Way back in 2003, the final Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions, hit the big screen.
It's hardly regarded as the strongest installment in the famed trilogy, and by the time it left
theaters, the Matrix craze had significantly died down. With the 2020s continuing the trend
of endless reboots and sequels, excitement is back in the air for The Matrix Resurrections,
which will debut December 2021 and presumably pick up where Revolutions left off.
There's no better time to begin refreshing your memory on everything The Matrix franchise has
to offer, beginning with the 1999 film that captivated a generation.
From deep allegories that carry more meaning today to innovative filmmaking
techniques that changed cinema forever, The Matrix was by all accounts a game-changer.
It presented audiences with philosophical quandaries in an easy-to-understand way,
packed a punch through its unique action sequences, and told a story that was more than
worth the price of admission. Plus, it added some incredible characters to the pop-culture pantheon.
"If you're killed in the Matrix, you die here?" "The body cannot live without the mind."
There's no denying Keanu Reeves' Neo is the poster child of The Matrix,
but one would be remiss not to give Carrie Anne-Moss' Trinity the spotlight she deserves.
She played a big hand in the first film's story, cementing her legacy through one particular scene
that still has fans pausing, rewinding, and watching again.
As we enter The Matrix universe for the first time, it's made clear that something
isn't quite right. A green-tinted dystopia looks like a normal city,
but we feel in our bones that the whole setup is different from the world that we know. We move
to the interior of a building swarmed by cops, eventually meeting Trinity sitting at a computer.
"I think we can handle one little girl."
Despite being busted, presumably for a serious crime, she refuses to go quietly
and delivers arguably the coolest-looking kick in the history of motion pictures.
Trinity hovering before a dumbfounded police officer has become the defining
image of the character even for those who've never seen The Matrix. The scene itself has
been parodied to death over the years, most recently getting an homage in 2021's Space Jam:
A New Legacy. The reason it's so iconic is because of its use of a bullet-time
camera rig. It's a setup that included dozens of cameras all in operation at the same time,
capturing a 360-degree image that appears frozen. Combine that with a green screen, Carrie-Anne
Moss on cables, and slow-motion aftereffects, and you've got yourself an unforgettable movie moment.
When viewers watched Trinity leap into the air for the first time, it was clear that The Matrix
wasn't going to look or feel like any action movie before it. The 1999 film is a showstopper
from beginning to end, but no other scene captured that pause-worthy wow factor like Trinity's kick.
The famous Trinity kick is an excellent example of how The Matrix and its sequels
changed the way Hollywood's general audiences think about visual effects.
It was as if the collective zeitgeist took the red pill and had their eyes opened to a
new way of filming action sequences. The Matrix took the art of the fight scene to a new level
by bringing in one of the biggest names in the game to choreograph various sequences.
The Matrix directors Lana and Lilly Wachowski hired director
Yuen Woo Ping to train the actors for six months prior to filming, according to Unilad.
At the time, focusing on stunt choreography for that long was unheard of for a Hollywood film.
But The Matrix proved that fight scenes could be more than punching and kicking.
With the right people on board, you could create a visually stunning scene that rivals any car chase.
But The Matrix did far more than merely give us cooler setpieces. The sci-fi flick altered
the way people think about not just action in movies, but philosophy. The film was able to
seamlessly blend the two. Without The Matrix, we may not have had Inception, Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind, and District 9, just to name a few. And of course, we also wouldn't
have The Matrix Resurrections, which drops in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021.
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