The Matrix

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Ann Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, and Gloria Foster

Written and Directed by: The Wachowski Brothers

Whoa.

That was my initial reaction to 1999’s The Matrix. Coming from out of nowhere and much under the radar due to that other big sci-fi release of 1999 by the name of Star Wars, Episode I, the Matrix took most by surprise, including myself.

I walked in and had little expectations of this film. I consider myself to be almost anti-Keanu. The only movie I really bought his acting was as Ted “Theodore” Logan in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The rest of his roles made me cringe usually. To top that off, it seemed like he had already put out this movie under the guise Johnny Mnemonic.

I walked out remembering just how fun movies could be.

The film opens right in the grip of action and never slows down enough to let you off the ride. Films often get tabbed with the cliche of being a roller coaster adventure, but this one deserves the tag. That alone made it worthy of praise, but what really brought it home, was the intelligence and thought provoking storyline that always kept you on your toes.

It carefully chose to be just vague enough with details that the creators were able to skillfully lead you down that rabbit hole in the manner that they wanted, leading you bit by bit until you wanted it all.

Carrie Ann Moss opens the film in a fight with the “Agents”. We don’t know who she is but we are entranced, especially as she starts to show superhuman abilities. What’s great is the story never gives you warning for such actions — they preferred to simply hit you with it to make you say, what the hell? And then later give you just enough information to theorize exactly what is going on.

They never give you everything…just enough so you can at least have some options to choose from.

Keanu plays software designer, Thomas Andersen by day and Neo, hacker programmer by night. After receiving several cryptic messages, he gets tangled up with a group led by an infamous hacker known as Morpheus.

When he gets tagged by the Agents, we are introduced to more fantasy aspects when Neo declines to assist the Agents find Morpheus, the insert a bug (an actual robot-bug-like homing device) into his stomach and also close his mouth literally as the flesh begins to sew together until he has no mouth.

He wakens suddenly in his bed, and we wonder if it was a dream or not.

Again, you can’t tell either way.

He finally gets to Morpheus via Trinity (Moss) and a few others, and we learn it wasn’t a dream as the resistance has to suck the bug out of his stomach before they go on.

After the buildup, Morpheus better not disappoint, and he doesn’t. Fishburne’s Morpheus is cool, calm, collected, eloquent — everything you’d expect a mentor to be. It is here where the Wachowski brothers start doling out more information.

Via philospophical ramblings, and introspective questioning we learn that 1999 is not 1999. It’s closer to 2199 and the machines have taken over the nuclear wasteland that is the world. People have been plugged into the Matrix which powers the machines systems. In these plugged in minds, people live in what they think is 1999.

It’s a very heavy concept, based much on the philosophical question I learned about in Philosophy 101, “What if we are just a brain in a jar?”

Whoa. A lot of thinking and conceptualizing for your typical sci-fi action popcorn flick.

Eventually it is easier to surmise that the people are real, but the agents and certain people are actually programs of the Matrix designed for something specific.

There is a prophecy that states that there will come “the One” who would defeat the Matrix at its own game and save Zion, the last known human settlement. Morpheus believes that Neo is the One.

We shift a little bit into a higher gear now as we see that Neo can use the socket that connected him to the Matrix to download skills, such as kung fu. In a great sparring battle with Morpheus, we see Neo learning just how fast he can hit.

The visual effects in the Matrix were nothing short of stunning, and the careful way way the Wachowskis chose to use the effects were as important as the effects themselves. There wasn’t a sense of gratuitousness. Everything was for a reason.

A trip to the Oracle, a program within the Matrix who forsees everything including the coming of the One, is eventful, but surprsingly to the viewer, she implies that Neo is not the one and that Morpheus would sacrifice his life trying to save him because of his belief in Neo.

After a betrayal by one of the crew members, Cypher (played with delicious contempt by Joe Pantoliano), the crew is slaughtered down to four and Morpheus is captured by the Agents.

Neo gains confidence in himself and he and Trinity storm back into the Matrix to rescue Morpheus who is being tortured for the access codes to the Zion mainframe. Neo’s abilities are growing and when Morpheus and Trinity make it out, Neo stands one on one with Agent Smith, played with such eloquent evil that he is almost uncomfortable to watch — in a good way.

No one has ever survived a direct attack by an Agent. Neo does…barely. But as he tries to escape he is run down by Agent Smith and two others and is shot and killed.

At this point Trinity breaks down and reveals what the Oracle told her — She would fall in love with “the One”. She kisses Neo who rejuvinates and stands, finally enveloping what “the One” is. The Agents open fire on him, but he just raises his palms and stops all the bullets. He actually begins seeing them as lines of code, knowing he can manipulate the code any way he pleases. Agent Smith attacks again but Neo brushes him off like a fly, eventually taking over his body and destroying him.

Neo is the One, but what comes next. Like most good stories, we are left at the end with hope, and a minor resolution, but we know the war is just beginning.

Overall, it is a great action flick that also envelops philosophy, and religious concepts in a neat package that everyone can enjoy. It is truly atypical fare from most of the genre, and truly was a well deserved kick in the ass for the sci-fi genre.

A