27 Interesting Facts About The Matrix Before Watching Matrix Resurrections
20 years after its release, The Matrix is still one of the most iconic action and science fiction movies. You may think you know everything about the Matrix, but before watching Matrix Resurrections, it’s a good idea to take a look at the following interesting facts.
General Information
1- Morpheus is the god of dreams in Greek mythology.
Morpheus is primarily responsible for the dreams of kings and heroes. In the Matrix, he is the man who wakes Neo up from his dream and introduces him to reality.
2- Neo is an anagram of One.
If you take the letter “O” in One from the far left and put it on the far right, you get Neo.
3- The difference between the world and the Matrix is reflected in colors.
While scenes in the Matrix are in shades of green, those in the real world are more balanced and regular colors. The fight scene between Neo and Morpheus, on the other hand, has shades of yellow as it is in limbo — somewhere between the Matrix and the real world.
4- Richard Walker, the founder of Blinde sunglasses, competed with Ray-Ban and Arnette for eyewear designs.
He designed sunglasses to reflect each character’s personality and flew to Sydney for the duration of the shoot.
5- The Matrix’s famous green characters consist of reversed letters, numbers, and Japanese katakana characters.
6- Hugo Weaving was inspired by the directors’ deep tones for Agent Smith’s voice.
7- The Wachowskis chose the blue pill.
The Wachowskis said they would choose the blue pill.
8- Warner Bros. trademarked the term ‘Bullet Time’ in 2005.
The cameras had to capture 12,000 frames per second to achieve the bullet-time effect. The standard rate is 24 frames per second.
Three years after the movie was released, the bullet-time scene was parodied in more than 20 movies.
Before Shooting
9- The Wachowskis worked on 14 scripts for the movie.
When the idea for the Matrix first came to the Wachowskis’ mind in 1992, they had to work on 14 drafts to perfect it and make it known today.
10- The Wachowskis created a 600-page storyboard to persuade Warner Bros.
The Wachowskis, who had previously directed the low-budget film “Bound,” had to convince Warner Bros. to make a big-budget movie. For this, the Wachowskis, who agreed with two comics artists — Geof Darrow and Steve Skroce — storyboarded every film scene in detail.
11- Warner Bros. forced the Wachowskis to annotate the script
The amount of philosophical and existential concepts in the Matrix is so massive; such a request should be surprising.
12- The cast and crew were expected to read books like Simulacra and Simulation, Out of Control, and Evolutionary Psychology.
Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacrum and Simulation, which is about the imitation of Hyperreality and actual world processes, can also be seen in Neo’s house (The book with carved inside, hiding money and CD). Other books and authors that impacted the film are as follows.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll,
Karl Marx,
Franz Kafka
Homer’s Odyssey
13- Laurence Fishburne — Morpheus — was one of the actors who understood the script at the first reading.
In the early stages of The Matrix, many who read the script, from studio executives to Will Smith, were stunned by the story. Russell Crowe, considered for Morpheus, said he couldn’t get past page 42.
Role Selection
14- Janet Jackson was offered the role of Trinity.
Janet Jackson, a huge science fiction fan, was offered the role of Trinity but regretfully turned it down as shooting dates conflicted with her tour.
15- Will Smith was offered to play Neo.
Will Smith turned down the offer to play in Wild Wild West. In his later statements, Smith said that rejecting the proposal was the best choice because he could not understand the scenario at first glance.
Johnny Depp was the Wachowskis’ first choice to play Neo, while the studio chose Val Kilmer or Brad Pitt. Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan McGregor, and David Duchovny turned down the role.
16- Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson considered for the role of Morpheus
Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson were considered for the role of Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne.
Shooting
17- Six months of preparation work was done for the opening scene of The Matrix.
Trinity’s opening scene did a great job immersing audiences in this new world with innovative camera techniques, wuxia-style martial arts, gunfire. Considering these innovations, it’s not surprising that the actors and stunt performers took six months of training.
On her last day, the Wachowskis gifted Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) a champagne bottle with the words “Congratulations, you’re an action hero now.”
18- Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) sprained her ankle during filming but kept it a secret.
She kept it a secret, fearing that they would assign the role to someone else if she told anyone about this.
19- Keanu Reeves did not use stunts in the window scene
When Morpheus asked Neo to come out of the window — to escape the agents — Keanu stepped out of the window on the 34th floor and shot the scene without using a stunt performer.
20- Keanu Reeves shaved his entire body.
For the scenes where Neo exits the Matrix and wakes up in the robot compartment, Keanu Reeves lost 6.80 kg (15 lb) and shaved his entire body.
21- Neo really threw up.
He really threw up after Neo left the Matrix for the first time. According to the story on the set, the chicken pie he ate upset his stomach.
22- The helicopter scene almost caused the filming to be stopped.
As the helicopter flew over restricted airspace in Sydney, Australia, authorities changed the law to allow filming to continue. This situation took six months to prepare and plan for the rescue of Morpheus.
23- Keanu Reeves couldn’t kick for two months.
Keanu Reeves had back surgery just before he started working on the movie. The fusion of his spine caused the onset of paralysis in his legs. Reeves was still recovering when his combat training started and could not kick for the first two months.
24- Matrix took 118 days to shoot.
With the Wachowskis behind schedule, they sent the opening scene of Trinity to show the studio that all was well. The studio liked the episode and gave it extra time to complete the shoot.
25- All street names in the movie are from actual streets in Chicago, where the Wachowskis grew up.
26- Keanu Reeves only has 80 lines in the first 45 minutes of the movie
More than half of the 80 lines, 44 of them, are questions.
After Shooting
27- The Wachowskis Could Have Directed Batman Begins Instead of The Matrix Sequels
After the success of The Matrix, Warner Bros. executives offered the Wachowskis two options.
Finishing The Matrix with sequels
Restarting the Batman series
The Matrix was a passion project for the duo, so it wasn’t hard for them to decide. The Batman series would begin with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.
