The Matrix

The Matrix
Image:The Matrix Poster.jpg The Matrix Film Poster
Directed by	Wachowski Brothers
Produced by	Joel Silver
Written by	Wachowski Brothers
Starring	Keanu Reeves Laurence Fishburne Carrie-Anne Moss Hugo Weaving Joe Pantoliano Gloria Foster
Music by	Original: Don Davis Rob Dougan Jack Dangers Chino Moreno Hive Propellerheads Non-Original: Tim Commerford Madonna Wayne Gacy Stéphane Grappelli Liam Howlett Harry James Grant Marshall Tom Morello Zack De La Rocha Brad Wilk David Wyndorf Robert del Naja Sara J. Mushroom Vowles Matt Schwartz Jimmie Haskell
Cinematography	Bill Pope
Editing by	Zach Staenberg
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	Image:Flag of the United States.svg March 31 1999 11 June 1999 Image:Flag of Australia.svg 9 April 1999
Running time	136 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$63,000,000
Gross revenue	Domestic $171,479,930 Foreign $288,900,000 Worldwide $460,379,930
Followed by	The Matrix Reloaded
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IMDb profile

The Matrix is a science fiction / action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Hugo Weaving. It was first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, and is the first entry in the Matrix series of films, comics, video games and animation.

The film describes a future in which the world is actually the Matrix, a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify, subdue and make use of the human population as an energy source by growing them and connecting them to the Matrix with cybernetic implants. It contains numerous references to the cyberpunk and hacker subcultures; philosophical and religious ideas, including Vedanta, messianism and Socratic, Cartesian, and Platonic idealism; and homages to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Hong Kong action movies and Japanese animation.

Plot

Computer programmer Thomas Anderson leads a secret life as a hacker under the alias "Neo". He wishes to learn the answer to the question: "What is the Matrix?" Cryptic messages appearing on his computer monitor and an encounter with several sinister agents lead him to a group led by the mysterious Morpheus, a man who offers him the chance to learn the truth about the Matrix.

Neo accepts. Swallowing a red pill, he abruptly wakes up naked in a liquid-filled chamber, his body connected by wires to a vast mechanical tower covered with identical pods. The connections are severed and he is rescued by Morpheus and taken aboard his hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar. Neo's neglected physical body is restored, and Morpheus explains the situation. The year is approximately 2199, and humanity is fighting a war against intelligent machines created in the early 21st century. The sky is covered in thick clouds created by the humans in an attempt to cut off the machines' supply of solar power. The machines responded by using human beings as their energy source, growing countless people in pods and harvesting their energy. The world which Neo has inhabited since birth is the Matrix, an illusory simulated reality construct of the world of 1999, developed by the machines to keep the human population docile. Morpheus and his crew are a group of free humans who "unplug" others from the Matrix and recruit them to their resistance against the machines. Within the Matrix they are able to use their understanding of its nature to bend the laws of physics within the simulation, giving them superhuman abilities. Morpheus believes that Neo is "the One", a man prophesied to end the war through his limitless control over the Matrix.

Neo is trained to become a member of the group. A socket in the back of Neo's skull, formerly used to connect him to the Matrix, allows knowledge to be uploaded directly into his mind. He learns numerous martial arts disciplines, and demonstrates his kung fu skills by sparring with Morpheus in a virtual reality "construct" environment similar to the Matrix, impressing the crew with his speed. Further training introduces Neo to the key dangers in the Matrix itself. Injuries suffered there are reflected in the real world; if he is killed in the Matrix, his physical body will also die. He is warned of the presence of Agents, powerful and fast sentient programs with the ability to take over the body of anyone still connected to the system, whose purpose is to seek out and eliminate any threats to the simulation. Yet Morpheus predicts that, once Neo fully understands his own abilities as "the One", they will be no match for him.

The group enters the Matrix and takes Neo to the apartment of the Oracle, the woman who predicted the eventual emergence of the One. She implies that he is not the One, then adds that Morpheus believes in Neo so blindly that he will sacrifice his life to save him. Returning to the hacked telephone line which serves as a safe "exit" from the Matrix, the group is ambushed by Agents and police officers, and Morpheus is captured in an attempt to save Neo. The group was betrayed by one crew-member, Cypher, who preferred his old life in ignorance of the real world's hardships, and made a deal with the Agents to give them Morpheus in exchange for a permanent return to the Matrix. The betrayal leads to the deaths of all crew-members except Neo, Trinity, Tank and Morpheus, who is imprisoned in a government building within the Matrix. The Agents attempt to gain information from him regarding access codes to the mainframe of Zion, the humans’ last refuge deep underground. Neo and Trinity return to the Matrix and storm the building, rescuing their leader. Neo becomes more confident and familiar with manipulating the Matrix, ultimately dodging bullets fired at him by an Agent. Morpheus and Trinity use a subway station telephone to exit the Matrix, but before Neo can leave, he is ambushed by Agent Smith. He stands his ground and eventually defeats Smith, but flees when the Agent possesses another body.

As Neo runs through the city pursued by the Agents, "Sentinel" machines converge on the Nebuchadnezzar's position in the real world. Neo reaches an exit, but he is shot dead by the waiting Agent Smith. Trinity whispers to Neo that she loves him and refuses to accept his death, then kisses him. Neo's heart beats again, and within the Matrix he stands up; the Agents shoot at him, but he raises his palm and stops their bullets in mid-air. Neo sees the Matrix as it really is, lines of streaming green code: he finally becomes "the One". Agent Smith makes a final attempt to physically attack him, but his punches are effortlessly blocked, and Neo destroys him. The other two Agents flee, and Neo returns to the real world just in time for the ship's EMP weapon to destroy the Sentinels, which already breached into the ship. A short epilogue shows Neo back in the Matrix, making a telephone call promising that he will demonstrate to the people imprisoned in the Matrix that "anything is possible." He hangs up the phone and flies into the sky above the city.

Cast and characters

• Keanu Reeves as Thomas A. Anderson / Neo: A computer programmer who moonlights as the hacker Neo.
• Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus:
• Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity:
• Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith:
• Joe Pantoliano as Cypher:
• Julian Arahanga as Apoc:
• Anthony Ray Parker as Dozer: a “natural” human, with no plugs for the Matrix.
• Marcus Chong as Tank: Dozer's brother, operates the training simulation.
• Matt Doran as Mouse :
• Gloria Foster as the Oracle:
• Paul Goddard as Agent Brown:
• Belinda McClory as Switch:
• Robert Taylor as Agent Jones:

Actor Will Smith turned down the role of Neo. He later stated that, if given the role at that time, he "would have messed it up".^[1]

Carrie Anne Moss had co-starred in a fantasy television series entitled Matrix several years before production of The Matrix. That series ran for only 13 episodes but was rebroadcast in several countries after The Matrix became a hit.

Production

The Matrix was a co-production of Warner Bros. Studios and Australian Village Roadshow Pictures, and all but a few scenes were filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, and the city itself. Recognisable landmarks were not included in order to maintain the setting of a generic American city. Nevertheless, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Martin Place and a Commonwealth Bank branch are visible in some shots. Subtle nods were included to Chicago, Illinois, the home city of the directors, through place names, city maps, and a subtly placed picture of the Sears Tower.

The rooftop set that Trinity uses to escape from Agent Jones early in the film was left over from the production of Dark City, which has been remarked upon due to the thematic similarities of the films.^[2] According to The Art of the Matrix, only one filmed scene was omitted from the final cut.^{[citation needed]}

The Wachowski Brothers were keen that all involved understood the thematic background of the movie.^{[citation needed]} For example the book used to conceal disks early in the movie, Simulacra and Simulation by the French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard, was required reading for most of the principal cast and crew.

Some of the locations shown early in the film are featured again later. Room 303 in the Heart O' the City Hotel, where the police officers find Trinity, is the same room where Neo is killed by Agent Smith and resurrected as the One; the building in which Neo meets Morpheus for the first time is the place in which the group later appears before meeting the Oracle; and the room in which Neo takes the pill is the same room in which Mouse dies.

Production design

In the film, the code that comprises the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters. This code includes mirror images of half-width katakana characters and Western Latin letters and numerals. In one scene, the pattern of trickling rain on a window being cleaned resembles this code. More generally, the film's production design placed a bias towards its distinctive green color for scenes set within the Matrix, whereas there is an emphasis on the color blue during the scenes set in the real world. In addition, grid-patterns were incorporated into the sets for scenes inside the Matrix, intended to convey the cold, logical, artificial nature of that environment.^[3]

The "digital rain" is strongly reminiscent of similar computer code in the film Ghost in the Shell, an acknowledged influence on the Matrix series (see below). The linking of the color green to computers may have been intended to evoke the green tint of old monochrome computer monitors.

Visual effects

The film is known for popularizing and developing the use of a visual effect known as bullet time, which allows the viewer to explore a moment progressing in slow-motion as the camera appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed.

One proposed technique for creating these effects involved accelerating a high-frame-rate motion picture camera along a fixed track at a high speed to capture the action as it occurred. However, this was discarded as unfeasible, as the destruction of the camera in the attempt was all but inevitable. Instead, the method used was a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which a large number of cameras are placed around an object and fired simultaneously. When the sequence of shots is viewed as a movie, the viewer sees what is in effect two-dimensional "slices" of a three-dimensional moment. Watching such a "time slice" movie is akin to the real-life experience of walking around a statue to see how it looks at different angles.

Some scenes in The Matrix feature the "time-slice" effect with completely frozen characters and objects. Interpolation techniques improved the fluidity of the apparent "camera motion". The effect was further expanded upon by the Wachowski brothers and visual effects supervisor John Gaeta to create "bullet time", which incorporates temporal motion, so that rather than being totally frozen the scene progresses in slow and variable motion. Engineers at Manex Visual Effects pioneered 3D visualization planning methods to move beyond mechanically fixed views towards complex camera paths and flexibly moving interest points. There is also an improved fluidity through the use of non-linear interpolation, digital compositing and the introduction of computer generated "virtual" scenery.

The objective of bullet time shots in The Matrix was to creatively illustrate "mind over matter" type events as captured by a "virtual camera". However, the original technical approach was physically bound to pre-determined perspectives, and the resulting effect only suggested the capabilities of a true virtual camera.

The evolution of photogrametric and image based CGI background approaches in The Matrix's bullet time shots set the stage for later innovations unveiled in the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Virtual Cinematography (CGI-rendered characters, locations and events) and the high-definition Universal Capture process completely replaced the use of still camera arrays, thus realising the virtual camera.

This film upset the juggernaut release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace by winning the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Music

See also: The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score and The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture

The film's score was composed by Don Davis. He noted that mirrors appear frequently in the movie: reflections of the blue and red pills are seen in Morpheus's glasses; Neo's capture by Agents is viewed through the rear-view mirror of Trinity's motorcycle; 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 contrapuntal ideas.^[4]

In addition to Davis's score, The Matrix's soundtrack also features music from acts such as Rammstein, Rob Dougan, Rage Against the Machine, Propellerheads, Ministry, Massive Attack, Deftones, The Prodigy, Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson.

Influences and interpretations

Main articles: Thematic motifs of the Matrix series and The Matrix character names

The Matrix makes numerous references to recent films and literature, and to historical myths and philosophy including Messianism, Buddhism, Existentialism, Vedanta, Advaita Hinduism, Yoga Vashishta Hinduism, and Gnosticism. The film's premise resembles Plato's Allegory of the Cave and The Brain in a Vat thought experiment, while Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation is featured in the film. There are similarities to cyberpunk works such as Neuromancer by William Gibson.^[5]

Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence. Producer Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowski brothers first described their intentions for The Matrix by showing him this anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real".^[6][7] 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 Wachowski brothers. 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 Wachowski brothers used it as a "promotional tool".^[8]

Reviewers have commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City, and The Truman Show.^[9][10][11] Comparisons have also been made to Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles; Morrison believes that the Wachowski brothers essentially plagiarized his work to create the film.^[12] In addition, 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.^[13]

Release

The Matrix was first released in the U.S. on 31 March 1999, less than two months before the highly anticipated sci-fi film Star Wars: Episode I. It earned $171 million in the U.S. and $460 million worldwide,^[14] and later became the first DVD to sell more than three million copies in the U.S.^[15] The Matrix will be released on HD-DVD on May 22 2007.^[16]

Critical reception

The combination of special-effects-laden action and philosophical meandering was considered fresh and exciting.^[17] 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".^[18] Roger Ebert praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the third act's focus on action.^[9] 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".^[19] Other reviewers criticised the comparative humorlessness and self-indulgence of the movie.^[20][21]

In 2001, The Matrix was placed 66th in the American Film Institute's "100 Years... 100 Thrills" list.

Several science fiction creators commented on the film. Author 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".^[22] 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."^[23] Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky commented,^[24] "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."

Awards and nominations

The Matrix received Oscars for film editing, sound effects editing, visual effects, and sound.^[25][26] In 1999, The Matrix also received Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.^[27] The film 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.^[28]

The Matrix series

Main article: The Matrix (series)

The film's mainstream success led to the greenlighting of the next two films of what was conceived as a trilogy,^{[citation needed]} The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. These were filmed simultaneously during one shoot and released in two parts in 2003.

The first film's introductory tale is replaced by a story centred on the impending attack of the human enclave of Zion by a vast machine army. Neo also learns more about the history of the Matrix, his role as the One and the prophecy that he will end the war. The sequels also incorporate longer and more ambitious action scenes, as well as improvements in bullet time and other visual effects.

Also released was The Animatrix, a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same Japanese animation style that was a strong influence on the live trilogy. The Animatrix was overseen and approved by the Wachowski brothers but they only wrote four of the segments themselves and did not direct any of them; much of the project was created by notable figures from the world of anime. Four of the films were originally released on the series' official website; one was shown in cinemas with the Warner Bros movie Dreamcatcher; the others first appeared with the DVD release of all nine shorts.

The franchise contains three video games: Enter the Matrix (2003), which contains footage shot specifically for the game and chronicles events taking place before and during The Matrix Reloaded; The Matrix Online (2004), a MMORPG which continues the story beyond The Matrix Revolutions; and The Matrix: Path of Neo, which was released 8 November 2005 and focuses on situations based on Neo's journey through the trilogy of films.

Available on the official website are a number of free comics set in the world of The Matrix, written and illustrated by figures from the comics industry.^[29] Some of these comics are also available in two printed volumes.

Impact

The Matrix has had a strong effect on action film-making in Hollywood. It upped the ante for cinematic fight scenes by hiring acclaimed choreographers (such as Yuen Woo-ping) from the Hong Kong action cinema scene, well-known for its production of martial arts films. The success of The Matrix put those choreographers in high demand by other filmmakers who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, Yuen Woo-ping's brother Yuen Cheung-Yan was choreographer on Daredevil (2003). There was a surge in movies, commercials and pop videos copying "the Matrix look", usually without the training and attention to detail that made it successful in the first place.^{[citation needed]}

Following The Matrix, films made abundant use of slow-motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the famed bullet time effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera panning around them. In several video games, most notably Max Payne and its sequel, bullet time and the ability to dodge bullets became core gameplay elements. The bullet time effect has also been parodied numerous times, in comedy films such as Scary Movie, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Shrek and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist; in TV series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy; and in video games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day.

In 2003, GRACE, the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, commissioned Free Range Studios to produce The Meatrix, a dark satire of The Matrix, to encourage the purchase and consumption of organic foods and sustainable, free-range meats. In the Adobe Flash short, Leo, a pig on a seemingly bucolic farm, is approached by Moopheus, an anthropomorphic bull, who reveals to him that the farm he has known is an illusion, and in reality he is trapped in a horrific "factory farm". The animated short has won numerous awards, been reported in major international media, has been viewed over 10,000,000 times and translated into 13 languages.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, this was followed by a sequel, The Meatrix II: Revolting, themed around the factory farm treatment of dairy cows.

In 2005 a feature-length parody of the Matrix series called The Helix...Loaded starring Scott Levy as the Neo character and Vanilla Ice was released.

Sophia Stewart legal case

On April 24, 2003 Sophia Stewart filed suit against Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers claiming that the stories of The Matrix and Terminator franchises were based on a manuscript she wrote titled "The Third Eye". She allegedly submitted the manuscript to the Wachowskis in response to an advertisement. On October 4, 2004, a California court granted Stewart leave to continue her case. One account misreported the October 4 decision as Stewart winning her lawsuit, rather than simply winning permission to continue with the case. The case was dismissed in June 2005 on the basis that "Stewart and her attorneys had not entered any evidence to bolster its key claims or demonstrated any striking similarity between her work and the accused directors' films".^[30]

Books about The Matrix

• Stacy Gillis (Editor), The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded, Wallflower, 2005. ISBN 1-904764-32-0
• The Rebel Sell (2004) a non-fiction criticism by Canadian authors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, of 'counter-culture' is highly critical of the Matrix movies' philosophical underpinnings as being essentially individualistic and only artificially in opposition to our capitalist paradigm.
• Matthew Kapell and William G. Doty have edited a volume on the entire franchise entitled Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation (NY: Continuum 2004).
• William Irwin (Editor), The Matrix and Philosophy (2002) a collection of essays on Philosophy and how it relates to The Matrix.

See also

• Simulated reality

Notes and references

• Spencer Lamm (editor); Larry and Andy Wachowski, Steve Skroce, Geof Darrow, Tani Kunitake, Warren Manser, Colin Grant, Zach Staenberg, Phil Oesterhouse, William Gibson (2000). The Art of the Matrix. Titan, 488. ISBN 1-84023-173-4. 
• Josh Oreck (Director). The Matrix Revisited [DVD]. Warner Bros.

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