The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Directors:

Andy Wachowski
Larry Wachowski

Writers (WGA):

Andy Wachowski (characters) &
Larry Wachowski (characters) ...

Release Date:

15 May 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Free your mind.

Plot:

Neo and the rebel leaders estimate that they have 72 hours until 250,000 probes discover Zion and destroy it and its inhabitants. During this, Neo must decide how he can save Trinity from a dark fate in his dreams.

Plot Keywords:

Shot Back To Back | Parallel World | Stylized | Virtual Reality | Fight The System

Awards:

5 wins & 18 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 7	10:15 PM	HBO
Sat. July 12	11:30 PM	HBO

Cast

Ray Anthony	...	Power Station Guard
Christine Anu	...	Kali
Andy Arness	...	Police #2
Alima Ashton-Sheibu	...	Link's Niece
Helmut Bakaitis	...	The Architect
Steve Bastoni	...	Soren
Don Battee	...	Vector (as Don Batte)
Monica Bellucci	...	Persephone
Daniel Bernhardt	...	Agent Johnson
Valerie Berry	...	Priestess
Ian Bliss	...	Bane
Liliana Bogatko	...	Old Woman at Zion
Michael Budd	...	Zion Controller
Stoney Burke	...	Bike Carrier Driver
Kelly Butler	...	Ice

Also Known As:

The Burly Man (USA) (fake working title)
The Matrix 2 (USA) (working title)
The Matrix Reloaded: The IMAX Experience (USA) (IMAX version (promotional title))

MPAA:

Rated R for sci-fi violence and some sexuality.

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Malaysia:18SG | Iceland:12 | USA:R (certificate #39829) | Philippines:R-18 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Chile:TE | Denmark:11 | Egypt:(Banned) | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Israel:PG | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:PT | Singapore:NC-16 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Bern) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

16th Street, Oakland, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Though you must have the DVD subtitle option to ON to discern the dialogue, Neo's alter egos displayed on the screens in the Architect's chamber make the following outbursts: You can't control me! I'm going to smash you to bits! I'm going to fucking kill you! You can't make me do anything you Old White Prick!

Goofs:

Continuity: When Agent Johnson and Morpheus are fighting on top of the truck and Johnson hits Morpheus so does a huge back flip and at that moment a car passes the truck and on the back window of the car you can see the reflection of an exit sign, Morpheus completes his back flip and he is about to loose his balance, at that moment we see no exit sign for "miles".

Quotes:

[first lines]
Power Station Guard: See you tomorrow.

Movie Connections:

References The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Soundtrack:

Reload

Trying to see the bigger picture

*** This comment contains spoilers ***

It's a pity Reloaded looks and feels so much like a bad sequel, to so many. Even to me to begin with even if I kind of enjoyed parts of the ride, a lot. But to me it helps looking at it as a bridge between beginning and end. As a part of a whole. The concept is so promising. I haven't had the chance to see the Animatrix yet, but surely I will. I guess I will spend hours with the game too. In Matrix I just love how interwoven and in balance the storyline is with the way its told. It reached out and grabbed almost everyone. This time around it seems as if there was too much to tell and too many dollars to play with in too short a time. Less balance. Still.. I'm thrilled.

Spoilers ahead. (You might need them) Matrix is so wonderfully mythological. Instead of being ethnocentric it puts the light on eternal religious questions in such a universal way. At the same time it formulates the original reason, philosophical questions. It is about knowledge and faith, belief. Controll through both sense and sensibility. The conflict between gnosticism and Judae-Christianity if we look in the rear mirror.

At the same time it is so biblical to a westerner like me. I won't bore you with all the name symbolism but with Neo himself. His actual name is Tomas Anderson and he is caught in the system (like everyone else in the years leading up to Y2K). In the bible Tomas is the disbeliever, and Tomas also means twin. Anders means man, as in Andros- (android). He is the doubtful son of man who is like the rest of us, who becomes Neo, the new one. At the same time it mirrors the first of Christianity and how it focused on the individual. There is no need for priests or churches (system) for the individual to reach the transcendent, for man to reach God. (And our heroes are individuals in small groups that fight the system, like viruses in a computer. (I just love that Nebukadnessar looks like a bug.)

In the first film we see the creation of (the believing) man. In Reloaded the religious theme takes a step back. Instead it is Free will vs. Determinism which is the main conflict. Thereby the existential perspectives which were planted in the first film can be developed. Here it is amusing to relate to the first existentialists that focused so much on free will and choice, Friedrich Nietsche and Soren Kirkegaard (one atheist and one Christian. The first captain to enroll freely in the final battle is called Soren).

Knowledge and faith remains as a conflict in Reloaded here represented by Lock and Morpheus. John Locke is called the father of The age of enlightenment which is the time of reason in our history. To me it looks like as if the Wachowski brothers are writing a mythological history of ideas for our time. Finally they might embrace even time after the postmodern.

There is a hint of a cycle here. Matrix is about birth, Reloaded about life and Revolutions about death (rebirth). Matrix is the becoming of man. Reloaded is man as a builder of theories and civilizations. Power and control is formed and developed. The Merovingian (400-600) are called the first kings of Europe and are known for their writing and the characters in their written language. (I am sure that you can find parallels to this "code" in the Matrix-code.) Anyway Merovingian is the one who has the 'key master' (the key to power and control?) The middle ages with its mystery and ghosts (lack of reason and empirical method) follows and can be seen in the set design, armor and weapons.

The middle ages were followed by The renaissance with all its use of Greek mythology The wife of Merovingian is Persephone who actually emphasizes on the rebirth theme because she gives our heroes a second chance to get to the 'key master', and as a goddess she is symbolized by a grain that can sprout.

Then comes The age of enlightenment with reason and empirical method which created the necessary conditions for a new conception of the world and industrialism. The living-conditions thereby changed radically for people which resulted in the revolutions of the 19th century and ideologically in the first existentialists, Soren and Friedrich. (Existentialism had a new upsurge when God had left us all alone once again and the world fell apart, during and after WW1 and WW2 during last century. ) The myth can be said to have survived by fleeing into the music and later into film via melodrama. Which leads us to were we and Matrix are right now.

I guess I just had too high expectations when I saw Reloaded the first time. It got better when I saw it a second time and right now it is one of my favorite friends, or bedtime stories. Too bad Reloaded is made in such a way that most people seem to (eventually) enjoy and point out the cinematography at its best. The saga deserves more.

Anyway The Matrix concept is already a classic piece of art, the latest transcription of the bible, a new history of mankind, the steepest roller-coaster and much, much, more.