20 Things You Somehow Missed In The Matrix

[Music] at over 20 years old now the matrix remains the standard bearer for boundary-pushing modern cinema nothing since has changed film in quite the way it did and while its sequels may have proved divisive and its tropes become overdone to the point of parody it still holds up as an incredible action movie the film considers the premise that humanity is secretly trapped in a global mental prison created and maintained by the race of machines that had overthrown them and exists now only as an emaciated comatose energy source it follows a group of freedom fighters they attempt to liberate the human race through the arrival of a prophesized Messiah known as the one also the soundtrack is incredible releasing in 1999 the movie was the last of the big blockbusters to be spared the constant Easter egg hunting of modern message boards and movie threads which is a shame because there were Chow ski stuffed it full of philosophical references narrative secrets and other delightful little things for the audience to find during a rewatch and you won't believe what I've just done so with that in mind my name is Adam Cleary and these are 20 things you somehow missed in the Matrix fair warning here there is no spoon in this list but there is a pen you're going to find particularly interesting number 20 The Matrix is Green wanting to create a clear visual contrast between the real world and the matrix itself there were cows keys used some clever cinematography to subtly create a distinction specifically every scene that takes place within the matrix was digitally given a subtle tint of green in order to transmit both its artificial nature and create a sense of unease the colour was selected to give the feel of viewing the scenes through the screens of old PCs which specifically rendered information in that kind of phosphorus green you know like in fallout the idea also being that as well as appearing artificial being in this world should make you feel slightly queasy from 19 the real world is blue that attention to detail didn't stop there though as to better accentuate the putrid greens of the matrix director of photography Bill Pope gave the real world a contrasting blue hue all of its own speaking in an interview after the movie he said from the Nebuchadnezzar and the pods reality was given a cooler bluer more norm less sickly look the future in the film is cold the Sun is blotted out there is no real warmth unless it is artificial heat so that is why they went for the cool side the matrix should make you feel sick and in reality you should feel a little more at home but never comfortable finally the training program where neo and Morpheus fight is tinted yellow to represent the fact that it's neither the matrix nor the real world number 18 questions Neos character arc is easily broken into two halves eventually he becomes the warn and through fully utilizing his power to control the matrix rescues Morpheus begins the human races fight back against their maniacal overlords and discovers Rage Against the Machine but prior to this Neos role in the movie is to extract the exposition from the other principal characters something done at the request of the studio who were worried the audience wouldn't understand the plot otherwise thus in the Films opening 45 minutes Neos 80 lines of dialogue contain an astonishing 44 questions this is almost worn every single minute and makes it one of the most subtext heavy movies in modern cinema from a 17 Bruce Lee despite being planned and storyboarded to within an inch of its life The Matrix does include a number of unscripted or improvised moments ironically they all tend to come during the most highly choreographed moments of the movie despite the actors spending literally months in training to ensure they had the routines down one of the most notable concerns a brief moment when neo attempts to gather himself during the training fight with Morpheus setting himself up for the next bout he quickly brushes his nose with his thumb in what Keanu Reeves would later reveal was an ad-lib tribute to Bruce Lee despite it not being the best take he successfully lobbied to keep it in the film from 16 Walter Cronkite one of the most striking elements of the matrix was the performance of Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith it's a performance that perfectly encapsulates the undrajavaram that is neither entirely man nor entirely machine whilst retaining hallmarks of both however when researching the role in building the physical performance weaving began modeling parts of his delivery on the dry matter-of-factness associated with mid 20th century newsreaders specifically Walter Cronkite the legendary US journalist and host of CBS Evening News for almost two decades after famously reporting both the moon' lon and the Kennedy assassination he was dubbed the most trusted man in America giving weavings performance as sinister familiarity and 15 drunken boxing what is he cleverest Easter eggs in the entire movie concerns the very brief shots of Neos crash course in hand-to-hand combat as he sat in a chair having the knowledge and muscle memory uploaded directly into his brain several different styles briefly flash up on the screen including if the amusingly named drunken boxing this is a nod to the movies fight choreographer whooping urine a man who partially made his name of working as the choreographer on Jackie Chan's drunken master a movie where the titular character sets out to learn the martial art style of Zoosh Wan or as it translates back into English drunken boxing before teen the cliff's now yes the coded green rainfall became an iconic image of the movie and indeed everybody screensaver in 1999 but the way it was created is actually a lot less clever than it looks on screen while the effect needed to have them tumbling down the screen required some extensive work sourcing the characters themselves was quite straightforward wanting to use both West and letters numbers and Japanese katakana symbols the movies production designer took one of his wife's sushi books and simply scanned it all the recipes they then elected to reverse all of the characters to convey the idea that you're actually looking in from the wrong side number 13 neo doesn't kick despite the rigorous months of training required to complete the film Keanu Reeves ended pre-production while still recovering from severe neck surgery this meant that while he was able to learn a lot of the choreography he was without full use of his legs and thus sat out the bulk of the kicking training this necessitated some alterations to the film and as a result neo uses far fewer kicks from the other characters in the movie in fact his only real flurry of them comes in the construct training fight with Morpheus which was filmed near the end of production no 12 September the 11th 2001 in the early scenes of the movie neo is taken in for questioning by a trio of agents who in the hope of using him to apprehend Morpheus begin to grill him on his criminal record while being told that he is guilty of virtually every computer crime that we have a law for there's also a very brief shot of his passport as well as showing his place of birth as capital city it also shows that his passport expires on September the 11th 2001 the same day as the horrific terror tax on New York's World Trade Center heroin coincidence that has caused all number of tin hat conspiracy theories online since number 11 meta cortex as well as being just the perfect name for a middle-of-the-road respectable software company from the turn of the millennium meta cortex is also a clever piece of foreshadowing for the rest of the movie breaking down the word gives us meta which when used as a prefix means transcending and cortex which of course refers to the brain neo a man literally about to transcend the limits of his own brain works for a company whose name means that exact thing his boss also tells them that you think you are special and that the rules do not apply to you which of course is also true number 10 the last scene finally awoken from his sleep inside the matrix neo is greeted by the horrifying reality of the world outside completely hairless terrified and covered in goo he is confronted by a machine which implodes him from his pod and flushes them out the system in these scenes Keanu Reeves looked much thinner almost gaunt as the reality of his confinement clashes harshly with the healthy attractive man we'd seen prior this scene was actually shot months after principal photography had wrapped to enable Keanu Reeves to lose the weight and the muscle definition he'd gained for the rest of the film number nine Dark City given that they both deal with the premise that the world around you might not be real the matrix often gets compared to the movie dark City they bear a lot of similarities in terms of tone atmosphere and plot but upon closer inspection they've got a lot more in common wanting to keep a skyrocketing budget under control Warner Brothers turned down the request to film the rooftop scenes on location and instead have the filmmakers use the existing sets from the dark city instead some tweets were made to disguise this but by and large they are nearly identical number 8 simulacra and simulation prior to the casting stage the filmmakers were determined that every major member of the cast should fully understand the story that was being told after years of having the idea rejected because it was the too complex having acted on board who grasped both the themes on the narrative was essential the Wachowski is required that the actors read three books before even being allowed to open the script simulacra and simulation out of control and evolutionary psychology in a small tribute to this neo Hyde's is product in a hollowed-out copy of simulacra and simulation at the beginning of the movie number seven Alice in Wonderland as well as the required reading for this movie there was also another heavy literary influence specifically Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland which is referenced throughout the movie and informs a number of the main thematic points neo follows the white rabbit in the form of de jewess tattoo and Morpheus himself asks him if he's feeling like the book's titular character as he's tumbling down the rabbit hole even the choice between the red pill and the blue pill is evocative of the caterpillars one will make you bigger and one will make you small choice from the book number six Chicago while the matrix takes place in an unnamed American city some guesses can be made about its location now residents of Sydney will undoubtedly recognize a few locations as well virtually the entire thing was filmed there but there are a few hints that it was also set in Chicago who would shouts his hometown all of these Street locations mentioned in the film are genuine intersections from Chicago and during the underground fight scene between neo and Agent Smith several signs can be seen for the loop another hallmark of the city number five the cookie when it comes to web browsing everyone has heard of cookies chances are you've been asked to consent to them about four hundred times today already but not everybody fully understands what they actually are in short they are a small piece of important information sent by a website and retained by the browser to remember later it's a tiny visual motif but the Oracle handing neo a single cookie after she's informed him about Morpheus impending demise is an incredibly nuanced way of explaining the scene she has given him a small piece of important information and quite literally given him a cookie number four I have no mouth and I must scream possibly the strangest tribute to the source material that influenced the film comes in the neo Smith interrogation scene early in the movie as well as all the books previously mentioned Lost City and Alice in Wonderland through which house keys also drew inspiration from Harlan Ellison science fiction short story I have no mouth and I must scream the book details how an artificial intelligence takes over the world and all but eradicate smocking save for a few survivors that it keeps underground and yep stop me when you've heard this one before as well as the obvious comparisons you can draw to the themes of the matrix the movie literally depicts neo in this scene as having no mouth and trying to scream number three neo as Jesus attracting numerous complaints from religious groups following its release the comparisons with we neo and Jesus Christ are both profound on numerous neo is of course a messiah like figure whose arrival has been foretold and is here to bring salvation to mankind early on in the film joy greets him with hallelujah and refers to him as my savior and towards the end he is declared dead but through some sort of miracle returns to life finally even Neos original name of Anderson has its own religious connotations tracing its etymology to mean son of man a common title given to Jesus in religious texts number two you coppertop in another deft piece of foreshadowing although admittedly not very subtle switch calls neo a seemingly innocuous but actually very apt name during their first meeting listen to me carpet up we don't have time for 20 questions coppertop might not jump out initially given that neo has dark hair but it's actually a common slang term for a Duracell branded battery given that at the time of this meeting neo is still plugged into the matrix and is thus being used by the machines as a living battery the name is absolutely bang-on not that near would have had any idea why number one red and blue the decision between red and blue is ultimately one that defines the entire story of the matrix by being offered the two different colored pills Thomas Anderson is forced to make one of the most profound decisions in human history keep dreaming or awaken to the horrors of the real world however it's actually a decision that's subtly telegraphed earlier in the movie when receiving the mobile phone from Morpheus Anderson is handed a form to sign and a pen with which to do so specifically a pen that allows the holder to write in either red or blue ink clearly not ready to wake up yet neo chooses blue so that you haven't those are 20 things you missed about the matrix read to you by a man for whom taking the red pill simply just means checking the comments out let me know what you made of it all in the comments below and of course to forget to Like share and subscribe in the meantime though thank you so much for watching I have of course been Adam Cleary and I'll see you soon [Music] [Music]

Channel: WhatCulture

Views: 1,547,386

Rating: 4.8070769 out of 5

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Id: aYQ3_rTJR2k

Length: 13min 2sec (782 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 04 2020