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The Matrix Reloaded is the second installment of The Matrix series, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers and released by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15, 2003 and around the world during the latter half of that month. The Matrix Reloaded earned $281 million in the US and $738 million worldwide, making it the 28th highest grossing film in the US and Canada, and the 23rd highest-grossing film worldwide. The other parts of the second installment are the video game Enter the Matrix, which was released May 15, and a collection of nine animated shorts, the Animatrix, which was released on June 3. The Matrix Revolutions was released six months after this film, in November 2003.
Overview
Controversy The film was banned in Egypt because of the violent content and because it put into question issues about human creation "linked to the three monotheistic religions that we respect and which we believe in".* Egyptian media claimed it promoted Zionism since it talks about Zion and the dark forces that wish to destroy it. However, it was later allowed to air in theatres and was later released on DVD and VHS. Plot The film presupposes familiarity with the storyline of The Matrix. The Final Flight Of The Osiris
Cause & Effect
Meeting The Architect Realizing that the power grid will not be down in time when Neo tries to unlock the vital door and that therefore the building's "alarm" (a massive bomb) will be tripped, Trinity disobeys Neo's request and enters the Matrix. She single-handedly infiltrates the control area and hacks into the control grid's mainframe just in time to disrupt the power grid and to allow Neo to follow the Keymaker's instructions and open the door to the Source. He enters a room surrounded by television monitors (reminiscent of the ones watching him during the interrogation scene in the first film), all showing his image, and encounters the Architect, who describes himself as the creator of the Matrix. Neo asks the main question: "Why am I here?" The Architect says Neo is "the eventuality of an anomaly" he has been trying to eradicate from the Matrix program. The Architect says while he has been unsuccessful in eliminating this anomaly "from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision", he has succeeded in controlling it. It is this control system that "has led Neo responds by saying the Architect has failed to answer his question, to which the Architect agrees with a slight smile in recognition that Neo was "quicker than the others". The various images of Neo on the Architect's monitors then respond with various reactions ranging from relatively subdued (such as "Others'? What 'others'?") to childish ("I want out! I want out! I want out!"), to rage-filled (flipping off the outside of the monitor and shouting "FUCK YOU!!!" at the top of his lungs). Neo is caught off-guard by what he is seeing, but the Architect continues as though nothing has happened. He says that "the Matrix is older than you know". He says that he distinguishes each 'version' of the Matrix every time a 'Neo eventuality' emerges, "in which case, this is the sixth version". Therefore, Neo is the sixth in a series of eventualities or "Ones". Once again, different versions of Neo continue to express themselves on the myriad of screens, and the camera zooms in on one (physically passing through the screen's surface) to show the choice Neo makes: "the The Architect confirms Neo's deduction and reveals how these anomalous errors occur "in even the most simplistic equations". Seeing the monitors react once again, Neo suddenly realizes why these errors occur: "Choice. The problem is choice." The Architect proceeds to detail the history of the Matrix and just how this problem of choice affected its design. The first version of the Matrix was intended to be "perfect", "flawless" and "sublime", a design previously hinted at by Agent Smith in The Matrix. However, the humans refused to accept this utopia and it failed. Thinking that humans needed to have an imperfect world to survive, he created the second version of the Matrix "to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of human nature." However, he "was again frustrated by failure." The Fundamental Flaw
The Choice The Architect continues to reveal that "the function of the One is now to return to the Source" in order for him to integrate with it and "reinsert the prime program" embedded within him. His final task will be to "select from the Matrix 23 individuals - 16 females, 7 males - to rebuild Zion." The Architect then warns Neo, "Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash, killing everyone connected to the Matrix, which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race." Neo tries to call the Architect's bluff saying that humans are necessary for machines to survive, but the Architect merely rebuts that claim by saying that machines are prepared to accept "certain levels of survival" and re-states Neo's dilemma, whether he is or is not ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world. The Architect is then intrigued by Neo's reaction. He says that his predecessors were "by design" made to develop "a profound attachment" with humanity, but he says that Neo is interestingly different. His attachment and his thought is currently focused on one particular individual: Trinity. As a side-note, he adds that she entered the Matrix to save Neo's life at the expense of her own, and shows Trinity being attacked by an Agent just as Neo had seen in his dream. As far as the Architect is concerned, there should be no dilemma — Trinity will die, whether Neo enters the Source or not. He puts it as "She is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it." Thus Neo is presented with the ultimate choice of two doors: "The door to your right leads to the Source, and to the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix, to her, and to the end of your species. As you so adequately put — 'the problem is choice'." Despite all logical reasoning, Neo chooses to try and save Trinity over the rest of humanity, and for the first time every screen shows the same decision, demonstrating his belief in this reaction to the dichotomy. The Architect sardonically offers one final conclusion: "Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness." Neo gives a final veiled threat to Architect saying that he'd better hope he never sees Neo again, and with that, Neo leaves the conduit between the Matrix and the Source to save Trinity. Defying both his visions and the Architect, he catches her just before she was to have fallen from a skyscraper but not before she takes a critical bullet from an Agent. Neo reciprocates Trinity's saving of his life in the first film and uses his powers to remove the bullet and restart her heart after it stops, bringing her back to life. The Revolution Morpheus is very dismayed when he hears that the Prophecy has been unfulfilled. Neo tells Morpheus that the Prophecy was just "a lie" and "another system of control." Morpheus refuses to believe it, and, echoing the words of his mentor in the first film, Neo says "I know it isn't easy to hear, but I swear to you it's the truth." The Nebuchadnezzar comes under attack by Sentinels outside the range of their EMP and the crew must abandon ship. In the sewers outside, they flee, but Neo senses something has changed; he can "feel" the Sentinels' presence. He halts the Sentinels as he would bullets in the Matrix, but immediately loses consciousness. As his shipmates rush to his aid, they are rescued by another craft, the Mjolnir (referred to as the Hammer, a reference to the hammer of Thor). The film concludes with the news that Zion's counter-attack with carefully positioned ships has failed. An electromagnetic pulse was activated too early, downing five hovercraft immediately. The break in the ships' lines allowed the machines to overrun them all. The only survivor of this massacre is revealed to be Bane — the red pill overwritten by Smith's consciousness, and the only human who desires to kill Neo. The final shot shows Bane's unconscious body lying inches away from Neo's. The story is concluded in the last film of the trilogy, The Matrix: Revolutions. Discussion In this film, Neo returns the favor to Trinity by bringing her back to life this time. The scene used visual effects which some see as illustrating a healing energy coming from Neo, that merges with the rapidly fading energy of lifeless Trinity. It could also be seen as another manifestation of Neo's ability to manipulate items (in this case, a human heart) within the Matrix. There are various references to philosophy, mythology and computer science. The scene in which Neo fights Seraph is a simultaneous reference to the spirituality of martial arts and to challenge-response authentication. It is also suggested that the Oracle is actually an oracle machine. A cleverly constructed technical detail is Trinity's use of an SSH exploit, which had not yet been discovered (and thus fixed) in 1999 (the year which The Matrix simulates), to break into a computer. The "hidden floor" is floor number 65 (a multiple of 13). Characters throughout the movie continually remind us that Neo is still only human. At the beginning Agent Johnson says, "Only human." The Merovingian says, "You see, he is just a man," when Neo's hand bleeds briefly. The Architect tells Neo, "You remain irrevocably human ...". This is also conceivably another parallel drawn between Neo and Jesus of Nazareth. In the Bible, Pilate presents Jesus to a hostile crowd with the words "Behold the man". Likewise, Jesus often refers to himself as the 'Son of Man'. This phrase in biblical text was often used to mean 'human', except in reference to Jesus, where it is generally accepted as a reminder of his simultaneous humanity and divinity. Existentialism can also be seen throughout the movie, as so much emphasis is put on choice and self definition rather than predestination. Neo insists he is not governed by causality or rules, through such actions as bringing Trinity back to life. And yet, throughout the story, it seems as though Neo's actions are predestined (by the Matrix). The Merovingian tells Neo that "He was sent for", and that "there is only cause and effect". The Architect also informs Neo that his arrival is the eventuality of the Matrix system that led him to the Architect. The Architect attributes the imperfectness of the Matrix to humanity's stubborn will to defy reality and authority, a theme which can be seen throughout many of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novels, and Jean-Paul Sartre's plays. The film does however place an emphasis on human need to use logic and causality when the councilor relates to Neo the irony that they are dependent on the same machines that threaten to control them (the machines symbolic of causality and reason). In the Architect scene, some of the screens show images from Neo waking up in the real world. It is unclear how these images supposedly from outside the Matrix could be known to the Architect inside of the Matrix, unless perhaps the Architect can read Neo's mind. Finally, when fleeing the Sentinels at the end to the film Neo is able to disable them. There are a few explainations for this, ranging from simple comic-book physics to out-of-place psychic powers to a new-found ability to influence the Matrix without being plugged in to -- and most interesting -- Neo is only bending the rules of a set of physical laws. Does this mean that the real world of the movies is in fact a larger, second simulated-reality that both the machines and humans believe is the real, physical world? This hypothesis works well when real world - Matrix effects are taken into consideration. Take, for example, the end of the first film where Neo seems to hear Trinity when he is dead in the Matrix and she is professing her love for him on board the besieged Nebakanezer. Also, consider that when you die in the Matrix you die in both simulations, which sounds a little more reasonable than "your mind making it real." This hypothesis also works well considering the powers of the Oracle: consider the realm of her prophesies over the course of the trilogy. In the first movie, she predicts that Neo will have to make a choice, to save either his life or that of Morpheus. This prophesy extends out of the matrix and into the real world, where Neo makes the choice to reenter the matrix to rescue Morpheus. Also, consider the choice captain Naiobi faces in Revolutions: the choice whether to help Neo or not by giving him her ship. This prophesy also extends out of the matrix into the real world. Considering that the Oracle is a computer program, logical reasoning would conclude that somehow the Oracle has access to what is happening in the "real world". Reception The Matrix Reloaded had a positive critical reception in certain sects of the media, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 74%. Criticisms and acclaim, on record, are at times similar to those leveled at the movie's predecessor*. Positive comments included commendation for the quality and intensity of its action sequences** and intelligence*. Some critics have exceptional praise for it, saying that "its character development and writing...is so crisp it crackles on the screen" and have said that "Matrix Reloaded re-establishes the genre and even raises the bar a notch or two" above the first movie, The Matrix. * Negative comments included the sentiment that the plot alienated many critics**, who claimed that the focus on the action came at the cost of the movie's human element**. Some also said that the dialogue focus on exposition scenes * worked against the film. Although it was well-known that the plot of Reloaded would be resolved in Revolutions, the many unresolved subplots and the cliffhanger ending were criticised by some*. Soundtrack Don Davis, composer on The Matrix, returned to score Reloaded. For many of the pivotal action sequences, such as the "Burly Brawl" he collaborated with Juno Reactor. Some of the collaborative cues by Davis and Juno Reactor are extensions of material by Juno Reactor; for example, a version of Komit featuring Davis' strings is used during a flying sequence, and Burly Brawl is essentially a combination of Davis' unused Multiple Replication and Juno Reactor's Masters of the Universe (which also appeared in its original form in The Animatrix). The Juno Reactor song Mona Lisa Overdrive was included during the freeway chase seen, this song holds literary significance as it as a reference to a cyberpunk novel of the same name Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson, a writer whose work was heavily inspirational to the Matrix creators. Rob Dougan contributed again, licensing the instrumental version of his eponymous Furious Angels, as well as being commissioned to provide an original track, ultimately scoring the battle in the Merovingian's chateau. As with its predecessor, many tracks by external musicians (such as Rage Against the Machine, who had been featured in the first film) are featured in the movie and its closing credits, and the soundtrack album. Leitmotifs established in The Matrix return, and some used in Revolutions are established. Cast Parody A parody of The Matrix Reloaded, with scenes from the movie edited to incorporate Justin Timberlake, Seann William Scott and Will Ferrell, was used to introduce the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. The Oracle, Morpheus, and the Architect are parodied in Scary Movie 3. G.O.R.A. also parodies some key scenes from the film, along with other ones from famous sci-fi movies like Star Wars and The Fifth Element. Manylemons Productions, a internet movie producer, made a parody called The Narutrix Reninja'd, which consists of scenes from Naruto set to the audio from the Matrix Reloaded trailer. Trivia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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