2003 Movie Titles
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2003 Movie Titles
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The Matrix Reloaded
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Nona Gaye, Monica Bellucci
Directed: Larry, Andy Wachowski
Screenplay: Larry and Andy Wachowski
Release Date: May 15th, 2003
Running Time: 138 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for sci-fi violence, sexuality.
Box Office: $281,576,461 (US total)
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
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Tagline: Free your mind.
In the second chapter of the Matrix trilogy, freedom fighters Neo (Reeves), Trinity (Moss) and Morpheus (Fishburne) continue to lead the revolt against the Machine Army, unleashing their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation. In their quest to save the human race from extinction, they gain greater insight into the construct of The Matrix and Neo?s pivotal role in the fate of mankind.
What if the Prophecy is true?
What if tomorrow this war could be over? Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?
Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Keanu Reeves) made a costly decision when he chose to ask the question that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) had asked before him. To seek and accept the truth. To free his mind from the Matrix.
Chapter One: Everything begins with choice
Now, in the second chapter of the Matrix trilogy, Neo assumes greater command of his extraordinary powers as Zion falls under siege to the Machine Army. Only a matter of hours separates the last human enclave on Earth from 250,000 Sentinels programmed to destroy mankind.
But the citizens of Zion, emboldened by Morpheus's conviction that the One will fulfill the Oracle's Prophecy and end the war with the Machines, rest all manner of hope and expectation on Neo, who finds himself stalled by disturbing visions as he searches for a course of action.
We can never see past a choice we don't understand.
Strengthened by their love for each other and their belief in themselves, Neo and Trinity choose to return to the Matrix with Morpheus and unleash their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation. But there exist powerful figures within the Matrix who refute the artifice of choice, evading the responsibility it brings as they feed on the emotional truths of others.
Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.
Meanwhile, there are exiles like Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), whose inexorable connection to Neo compels him to disobey the system that has called for his deletion. Driven by the humanity he once despised, Smith will consume everything in his path on his quest for revenge.
What do all men with power want? More power.
On his treacherous journey toward further insight into the construct of the Matrix and his pivotal role in the fate of mankind, Neo will confront greater resistance, an even greater truth and a more impossible choice than he ever imagined.
You didn't come here to make the choice. You've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it.
At the confluence of love and truth, faith and knowledge, purpose and reason, Neo must follow the course he has chosen. "What if I can't?" he asks. "What if I fail?" Then Zion will fall.
Chapter Two: Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Neo peers into the coded curtain folds of the Matrix, sensing something hidden just beyond his sight.
In 1999, the Wachowski Brothers and producer Joel Silver unveiled The Matrix, a visionary fusion of staggeringly powerful action and densely-layered storytelling. Inspired by stylistic Japanese animé films like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, the questions posed at the intersection of philosophy, mythology, religion and mathematics, the hyper-kinetic illustrations of comic book artist Geof Darrow and the science fiction of authors such as William Gibson, Philip K. Dick and Lewis Carroll, the brothers conceived an epic story that explores themes of technological alienation, free will, the cost of ignorance and the price of knowledge.
Ultimately, the filmmakers not only electrified audiences with audacious visual innovations that have since been imitated in countless commercials, music videos and movies, they created a provocative action film that ponders the essence of reality and identity, illuminating the choices we must make and the strengths and weaknesses that compel us to make them.
The Wachowskis had always envisioned the sprawling saga they unleashed in The Matrix as a trilogy, and the success of that film allowed the writer-directors to tunnel deeper into a mythology that they had only begun to reveal. They approached the production of the trilogy’s second and third installments, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as a single film that would be presented in two parts.
The result is a revolution in and of itself. The visual benchmarks set by the trilogy, such as the groundbreaking technique invented to capture the animé-inspired conceptual state of “Bullet Time” in The Matrix or the pioneering of the Universal Capture process to produce photo-realistic virtual humans for Reloaded and Revolutions, continue to redefine what is cinematically possible. A film trilogy that tells a story of the horrors that may happen if we push technology too far has pushed technology exponentially further in the telling of it.
The Matrix films also bulldoze boundaries in the physical construction of their furious action sequences. Simultaneously brutal and elegant, they combine elements of classic Kung Fu films with Western gun-slinging action, Eastern martial arts and wire work. In the Hong Kong cinematic tradition of directors such as John Woo and Yuen Wo Ping, the lead actors perform their own fight sequences. This method allows for greater storytelling through action – the fights propel the narrative, rather than serving as an entertaining detour from it. In this way, every minute of the film can offer something substantial and meaningful to the audience.
Perhaps part of what makes the Matrix films so intriguing is that their density inspires limitless interpretations – while most films endeavor to provide the audience with answers, The Matrix is one giant open-ended question. Casual references serve as conduits to entire forests of thought; interwoven themes of mythology, philosophy, emerging technology, evolutionary psychology, literature such as Alice in Wonderland, and theological references (Christianity and Gnosticism exist comfortably alongside Zen Buddhist and Taoist thought) all free the mind to consider a multiplicity of truths. The films’ strength lies not in what they are capable of telling us, but rather in our own capacity to take the ideas they present and run with them.
The Wachowskis’ cinematic synthesis of philosophy and technology has inspired several books (including The Philosophy of The Matrix, edited by William Irwin; Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, edited by Karen Haber; and Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy & Religion in The Matrix, edited by Glenn Yeffeth) and numerous college courses ranging in theme from philosophy to science fiction, computer-mediated communication, religion and contemporary culture. The vast amount of thought devoted to the examination of their work is evidence of the extent to which they have been able to hack into the collective consciousness with their provocative and challenging filmmaking.
“What Larry and Andrew are trying to achieve in their storytelling, the physical action they present, the elements of new cinema and technology they have invented to create images, is unparalleled,” says Keanu Reeves, who, at the brothers’ request, read such books as Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation and Kevin Kelly’s Out of Control while preparing for his role of Neo, the computer hacker who assumes his destiny through his search for truth in The Matrix.
“The Wachowskis are incredibly well-versed in everything from philosophy to mythology to comic books, and the themes running through these films reflect their perception of the timeless questions that have driven man’s quest for knowledge and understanding,” says Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix trilogy. “They’ve created an epic story, told it in a visionary way that revolutionized entertainment, and created a thinking person’s action picture. You can enjoy the films on a purely visceral level, and if you want to go deeper, there are some very profound ideas to consider.”
Those fans who dare not seek the truth themselves can live vicariously through the choices made by Neo, Morpheus and Trinity; those who choose to explore the philosophical, literary, mythological, theological and technological themes that inform the Wachowskis’ cinematic universe can go as deep into the rabbit hole as they dare.
“The truth is often terrifying, which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew’s cinema,” Reeves observes. “The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films, they explore the consequences of Neo’s choice to know the truth. They’ve made Reloaded and Revolutions even more dense and provocative and entertaining than the first film. It’s a beautiful, beautiful story.”
In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo continues the shocking journey he began when he chose the red pill in The Matrix. Having made the decision to believe in himself and accept his role as the One, Neo assumes greater command of his extraordinary powers. But being the One brings unexpected responsibilities, not only toward fulfilling what Morpheus believes to be Neo’s destiny – to end the War with the Machines – but in living up to the expectations of those whose lives depend on the choices he has made.
As the rebels brace themselves to protect Zion, the last enclave of humanity, from extinction by the Machine Army boring down on them, Neo finds himself searching for a course of action. “The second film is really a personal quest for Neo,” says Reeves. “He’s going through a process of trying to come to terms with what he’s been asked to do. He’s on a further quest for the truth, and this means he has to fight harder than before and confront visions of the future.”
Meanwhile, having completed his lifelong mission to find the One, Morpheus finds himself driven to defiance by his convictions. “In the first film, Morpheus is a teacher,” comments Laurence Fishburne. “In Reloaded, he becomes more of a spiritual leader. His belief in Neo and the Oracle’s Prophecy is absolute, and he brings great strength and passion to his increasingly important role in the fight to save Zion. But the truths he encounters along his path put his faith to the test.”
Perhaps the only two people in which Trinity has absolute faith are Morpheus and Neo. Her love for and belief in Neo infuses her with incalculable resolve and “she becomes even more of a warrior than she was in the first film,” says Carrie-Anne Moss. “The world that Neo and Trinity fight in is so dismal and so horrific that by contrast their love is really pure and beautiful. It softens her, but it also gives her strength.”
Hugo Weaving’s role as the indefatigable Agent Smith is complicated by the character’s escalating ability to consume the essence of other beings in the Matrix – plus an upgrade called ego. “In The Matrix, Smith starts off as being a very rigid character with a very strong, defined mission that he has to accomplish,” Weaving describes. “During that journey, he starts to feel human feelings. He starts to feel anger and jealousy. He starts to smell things and he starts to have a hint of what it’s like to have humanity inside him. And he hates that. He sees it as a weakness. In Reloaded, he’s accepted these powerful feelings more and more and I think he actually starts to relish them. His ego has expanded and he’s quite literally been liberated.”
Reloaded also introduces new characters to the story, both in Zion and in the Matrix. A crucial member of the Zion resistance, Niobe is the captain of the Logos, the smallest and fastest hovercraft in the rebel fleet. The filmmakers selected Jada Pinkett Smith to portray Niobe, a central figure in the films as well as in the video game Enter the Matrix, another of the trilogy’s storytelling components.
“Niobe doesn’t have faith; she doesn’t believe in anything but herself,” Pinkett Smith says. “Her ego is a beast and she’s extremely arrogant. The only thing she’s connected to is her heart as a soldier. She knows what she has to do and she’s really good at it. I feel I’m very much like Niobe in that once she’s got her mind set on something, you’re not going to change it.”
“Jada is just as focused and tenacious as Niobe,” Silver adds. “She made a total commitment to the films and the video game, from the training to the fighting to the stunt and motion capture work the productions demanded. Her sheer stamina – not to mention the strength and spirit she brings to her character – is truly impressive.”
In contrast to Niobe’s fierce tenacity is the Merovingian, a perversely indulgent Matrix power broker who is endlessly flanked by his alluring wife Persephone and a cabal of bodyguards, including ghostly, razor-wielding Twins. “He’s the personification of all forms of indulgence in the voluptuousness of life,” says Lambert Wilson of his voracious character. “What he lacks, and therefore what he likes to indulge in, is emotion.”
“The Merovingian and Persephone are like vampires in that way,” says Monica Bellucci, who plays the manipulative trophy wife. “They want to provoke emotion in other people so they can feed on it. Persephone is very elegant, very sophisticated, but also very corrupt, and she’ll use her power to get what she wants – which is to feel.”
Rounding out the main cast of The Matrix Reloaded are Gloria Foster as the Oracle; Harold Perrineau as Link, the Nebuchadnezzar’s new operator; Randall Duk Kim as the Key Maker; Neil and Adrian Rayment as the Merovingian’s ethereal bodyguards, the Twins; Nona Gaye as Link’s girlfriend Zee; Harry Lennix as Commander Lock; Collin Chou as Seraph, the Oracle’s bodyguard; Anthony Wong as Ghost, Niobe’s first mate aboard the Logos; Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamman; Cornel West as Councillor West; and boxing champion Roy Jones, Jr. as Captain Ballard.
Ice Is Your Friend: Not-So-Basic Training
You do not truly know someone until you fight them.
In preparation for The Matrix, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving spent four solid months during the winter of 1997-98 training with master martial artist and wire work specialist Yuen Wo Ping to learn the Kung Fu and wire skills they would need to perform the film’s complex and demanding fight scenes.
While the cast embraced this unprecedented approach to Western action filmmaking – in which they would execute fight scenes typically handled entirely by stunt performers – they were somewhat unprepared for the grueling experience that lay ahead. Tenacity, perseverance and the desire to bring the Wachowski Brothers’ vision to life inspired the cast and martial arts team to accomplish what had never been done before in an incredibly short period of time. “We wanted to be able to achieve the extraordinary,” says Keanu Reeves.
When the actors returned to training for Reloaded and Revolutions in November 2000, they were ready. “The cast arrived in much better shape, much fitter, with a far greater understanding of the demands we would place on them,” Wo Ping says.
“Training for these two films was probably three times harder than preparing for the first,” Reeves admits. “Neo’s Kung Fu elements and wire work are more sophisticated – there are more movements in one particular fight in Reloaded than there are in the whole of the first Matrix.”
Daily training sessions were held in a Santa Monica airplane hangar during an exceptionally cold and rainy winter. “We’d arrive in the morning and they’d have to vacuum up the water from the rain that had fallen the night before,” recalls Laurence Fishburne. The stunt team had almost tripled in size since The Matrix – in part to include twelve stunt men to play multiple Agent Smiths – and they shared the training space with the production’s sizeable motion capture stage.
Reeves devoted at least seven hours a day to Kung Fu work. While training for and filming The Matrix, he was recovering from neck surgery, which restricted his movements, and Wo Ping accommodated his injury by choreographing routines that featured more hand-to-hand combat than kicking. This time around, Reeves had no such limitations. “The more I could do, the more they pushed me,” recalls the dedicated actor. “So when I could do one thing well, that was the day they’d ask me if I could do two things. Then when we were shooting, the brothers would ask me if I could do seven things! It was all very good fun, but very hard work as well. And painful – ice is your friend.” (During training, Reeves was known to sit in a bathtub full of ice.)
“Keanu is exceptional,” compliments Wo Ping. “He is a super perfectionist, always dissatisfied with his own performance, even when I think it’s very good! I tried my best to match the level that he was looking for. In the first Matrix, Neo uses his single hand to fight with the Agents. But in Reloaded, Neo finds out that the Agents have been upgraded, and so he must upgrade himself. From there I had to add a lot of movements for Neo to tackle the Agents with that are very, very difficult, but Keanu did it all with great style.”
Reeves worked with twelve stunt men for nine weeks perfecting a five-and-a-half-minute routine comprised of over 500 moves. Such ambitious training was the only way to reach the level of technical acuity necessary to achieve the brothers’ vision for the film’s awe-inspiring action. “Wo Ping, Larry and Andy want the fights to be as spectacular as possible,” he says. “They love spectacle and they want to entertain. They’re interested in physical contact in both its positive and negative light, in the same way that fire can be destructive and it can also give warmth – that’s what they want from an action sequence.”
Joel Silver believes the master fight choreographer has been invaluable in achieving the Wachowskis’ grand vision for the story arc of the Matrix trilogy. “Wo Ping’s style meshes exceptionally well with the brothers’ philosophy in terms of storytelling,” says the producer. “Beyond the obvious antagonist and protagonist combating in a test of physical will, he illustrates the characters’ development through the fights. It was in the Dojo Fight in The Matrix that Neo first began to explore his potential, and in Reloaded’s Burly Brawl, he is so challenged by the onslaught that he has to elevate himself to a whole new level.”
The exhilarating fight scenes result from a powerful synthesis between the choreographer, the filmmakers and the cast. “The concept for all the fight scenes originates with the brothers,” Wo Ping explains. “I base the scenes on their ideas and then build on them. The Burly Brawl was difficult because Neo has to fight 100 Agent Smiths simultaneously, and Keanu had to learn an incredible series of dense, frequent moves. Then I had to ask each individual Smith stunt double to watch Hugo’s movements and then imitate them exactly. The choreography was based on all these people being able to execute it perfectly.”
Wo Ping’s choreography for the Teahouse Fight, in which Neo is put to the test by Seraph, the Oracle’s bodyguard, demanded a high level of martial mastery from Reeves. “Neo and Seraph are both connected to the Oracle on the same level,” Wo Ping explains, “and therefore their Kung Fu standard should be at the same level. But Collin Chou, who plays Seraph, is an Eastern actor who has been training in martial arts for many years. Compared to someone who’s been training for 10 years, Keanu is at an elementary level, and therefore I had to get the very best from him so that they were on the same level when they fought. Thanks once again to Keanu’s perseverance, we were able to achieve that balance.”
Wo Ping’s style of integrating myriad elements into his fights increases their intensity and makes them incredibly fascinating to watch. “The more you change the variables in a scene, the more interesting it becomes,” he says. “In Reloaded’s opening fight sequence, I improvised, using helmets as a kind of weapon, and Carrie-Anne uses those weapons very powerfully. I also designed an extremely fast, powerful kick for her, which we called the Scorpion Kick. I trained her for over six months just for that one kick. She performed it very, very powerfully, with great precision.”
“Trinity is all about the Scorpion Kick and the chop,” says Carrie-Anne Moss. “Once again, Wo Ping was such a great teacher. I’ll never forget the audience’s response to the first fight I had in the Matrix, so I hope that people are just as excited by my fight in the opening sequence of Reloaded. It’s pretty powerful.”
“Carrie-Anne is very, very good and I always encouraged her to feel more confident about her ability,” says Wo Ping. “For Carrie-Anne, as for everyone, the fighting and the training were far more intense than for the first film, but the more we encouraged her, the more confident she became.”
Although her performance doesn’t betray it, not all went well for Moss during training. “I trained for six or seven weeks before we even officially began, to be in great shape so I could really, really, really kick some ass,” she says. “And then I landed wrong during training, and basically, my thigh broke my knee. And I broke it right then and there, but I went into total shock and denial, and decided to drive myself home and then drive myself back to work the next day. It was brutal, because all I could think of at the time was, ‘Oh my God, I’m not gonna be able to do the movie!’”
“Carrie-Anne and I escaped injury on the first film, so we were due,” Fishburne muses. “We both got injured this time. She broke her leg and I severely hyperextended my wrist, which put me in a soft cast for about six weeks and slowed me down.” But Fishburne’s judicious training method helped him to stay on schedule despite his injury. “I approached training a little smarter this time, and since the trainers understood what we were capable of and we understood what was going to be required of us, we were able to pace ourselves a lot better. Because maintaining a particular kind of shape for two years is a lot harder than maintaining it for nine months.”
“Laurence is very smart and he learns things very easily and quickly,” says Wo Ping. “His body language and flexibility are good, and he can kick very well. In his training, we emphasized the power of his punch and his kick.”
One new component thrown into the mix for Fishburne was mastering the art of war with a samurai sword. “I wouldn’t dare think that I could master it, but a samurai sword is not that difficult a weapon to wield,” Fishburne says. “But I found it did require a particular strength in the forearm area that I had to develop quickly. The sequence in the film where Morpheus uses the sword is one of the shining moments for me in my performance. I will always, always have wonderful memories of that.”
In addition to training Fishburne and the other actors to use a cache of new weapons, Wo Ping also choreographed a daunting fight sequence that unfolds atop a racing eighteen-wheeler. “This was very difficult, because the truck is speeding so you have to focus on balance,” explains Wo Ping. “The choreography in this scene shows how Morpheus experiences a moment of crisis and uses Kung Fu to regain his balance.”
Fishburne trained for the big rig battle atop a scaffold that was built to match the dimensions of the top of the truck. “The truck-top fight is a brilliant piece of choreography,” Fishburne raves. “It’s pretty staggering. Just the size of those vehicles is so daunting, let alone performing a Kung Fu fight on top of them. It blows my mind.”
Like Fishburne, Hugo Weaving took a smarter approach to his training for Reloaded and Revolutions. “I basically looked after my body a lot better than I had done the first time round,” explains Weaving, “and trained well but carefully, because I was mindful of what could happen – I tried not to push myself to achieve the physical perfection within too short a period of time.”
“Hugo had a lot of injuries on the first one, and in this one he came back and really, really pushed himself in training,” says martial arts stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski. “When you see the scenes, you’ve got to remember that it’s the real Hugo mixed in with twelve of the best martial arts stunt guys around, and he’s holding his own.”
Jada Pinkett Smith began training before the official sessions even started. “The script made a reference to Niobe’s muscles bulging as she steered her ship, so I figured I’d better get some muscles,” says Pinkett Smith, who adopted her character’s mindset toward training. “Niobe would focus very strongly on her body because her body is her temple, her body is her tool. She would be into the hardcore training because it strengthens your mind as much or even more than your physical body. It creates heart. It creates that soldier mentality, and for Niobe it’s all about strength. So I started by doing weight lifting, then I went on to the martial arts training. And eventually I got to kick a little ass, which was a lot of fun.”
Pinkett Smith, who gave birth to daughter Willow shortly before her training commenced, quickly became familiar with the blood, sweat and tears that were regularly wrung from the cast during the intense process. “I remember early on in training I saw Keanu soaking in a tub of ice, and I looked at him like ‘What are you doing that for?’” she recalls. “And he said ‘One day you’ll know.’ And I swear, after I did my first fight scene and my joints were swollen, my legs felt like concrete boulders and every part of my body was aching, then I knew what that ice was for! I don’t know how Keanu and Carrie-Anne did it time and time again, I really don’t.”
Neil and Adrian Rayment, internationally renowned Black Belt Shotokan Karate instructors, were honored to bring their considerable martial arts experience under the aegis of Wo Ping. “We started doing karate when we were about sixteen,” says Neil. “We grew up watching Kung Fu films from Hong Kong, and Wo Ping has always been one of our heroes, not just for his ability as a martial artist, but also as a director.”
“To find ourselves suddenly training with him was very intimidating – we’re not that worthy!” Adrian exclaims. “We worked really hard, and every now and again he’d just grin at us out of the blue, which was wonderful – it felt like he’d patted us on the head!”
Like his fellow actors, Fishburne has great appreciation for the master choreographer’s powerful artistry. “I think Wo Ping and his crew have to be applauded for the way in which they entered into this whole enterprise, stayed away from home for years and made us look brilliant,” says Fishburne. “You can’t put a price on what their expertise, their experience and creativity has brought to these films. The Matrix would not be what it is without their influence.”
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Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity and Randall Duk Kim as The Keymaker in The Matrix Reloaded.
