Jupiter Ascending is out next week, finally.
And since the trailers are basically saying, hey,
remember how much you like The Matrix, the first one, this is like the space matrix.
It's the spacetrix.
It has leather coats, and guns and
even an unwilling chosen one and she's a lady this time.
Suffice to say,
Jupiter Ascending did indeed remind us how much we liked the Matrix, which is reason
enough to bring you seven things you didn't know about The Matrix, probably.
(Sound) There is a ton of action in The Matrix,
and it required lots of special effects and
stunt professionals to make it all happen.
But you probably didn't know that, for
this stunt, Keanu Reeves did it all himself for real.
>> Whoa.
>> That is Keanu Reeves, no stunt double, 34 floors up.
And he had to do it all while holding his cell phone,
which somehow makes it seem even more stressful.
I feel like I'd want both of my hands while trying not to fall to my death.
(Sound) Climbing out of windows and skyscrapers gives you a pretty
good sense of how committed Keanu Reeves was to the project.
But he wasn't the Wachowskis' or Warner Brothers' first choice.
The Wachowskis were set on Johnny Depp and Warner wanted Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer.
Obviously, none of those guys worked out.
But Nick Cage, Tom Cruise, Leonardo Dicaprio, Ewan McGregor, and
Will Smith also turned down the role before Keanu became the one.
>> I don't believe it.
>> By the way, Will Smith passed on it so that he could do Wild Wild West instead.
Totally worth it.
>> Damn.
>> And speaking of excellent decision making,
Jean Reno turned down the role of Agent Smith to be in Godzilla.
Bonus thing you didn't know.
Also come on, Jean Reno, you're supposed to be the professional.
>> Well, thank you very much.
(Sound) >> The Wachowskis play with the idea of
the Matrix repeating a program a few times in the movie.
There's the scene with the cat.
>> Deja vu.
>> Or this scene in the training program.
What you probably never noticed is we see many of the same faces in
repeating in this scene but didn't notice because of, well, her.
Rather than using special effects or trick photography,
they simply cast identical twins to create this effect of a repeating program.
We get a set of twins here with this guy in the sunglasses and
then his twin brother playing a cop writing a parking ticket.
More twins here with the sailors.
Then we see this lady and see her again, or her sister, anyway,
a few seconds later.
Hey, if using twins instead of expensive special effects is good enough for
James Cameron, it's good enough for the Wachowskis, right?
If you don't know what I mean by that,
it means you're not watching the show enough and
didn't see our episode on The Terminator, which is really embarrassing for you.
So let's just move on to our next thing, okay?
Let's talk about this scene where Neo goes to meet Trinity.
More specifically, let's talk about where they are.
They shot this in a real S&M club in Sydney, Australia.
See, they shot the whole film down under.
So when they needed a club for
this scene, they went with the Hellfire Club in Sydney.
And all of the extras are real Hellfire club-goers who provided their own costume.
It probably helped save the Wachowskis a lot of money on whips and ball gags.
That stuff really just eats through your budget.
(Sound) Did you know that
The Matrix got sloppy seconds from the 1998 film Dark City?
Some of the buildings and
exterior sets from Dark City were repurposed for The Matrix.
Like these rooftops that Trinity is running across right here.
They're the same ones in this scene from Dark City.
By the way, you remember Dark City, you guys?
I completely forgot that movie even existed.
And Rufus Sewell, I completely forgot that guy even existed.
Whoa, sorry, got lost in Rufus Sewell's eyes there for a moment.
Moving on.
>> Freeze.
>> Here's a thing about the lobby shootout, easily a Matrix fan favorite.
Even though it's less than three minutes long,
it took ten days to shoot this sequence.
This is largely because nearly all of the special effects are practical.
The only digital effect was getting rid of the wires on shots where they did
crazy crap like this.
And on this part where Trinity does this cart-wheel thing off the wall,
Carrie-Anne Moss managed to nail that in one take.
Wires aside, that's pretty impressive.
Plus, it saved the Wachowskis half a day's worth of resetting the destroyed columns
for a do-over.
Which makes Carrie-Anne Moss almost as helpful as all those S&M folks at
the Hellfire Club.
(Sound) Neo spends
a decent chunk of The Matrix getting his ass kicked,
then learning how to kick ass, and eventually kicking some serious ass.
But most people don't know that all throughout filming,
Keanu Reeves had a problem with kicking ass, because he literally could not kick.
See, shortly before starting training for the film, Reeves had spine surgery.
He had to wear a neck brace all throughout training.
And they had to adjust his fight choreography because Reeves was unable to
kick worth a damn for two months.
That's why Neo doesn't kick all that much in the completed film.
kind of doesn't matter, though,
when you can limbo like nobody's business or stop bullets midair or, you know, fly.
All right, guys, those are your seven things.
We've got more where that came from.
So if you're down for a part two, we'll put it in the hopper
right behind Die Hard Part Two, the Big Lebowski Part Two.
And of course, Tuccipalooza.
Thanks for watching.
Be sure to check out cinefix.com and subscribe for
more true-ish things about movies.
And sometimes whips and ball gags and
my own personal proclivities right here on Things You Didn't Know.
(Noise)