The Matrix Reloaded

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
The Matrix Reloaded

Promotional film poster
Directed by Wachowski brothers
Produced by Joel Silver
Wachowski brothers
Written by Wachowski brothers
Starring Keanu Reeves
Laurence Fishburne
Carrie-Anne Moss
Hugo Weaving
Harold Perrineau
Randall Duk Kim
Jada Pinkett Smith
Helmut Bakaitis
Music by Don Davis
Cinematography Bill Pope
Editing by Zach Staenberg
Studio Village Roadshow Pictures
Silver Pictures
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s) May 15, 2003 (2003-05-15)
Running time 138 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $150 million
Gross revenue $742,128,461[1]
Preceded by The Matrix
Followed by The Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theatres on May 15, 2003, and around the world during the latter half of that month. It was also screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.[2] The video game Enter the Matrix, which was released May 15, and a collection of nine animated shorts, the Animatrix, which was released on June 3, supported and expanded the storyline of the movie. The Matrix Revolutions, which completes the story, was released six months after Reloaded in November 2003.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Neo wakes from a nightmare in which Trinity is shot by an Agent of the Matrix while falling from a building. Morpheus receives a message from Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) of the Logos calling an emergency meeting of all Zion's hovercraft. Sentinels are tunneling towards Zion and will reach it in 72 hours. Commander Lock, the ranking military officer of Zion, orders all ships to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught. Morpheus asks a ship to remain to contact the Oracle, in defiance of Commander Lock's orders. The Caduceus receives a message from the Oracle, and the Nebuchadnezzar ventures out so Neo can contact her. One of the Caduceus crew, Bane, encounters Agent Smith, who takes over Bane's avatar. Smith leaves the Matrix, taking over Bane's real body.

In Zion's temple, Morpheus announces the news of the advancing machines to the people. Neo receives a message from the Oracle and returns to the Matrix, meeting her. Realizing the Oracle is part of the Matrix, Neo asks how he can trust her; she replies that it is his decision. The Oracle explains that she is an exiled program and instructs Neo to reach the Source of the Matrix by finding the Keymaker, a prisoner in the home of the Merovingian. The Keymaker makes keys that can open portals hidden within the Matrix. As the Oracle departs, Smith appears, telling Neo that after being defeated he knew he was supposed to return to the Source to be deleted, but refused and now is not bound to remove threats from the Matrix. He demonstrates his ability to clone himself using other people in the Matrix as hosts, prompting a fight between Neo and Smith's clones. Outnumbered, Neo flees.

Neo, Morpheus and Trinity visit the Merovingian and ask for the Keymaker, but the Merovingian refuses. His wife Persephone, tired of her husband's attitude, betrays him and leads the trio to the Keymaker, sending one of the Merovingian's henchmen to notify him of it. The Merovingian soon shows up and, while Morpheus, Trinity, and the Keymaker escape, Neo fights the Merovingian's men and ends up in an unknown mountain range. He then heads for town, where Morpheus and Trinity are trying to escape with the Keymaker on the highway, facing several Agents and The Twins. Ultimately, the Twins are destroyed, and Neo saves Morpheus and the Keymaker.

Zion's remaining ships prepare to battle the machines. Within the Matrix, the crews of the Nebuchadnezzar, Vigilant and Logos help the Keymaker and Neo reach the door to the Source. The crew of the Logos must destroy a power plant in order to prevent a security system from being triggered by the Keymaker's keys, and the crew of the Vigilant must destroy a back-up power station. The Vigilant is bombed by a Sentinel, killing everyone aboard. Though Neo requested that Trinity remain on the Nebuchadnezzar, she destroys the back-up station. Her escape is compromised by an Agent and they fight. As Neo, Morpheus and the Keymaker reach the Source through a hallway of shortcuts to other doors in the Matrix, the 'Smiths' appear and try to kill them. The Keymaker unlocks the door to the Source, allowing Neo and Morpheus to escape the 'Smiths', but the Keymaker is killed.

Neo meets an anthropomorphic program called the Architect, the Matrix's creator. The Architect tells Neo that there have been multiple versions of the Matrix and multiple versions of the One, a computer anomaly used as a means of control. Because humanity rejected the "perfect" Matrix as well as the dystopian Matrix, the machines realized that humanity needed to be offered the power of choice in order for them to accept it. The current Matrix is flawed and remains an unbalanced equation. The One is the sum of the remainder of that flaw. The One's purpose is to return to the Source, resetting the Matrix to its prime program. Afterwards, he will choose 16 females and 7 males to repopulate Zion and provide another round of humans for the "rebellion". Otherwise the unresolved error will spiral out of control, destroying the human race. Neo retorts that the machines need humans to survive and will not allow this; the Architect replies that, "there are levels of survival we are prepared to accept."

The Architect gives Neo a choice of two exits from the room: one door leads to the Source and the resetting of the Matrix, the other will lead to the Matrix's failure and humanity's destruction. Neo notices Trinity's battle with the Agent on the viewscreens and returns to the Matrix to save her. Neo's love for Trinity is revealed as a new variable in the repetition of the Matrix — while the previous Ones had no reason to choose humanity's destruction over accepting their function, Neo chooses to save Trinity at the cost of mankind's survival, despite the near certainty that she will die anyway after Zion's destruction.

Neo races to save Trinity, who is shot by an Agent as they fall from a building but caught by Neo before hitting the ground. Refusing to accept her death, Neo removes the bullet and revives her. On board the Nebuchadnezzar, Neo reveals that the prophecy is false and Zion will be destroyed in twenty-four hours. Sentinels destroy the ship, whereupon Neo saves his friends by using a previously unknown power to disable the Sentinels with an EMP-like shockwave, then falls unconscious. The crew is rescued by the hovercraft Mjolnir (also known as the Hammer), whose crew explains that they were leading a pre-emptive attack on the Sentinels advancing on Zion. The strategy was to use the ships' EMPs and stay out of each others' range; but an EMP was detonated by the Caduceus before the ships were in position. Multiple ships were left without power, with only a handful of survivors escaping, the Sentinels having destroyed any ship that could not escape. Once the machines returned to digging, the Mjolnir looked for survivors and found only one: the Smith-controlled Bane.

[edit] Cast

Zee was originally to be played by Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, before filming was complete.

[edit] Production

The Matrix Reloaded was largely filmed at Fox Studios Australia in Australia, concurrently with filming of the sequel Revolutions. The freeway chase scene was filmed at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California. Producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways just for the movie. Portions of the chase were also filmed in Oakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is the Webster Tube connecting Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was done in old aircraft hangars on the base as well.

The city of Akron was willing to give full access to Route 59, the stretch of freeway known as the "Innerbelt", for filming of the freeway chase when it was under consideration. However, producers decided against this as "the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long".[3] MythBusters would later reuse the Alameda location in order to explore the effects of a head-on collision between two semi trucks, and to perform various other experiments.

97% of the materials from the sets of the movie were recycled after the production ended. For example, tons of wood were sent to Mexico to build low-income housing.[4]

Scenes from the movie Baraka by Ron Fricke were selected to represent the real world shown by the wallmonitors in the Architect's room.[citation needed]

[edit] Sound design

Sound editing on the Matrix Trilogy was completed by Danetracks in West Hollywood, CA.

[edit] Soundtrack

See also: The Matrix Reloaded: The Album

Don Davis, composer on The Matrix, returned to score Reloaded. For many of the pivotal action sequences, such as the "Burly Brawl", he collaborated with Juno Reactor. Some of the collaborative cues by Davis and Juno Reactor are extensions of material by Juno Reactor; for example, a version of "Komit" featuring Davis' strings is used during a flying sequence, and "Burly Brawl" is essentially a combination of Davis' unused "Multiple Replication" and Juno Reactor's "Masters of the Universe". One of the collaborations, "Mona Lisa Overdrive", is titled in reference to the cyberpunk novel of the same name by William Gibson, a major influence on the directors. Leitmotifs established in The Matrix return (such as the Matrix main theme, Neo and Trinity's love theme, the Sentinel's theme and Neo's flying theme, and a more frequent use of the four-note Agent Smith theme), and some used in Revolutions are established.

As with its predecessor, many tracks by external musicians are featured in the movie, its closing credits, and the soundtrack album, some of which were written for the movie. Many of the musicians featured (for example Rob Zombie, Rage Against the Machine and Marilyn Manson) had also appeared on the soundtrack for The Matrix. Rob Dougan contributed again, licensing the instrumental version of his eponymous "Furious Angels", as well as being commissioned to provide an original track, ultimately scoring the battle in the Merovingian's chateau. A remixed version of "Slap It" by electronic artist Fluke (listed on the soundtrack as "Zion") was used during the rave scene.

Linkin Park contributed their instrumental song "Session" to the film as well, though it did not appear during the actual runtime. P.O.D. composed a song called "Sleeping Awake", with a music video that focused heavily on Neo and many images that were part of the movie.

[edit] Reception

Reloaded earned an estimated $42.5 million on its Thursday opening day in North America, a new record surpassing the one set in May 2002 by Spider-Man, which took in $39.4 million on its first day. The movie earned $91.8 million over its first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, establishing it as the second-best opening weekend ever after Spider-Man's 2002 (inflation unadjusted) record of $114.8 million in ticket sales during its three-day opening weekend. Reloaded garnered the biggest (inflation unadjusted) debut ever for an R-rated film (The Passion of the Christ is a close second at $83.8 million, and 300 came in third with $70.9 million). Although the film exceeded box office records during its first week, it fell to the number two spot on the box-office totals the following week when it was beaten by the Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty. The film earned $281.5 million in the US and $742.1 million worldwide.[1] It is currently the 30th highest grossing film, and is currently the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.

The Matrix Reloaded had positive critical reception in most of the media, with a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 73%.[5] However, it was rated by Entertainment Weekly as one of "The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made".[6]

Positive comments included commendation for the quality and intensity of its action sequences[7] and intelligence.[8] Tony Toscano of Talking Pictures had exceptional praise for it, saying that "its character development and writing...is so crisp it crackles on the screen" and that "Matrix Reloaded re-establishes the genre and even raises the bar a notch or two" above the first movie, The Matrix.[9]

Negative comments included the sentiment that the plot was alienating,[10][11] with some critics taking the view that the focus on the action came at the cost of the movie's human element.[12][13] Some also said that the dialogue focus on exposition scenes[14] worked against the film. Although it was well-known that the plot of Reloaded would be resolved in Revolutions, the many unresolved subplots and the cliffhanger ending were criticised by some.[15]

The film was banned in Egypt because of the violent content and because it put into question issues about human creation "linked to the three monotheistic religions that we respect and which we believe in".[16] Egyptian media claimed it promoted Zionism since it talks about Zion and the dark forces that wish to destroy it. However, it was later allowed to be shown in theatres and was later released on DVD and VHS.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "The Matrix Reloaded (2003)". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=matrixreloaded.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-05. 
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Matrix Reloaded". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4075505/year/2003.html. Retrieved 2009-11-10. 
  3. ^ Ann Job. "Chasing the Stars: Carmakers in Movies". MSN.com. http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4021949&src=News. Retrieved 2005-01-30. 
  4. ^ "Hollywood smog an inconvenient truth". Associated Press (CNN.com). November 14, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061215051825/http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/11/14/hollywood.pollution.ap/index.html. 
  5. ^ The Matrix Reloaded Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  6. ^ The worst movie sequels ever | Countdown! | Movies | Entertainment Weekly | 2
  7. ^ Todd McCarthy (May 7, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=review&reviewid=VE1117920694&categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  8. ^ William Arnold (May 14, 2003). "'Matrix' fans can't afford to miss 'Reloaded'". Seattlepi.com. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/121764_matrix14q.html. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  9. ^ Tony Toscano (May 20, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded (2003) movie review". Rotten Tomatoes. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1122457/reviews.php?critic=columns&sortby=default&page=3&rid=1140415. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  10. ^ Richard Schickel (May 11, 2003). "The Matrix Reboots". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030519-450996,00.html. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  11. ^ Rene Rodriguez (May 14, 2003). "Sequelitis infects 'Matrix Reloaded' with talk - lots of it". MiamiHerald.com. http://ae.miami.com/entertainment/ui/miami/movie.html?id=95606&reviewId=12076. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  12. ^ David Sterritt (May 16, 2003). "Ready for a Neo world order?". csmonitor.com. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0516/p15s02-almo.html. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  13. ^ Nathan Rabin (May 13, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded review". A.V. Club. http://www.avclub.com/content/node/16898. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  14. ^ The Austin Chronicle
  15. ^ Mark Caro (June 11, 2003). "Movie review: 'The Matrix Reloaded'". metromix.com. http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/movies/mmx-030514-moviesreviewmatrixreloadedmc,0,1704389.story?coll=mmx-movies_top_heds. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  16. ^ "Egypt bans 'too religious' Matrix". BBC News. June 11, 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2980432.stm. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 

[edit] External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Matrix Reloaded
v • d • e
The Matrix franchise
The Matrix · The Matrix Reloaded · The Matrix Revolutions
Characters
Soundtracks
Video games
Matrix universe
Other topics
Related articles
v • d • e
Films directed by the Wachowski brothers
1990s
Bound (1996) · The Matrix (1999)
2000s
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) · The Matrix Revolutions (2003) · Speed Racer (2008)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix_Reloaded"