‘The Matrix’ movie poster.
One of the most iconic film franchises of the past quarter-century,The Matrixblended old-school martial arts and action-movie fundamentals with a philosophical understanding of how the growing digital world would affect us all.Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity becameTHEmovie heroes of the ‘90s, inspiring a generation to don leather trench coats and ultra-thin sunglasses and pretend they know kung-fu. The elaborate world-building and precinct plot yielded a timeless film that would be studied and enjoyed for decades to come.
01of 14
Neo has his origins in a comic book.
Early Neo inspiration Dex Mungo.marvel
marvel
02of 14
The cast were given a reading list to understand the script.
“The script was a synthesis of ideas that sort of came together at a moment when we were interested in a lot of things: making mythology relevant in a modern context, relating quantum physics to Zen Buddhism, investigating your own life,“Lilly Wachowski toldThe New York Timesin 1999. “We started out thinking of this as a comic book. We filled notebook after notebook with ideas. Essentially that’s where the script came from.''
03of 14
The Wachowskis pitched the script with a 600-page comic book.
Shopping the dense script around Hollywood proved to be an uphill battle for the Wachowskis. An action movie that featured multiple philosophical threads and a combination of religious imagery from both the East and West, all set in a dystopian future and dotted with cyberpunk jargon did not make for the most executive-pleasing project.
“Every single person in town rejected it,” Lana WachowskitoldBuzzfeed.Eventually the script landed in the hands of producer Joel Silver, who found himself immediately captivated. “The minute I started reading the script forThe Matrix, I wanted to see it,” he recalled toWiredin 2003.
04of 14
Will Smith was almost Neo — and so was Johnny Depp!
Will Smith and Johnny Depp, early casting choices for Neo.getty (2)
getty (2)
Keanu Reeves was far down the list of stars considered to leadThe Matrix. According toMatrixcomposer Don Davis, the Wachowskis initially had their eye onanotherheartthrob to anchor their movie. “Johnny Deppwas their first choice for Neo,”Davis said in a 2004interview. “Warner Bros. … didn’t want Johnny Depp — they wantedBrad PittorVal Kilmer.” Both passed, as didNicolas Cage, whoturned down the partbecause of “family obligations.”
Ultimately, Reeves won out. He toldWiredofThe Matrix, “When I first read that script, it made my blood happy.”
05of 14Sandra Bullock was almost Trinity — and so was Janet Jackson!Sandra Bullock and Janet Jackson, early casting choices for Trinity.getty (2)Reeves’SpeedcostarSandra Bullockwas considered for the role of Trinity. In fact, producers were so desperate to have her in the film that they reportedly offered to swap the gender of the lead role. “We went to Sandy Bullock and said ‘We’ll change Neo to a girl,’” Warner Bros. executive Lorenzo di BonaventuratoldThe Wrapin 2019. “It was pretty simple. We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it. And if she was interested in it, we would try to make the change. It just wasn’t something for her at the time. So really it didn’t go anywhere.”Janet Jacksonwas also approached to play Trinity, but she had to back out due to scheduling commitments. She would apparently come to regret the decision, and referencedThe Matrixin the “Intro” and “Outro” interludes on her 2008 albumDiscipline.Rosie Perez,Salma HayekandJada Pinkett Smithalso auditioned, but producers decided to go with the then relatively unknown Carrie-Anne Moss. “I had no career before,” Moss admittedtoEntertainment Weeklyin 2003. “None.” The part would catapult her to stardom.
05of 14
Sandra Bullock was almost Trinity — and so was Janet Jackson!
Sandra Bullock and Janet Jackson, early casting choices for Trinity.getty (2)
Reeves’SpeedcostarSandra Bullockwas considered for the role of Trinity. In fact, producers were so desperate to have her in the film that they reportedly offered to swap the gender of the lead role. “We went to Sandy Bullock and said ‘We’ll change Neo to a girl,’” Warner Bros. executive Lorenzo di BonaventuratoldThe Wrapin 2019. “It was pretty simple. We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it. And if she was interested in it, we would try to make the change. It just wasn’t something for her at the time. So really it didn’t go anywhere.”
Janet Jacksonwas also approached to play Trinity, but she had to back out due to scheduling commitments. She would apparently come to regret the decision, and referencedThe Matrixin the “Intro” and “Outro” interludes on her 2008 albumDiscipline.Rosie Perez,Salma HayekandJada Pinkett Smithalso auditioned, but producers decided to go with the then relatively unknown Carrie-Anne Moss. “I had no career before,” Moss admittedtoEntertainment Weeklyin 2003. “None.” The part would catapult her to stardom.
06of 14
The Wachowskis met their Morpheus at the fight where Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield.
Warner Bros. wanted to cast Val Kilmer in the role of Morpheus, but initial talks with the actor were not promising. “We have a meeting with him at the Bel-Air Hotel, where he proceeds to pitch why Morpheus should be the lead of the movie,” studio executive Lorenzo di Bonaventura toldWired. “I knew within two minutes of the meeting we were dead.”Arnold SchwarzeneggerandMichael Douglaswere approached, but they both declined.Gary Oldmanwas also in the running before WB went with the Wachowskis’ first choice for the part: Laurence Fishburne.
07of 14
The principal cast underwent four months of exhaustive physical training.
Moss had a taste of the exhaustive process during her audition, when she was put through a three-hour physical test and nearly a week of stunt screen tests, after which, she toldWired, “I couldn’t walk for days.” Hugo Weaving, who played the sinister Agent Smith, injured his femur not long into training, leaving him on crutches before he could heal. “After the first day, I was so shattered and so shocked,” Hugo Weaving toldWired. “I realized I was so unfit.” (Weaver got off relatively easy. Reeves’ stuntman, Chad Stahelski, suffered a dislocated shoulder, damaged knees and several broken ribs while filming.)
08of 14Keanu Reeves lost 15 pounds for one scene.Everyone involved with the production is quick to praise Keanu Reeves’ work ethic and intense dedication to the project. Stunt coordinators recall him asking to train on his days off, obsessively seeking to perfect his form with wires and fighting. The actor even lost an additional 15 poundsjustfor the scene where he wakes up in the tub of goo, to look properly emaciated.
08of 14
Keanu Reeves lost 15 pounds for one scene.
Everyone involved with the production is quick to praise Keanu Reeves’ work ethic and intense dedication to the project. Stunt coordinators recall him asking to train on his days off, obsessively seeking to perfect his form with wires and fighting. The actor even lost an additional 15 poundsjustfor the scene where he wakes up in the tub of goo, to look properly emaciated.
09of 14Joe Pantoliano didn’t bother to read the script and embarrassed himself in front of the Wachowskis.Actor Joe Pantoliano (who played Cypher, the turncoat) managed to avoid the strenuous physical training in a novel way: surgery. “They wanted me to be in the best shape of my life,” he toldWired. “No drinking, eating steamed vegetables, working out at a gym.” His coach was a little less optimistic and delivered a hard truth to the then 40-something actor: “This trainer they hired said to me, ‘You can do three thousand sit-ups a day, butthatain’t going nowhere’” — gesturing to his gut. Instead, Pantoliano opted for a $8,000 liposuction treatment. He sent the bill to the studio, claiming the procedure technically counted as “research and development.” (Warner Bros. felt differently, and he was not reimbursed.)Pantoliano had an embarrassing moment when it became apparent during an on-set meeting that he hadn’t actually read the script. The Wachowskis told him that Warner Bros. wanted to cut “the steak scene” — Cypher’s most memorable monologue — but Keanu Reeves was pushing back. Since he hadn’t read the script, Pantoliano assumed this was a Reeves-heavy scene: “They said, ‘Keanu’s really upset, and he’s telling them they can’t cut it.’ I said, ‘Well, tell him to get the f— over it. He’s in 99 percent of the movie.’ They just started laughing because they realized I hadn’t read it.”
09of 14
Joe Pantoliano didn’t bother to read the script and embarrassed himself in front of the Wachowskis.
Actor Joe Pantoliano (who played Cypher, the turncoat) managed to avoid the strenuous physical training in a novel way: surgery. “They wanted me to be in the best shape of my life,” he toldWired. “No drinking, eating steamed vegetables, working out at a gym.” His coach was a little less optimistic and delivered a hard truth to the then 40-something actor: “This trainer they hired said to me, ‘You can do three thousand sit-ups a day, butthatain’t going nowhere’” — gesturing to his gut. Instead, Pantoliano opted for a $8,000 liposuction treatment. He sent the bill to the studio, claiming the procedure technically counted as “research and development.” (Warner Bros. felt differently, and he was not reimbursed.)
Pantoliano had an embarrassing moment when it became apparent during an on-set meeting that he hadn’t actually read the script. The Wachowskis told him that Warner Bros. wanted to cut “the steak scene” — Cypher’s most memorable monologue — but Keanu Reeves was pushing back. Since he hadn’t read the script, Pantoliano assumed this was a Reeves-heavy scene: “They said, ‘Keanu’s really upset, and he’s telling them they can’t cut it.’ I said, ‘Well, tell him to get the f— over it. He’s in 99 percent of the movie.’ They just started laughing because they realized I hadn’t read it.”
10of 14
The “Bullet Time” sequence required 99 cameras, two years and $750,000.
The most infamous instance of “movie magic” inThe Matrixis “bullet time,” the Wachowskis’ term for visualizing how the characters could move at superhuman speeds as the camera orbits around them. They evocatively described the effect in their shooting script: “We enter the liquid space of— Bullet-time. The air sizzles with wads of lead like angry flies as Neo twists, bends, ducks just between them … Neo bent impossibly back, one hand on the ground as a spiraling gray ball shears open his shoulder.” This all sounded good on paper, but the Wachowskis had no idea how they’d be able to pull it off on the big screen. “People would say, ‘Well, how are you gonna do that?'” Lana toldWired. “And we were like, ‘We’re working on it.'”
Enter Mass Illusions, an SFX company later renamed Manex Visual Effects. They’d just won an Oscar for creating the afterlife that Robin Williams traverses through inWhat Dreams May Come,though the Wachowskis initially met with the company’s Kim Libreri and John Gaeta to talk as early as 1996, when their script was still being fine-tuned. Gaeta toldEmpire Magazine, “As for artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit Otomo Katsuhiro, who co-wrote and directedAkira, which definitely blew me away, along with director Michel Gondry.… His music videos experimented with a different type of technique called view-morphing.”
11of 14
The green text code has a delicious secret. Maybe.
12of 14The Wachowskis were accused of plagiarism after the film’s release.The Wachowski sisters.Tytus Zmijewski/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockThe Matrixopened in US theaters on March 31, 1999, taking in over $460 million on a $63 million budget to become the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of that year. But as with any world-conquering success, the naysayers came out in force. Allegations of plagiarism were leveled at the Wachowskis for lifting bits and pieces ofThe Matrixfrom varying sources.One of the most prominent critics was comic book legend Grant Morrison, whose work had been tackling many of the themes ofThe Matrixfor years. A 1992 issue Morrison’sDoom Patrolfeatures a character who comes to realize he is stuck in an artificial reality called “The Data Matrix,” before journeying to find a way to ascend to reality.Morrison also noticed similarities to hisInvisiblesseries, in which a secret group of rebels roam multiple planes of reality, imploring the audience to wake up to the inhuman masters who are controlling the real world. The protagonist ofThe Invisiblesis a reincarnation of the Buddha referred to as The One, and it features a scene in which a man jumps off a skyscraper as an initiation ritual — much like Neo does inThe Matrix. Morrison also felt his leather-clad characters, steeped in goth and raver subcultures, looked more than a touch like the heroes ofThe Matrix.In one extensive interview for the bookAnarchy for the Masses: A Disinformation Guide to The Invisibles, Morrison talked about seeing his ideas appear in the mainstream: “Suddenly I felt my territory invaded. That was stuff that nobody had even been doing in comic books or in pop culture.…The Invisibleswas on the set [ofThe Matrix]. People who were there have told me [the Wachowskis] are comic fans. They were Vertigo [the imprint that publishedThe Invisibles] fans in particular.” The Wachowskis have not commented publicly about this aspect of their work.
12of 14
The Wachowskis were accused of plagiarism after the film’s release.
The Wachowski sisters.Tytus Zmijewski/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Tytus Zmijewski/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Matrixopened in US theaters on March 31, 1999, taking in over $460 million on a $63 million budget to become the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of that year. But as with any world-conquering success, the naysayers came out in force. Allegations of plagiarism were leveled at the Wachowskis for lifting bits and pieces ofThe Matrixfrom varying sources.
One of the most prominent critics was comic book legend Grant Morrison, whose work had been tackling many of the themes ofThe Matrixfor years. A 1992 issue Morrison’sDoom Patrolfeatures a character who comes to realize he is stuck in an artificial reality called “The Data Matrix,” before journeying to find a way to ascend to reality.
Morrison also noticed similarities to hisInvisiblesseries, in which a secret group of rebels roam multiple planes of reality, imploring the audience to wake up to the inhuman masters who are controlling the real world. The protagonist ofThe Invisiblesis a reincarnation of the Buddha referred to as The One, and it features a scene in which a man jumps off a skyscraper as an initiation ritual — much like Neo does inThe Matrix. Morrison also felt his leather-clad characters, steeped in goth and raver subcultures, looked more than a touch like the heroes ofThe Matrix.
In one extensive interview for the bookAnarchy for the Masses: A Disinformation Guide to The Invisibles, Morrison talked about seeing his ideas appear in the mainstream: “Suddenly I felt my territory invaded. That was stuff that nobody had even been doing in comic books or in pop culture.…The Invisibleswas on the set [ofThe Matrix]. People who were there have told me [the Wachowskis] are comic fans. They were Vertigo [the imprint that publishedThe Invisibles] fans in particular.” The Wachowskis have not commented publicly about this aspect of their work.
13of 14
The plot has been successfully used as a courtroom defense for murder.
14of 14
Emily VanDerWerff, a critic who’s written eloquently about the trans themes inThe Matrix, spoketo NPRin 2021 about the film’s importance to the trans community. “If you are a trans person, there is sort of this idea that you are living in a muffling cocoon that is keeping you from seeing the reality of yourself. And that cocoon, to some degree, is the idea of fixed gender identity, which is one that society is built atop. To be trans, you have to sort of assail that idea. And in the process of doing so, you may question other things about reality.”
source: people.com
