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The Matrix

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This article is about the film The Matrix. For other usages of the term, see Matrix. For the whole franchise see The Matrix series.
The Matrix
Directed byAndy Wachowski,
Larry Wachowski
Written byAndy Wachowski,
Larry Wachowski
Produced byJoel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
StarringKeanu Reeves,
Laurence Fishburne,
Carrie-Anne Moss,
Hugo Weaving
Distributed byWarner Bros, Village Roadshow Pictures
Release date
March 31 1999
Running time
136 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$63,000,000 (estimated)

The Matrix is a science-fiction/action film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. It stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving. It has developed a strong following as a renowned Generation X/Generation Y classic.

Template:Spoiler The film describes a world in which the titular Matrix is an artificial reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify, subdue and make use of the human population as batteries by growing them and connecting them to the Matrix with cybernetic implants. It contains numerous references to philosophical and religious ideas, the hacker subculture, and homages to the style of Hong Kong action movies, Japanese animation and cyberpunk.

The Matrix was filmed in Sydney, Australia. The film is a co-production of Warner Bros Studios and Australian Village Roadshow Pictures.

The Matrix series and franchise

Main article: The Matrix series

The Matrix earned $171 million in the USA and $456 million worldwide. This relatively unexpected mainstream success outside of cult following led to the greenlighting of the next two films of what the Wachowskis maintain was conceived as a trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. It was a number of years and several iterations of scripts before the final movies were approved, and there is continued debate among viewers over whether they match the quality and conceptual heights of the original film.

Also released was The Animatrix, a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same Japanese animation style that was a strong influence on the live trilogy. The Animatrix was overseen and approved by the Wachowski brothers but they only wrote four of the segments themselves and did not direct any of them; much of the project was created by notable figures from the world of animé. Four of the films were originally released on the series' official website; one was shown in cinemas with the unrelated 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 depicted events linked to the story of The Matrix Reloaded and which contained footage shot specifically for the game; 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. Some of these comics are also available in two printed volumes.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler

A computer software programmer named Thomas A. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) leads a secret life as an elite hacker under the alias "Neo" in what appears to be an American city, in the year 1999. A series of unusual events brings him into contact with a group of people led by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Morpheus offers Neo an opportunity to learn what the rumored Matrix truly is. Neo is pulled from the false reality and into the real world and discovers that the year is not 1999, but closer to 2199 (although it is not able to be given exactly).

File:RedBluePill.jpg
Morpheus presents Neo two choices

Humanity is fighting a war against intelligent machines. In order to deny the machines their power source (solar energy), the humans "scorched the sky", permanently blocking the sun's rays from reaching the Earth. The machines responded by enslaving human beings and using them as an energy source. It turns out that the world which Neo has inhabited since birth, the Matrix, is an illusory simulated reality construct of the world of 1999, developed by the machines to keep the human population docile whilst they are connected to generators and their energy is harvested. (The story glosses over the scientific problems with this premise; see The Matrix series.) Morpheus is part of a group of free humans who "unplug" humans from the Matrix and recruit them to their fight against the machines.

Morpheus has rescued Neo from the Matrix because he believes that Neo is "The One", who has been prophesised by the Oracle to "hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people". Morpheus believes that Neo has the power to free humankind from its enslavement through complete mastery over the Matrix. Neo, along with the other members of Morpheus' group, is initially skeptical, but Morpheus teaches him to bend or break the rules of the Matrix - subvert the operation of the normal laws of physics.

File:Spoon boy.jpg
There is no spoon

In one scene before Neo's first encounter with the Oracle, as he waits he notices a few children at the center using telekinetic abilities. He witnesses one little girl able to gently float objects such as toy blocks and poker cards. A young bald boy bending a spoon captures particular interest to Neo, the boy says;


"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll realize that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."


It becomes more crucial as Neo begins to practice breaking the rules of the Matrix by focusing his mind.

Neo also forms a close personal relationship with a female member of the group, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). Inside the Matrix, the humans are pursued by a group of Agents, self-aware programs with the ability to take over the body of anyone plugged into the Matrix, incredible martial arts skills, and capabilities beyond those of the humans.

The Agents become aware of Neo's presence

Neo meets with the Oracle (Gloria Foster), who, as in the traditions of Oracles everywhere, presents him with an ambiguously-worded prediction of his future where he must choose whether he or Morpheus will soon die. Shortly afterwards, Morpheus, betrayed by Cypher, who prefers living in ignorance of the Matrix, is captured by the Agents, who attempt to gain from him information regarding the defences of Zion, the last human city of the real world. Cypher is soon killed by Tank, who managed to survive his betrayal, in the Real World. Based on what the Oracle said to him, Neo decides to rescue Morpheus. Together with Trinity, the only other surviving member of the crew, he returns to the Matrix and rescues their leader in a fight with dozens of soldiers and Agents. Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix through a "hard line", a telephone line in the Matrix which may be used to safely exit from the Matrix. However, before Neo can follow, the phone booth being used as an exit is destroyed by Agent Smith, the leader of the Agents. Neo duels with Smith, destroying the agent's current body. He then flees as a new Agent Smith arrives, having possessed a new person.

Neo is chased through the city by Agents while Sentinels locate the group's position in the Real World and close in fast. Upon reaching another exit, Neo is shot in the chest by Agent Smith and slumps over, apparently dead. At this moment Neo fully recognizes the fabricated nature of the Matrix and thereby teaches his brain that death in the Matrix does not imply death in the real world. Simultaneously, in the real world, Trinity refuses to accept Neo's death, and whispers into his ear that she now believes what the Oracle's prophecy foretold. It remains ambiguous as to whether he reawakens due to his transcendence inside the Matrix, the power of Trinity's love outside the Matrix, or simply the physical stimulus on his body from Trinity's kiss. Empowered by this newfound realisation, Neo transcends the limitations of the virtual world and reawakes as "The One". He effortlessly defeats Agent Smith, "deleting" him from the Matrix before returning to the real world in time for the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) bomb to destroy incoming Sentinels.

A short epilogue shows him back in the Matrix, phoning the "core" of the Matrix and promising that he will be leading the fight against the Machines before hanging up and taking off into the sky.

The story continues, six months later, in The Matrix Reloaded.

Awards and nominations

The Matrix received Oscars for film editing, sound effects editing, visual effects, and sound. Furthermore, the film won these awards in the year that Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released, making it the first film to win the special effects Oscars when competing with an entry in the Star Wars series.

Visual Effects

The film is known for popularizing and evolving the use of visual effects such as one now known as "bullet time", which allows the viewer to explore a moment by the use of slow motion and a camera which appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed.

File:Neosmith.jpg
Neo confronts Agent Smith

While many fans believe the effect was invented for The Matrix, there are artistic precedents for bullet time. Bullet time is effectively a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time slice photography. In time slice photography, 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.

In his online resume at timeslicefilms.com, freelance photographer Tim MacMillan claims to have pioneered by the mid-eighties “a way of freezing apparent time in a motion-picture tracking shot by means of multiple apertures registered to the frames of motion-picture film.” The work of Harold Edgerton, to whom Macmillan pays homage in one exhibition, could be considered a yet earlier precedent.

The Wachowski brothers and effects creator John Gaeta expanded upon concepts of the spatial exploration of “frozen” time by providing temporal motion, so that in Bullet Time a scene isn’t totally frozen but is rendered in slow and variable motion. Matrix 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.

File:BullettimeP.jpg
Famous bullet time effect

The objective of Matrix Bullet Time shots 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. The resulting effect, while appearing virtual, only conceptually suggested the infinite capabilities of a higher technology.

The evolution of photogrametric and image based CGI background approaches in Matrix' Bullet Time shots set the stage for greater innovations unveiled in the sequels Reloaded and Revolutions. Virtual Cinematography (CGI-rendered characters, locations and events) and the high-definiton Universal Capture process have completely replaced the use of still camera arrays, thus reimagining Bullet Time as a format more comparable to interactive games and virtual reality. In this form, the virtual camera has been realized, ushering in a new generation of Bullet Time possibilities.

Influences and interpretations

For a detailed discussion see article The Matrix series and The Matrix character names

The Matrix movie, as well as the whole series, has provoked many thoughts and theories about its messages, its references, allegories and influences. Still many fans ponder at its symbolisms and the riddling choice of some names.

The story makes numerous references to historical and literary myths, including Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's acclaimed Ghost in the Shell, Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Judeo-Christian imagery about Messianism, Buddhism, Gnosticism and the novels of William Gibson, especially Neuromancer.

Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles had a clear influence on the Matrix trilogy of films, visible from thematic and aesthetic similarities between the two. Morrison believes that the Wachowski brothers essentially plagiarized his work to create the first film. [1]

Principal cast

Trivia buffs should also be interested to learn that Carrie-Anne Moss also appeared in a short-lived science fiction television series called Matrix (TV) [2] in 1993.

See also The Matrix character names.

Impact

It can be said that The Matrix forever changed the dynamics of action film making in Hollywood. It upped the ante for cinematic fight scenes by hiring acclaimed choreographers from the Hong Kong film scene where such scenes had been refined by years of experience. The success of this film put those choreographers in high demand by other filmmakers who wanted fights of similar sophistication. An unfortunate side-effect was a sudden and obvious surge in movies, commercials and pop videos blatantly copying "the Matrix look", usually without the training and attention to detail that made it successful in the first place.

Following The Matrix, countless films have begun to make abundant use of slow-motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the famed bullet time effect of a character freezing in mid-air and the camera panning around them. The effect has been parodied in many comedy films such as Scary Movie, Shrek, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, and Team America: World Police, and in TV series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy. In Scary Movie, the "killer" doubles back like Neo does when shot by an Agent on a rooftop, except he hurts his back. In Team America, two fighting characters jump into the air, freeze, and then they revolve rather than the camera. In total, at least 25 movies have spoofed this technique.

The Matrix source code has been adopted in logos, advertisements and used in various media (e.g., computer screensavers) to denote the 'digital era'.

The success of The Matrix, particularly on the DVD format, led to two sequels. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were filmed simultaneously during one shoot, and released in two parts in 2003. They see an evolution in many concepts laid down by the original film: philosophical parallels, religious allegories, and an expanded scope to talk about issues pertaining to consciousness. The first movie's relatively plot-lite introductory tale is replaced by a more involved 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 prophesy 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. Although the sequels provided closure for the characters and the storyline while still incorporating the themes of the original movie, they were less well-received than the first.

On October 4, 2004, a California court granted Sophia Stewart leave to continue her case against Warner Brothers and the Wachowski Brothers [3] [4]. The case was filed by Stewart on April 24, 2003 [5]. Stewart claims that the story of the Matrix was based on a manuscript she wrote titled "The Third Eye" which she allegedly submitted to the Wachowskis in response to an advertisement. One account misreported the October 4th decision as Stewart winning her lawsuit, rather than simply winning permission to continue with the case. The case has since been dismissed.

Trivia

  • The downward flowing characters, representing the Matrix on monitors, are mirror images of half-width katakana characters.
  • Both Tom Cruise and Will Smith were offered the role of Neo prior to Keanu Reeves' involvement with the movie. Cruise passed on the part to make the movie Eyes Wide Shut with director Stanley Kubrick, while Smith chose to play Jim West in Wild Wild West instead. When the Matrix franchise was over, controversy started
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