The Matrix

The Matrix
Official Logo
Directed byThe Wachowskis
Written byThe Wachowskis
Produced byJoel Silver
Starring
CinematographyBill Pope
Edited byZach Staenberg
Music byDon Davis
Production
companies
  • Village Roadshow Pictures
  • Groucho II Film Partnership
  • Silver Pictures
Distributed by
Release dates
  • March 24, 1999 (1999-03-24) (Mann Village Theatre)
  • March 31, 1999 (1999-03-31) (United States)
  • April 8, 1999 (1999-04-08) (Australia)
Running time
136 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • Australia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$63 million
Box office$473.3 million

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction action movie written and directed by the Wachowski Sisters. The movie stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantaliano. The Matrix was followed by three sequels: The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections.

In 2012, The Matrix was selected by the Library of Congress into the United States National Film Registry.

Story

The main character of the movie is Thomas A. Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves), who is a computer programmer at MetaCortex, a big software company, but he is also an underground hacker. Thomas meets Trinity (played by Carrie-Anne Moss), who then introduces him to Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne), who gives him a choice between taking a blue pill or a red pill. If he took the blue pill, he would wake up at his bed and wouldn't be bothered anymore, but if he took the red pill, Morpheus would show him the truth about the Matrix. Thomas takes the red pill. Then Morpheus tells Thomas he is actually Neo, or "the one". He explains to Neo that the Matrix is a computer program made by robots to simulate a world which humans think is real. He then explains to Neo that, because he is "the one" he is able to modify the Matrix however he wants. Morpheus then helps Neo to get out of the Matrix. At the beginning, Neo is skeptical about his power, but after training, he is able to show his real power. Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, and the rest of the rebels then go on a journey to free humans from the Matrix.

Symbolism

There is a lot of symbolism in The Matrix. Common sources are Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, the ancient philosopher Plato and Plato's Allegory of the Cave, modern philosophers such as René Descartes, and modern authors such as William Gibson.

Philosophy

There are also references to Simulacra and Simulation, a very modern philosophy book by Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard says that in the modern world, copies of copies are made. "The Real" is gone because people do not know what the first things were. For example, a modern person who eats a chicken did not kill the chicken. That person does not know what a real chicken is. The chicken meat is false because the person did not kill the chicken. The person's reality is the chicken meat.

Trivia

  • "Neo" is a word from old Greek word meaning "new". The letters in "Neo" can be moved around to spell "one".
  • Anderson is a word from old Greek which means "son of man"
  • Morpheus is the name of an old Greek god who makes dreams.
  • Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus's ship, gets its name from the king from Babylon who had many dreams, and was a king of change and of understanding the truth.
  • The directors, the Wachowski Sisters, often use the story “Alice in Wonderland”. Alice falls into a rabbit hole, and she finds a strange world. “Alice in Wonderland” is a story about illusions.

Symbols in the music of The Matrix

  • In the first scene, when Neo is sleeping on his keyboard, "Dissolved Girl" by Massive Attack is playing. The chorus of this song is:

I feel like I've been/ I've been here before
You're not my savior/ but I still don't go
It feels like something that I've done before
I could fake it, but I'd still want more/

  • When Neo is in the dance club, the remix of a Rob Zombie song called "Dragula" is playing. The first line of that song is: "Dead, I am the One."
  • When Neo is meeting with the Oracle, the quiet music in the background is Duke Ellington's "I'm Beginning To See The Light."

Cast

Music

Don Davis made the score (orchestra part with violins and flutes). The Matrix's soundtrack (band music for a movie) includes music from bands such as Rammstein, Rob Dougan, Rage Against the Machine, Propellerheads, Massive Attack, The Prodigy, Rob Zombie, and Marilyn Manson.

Other meanings

The word matrix sometimes means "origin" or "beginnings". In very old English, matrix means "womb". A matrix is also a part of mathematics.

Effect of the movie

A new religion called Matrixism or The path of the One is based on the movie The Matrix. The religion began in 2004 with 300 members. Now there are about 16,000 members of Matrixism.

References

  1. ↑ "The Matrix". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Film: The Matrix". Lumiere. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "The Matrix". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 12, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "The Matrix". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  5. 1 2 "The Matrix (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Archived from the original on May 27, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  6. ↑ Jordison, Sam (2005). The Joy of Sects: An A-Z of Cults, Cranks and Religious Eccentrics: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sects But Were Afraid to Ask, pp 127-9, Robson Books. ISBN 1-86105-905-1
  7. 1 2 Morris, Linda (May 19, 2005). "They're all God Movies". NPR. Retrieved 2006-08-05.
  8. ↑ Kotelawala, Himal (14 June 2008). "Behind Matrixism". The Sunday Times Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2008-06-19.

Notes

  1. ↑ Credited as The Wachowski Brothers.

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