The Matrix Reloaded

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The Matrix Reloaded
Promotional film poster
Directed by	The Wachowski brothers
Produced by	Joel Silver, The Wachowski brothers
Written by	The Wachowski brothers
Starring	Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Daniel Bernhardt, Monica Bellucci
Distributed by	Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures
Release date(s)	May 15, 2003
Running time	138 min.
Language	English
Budget	$150,000,000 (estimated)
Preceded by	The Matrix
Followed by	The Matrix Revolutions
IMDb profile

The Matrix Reloaded is the second installment of The Matrix series, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It premiered on May 7, 2003 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15, 2003 and around the world during the latter half of that month. The video game Enter the Matrix, which was released May 15, and a collection of nine animated shorts, the Animatrix, which was released on June 3, supported and expanded the storyline of the movie. The Matrix Revolutions, which completes the story, was released six months after this film, in November 2003.

Contents 1 Production 1.1 Soundtrack 2 Principal Cast 3 Plot 3.1 The Final Flight Of The Osiris 3.2 Meeting the Oracle 3.3 Cause & Effect 3.4 After the Chase 3.5 Meeting the Architect 3.6 The Fundamental Flaw 3.7 The Choice 3.8 The Revolution 4 Reception 5 Trivia 5.1 Production 5.2 Freeway Scene 5.3 Actor/Actress 5.4 Martial Arts 5.5 Technical Trivia 5.6 Numbers 5.7 Outside References 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Production

The Matrix Reloaded was largely filmed at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, Australia, concurrently with filming of the sequel Revolutions. The freeway chase scene was filmed at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California. Producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways just for the movie. Portions of the chase were also filmed in Oakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is the Webster Tube connecting Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was done in old aircraft hangars on the base as well. Although two Ford Taurus vehicles are briefly seen, every other vehicle in the chase scene is a General Motors brand. The film is noted for its use of a Cadillac CTS, a Cadillac Escalade EXT, and several Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Caprice police cars. Additional vehicles include the Oldsmobile Intrigue, Oldsmobile Aurora, and Chevrolet Tahoe.

The city of Akron was willing to give full access to Route 59, the stretch of freeway known as the "Innerbelt," for filming of the freeway chase when it was under consideration. However, producers decided against this as "the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long".^[1] Mythbusters would later reuse the Alameda location in order to explore the effects of a head-on collision between two semi trucks.

97% of the materials from the sets of the movie were recycled. For example, tons of wood were sent to Mexico to build low-income housing.[1]

[edit] Soundtrack

Don Davis, composer on The Matrix, returned to score Reloaded. For many of the pivotal action sequences, such as the "Burly Brawl" he collaborated with Juno Reactor. Some of the collaborative cues by Davis and Juno Reactor are extensions of material by Juno Reactor; for example, a version of Komit featuring Davis' strings is used during a flying sequence, and Burly Brawl is essentially a combination of Davis' unused Multiple Replication and Juno Reactor's Masters of the Universe. One of the collaborations, Mona Lisa Overdrive, is titled in reference to the cyberpunk novel of the same name by William Gibson, a major influence on the directors. Leitmotifs established in The Matrix return, and some used in Revolutions are established.

As with its predecessor, many tracks by external musicians are featured in the movie, its closing credits, and the soundtrack album, some of which were written for the movie. Many of the musicians featured (for example Rob Zombie, Rage Against the Machine, P.O.D., and Marilyn Manson) had also appeared on the soundtrack for The Matrix. Rob Dougan contributed again, licensing the instrumental version of his eponymous Furious Angels, as well as being commissioned to provide an original track, ultimately scoring the battle in the Merovingian's chateau. Another Kind of Blues by electronic artist Fluke was used during the rave scene.

Also, the key of the beginning theme you hear at the beginning of every Matrix movie ascends by one semitone with each movie. The Matrix starts in the key of E, Matrix Reloaded in F and Matrix Revolutions in the key of F-sharp.

[edit] Principal Cast

• Keanu Reeves as Neo
• Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
• Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
• Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
• Gloria Foster as The Oracle
• Helmut Bakaitis as The Architect
• Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian
• Monica Bellucci as Persephone
• Adrian Rayment as Twin #2
• Neil Rayment as Twin #1
• Leigh Whannell as Axel
• Daniel Bernhardt as Agent Johnson
• Sing Ngai as Seraph (as Collin Chou)
• Nona Gaye as Zee
• Roy Jones Jr. as Captain Ballard
• David A. Kilde as Agent Jackson
• Randall Duk Kim as The Keymaker
• Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock
• Matt McColm as Agent Thompson
• Harold Perrineau Jr. as Link
• Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe
• Gina Torres as Cas
• Cornel West as Councillor West
• Bernard White as Rama-Kandra
• Anthony Wong as Ghost
• Malcolm Kennard as Abel
• Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann
• Stoney Burke as the bike carrier driver

Cornel West, a professor at Princeton, makes a special appearance in the Zion "council" scene. Another notable cameo is boxing great Roy Jones Jr., who appears in the opening scene with a number of other ship's captains, right before Smith makes his appearance. Zee was originally to be played by Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in the summer of 2001.

[edit] Plot

The film presupposes familiarity with the storyline of The Matrix.

[edit] The Final Flight Of The Osiris

Main article: Final Flight of the Osiris

Six months after the events of the first film, Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) of the Logos calls an emergency meeting of all Zion's Hovercraft Ship Fleet. She has successfully recovered the information left by Captain Thadeus (in the Animatrix short film "Final Flight of the Osiris"): 250,000 sentinels are tunneling towards the underground city of Zion and will reach it in 72 hours (Zion is at a depth of at least 21 km). Commander Lock, the ranking military officer of Zion, orders all ships and their crews, including Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus, to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught of the machines. Morpheus defies Lock's directive and asks one ship to remain at broadcast depth to await word from the Oracle. Morpheus believes that when she contacts Neo, she will tell Neo how to fulfill the Prophecy. Captain Ballard, captain of the Caduceus, accepts the challenge.

The Caduceus receives a message from the Oracle, and the Nebuchadnezzar ventures out to allow Neo to contact her directly. Meanwhile, one of the Caduceus' crew members, Bane, encounters Agent Smith while receiving the Oracle's message, who then copies himself onto Bane. Bane/Smith then leaves the Matrix.

[edit] Meeting the Oracle

Before the meeting, Neo is having trouble sleeping and has recurring dreams about the death of Trinity. During their relief in Zion, Trinity and Neo have sex while the rest of Zion's inhabitants attend a celebration (similar to a rave) in Zion's great temple. The celebration begins with an inspiring speech by Morpheus, who rallies the cause of the humans fight for their survival in this latest machine attack. After the meeting and after the Nebuchadnezzar is charged in Zion, Neo enters the Matrix to meet with the Oracle. Upon reaching the meeting area, he encounters Seraph, the Oracle's bodyguard. Seraph fights a duel with Neo and after he determines that Neo is who he claims to be, he leads him into a hallway which appears to be filled with nothing but doors.

Through conversation with his guide, Neo determines that the passageway and doors represent backdoor access to various locations in the Matrix. Seraph leads Neo to an isolated courtyard, where he meets with the Oracle again, and they have a conversation which in some respects parallels their conversation of the first film. She is aware of Neo's sleeplessness. Neo then asks her if she is human or not, and she confirms that she is not. Neo then says she must be a program of the Machine World, and the Oracle confirms that as well. Neo says if she is a program, then she could be another system of control involved with the Matrix; he is not sure if he can trust her or not. The Oracle then agrees and confronts Neo with a choice: he must either trust her or not, by saying "You'll just have to make up your own damn mind, to either accept what I've got to tell you or reject it."

The Oracle explains other self-aware programs exist in the Matrix beside the Agents, filling various roles in its maintenence-everything from weather phenomena to the actions of animals-and as long as they function properly, are more or less unnoticeable. But there are those who do not function properly, and these Exiles are known by all, if not believed to actually exist. Ghosts, angels, werewolves, vampires, aliens, creatures of myth, legend and superstition-in short, the paranormal. The implication is that she (a psychic) and Seraph (an angel) are two such Exiles. The reasons for a program to choose Exile differ, as they are sentient beings with free will: no different from the inhabitants of Zion. Usually, however, they exist in the Matrix because they face deletion. They may have become inefficent, disobedient, or even obsolete, but the result is the same-there is no place in the machine world for a program without a purpose. The only options such a program has is to either hide in the Matrix, as much an outlaw from the Machine civilization as any Zion infiltrator, or return to the Source, the Machine mainframe. This is where Neo must go to fulfill the prophecy.

To reach the Source, Neo need the assistance of the Keymaker, another rogue program. His keys can unlock anything in the Matrix-including the otherwise inaccessible "back doors." The Keymaker is held captive by The Merovingian, a powerful and dangerous Exile, perhaps the eldest resident of the Matrix.

The Oracle wishes Neo good luck and exits the courtyard just before Agent Smith (But never referred to as an "Agent" in this movie) arrives. While it appeared that he was destroyed at the end of The Matrix by Neo, Smith explains that he and Neo are now somehow connected. Some part of Neo had imprinted onto him, causing a deep transformation; he was compelled to disobey the command to return to the Source, and remained in the Matrix. Smith is no longer an Agent of the system; he, like Neo, is free. He has become more aggressive-not to mention more powerful-however, he is still limited to his programming as an enforcer of the laws of the Machine civilization, the primary one being that no program can exist without a purpose. He has decided that his purpose is destruction as an end in itself. After this brief explanation, he demonstrates the most impressive of his new abilities: the ability to infect other residents of the Matrix with his program, turning them into copies of himself-by attempting to infect Neo. When this fails, he instead begins attacking Neo with an ever-increasing gang of his duplicates (a scene known as "The Burly Brawl"). Even with his amazing abilities, Neo eventually realizes that mere brute force cannot defeat the endless army of Smiths and flees, flying to an exit.

[edit] Cause & Effect

Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus leave to visit the Merovingian, who exists in the Matrix mainly for his own enjoyment. He is accompanied by his wife Persephone and The Twins. When the protagonist trio request the Keymaker, the Merovingian instead responds with his own line of questions. The Keymaker "...is not a reason," according to the Merovingian. "This is not a why. The Keymaker himself—his very nature—is a means. It is not an end. And so to look for him is to be looking for a means to do ... what?" Not receiving an answer to his satisfaction, the Merovingian makes some oblique remarks about cause and effect before refusing them access to the Keymaker. Denied, the trio leave, only to be unexpectedly led to the Keymaker by Persephone (Monica Bellucci) who kills one of the Merovingian's henchmen with silver bullets (they are also watching a vampire movie - cast and crew interviews indicate the Merovingian uses vampires and werewolves as guards). She does this in return for a kiss by Neo because she had grown tired of her husband's escapades. The Merovingian then comes and orders the Twins to catch the keymaker. Neo stays behind to fight a half dozen of the Merovingian's henchmen.

Trinity and Morpheus briefly escape the Twins with the Keymaker, stealing a nearby car and are chased onto a freeway by the Twins, who are later joined by two Agents. A lengthy car chase follows where Morpheus and Trinity continuously dodge traffic, attempting to keep the Keymaker alive.

[edit] After the Chase

Meanwhile, in the real world, we learn the machine army will reach Zion in just over nine hours. In response, the entire hovercraft fleet is strategically placed for a surprise counter-attack before the army reaches Zion.

Inside the Matrix, having survived the freeway chase, the Keymaker explains how to reach the Source: "There is a building. Inside this building there is a level where no elevator can go and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places. Hidden places. But one door is special. One door leads to the Source." To access the building, its alarm must be disabled and to do that the electricity must be cut. In addition, the core network of the electricity grid must be accessed and the emergency fail-safes deactivated. For 314 seconds, the mainframe can be entered, but the Keymaker warns, "Only the One can open the door, and only during that window can the door be opened."

Neo decides not to take Trinity into the Matrix because he fears that his dream will come true and Trinity will die. He makes her promise that she will not come into the matrix. Another Zion crew infiltrates the power station but before they can disable the electricity fail-safes, their ship in the real world is found by sentinels and destroyed and hence they die in the Matrix before their mission is complete.

[edit] Meeting the Architect

Realizing that the power grid will not be down in time when Neo tries to unlock the vital door and that therefore the building's "alarm" (a massive bomb) will be tripped, Trinity disobeys Neo's request and enters the Matrix. She single-handedly infiltrates the control area and hacks into the control grid's mainframe just in time to disrupt the power grid and to allow Neo to follow the Keymaker's instructions and open the door to the Source. He enters a room surrounded by television monitors (undoubtedly the ones watching him during the interrogation scene in the first film), all showing his image, and encounters the Architect, who describes himself as the creator of the Matrix.

Neo asks the main question: "Why am I here?"

The Architect says Neo is "the eventuality of an anomaly" he has been trying to eradicate from the Matrix program. The Architect says while he has been unsuccessful in eliminating this anomaly "from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision", he has succeeded in controlling it. It is this control system that "has led [Neo], inexorably, here."

Neo responds by saying the Architect has failed to answer his question, to which the Architect agrees with a slight smile in recognition that Neo was "quicker than the others". The various images of Neo on the Architect's monitors then respond with various reactions throughout their conversation ranging from relatively subdued (such as "'Others'? What 'others'?") to childish ("I want out! I want out! I want out!"), to rage-filled (flipping off the outside of the monitor and shouting at the top of his lungs). The camera frequently zooms in through one of the monitors to show Neo's spoken response to the Architect.

Neo is caught off-guard by what he is seeing, but the Architect continues. He says that "the Matrix is older than you know". He says that he distinguishes each 'version' of the Matrix every time a 'Neo eventuality' emerges, "in which case, this is the sixth version". Therefore, Neo is the sixth in a series of eventualities or "Ones". Once again, the different monitors express Neo's various possible reactions, and the camera zooms in on one (physically passing through the screen's surface) to show the choice Neo makes: "there are only two possible explanations. Either no one told me, or no one knows".

The Architect confirms Neo's deduction and reveals how these anomalous errors occur "in even the most simplistic equations". Seeing the monitors react once again, Neo suddenly realizes why these errors occur: "Choice. The problem is choice."

The Architect proceeds to detail the history of the Matrix and just how this problem of choice affected its design. The first version of the Matrix was intended to be "perfect", "flawless" and "sublime", a design previously hinted at by Agent Smith in The Matrix. However, the humans refused to accept this utopia and it failed. Thinking that humans needed to have an imperfect world to survive, he created the second version of the Matrix "to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of [human] nature." However, he "was again frustrated by failure."

[edit] The Fundamental Flaw

With some reluctance, he admits that the "lesser mind" of an "intuitive program" (presumably the Oracle even though the Architect scoffs at the suggestion) was required to help understand why he was failing. Apparently, the Oracle concluded that humans need to be given a choice, even if only aware of it at an unconscious level, to make them more likely to accept their simulated lives. After this modification about 99.9% of the pod-born humans accepted the program, thus bringing stability to the Matrix.

However, this method was "fundamentally flawed". This gives rise to the "systemic anomaly" (those who refused the program and went to Zion, including Neo himself) which, if left unchecked, would pose a threat to the stability of the system and give rise to "an escalating probability of disaster." Neo concludes that the point-one percent who refused the program (and their offspring) constitute the population of Zion. The Architect explains that the solution they came up with was to terminate the inhabitants of Zion at the same time as the next anomaly emerged.

It now becomes clear that the prophecy about the "end of the war" was designed merely as a measure to control both the Zionite rebels and the One.

[edit] The Choice

The Architect continues to reveal that "the function of the One is now to return to the Source" in order for him to integrate with it and "reinsert the prime program" embedded within him. His final task will be to "select from the Matrix 23 individuals - 16 females, 7 males - to rebuild Zion."

The Architect then warns Neo, "Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash, killing everyone connected to the Matrix, which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race."

Neo tries to call the Architect's bluff saying that humans are necessary for machines to survive, but the Architect merely rebuts that claim by saying that machines are prepared to accept "certain levels of survival" and re-states Neo's dilemma, whether he is or is not ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world.

The Architect is then intrigued by Neo's reaction. He says that his predecessors were "by design" made to develop "a profound attachment" with humanity, but he says that Neo is interestingly different. His attachment and his thought is currently focused on one particular individual: Trinity. As a side-note, he adds that she entered the Matrix to save Neo's life at the expense of her own, and shows Trinity being attacked by an Agent just as Neo had seen in his dream. As far as the Architect is concerned, there should be no dilemma — Trinity will die, whether Neo enters the Source or not. He puts it as "She is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it."

Thus Neo is presented with the ultimate choice of two doors: "The door to your right leads to the Source, and to the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix, to her, and to the end of your species. As you so adequately put — 'the problem is choice'." Despite all logical reasoning, Neo chooses to try and save Trinity over the rest of humanity, and for the first time every screen shows the same decision: Neo walking to the door leading back to the Matrix. The Architect sardonically offers one final conclusion:

"Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."

Neo warns the Architect that they had better not meet again (the Architect assures him that they will not) and re-enters the Matrix to save Trinity. Defying both his visions and the Architect, he catches her just before she was to have fallen from a skyscraper but not before she takes a critical bullet from an Agent. Neo reciprocates Trinity's saving of his life in the first film and uses his powers to remove the bullet and restart her heart.

[edit] The Revolution

Morpheus is dismayed when he hears that the Prophecy has been unfulfilled. Neo tells Morpheus that the Prophecy was just "a lie" and "another system of control." Morpheus refuses to believe it, and, echoing the words of his mentor in the first film, Neo says "I know it isn't easy to hear, but I swear to you it's the truth."

The Nebuchadnezzar comes under attack by Sentinels outside the range of their EMP and the crew must abandon ship. As the ship goes down, Morpheus references the story of Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible: "I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me" (Daniel 2:3&5, "The king [Nebuchadnezzar] said to them, 'I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.'"). In the sewers outside, they flee, but Neo senses something has changed; he can "feel" the Sentinels' presence. He halts the Sentinels via what seems to be a biological EMP and then immediately loses consciousness. As his shipmates rush to his aid, they are rescued by another craft, the Mjolnir (referred to as the Hammer, a reference to the hammer of Thor). The film concludes with the news that Zion's counter-attack with carefully positioned ships has failed. An electromagnetic pulse was activated too early, downing five hovercraft immediately. The break in the ships' lines allowed the machines to overrun them all. The only survivor of this massacre is revealed to be Bane — the redpill overwritten by Smith's consciousness, and the only human who desires to kill Neo. The final shot shows Bane's unconscious body lying inches away from Neo's.

The story is concluded in the last film of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions.

[edit] Reception

Reloaded earned an estimated $42.5 million on its Thursday opening day in the United States, a new record surpassing the one set in May 2002 by Spider-Man, which took in $39.4 million on its first day. The movie earned $91.8 million over its first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, establishing it as the second-best opening weekend ever after Spider-Man's 2002 (inflation unadjusted) record of $114.8 million in ticket sales during its three-day opening weekend. Reloaded garnered the biggest (inflation unadjusted) debut ever for an R-rated film (the 2001 film Hannibal is a distant second at $58 million). The film earned $281 million in the US and $738 million worldwide.[2] Adjusted for inflation, it is currently the 98th highest grossing film, and the highest grossing R-rated feature of all time. [3]

The Matrix Reloaded had a positive critical reception in most of the media, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 75%.

Criticisms and acclaim, on record, are at times similar to those leveled at the movie's predecessor.^[2]

Positive comments included commendation for the quality and intensity of its action sequences^[3][4] and intelligence.^[5] Some critics have exceptional praise for it, saying that "its character development and writing...is so crisp it crackles on the screen" and have said that "Matrix Reloaded re-establishes the genre and even raises the bar a notch or two" above the first movie, The Matrix.^[6]

Negative comments included the sentiment that the plot was alienating,^[7][8] with some critics taking the view that the focus on the action came at the cost of the movie's human element.^[9][10] Some also said that the dialogue focus on exposition scenes^[11] worked against the film. Although it was well-known that the plot of Reloaded would be resolved in Revolutions, the many unresolved subplots and the cliffhanger ending were criticised by some.^[12]

The film was banned in Egypt because of the violent content and because it put into question issues about human creation "linked to the three monotheistic religions that we respect and which we believe in".^[13] Egyptian media claimed it promoted Zionism since it talks about Zion and the dark forces that wish to destroy it. However, it was later allowed to be shown in theatres and was later released on DVD and VHS.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Production

• Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski had been approached to direct Batman Begins (2005) but turned the project down in favour of the Matrix sequels.

• The Wachowski brothers' contract for doing the The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), included a stipulation that they would not have to perform publicity interviews for either film.

• The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Enter the Matrix (2003) (VG), and this film were shot back-to-back in a fashion similar to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

• The special effects cost US$100 million.

• The Matrix Reloaded (2003) promotional material was in such high demand, that distributors feared it would be stolen or duplicated. To combat this, standees and banners were sent out with the code names of "Caddyshack 2" and "The Replacements". Several cinemas thought they had not received the materials due to these names, and as such, allegedly did not display them until the last minute.

• Only a few of the Smith clones were actually played by Hugo Weaving. Open casting calls for males with similar body shapes and structures took place, and Weaving's head was superimposed during post-production.

• The script for the movie (while in production) was code-named The Burly Man. The Burly Man is the title of the script Barton Fink is working on in the film Barton Fink (1991). While shooting the freeway sequence, the directors watched rushes etc. in a vehicle referred to by the crew as the Burly Van.

• Entered into The Guinness Book of World Records as The Widest Film Print Run which means that it has a run of 8,517 copies sent out at the same time.

• The original plan for releasing The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) was rumoured to be to release them weeks apart, not months, though this seems unlikely given that this would impact negatively on the box-office revenue for the earlier release, as the theatre run of such summer blockbusters (especially the eagerly-awaited Matrix sequel) would most likely be several months.

• According to Oakland city officials who worked with the filmmakers on the downtown Oakland shots, all red and blue colors had to be removed, so sidewalk curbs were painted over. Also, there could be no greenery or other plant life, so filming was done over the winter before tree leaves sprouted in the spring.

• The red chair Morpheus is sitting in when he is expounding his plan to access the source is the same red chair he was sitting in when he offered Neo the red and blue pills in The Matrix (1999) and when he explained to Neo what the Matrix was.

• In the fight with the three agents at the beginning of the film, Neo kicks one of the agents into the lamppost made by Darrow Industries, a reference to the Matrix films' conceptual designer, Geofrey Darrow.

[edit] Freeway Scene

• The film's highway chase sequence took almost three months to shoot (longer than many films' entire shooting schedule).

• The 1.4-mile, three-lane loop highway was built specifically for the chase scene on the decommissioned Alameda Point Navy Base. It was destroyed when filming was complete.

• GM donated 300 cars for use in the production of the movie. All 300 were wrecked by the end.

• Because the twins' Cadillac Escalade EXT was not in production at the time of the movie's filming, General Motors had to graft together fiberglass Cadillac parts with prototype Chevrolet Avalanche pickup trucks, to create the black truck seen in the freeway chase. The Lincoln Continental from The Matrix (1999) makes a brief cameo appearance toward the beginning of the film. The underground garage where the characters select a car is populated with all Cadillacs, including a classic 1950s El Dorado and prototype of the 2004 XLR.

• The freeway in Akron, Ohio was initially the first choice for the location to shoot the freeway chase scene but the crew decided not to shoot there as it will take one hour to back up all cars as to prepare for the start of a take.

• One of the freeway signs during the freeway says Whipple Ave, Woodside Rd, Marsh Rd - which are three real consecutive freeway exits on the 101 freeway south of San Francisco.

• At the freeway chase, a signboard has the exit to a place called Paterson Pass (which is a road between Livermore and Tracy California, east of the Alameda freeway production site - the exit is off of Interstate 5). This was a reference to the production designer, Owen Paterson.

• Laurence Fishburne suggested that his character remove his sunglasses for the fight with the agent on board the tractor-trailer, to remind the audience of Morpheus' fight with an agent in The Matrix (1999) (during which he wears no sunglasses), and to better express his character's vulnerability.

• The tractor-trailer used in the freeway chase scene has Big Endian Eggs written on its side. This is a reference to Swift's Gulliver's Travels: The Lilliputians, being very small, had correspondingly small political problems. The Big-Endian and Little-Endian parties debated over whether soft-boiled eggs should be opened at the big end or the little end, (Big-endian has also been adopted as computer terminology.)

[edit] Actor/Actress

• Carrie-Anne Moss did some of her own driving on the motorcycle in the highway scene.

• Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Anthony Wong all signed on to the film without having read the script.

• Sean Connery was originally picked to play The Architect, but turned it down because he couldn't understand the concept of the movie. Connery mentions this in an interview on the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) DVD.

• It was reported that Keanu Reeves volunteered to give up a claim to a share of ticket sales amounting to around $38 million when producers feared that the film would never recoup the cost of the special effects.

• There were several injuries on the set: Carrie-Anne Moss broke her leg training for a wire stunt, Laurence Fishburne fractured an arm in another training incident and Hugo Weaving put out a disc in his neck while being pulled back on a wire.

• Eva Mendes, Samantha Mumba, Brandy Norwood, and Tatyana Ali were all rumored to be possible replacements for the character of Zee, after the initial choice Aaliyah died in a plane crash on 25 August 2001. Nona Gaye (daughter of late Motown legend Marvin Gaye ) was eventually cast in the role.

• Lara Dutta was offered a role in this film as well as The Matrix Revolutions (2003), but turned the part down because she didn't like the script.

• Cameo: [Bill Pope] The director of photography makes an appearance as a security guard who gets paid to count sheep.

• Gloria Foster also died before the end of shooting the second Matrix film. She had done most of her scenes for this film but had not done any for the third film, The Matrix Revolutions (2003), as well as Enter the Matrix (2003) (VG). Mary Alice was chosen as her replacement.

• Canadian actress and model Brendalee Doen was cast as the "Beautiful Woman at Le Vrai", but was unable to play the role as she was deported by Australian immigration authorities for attempting to work on an expired visa. The role was given to Tory Mussett.

• Andy and Larry Wachowski cast Monica Bellucci as Persephone after seeing her performance in Malèna (2000).

• Lambert Wilson's French accent as The Merovingian is intentionally exaggerated at the directors' demand. Wilson speaks English very well and said it was his only deception towards the movie.

• The role of Seraph was originally written specifically for Jet Li. When Li declined, the role was then changed to a female and offered to Michelle Yeoh, who turned it down due to scheduling conflicts.

[edit] Martial Arts

• The fight sequence of Neo versus Smith and his clones (a.k.a. The Burly Brawl) took 27 days to shoot.

• When Neo is fighting the Smith clones (The Burly Brawl), some unconventional sound effects were used. When Neo is kicked and flies through and knocks over the group of Smiths, dominoes toppling over was used. At the end of the fight when Neo throws Smith by the leg into his clones, the sound of a bowling ball knocking over pins was used.

• During the Burly Brawl, there are four totally computer-animated sequences, with no live action whatsoever.

• For the burly brawl scene, certain sections of the fights used a digital versions of Neo and Smith. The VFX team used Sony HDR-900 High Definition cameras to scan their images as to generate digital sequences and Smith clones. For live action, sequences were shot in 18 second intervals as to change camera angles and because Neo has more than 250 moves to perform

• Professional Taekwondo instructors were used for some of the stunts, including WTF silver medalist Master Timothy Connelly.

• Martial arts training for the lead actors started in November 2000 and lasted eight months.

• It took Carrie-Anne Moss six months just to get the Scorpion Kick in the beginning of scene correctly.

[edit] Technical Trivia

• When Trinity uses nmap and the program sshnuke to hack into the power station's computer system, she uses the password "Z1ON0101". Note the substitution of the number "1" for the letter "I", a transliteration common in leetspeak.

• Trinity uses a genuine hack to get into the Matrix. She uses Nmap version 2.54BETA25 (an actual port scanning tool) to find a vulnerable SSH server, and then proceeds to exploit it using the SSH1 CRC32 exploit from 2001.

• Samsung produced 10,000 cell phones like the one seen in the film (model SPH-N270) which sold out quickly.

• The pen the Architect holds is a Lamy Swift rollerball.

• The Keymaker tells Morpheus that 27 city blocks must be disabled for his plan to work, but Trinity is later seen disabling grid nodes 21-48. 21 through 48 is 28, not 27 because of the law of inclusion.

• The switch-bladed weapons that the Twins use are actually straight-edged shaving razors.

[edit] Numbers

• There are many references to number 101.

• The two freeways referenced in the movie were the 101 and the 303. These are also the numbers of Neo's apartment and the Heart o' the City hotel room respectively in The Matrix (1999).

[edit] Outside References

• Cain and Abel, the two Merovingian thugs who Persephone barges in on are watching The Brides of Dracula, a Hammer Horror film. It is implied that they may be some form of vampire or werewolf (silver kills them). Cain (spelled 'Caine' within the setting) is also known as the father of all vampires in the White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade RPG. Abel is likewise named after Caine's brother, who was killed by Caine.

• When Smith pulls up in an Audi at the beginning of the film, his license plate is IS 5416. In the King James Bible, Isaiah 54:16 says, "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy."

• The book Persephone moves to open up the bookcase is Arthur Schopenhauer's "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung". The book immediately to its left is "Parerga and Paralipomena", also by Schopenhauer.

• In the architect scene, many of the monitors are showing scenes from Ron Fricke's Baraka (1992).

• To prepare for his role in both Reloaded and Revolutions, Keanu Reeves was asked to read three books: Simulacra and Simulation, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World and Evolutionary Psychology.

• Historical reference: the Merovingians were the ruling class of France in the 7th century A.D. It is also the name of a type of Gnostic Church (many elements of Gnosticism appear in the Matrix films) and it is also the name given by the Knights Templar to the supposed bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

• The idea of all programs being born from The Source, an entity of pure light, and returning there after their purpose is fulfilled is a philosophy borrowed from the Hindu belief in Brahman, which is a god composed of pure life energy. This god created all things, and it is man's destiny to return to Brahman after his/her destiny is fulfilled.

• The gun that Persephone uses is a COP .357. It is also used by the Replicant Leon Kowalski (Brion James) in Blade Runner (1982).

• The Ship referred to as the Hammer is labeled (and actually named) Mjolnir, a difficult name to pronounce. This explains why nobody calls it by its real name. Mjolnir is the name for the famous Hammer of Thor, the Nordic God of Thunder.

• During the freeway chase, when it shows the view from inside a police car of an agent about to jump of the bridge, the radio gives a message to "1 Adam-12", the unit name of the main characters in the show Adam-12.

• When Neo confronts the Architect, the Architect tells him "[The perfect Matrix's] doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being..." Images flashing on the monitor screens during these two lines include Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Adolf Hitler, a nuclear bomb's explosion, 'Saddam Hussein', George W. Bush and United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

[edit] See also

• Simulated reality

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Matrix Reloaded Official Website
• The Matrix Reloaded at the Internet Movie Database
• The Many Meanings of The Matrix, Larry Wachowski in a dialogue with Ken Wilber.
• The Matrix Reloaded Explained - a comparative-literature-style exegesis of selected parts of Matrix Reloaded.
• The Matrix Reloaded by Joshua Cohen and Travis Jeppesen
• Visual Cues of The Matrix Reloaded A full, scene by scene exploration of Reloaded and the multiple symbols hidden within.
• Newsweek: The Matrix Makers - A look behind the scenes at the Matrix sequels (possible spoilers).
• The Matrix Reloaded October 27, 2001 draft script by Andy & Larry Wachowski
• Joanne Morra and Marquard Smith The Matrix: Morpheus in Exile
• The Matrix Wiki

The Matrix series
Films	The Matrix  • The Matrix Reloaded  • The Matrix Revolutions
The Animatrix	Final Flight of the Osiris • The Second Renaissance • Kid's Story • Program • World Record • Beyond • A Detective Story • Matriculated
Soundtracks	The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score • The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture • The Matrix Reloaded: The Album The Matrix Revolutions: Music From The Motion Picture • The Animatrix: The Album • Enter The Matrix: Original Soundtrack From The Videogame
Games	Enter the Matrix • The Matrix Online • The Matrix: Path of Neo
Characters	Neo • Trinity • Morpheus • Agent Smith • Agents • Oracle • Architect • Niobe • Merovingian • Persephone • Sati • Seraph • Twins • Deus Ex Machina • Minor human characters • Programs and machines
Locations	The Matrix • Mega City • Club Hel • Mobil Ave • Zero One (Machine City) • Zion • List of ships in the Matrix series
Cast and crew	Wachowski brothers • Keanu Reeves • Laurence Fishburne • Carrie-Anne Moss • Hugo Weaving • Jada Pinkett Smith • Owen Paterson • John Gaeta • Geof Darrow • Steve Skroce
Other topics	The Matrix Comics • Thematic motifs • Matrix digital rain • The Matrix character names • The Matrix Revisited • The Ultimate Matrix Collection • Matrix cell phone • Bluepill • Redpill
Related topics	Bullet time • Cyberpunk • Digitalism • The Hero's Journey • Martial arts film • Simulated reality • Virtual reality • The Official Matrix Exhibit • Cadillac CTS
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