THE MATRIX
WHAT IS THE Matrix? On paper, it’s high-concept hokum. A cyberpunk thriller soaked in pseudo-philosophy, with a pair of little-known directors pushing camera tricks as the film’s central gimmick. When the Wachowskis pitched the movie to Will Smith, that was certainly his impression, and the reason he turned down the role of Neo to star in Barry Sonnenfeld’s Wild Wild West instead. But the Wachowskis’ first movie, neo-noir Bound, had been critically lauded, and that gave the pair just enough juice to convince Warner Bros. that their sci-fi vanity project, fronted by Keanu Reeves instead, might just be worth the risk.
The gamble paid off. And then some. With that flo-mo kick from Carrie-ann Moss’ Trinity, sending Agent Brown (Robert Taylor) flying across a room in the film’s prologue, the Wachowskis set out their stall. The directors’ innovative concept harnessed the martial-arts spectacle of Hong Kong action cinema and — thanks to visionary VFX whizz John Gaeta — enhanced it with bleeding-edge CGI to create something that felt entirely new. The ‘Bullet Time’ ‘gimmick’ transformed the movie’s set-pieces from simple adrenaline hits to zen-like art form: a soaring ballet of fists and bullets painstakingly choreographed by action master Yuen Woo-ping.
“The Matrix completely changed action in cinema,” recalls John Wick director Chad Stahelski, who worked as Keanu Reeves’ stunt double on the film. “It made [real] action an essential part of big-budget, high-concept films. Action — especially martial-arts action — was no longer a low-budget, genre affair. It could look and feel big and stylised and cool.”
Cool it was. All shades, black leather and PVC, The Matrix wrapped its gun porn in fetishwear, the achingly stylish heroes performing superhuman feats while looking preternaturally sharp. But while it oozed style, it was never short of substance. The film’s ‘pseudo-philosophy’ proved anything but, with the Wachowskis prescribing Baudrillard as required reading on set, and exploring the themes of his Simulacra And Simulation through the prism of accessible sci-fi. Long before Inception dared
to twist our understanding of what is and isn’t real, the Wachowskis turned blockbusters existential, adding layer upon layer to the film’s transformative mythology, daring audiences to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes. In offering a complex, thought-provoking story with revolutionary fight work and effects, the Wachowskis showed just what an action movie was capable of. Their action didn’t supplement the narrative but drove it, dispelling the assumption that intelligence and spectacle could not co-exist. That the film’s two sequels failed to live up to the original’s promise is regrettable, but neither Reloaded nor Revolutions can detract from the first film’s achievement. “There probably isn’t a frame I shoot that hasn’t been influenced by my experience on The Matrix,” says Stahelski. “The framing, the look, the work ethic needed to create a cinematic world, the world-building. That and the philosophy that your imagination is truly the only limit out there.” The Matrix altered audience perception of what is real, as much through spectacle as mind-bending narrative. Depicting action in a manner that Western audiences had rarely seen before, the film, like its hero, dared to show us a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible.