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The Matrix 101
Directed by	Wachowski Brothers
Written by	Wachowski Brothers
Produced by	Joel Silver
Starring	Keanu Reeves Laurence Fishburne Carrie-Anne Moss Hugo Weaving Joe Pantoliano Gloria Foster
Cinematography	Bill Pope
Edited by	Zach Staenberg
Music by	Original: Don Davis Rob Dougan Jack Dangers Chino Moreno Hive Non-Original: Tim Commerford Madonna Wayne Gacy Stéphane Grappelli Liam Howlett Harry James Grant Marshall Tom Morello Zack De La Rocha Brad Wilk David Wyndorf Robert del Naja Sara J. Mushroom Vowles Matt Schwartz Jimmie Haskell
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	March 31 1999 11 June 1999 9 April 1999
Running time	136 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$63,000,000
Box office	Domestic $171,479,930 Foreign $288,900,000 Worldwide $460,379,930

The Matrix is a science fiction/action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Hugo Weaving. It was first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, and is the first entry in the Matrix series of films, comics, video games and animation.

The film describes a future in which the world is actually the Matrix, a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify, subdue and make use of the human population as an energy source by growing them and connecting them to the Matrix with cybernetic implants. It contains numerous references to the cyberpunk and hacker subcultures; philosophical and religious ideas, including Vedanta, messianism and Socratic, Cartesian, and Platonic idealism; and homages to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Hong Kong action movies and Japanese animation.

Plot synopsis

A computer programmer by day, Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) spends his nights hacking and searching the internet under the alias "Neo". One night he wakes to find messages appearing on his computer monitor, "The Matrix has you" and "Follow the white rabbit". This cryptic instruction leads Neo to a nightclub, where he is met by a woman called Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). She is somehow aware of his desire to learn the answer to this question: "What is the Matrix?" Neo believes that a man named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) is somehow connected to the answer.

At work the next day, Neo receives a telephone call from Morpheus…who warns that three agents are searching for him. Despite Morpheus' seemingly-omniscient guidance, Neo is apprehended by the agents…who present evidence of his criminal activities as a hacker. In exchange for "a fresh start," with his criminal record wiped, they want information on Morpheus—"the most dangerous man alive". When Neo insists on consulting his lawyer before proceeding further, the scene turns nightmarish: his lips melt and fuse together; the agents implant a robotic bug in his navel.

Neo wakes up at home, and assumes the entire episode to be a dream. But then he immediately receives another call from Morpheus, requesting a meeting. He is picked up by Morpheus' allies: Apoc, Trinity and Switch. They remove the entirely-real bug from Neo’s belly and take him to the rendezvous.

Morpheus explains that he has been searching for Neo his entire life, and informs him that the Matrix is what Neo considers to be reality—"the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth". He offers Neo a chance to leave the Matrix and see the real world. Neo accepts…

...And abruptly wakes up naked in a liquid-filled chamber, his body connected by wires to a vast mechanical tower bristling with pods identical to his. The connections are severed and he is flushed away into a deep pool of waste water. He is rescued by Morpheus and taken aboard his hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar. Neo's neglected physical body is restored. Morpheus explains the current state of reality to him…

The year is approximately 2199. Early in the 21st century, mankind created intelligent machines; however, war broke out. In a desperate attempt to cut off the machines' supply of solar power, the sky has been blacked out by a swirling mass of cloud. The machines nevertheless emerged victorious, and turned to humanity as a new source of energy. The world which Neo has inhabited since birth—the Matrix—is an illusory simulated reality construct of the world of 1999, all of it developed by the machines to keep the human population docile…while the humans are connected to generators which harvest their neural energy.

Morpheus and Trinity are part of a group of free humans, who "unplug" others from the Matrix and recruit them to their resistance against the machines. Morpheus believes that Neo is "the One", a man with limitless control over the Matrix, prophesied by the Oracle to "hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, and bring freedom to our people".

Neo is "trained" by the group's Operator, Tank (Marcus Chong). Through the connection in the backs of their skulls, formerly used to connect them to the Matrix, knowledge can be uploaded directly into the crew's minds. Over a period of ten hours, Neo learns martial arts disciplines such as Jujitsu and Kung Fu. He then demonstrates his skills by entering a simulated environment, similar to the Matrix, and sparring with Morpheus. Morpheus encourages Neo that the Matrix is nothing more than a computer program, with rules which can be bent or broken by mental effort. In a second round, Neo is victorious.

Further training introduces Neo to the key dangers presented in the Matrix itself. Firstly, any injuries suffered in the Matrix are reflected in the real world; in other words, "the mind makes it real". If he is killed in the Matrix, his physical body will also die, since "the body cannot live without the mind". Secondly, the Matrix is policed by Agents similar to those who arrested and "bugged" Neo. Agents are sentient programs whose purpose is to seek out and eliminate any threats within the Matrix, in order to keep it stable. They have: the ability to take over the body of anyone still connected to the system; incredible martial arts skills; superhuman strength, agility and speed. Yet Morpheus explains that Agents are still, nonetheless, limited by the physical rules of the Matrix. Once Neo—being "the One"—fully understands the true nature of the Matrix, the Agents will be no match for him.

The group enters the Matrix. Morpheus takes Neo for a private meeting with the Oracle (Gloria Foster), a prophetic woman whom Morpheus describes as being very old; she has been with the rebels "since the beginning…of the resistance." During their brief meeting, she informs Neo that he is not the One, that he seems to be waiting for something—his "next life, perhaps". However, she reveals that Morpheus believes in Neo so blindly that he will sacrifice his life to save Neo’s. She predicts that Neo must make a choice between his life and that of Morpheus. Returning to their "exit" from the Matrix—a hacked phone line—they are ambushed by the Police and Agents; although they do not yet realize it, the group has been betrayed by one of their own, Cypher.

In the crew’s attempt to escape, Mouse is gunned down by SWAT commandos; an unarmed Morpheus saves Neo from Agent Smith's grasp, but is effortlessly beaten and captured himself. The others manage to escape, but Cypher is separated from the group and is the first to reach a new hard line. After exiting the Matrix, Cypher commandeers a plasma rifle and kills Tank’s older brother Dozer (Anthony Ray Parker). Cypher also kills—he thinks—Tank, before he reveals the betrayal. Sick of the hardships of the real world, Cypher has struck a deal with the Agents: giving them Morpheus, in exchange for his own permanent return to the Matrix. (Actually, the Agents have no intention of keeping their end of the bargain.) Cypher murders Apoc and Switch by unplugging them; but before he can kill Neo and Trinity, Tank recovers and kills him with the plasma rifle.

Meanwhile, Morpheus has been imprisoned in a government building. Three Agents—Brown, Jones and Smith—use a serum in their efforts to gain information from him…info regarding access codes to the mainframe of Zion, the humans’ last city, near the Earth’s core. In spite of the risks, Neo decides to rescue Morpheus. Trinity accompanies him as they storm the government building. Neo becomes more confident and familiar with manipulating the Matrix, ultimately dodging bullets fired at him by an Agent. They use a helicopter to attack the room where Morpheus is being held, and rescue him.

In an abandoned subway station, Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix. However, before Neo can follow, the phone being used is destroyed by Agent Smith. Neo stands his ground against Smith, dueling with guns and fists, and emerges temporarily victorious. However, Agent Smith quickly possesses another body.

Neo flees through the city pursued by Agents Jones, Brown and Smith. Meanwhile, Sentinels (attack robots) locate the Nebuchadnezzar’s position in the real world. The ship’s electromagnetic pulse device, the crew’s only weapon against the Sentinels, cannot be activated until Neo has left the Matrix. Tank guides Neo towards an "old exit", but Smith is already waiting. He shoots Neo dead. Trinity whispers to Neo that she refuses to accept his death: she is in love with him, and the Oracle once informed Trinity that her love would be the One. She kisses Neo, and his heart monitor kicks back in. Within the Matrix he stands up; the Agents shoot at him, but he raises his palm and stops their bullets in mid-air. As the bullets fall to the ground, Neo looks up and sees the Matrix as lines of streaming green code: he finally becomes "the One". Agent Smith makes a last-ditch attempt to physically attack him, but Neo effortlessly blocks his punches with one hand. He then plunges directly into Smith's body, causing it to rupture and then explode, leaving Neo standing. The other two Agents flee, and Neo returns to the real world…barely in time for the ship's electromagnetic pulse to destroy the Sentinels.

A short epilogue shows Neo back in the Matrix, making a telephone call promising:

"I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you...a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world...where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

Neo hangs up the phone, looks up, and flies into the sky above the city. Template:Endspoiler

Principal cast

Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Morpheus. He turned down the role saying he couldn't understand the script.

Jean Reno was approached to play Agent Smith. He turned it down and took a role in Godzilla (1998) instead.

Gary Oldman was considered as Morpheus at one point, as well as Samuel L. Jackson. According to Don Davis, Johnny Depp was Larry and Andy's first choice for Neo, but Warner Bros. wanted Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. After Kilmer and Brad Pitt said no, Warner Bros. was willing to consider Johnny Depp, and then it came between Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, who Warner Bros. was pushing. Keanu was always really tuned in to the concept and made a big difference in the casting.

Carrie Anne Moss had co-starred in a fantasy television series entitled Matrix several years before production of The Matrix. That series ran for only 13 episodes but was rebroadcast in several countries after The Matrix became a hit. Actors Will Smith,Tom Cruise,Ewan McGregor all turned down the role of Neo. Smith later stated that, if given the role at that time, he "would have messed it up as he wasn't smart enoungh as an actor. up".

Production

The Matrix was a co-production of Warner Bros Studios and Australian Village Roadshow Pictures, and all but a few scenes were filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, and the city itself. Recognisable landmarks were not included in order to maintain the setting of a generic American city. Nevertheless, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Martin Place and a Commonwealth Bank branch are visible in some shots. Subtle nods were included to Chicago, Illinois, the home city of the directors, through place names, city maps, and a subtly placed picture of the Sears Tower.

The rooftop set that Trinity uses to escape from Agent Jones early in the film was left over from the production of Dark City, which has been remarked upon due to the thematic similarities of the films. According to The Art of the Matrix, only one filmed scene was omitted from the final cut.

The Wachowski Brothers were keen that all involved understood the thematic background of the movie. For example the book used to conceal disks early in the movie, Simulacra and Simulation by the French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard, was required reading for most of the principal cast and crew.

Template:Spoilers Some of the locations shown early in the film are featured again later. Room 303 in the Heart O' the City Hotel, where the police officers find Trinity, is the same room where Neo is killed by Agent Smith and resurrected as the One; the building in which Neo meets Morpheus for the first time is the place in which the group later appears before meeting the Oracle; and the room in which Neo takes the pill is the same room in which Mouse dies.

Production design

In the film, the code that comprises the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters. This code includes mirror images of half-width katakana characters and Western Latin letters and numerals. In one scene, the pattern of trickling rain on a window being cleaned resembles this code. More generally, the film's production design placed a bias towards its distinctive green color for scenes set within the Matrix, whereas there is an emphasis on the color blue during the scenes set in the real world. In addition, grid-patterns were incorporated into the sets for scenes inside the Matrix, intended to convey the cold, logical, artificial nature of that environment.

Also, the Chroma key screens used for shooting special effects scenes were bluescreen for Matrix scenes and greenscreen for real world scenes. This was done to ensure that the predominant colors of the sets did not interfere with the CGI editing processes.

The "digital rain" is strongly reminiscent of similar computer code in the film Ghost in the Shell, an acknowledged influence on the Matrix series (see below). The linking of the color green to computers may have been intended to evoke the green tint of old monochrome computer monitors.

Visual effects

The film is known for popularizing and evolving the use of a visual effect known as bullet time, which allows the viewer to explore a moment progressing in slow-motion while the camera appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed.

One proposed technique for creating these effects involved accelerating a high-frame-rate motion picture camera along a fixed track at a high speed to capture the action as it occurred. However, this was discarded as unfeasable, as the destruction of the camera in the attempt was all but inevitable. Instead, the method used was a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which a large number of cameras are placed around an object and fired simultaneously. When the sequence of shots is viewed as a movie, the viewer sees what is in effect two-dimensional "slices" of a three-dimensional moment. Watching such a "time slice" movie is akin to the real-life experience of walking around a statue to see how it looks at different angles.

Some scenes in The Matrix feature the "time-slice" effect with completely frozen characters and objects. Interpolation techniques improved the fluidity of the apparent "camera motion". The effect was further expanded upon by the Wachowski brothers and visual effects supervisor John Gaeta to create "bullet time", which incorporates temporal motion, so that rather than being totally frozen the scene progresses in slow and variable motion. Engineers at Manex Visual Effects pioneered 3D visualization planning methods to move beyond mechanically fixed views towards complex camera paths and flexibly moving interest points. There is also an improved fluidity through the use of non-linear interpolation, digital compositing and the introduction of computer generated "virtual" scenery.

The objective of bullet time shots in The Matrix was to creatively illustrate "mind over matter" type events as captured by a "virtual camera". However, the original technical approach was physically bound to pre-determined perspectives, and the resulting effect only suggested the capabilities of a true virtual camera.

The evolution of photogrametric and image based CGI background approaches in The Matrix's bullet time shots set the stage for later innovations unveiled in the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Virtual Cinematography (CGI-rendered characters, locations and events) and the high-definition Universal Capture process completely replaced the use of still camera arrays, thus realising the virtual camera.

This film upset the juggernaut release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace by winning the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Music

The film's score was composed by Don Davis. He noted that mirrors appear frequently in the movie: reflections of the blue and red pills are seen in Morpheus's glasses; Neo's capture by Agents is viewed through the rear-view mirror of Trinity's motorcycle; the broken mirror that mends itself as Neo is looking at it; reflections warp as a spoon is bent; the reflection of a helicopter is visible as it approaches a skyscraper. (The film also frequently references the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which has a sequel entitled Through the Looking-Glass.) Davis focused on this theme of reflections when creating his score, alternating between sections of the orchestra and attempting to incorporate contrapuntal ideas.

In addition to Davis's score, The Matrix's soundtrack also features music from acts such as Rammstein, Rob Dougan, Rage Against the Machine, Propellerheads, Ministry, Deftones, The Prodigy, Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson.

Influences and interpretations

The Matrix makes numerous references to recent films and literature, and to historical myths and philosophy including Messianism, Buddhism, Vedanta, Advaita Hinduism and Gnosticism. The film's premise resembles Plato's Allegory of the Cave and The Brain in a Vat thought experiment, while Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation is featured in the film. There are similarities to cyberpunk works such as Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence. Producer Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowski brothers first described their intentions for The Matrix by showing him this anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real". Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G., which produced Ghost in the Shell, noted that the anime's high-quality visuals were a strong source of inspiration for the Wachowski brothers. He also commented, "... cyberpunk films are very difficult to describe to a third person. I'd imagine that The Matrix is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios." He stated that since Ghost in the Shell had gained recognition in America, the Wachowski brothers used it as a "promotional tool".

Reviewers have commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City, and The Truman Show. Comparisons have also been made to Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles; Morrison believes that the Wachowski brothers essentially plagiarized his work to create the film.

Release

The Matrix was first released in the U.S. on 31 March 1999, less than two months before the highly anticipated sci-fi film Star Wars: Episode I. It earned $171 million in the U.S. and $460 million worldwide, and later became the first DVD to sell more than three million copies in the U.S.

Critical reception

The combination of special-effects-laden action and philosophical meandering was considered fresh and exciting. Philip Strick commented in Sight & Sound, "if the Wachowskis claim no originality of message, they are startling innovators of method", praising the film's details and its "broadside of astonishing images". Roger Ebert praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the third act's focus on action. Other reviewers criticised the comparative humorlessness and self-indulgence of the movie.

In 2001, The Matrix was placed 66th in the American Film Institute's "100 Years... 100 Thrills" list.

Awards and nominations

The Matrix received Oscars for film editing, sound effects editing, visual effects, and sound. Furthermore, the film won these awards in the year that Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released, making it the first film to win the special effects Oscars when competing with an entry in the Star Wars series.

It also received BAFTA awards for Best Sound and Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects.

The Matrix series

The film's mainstream success led to the greenlighting of the next two films of what was conceived as a trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. These were filmed simultaneously during one shoot and released in two parts in 2003.

The first film's introductory tale is replaced by a story centred on the impending attack of the human enclave of Zion by a vast machine army. Neo also learns more about the history of the Matrix, his role as the One and the prophecy that he will end the war. The sequels also incorporate longer and more ambitious action scenes, as well as improvements in bullet time and other visual effects.

Also released was The Animatrix, a collection of nine animated short films, many of which were created in the same Japanese animation style that was a strong influence on the live trilogy. The Animatrix was overseen and approved by the Wachowski brothers but they only wrote four of the segments themselves and did not direct any of them; much of the project was created by notable figures from the world of animé. Four of the films were originally released on the series' official website; one was shown in cinemas with the Warner Bros movie Dreamcatcher; the others first appeared with the DVD release of all nine shorts.

The franchise contains three video games: Enter the Matrix (2003), which contains footage shot specifically for the game and chronicles events taking place before and during The Matrix Reloaded; The Matrix Online (2004), a MMORPG which continues the story beyond The Matrix Revolutions; and The Matrix: Path of Neo, which was released 8 November 2005 and focuses on situations based on Neo's journey through the trilogy of films.

Available on the official website are a number of free comics set in the world of The Matrix, written and illustrated by figures from the comics industry. Some of these comics are also available in two printed volumes.

Impact

The Matrix has had a strong effect on action film-making in Hollywood. It upped the ante for cinematic fight scenes by hiring acclaimed choreographers (such as Yuen Woo-ping) from the Hong Kong action cinema scene, well-known for its production of martial arts films. The success of The Matrix put those choreographers in high demand by other filmmakers who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, Yuen Woo-ping's brother Yuen Cheung-Yan was choreographer on Daredevil (2003). There was a surge in movies, commercials and pop videos copying "the Matrix look", usually without the training and attention to detail that made it successful in the first place.

Following The Matrix, films made abundant use of slow-motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the famed bullet time effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera panning around them. In several video games, most notably Max Payne and its sequel, bullet time and the ability to dodge bullets became core gameplay elements. The bullet time effect has also been parodied numerous times, in comedy films such as Scary Movie, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Shrek and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist; in TV series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy; and in video games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day.

In 2003, GRACE, the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, commissioned Free Range Studios to produce The Meatrix, a dark satire of The Matrix, to encourage the purchase and consumption of organic foods and sustainable, free-range meats. In the Adobe Flash short, Leo, a pig on a seemingly bucolic farm, is approached by Moopheus, an anthropomorphic bull, who reveals to him that the farm he has known is an illusion, and in reality he is trapped in a horrific "factory farm". The animated short has won numerous awards, been reported in major international media, has been viewed over 10,000,000 times and translated into 13 languages. In 2006, this was followed by a sequel, The Meatrix II: Revolting, themed around the factory farm treatment of dairy cows.

Some considered that The Matrix signaled the end of significant exploration in the cyberpunk movement. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky commented, "I walked out of The Matrix and I was thinking, 'What kind of science fiction movie can people make now?' The Wachowskis basically took all the great sci-fi ideas of the 20th century and rolled them into a delicious pop culture sandwich that everyone on the planet devoured." Author William Gibson, a key figure in cyberpunk fiction, called the film "an innocent delight I hadn't felt in a long time", and stated, "Neo is my favourite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely". Joss Whedon says the film is "my number one" and that it "works on whatever level you want to bring to it".

Sophia Stewart legal case

On April 24, 2003 Sophia Stewart filed suit against Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers claiming that the stories of The Matrix and Terminator franchises were based on a manuscript she wrote titled "The Third Eye". She allegedly submitted the manuscript to the Wachowskis in response to an advertisement. On October 4, 2004, a California court granted Stewart leave to continue her case. One account misreported the October 4th decision as Stewart winning her lawsuit, rather than simply winning permission to continue with the case. The case was dismissed in June 2005 on the basis that "Stewart and her attorneys had not entered any evidence to bolster its key claims or demonstrated any striking similarity between her work and the accused directors' films"..

Books about the Matrix

• Stacy Gillis (Editor), The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded, Wallflower, 2005. ISBN 1-904764-32-0
• The Rebel Sell (2004) a nonfiction criticism by Canadian authors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, of 'counter-culture' is highly critical of The Matrix movies' philosophical underpinnings as being essentially individualistic and only artificially in opposition to our capitalist paradigm.
• Matthew Kapell and William G. Doty have edited a volume on the entire franchise entitled Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation (NY: Continuum 2004).

Notes and references

• Spencer Lamm (editor) (2000). The Art of the Matrix. Titan. p. 488. ISBN: 1-84023-173-4. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• The Matrix Revisited (DVD). Warner Bros. 2001.

1. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/smith_pr.html
2. Ebert, Roger (November 6, 2005). "Great Movies: Dark City". Retrieved December 18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
3. Costume designer Kym Barret, production designer Owen Paterson and cinematographer Bill Pope, interviewed in The Matrix Revisited (Chapter 7).
4. Don Davis, interviewed in The Matrix Revisited (Chapter 28). A transcript of his comments may be found online:
5. "The Matrix: Fair Cop". URL retrieved 7 July 2006.
6. Joel Silver, interviewed in "Scrolls to Screen: A Brief History of Anime" featurette on The Animatrix DVD.
7. Joel Silver, interviewed in "Making The Matrix" featurette on The Matrix DVD.
8. Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, interviewed in The South Bank Show, episode broadcast 19 February 2006
9. ^ Roger Ebert's review of The Matrix. URL retrieved 21 August 2006.
10. "The Matrix (1999) - Channel 4 Film review". URL retrieved 21 August 2006.
11. "Cinephobia reviews: The Matrix". URL retrieved 21 August 2006.
12. "Poor Mojo Newswire: Suicide Girls Interview with Grant Morrison". URL retrieved 31 July 2006.
13. Box Office Mojo: The Matrix. URL retrieved 8 March 2006.
14. "Press release - August 1, 2000 - The Matrix DVD: The first to sell 3 million". URL retrieved 26 July 2006.
15. "Positive review of The Matrix"
16. Sight & Sound review of The Matrix
17. "Critical review of The Matrix"
18. "Negative review of The Matrix"
19. The Matrix Comics at the official Matrix website
20. Darren Aronofsky, quoted in the article "The Outsider", Wired. November 2006 issue (pp. 224)
21. The Art of the Matrix, p.451
22. "201 Greatest Movies of all Time". Empire (Issue 201). March 2006. p. 98.
23. "Report on Sophia Stewart's lawsuit against the Wachowski brothers"

External links

• Official website
• The Matrix at IMDb
• The Matrix multiple scripts by Andy & Larry Wachowski
• Complete list of actors who were considered for roles

Reviews

• Roger Ebert's review of The Matrix
• The Matrix on Rotten Tomatoes
• The Matrix on Meta Critic
• The Matrix: A Christian Review

Articles

• Unplugging The Matrix, an article on Slate.
• Technology - The Shadow of the Matrix
• Synchronistic Linguistics in The Matrix
• Duncan Chesney on Spinoza and the Politics of The Matrix (Film-Philosophy website)

Religion/philosophy/theory of The Matrix

• Philosophy of The Matrix (official Warner Brothers Site, mentioned previously)
• Idealism, the Philosophy of the Matrix, and the True Nature of Matter by Harun Yahya
• Matrixism - the path of the One

• 1999 films
• Action films
• Alternate history films
• American films
• Best Science Fiction Film Saturn
• Cyberpunk
• Films shot in Super 35
• Matrix series
• Monomyths
• Existentialist works
• RiffTrax movies
• Thriller films
• Virtual reality in fiction
• Warner Bros. films
• Zen films