“Wake up
Classic film “The Matrix” turns 25
Black leather outfits and sunglasses: Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix”.
© imago images/Everett Collection/Warner Bros.
A milestone in cinema history is celebrating its anniversary: Exactly 25 years ago, cinema viewers learned for the first time what the Matrix was.
On March 31, 1999, exactly 25 years ago, “The Matrix,” probably the biggest mindfuck in film history to date, was released in US cinemas. The siblings Lilly (56) and Lana Wachowski (58), who were still relative newcomers to the Hollywood stage at the time, staged a breathtaking mixture of sci-fi noir and hard action film with legendary martial arts and kung fu. elements – and garnished the whole thing with a huge dose of philosophy, mysticism and system criticism.
There had never been an extremely smart mainstream blockbuster like “The Matrix” before. Various subsequent successful films such as “Deadpool” or Christopher Nolan’s (53) “Inception” and the “Dark Knight” trilogy by the same filmmaker have been noticeably inspired by the Wachowskis’ sci-fi milestone in the 25 years since the release of “Matrix”. and influenced.
Bullet time overkill in the 2000s
A lot about “The Matrix” still fascinates today, and also with the knowledge of one of the biggest twists in film history, namely – warning: spoiler – that most people in the world of Neo (Keanu Reeves, 59), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne, 62 ) and Co. live in a simulation created by intelligent machines – the Matrix. This is not least due to the technical quality of the classic film, whose effects still cut an excellent figure today – in contrast to “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace”, which was released just a few weeks later.
The most famous special effects scene from “The Matrix” is based on the concept of so-called bullet time: the Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, dodges the shots of an agent (Robert Taylor, 60) on the roof of a skyscraper by leaning backwards – and the Wachowskis’ camera moves for this magnificent effect, depicting Neo’s superhumanly heightened perception at this moment , at normal speed on a digitally generated circle around Neo, during which the balls flying through the air move in slow motion.
The Wachowskis described this incredibly innovative special effect in the script for the film as “liquid space”. It is said to have taken a full two years until the scene in question was satisfactorily completed. Estimated to be $750,000 supposedly only went into this one shot.
But in retrospect, these efforts were more than worth it, because in the action cinema of the 2000s there was simply no getting around this bullet time effect, which was ultimately used and parodied so often that it almost lost all appeal.
A strong heroine
However, technical mastery alone does not make for a cult film. Countless aspects of “The Matrix” could be picked out in order to attempt to understand the gigantic success of the film.
But especially from today’s perspective, the character Trinity, brilliantly embodied by Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss (56), is also impressive in “Matrix”. She is anything but a classic damsel in distress or a simple love interest for hero Neo.
Moss plays a super-cool action heroine wrapped in black leather who comes across as extremely hardened and strong in combat. Like her later partner Neo, Trinity reliably throws herself into the middle of the fray – and was a pioneer for characters such as Uma Thurman’s (53) bride in the “Kill Bill” films, Charlize Theron (48) in “Atomic Blonde” or Gal Gadot ( 38) “Wonder Woman”.
Three sequels to forget
In the first three “Matrix” parts, what separates Trinity from Neo is simply the fact that she is not the chosen one. But the Wachowskis even corrected this shortcoming in the final scene of the otherwise forgettable “Matrix Resurrections” from 2021. Here, Neo and Trinity fly into their very own sunset as an equal superhero couple.
However, the three “Matrix” sequels “Reloaded”, “Revolutions” and “Resurrections” should be shrouded in silence. For those who want more content from the dystopian cyberpoint world devised by the Wachowskis in addition to the original “Matrix”, we would instead recommend the animated film “Animatrix” from 2003, in whose production the Wachowskis played a leading role were.