The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis.Template:Efn It is the first installment in the Matrix film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality created by intelligent machines. Believing computer hacker Neo to be "the One" prophesied to defeat them, Morpheus recruits him into a rebellion against the machines.

Following the success of Bound (1996), Warner Bros. gave the go-ahead for The Matrix after the Wachowskis sent an edit of the film's opening minutes. Action scenes were influenced by anime 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 popularised a visual effect known as "bullet time", in which a character's heightened perception 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.

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">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="meta">Template:Cite web</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 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 Effects 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,<ref name="heritage1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Genre's Best"/> 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 sequels by the Wachowskis, both released in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. 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, directed solely by Lana Wachowski was released in 2021.

Plot

In 1999, in an unnamed city, Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer known as "Neo" in hacking circles, delves into the mystery of the "Matrix". His search brings him to the attention of hacker Trinity, who discloses that the enigmatic Morpheus can answer Neo's questions. At his workplace, Neo is pursued by police and Agents led by Agent Smith. Morpheus guides Neo's escape by phone, able to somehow remotely observe their movements, but Neo ultimately surrenders rather than risk a hazardous getaway.

The Agents interrogate Neo about Morpheus but he refuses to cooperate. In response, they seal Neo's mouth shut and implant a robotic device in his abdomen. Neo awakens at home, initially dismissing the encounter as a nightmare until Trinity and her allies arrive, extract the implanted tracker, and bring Neo to Morpheus, their leader. Morpheus offers Neo a choice: a red pill to uncover the truth about the Matrix or a blue pill to forget everything and return to his normal life. Opting for the red pill, Neo's reality distorts, and he awakens submerged in a mechanical pod with invasive cables running throughout his body. Neo witnesses countless inert humans similarly encased and tended to by machines before he is ejected from the facility and rescued by Morpheus aboard the hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar.

Morpheus reveals that the year is approximately 2199. In the 21st century, humanity lost a war with their artificially intelligent creations, leaving the Earth a devastated ruin. As a last resort, humans blackened the sky to eliminate the machines' access to solar power and, in response, the machines developed farms of artificially grown humans to harness their bioelectric energy. The Matrix is a simulated reality based on human civilization at its peak, designed to keep the subjugated humans oblivious and pacified. The remaining free humans established an underground refuge known as Zion, living a harsh existence on scarce resources. Morpheus and his rebel crew hack into the Matrix to free and recruit others, manipulating the rules of the simulation to gain superhuman physical abilities. Even so, they are outmatched by the overwhelmingly powerful Agents—sentient programs protecting the Matrix—and dying in the Matrix causes death in the real world. Morpheus liberated Neo because he believes him to be "the One", a prophesied figure destined to dismantle the Matrix and liberate humanity.

The crew enter the Matrix to seek guidance from the Oracle, the prophetic figure who foretold the existence of the One. She implies that Neo is not the One and warns him of an imminent choice between his life and Morpheus's. The crew are ambushed by Agents after being betrayed by Cypher, a disgruntled crew member who wants to be reinserted into the Matrix to enjoy its comforts. Convinced of Neo's importance, Morpheus sacrifices himself to confront Smith, only to be overpowered and captured. Meanwhile, Cypher exits the Matrix and begins forcefully disconnecting the others, killing them. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, Tank, a subdued crew member, regains consciousness, kills Cypher, and safely extracts the survivors.

Smith interrogates Morpheus to obtain access codes for Zion's mainframe, which would allow them to end the human resistance. Determined to rescue Morpheus, Neo reenters the Matrix with Trinity. They successfully free Morpheus, who escapes the Matrix with Trinity, but Smith intercepts Neo. Gaining confidence in his abilities, Neo fights Smith, demonstrating comparable power and eventually killing him. However, Smith resurrects in a new body and kills Neo.

In the real world, machines called Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar. Standing by Neo's real body, Trinity confesses her love for him and that the Oracle prophesied she would fall in love with the One. In the Matrix, Neo revives with newfound abilities to perceive and control the Matrix. He effortlessly destroys Smith and exits the Matrix just as the Nebuchadnezzar's electromagnetic pulse disables the ship's power and the Sentinels. Sometime later, within the Matrix, Neo communicates with the system, promising to show the enslaved humans a world of limitless possibilities, before flying 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.<ref name="Screenplay">Template:Cite AV media</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">Template:Cite magazine</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>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Smith praised Reeves for his portrayal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nicolas Cage also turned down the part because of "family obligations".<ref>Template:Cite news</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.<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">Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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".<ref name="Screenplay"/> The Wachowskis instructed Fishburne to base his performance on the character Morpheus in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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.<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">Template:Cite AV media</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">Template:Cite web</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.<ref name="janet1">Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</ref> Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek and Jada Pinkett Smith (who would later play Niobe in the sequels) auditioned for the role.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite AV media</ref> Jean Reno was offered the role, but declined, unwilling to move to Australia for the production.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• Gloria Foster as The Oracle: A prophet who still resides in the Matrix, helping the freed humans with her foresight and wisdom.
• 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.
• 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.

• Julian Arahanga as Apoc: A freed human and a crew member on the Nebuchadnezzar.
• Matt Doran as Mouse: A freed human and a programmer on the Nebuchadnezzar.
• Belinda McClory as Switch: A human freed by Morpheus, and a crew member of the Nebuchadnezzar.
• Anthony Ray Parker as Dozer: Pilot of the Nebuchadnezzar. He is Tank's brother, and like him was born outside of the Matrix.
• 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.
• 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.<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 was not ready for that version.<ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Citation</ref> Madonna also turned down an undisclosed role, a decision she would later regret.<ref>Template:Cite web</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"/> 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>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite web</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

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">Template:Cite news</ref> In early 1997, the Wachowskis had Reeves and Moss 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.<ref name="Screenplay"/> Eventually, Reeves 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 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>Template:Cite news</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 and Moss's grace.<ref name="Training"/> Yuen designed Moss's moves to suit her deftness and lightness.<ref name="Trinity">Template:Cite AV media</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>Template:Cite magazine</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>Template:Cite web</ref> Weaving had to undergo hip surgery after he sustained an injury during the training process.<ref name="Influence Screened"/>

Filming

File:Campbell Street train bridge at intersection of Elizabeth Street.jpg

Campbell Street train bridge at the intersection of Elizabeth Street was one of the filming locations in the city of Sydney.

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.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</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"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</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">Template:Cite AV media</ref> Locations for these scenes included Martin Place's fountain in Sydney, halfway between it and the adjacent Colonial Building, and the Colonial Building itself.<ref name="CNN location">Template:Cite web</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 Symantec Corporation building in Kent Street, opposite Sussex Street.<ref name="Government Roof">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

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, which has prompted comments due to the thematic similarities of the films.<ref>Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite AV media</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>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="Construct Kung Fu">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

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.<ref name="El Fighting">Template:Cite AV media</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">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

To prepare for the scene in which Neo wakes up in a pod, Reeves lost Template:Convert 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>Template:Cite book</ref>

Sound effects and music

Template:See also 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.<ref name="Sound effects">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

The film's score, The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score, was composed by Don Davis.<ref>Template:AllMusic.</ref><ref>Template:Discogs master</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. 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.<ref name="The Score">Template:Cite AV media</ref> In addition to Davis' score, The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:AllMusic.</ref><ref>Template:Discogs master</ref>

Production design

Template:See also In the film, the code that composes the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters.<ref>The Matrix — cactus.black (Black Cactus) Template:Webarchive, 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">Template:Cite AV media</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>Template:Cite web</ref> "The color green reflects the green tint commonly used on early monochrome computer monitors".<ref>Template:Cite book</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, 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 MatrixTemplate:'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.<ref name="Look of the Matrix"/>

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".<ref name="The Nebuchadnezzar">Template:Cite AV media</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">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Kym Barrett, costume designer, said that she defined the characters and their environment by their costume.<ref name="Costume">Template:Cite AV media</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">Template:Cite AV media</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 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>Template:Cite web</ref>

Visual effects

Video sample of the film

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).

The film is known for popularizing a visual effect<ref name="Lane City of God"/> 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.<ref name="guardian-sfx">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bullet time has been described as "a visual analogy for privileged moments of consciousness within the Matrix",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and throughout the film, the effect is used to illustrate characters' exertion of control over time and space.<ref>Template:Cite book</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 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">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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 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 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.Template:Citation needed

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>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</ref> Manex Visual Effects used a cluster farm running the Unix-like operating system FreeBSD to render many of the film's visual effects.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

The photogrammetric and image-based computer-generated background approaches in The MatrixTemplate:'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

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 on Template:Nowrap, 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">Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite web</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.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> By Template:Nowrap, 2003, one month after The Matrix Reloaded DVD was released, the sales of The Matrix DVD had exceeded 30 million copies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It then debuted on both VHS and DVD formats in the UK on Template:Nowrap, 1999. The Matrix sold more than 107,000 DVD copies in just two weeks, breaking ArmageddonTemplate:'s record for being the country's best-selling DVD title.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Ultimate Matrix Collection was released on HD DVD on Template:Nowrap, 2007,<ref name="Million sales"/> and on Blu-ray on Template:Nowrap, 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="DVD Release Date">Template:Cite web</ref> The film was also released standalone in a 10th-anniversary edition Blu-ray in the Digibook format on Template:Nowrap, 2009, ten years to the day after the film was released theatrically.<ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</ref> The film as part of The Matrix Trilogy was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 30, 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Matrix Online (2004), an MMORPG which continued the story beyond The Matrix Revolutions;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005), which focuses on Neo's journey through the trilogy of films;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and The Matrix Awakens (2021), an interactive technology demonstration developed by Epic Games using Unreal Engine 5.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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;<ref name="comics">Template:Cite web</ref> they were later republished, along with some new material, in two printed trade paperback volumes, called The Matrix Comics, Vol 1 and Vol 2.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name="ShowsMuscle">Template:Cite web</ref> It surpassed Lost in Space and Indecent Proposal simultaneously having the biggest April and Easter opening weekends.<ref name="ShowsMuscle"/> The film also had the second-highest opening weekend for a spring starter film, trailing behind Liar Liar.<ref name="ShowsMuscle"/> Three years later in 2002, The MatrixTemplate:'s records for having the largest April and Easter opening weekends would be taken by The Scorpion King and Panic Room respectively.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Upon its opening, it had the highest opening weekend of any 1999 film, easily topping Payback.<ref name="ShowsMuscle"/> Additionally, this was the biggest opening weekend for a Keanu Reeves film since Speed in 1994.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> It would go on to rank number one at the box office during its first weekend, beating out Forces of Nature, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Out-of-Towners, Analyze This and EDtv.<ref name="ShowsMuscle"/> The film would remain at the top of the box office for two weeks until it was overtaken by Life.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During its fourth weekend, The Matrix briefly returned to the number one spot.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following week, the film would be displaced by Entrapment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the UK, The Matrix earned $4.9 million in its first three days, ranking it as the third-highest opening weekend for a Warner Bros. film, behind Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, while also delivering the third-highest opening weekend of the year, after A Bug's Life and Notting Hill.<ref name="BigPix">Template:Cite news</ref> The film grossed $1.8 million in Taiwan, making the third-highest opening there, behind Armageddon and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.<ref name="BigPix" /> Additionally, it managed to surpass Lethal Weapon 4 for having the market's highest opening for Warner Bros.<ref name="BigPix" /> It also surpassed Eraser to secure the distributor's highest opening weekend in Germany, collecting $592,000.<ref name="BigPix" />

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.<ref name="ResurrectionsHistory">Template:Cite web</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

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 films of all time;<ref name="heritage1"/><ref name="autogenerated1"/> Entertainment Weekly called The Matrix "the most influential action movie of the generation".<ref name="Influence EW2">Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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 210 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">Template:Cite web</ref> It ranked 323rd among critics, and 546th among directors, in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made.<ref>Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="rogerebert"/> 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."<ref name="timeout">Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite web</ref>

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".<ref name="Empire review">Template:Cite web</ref> 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."<ref name="TV Guide review">Template:Cite web</ref>

SalonTemplate:'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."<ref name="Salon review">Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite book</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>Template:Cite news</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:">Template:Cite news</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:">Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite book</ref> Quentin Tarantino counted The Matrix as one of his twenty favorite movies from 1992 to 2009.<ref name="Tarantino:">Template:Cite web</ref> James Cameron called it "one of the most profoundly fresh science fiction films ever made".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Christopher Nolan described it as "an incredibly palpable mainstream phenomenon that made people think, Hey, what if this isn't real?"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Accolades

Template:Anchor Template:Main The Matrix received Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="oscars2">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="baftas">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1999, it won Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.<ref name="Saturn Award">Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Name	Outcome
Academy Awards	Best Film Editing	Zach Staenberg	Template:Won
	Best Sound	John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, David Lee	Template:Won
	Best Sound Effects Editing	Dane A. Davis	Template:Won
	Best Visual Effects	John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, Jon Thum	Template:Won
British Academy Film Awards	Best Cinematography	Bill Pope	Template:Nom
	Best Editing	Zach Staenberg	Template:Nom
	Best Production Design	Owen Paterson	Template:Nom
	Best Sound	David Lee, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, Dane A. Davis	Template:Won
	Best Special Visual Effects	John Gaeta, Steve Courtley, Janek Sirrs, Jon Thum	Template:Won
Saturn Awards	Best Science Fiction Film	—	Template:Won
	Best Director	The WachowskisTemplate:Efn	Template:Won
	Best Writer		Template:Nom
	Best Actor	Keanu Reeves	Template:Nom
	Best Actress	Carrie-Anne Moss	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actor	Laurence Fishburne	Template:Nom
	Best Costumes	Kym Barrett	Template:Nom
	Best Make-up	Nikki Gooley, Bob McCarron, Wendy Sainsbury	Template:Nom
	Best Special Effects	John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, Jon Thum	Template:Nom

Thematic analysis

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>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref name="Luddism">Template:Cite book</ref> A resemblance to the eerie worlds of Swiss artist H.R. Giger was also recognized.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The pods can be seen in Welcome to Paradox Episode 4 "News from D Street" from a 1986 short story<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="ebert-wachowskis">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Kubrick">Template:Cite news</ref> Reviewers have also commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City and The Truman Show.Template:Efn 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</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>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for Japanese animation such as Ninja Scroll and Akira.<ref name="Wachowski transcript">Template:Cite web</ref> Director Mamoru Oshii's 1995 animated 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">Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref name="silver-anime-2">Template:Cite AV media</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, "...Template:Nbspcyberpunk 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">Template:Cite episode</ref>

Literary works

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">Template:Cite book</ref> Comparisons have also been made between The Matrix and the books of Carlos Castaneda.<ref>Template:Cite web</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"/> For example, the film's use of the term "Matrix" is adopted from Gibson's novel,<ref name="Neuromancer Natali interview">Template:Cite web</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 ("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 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">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</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".Template:Efn

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",<ref name="Jamie Allen">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Simulacra"/> and Morpheus quotes the phrase "desert of the real" from it.<ref name="Poole Baudrillard">Template:Cite web 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>Template:Cite web</ref> However, Baudrillard himself said that The Matrix misunderstands and distorts his work.<ref name="Poole Baudrillard"/><ref>Template:Cite web</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'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 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">Template:Cite web</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>

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.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Amongst these possible allusions, it is suggested that the name of the character Trinity refers to Christianity's doctrine of the Trinity.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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?"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name="TransMasterpiece">Template:Cite web</ref> The red pill has been compared with red estrogen pills.<ref name="Vulture">Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</ref>

In a 2016 GLAAD Media Awards speech, Lilly Wachowski said: "There's a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I's Template: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>Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite news</ref> In an interview with Variety in 2020, Reeves said the idea that the Matrix was an allegory for transgender identity "wasn't introduced to me when we started for production on the films."<ref name="reeves' awareness">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name="Lane City of God">Template:Cite magazine</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, in which the feature was explicitly referred to as "bullet time".<ref name="Influence BBC"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was also the defining game mechanic of the game Superhot and its sequels. The MatrixTemplate:'s signature special effect, and other aspects of the film, have been parodied numerous times,<ref name="Influence EW2"/> in comedy films such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999),<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Scary Movie (2000),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shrek (2001),<ref name="Influence BBC"/> Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (2002),<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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>Template:Cite web</ref> and in video games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day.<ref>Template:Cite web</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) 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;<ref name="Influence BBC"/> 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).<ref name="Influence EW">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Also, the film's lobby shootout sequence was recreated in the 2002 Indian action comedy Awara Paagal Deewana.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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,<ref name="xmen">Template:Cite magazine</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 (2000)<ref name="xmen"/> and Charlie's Angels (2000),<ref name="Influence EW"/> and Yuen Woo-ping's brother Yuen Cheung-yan was choreographer on Daredevil (2003).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The MatrixTemplate:'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">Template:Cite news</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</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">Template:Cite web</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 Lord of the Rings films and the Star Wars prequels made Hollywood interested in creating trilogies.<ref name="Influence Screened"/> Stephen Dowling from the BBC noted that The MatrixTemplate:'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

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Modern reception

In 2001, The Matrix placed 66th in the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Thrills" list.<ref name="AFIThrills">Template:Cite press release</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">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2009, the film was ranked 39th on EmpireTemplate:'s reader-, actor- and critic-voted list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".<ref>Template:Cite web</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 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."<ref name="NFR">Template:Cite news</ref>

Red pill and blue pill

File:Screenshot from 1990 film Total Recall, which scholars connect to The Matrix.(1999).png

Scene from the 1990 film Total Recall where Dr. Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith) explains that swallowing a red pill is a "symbol of your desire to return to reality"

Historians of film note that the trope of a "red pill" as decisive in a return to reality made its first appearance in the 1990 film Total Recall, which has a scene where the hero (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is asked to swallow a red pill in order to symbolize his desire to return to reality from a dream-like fantasy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The term has been used in discussion forums for right wing topics such as Gamergate, white supremacy, incel subculture and QAnon.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</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

Template:Main 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="The Matrix Reloaded BBC Review">Template:Cite web</ref> 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>Template:Cite news</ref>

Also released was The Animatrix, a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same Japanese animation style<ref name="The Animatrix IGN Review">Template:Cite web</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"/>

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>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Matrix Resurrections was released in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021.

In September 2022, Danny Boyle was announced to be directing and producing a live immersive dance production of the film, entitled Free Your Mind, which debuted in October 2023 at the Aviva Studios in Manchester, England.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Cyberspace
• Dialectical materialism
• Henosis
• Know thyself
• List of films featuring hallucinogens
• Metaverse
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Simulated reality
• Thought experiment
• Virtual reality
• Virtual world
• We, novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin

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
• Strange Days, 1995 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

Bibliography

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External links

• Template:Official website
• whatisthematrix.com, the first and original Matrix website
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