The Matrix Reloaded
Free your mind.
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Production
Budget
$150 000 000
Revenue
$742 128 461
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Keanu Reeves
Neo
Laurence Fishburne
Morpheus
Carrie-Anne Moss
Trinity
Hugo Weaving
Agent Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith
Niobe
Gloria Foster
The Oracle
Harold Perrineau
Link
Monica Bellucci
Persephone
Short description
The Matrix Reloaded continues the story of Neo, Morpheus and Trinity as the human resistance grows around the underground city of Zion, the last refuge left to humanity. The machines are tunneling toward it, and the defenders have only a short time before the attack arrives. To find a way out, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must return to the Matrix and track down the Keymaker, whose access can lead them toward the Source. Neo's abilities have expanded since he was freed, and the mission brings him into conflict with Agent Smith and with other programs that have their own plans for him.
Lilly and Lana Wachowski directed and wrote the film, the third feature in their shared filmography after Bound and The Matrix, and the second chapter of the series. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss return as the three leads, with Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe and Gloria Foster as the Oracle. Joel Silver produced. By the standards of a 150 million dollar production, the worldwide gross of 739 million dollars represents a strong commercial return.
On IMDb the film holds 7.2 out of 10 from 668,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.1 out of 10 from 12,326 votes, indicating a generally favourable audience response. A critics' rating of 6.9 out of 10 from 240 reviews places it close to those audience scores rather than sharply apart from them.
What's left behind the scenes
- Lara Dutta was offered a role in the two "Matrix" sequels, but she declined as she did not like the script.
- Originally, the creators wanted to release "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" in theaters with a gap of weeks, not months.
- Lana and Lilly Wachowski were offered the opportunity to direct "Batman Begins" (2005), but they declined to make the sequels to "The Matrix".
- The actors' martial arts training began in November 2000 and lasted for 8 months.
- The scene of Neo's fight with numerous copies of Agent Smith took 27 days to film. It involved both live actors and computer-generated imagery.
- Following the death of singer Aaliyah in a plane crash, who was supposed to play Zee, Link's wife, Nona Gaye – Marvin Gaye's daughter – was invited to take her place.
- Samsung produced 10,000 mobile phones identical to the one in the film (model SPH-N270), which sold out quickly.
- The credits listing the film's creators and actors contain 1,943 names.
- At the 51st minute of the film, when Neo is sitting on a bench next to the Oracle, you can notice the word "One" painted on the fence opposite. When Agent Smith walks towards Neo in the next scene, this inscription is no longer on the wall.
- At the 42nd minute of the film, when Neo fights with Seraph, and their fight moves to a table, they knock a glass with chopsticks to the floor. When they jump to the next table, the glass with chopsticks reappears on the first table. Also, Neo and Seraph knock the glass off the second table twice.
- The fee for Lana and Lilly Wachowski – the directors and screenwriters of the films – is $10 million, plus an unspecified share of the revenue from the two movies.
- The viewer cannot hear Neo's alter ego's monologue on the monitors in the Architect's room, however, if you turn on the subtitles on the DVD, you can hear the following shouts: "You can't control me! I'll smear you into tiny pieces! I'll kill you! You can't make me, you old white bastard!"
- At the 52nd minute of the film, when Neo is talking to Agent Smith, you can see the filming studio and studio lighting with a diffuser reflected in Smith's glasses.
- Carrie-Anne Moss herself drove the motorcycle in some scenes during the highway chase.
- At the 28-minute mark of the film, when Neo apologizes and steps aside to greet Trinity, you can notice a decorative stone wall swaying behind him.
- The red chair in which Morpheus sits, explaining the plan to access the Source, is the same chair in which Morpheus explained to Neo what the Matrix was in the first film.
- The Wachowskis offered the role of Persephone to Monica Bellucci after watching "Malèna" (2000).
- Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Anthony Wong agreed to star in the film without reading the script.
- General Motors donated 300 vehicles for use in filming, and by the end, all 300 were wrecked.
- The monitors in the Architect's room are identical to the monitors in the interrogation room in "The Matrix" (1999).
- The car in which Morpheus, Trinity, and Keymaker travel during the highway chase scene has the license plate number “DA 203.” In the Book of Daniel (Dan. 2:3), chapter 2, verse 3, we read: "And the king said to them, 'I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled; I desire to know the dream."
- When Trinity hacks the computer at the power plant, she enters the password Z1ON0101. The hack is shown very realistically. Trinity uses a real existing program, Nmap version 2.54BETA25, designed for scanning remote access ports. At the address 10.2.22, the utility finds an open port used by the SSH service. Moreover, Trinity uses a real and quite well-known vulnerability of the SSH service, CRC32, for the attack. However, Trinity attacks the vulnerability with the sshnuke exploit, which is already a product of the director's imagination.
- In the Architect's room, scenes from "Barracks" (1992) are playing on many of the monitors.
- When Neo fights the Smith clones, several unusual sound effects were used: at one point, you can hear the sound of falling dominoes; at the end of the fight, when Neo throws Smith into a crowd of his clones, you can hear the sound of a bowling ball knocking down pins.
- The role of Seraph was specifically written for Jet Li. After he declined the offer, the role was rewritten for Michelle Yeoh, but she also refused.
- The film was shot in the cities of Sydney and Redfern (Australia), as well as in Oakland (USA, California).
- According to the contract, the Wachowskis were not to give any interviews to the media while working on the two sequels to "The Matrix".
- In the underground garage where the film's heroes choose a car, many Cadillacs can be noticed, including a 1950s El Dorado and a 2004 XLR prototype.
- The film playing on TV, in the scene where Persephone shoots one of the Merovingian’s men, is “The Brides of Dracula” (1960). Monica Bellucci, who played Persephone, also played the Bride of Dracula in “Dracula” (1992), which also starred Keanu Reeves.
- The film was banned in Egypt because it "incites belief in the religions on which it is based."
- During the fight between Neo and the Smith clones, there are four fully computer-generated scenes that did not involve a single live actor. The filmmakers used Sony HDR-900 High Definition cameras to scan images of Neo and Smith for the fight scene.
- At the 3-minute mark of the film, when Trinity jumps out of the window and starts shooting at the agent, her hair is neatly combed back. When she is hit by the agent’s bullet during the fall, her hair is already completely disheveled.
- The two highways mentioned in the film are numbered 101 and 303. These were the same numbers as Neo's apartment and hotel room, respectively, in "The Matrix" (1999).
- During the production of the film, actress Carrie-Anne Moss broke her leg, Laurence Fishburne – his arm, and Hugo Weaving injured his cervical vertebra.
- "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," along with the computer game "Enter the Matrix," were created simultaneously between March 2001 and August 21, 2002.
- At the 2-minute mark of the film, the guards are in a locker room with metal lockers lined up against the wall. In the next shot, the guards are already exiting a glass booth.
- The truck used in the car chase scene has “Big Endian Eggs” written on it, which is a reference to “Gulliver’s Travels”.
- The Twins’ weapons are dangerous straight razors that have long fallen out of use.
- "Smith" literally means "blacksmith." The vehicle registration number of the car Smith drives to the meeting place of the rebels (the "I'm looking for Neo" scene) is IS5416, which seemingly references a quote from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 54, verse 16: "See, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coal and produces a weapon for its work—and I have created the destroyer to bring ruin."
- The 17-minute fight scene with Merovingian's entourage and the Twins' chase cost around $40 million. This includes the construction of a 1.4-mile, three-lane highway for the chase scene (after three months of filming the chase scene, the highway was demolished).
- Filming of the car chase on the highway lasted about three months.
- For participating in two sequels to "The Matrix," Keanu Reeves receives $30 million or 15% of the box office takings for both films under his contract.
- The film was released in Russia on May 22, 2003, simultaneously in 157 cinemas.
- During filming in downtown Oakland, all red and blue colors had to be removed, so all curbs along the sidewalks were repainted. Also, greenery or any other vegetation was not supposed to appear in the frame, so filming took place in winter before the trees sprouted leaves.
- During the highway chase scene, it is clearly visible that the cars flipping and crashing lack not only drivers but also some interior details.
- Keanu Reeves waived his share of ticket sales, amounting to approximately $38 million, after producers doubted the film would ever recoup the costs of the special effects.
- Since the Cadillac Escalade EXT had not yet been launched into production at the time of filming, General Motors was forced to add Cadillac fiberglass body parts to a Chevrolet Avalanche prototype to create the twins' car in the film.
- The name Merovingian actually refers to the ruling elite of 7th-century France. It is also the name of one branch of the Gnostic church, as well as the supposed descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, a name given to them by the Knights Templar.
- The Zion fleet consisted of 12 ships, 10 of which are mentioned in the three Matrix films and the computer game "Enter the Matrix," and another 2 in conceptual artwork.
- At the 11-minute mark of the film, when Neo kicks the agent into a lamppost, you can notice the agent covering his face with his hands in anticipation of the falling shade.
- Lamberto Wilson's French accent, playing Merovingian, was deliberately exaggerated. Wilson speaks excellent English, but at the request of the directors, he spoke with a very strong French accent in the film.
- The idea that all programs are 'born' from the Source, an entity of pure light, and return to it after they have fulfilled their purpose is based on the Indian god Brahma.
- At the 2-minute mark of the film, Trinity jumps off a motorcycle mid-air and flies over lampposts, but in the next shot, after landing, the lampposts are in front of her.
- Officially, the film premiered in Russia on May 22, 2003, but on the 21st, the film was shown for free at a presentation in Moscow and St. Petersburg of the new "Microsoft Windows Server 2003" server.
- Sean Connery was initially slated to play the Architect, but he declined because he couldn't understand the concept of the film.
- The film contains many references to the number 101.
- The cost of special effects was $100 million.
- Initially, the car chase was planned to be filmed on the highway in Akron, Ohio. However, the filmmakers subsequently had to abandon this idea, as it would have taken at least an hour to stop traffic on the highway.
- The film was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most widely released film," as it was released with 8,517 copies.
- During filming in Australia, all traffic in Sydney was blocked for 4 hours with the agreement of local authorities. This was done to ensure safety during the filming of a scene with a helicopter flying over the city at an extremely low altitude. Not only was traffic blocked, but people were also evacuated from some skyscrapers.
- At the 57th minute of the film, when Neo rips a metal pipe from the ground, a "No Smoking" sign hangs on the wall behind him. In the next scene, as he takes to the air, the sign disappears from the wall.
- Commander Locke is the only rebel with a name in the real world.
- In the fight scene between Neo and three Agents at the beginning of the film, Neo throws one of the Agents into a lamppost made by "Darrow Industries," which is a reference to the film's storyboard artist, Jeffrey Darrow.
- As of January 1, 2009, "The Matrix Reloaded" was the highest-grossing R-rated film internationally, with $735,000,000 in box office revenue.
- At the 56th minute of the film, a woman drops a grocery bag and transforms into an agent. When the bag falls to the ground, tomatoes and a box fall out. When, in the next scene, Smith turns the agent into his copy, and they walk towards the fight, stepping on one of the tomatoes, the box is already inside the bag.
- Gloria Foster, the actress who played the Oracle in the first "Matrix," died of diabetes on September 29, 2001. By this time, almost all scenes with her participation for "The Matrix 2" had been filmed, however, material for "The Matrix 3" had not been shot, so she was replaced by Mary Alice.
- At the 106th minute of the film, when Agent Smith blocks the path of Neo, Morpheus, and Keymaker in the corridor, a reflection in his glasses reveals that no one is in the corridor except Smith.
- Persephone's pistol is a COP .357. The same weapon is used by Leon Kowalski (Bryon James) in "Blade Runner" (1982).
- Laurence Fishburne suggested that his character remove his glasses for the fight scene between Morpheus and the Agent on the roof of the truck, on the one hand, to remind viewers of Morpheus's confrontation with Agent Smith in the first film, and on the other – to more vividly emphasize his character’s vulnerability.
- During the fight between Neo and the copies of Agent Smith, which begins at the 54th minute of the film, it can be noticed that the actor Hugo Weaving is often replaced by stunt doubles wearing wigs. Also, after pushes and kicks, wigs fly off the heads of some of the doubles.
- It took Carrie-Anne Moss six months to achieve the perfect execution of the scorpion kick at the beginning of the film.
- The fast-flowing green glyphs (characters) on computer screens are modified letters and numbers from the Japanese script "katakana".
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
