Matrix Reloaded Thread(All Matrix 2 Discussion SPOILER WARNING..)

I just came back from watching it. It was an enjoyable experience. Not like watching LOTR Trilogy but I never expected it to be. I'll be happily anticipating Matrix Revoloutions this Winter. :D
 
*SPOILER WARNING*






So anyone have any theories about the cliffhanger at the end?

First off for those of you who didn't notice, Neo used his powers outside of the Matrix, and the last survivor from the city was Agent Smith.

Now that leads me to belive a few things, possibly that the outside world is just another part of the matrix, and Neo is learning how to use his powers outside of there. Either because it's what he gained from merging with Smith, because Smith got the ability to clone himself into other people. Or, he actually gained some sort of power from Smith and is now able to control the actual machines in the outside world. And of course now Agent Smith is in the outside world possbily because it's just another level of the matrix, or the person he used to get out through's mind physically changed his body just like how alot of people die in the matrix there mind makes them belive that happens on the outside.

The Architect was rambling on about and sounded like he was saying that the outside world was fake and it has been done 6 times before, and Neo was built for this purpose, like the 6 before him. But i will have to re-watch this part, and it's also possibly he could have been lying out of his ass or there is a deeper meaning which is the whole point of the last movie.

I honestly think if the outside world is also fake, it is cliche and way too predictable. Though, i have a feeling it could be something else.
 
Hugo Weaving Interview - The Matrix Reloaded * Contains SPOILERS *

Part One - The voice, the suit and PowerAde

Bad guys. Even though you hate them, the really good ones are still quite cool. There probably hasn’t been as cool a villain as Agent Smith since Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Sure, there was Hannibal Lector, but he couldn’t do Kung Fu.

Hugo Weaving is back as Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded.


Since Neo eliminated Smith from the program at the end of the first film, he is no longer working with the matrix. Now Smith is a free agent, but he has more support than ever. He’s cloned himself hundreds of times, and Neo has to face all the Smiths in an extended fight scene nicknamed The Burly Brawl.

When my caller ID showed The Four Seasons Hotel, I knew that was Weaving. I had been instructed to wait until six for an interview, and at 6:03, the phone rang. There wasn’t even publicist to introduce him, just the Aussie accent going, “Hi, it’s Hugo Weaving.” That instantly made me feel this was a personal phone call, though he’d surely been talking to other journalists the rest of the day. But we started with a chat and proceeded to go inside The Matrix Reloaded.

What do you usually do when you’re in L.A.? I’ve got some friends here, so I see them in the evenings and usually during the day, if I’m here, when I’ve been here before, I’ve been here working with The Matrix, so I’ve been training. The last couple of times I’ve stayed in L.A., I’ve been training every day. But if I’m here, I usually come here usually to do with work. So, if I’ve got a free day, I’ll maybe go and see my agent and have a chat to him. Otherwise, I’ll hang out with friends

Have you seen the Agent Smith PowerAde commercial? No, I haven’t. But I did read them. I had a look at them.

You had approval? No. They showed what they were going to do. They wanted me to do them, but I didn’t really want to go there. I haven’t seen them yet.

How do you feel about your character hawking athletic drinks?[ Well, we’ll have a look and see. Joel hasn’t gone crazy with the marketing, so I think that’s probably fine, and the ad seemed to be pretty well written to me.

Is it constricting to fight in the suit? No. I had a number of different suits. I had one for standing around looking good. And I have a fight suit and I have a harness suit. And the fight suit has slightly longer sleeves so when you’ve got your fists up, the cuff of your sleeve doesn’t come right up towards your elbows. Every little last thing was thought of. I had a number of different suits. They must have made hundreds of suits because there were hundreds of mes. I think I had personally at least about six or seven different suits.

How did you develop the voice of Agent Smith? It kind of developed over a period of time. The first I ever heard about Larry and Andy, what they were looking for, I heard that many of the other actors that they had seen had been quite robotic in their takes on the character. When I first read it, I thought he was very funny and I didn’t want him to sound like a robot. But I wanted him to sound inhumanly human, I always said like a news reader. So, he speaks in a way as if he’s a human being, but he’s saying everything slightly strangely. It’s not really conversational.

Part Two - Wirework and The Burly Brawl

Philosophically, if Smith is no longer part of program, what does his presence mean? Well, he’s not part of the program because he’s been compelled by a force to remain- - I mean, he has been upgraded. He should return to the mainframe.
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He should be superceded, but as the oracle says, there are a number of programs that don’t want to go. So, they hide out in the matrix and there’s a compulsion that he has. If Neo is there, he must necessarily be there. I think every force has its oppositional force and that’s exactly what Smith is to Neo. Neo can’t be without Smith and Smith can’t be without Neo.

How many wires would be attached to you? It depends on what you’re doing. Sometimes, for instance, there’s something called a [SOUNDS LIKE: Chow Guan] and that’s just one wire pulling you backwards. There’s a particular move where you’re just pulled backwards and land on your back. When Keanu and I were doing a part of the subway fight on the first film, [there] was the central piece of wirework we did in that scene. We used the bullet time cameras on that and we had I think four wires on each of us because we needed to be held in the air, suspended in the air, and yet sort of moving through the air quite slowly towards each other. And we needed to have a couple of directional people holding us and pulling us in different ways and steadying us. Plus, we had other wires as well, so I think we had four wires on each of us.

What were your responsibilities shooting the Burly Brawl? Again, it depends on the shot. At the beginning of the fight, you see I think eight or nine Smiths. They were myself and eight stuntmen. Then there were a couple more stuntmen added. Eventually, there were 13 of us altogether. The first section of the brawl is with myself and a number of stuntmen. With each shot, I would tend to take the central position, the central Smith. Wherever your eye was drawn in the frame, that would be me, and the stunties would take the other positions. There are some shots though where we did what you’d call multi-pass and I would just move into a number of different positions. They’d lock the camera off and putting all that stuff together, you’d have a number of different mes. But that’s a very time consuming thing to do. Once you get about halfway through the piece, once there are up to 50 Smiths, there is an increased CG element. Then when Smiths are being flung around through the air, there is a section of it where it’s almost totally CG.

How do you feel about being digitally replicated? When I read it, I thought it was a funny scene and it was amusing to do. It’s certainly pretty extraordinary to see it. It was amusing, but then again, it’s kind of me to an extent but it’s not really. It’s actually Smith and I’ve never really viewed Smith as being me, so.

Since Smith is the biggest, baddest program, did you have to train harder to be stronger and faster than the heroes? Well, we all trained together. We trained from day one until we started shooting and then we kept on training anyway. We all trained on the things we had to do.

I think the person who trained the hardest was definitely Keanu and I don't think anyone would disagree with that. You can see the results of that. His Kung Fu is really quite extraordinary, and he did have to work harder actually because he’s in every fight, whereas I’m not and Laurence isn’t and nor is Carrie-Anne. So, we would all do general training together and then when it became closer to working on a particular scene, whoever was in that fight would work on it.
 
Weekend Box Office: Reloaded Rules
Matrix Reloaded smashes records while Daddy Day Care slips ahead of X2.

May 19, 2003 - As expected by many, The Matrix Reloaded shattered a number of records this weekend. The sequel came in at #1 at the U.S. box office, with $91.8 million over the weekend and $134 million since its opening Wednesday night. Some of the records the film broke include: biggest opening by an R-rated film (previously held by Hannibal at $58 million); biggest first four days of release (besting Spider-Man's $125.9 million); largest preview gross, for Wednesday night's showings starting at 10 PM, coming in around $5 million; the biggest Thursday opening of all time (shooting past Star Wars: Episode II); and Warner Brothers' best 3-day opening (their previous best was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, at $90.3 million).
In the number two slot was the family-friendly Eddie Murphy comedy, Daddy Day Care, at $18.9 million, bringing its two-week total to $51 million. Close behind with $17.3 million was the previous two weeks' box office champ, X2 – clearly dropping due to the genre competition presented by Reloaded. The mutant sequel has grossed a healthy $174 million in its three weeks of release.

Weighing in in fourth place was Down with Love, in its first weekend of wide release. The comedy brought in $7 million on 2,123 screens.

In fifth place was Disney's The Lizzie McGuire Movie, with $4.8 million, bringing its total to $32 million.

The sixth, seventh and eighth positions were in close competition; the final standings have these 3 films in those respective slots: Identity (with $3.7 million), Anger Management (with $3.6 million), and Holes (with $3.2 million).

In ninth and tenth place were two small films that continue to do well in limited release: A Mighty Wind, with $1.7 million, and Bend It Like Beckham, with $1.4 million.

Rank Prior Film Title Distributor Weekend Total Weeks Theaters
1 - The Matrix Reloaded Warner Bros. $91,774,413 $134,282,716 1 3603
2 2 Daddy Day Care Sony $18,880,185 $51,057,257 2 3408
3 1 X2 Fox $17,301,287 $174,172,025 3 3490
4 51 Down with Love Warner Bros. $7,001,906 $7,066,077 2 2123
5 3 Lizzie McGuire Buena Vista $4,755,225 $32,314,438 3 2658
6 4 Identity Sony $3,662,843 $45,070,821 4 2196
7 5 Anger Management Sony $3,554,771 $128,278,321 6 2476
8 6 Holes Buena Vista $3,160,190 $55,960,305 5 2232
9 7 A Mighty Wind Warner Bros. $1,692,463 $12,097,256 5 770
10 9 Bend It Like Beckham Fox Searchlight $1,372,198 $15,040,183 10 553
 
SPOILERS POSSIBLE...
[/b]Interview with Keanu Reeves[/b]
Neo chats about the end of the Matrix world, the coat, and getting ready for the film.

May 15, 2003 - Despite his previous career successes in the action genre (Speed and Point Break), Keanu Reeves will go down in the history books as Neo, the hero of the Matrix trilogy. On the eve of what will likely be the largest film of his career, Reeves spent some time discussing his character and role in The Matrix Reloaded.

One of the first questions asked of Keanu was his approach to fame as well as the huge fan support for the films."I don't seek it out really. The Brothers will talk about it sometimes, they're really appreciative of it. They really enjoy the excitement, everyone enjoys the excitement. We all really enjoy the project and so it's great when other people dig it as well."

Reeves has transformed himself physically over the past several years and has become adept at the wire work necessary to be Neo. He discussed what it took to get ready for the next Matrix. "It took a lot of training, the usual four or five months before and then the usual training while shooting. I would have a fight, do some acting, and then choreography would come in and then train with the actors. It's demanding, but it's also one of my favorite parts of the piece. I would more proficient with the wire work. I was able to catch on to choreography much quicker. When they would come in with the choreography with the fights, I would just pick it up. I guess just because my body had the memory of those kinds of movements and knew how to absorb them.

"The fight that was all of the Smiths was a lot of moves. I got to work with twelve of the stuntmen and so for three weeks we just did that fight. And the other thing was just trying to learn the weapons, there was a lot of different weapons, the sais, the swords, the sticks."

Why is The Matrix Reloaded coming out now, 4 years after the first film? "They had to write it, they had a little bit of pre-production to do (laughs) and I think it took some time after the first one, especially for the Brothers, to come back and be able to write it. It was a hard endeavor."

Keanu realized what he was getting in to from the beginning. "I knew it was a trilogy making the first one. I recall at the end of the first Matrix, the Brothers talking about some of the images they were thinking about for the second one. The machines that the Zion fighters have, the robots. I knew that it was alive and then when the first one came out and was received so well, I guess that's when people started to go, 'Okay, let's see what we can do now.' I think that was late 2001. I started training November 2001. It was 270 days, 14 months. I didn't work everyday. The Brothers, what they've done is extraordinary in terms of the effort and focus in getting this on the screen."

One of Neo's hallmark is his fantastic and black wardrobe. "When you first put it on, it's very exciting and it really does inform a lot of your character. It's so iconoclastic. I have 23 different versions of that costume depending on the lighting, the fighting, acting, rain or no rain. They wanted different ones because they catch different things. It has monastic, clerical, priestly overtones but what kind. It's an individual priest, the archetypal cape, it's the overcoat, it's Superman. In the odd way, it's the lone wolf, it kind of has the man apart aspect. It's evocative of many things."

matrixreloaded-reeves.jpg


Can he top Neo? "Hopefully I'll get to work with some artists who have another vision. In terms of topping it, I don't know. I don't think like that. I'm really grateful to be a part of this experience and work with the artists I worked with, to have such a great role, to be a part of something that people are so excited to see."

Reeves talked a bit about the philosophy of the Matrix. "What is reality, what is truth, what is fate, dealing with man and technology. What is AI? What is the real? And if real is just sensory perceptions why can't the matrix be as real and the whole aspect of finding authentic life. I don't believe that the Brothers, in terms of the first one, there are elements of the first one that were kind of pulled back in terms of trying to tell the story. In terms of the characters who were in the Nebuchanezzer, like Switch, they had the same physical incarnation in their matrix selves. Way back when, when they were in the matrix, they looked completely different."

Reeves has trouble picking his favorite scene in the film. "I really enjoy so many of them. I really dig the scene with the Merovingian. It's wonderfully performed, wonderfully written. The scene with the architect is really awesome, well-written, well acted. The things that come out of that scene are pretty interesting to think about. I like the tea house fight and the ones with the Smiths. I like the scenes with Trinity and Neo, some of the more emotional scenes. I love the new characters, I think Jada is kicking some ass. Morpheus is wonderful. I love the look of it, the cinema of it, I didn't find myself when I saw it going, 'Oh yeah, The Matrix. It's very unique and exciting to watch. I loved how much movie is on the screen. I loved the world that they created. You just go right into it."

Is it really over? "We're done. The actors are done. The last scene was a shot in Revolutions. It's a scene with Neo in the machine city. I guess there we're about 250-300 people in the sound stage. It was a close-up and there were a lot of takes. It was a very unique feeling to come to the completion of the project. I was feeling sad, affected emotionally by having all these people, all these craftspeople, people who participated in the film. Our lunch was 1,000 people. We were in 26 or 27 soundstages in Australia. We would be in, say, soundstage one and there would be people hanging lights in another soundstage who did that for 6 months. They literally were working nights for 6 months. There were cats working on the movie that you didn't see. It's like coming in at the end of a long voyage I think. It's like getting off the boat and stepping onshore after crossing an ocean."
 
Interview with Laurence Fishburne
Morpheus chops it up about returning as The Matrix father figure.

May 13, 2003 - Laurence Fishburne was no stranger to film when he first had moviegoers on the edge of their chairs practically begging for him to spit out what the matrix is way back in 1999. Fishburne's Morpheus, the father figure, was one of the breakout characters of the first film but it was far from the first day of school for Fishburne. With a career spanning way back into the '70s including such films as Apocalypse Now, School Daze, Boyz 'N the Hood, The Tuskegee Airman, Event Horizon and others, Fishburne gets ready to star in what will likely be his biggest grossing film yet.

We caught up with Fishburne during a press event on the Warner Brothers lot as he talked about The Matrix Reloaded.

Laurence discussed Morpheus and what drew him to the project. "He is a classical character, Morpheus. He's just modern. I don't know how much [my stage work] influenced or not but I can tell you that the speech in Zion was like being on stage. I was playing to the people. It was fun, really great. I was really attracted to piece because of the dual reality thing. I was fascinated by the idea that there was a real world and then another world that was just inside your head. That was the thing that really drew me towards this. The character was wonderful because he didn't die. I die a lot in movies. Here it was, I got to play this character who is a major force and I didn't have to snuff it."

In The Matrix Reloaded we get to glimpse Morpheus as a more developed character. "It's a little bit more complex, [The Matrix Reloaded] takes you to the next level if you will. So the third movie will be even deeper because I think 60 percent of it takes place in the real world

matrixreloaded-fishburne.jpg


Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix Reloaded


The Matrix films have a strong spiritual component. "I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point. I certainly believe that being in contact with one's spirit and nurturing one's spirit is as important as nurturing one's body and mind. We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit. The movie operates on all three of those levels. It's not just entertainment for your body. It's not just titillation for your emotions. There's also some thought in it and I think that's one of the things that makes it really special."

The Matrix Reloaded shot in Australia. Was it difficult for Fishburne to be away from home? "It was very much Apocalypse Now that prepared me for this experience. I had lived away from home in that part of the world before so it was ok. I have a relationship with the southern hemisphere that's a really good one. I love it there."

And what's next for Fishburne? "I'm adapting Paulo Coelho's book The Alchemist. I'm set to direct it and star in it. I read the book when ti first came out. It spoke to my wanting to fulfill the dreams that I had as a human being. It is a touchstone for a lot of people. I think the message is appealing. If you have a desire, if your heart has a desire that is pure and positive, then the universe will conspire to help you."

Like his co-stars, Fishburne is mum on the Wachowski Brothers. "First time I've ever worked with two directors on one movie, really slow and tedious. Larry's the little one, Andy's the big one and that's all I say about that."

Will there be any other Matrix films? "It's the end. That's it. I'm happy. It's not broke, don't fix it. It's good where it is."
 
Interview with Carrie-Anne Moss
Trinity on The Wachowskis, motorcycles, love scenes, and the end of her existence.

May 12, 2003 - Back when I wrote my review of The Matrix in 1999, I closed by saying that I thought Carrie-Anne Moss hung the moon. Maybe it was because the character of Trinity was such a huge blast onto the scene that I was still spinning from her kick-ass leather and, well, just ass-kickingness. Now, almost four years later, Trinity is back with Moss reprising the role that made the actor a household name.

Moss spoke with IGN and other journalists on Stage 16 on the Warner Brothers lot about her experiences on the second and third installments in the trilogy.

In between suiting up for another round of Trinity, Moss appeared in three films: Chocolat, Red Planet and Memento. How did it feel to come back as Trinity? "It was even more fun, it was just that it was harder because I knew what to expect. The first one I didn't know what to expect so it was this 'ignorance is bliss' kind of thing. It was incredible, the greatest experience."

After suffering an ankle injury during filming the first film in The Matrix franchise, Moss had some more trouble with her bones this time around too. "I broke my leg on a wire. I broke my leg the first week of training. It was a challenge to overcome right off the bat. I came in really gung-ho and ready to do it and then I got an obstacle given to me in the very beginning. But, I'm all for obstacles to overcome. We trained for six months before we started training. I came to work everyday and watched them train."

After The Matrix hit theaters, the strong female character established in part by Moss inspired other women of action. Says Moss, "Well, I never really think of myself as the pioneer because I look at people like Sigourney Weaver. There were so many women who came before me. I definitely acknowledge that The Matrix and Trinity had an influence on female action-oriented characters in television and in film. I think it's awesome. It's a big testament to the Brothers, not me. I'm just the hired gun. When I did the first Matrix, after it came out, I had a woman come up to me and just thank me for Trinity because she was an action writer. She said she was getting really good opportunities now."

Moss saw her star and profile rise in Hollywood almost overnight. How has she dealt with fame? "I think that fame is sort of how you deal with it. Keanu is super-duper famous and he has a really normal life. I think if you want to be in the middle, in the public eye with that kind of attention, you can. If you want to be private you can be [also]. I'm a pretty private person and I've come to promote a movie because I believe in it … other than that I really live a very simple, normal life."

How about the media shy Wachowskis? Why are they so revered by both cast and crew while at the same time to inaccessible to the media? "They're really, really smart and interesting and compassionate and thoughtful and can talk about things and make you think about things you've never thought of before. I'm very protective of them. You will never get a chance to know them because they don't do this part of the work. I gave everything to them to make this film because I wanted to. They inspired that. They inspired that from everyone from the crew to the cast because that's the kind of people they are. They are very special. How do you articulate that? I only know that because I've known them for the past five years.

"The Brothers gave me a gift. They encased in glass my coat, my jacket, the glasses and some photographs of my journey. You plug it in. It's got a light. Not sure what I'm going to do with it but it's pretty cool. I have it in storage right now because I'm not sure where to put it. I could see it [someplace] where it makes no sense. It either needs to be in a museum or someplace where I stack toilet paper."

While Moss went all out for The Wachowski Brothers, she also fought some of her own personal demons, including overcoming her fear of motorcycles to become a key component in a sequence that makes cinematic history: the freeway chase. "It's such a great scene. We shot that in Oakland. I asked the Brothers and one of the reasons they shot it in Oakland [is because] they needed to have the best stunt people in the world. We happen to have them here in America. That's one of the reasons they did it there. It was dangerous. You could really feel that everyday that you went out there. You couldn't be airy, spacey, you had to be really focused. I trained for months to figure out how to ride a motorcycle. I have kind of a major fear of them. I have a major fear of going at fast speeds without any kind of protection, no helmet, an actor on the back with no helmet. I felt very afraid to do it. I love that I did it and overcame the fear and was able to do that."

"I did have a stunt double for the dangerous stuff. It was important to [the Wachowski] Brothers that they had those shots to establish me on the bike. They wanted me to do as much as I could do. When they want something (and they want a lot; they want everything) you want to give it them, because you love and you respect them so much."

Overcoming fear or even downright discouragement is nothing new to Moss. As a young woman, Moss fought people telling her to give up on her acting ambitions. And who was the most discouraging? "Oh, you know, a teacher in school. A counselor who was supposed to be counseling you on your career and he suggested that I have something to fall back on. I said, 'That's ridiculous, I don't need anything to fall back on.' He couldn't believe it and we got into a big argument. But I'm grateful to anyone who told me I couldn't do it because it really fueled my fire. Are you gonna fuel your faith or fuel your fear? I'm all about fueling my faith, especially when it's hard to do so."

How did Moss connect with the script? "I did see it in a cosmic level, on a love level. When you read the special effects part, my mind just kind of blanks out, I don't even read that part. The action parts in the first script I did read and thought, 'You expect me to do that?' I saw it as a love story, a story about love conquering all, belief, faith, hope, destiny, choice. That's just how I think I guess."

In The Matrix Reloaded, Trinity deepens her love with Reeves' Neo, including a long love scene in Zion. "I was pretty nervous about it, leading up to it, but in the end, Keanu is a good friend of mine; I trust him, I respect him, I like him. The Brothers were right there telling us what they wanted. It was important to execute the scene as they would any other scene to give it the truth of what it needed to have. The relationship between Neo and Trinity, their love is important to me, that that is there in the film. I thought it turned out really beautiful and tasteful. Women really like it I think."

Despite all the notoriety and work Trinity has brought her, Moss is bringing her association with characters like her to a close. "I won't play another character like her, out of respect to her and out of respect to the film. I wouldn't play a leather-clad kicking butt girl. It just wouldn't make any sense to me. It would be like cheating. It wouldn't be right … I'm not sad that it's over. I completed it. It was a really intense, awesome experience and I feel I completed it. So I'm happy to be moving on to other things."
 
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