The Matrix

1999

Directed by the Wachowskis

Quick synopsis… A computer hacker searches for the truth behind the mysterious force known as the Matrix. He discovers that what most people perceive as reality is actually a simulation created by machines and joins a rebellion to break free.

• Paul just watched this one for the first time ever just a few weeks ago.
• If you missed his review, go check it out!
• I missed The Matrix when it was in theaters, and it’s really a good thing.
• Because I needed to watch the first 20 minutes of this movie at least a couple times before I could continue.
• I mean, you’ve got this leather-clad woman who can run across walls and beat the crap out of a dozen armed police officers while jumping across rooftops and dodging bullets.
• Then she’s apparently hit by a dump truck while answering a payphone.
• But then she shows up in a night club talking to Keanu Reeves about something called the “Matrix?”
• Watching it a second time, I realized that her body wasn’t in the rubble left behind after the dump truck hit the phone booth.
• I still didn’t know what that really meant, but I knew she somehow avoided getting hit.
• There’s a part of me that wants to share everything that happens in this movie, like I tend to do with these posts.
• And I don’t want to be afraid of giving away spoilers because, hey, this movie is 21 years old.
• If you don’t know what happens by now, that’s on you… right?
• But, then again, there are likely a lot of people who could see this movie for the first time more than two decades after its release.
• I don’t want to deprive you of how amazing this movie is.
• See how I’m torn?
• Here’s what I think should be known about The Matrix…
• Keanu Reeves is Thomas Anderson, AKA Neo.
• By day he’s a software engineer, by night he’s a hacker who probably participates in a number of illegal cyber crimes.
• He’s in search of a mysterious figure known as Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne)…
• What he doesn’t realize is that Morpheus is in search of him, as well.
• And since Morpheus is looking for Neo, that puts him on the radar of a trio of characters that pass themselves off as government agents of some kind.
• Soon enough, Neo meets Morpheus and takes a trip through the looking glass.
• Morpheus explains that the world Neo believes he knows is a lie.
• It’s all a simulation called the Matrix.
• The Matrix is designed to keep humanity subdued while in the real world, machines use unconscious humans as batteries to power themselves.
• At some point in the early 21st century, mankind developed artificial intelligence.
• Similar to the Terminator franchise, people and machines stopped getting along.
• The future humans decided to somehow pollute the atmosphere to the point where no sunlight could get through, thinking that would depower the solar-dependent machines.
• It would also doom humanity… but, hey, mutually assured destruction.
• Well, it obviously didn’t work.
• Morpheus and his crew pull Neo out of the Matrix believing that he is a prophesied savior, called the One.
• The One is said to be a human who can basically do anything inside the Matrix… rewrite the code as he sees fit.
• The agents that pursued Neo when he was still plugged in don’t really care about him being the One.
• They want Morpheus.
• As captain of the hover ship Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus knows the codes that the machines would need to access Zion, the last human settlement, buried far below the earth’s surface.
• Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) is obsessed with ending the war with humans because he hates being a program that is stuck in the Matrix.
• He recruits Cypher (Joey Pantoliano) to betray his crew, delivering Morpheus to the agents.
• Though I’ve always wondered… How did Cypher pull off his meeting with Smith inside the Matrix?
• Was someone else in on it?
• Who plugged him in and then unplugged him when he was done?
• I smell a conspiracy.
• Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) mount a rescue mission, saving Morpheus.
• In the meantime, throughout all of this, Neo is growing closer and closer to believing he could be the One.
• And his abilities within the Matrix are kind of insane.
• Seriously, watch it… give it a chance.
• The Matrix isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but you never know… you might think it’s awesome.
• Just don’t let the sequels ruin it for you.
• On a side note, I wrote a paper about this movie for a philosophy class during college.
• There is a crap ton of Christian symbolism peppered throughout, which my philosophy professor (who was a Baptist preacher on the side) loved.
• And, not to brag or anything, that paper was written before Wikipedia existed…
• So the research I had to do on that paper was legit.

We’re down to the Final Four! What could my four favorite movies of all time possibly be? If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, number one will be no surprise at all. Next week’s feature is the first movie directed by my favorite actor. For that clue to work, you’d have to know my favorite actor… So… That actor won back to back Best Actor Oscars in 1994 and 1995. Does that help?