Well, it's time to dive back down the rabbit hole and talk about Maytrix: Reloaded. If you have not seen it, it is on Netflix currently. You can pause here, go watch it, and come on back to hear the interesting things found and info everyone should know!
Matrix: Reloaded is the sequel to The Matrix that takes place 6 months after the credits of the first movie. It was released on May 15th, 2003 and has a runtime of 138 minutes. It's estimated budget was $150,000,000 dollars. After it was all said and done, this film brought in $741,846,459 at the worldwide box office. Some of it’s main filming locations included The Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, California / Alameda, California / and Webster Tube in Oakland, California. This film was written and directed by The Wachowskis again, and is rightfully rated R.
In Matrix Reloaded, we see the returning trio Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus joined by the shocking return of a new and very improved Agent Smith. We also get to see Neo owning his role as The One and the pay off of all the lives he has saved since we last left them.
The really cool thing about this movie is it not only takes us to Zion for a time, but it introduces us to a nice list of ensemble characters that bring some cool things to the franchise. I wanna go through a few of these new characters that personally enhanced the movie for me. Again, these are some of my personal favorite additions. So please, let me know if I miss one of yours and why they are your on your list.
Link: Link, played by Harold Perrineau, was a freeborn in Zion. He married into the family of Tank and Dozer. So after they died, he took over as operator in their honor. His character, for me, kind of represents this person on the verge of belief, but hasn't reached it yet. After the events of this movie, he definitely becomes one.
Captain Niobe: Captain Niobe is the former girlfriend of Morpheus and the current girlfriend of Commander Lock. She is the most skilled pilot in the fleet and one of the top martial artists of the franchise. She is one of the very few to ever kill an agent and go one on one with Seraph. Niobe is portrayed by Jada Pinkett Smith in the sequels as well as the video game surrounding her and her partner Ghost called Enter The Matrix. Fun fact: her portrayal of Niobe earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination in 2004.
Soren, Rolan, and Malichai: These 3 are on my list because they open us up to some of the other crews in the fleet. Rolan, Soren, and Malichai respect Morpheus. They are the captains of the other three ships mentioned off and on in the sequels. These three, to me, show somewhat of the humanity that you don't get a lot from Morpheus due to his high devotion to the prophecy. Roland is the only one out of these three that survives Matrix: Reloaded.
Commander Lock: Not my favorite minor character by any means, but he does bring a lot to this film. He is Niobe's current love interest and commander of the resistance army. He answers only to the council and is very set in his ways. Jason Lock is a taciturn, practical man who believes in none of Morpheus nonsense about The Prophecy. One would say he is the Anti-Morpheus. He is totally opposite. For me, he represents the negative in our brains. He's the anti faith side of the spectrum. Lock is portrayed very well though by Harry Lennix.
The Marovengian: Known as The Frenchman and portrayed by Lambert Wilson, The Marovengian is the bad guy with class and money. He is a smug arrogant rogue compuer program that holds The Keymaker prisoner that Neo needs to fulfill his quest. He is married to Persephone. He may come off as a French bon-vivant, but he is very cruel and very course. He runs his own little gang that includes these creepy specter type twins that are older, rogue versions of The Agent programs from previous Matrix versions. Fun Fact: He is highly drawn from the god of death from many mythologies. These are noticed in his actions, he club he owns called Hel, and his obvious marriage to a woman known as Persephone.
Persephone: The wife of The Marovengian. She is portrayed by the very beautiful Monica Bellucci. Persephone, like The Marovengian, The Keymaker, and some others is an exiled program from a previous version of The Matrix that escaped deletion. She betrays her husband to help Neo by killing his lackey Abel and sending Caine to tell him what she had done. That's right Caine and Abel.
The Architect: Portrayed by Helmut Bakaitis, this guy is a highly specialized, humorless computer program of the machine world. He created the matrix. So what I gather is he is like the virtual representation of the entire machine mainframe. Basically, he is God. He is cold, analytical, logical, pragmatic, and clearly possesses an attitude of superiority. This is the role that Sean Connery turned down, and honestly it worked. I am fine with Connery not saying things like…
Sereph: Sereph, played by Collin Chou, is perhaps one of my favorite additions to the franchise. He is The Oracle's bodyguard. He is one of the greatest martial artists to only be bested by a few people like Neo and Niobe. His mantra "You do not truly know someone until you fight them," speaks a lot about him. It's almost like a password. If you type correctly, you get in. Well correctly sparring with him is the password to see The Oracle. It's technical term is a Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol. Fun Fact: He use to work for The Marovengian in the old days until the Oracle came to him.
If you have been listening to this show, you know I am a massive fan of unknown knowledge. So lets get to some.
Unknown Nerdledge of Matrix: Reloaded
The studio sent over 8500 prints to movie theaters. This earned Matrix: Reloaded the Guinness Book of World Records spot for Widest Print Run.
If you saw Reloaded in theaters and payed attention to the billboards rushing by in the highway scene, their advertisements are cheat codes for the companion videogame, Enter The Matrix. However, they were replaced for the dvd with actual billboards.
The character of Zee was originally cast as Aaliyah, the famous pop singer. However, while filming of Reloaded was going on in 2001, she tragically passed away. The studio decided to recast and scrap the scenes she had already filmed. She was eventually replaced with Marvin Gaye's daughter, Nona.
No matter what it was, people were dying for merch from this movie. So much so, that theft was a major worry. The studios had to resort to sending theaters and merchandise stores movie marketing items under false names. The used names like Replacement Merch, which also starred Keanu Reeves. This would confuse the theaters some and cause them to sometimes barely get merch out in time for release.
The Agent Smith fight scene in the park took 27 days to shoot to make Neo fight 80 Agent Smiths. It was nick named The Burly Brawl on set.
All 4 major characters were injured on set. Carrie Anne Moss broke her leg on a wire stunt; Reeves was in a foot cast off and on for an injury from training; Fishburn broke his arm; and Hugo Weaving threw out a disc in his neck.
The role of Seraph was written and created specifically for Jet Li, however he declined the role when he was told no to his request of making the same amount of money Keanu Reeves was.
Egypt banned this movie in its country for censorship reasons stating, "The storyline of searching for the Architect or Creator and Control of the human race may cause crises."
When Agent Smith shows up in his Audi, the license plate reads IS5416. This stands for Isaiah 54:16. If you turn in your Bible to this, it reads "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the firer, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the water to destroy."
Unlike the first movie, 4 months was not enough training for this film. Most of the cast endured twice that amount for this movie. All the fighters took 8 months of extensive training, some on top of the 4 from the first movie, to master everything. It took Carrie Anne Moss 6 months just to get the Scorpion Kick down for her opening scene.
Well Nerds, thanks for tuning in this week, I hope I opened your eyes a little bit more to an already eye opening movie. I hope that the next time you watch this movie with someone, you take what you have learned here and spread that Nerdledge to someone else.