BY MARTINA JURIČKOVÁ WITH OSCAR GLENTORN

Introduction

Since The Matrix became, we can say, a cult movie, I imagine that almost everyone has seen it or at least knows it from hearsay.

The Matrix was originally a trilogy. The first part, The Matrix, was released in March 1999. After its big success, the filmmakers decided to make a sequel. The next two entries were produced together and released in the same year. The Matrix Reloaded opened in the United States in May 2003, and The Matrix Revolutions opened in October 2003. The latest entry, The Matrix Resurrections, was released in December 2021. The series was also the basis for many other media, even a cartoon series, The Animatrix, and the popular PC games Enter the Matrix and Path of Neo.

The directors of the movie were the Wachowskis (then named Larry and Andy Wachowski, often called the Wachowski Brothers in their early work). They had the idea long before their first movie, Bound, and initially intended to make a comic book. But over time, the idea developed, and they decided it should be a movie. Later, a series of Matrix comic book stories by the Wachowskis was published.

The music for The Matrix was composed by Don Davis. By the way, the names of most of the songs are just anagrams of words “The Matrix,” such as “Threat Mix, Exit Mr. Hat,” or of “Wachowski Brothers,” such as “Bow Whisk Orchestra, Switch Or Break Show”

The original three movies cost 63, 150, and 110 million dollars, respectively. During the first opening weekends, the three movies earned 28, 92, and 48 million dollars in the United States. The Matrix Reloaded earned a total gross of 735 million dollars, making it the most financially successful R-rated science fiction movie at the time.

The Matrix was nominated for four Academy Awards (or Oscars) and won all four: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound. The sequels weren’t nominated for any Oscars, but were recognized by the Golden Raspberry Awards, a tongue-in-cheek ceremony recognizing the worst movies released in the past year. There were other competitions in which the sequels received nominations, including the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Awards and the MTV Movie Awards. The first part won 28 of 36 nominations, the second won 5 of 19, and the last one won 1 of 18 nominations.

What is a Matrix?

The origin of the word “matrix” comes from Old French, where it meant a breeding animal, or from Latin, where it meant a woman or her reproductive organ.

Today, the concept is used often in particular branches of knowledge. For example, in mathematics, it represents a rectangular array of numeric or algebraic quantities subject to mathematical operations. In biology, it can be the formative cells or tissue of a fingernail, toenail, or tooth, or the female reproductive organ. In geology, it is the solid matter in which a fossil or crystal is embedded. In chemistry, it is the non-analyte components of a sample or the principal metal in an alloy, as the iron in steel. In music, it represents an unchanging element of variations. In linguistics, it is the main clause of a complex sentence. In printing, it is a metal plate used for casting typefaces. In music manufacturing, it is the electroplated impression of a phonograph record used to make duplicate records.

Maybe the most important meaning of “matrix,” the one which inspired the Wachowskis to use it as their series’ title, is its use in informatics for the network of intersections between input and output leads in a computer, functioning as an encoder or a decoder.

All these meanings suggest ideas which appear in the original movie. Even the general interpretation of “matrix” as a situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained.

The Matrix Has You

Even while watching the movie, I found it quite difficult to understand what the Matrix really is and what the movie is about. From the beginning, the movie’s plot is deliberately confusing. It follows the protagonist Neo᾽s point of view, and he does not know what is going on until Morpheus explains the mystery to him.

In summary, Morpheus explains that humankind used machines to improve their lives, but the machines became very powerful and tried to dominate their masters. Since the machines used energy from the sun, humans scorched the sky. But the machines started to keep people as their new source of energy; the human body produces more bioelectricity than a 120-volt battery and 25,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) of body heat, or about 26, 400 kilojoules (kJ). The machines raised people in large fields, kept each one asleep in special tanks connected to wires. The wires send electronic impulses that create a virtual reality each brain is connected to. People lived in their dreams and thought it was real life. So, the Matrix is a kind of computer software that humans “live” in.  The concept is similar to the programming that humans use in the movie Avatar, visiting an alien world while their bodies sleep.

However, a group of people survived the first war with the machines. They live in the underground city of Zion in an unspecified future and try to save as many people as possible from the Matrix. Morpheus, inspired by the advice of a program called Oracle, has been searching for someone who can save humankind from the machines᾽ rule. He finds the savior in Thomas A. Anderson, a computer programmer and hacker known as Neo.

Morpheus takes Neo from the Matrix’s control and trains him with other computer programs into a warrior. Connecting their body inputs back into the Matrix allows Morpheus’ group to search for a way to break the computer program and save humankind. Finally, Neo has to destroy Agent Smith, a computer program who became a computer virus after Neo killed him at the end of The Matrix. Agent Smith finds a way to copy his personality into other programs and even people living in the Matrix and wants to control the whole system.

However, it wouldn’t be an American movie without a love affair. Neo fell in love with one of Morpheus’s agents, Trinity, and this love saves their lives several times. For example, when Agent Smith shoots Neo to death, Trinity kisses him, and he wakes up like Snow-white.

Special Effects

When you mention The Matrix, people may think it is just a sci-fi movie full of robots and special effects-driven fights, good only for boys. But actually, it is not only about that. I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it. Of course, the makers wanted to display all the special effects they were able to make with computers. It is reported that 100 million dollars out of the 150 million budget for The Matrix Reloaded was used on special effects.

The most famous effect is “bullet time.” Motion is shown so slowly, almost stopped entirely, that viewers can see the flight of a bullet being shot. The effect was created by a set of 120 cameras installed in a directed line. They snapped almost all at once, with a split-second difference. The footage was then uploaded to computers and combined to produce the effect. The Matrix production team is credited with inventing this effect. In the year after The Matrix was released, bullet time was used in over 20 movies and remains popular today. Although it was a dramatic element at the time, now many movies parody it. You may remember it from the parody scene in Scary Movie or when Fiona fights Robin Hood’s band in Shrek.

Another very famous feature is the “green rain,” a coded representation of the Matrix. It consists of mirror images of half-width kana characters and Latin letters and numerals. Morpheus and his friends watched the code on their computer screens, but only Neo can see the entire code that the Matrix is made of.

Another notable special effect is the multiple machines and robots, mostly made through digital models. The visual effects team constructed one complete robot for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, which weighed 20 tons, but most of the effects had a digital component. The special sound effects created for fight scenes included sounds for falling rain, and for figures falling like bowling pins or dominoes.

Before filming started, the actors had to take months of fighting courses, and had many injuries before and during filming. Keanu Reeves may have had the worst injury, hitting his head so badly that he was unconscious for almost 1 hour.

Matrix Symbolism In Character Names

As I mentioned earlier, the movie is not only about the robots and fights and so on. From the very first scene in The Matrix, I had the feeling I was watching something with more behind it than that.

Just the names suggest it. Almost all names in the movie have some special origin and meaning that describe their roles. They are mostly of ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Hindi origin. A few names refer to the Bible. The references give The Matrix a deeper sense.

For example, Neo means “new” in Greek. He is also called “the One,” an anagram of Neo. His name within the Matrix is Thomas A. Anderson. Thomas A. may refer to Thomas Aquinas. “Ander” is from a Greek word that translates to “man,” so “Ander-son” would translate to “the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used in the New Testament for Jesus, also described as “the One,” the savior who will save humankind.

Trinity means “three in one” in Greek. In Christianity, the phrase is used to describe God as the Holy Trinity, three in one (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit).

Morpheus alludes to a god of dreams in the Sandman comic book series, but also to Orpheus, who experiences a dreamlike quest in Greek mythology. Morpheus often asks Neo about his dreams in The Matrix and later comments “I had a dream” when his ship crashes.

Minor characters include one named Niobe, named for a Greek mythological figure who is punished by her sister Leo for having 14 children, more than Leto’s 2 children.

In The Matrix Reloaded, the administrator of a station between the Matrix and the real world is called the Merovingian, and his wife Persephone helps Neo because of resentment toward her husband. In Greek myth, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and a goddess of the underworld. The Merovingians are an old French dynasty whose members included nobles who claimed to be descended from Jesus. Maybe the Merovingian was a former One, a would-be savior who could have rescued humankind from the machines.

Just to mention some other important names, an Oracle is a person in ancient Greek culture who offers wise counsel or prophetic opinions. Also a name for an early computer system and currently the name for a database system. In the Matrix series, Oracle is one of the Matrix’s founding programs, a soothsayer who can see the future. Her assistant is called Seraph, a biblical name for a high-ranking angel. A guard in Merovingian’s bar calls Seraph an “angel without wings.” The bar was called LeVrai, which means “truth” in French.

Even the buildings and street names have some symbolism, as do the ships or hovercrafts. Morpheus pilots a ship called the Nebuchadnezzar, the name of a Babylonian king mentioned in the Bible as suffering bad dreams. Other ships have names of Hindi or Roman gods.

The city where the free people lived is called Zion, a biblical name for Jerusalem, the capital of the special chosen nation inhabited by the Jews that will be saved at the end of days.

Matrix Symbolism in Allusions

But it is not only names that give the Matrix series a deeper dimension. Viewers can find many references to other works, too. I think the clearest is the instruction Neo gets through his computer: “Follow the white rabbit.”The phrase alludes to the deliberately nonsensical book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. A rabbit tattoo on a girl’s shoulder leads him to accept an invitation to a bar where he meets Trinity.

Another book mentioned in the first movie is Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard, a philosophical work that focuses on the perception of reality. The actors were supposed to read this book before filming. Neo hides some diskettes in the chapter titled “On Nihilism.” Morpheus paraphrased one of the ideas in the book when he says, “Welcome to the desert of the real.”

The number of Neo᾽s apartment is 101, a reference to the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell. In Orwell’s book, Room 101 is a room of suffering.

Later, when Persephone opens a secret door in a library, she accesses the door by taking out a book called The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer.

Another allusion is the car numbers, which represent verse numbers from the Bible. Those verses exactly express the intentions of a car’s driver. Speaking of transportation, I cannot forget the station between the Matrix and the real world. It is called “Mobile Ave.” Mobil is an anagram of “limbo,” a space between Earth and Hell in Christian tradition.

Some hidden references have a specific meaning for the production team. One street lamp reads “Darrow Industries.” Geof Darrow was a stage designer for The Matrix. When Neo visits Oracle, he enters a lift that has the word “Kym” written on it. Kym Barrett was the movie’s costume designer.

Then there is a specific meaning of the number 6. Neo discovers he is the sixth saviour brought up to combat the Matrix program. There are 6 anagrams of Neo. He was supposed to be the sixth integral anomaly in the Matrix software, something like a mistake. In mathematics, 6 is the first perfect number, a sum of its divisors. Some astrologists consider it to be a sign of new choice. On the other hand, Christians see it as a devilish number.

We also see allusions that foreshadow what will happen in the plot. For example, Oracle smokes cigars branded “Double Destiny,” which refers to her fate. Agent Smith destroys Oracle, but she returns in a new body. Or at the end of the movie, Oracle sits on a bench with the note: “In Thomas Anderson’s memory.” Neo sacrifices himself to save humankind but rises again.