). "Obituary: Jean Baudrillard". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2012. The term "desert of the real" first originated from Jorge Luis Borges' short story "On Exactitude in Science" (1946), which Baudrillard references in his essay.
- ^ Jobs, Post (March 14, 2007). "Remember Baudrillard". Inside Higher Ed. Archived from the original on February 11, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ^ "Le Nouvel Observateur with Baudrillard". Le Nouvel Observateur. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved January 31, 2010.
- ^ Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg, The Matrixial Gaze, Leeds University 1995.
- ^ Ettinger, Bracha L., The Matrixial Borderspace. [Selected Essays from 1994-1999). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
- ^ Ettinger, Bracha L., Matrixial Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Ethics. Vol I : 1990-2000. Edited with Introductions by Griselda Pollock. Pelgrave Macmillan, 2020.
- ^ Schwerfel, Heinz-Peter, Kino und Kunst. Koln: Dumont, 2003.
- ^ a b Miller, Laura (December 5, 2002). ""The Matrix and Philosophy" by William Irwin, ed". Salon. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ^ Irwin, William. "We Are (the) One!" The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real. Chicago: Open Court, 2002. 138–54. Print.
- ^ Babenko, Yelyzaveta (2011). Analysis of the film "The Matrix". Munich: GRIN Verlag. p. 6. ISBN 978-3-640-91285-8.
- ^ Toropov, Brandon (2002). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taoism. The Penguin Group. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-02-864262-8.
- ^ Pitre, Jake (March 27, 2019). "How The Matrix Has Gone from Men's Rights Dream to Formative Trans Masterpiece". SyFy Wire. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^ a b Chu, Andrea Long (February 7, 2019). "What We Can Learn About Gender From The Matrix". vulture.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^ Guida, Matthew (January 7, 2018). "The Matrix: 15 Dark Behind-The-Scenes Secrets". ScreenRant. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^ Lachenal (April 4, 2016). "lilly wachowski encourages viewers to reconsider 'the matrix' through the lens of transness". Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
- ^ a b "The Matrix is a 'trans metaphor', Lilly Wachowski says". BBC News. August 7, 2020. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
- ^ "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter on How the Beatles Secretly Helped 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' (Watch)". Variety. August 26, 2020. Archived from the original on August 26, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Dowling, Stephen (May 21, 2003). "Under The Matrix influence". BBC.co.uk. BBC. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
- ^ "The Game World: Bullet Time". Max Payne: Official Police Dossier (game manual). PC CD ROM version. 2001. p. 19.
When pressed into a tight spot, Max can activate Bullet Time, which will slow the action around him, while allowing him to aim his weapons in real-time. This ... even allows Max to dodge oncoming bullets.
- ^ "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo". Total Film. May 26, 2000. Archived from the original on September 9, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ Dinning, Mark (January 2000). "Scary Movie". Empire Online. Bauer Consumer Media. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
- ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (January 30, 2002). "Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. Archived from the original on February 18, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ Korsic, Nemanja (May 26, 2011). "Marx Enters the Matrix". Greek Left Project. Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ Casamassina, Matt (March 2, 2001). "Conker's Bad Fur Day". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
- ^ a b Vary, Adam (April 1, 2011). "'The Matrix': A Groundbreaking Cyberthriller". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ "20 Years Of 'The Matrix': 5 Times Bollywood Got Inspired By It". News18. March 31, 2019. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
- ^ a b Jensen, Jeff (July 21, 2000). "Generating X". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2008.
There was also debate over the style of the film's fight sequences, thanks to the new standard set by The Matrix, which hit while X-Men was in pre-production. Hence, the movie features some high-flying Matrix-y martial-arts choreography by Corey Yuen (Romeo Must Die).
- ^ Reid, Craig. "From Angels to Devils". Kung Fu Magazine. TC Media, Inc. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (March 25, 2019). "The Matrix's stunt coordinators and choreographers reveal how the iconic fight scenes were made". Syfy Wire. Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
- ^ Ebiri, Bilge (February 4, 2019). "Neo's Stunt Guy Chad Stahelski on How The Matrix Changed Movie Action Forever". Vulture. New York Media, LLC. Archived from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
- ^ "She's walked with a zombie". New York Daily News. June 8, 2007. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
- ^ Muir, John Kenneth (2008). The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television, 2d ed. McFarland & Company. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-7864-3755-9.
- ^ Sternbergh, Adam (February 4, 2019). "The Matrix Taught Superheroes to Fly: The Matrix laid the template for the gritty, gravity-defying, self-seriously cerebral modern blockbuster". Vulture.com. Vox Media. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills" (PDF) (Press release). American Film Institute. June 21, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 13, 2005. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ "Empire Features". Empire Online. Bauer Consumer Media. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
- ^ "Andrew Tate arrest: TikTok and Twitter under fire over false posts from fans". the Guardian. January 1, 2023. Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
- ^ Marche, Stephen (April 14, 2016). "Swallowing the Red Pill: a journey to the heart of modern misogyny". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
- ^ a b Tiffany, Kaitlyn (April 13, 2021). "The Alt-Right Has Lost Control of 'Redpill'". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 20, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
- ^ Ojumu, Akin (May 18, 2003). "Observer Profile: Andy and Larry Wachowski". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on September 11, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
The Matrix Reloaded, which opens here on Friday. ... Andy and Larry Wachowski were apparently busy working on the third part of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, which will be released in November. ... With the resources of Warner Bros. at their disposal, the siblings indulged themselves on the next two, which were shot back-to-back in Australia.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (May 14, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ a b Pierce, Nev (May 22, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded (2003)". BBC.co.uk. BBC. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ Taub, Eric (June 3, 2003). "The 'Matrix' Invented: A World of Special Effects". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
- ^ a b Conrad, Jeremy (May 23, 2003). "The Animatrix". IGN. News Corporation. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ Borys Kit; Kim Masters; Rebecca Ford (March 14, 2017). "'The Matrix' Reboot in the Works at Warner Bros. (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ "Whoa: 'The Matrix 4' is Happening With Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski Returning". /Film. August 20, 2019. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
- ^ Yossman, K. J. (September 29, 2022). "Danny Boyle to Direct Dance Adaptation of 'The Matrix'". Variety. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
Bibliography
- Babenko, Yelyzaveta (2011). Analysis of the Film the Matrix. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3-640-91285-8.
- Clover, Joshua (2004). The Matrix. BFI. ISBN 978-1-84457-045-4.
- Condon, Paul (2003). The Matrix Unlocked: An Unauthorized Review of the Matrix Phenomenon. Contender Books. ISBN 978-1-84357-093-6.
- Irwin, William (2002). The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real. Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9502-1.
- Jones, Steven E. (2006). Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97868-2.
- Pegg, Simon (2010). Nerd Do Well. Century. ISBN 978-1-84605-811-0.
- Toropov, Brandon; Hansen, Chad (2002). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taoism. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-02-864262-8.
- Wachowski, Larry; Wachowski, Andy (2000). The Art of The Matrix. Titan. ISBN 978-1-84023-173-1.
- Wood, Aylish (2007). Digital Encounters. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-41066-3.
External links
- Official website
- whatisthematrix.com, the first and original Matrix website
- The Matrix at IMDb
- The Matrix at the Internet Movie Firearms Database
- The Matrix at AllMovie
- The Matrix Was a Documentary on YouTube
- 1999 films
- 1990s American films
- 1990s chase films
- 1990s dystopian films
- 1990s English-language films
- 1990s science fiction action films
- 1999 action thriller films
- 1999 science fiction films
- American action thriller films
- American chase films
- American dystopian films
- American neo-noir films
- American post-apocalyptic films
- American science fiction action films
- Australian action thriller films
- Australian neo-noir films
- Australian post-apocalyptic films
- Australian science fiction action films
- BAFTA winners (films)
- Cyberpunk films
- Drone films
- Films about computer hacking
- Films about rebellions
- Films directed by The Wachowskis
- Films produced by Joel Silver
- Films scored by Don Davis (composer)
- Films shot at Culver Studios
- Films shot in Sydney
- Films that won the Best Sound Editing Academy Award
- Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award
- Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award
- Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
- Films with screenplays by The Wachowskis
- Gun fu films
- Kung fu films
- Martial arts science fiction films
- Philosophical fiction
- Existentialist films
- Postmodern films
- Resurrection in film
- Silver Pictures films
- The Matrix (franchise) films
- Transgender-related films
- United States National Film Registry films
- Village Roadshow Pictures films
- Warner Bros. films