The Matrix is a film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry). It stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving. A renowned Generation Y classic, it has developed a strong following as a cult film.
The film describes a world in which the titular Matrix is an artificial reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population. It contains numerous references to philosophical and religious ideas and to the hacker subculture, as well as homage’s to the style of Japanese animation and cyberpunk.
The film is a co-production of Warner Bros Studios and Australian Village Roadshow Pictures.
The Matrix was filmed in Sydney.
The Matrix Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix
A computer software programmer named Thomas A. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) leads a secret life as a 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 (Lawrence Fishburne). Morpheus, a practitioner of critical pedagogy, 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 not given exactly). Humanity is fighting a war against intelligent machines. In order to deny the machines their power source (solar energy), the humans "scorched the sky". The machines responded by making use of human beings themselves 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. Morpheus, with the other free humans, works at "unplugging" humans from the Matrix and recruiting them.
Morpheus has rescued Neo from the Matrix because he believes that Neo is "The One," who has been prophesized by the Oracle to "hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, and 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. 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 self-aware programs, called Agents, who have incredible martial arts skills and capabilities beyond those of the humans.
Neo meets with the Oracle, who, as in the traditions of Oracles everywhere, presents him with an ambiguously-worded prediction of his future relying on his future choices. He shall choose between his and Morpheus' life. 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 defenses of Zion, the last human city of the real world. They want to get the access codes to Zion's Mainframe. Neo decides to save Morpheus. Together with Trinity, he returns to the Matrix and executes a successful rescue of their leader in a daring fight with dozens of soldiers and Agents. After Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix, Agent Smith, the leader of the Agents, destroys the phone booth from which the escape signal was being broadcasted. Subsequently, Neo engages in a duel with the program, destroying the agent's current body. He then flees as a new Agent Smith arrives, having possessed a new person.
After being chased through the city by Agents and, upon reaching the second location of a hard line (a hijacked phone line which carries the escape sequence necessary for exit from the Matrix), Neo is shot in the chest by Agent Smith. Neo slumps over, apparently dead. However, in the real world, Trinity refuses to accept Neo's death, and whispers into his ear that she now believes what the prophecy has foretold. Neo, who is seemingly awakened by the power of her love, realizes the fabricated nature of the Matrix, and it is only then that he is able to transcend the world around him. Empowered by this newfound notion of disbelief, Neo effortlessly defeats Agent Smith, thereby "deleting" him from the Matrix. He returns to the real world but promises the Agents that he will be leading the fight against them.
The Matrix series and franchise
The Matrix earned $171 million in the USA and $456 million worldwide. The movie's relatively unexpected success and cult following led to the next two films (The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions), two video games (Enter the Matrix, The Matrix Online including The Matrix: Path of Neo which is due to release later this year), and a collection of nine animated shorts (The Animatrix).
It is important to note that although the Wachowski brothers had always intended to make a trilogy, it was only after the first installment's success that they were given the green light to make the second and third films, although it was a number of years and several iterations of the scripts before the final movies were approved. All of the ideas were written by the Wachowski brothers, although five of the nine animated shorts count among their authors noted figures from the world of Japanese animation (anime).
The movie's official website provides free comics, set in the world of The Matrix. Some of these comics are also available in two printed volumes, although the free versions will remain on the site.
The Sequels
The Matrix Reloaded was largely filmed at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, Australia. 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.
While surpassing the first part of the trilogy in cinematography and special/visual effects budget, some fans have suggested that the sequel adheres more closely to the action genre, with less of a focus on the intricate plot and philosophical musings that made the first film the subject of intense fan devotion. This opinion is not universally held, however. Some viewers have argued that the philosophical insights of the first movie were overrated, while many others have expressed satisfaction with the consistent continuation of the original film's plot and metaphysical speculation in Reloaded.
Reloaded earned an estimated $42.5 million on its Thursday opening day in the United States, 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 record of $114.8 million in ticket sales during its three-day opening weekend. Reloaded garnered the biggest debut ever for an R-rated film, topping by far the $58 million for 2001's Hannibal. Reloaded eventually broke Beverly Hills Cop's 19-year-old record for the top-grossing R-rated film of all time, holding that record only briefly, until it was taken by The Passion of the Christ a few months later.
Most of the main characters from its prequel, The Matrix, are included in Reloaded, including Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). There are also many new faces such as Link, the Merovingian, and the Architect. Filmed simultaneously to the third movie, The Matrix Revolutions, it includes action scenes such as a chase involving over 50 vehicles, including motorcycles and 18-wheelers. In addition, there is finally footage of Zion, the underground city alluded to in The Matrix.
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". Egyptian media claimed it promoted Zionism since it talks about Zion and the dark forces that wish to destroy it.
Pirate copies of The Matrix Reloaded appeared on file sharing networks such as BitTorrent and eDonkey2k within two weeks of its theatrical release. Unlike some pirate copies of new movies, which are covertly filmed from a cinema screen, the Reloaded copy is high quality, and is believed to have been made from a film print.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The film presupposes familiarity with the storyline of The Matrix.
Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), fresh from her adventures in Enter The Matrix, calls an emergency meeting of all Zion's Matrix operatives. She has successfully recovered the information left by Captain Thaddeus (in The Final Flight of the Osiris): 250,000 sentinels are tunneling towards the underground city of Zion and will reach it in 72 hours. Commander Locke, the ranking military officer of Zion, orders all ships and their crews, including Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus, to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught of the machines. Morpheus defies Locke's directive and asks one ship to remain at "broadcast depth" to await word from the Oracle. Morpheus believes that when she contacts Neo, the Prophecy will be fulfilled and the machines will be stopped. Captain Ballard and his Gnosis accept the challenge.
The Gnosis does receive a message from the Oracle, and the Nebuchadnezzar ventures out. But one of the Gnosis crewmembers, Bane, encounters Agent Smith, who seems to copy himself onto Bane. Bane/Smith then leaves the Matrix.
In the meantime, Neo is having trouble sleeping and is haunted by dreams where he sees Trinity fight with an agent, crash out a high window, and get shot in the chest on her way down. Neo is led by Seraph, a bodyguard to the Oracle, to a courtyard, where he meets with her again and have a conversation which in some respects parallels their conversation of the first film. She is aware of Neo's sleeplessness, puzzling since that was apparently only an affliction affecting Neo in the "real world." She drops strong hints that everything in the Matrix is not what it seems. She also gives some information on her own nature.
The Oracle explains that there are other self-aware programs beside the Agents that have various roles in running the Matrix. Sometimes these programs go awry, and, somewhat analogous to the free humans, they voluntarily disconnect themselves from the Source, the machine mainframe, and exist in exile in the Matrix. The implication is that she and Seraph are two such rogue programs. In order to end the war and save Zion, Neo must reach the Source.
To return to the Source, Neo must first seek the Keymaker, another rogue program. His keys give access to all the "back doors" of the Matrix. The Keymaker is held captive by the Merovingian, a dangerous program among the eldest in the Matrix.
The Oracle wishes Neo good luck and exits the courtyard just before Agent Smith arrives. While it appeared that he was destroyed at the end of The Matrix, Smith explains that he and Neo are now somehow connected. Now no longer an Agent, he, like Neo, is free from the rules of the Matrix, and desires to exact revenge. He has gained the ability to convert anyone he touches into a duplicate of himself, and recruits a gang of self-copies to attack Neo, resulting in an extravagant fight scene dubbed "the Burly Brawl." At a stalemate, Neo uses his new ability to fly (first shown at the end of The Matrix) and escapes.
Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus leave to visit the Merovingian, an aesthete who exists in the Matrix mainly for his own enjoyment. He is accompanied by his wife Persephone and the Twins, two albino bodyguards. The Merovingian makes some oblique remarks about cause and effect before refusing them access to the Keymaker. Denied, the trio leave, only to be unexpectedly led by Persephone, who is upset with her husband, to the Keymaker. Trinity and Morpheus escape with the Keymaker by car and are chased onto a freeway by the Twins, who are later joined by two Agents in a 15-minute car chase scene. Neo stays behind to fight a half dozen of the Merovingian's followers, earlier versions of Agents who are described by the Oracle as being similar to "vampires, ghosts and werewolves".
In the real word, the burrowing machine army are a little over nine hours away from reaching Zion. In response, the entire hovercraft fleet is strategically placed for a surprise counter-attack before the army reaches Zion.
Inside the Matrix, having survived the freeway chase, the Keymaker explains how to reach the Source: "There is a building. Inside this building there is a level where no elevator can go and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places--hidden places. But one door is special. One door leads to the Source." To access the building, its alarm must be disabled and to do that the electricity must be cut. In addition, the core network of the electricity grid must be accessed and the emergency fail-safes deactivated. For 314 seconds, the mainframe can be entered (a reference to Pi), but the Keymaker warns, "Only the One can open the door, and only during that window can the door be opened."
Trinity manages to bring the power grid down, while Neo follows the Keymaker's instructions and opens the indicated door. He enters a room surrounded by television monitors and encounters the Architect, who describes himself as the creator of the Matrix. In a lengthy exposition, the Architect reveals that the Matrix is much older than previously thought. He says this is the sixth version of the Matrix and that Neo has had five predecessors. The first version of the Matrix was designed to be perfect, but humans refused to accept the perfect universe and it failed.
Subsequent versions were designed in which nearly 99% of subjects accepted the simulation. Still, a certain fraction still rejected the artificial nature of the Matrix. The Oracle assists by giving the prophecy of the One to the non-conformist humans, prompting them to disconnect themselves and remove a threat to the Matrix's stability. Zion is allowed to exist for a period, but is periodically destroyed in order to prevent the instability from becoming unmanageable. The One is then merged back into the Source, not before saving a small group of individuals from Zion's destruction to build the next version of Zion and allow the cycle to begin again. This is what the Architect now intends to happen to Neo, allowing the Matrix to be "reloaded" or reset.
The Architect offers Neo the choice of two doors, One leads to the Source and to the reset. The other leads to Trinity, who, as Neo's dream predicted, is being chased by an Agent. Neo chooses to save Trinity, apparently at the expense of the human race. Neo manages to bring Trinity back from the dead and returns to the real world.
Morpheus is dismayed that the Prophecy has been unfulfilled. Neo tells Morpheus that the Prophecy in fact represents "another system of control". The Nebuchadnezzar comes under attack by Sentinels and the crew must abandon the ship. Outside, in the sewers, they run from the sentinels, but Neo senses something has changed. He can "feel" the Sentinels' presence, even though he is no longer in the Matrix. Somehow he disables the sentinels with a burst of electric energy, but then he falls unconscious and enters a coma. The crew is rescued by another craft. The film concludes with the news that the surprise counter-attack has failed. Someone set off an electromagnetic pulse early and five hovercraft were immediately disabled and they were quickly overrun by the machines. The unconscious sole survivor is revealed to be Bane.
The Matrix Revolutions is the third film in the Matrix trilogy. The film, a combination of philosophy and action like its predecessors, sought to conclude the questions raised in the previous film, The Matrix Reloaded.
The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, who also directed the 1996 film Bound. It was released simultaneously worldwide on November 5th, 2003, and was the first film to debut in this manner. It was also the first film to be released simultaneously in regular and IMAX theaters. The Wachowski brothers were present in Tokyo at the opening of the movie, as were stars Keanu Reeves and Jada Pinkett Smith.
On November 5, 2003 The Matrix Revolutions opened simultaneously in sixty countries. The premiere of the final entry in the Matrix series was notable for being the first time a Hollywood film opened in India at the same time as the rest of the world.
In Moscow, the film's premiere was accompanied by a demonstration organized by the youth wing of the Russian Communist Party who welcomed the film as an allegory for Communism.
Despite poor reviews and a weaker opening than its predecessor, The Matrix Revolutions broke box-office records for its opening weekend, grossing $48.5 million in its first five days of release in the US. However, its earnings dropped over 70% in its second week which is considered a sign of poor audience satisfaction.
The Matrix Revolutions ultimately grossed $139 million at the US box office altogether and $456 million worldwide. This is roughly half of the The Matrix Reloaded box-office total. The Matrix Revolutions did extremely well in DVD and VHS rentals and sales in April of 2004.
Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The film's events immediately follow those of The Matrix Reloaded and assumes the viewer is familiar with the story of the last two films.
Bane (whose body is now controlled by a cerebral clone of Agent Smith) and Neo are both comatose. Bane deliberately triggered an EMP that thwarted the humans' attempts to intercept the Sentinel army headed towards Zion, and was the only survivor of the fiasco. Neo had mysteriously stopped 5 attacking Sentinels by just thinking it while in the real world at the conclusion of The Matrix Reloaded, but the process left him unconscious. Morpheus, depressed and despirited after the destruction of the Nebuchadnezzar, starts a search for Neo, who he believes could be present in the Matrix while not being "jacked in". Neo is in fact trapped in limbo: a subway station named Mobil Avenue that is a transition zone between the Matrix and the Source. At the station, Neo meets a "family" of programs, who tell him that Mobil Avenue is controlled by the Trainman, a program who in turn is loyal to the Merovingian.
Seraph contacts Morpheus on behalf of the Oracle, now resident in a different "shell" (in reality, actress Gloria Foster, who played the Oracle in the first two films, died before the completion of the third). The Oracle informs Morpheus and Trinity of Neo's captivity. Seraph, Morpheus and Trinity pursue the Trainman, but are unsuccessful in detaining him. The trio enters the lion's den of Club Hel to confront the Merovingian in an effort to secure Neo's release. The group is captured by the Merovingian's remaining henchmen in the club. After the Merovingian demands the eyes of the Oracle in exchange for Neo's release, a highly annoyed Trinity forces a gigantic Mexican standoff, forcing the Merovingian to release Neo.
Neo is troubled by new visions of the Machine City that he's experienced since waking up in Mobil Avenue station. He decides to visit the Oracle before returning to the real world. She informs him that as the One, his powers extend beyond the world of the Matrix to a degree of control over the Source. She characterises Agent Smith, also growing in power, as his exact opposite, and elaborates on the relationship between herself and the Architect (Tellingly, each of them ejects an exasperated "Please!" when Neo asks them about the other). She warns that Smith's threat extends not only to the Matrix but to the Source and the real world, placing both Humans and Machines in danger by Smith. The Oracle states simply that the war is about to end "one way or the other". She tells Neo cryptically that "Everything that has a beginning has an end."
After Neo's departure from the Oracle's residence, an army of Smiths arrive, who assimilate Sati, Seraph, and the Oracle. The Oracle/Smith clone not only gains her powers of precognition, but apparently gains offensive powers that equals (if not exceeds) Neo's abilities.
In the real world, meanwhile, the remaining crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Mjolnir's Hammer encounter Niobe's ship, the Logos, and its crew. They successfully reactivate the deactivated ship and begin to interrogate the now awakened Bane, who apparently has no memory of the events of the earlier battle.
After contemplating his visions, Neo announces to the ship that he needs a hovercraft to travel to the Machine City, although he can't explain why at the moment. Roland, the Hammer's captain, refuses him, but Niobe lets him take the Logos. Trinity decides to accompany Neo.
The two remaining crews plan to return to Zion and avoid the Sentinel army by piloting the Mjolnir's Hammer through a series of nearly unnavigable service tunnels. Shortly after the Hammer departs, the crew discovered that Bane has murdered a member of its crew and has hidden himself aboard the Logos, but are unable to return to warn Trinity and Neo.
Before Neo and Trinity can depart, Bane ambushes Trinity and takes her hostage. Neo fights with Bane, who reveals himself as a manifestation of Agent Smith. During the struggle, Bane/Smith blinds Neo by cauterizing his eyes with high voltage electrical wires. Neo, however, still is able to see Bane - his connection with the Source enables him to sense Smith inside Bane's body. Neo kills Bane/Smith and releases Trinity, who pilots them towards the Machine City (presumably 01, the Machine City described in The Second Renaissance).
In Zion, the defenders deploy infantry armed with rocket launchers and Armored Personnel Units in order to protect the dock from assault. The dock is invaded by a massive horde of Sentinels, as well as two giant drilling machines. At the same time, the Hammer accidentally tips itself off to a large Sentinel army in the tunnel system, and is swarmed on the way back to Zion. At the last minute, the Hammer arrives at Zion and breaks through the gates, setting off an EMP and disabling all electronic equipment in the area. While this finishes off the Sentinels, it also disables the remainder of Zion's defenses. The humans are forced to fall back to even more immediate defenses and wait for the next swarm that will almost certainly kill them all.
Nearing the Machine City, Neo and Trinity are attacked by the city's defense system, hurling massive numbers of mobile bombs and Sentinels at the Logos. Neo uses his powers to destroy the incoming bombs, but the Sentinels are too numerous. To evade them, Trinity flies the ship above the permanent electrical storm/cloud cover, disabling the Sentinels but also the Logos engines. After a brief glimpse of sunlight, the ship plunges directly towards a spire of the Machine City as Trinity unsuccessfully restarts the engines in time to control their fall. The impact of the collision mortally wounds Trinity, who tells Neo of her love for him once more before she dies.
Neo emerges into the Machine City to strike a bargain with the machines, personified by the Deus Ex Machina. Neo warns the machines that Smith (who has by now assimilated everyone in The Matrix) is beyond the machines' control, and will soon assault the Source. He offers to stop Smith in exchange for peace between machines and humans. The second wave of Sentinels attacking Zion are suddenly commanded by the Deus Ex Machina to stand down temporarily, giving Zion a brief, anxiety-filled respite from further attack. The Machines provide a connection for Neo to jack into the Matrix and confront Smith.
The city's population of Smiths stands by and watches while Neo and Oracle/Smith square off. Oracle/Smith explains that, possessing the Oracle's foresight, he already knows the outcome of the battle and is certain of Neo's defeat. After an cataclysmic fight scene, an exhausted Neo ultimately realizes that fighting will not achieve victory. The Oracle managed to force Smith (through the visions of victory he has seen from her "eyes") to repeat her words she said earlier to Neo, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo." Neo baits Smith to assimilate him: "You were right, Smith. It was inevitable." With that, Smith assimilates Neo's avatar. In the real world, the Deus Ex Machina finally has the control it needs to find Smith's rogue pattern in the Matrix. The machines send what appears to be a massive energy charge through Neo's body, which ostensibly contains commands which delete all the Smiths and his corrupting code throughout everyone in the Matrix that was attacked. With Neo's promise fulfilled, the Machine army then immediately retreats from the destruction of Zion, honoring the new truce. Neo's lifeless body is reverently carried away by the Deus Ex Machina.
Shortly after, a black cat appears in the Matrix. It and the surrounding world ripples briefly; the Matrix has been successfully reloaded using Neo's code and all appears normal again in the virtual world. The Architect meets with the Oracle in a park (the first and only time the two have appeared on screen together) and reluctantly agrees with the Oracle to free "the ones that want out" (see below)
A new dawn appears in the Matrix, thanks to the work of Sati's new skill of creating beautiful sunrises. The conflict between Man and Machine has ended.
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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 the 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.
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, several cameras are placed around an object and fired in rapid sequence. 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, who Macmillan pays homage to 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 pioneered 3D visualization planning methods to move beyond mechanically fixed views towards complex camera paths and flexibly moving interest points. There is also an improved fluidity through the use of non linear interpolation, digital compositing and the introduction of computer generated "virtual" scenery.
The objective of 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 definition Universal Capture process have completely replaced the use of still camera arrays thus re imagining 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
The story makes numerous references to historical and literary myths, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Judeo-Christian imagery about Messianism, Buddhism, and the novels of William Gibson, especially Neuromancer. Gibson popularized the concept of a world-wide computer network with a virtual reality interface, which was named "the matrix" in his Sprawl Trilogy. However the concept and name apparently originated even earlier in the 1976 serial The Deadly Assassin on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which featured a virtual reality known as the Matrix. The first writer about a virtual reality, populated with unsuspecting victims, was Daniel F. Galouye with Simulacron Three in 1964.
The concept of artificial intelligence overthrowing or enslaving mankind had previously been touched on by hundreds of science fiction stories. Many have commented that The Matrix was inspired by the work of Philip K. Dick, not only dealing with issues of Gnosticism and prophetic visions but also the war against the machines in a post-apocalyptic world. The idea of a world controlled by machines and all of humanity living underground goes back to the 1909 short story The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster.
The plot of The Matrix bears some resemblance to the basic plot of the book Neuromancer. This is not necessarily surprising, since both The Matrix and Neuromancer are roughly in the same cyberpunk genre. In both stories a computer hacker is recruited to perform a particularly difficult task. Some of the relevant conventions related to the genre might include the tough-guy hacker/cracker hero, his optional female sidekick, and the more-or-less malevolent artificial intelligences.
Several illustrative differences between the two works also exist. For example, Gibson's human Turing Police are tasked to limit the growth of artificial intelligences. The Agents of The Matrix by contrast, are AIs who curtail human development. Gibson shows humans working alongside the AI Wintermute; their eventual triumph is presented as a victory for the "good guys". Again in contrast, the human-AI collaboration in The Matrix—Cypher defecting to the agents—appears to undermine that entire good and right stand for. From this standpoint, The Matrix can be seen as an antithesis to Gibson's Neuromancer.
One other connection between the two is the use of a location called Zion. In Neuromancer, Zion is an orbital colony founded by Rastafarians, where the main characters dock before traveling to Freeside, the giant orbital station where the final act of the novel takes place. In The Matrix, Zion is the underground home of the free humans (never seen onscreen in the first movie, although it is featured prominently in the two sequels). It is possible that this is only a coincidence, and that Zion is used as a generalized metaphor for a mythical city which could be considered to be the last hope for humanity. However, given the obvious influences of Neuromancer on The Matrix, it is likely that the name Zion is used both as a metaphor and as a subtle homage.
The film also shares many ideas with Grant Morrison's counter-culture comic book The Invisibles, with which the Wachowski brothers have professed a familiarity.
Some resemblances also exist to Frank Herbert's seminal novel, Dune, most obviously in the "unwitting messiah" characteristics of the respective protagonists, and the concept of a war between humans and machines with religious overtones (Herbert's Butlerian Jihad). The sequels to The Matrix exhibit further similarities to Dune. The Matrix is only one of several pieces of fiction that have been influenced by this book.
The Matrix reused some of the film sets from Dark City, a movie filmed shortly beforehand that was similar in plot and style. The Matrix has many other cinematic influences, ranging from explicit homage to stylistic nuances. Its action scenes, with a physics-defying style also drawn directly from martial arts films, are notable. They integrate Hong Kong style kung fu hand-to-hand combat (under the skilled guidance of Yuen Wo Ping) and wire work, the hyper-active gun fights of directors such as John Woo and Ringo Lam, and classic American action movie tropes, including a rooftop chase. The film also borrows plot aspects from Strange Days (entering and experiencing a virtual world as a premise for action sequences) and many other films and novels (our own technology is turned against us, creating a post-apocalyptic Earth in which a small human "resistance" must fight the machines).
It could also be argued that The Matrix was originally based on or inspired by the concept of Ghost hacking, which is taken from the anime science-fiction film Ghost in the Shell. Producer Joel Silver stated in a Matrix making-of documentary that the Wachowski brothers showed him a "Japanimation" and told him they wanted to make a film like that, but live-action.
There are also other notable influences from Japanese animation. Both a scene near the end of the movie, where Neo's breathing seems to buckle the fabric of reality in the corridor where he is standing, as well as the "psychic children" scene in the Oracle's waiting room are evocative of similar scenes from the 1980s anime classic Akira. The title sequence, the scene late in the movie where a character hides behind a column while pieces of it are blown away by bullets, and a chase scene in a fruit market where shots hit watermelons, are practically identical to shots in the aforementioned Ghost in the Shell. This site contains screenshots and more similar scenes from both movies.
The Wachowski brothers themselves admit that they were greatly inspired by many things they'd read and seen before, and the parallels between films are endless. In the film Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger is offered a red pill to return to reality, in precisely the same way that Neo is.
Sunglasses play a significant role in the Matrix cinematic feel. Viewers would know whether a character or situation was being played out within the Matrix if central characters were wearing their characteristically dark clothing, complete with sunglasses that would be of little use in the sunless realm of the real world. Sunglasses were worn regardless if it were day or night within the Matrix, adding to the image of detachment of reality in the Matrix. This may also reflect the degree of vulnerability of the characters; many characters (Morpheus, Agent Smith) lose (or even break) their sunglasses during major battles, or discard them: a symbolic disposal of the tough, unemotional image.
Not all characters within the Matrix wore glasses, but as a general rule, the rebels wore sunglasses that had rounded lenses, and adversaries such as Agents wore glasses with corners or angles. Agent Smith's sunglasses changed after his transformation in The Matrix Reloaded from the square Agent-style into lenses shaped similarly to the protein capsule of certain viruses. The sunglasses used in this movie were custom-made on the set, although replicas are widely available. See Agent Smith for the stylistic genealogy of the Agents.
Elements of theology and philosophy are heavily present in The Matrix. Students of Gnosticism will notice many of its themes touched upon. There are also many references to Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity, with concepts of Enlightenment/Nirvana, and rebirth. Further references to Buddhism/Hinduism include the free will versus fate debate, perception and the concept of Maya, Karma, and various ideas about the nature of existence. In many ways The Matrix is about a kind of reality enforcement, or similarly, hyperreality.
Some like Christian anarchists, say the world we live in is a Matrix and the only way of escaping is through achieving enlightenment. They say notable escapees over the years have included Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth and Muhammad. Some Christian anarchists believe the movie has similarities to the New Testament with Neo, Morpheus and Cypher playing the parts of Jesus, John the Baptist and Judas respectively. However, escape from the Matrix in the film is not to a spiritual world but to the very physical Zion, deep inside of the earth.
The Matrix follows all phases of the Campbellian heroic myth arc with near-literal precision, including even minor details like the circular journey, the crucial battle happening underground, and even the three-headed immortal enemy (the three agents).
The character of the Oracle is strongly similar to that of the Oracle of ancient Greek legend. In particular, her warning to Neo that he is faced with a choice between saving his own life, or Morpheus' is very reminiscent of the warning that the Oracle gave to King Leonidas when setting out for the Battle of Thermopylae. In the Greek legend, she warns Leonidas that either his city will be left in ruins, or that a Greek king must die, thus Leonidas is left with the choice of his own life or the survival of his city. It could be further argued that had Neo chosen to save his own life, Smith would have gained the access codes he needed from Morpheus and the city of Zion would have fallen. Thus, ultimately, Neo's choice was the same as that of Leonidas: his own life, or the fate of a city.
There have been several books and websites written about the philosophy of The Matrix. One of the major issues in the film is the question of the validity of the world around us, i.e., what is reality, or whether what is happening is merely sensory information fed to us, is also raised in other science fiction films including eXistenZ, TheThirteenth Floor, (both of which were released the same year as The Matrix, receiving relatively less attention in box office sales and ratings) Total Recall, and peripherally in the film Abre los ojos (remade as Vanilla Sky).
The ideas behind The Matrix have been explored in old philosophical texts on epistemology, such as Plato's allegory of the cave and Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. In a well-known Solipsistic thought experiment, the subject is a brain in a vat of liquid; in the Matrix, Neo is a body in a vat.
Postmodern thought plays a tangible role in the movie. In an opening scene, Neo hides an illegal minidisk in a false copy of Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, a work that describes modern life as a hyperreal experience of simulation based upon simulation. Interpretations of The Matrix often reference Baudrillard's philosophy to demonstrate that the movie is an allegory for contemporary experience in a heavily commercialized, media-driven society, especially of the developed countries.
Some academics have argued that the Matrix series is consistent with a Marxist analysis of society. Professor Martin Danahay and then PhD candidate David Rieder co-wrote a chapter of the best-selling book The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (ISBN 081269502X ) in which they argue that the movie gives a visual image of Marx’s ideas, particularly in the scene where Morpheus tells new recruit Neo that the computers have reduced him to nothing more than a battery.
“Humans in The Matrix must produce electricity to run the machines that enslave them, just as workers in Marx’s analysis must produce surplus value through their work,” Danahay explained. “Also, the rebels in the movie liberate Morpheus from an office, and they rescue Neo from his white-collar job. The rebels are trying to get workers to wake up and realize they are being exploited, which is one of Marx’s aims, too.”
Danahy and Rider also argue that rebellion against the machines' domination is an analogy for the modern-day workplace with the evil agents dressed like corporate executives, and Neo escaping from his cubicle to escape them. When he ambushes the evil agents later in the movie, they are in an office high-rise complete with impersonal decor. (Source: Arlington Star-Telegram, June 10, 2003).
Similarly, the Maoist International Movement has adopted the Matrix as one of its favorite films asserting that they "could not have asked for more in a two and a half hour Hollywood movie" and views it as an exercise in dialectics in which a new mode of production is explored, the "battery mode of production".
The youth wing of the Russian Communist Party has also embraced the Matrix and its sequels with youth wing leader Oleg Bondarenko asserting there is "no difference" between Neo and Lenin as revolutionaries.
See also: the philosophy section of the official matrix website.
It should be noted that the reason given in the movie for computers enslaving humans makes no sense from a thermodynamic point of view. The chemical energy required to keep a human being alive is vastly greater than the bio-electric energy that could be harvested; human beings, like all living beings, are not energy sources, they are energy consumers. It would be vastly more effective to burn the organic matter to power a conventional electrical generator or to use geothermal energy or the heat coming from the dissipation of the tidal movements of the oceans and crust or any other not yet imagined source. The sunlight was not able to penetrate the atmosphere in the movie.
Some people have pointed out the possibility that the laws of thermodynamics could work differently in real life than in the Matrix to make it harder for people to suspect they are being used as a power source, or that the machines have technology not yet imaginable by humans, and thus the known laws of science are impossible to apply in this situation (Morpheus mentions that the human power source is "combined with a form of fusion"). On the other hand, Morpheus speaks of physical laws like gravity applying both to the real world and within its simulation, and the scenes we see within the real world are certainly consistent with physical laws as we know them. Also, the entropy can't be the machines' invention, as if it did not exist in their world or if the direction of energy flow was sometimes concentrated instead of dissipated, the machines could not exist.
Critical fans have speculated (see Krypto-revisionism) that the machines were actually using the humans' brains as components in a massively parallel neural network computer, and that the characters were simply mistaken about the purpose. This error would then be reflected in the "Zion Historical Archive" of "The Second Renaissance". In fact, this was very close to the original explanation. Because the writers felt that non-technical viewers would have trouble understanding this explanation, they abandoned it in favor of the "human power source" explanation. The neural-network explanation, however, is presented in the film's monetization and the short story "Goliath", featured on the Matrix website and in the first volume of The Matrix Comics.
It is also established later in the trilogy that the machines and humans are interdependent for reasons more philosophical than technological.
Keanu Reeves as Neo
Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
Julian Arahanga as Apoc
Marcus Chong as Tank
Matt Doran as Mouse
Gloria Foster as the Oracle
Paul Goddard as Agent Brown
Belinda McClory as Switch
Joe Pantoliano as Cypher
Anthony Ray Parker as Dozer
Robert Taylor II as Agent Jones
Trivia buffs should also be interested to learn that Carrie-Anne Moss also appeared in a short-lived science fiction television series called Matrix