The Matrix

Release Date: 1999 Running Time: 136 mins. Rated: R

Key Actors: Joe Pantoliano, Lawrence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss

The first installment of The Matrix trilogy is over twenty years old and this visually stimulating and ground-breaking film still holds. The Wachowski’s (Lana and Lily) wrote all three scripts for the trilogy. The Matrix follows the journey of Thomas A. Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves), also a hacker who goes by the name Neo (anagram for “One”), from hapless office drone to the prophesied savior of the human race in the war against the machines.

Thomas Anderson aka Neo has been going through life searching for what he sensed has been missing, and the answer to the question: What is The Matrix? His many questions are answered when he is finally approached by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne). Morpheus attempts to attempts to extricate Neo from his office place when the sentinel programs of The Matrix come calling, with no success. Scene: Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) interrogates Neo. When the Agents are unable to gain any information from him they attempt another tactic, sealing his mouth and implanting a “bug” in his navel”. Neo wakes up in his bed, assuming that it was a nightmare.

When Trinity brings Neo to meet Morpheus, the leader of the human resistance, for the first time we get an essential sequence to the rest of the film: Neo gets introduced to the simulation and to the world as it truly is. We get a background of they both came to be. Morpheus tells Neo that is closer to 2199, while Neo believed it to be 1999. In the early 21st century humans went to war with Artificial Intelligence and in an effort to stop it humans “scorched the sky”, as the machines were powered by sun.

The machines discovered that humans could be grown and harvested and used as an energy source and not only created human farms, but the neuro-interactive simulation to passive those humans, creating The Matrix. Neo is shown through simulation the earth as it truly is and how the simulation works. Morpheus: “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work … when you go to church … when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth” . He explains residual self-image, the mental projection of your digital self.

And as he is sitting across from Neo he gives him the choice given to all those that they offer to free from the machines. Either to take the blue pill, the story ends. He wake up in his bed and believes whatever he wants to believe; Or take the red pill, stays in Wonderland and he shows him how deep the rabbit hole goes.

The monologue and imagery are extremely effective. Through the fashionable shades of Morpheus, as he is explaining the two choices to Neo you see the two choices, literally and simultaneously, put in front of Neo. You see both palms with each pill being held. Lawrence Fishburnes acting is stellar is this sequence. The weight he puts behind this decision, to give up the comfort of the life he has had, although empty and to be introduced to the fearful unknown.

The red pill is also part of a trace program, that he can be tracked for extraction from the human farm. This scene shows a great use of practical effects, as neo awakens from his sleep in the vat of goo that he physically lived his entire life in, and is unceremoniously purged from the system.

Neo being awakened.

Neo: “Why do my eyes hurt?”

Morpheus: “You’ve never used them before”

Morpheus tells Neo there was someone special, that started the resistance and that help to free others, but has since died. The Oracle (played by Gloria Foster) prophesied that there would be another one and Morpheus believes that Neo is him, someone able to remake The Matrix as he would see fit and free all humans from the machines.

Dialogue

Agent Smith: “I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.”

Hugo Weaving is just one of the sentient programs (agents) of The Matrix, but the most compelling. He expresses a hatred, a disgust of the humans and a need to finish his mission to escape this world that the humans have been confined to. This dialogue comes when he is interrogating Morpheus, who is betrayed by another resistance fighter name Cypher. Cypher is willing to give up the real world to go back to being asleep, after 9 years of fighting what he believes is a winless war.

The use of simulations for training and in The Matrix show how gifted the entire crew was. The physical action, the gravity-defying feats and special effects have been a tremendous influence on many action movies for the past few decades and many have not done it this well.

Combat training in the simulation (the actors had 4 months of martial arts training with experts)

The lobby scene action sequence took 10 days to film and visually you can see why. The acrobatics and physicality of the characters is stunning. The first of the trilogies is a sight to see, hear and behold. The other two, they are also up to interpretation. Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and the Amazon store.

In Retrospect ★★★★☆