A Hollywood blockbuster represents thousands of hours of work — which means that no matter
how great the finished product, some pretty interesting stuff happens behind the scenes
of most films that we, the public, never get to hear about… except on super-cool YouTube
videos like this one.
Here's a look at the filming of The Matrix franchise and some of the crazy things that
happened when the cameras weren't rolling.
Required reading
Matrix star Keanu Reeves had to read a thousand pages worth of philosophy and evolutionary
psychology before he was even allowed to see the complete script for the film, but everyone
in the cast had a homework assignment: to read a dense book of French post-modern philosophy
called Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard.
That's because the film's creators, the Wachowskis, wanted to be sure that everyone in the movie
really understood the concept behind The Matrix and could explain it when asked — unlike
Morpheus, who clearly didn't do the reading.
"Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is…
You have to see it for yourself."
The scene Warner Brothers didn't want you to see
The Matrix special effects team studied everything from the physics of fluid dynamics to the
exploding patterns of different types of glass in order to create this awe-inspiring helicopter
crash:
[Explosion sounds]
But the whole thing almost didn't happen.
Just researching the scene took so much time, money, and work that Warner Brothers tried
to have it cut from the movie entirely.
Fortunately, the Wachowskis' passion won out, and the helicopter crash stayed in, using
just about every kind of special effect available at the time.
The Matrix was a comic before it was a movie
Before they blew your mind with this breakout sci-fi hit, directing duo the Wachowskis had
only one other successful film to their name, the lesbian crime drama Bound.
So to convince Warner Brothers to fund The Matrix, they got comic artists Geof Darrow
and Steve Skroce to turn the script into a shot-for-shot storyboard of the entire film.
The 600-page storyboard was impressive enough to get the studio to take the red pill, giving
the Wachowskis a $60 million budget to make their vision a reality.
Warner Brothers' only stipulation?
That they got to pick the film's star, though their choice of Keanu Reeves wasn't initially
a big hit with the Wachowskis.
Turns out they just didn't know Reeves had a skill set that went way beyond what they'd
seen in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
"I know kung fu."
All the white shirts were actually green
If you noticed that every scene set inside the Matrix simulation is kind of green and
queasy-looking, you're not imagining things; it was a visual trick used by the filmmakers
to give the world a sterile, artificial feel.
Which, sure, they could've accomplished with a filter in post-production — but costume
designer Kim Barrett went the extra mile and put every light-colored piece of clothing
worn by the cast through a green wash that also goes extra nicely with the color scheme
in the Oracle's kitchen.
The Matrix took its casting director to some interesting places
For Neo, this training simulator was designed to teach him to keep an eye out for the movie's
evil agents.
But if you take Morpheus' advice —
"Look again!"
— You'll notice something weird: some of the people in this crowd look exactly alike.
For the filmmakers, it was a subtle hint that whoever made this simulation took shortcuts,
copying and pasting the same code multiple different times.
But for casting director Tim Little, it was a challenge — because he was the one who
had to scour the entire country of Australia for dozens of pale-skinned twins and triplets
to use in the scene.That wasn't the best part of the job, however — Little actually had
the most fun visiting local fetish clubs to find extras who would be comfortable in some
of the film's more extreme costume options.
The Matrix recycles
Back in the day, the sets constructed for The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions
were amongst the most ambitious ever built — like the one and-a-half-mile stretch of
fake highway that was built from scratch for this chase scene.
But it didn't go to waste!
97.5 percent of the materials used in the final two Matrix movies were either recycled
or re-purposed to build low-income housing in Mexico, which means that someone is probably
sitting in a living room right now where the very walls are imbued with molecules of Keanu
Reeve's kung fu sweat.
"Whoa."
Hugo Weaving's epiphany
One of the best parts of The Matrix: Reloaded is the Burly Brawl, where Neo battles an army
of clones of the evil Agent Smith.
This scene was partially accomplished through CGI, but it was mostly done by making up a
herd of stuntmen to look just like actor Hugo Weaving — and unfortunately, this awesome
movie moment shattered any illusions Weaving had about his receding hairline.
Talk about a bad way to find out that you're going bald.
"Here I’m looking at everyone from this side and I go ‘AHHH, look how far it's gone!’"
Keanu Reeves gave away a lot of Matrix money
Despite what you may have heard, Keanu Reeves didn't donate his entire salary to the movie's
special effects crew — but he did sign away his residual payments, forever, in order to
funnel money back into the trilogy's production.
Nobody knows exactly how much money Reeves passed up in order to give the crew another
two movies worth of job security, but it would've been in the millions.
We'll give you a second to let that sink in.
"He is the one.”
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