1999
DIRECTORS: THE WACHOWSKIS PRODUCER: JOEL SILVER SCREENPLAY: THE WACHOWSKIS STARRING: KEANU REEVES (NEO), LAURENCE FISHBURNE (MORPHEUS), CARRIE-ANNE MOSS (TRINITY), HUGO WEAVING (AGENT SMITH), JOE PANTOLIANO (CYPHER), MARCUS CHONG (TANK), JULIAN ARAHANGA (APOC), MATT DORAN (MOUSE)
The Matrix
WARNER BROS. • COLOR, 136 MINUTES
A hacker is informed by a group of rebels that the world he believes to be real is actually an elaborate program run by computers.
By the tail end of the twentieth century, the genre of science fiction was fast becoming something it had never been before: the epitome of cool. Fueled by advances in digital graphics, a booming Internet community, and the impending millennium, sci-fi had morphed from a niche genre into a mainstream obsession. Arriving right on cue in 1999 was The Matrix, a sexy, action-packed comic book of a movie that tapped into the current zeitgeist and established many a cinematic trend. Designer sunglasses, long black trench coats, martial arts, killer special effects, contemporary techno-rock music, and “guns—lots of guns” now factored into the new science fiction.
The Matrix kicks off with a tantalizing, gravity-defying kung fu attack from tough-girl Trinity that reels the audience in, making us want to follow the white rabbit, take the red pill, and discover all the movie’s secrets. As with many groundbreaking films, the original story is woven from existing elements. Its dystopian urban landscape fused with a technology-rich underworld is pure cyberpunk, a subgenre that started cinematically with Blade Runner (1982) and informed literature, comics, and video games of the 1980s and ’90s. More specifically, the film starts with a premise in the vein of Strange Days (1995) and Dark City (1998) and propels it into an imaginative, masterfully orchestrated universe that completely submerges the audience in its own reality… or nonreality.
The reality of the Matrix
Andy and Larry Wachowski direct a rooftop scene.
True to their roots as writers of Marvel comics, writers/directors the Wachowskis (then the brother team of Larry and Andy, now Lana and Lilly) first conceived The Matrix to be a comic book. In the thought-provoking story, computer geek-turned-hero Neo—the future’s answer to Alice in Wonderland—searches for the meaning of life, and is found by the godlike Morpheus, a rebel leader who breaks the earth-shattering news to Neo: every moment of his day-to-day reality is, in fact, a CGI dream world created to keep the post-apocalyptic population pacified while tentacled computer-monsters use them for batteries. Again, the threat to humankind is a race of intelligent machines (will we ever learn?) that harvest humans as their energy source. The heavy-duty backstory is told in motion, through jaw-dropping imagery and narrow escapes from virtual villain Agent Smith that only slow down long enough for us to catch our breath. Then comes the jujitsu.
The film’s use of martial arts raised the bar for Hollywood. The directors were inspired by the surreal fighting in Hong Kong cinema, which Lana Wachowski described as “balletic. Everybody has a superhuman, supernatural grace. We wanted to bring that kind of wire work to our movie.” Instead of employing stunt doubles, the Wachowskis had the four lead actors (Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving) spend four months training under the supervision of choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping until they were able to perform incredible stunts in midair while suspended from wires.
With every shot meticulously storyboarded by the filmmakers, The Matrix was always intended to be a special-effects film. But the tricks—like super slow motion—are not gratuitous; they’re used to enhance the impact of the action, and always within the context of the story. Just when the audience gets used to the off-the-wall kung fu and computer-enhanced visuals, the Wachowskis pull out the big guns for a slam-bang, three-minute shootout that took ten days to film and relied solely on practical effects—no CGI.
Carrie-Anne Moss fights a policeman inside the Matrix.
The Matrix not only broke boundaries by discarding and rewriting the rules of onscreen reality, it covers a range of cinematic ground by mixing themes, styles, and ideas as never before. Japanese anime, video game–style combat, existentialism, Buddhism, Christianity, scientific advancement, love, and the illusion of reality harmoniously coexist in the film. In 2008, Keanu Reeves recalled his first impression of the script as “something that I’d never seen but, in a way, something that I’d always hoped for as an actor and as a fan of science fiction…. It was mythology, philosophy, technology, and truth.”
After The Matrix and its two follow-ups, a plethora of imitations appeared, along with a crop of original films from various genres that were influenced by the Wachowskis’ creation: The X-Men series, Equilibrium (2002), and Kill Bill (2003) are only a few.
KEEP WATCHING
STRANGE DAYS (1995)
INCEPTION (2010)