The Matrix Revolutions

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The Matrix Revolutions

Promotional film poster
Directed by Andy Wachowski
Larry Wachowski
Produced by Joel Silver
Written by Andy Wachowski
Larry Wachowski
Starring Keanu Reeves
Laurence Fishburne
Carrie-Anne Moss
Hugo Weaving
Editing by Zach Staenberg
Distributed by Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures
Release date(s) November 5, 2003
Running time 129 min.
Language English
Budget $110,000,000
Gross revenue $424,988,211 (worldwide)
Preceded by The Matrix Reloaded
IMDb profile

The Matrix Revolutions is the third and final film in The Matrix trilogy. The film, a combination of philosophy and action like its predecessors, sought to conclude the questions raised in the preceding film, The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It was released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5, 2003. Despite being the final film, the Matrix storyline was continued in The Matrix Online.

It was the first live-action film to be released simultaneously in regular and IMAX theatres. The Wachowski Brothers were present in Tokyo at the opening of the movie, as were stars Keanu Reeves and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Contents

[edit] Production

The movie was filmed concurrently with its predecessor, Reloaded, and live-action sequences for the videogame Enter the Matrix. This took place primarily at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia.

[edit] Sound design

Sound editing on the Matrix Trilogy was completed by Danetracks in West Hollywood, CA.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: The Matrix Revolutions: Music from the Motion Picture

In contrast to the movie's predecessors, very few "source" tracks are used in the movie. Aside from Don Davis' score, again collaborating with Juno Reactor, only one external track (by Pale 3) is used.

Although Davis rarely focuses on strong melodies, familiar leitmotifs from earlier in the series reappear. For example, Neo and Trinity's love theme—which briefly surfaces in the two preceding movies—is finally fully expanded into "Trinity Definitely"; the theme from the Zion docks in Reloaded returns as "Men in Metal", and the energetic drumming from the Reloaded teahouse fight between Neo and Seraph opens "Tetsujin", as Seraph, Trinity and Morpheus fight off Club Hel's three doormen.

The climactic battle theme, named "Neodämmerung" (in reference to Wagner's Götterdämmerung), features a choir singing extracts (shlokas) from the Upanishads. The chorus can be roughly translated from Sanskrit as follows: "lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light, lead us from death to immortality, peace peace peace" [1]. The extracts were brought to Davis by the Wachowski brothers when he informed them that it would be wasteful for such a large choir to be singing simple "ooh"s and "aah"s (according to the DVD commentary, Davis felt that the dramatic impact of the piece would be lost if the choir was to sing 'This is the one, see what he can do' in plain English). These extracts return in the denouement of the movie, and in Navras, the track which plays over the closing credits (which may be considered a loose remix of "Neodämmerung").

[edit] Cast

Actress Gloria Foster, who played the Oracle in the first two films, died before the completion of her filming for the third and was replaced by actress Mary Alice. Her changed appearance is addressed in the movie's plot, and the directors state they had coincidentally explored such a change early in the script's development.

[edit] Plot

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The film's events immediately follow those of The Matrix Reloaded and assume familiarity with the story of the last two films.

Bane/Smith and Neo are both in an unconscious state. The former is said to be merely asleep, whereas neural patterns of Neo are identical to those of people who are jacked in to the Matrix. Morpheus, dispirited after the destruction of the Nebuchadnezzar and discovering the true nature of the Prophecy at the end of the last film, starts a search for Neo within the Matrix despite him not being jacked in. Neo is in fact trapped in a limbo: a subway station named "Mobil Avenue" that is a transition zone between the Matrix and the Source (the Machine mainframe). "Mobil" is notably an anagram for "Limbo". At this station, Neo meets a 'family' of programs, who tell him that Mobil Avenue is controlled by a program called The Trainman who, in turn, is an exile loyal only to The Merovingian. When Neo tries to board the train with the family, the Trainman refuses, and knocks him away from the train.

Seraph contacts Morpheus on behalf of the Oracle, who now resides in a different "shell" (see Cast, above). The Oracle informs Morpheus and Trinity of Neo being trapped in Mobil Avenue. Seraph, Morpheus and Trinity pursue the Trainman to secure Neo's release, but he escapes. The trio enter Club Hel to confront the Merovingian for Neo's freedom. The Merovingian demands "the eyes of the Oracle" in exchange for Neo's release, and Trinity responds by provoking a Mexican standoff (with everyone having a gun to their head), forcing the Merovingian to release Neo at gun point.

Troubled by new visions of the Machine City, Neo decides to visit the Oracle before returning to the real world. She informs him that, as the One, upon visiting the source, he developed a connection with the Source (the Machine mainframe). The Matrix, and the rest of the Machine world, are derived from the Source as well. Thus we learn that all of Neo's abilities - both in and out of the Matrix - exist because of this connection (although the exact nature of this connection is never explained). This is how Neo was able to stop the machines giving pursuit after the Nebuchadnezzar was destroyed in The Matrix Reloaded, although the end result of his lack of preparation was temporary confinement in Mobil Avenue. She characterizes Smith (who is also growing in power) as his exact "opposite", his "negative" and elaborates on the relationship between herself and the Architect (Tellingly, each of them ejects an exasperated "Please!" when Neo asks them about the other). She also tells Neo cryptically that "everything that has a beginning has an end" and warns that Smith's power threatens not only the Matrix but also the Source and eventually the Machine City. The Oracle states that the war is about to end "one way or another."

After Neo takes leave of the Oracle, an army of Smiths arrive at her home. They successfully assimilate the unresisting Oracle. Having gained her powers of precognition, the new Smith cackles maniacally at whatever future he is seeing.

In the real world, the remaining crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Mjolnir (referred to by the characters as "the Hammer") encounter Niobe's deactivated ship, the Logos and its crew (Enter The Matrix covers how they ended up being stranded). They successfully reactivate the deactivated ship and begin to interrogate the now awakened Bane, who claims he has no memory of the events of the earlier battle. After contemplating his visions, Neo announces that he needs a ship to travel to the Machine City, although he cannot explain why. Roland, the Mjolnir's captain, refuses him, but Niobe - who was told by the Oracle (covered in Enter The Matrix) that she would have to make a choice to help Neo or not - lets him take the Logos. Trinity decides to accompany Neo.

The two remaining crews plan to return to Zion and avoid the Sentinel army by piloting the Mjolnir through a series of service tunnels through which it is nearly impossible to navigate. Shortly after departing, the Mjolnir's crew discover that Bane has murdered a crew member and has hidden aboard the Logos, but they are unable to return to warn Trinity and Neo. Before the ship can depart, Bane ambushes Trinity and takes her hostage. Neo fights with Bane, who reveals himself as a manifestation of Agent Smith. During the struggle, Bane/Smith blinds Neo by cauterizing his eyes with a severed electric cable. As Bane/Smith appears to have the upper hand he closes in on Neo - only to have his attack thwarted and reversed. Neo can see Smith, the program, in Bane as a fiery form in spite of his blindness. Neo smashes Bane/Smith's head with a jackhandle and releases Trinity, who pilots them towards the Machine City (presumably 01 described in The Second Renaissance).

In Zion, the defenders deploy infantry armed with rocket launchers and Armored Personnel Units in order to protect the dock from assault. The dock is invaded by a massive horde of Sentinels, as well as two giant drilling machines, igniting The Battle of Zion. The APUs fail and the humans are pushed back into the temple. With the Mjolnir approaching to aid the battle, Captain Mifune fails to get the gate open; with his last breath he tells Kid (who was renewing his ammunition supply at the time) to open the gate for the Mjolnir. Kid is reluctant at first, saying he did not complete the combat training needed, only for Mifune to tell him, "Neither did I," giving Kid the courage to do what is needed. Meanwhile, as the Hammer speeds toward Zion it is pursued by a large number of sentinels. Just as the remaining humans are about to be overwhelmed, the Hammer arrives at Zion and breaks through the gates, setting off an EMP and disabling all electronic equipment in the area. While this action finishes off the Sentinels, it also disables the remainder of Zion's defenses. The humans are forced to fall back to the temple entrance and wait for the next swarm that will almost certainly kill them all.

Nearing the Machine City, Neo and Trinity are attacked by the city's defense system, hurling massive numbers of mobile bombs and Sentinels at the Logos. Neo uses his powers given by his connection to the Source to destroy the incoming bombs, but the Sentinels are too numerous. To evade them, Trinity flies the ship up into the permanent electrical storm cloud cover, disabling the Sentinels but also the Logos' engines. As the ship glides to a vertical stop, it emerges above the cloud layer for a few seconds, allowing Trinity her only glimpse of real sunlight and blue sky. The ship then stalls and plummets back into the storm cloud as it free-falls directly toward the Machine City. Trinity attempts to ignite the engines but it is too late and the ship crashes into a machine tower. The impact of the collision fatally wounds Trinity, and she dies in Neo's arms.

Neo emerges into the Machine City to strike a bargain with the machines, personified by the Deus Ex Machina. Neo warns the machines that Smith (who has by now assimilated all of The Matrix) is beyond the machines' control, and will soon assault the Source to which the Matrix is connected. He offers to help stop Smith in exchange for a ceasefire on Zion. The second wave of Sentinels attacking Zion instantly responds by standing down while the Machines provide a connection for Neo to enter the Matrix and confront Smith. The world is now wholly populated by Smiths - the copy with the Oracle's powers steps forth, asserting that he has already foreseen his own victory.

Neo and Smith in the final battle.
Neo and Smith in the final battle.

The city's population of Smiths stands by and watches while Neo and Smith square off. Fighting on the streets, through buildings and into the sky, they finally brawl in a flooded crater. Neo is eventually outmatched by Smith, who pauses to gloat that he has "seen this [the details of his victory] before," remembering the details aloud: he was supposed to say something. To both Smith and Neo's surprise, he announces "everything that has a beginning has an end," the Oracle's parting advice to Neo earlier in the movie. Neo understands this to mean that Smith's assimilation is not total, and baits the scared Smith into assimilating him, repeating Smith's refrain from their fights in The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded: "It was inevitable."

Smith's assimilation of Neo is apparently successful. The Oracle-Smith asks his nemesis: "is it over?" to which the answer is a smile and a nod. Back in the physical world, Neo's body spasms as a surge of energy enters his body from the Matrix connection. Starting with the Neo copy of Smith, a white light begins to rip the agents apart from the inside out, one by one, similar to the deletion of Agent Smith at the end of The Matrix.

With the Smiths destroyed, all the programs and humans that have been possessed by Smith return to normal, including the Oracle. The Sentinels that were about to attack the humans withdraw from Zion; the human resistance cheers in victory, while Link and Zee share a moment of intimate happiness together. Neo, having sacrificed himself to save both the Machines and humans, is unplugged from the Matrix and his body is respectfully carried away by the Machines.

The Architect appears and tells the Oracle that she "played a very dangerous game" by attempting to change the way in which the Matrix functioned, to which the Oracle responds, saying that she understood the risk and knew it was worth taking. She asks the Architect what will become of any humans who want to be unplugged from the Matrix, and the Architect replies that "they will be freed." The closing shot of the film depicts a new dawn on the world of the Matrix, created by Sati. Plant life is shown in the Matrix, and for the first (and last) time the ever-present green tint is absent. However, the green tint can be depicted as the unusually green grass in the final scene.

According to the game The Matrix Online, Neo's body, along with Trinity's, although not recycled, were never returned from Machine City, a plot point of the game that has yet to be resolved.

[edit] Reception

The budget of the movie was an estimated US$110 million, grossing over $139 million in the United States and approximately $424,988,211 worldwide,[2] roughly only half of The Matrix Reloaded box-office total. The Matrix Revolutions was released on DVD& VHS on April 6th,2004. The film grossed $116 million in DVD sales, which made it a hit. The movie was met with generally mixed reviews from critics. Revolutions scored only 37% on movie review aggregation site RottenTomatoes (28% when filtered to include only professional reviewers).[3] Metacritic's average critic score was 48/100. [4]

The Matrix Revolutions grossed $83.8 million in its first five days of release in the U.S.[5] It had a weaker opening than its predecessor that some have attributed to a more subdued marketing campaign in comparison to the summer blockbuster event, The Matrix Reloaded.

Praise of the movie generally focused on the strength of the movie's action sequences and special effects.[6][7] Some considered it "a better movie" than The Matrix Reloaded,[8] which some said "raises the bar a notch or two" since the original movie, The Matrix [9].

Common criticisms of the film were that it was anticlimactic [10] [11] and self-indulgent. (In one scene, the heroes run in front of three giant banners sporting the Powerade logo, a sponsor of the films. [12] Nevertheless, critics regard the movie as less philosophically obtuse than its predecessor, Reloaded.)[13] [14] Many critics had difficulty finding closure pertaining to events from Reloaded, and were generally dissatisfied.[15][16] Its earnings dropped 66% in its second week.[17]

The films were received in high praise of its conceptual complexity by some scholars and philosophers, as seen in the video The Roots of the Matrix. Philosopher Ken Wilber stated that The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions had expanded on the "simple dualism" of the first film - The Matrix - thus transforming the trilogy into a piece of "complex literature" with the second two installments of the trilogy.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.
  2. ^ The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
  3. ^ The Matrix Revolutions Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  4. ^ Matrix Revolutions, The (2003): Reviews
  5. ^ The Matrix Revolutions (2003) - Weekend Box Office Results
  6. ^ Chicago Reader: Now Showing
  7. ^ http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2003-11-06/film2.html/1/index.html
  8. ^ Last 'Matrix' lands a solid blow for the bold trilogy
  9. ^ ROTTEN TOMATOES: To simply say the “Matrix Reloaded” is better than the first is too easy
  10. ^ Time to pull the plug on The Matrix. - By David Edelstein - Slate Magazine
  11. ^ USATODAY.com - 'The Matrix Revolutions': This big finish isn't The One
  12. ^ Empire Reviews Central
  13. ^ LA Weekly - Film+TV - The More the Murkier - Scott Foundas - The Essential Online Resource for Los Angeles
  14. ^ [1][dead link]
  15. ^ 'Matrix:' Neo-nonsense
  16. ^ Movie Review | 'The Matrix Revolutions': The Game Concludes With Light and Noise
  17. ^ The Matrix Revolutions (2003) - Weekend Box Office Results

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Scary Movie 3		 Box office number-one films of 2003 (USA)
November 9, 2003		 Succeeded by
Elf
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