100 Fun Facts About The Matrix

In which year was The Matrix released in cinemas?

It opened on March 31 and took $27.8 million on its first weekend, well before Star Wars: Episode I arrived that May.

Who plays Neo in The Matrix?

Two of the other options were actually offered the role first and said no.

Which actor plays Morpheus, captain of the hovercraft that rescues Neo?

The character shares his name with the Greek god of dreams, a fitting choice for a man who wakes people from one.

Which actor plays Agent Smith in the original trilogy?

He said the Wachowskis' own voices shaped the flat, precise accent he built for the character; Empire later ranked Smith the 84th greatest movie character.

Which colour of capsule does Morpheus offer that will show Neo the truth about the Matrix?

The scene gave the English language a new metaphor; the phrase has since taken on a life the film-makers never intended.

What is Neo's given name in the Matrix?

His hacker handle is an anagram of 'One', a hint at the prophecy hanging over him.

What is the name of Morpheus's hovercraft?

The other three are all real ships from the sequels and The Animatrix; the Mjolnir rescues the crew when the ship is destroyed in Reloaded.

What is the name of the last free human city?

It sits deep underground near the Earth's core, and its dock is where the Sentinel army breaks through in Revolutions.

Which crew member betrays the others to Agent Smith because he wants to go back into the Matrix?

Joe Pantoliano's traitor is shot by a wounded Tank before he can pull the plug on Neo and Trinity.

Which actress plays the Oracle in the first film?

She died before Revolutions was finished, so a different actress took the role and the change was written into the plot.

Which crew member sits at the ship's controls, loading programs for those inside the Matrix?

Marcus Chong's operator was born in Zion, not the Matrix, which is why he has no ports on his body.

How many Academy Awards did The Matrix win?

It swept Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects, beating Star Wars: Episode I in every technical category they shared.

Roughly what did The Matrix cost to make?

It returned about $473 million worldwide and became the first DVD to sell a million copies in the US.

Which actor turned down Neo in order to make Wild Wild West?

He has since said he was not the right actor for it anyway; Cage cited family obligations and DiCaprio accepted, then withdrew.

Which actress was sent the script with the suggestion that Neo be rewritten as a woman?

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura floated the idea; a decade later she and Reeves finally co-starred in The Lake House.

In which city was almost all of The Matrix filmed?

The Wachowskis set the story in an unnamed American city but shot on Fox Studios soundstages and around Martin Place; the film's opening rooftop was a leftover Dark City set.

Which martial-arts choreographer did the Wachowskis hire to stage the fights?

The cast trained for months in wire fu, and Reeves had spinal-fusion surgery on his neck before pre-production even began.

Which French philosopher's book Simulacra and Simulation was required reading for the cast and crew?

Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss were handed it in early 1997 before they were even allowed to read the script; a hollowed-out copy appears in Neo's apartment.

Roughly how long was the shot-by-shot storyboard two comic artists drew for the Wachowskis?

Geof Darrow and Steve Skroce's storyboard was how the sisters convinced a nervous Warner Bros. that two relatively untested directors could deliver.

Which 1995 Japanese anime's opening credits does the falling green code resemble?

The Wachowskis reportedly showed the anime to producer Joel Silver and said they wanted to do that for real.

According to its designer, the characters of the Matrix code were based on what?

Simon Whiteley credited his Japanese wife's cookbooks; the green tint nods to early monochrome computer monitors.

Which company made the sunglasses worn throughout The Matrix?

Designer Richard Walker made a distinct pair for each character; Morpheus's tiny frames famously have no arms.

What is the best-known name for The Matrix's slow-motion effect shot with many still cameras?

The frames from each camera are played in sequence to orbit a frozen moment; the technique also goes by 'time slice' and 'flow motion'.

Which British artist began pioneering the frozen-moment camera-array technique as early as 1980?

Michel Gondry used a morphing variation in 1990s music videos, and John Gaeta's team at Manex then built The Matrix rigs from computer simulations.

Which composer wrote The Matrix's orchestral score?

The soundtrack album was a different beast, stacked with Rammstein, Rob Dougan, Propellerheads, Ministry and Rage Against the Machine.

Which crew member is killed by Agents while the group is trapped inside the walls of a building?

Matt Doran's young programmer, who designed the Woman in Red, is the first to die in the ambush; Cypher's betrayal set it up.

Why did humans blacken the sky, according to Morpheus?

The machines answered by farming humans in pods for energy, which is the world Neo wakes up in.

What revives Neo after Agent Smith shoots him dead inside the Matrix?

She had been told she would fall for the One, and her saying so aloud is what tips him into seeing the code.

The Matrix was added to the US National Film Registry in which year?

The Library of Congress selects 25 films a year for their cultural, historic or aesthetic significance; the film was 13 years old when chosen.

Which two BAFTA awards did The Matrix win?

It also collected Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction that year.

Which two Matrix sequels were both released in 2003?

They were shot back to back, with the video game Enter the Matrix filmed alongside them using the same cast.

The Matrix Reloaded broke which film's record to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of its time?

Its $741.8 million haul stood as the R-rated record for years, until Deadpool and Joker eventually passed it.

How many days did it take to film the Burly Brawl, Neo's fight against dozens of Smiths, in Reloaded?

The sequence alone reportedly cost around $40 million, and the actor's face was digitally mapped onto the stunt team.

Where was Reloaded's freeway chase filmed?

The production paved its own freeway at the old Naval Air Station Alameda in California, then tore it down when filming wrapped.

Which French actor plays the Merovingian in the sequels?

His wife Persephone, played by Monica Bellucci, hands over the Keymaker to punish him for his infidelity.

Which program, played by Helmut Bakaitis, tells Neo that he is not the first One?

The white-bearded creator of the Matrix delivers the trilogy's densest monologue in a room walled with television screens.

Which actress joined the sequels as Niobe, captain of the Logos?

She returned for Resurrections in 2021 playing the same character sixty years older, this time as a general.

In Reloaded, Smith escapes into the real world by overwriting the mind of which crew member?

Ian Bliss spent Revolutions doing an uncanny Hugo Weaving impression before blinding Neo with a power cable.

What Greenwich time did The Matrix Revolutions open simultaneously in 108 territories?

The November 5, 2003 stunt meant 6 a.m. screenings in Los Angeles and 11 p.m. in Tokyo.

Which actress took over as the Oracle in Revolutions after the original actress died?

The film explains the new face as the price the Oracle paid for helping Neo, a rare case of recasting written into canon.

At the start of Revolutions, Neo's consciousness is trapped in a subway station called what?

The name is an anagram of Limbo; the station is run by the Trainman, a program loyal to the Merovingian.

What does Neo offer the machine leader, the Deus Ex Machina, in exchange for peace?

He lets Smith assimilate him so the machines can purge the virus through his body, ending the war at the cost of his life.

How does Trinity die in The Matrix Revolutions?

The machines later recover her body, which is how she can return, renamed Tiffany, in Resurrections.

How many animated shorts make up The Animatrix?

The Wachowskis wrote four of them but directed none; the collection sold 2.7 million copies on DVD.

Which Animatrix short, animated by Square, was shown in cinemas before the film Dreamcatcher?

It leads directly into Reloaded: the Osiris crew die getting word to Zion that the machines are drilling toward it.

In Resurrections, what is the day job of the man Neo has been made to believe he is?

Lilly sat it out; the film was released in cinemas and on HBO Max on the same day, December 22, 2021.

Which actor plays the Analyst, the therapist who built the new Matrix, in Resurrections?

His hit game series is called The Matrix and is built from his half-remembered life as Neo; his business partner is played by Jonathan Groff.

Who directed The Matrix Resurrections?

Lilly sat it out; the film was released in cinemas and on HBO Max on the same day, December 22, 2021.

Which comic-book writer has claimed the Wachowskis essentially plagiarised his series The Invisibles?

A separate lawsuit by writer Sophia Stewart in 2003 was dismissed for lack of evidence.

The Matrix Online, the MMORPG that continued the story after Revolutions, was shut down in which year?

It ran from 2005 and killed off Morpheus in-game along the way; the franchise had generated $3 billion in revenue by 2006.

Which 1996 Wachowski film's success persuaded Warner Bros. to greenlight The Matrix?

Warner Bros. had bought their Assassins script in 1994 and folded two more films into the contract; the neo-noir thriller came first and proved they could direct.

Which French actor declined Agent Smith rather than relocate to Australia for the shoot?

Four and a half months in Sydney was the sticking point; the role went to an Australia-based actor who had never headlined a Hollywood film.

How many days did principal photography on the first Matrix film take?

Shooting ran from March to August 1998, opening with low-exertion scenes like the office and interrogation room while Reeves recovered from neck surgery.

Which Nebuchadnezzar crew member is Tank's brother and the ship's pilot?

Like his brother he was born in Zion, so he has no ports and can never enter the Matrix; Cypher kills him with a lightning rifle.

What is the name of the software company where Thomas Anderson works by day?

By night he sells illegal programs from his apartment; the cereal-box-sized stack of cash Choi hands over is $2,000.

Roughly how many cars did General Motors donate to be wrecked in Reloaded's freeway chase?

Around 97 percent of the film's set materials were recycled afterward, with tons of wood shipped to Mexico to build low-income housing.

Which comic-book writer scripted the continuing storyline of The Matrix Online?

The Concrete creator's story was checked by the Wachowskis through Chapter 9; new critical missions arrived every six weeks with hand-drawn cinematics.

Which studio developed the 2003 video game Enter the Matrix?

Its owner Interplay sold the studio to Infogrames for $47 million mid-development, and the game shipped on the same day as Reloaded.

Alongside Niobe, which Logos crew member is playable in Enter the Matrix?

The Wachowskis described the first mate as an 'ascetic Buddhist killer' who quotes Kierkegaard; he and Trinity call each other 'dear brother' and 'dear sister'.

Which martial-arts star declined Seraph, not wanting his moves digitally recorded?

Michelle Yeoh was considered next but was busy with The Touch; Collin Chou ended up as the Oracle's golden-coded guardian.

Which actor plays the Keymaker, the apron-wearing program held by the Merovingian?

He said the character belonged in The Wind in the Willows, wandered into Alice in Wonderland, then got lost in the Matrix; Lana suggested he halve his stride into a scurry.

Which real-life identical twins play the Merovingian's intangible henchmen in Reloaded?

Warner Bros. answered complaints about albinism stereotypes by pointing out the characters have black eyebrows; Morpheus flips their Cadillac Escalade on the freeway.

Which motorcycle does Trinity ride against oncoming traffic with the Keymaker in Reloaded?

The Keymaker hands her the ignition key so she need not wait for hot-wiring skills to be uploaded; stunt rider Debbie Evans did much of the riding.

Which agency's records did Trinity famously crack, earning her fame among hackers?

Her handle was chosen to sound as enigmatic as a three-in-one being; the name Trinity later climbed into the US top 100 for baby girls.

At its peak in 2004 and 2005, where did Trinity rank among US girls' baby names?

It sat at 523rd in 1998, jumped to 209th the year the film came out and to 74th in 2000, and stayed in the top 100 until 2012.

Fishburne was told to base Morpheus on a character from which comic series?

Both characters are named for the Greek god of dreams; at the studio's request Neil Gaiman later wrote a promotional short story, 'Goliath', set in the film's world.

Which actor plays Link, the operator who replaces Tank aboard the Nebuchadnezzar?

Link is married to Zee, sister of Tank and Dozer, and wears her good-luck necklace when he fires the EMP that saves Zion.

What nickname do Sparks and Captain Ballard give the abrasive Commander Lock?

Born in Zion, Lock cannot jack into the Matrix at all, which partly explains his impatience with Morpheus's prophecy talk.

Which champion boxer plays Captain Ballard of the hovercraft Caduceus in Reloaded?

His ship is doomed when the Smith-possessed Bane fires its EMP early, leaving the Zion fleet helpless against the Sentinels.

Which singer was originally cast as Zee before her death in a 2001 plane crash?

Her scenes were reshot with Nona Gaye, daughter of Marvin Gaye, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for the part.

Which actor plays the Trainman, the dishevelled program who runs the Mobil Ave station?

Neo's powers do not work in the station, so the scruffy exile beats him easily; the character wears multiple wristwatches in Enter the Matrix.

Who provides the voice of the Deus Ex Machina, the machine leader Neo bargains with?

The face is a swarm of tiny Sentinels pouring from hatches to form a human likeness; Henry Blasingame supplied the motion capture.

What is the name of Sati's father, the program who trades for her passage into the Matrix?

The price was the Oracle's termination code, which the Merovingian used to force her into a new shell, explaining her recasting.

Which actress plays the grown-up Sati in The Matrix Resurrections?

Tanveer K. Atwal played the child version in Revolutions; sixty years on, Sati reveals her father designed the Anomaleum that held Neo and Trinity.

What is the name of the hovercraft captained by Bugs in Resurrections?

It is named for the Greek goddess of memory, fitting for a ship that rescues a man whose memories were wiped.

In Resurrections, what is the new city where humans and machines live together called?

Sympathetic machines helped found it after a civil war over dwindling power; an elderly Niobe runs it as general.

Under what code name did Resurrections start production in San Francisco in 2020?

Producers paid the SFPD $420,000 to film in the city; a month in, the COVID-19 shutdown halted everything until August.

Which duo scored The Matrix Resurrections, replacing Don Davis?

The pair had already worked with Lana Wachowski on Cloud Atlas and Sense8; Tykwer is also the director of Run Lola Run.

Which 1967 song features prominently in the trailer and film for Resurrections?

Jefferson Airplane began as the house band for a San Francisco club called The Matrix, a coincidence Lana Wachowski said she was nodding to.

Roughly what was the production budget of The Matrix Resurrections?

It grossed about $160 million worldwide, a bomb blamed partly on its same-day HBO Max release, which prompted a lawsuit from co-financier Village Roadshow.

Who was announced in 2024 to write and direct a fifth Matrix film?

Lana Wachowski stays on as executive producer; it is the first Matrix film not directed by a Wachowski.

Which John Wick director, once Reeves's stunt double, plays Tiffany's husband?

The credits call him 'Handsome Chad'; he broke ribs and dislocated a shoulder doubling Neo in the original subway fight.

In The Animatrix, which household robot commits the first killing of a human?

It pleads self-defence at trial, loses, and is destroyed, triggering the purge that drives the machines to found their own nation.

In the Animatrix short World Record, what time does Dan Davis clock in his final 100 m?

The burst of effort briefly tears his mind loose from the Matrix; Agents wipe his memory and leave him in a wheelchair, but he still whispers 'Free'.

What is the Kid's real name in the Animatrix short Kid's Story?

His leap from the school roof is called self-substantiation, thought impossible; he later helps reload APUs in the Battle of Zion.

In The Second Renaissance, what is the desert nation founded by exiled machines called?

Its cheap, superior products crash human economies; the UN rejects its bid for membership and nukes it in 2148, which the machines survive.

What codename did humanity give its plan to shroud the sky and starve the machines?

It backfired: the machines turned to human bioelectricity, first from volunteers and prisoners of war, then from everyone.

Which Propellerheads track plays over the first film's lobby shootout?

The British big-beat duo's tune runs under the scene where Moss, injured in rehearsal, could not do the wall-run in a single take.

Which band's 'Dissolved Girl' plays in Neo's headphones when Trinity first contacts him?

It never made the soundtrack album, nor did the Django Reinhardt and Duke Ellington tunes faintly heard in the Oracle's apartment.

Don Davis's cue 'Bow Whisk Orchestra', heard in the dojo fight, is an anagram of what?

A companion cue, 'Switch or Break Show', hides the same phrase, the credit the siblings used before coming out as women.

The choir in Revolutions' climactic cue 'Neodämmerung' sings extracts in which language?

The Wachowskis brought Davis verses from the Upanishads after he objected to a huge choir singing plain oohs and aahs; the lines return in the credits track 'Navras'.

Which Norwegian electronic duo was first approached to score Reloaded but declined?

Don Davis returned instead, collaborating with Juno Reactor on the big action cues, while Fluke's remixed 'Slap It' drove the Zion rave.

Which country initially banned Reloaded over its violence and questions of human creation?

Censors objected that its ideas touched on 'the three divine religions'; the film still broke international opening records elsewhere.

Reloaded was screened out of competition at which 2003 film festival?

It premiered in Westwood, Los Angeles on May 7 and opened worldwide on May 15, earning $91.7 million in its first US weekend.

Revolutions opened simultaneously in regular cinemas and which format, a live-action first?

It also set a record for widest release, with its worldwide opening weekend of $203 million standing until Return of the King a month later.

Revolutions' subway scenes were shot in disused tunnels of which Sydney railway station?

The closing Oracle-and-Architect scene was filmed nearby in the Royal Botanic Garden, and Carrie-Anne Moss injured an ankle during the Australian shoot.

Which film overtook Reloaded as 2003's top-grossing release in July of that year?

Reloaded finished third for the year behind the Pixar film and Return of the King, but held the R-rated worldwide record for 13 years.

Which helicopter does Trinity pilot to rescue Morpheus in the first film?

On set it was a full-scale lightweight mock-up hung from the studio roof beams, fitted with a real minigun cycling at half its normal rate.

Which handgun is standard issue for Agents inside the Matrix?

It is chambered for .50 AE rounds; Smith's earpiece, not his gun, is his real link to the system, and removing it leaves him blind to the attack on his building.

How much weight did Reeves lose for the scene where Neo wakes in his pod?

He also shaved his whole body; the pod's breathing-mechanism tester got hypothermia in under eight minutes, so the prop had to be heated.