The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis[lower-alpha 1], and produced by Joel Silver. It is a sequel to The Matrix, and the second installment in The Matrix film franchise. Reloaded premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and had its worldwide release by Warner Bros. on May 15, 2003, including a screening out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.[6] The video game Enter the Matrix and The Animatrix, a collection of short animations, supported and expanded the storyline of the film.

The Matrix Reloaded
Theatrical release poster
Directed byThe Wachowskis[lower-alpha 1]
Produced byJoel Silver
Written byThe Wachowskis
Based onCharacters
by The Wachowskis
Starring
Music byDon Davis
CinematographyBill Pope
Edited byZach Staenberg
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
Running time
138 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States[2][3]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$127[4]–150[5] million
Box office$741.8 million[5]

The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $739.4 million worldwide, breaking Terminator 2: Judgment Day's record and becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time until Deadpool surpassed it in 2016. The Matrix Revolutions, which continues the story, was released six months after Reloaded, in November 2003.

Plot

Six months after the events of The Matrix, Neo and Trinity are now romantically involved. Morpheus receives a message from Captain Niobe of the Logos calling an emergency meeting of all ships of Zion. Zion has confirmed the last transmission of the Osiris: an army of Sentinels is tunneling towards Zion and will reach it within 72 hours. Commander Lock orders all ships to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught, but Morpheus asks one ship to remain to contact the Oracle. As the Caduceus receives a message from the Oracle, one of the Caduceus crew, Bane, encounters Smith, who reveals that his previous encounter with Neo severed his connection with the Matrix and has made him a rogue program, then absorbs his avatar. Smith then uses the phone line to leave the Matrix and gain control of Bane's real body.

In Zion, Morpheus announces the news of the advancing machines to the people. In the Matrix, Neo meets the Oracle's bodyguard Seraph, who leads him to her. After realizing that the Oracle is part of the Matrix, Neo asks how he can trust her; she replies that this is his decision. The Oracle instructs Neo to reach the Source of the Matrix with the help of the Keymaker. As the Oracle departs, Smith appears, telling Neo that after being defeated, he refused to be deleted and is now a rogue program. He demonstrates his ability to clone himself using other inhabitants of the Matrix, including other Agents, as hosts. He then tries to absorb Neo but fails, prompting a battle between Smith's clones and Neo. Neo manages to defend himself, but is forced to retreat from the increasingly overwhelming numbers.

Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity visit the Merovingian, who is imprisoning the Keymaker. The Merovingian, a rogue Matrix program with his own agenda, refuses to let him go. His wife Persephone, seeking revenge on her husband for his infidelity, leads the trio to the Keymaker. Morpheus, Trinity, and the Keymaker flee while Neo holds off the Merovingian's henchmen. Morpheus and Trinity try to escape with the Keymaker, pursued by several Agents and the Merovingian's chief henchmen, the Twins. After a long chase, Trinity escapes, Morpheus defeats the Twins, and Neo saves Morpheus and the Keymaker from Agent Johnson.

The crews of the Nebuchadnezzar, Vigilant, and Logos help the Keymaker and Neo reach the Source. The Logos crew must destroy a power plant and the Vigilant crew must disable a back-up power station, to prevent a security system from being triggered, allowing Neo to open the door to the Source. Haunted by a vision of Trinity's death, Neo asks her to remain on the Nebuchadnezzar.

The Logos succeeds, while the Vigilant is destroyed by a Sentinel, killing everyone on board. Trinity replaces the Vigilant crew and completes their mission. However, Agent Thompson corners her and they fight. As Neo, Morpheus, and the Keymaker try to reach the Source, the Smiths ambush them. The Keymaker unlocks the door to the Source, but the Smiths shoot him dead as he closes the door.

Neo meets a program called the Architect, the creator of the Matrix. The Architect explains that Neo is himself a program and an intentional part of the Matrix, which is now in its sixth iteration. Neo is meant to stop the Matrix's fatal system crash that naturally recurs due to the concept of human choice within it. As with the five previous Ones, Neo has a choice: either return to the Source to reboot the Matrix and pick survivors to repopulate the soon-to-be-destroyed Zion, as his predecessors all did, or cause the Matrix to crash and kill everyone connected to it, which would mean humanity's extinction when Zion is destroyed. Neo learns of Trinity's situation and chooses to save her instead of returning to the Source, to which the Architect responds dismissively.

Trinity is shot as she and Agent Thompson fall off a building. Before she hits the ground, Neo catches her. He then removes the bullet from her heart and revives her. They return to the real world, where Sentinels attack them. The Nebuchadnezzar is destroyed, but the crew escape. Neo displays a new ability to disable the machines with his thoughts, but falls into a coma from the effort. The crew are picked up by another ship, the Hammer. Its captain, Roland, reveals the other ships were wiped out by the machines after someone activated an EMP too early, and that they found only one survivor: the Smith-possessed Bane.

Cast

Zee was originally played by Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, before filming was complete, requiring her scenes to be reshot with Nona Gaye.[7][8]

Production

Filming

The Matrix Reloaded was largely filmed at Fox Studios in Australia, filming began on March 1, 2001 and ended on August 21, 2002, concurrently with filming of the sequel, Revolutions. The freeway chase and "Burly Brawl" scenes were filmed at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California. The producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways specifically for the film. Some portions of the chase were also filmed in Oakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is the Webster Tube, which connects Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was also done in old aircraft hangars on the base. The city of Akron, Ohio was willing to give full access to Route 59, the stretch of freeway known as the "Innerbelt", for filming of the freeway chase when it was under consideration. However, producers decided against this as "the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long".[9] MythBusters would later reuse the Alameda location in order to explore the effects of a head-on collision between two semi trucks, and to perform various other experiments. Around 97% of the materials from the sets of the film were recycled after production was completed; for example, tons of wood were sent to Mexico to build low-income housing.[10]

Visual effects

Following the success of the previous film, the Wachowskis came up with extremely difficult action sequences, such as the Burly Brawl, a scene in which Neo had to fight 100 Agent Smiths. To develop technologies for the film, Warner Bros. launched ESC Entertainment.[11] The ESC team tried to figure out how to bring the Wachowskis' vision to the screen, but because bullet time required arrays of carefully aligned cameras and months of planning, even for a brief scene featuring two or three actors, a scene like the Burly Brawl seemed almost impossible as envisioned and could take years to composite. Eventually John Gaeta realized that the technology he and his crew had developed for The Matrix's bullet time was no longer sufficient and concluded they needed a virtual camera (in other words, a simulation of a camera). Having before used real photographs of buildings as texture for 3D models in The Matrix, the team started digitizing all data, such as scenes, characters' motions, or even the reflectivity of Neo's cassock. The reflectivity of objects needs to be captured and simulated adequately and Paul Debevec et al. captured the reflectance of the human face and Borshukov's work was strongly based on the findings of Debevec et al. They developed "Universal Capture", a process which samples and stores facial details and expressions at high resolution, then capture expressions from Reeves and Weaving using dense capture and multi-camera setup (similar to the bullet time rig) photogrammetric capture technique called optical flow.[12] The algorithm for Universal Capture was written by George Borshukov, visual effects lead at ESC, who had also created the photo-realistic buildings for the visual effects in The Matrix. With this collected wealth of data and the right algorithms, they finally were able to create virtual cinematography in which characters, locations, and events can all be created digitally and viewed through virtual cameras, eliminating the restrictions of real cameras, years of compositing data, and replacing the use of still camera arrays or, in some scenes, cameras altogether. The ESC team rendered the final effects using the program Mental Ray.[11]

Music
See also: The Matrix Reloaded: The Album and The Matrix Reloaded (score)

Don Davis, who composed for The Matrix, returned to score Reloaded. For many of the pivotal action sequences, such as the "Burly Brawl", he collaborated with Juno Reactor. Some of the collaborative cues by Davis and Juno Reactor are extensions of material by Juno Reactor; for example, a version of "Komit" featuring Davis' strings is used during a flying sequence, and "Burly Brawl" is essentially a combination of Davis' unused "Multiple Replication" and a piece similar to Juno Reactor's "Masters of the Universe". One of the collaborations, "Mona Lisa Overdrive", is titled in reference to the cyberpunk novel of the same name by William Gibson, a major influence on the directors.

Leitmotifs established in The Matrix return — such as the Matrix main theme, Neo and Trinity's love theme, the Sentinel's theme, Neo's flying theme, and a more frequent use of the four-note Agent Smith theme — and others used in Revolutions are established.

As with its predecessor, many tracks by external musicians are featured in the movie, its closing credits, and the soundtrack album, some of which were written for the film. Many of the musicians featured, for example Rob Zombie, Rage Against the Machine and Marilyn Manson, had also appeared on the soundtrack for The Matrix. Rob Dougan also re-contributed, licensing the instrumental version of "Furious Angels", as well as being commissioned to provide an original track, ultimately scoring the battle in the Merovingian's chateau. A remixed version of "Slap It" by electronic artist Fluke — listed on the soundtrack as "Zion" — was used during the rave scene.

Linkin Park contributed their instrumental song "Session" to the film as well, although it did not appear during the course of the film. P.O.D. composed a song called "Sleeping Awake", with a music video which focused heavily on Neo, as well as many images that were part of the film. Both songs played during the film's credits.

It was originally planned for the electronic band Röyksopp to create the soundtrack, but this offer was turned down.[13]

Reception

Box office

The film earned an estimated $5 million during Wednesday night previews in the United States and Canada. Reloaded grossed $37.5 million on its Thursday opening day from 3,603 theaters, which was the second highest opening day after Spider-Man's $39.4 million and highest for a Thursday. The film earned $91.7 million in the United States and Canada in its first weekend from 3,603 theaters and $134.3 million in its first 4 days, including the previews.[14] Internationally, it opened in 13 territories, including Australia and France, and grossed $37.5 million in its first week.[15] It expanded to most international territories (62) the following weekend, except Japan and India, and became the first movie to earn more than $100 million outside the U.S. in one weekend, taking its overseas total to $176 million and worldwide total to $385 million.[15][16] It ultimately grossed $281.6 million in the US, and $739.4 million worldwide. The film sold an estimated 46,695,900 tickets in North America.[17]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 73% based on 245 reviews, with a weighted average score of 6.81/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Though its heady themes are a departure from its predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded is a worthy sequel packed with popcorn-friendly thrills."[18] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score 62 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[20]

Positive comments from critics included commendation for the quality and intensity of its action sequences,[21] and its intelligence.[22] Tony Toscano of Talking Pictures had high praise for the film, saying that "its character development and writing...is so crisp it crackles on the screen" and that "Matrix Reloaded re-establishes the genre and even raises the bar a notch or two" above the first film, The Matrix.[23]

Negative comments included the sentiment that the plot was alienating,[24][25] with some critics regarding the focus on the action as a detriment to the film's human elements.[26][27] Some critics thought that the number of scenes with expository dialog worked against the film,[28][29] and the many unresolved subplots, as well as the cliffhanger ending, were also criticized.[30] Other criticisms included the film's perceived lack of pacing.[31] Entertainment Weekly named it as one of "The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made".[32]

Censorship

The film was initially banned in Egypt because of the violent content and because it put into question issues about human creation, "which are related to the three divine religions."[33]

Home media

The Matrix Reloaded was released on VHS and DVD on October 14, 2003. A Blu-Ray release followed on September 7, 2010.[34] The Matrix Reloaded was released as a part of The Matrix Trilogy on 4K UHD Blu-ray on October 30, 2018.[35]

See also

Notes
  1. Credited as The Wachowski Brothers.

References
  1. "The Matrix Reloaded". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  2. "The Matrix Reloaded (2003)". Lumiere. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
  3. "Matrix Reloaded, The". tcm.com. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  4. "The Matrix Reloaded (2003) - Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  5. "The Matrix Reloaded (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
  6. "The Matrix Reloaded - Festival de Cannes". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  7. "Aaliyah". The Independent. London. August 27, 2001. Archived from the original on June 6, 2010.
  8. "Aaliyah: A 'beautiful person's' life cut short". Archives.cnn.com. August 27, 2001. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  9. Job, Ann. "Chasing the Stars: Carmakers in Movies". MSN.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2005. Retrieved January 30, 2005.
  10. "Hollywood smog an inconvenient truth". Associated Press (CNN.com). November 14, 2006. Archived from the original on December 15, 2006.
  11. Silberman, Steve. "Matrix2". Wired. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  12. Debevec, Paul; J. P. Lewis (2005). "Realistic human face rendering for "The Matrix Reloaded"". ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Courses on - SIGGRAPH '05. ACM. p. 13. doi:10.1145/1198555.1198593. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  13. "Kafka feat. Röyksopp at the Bergen International Festival Archived September 6, 2017, at the Wayback Machine". Bergen International Festival. 2015
  14. "Weekend Box Office Results for May 16-18, 2003 - Box Office Mojo". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  15. Boland, Michaela (May 26, 2003). "'Matrix' does brisk biz in 13 territories". Variety. p. 16.
  16. Boland, Michaela (June 2, 2003). "'Reloaded' crosses global $100 mil mark". Variety. p. 14.
  17. "The Matrix Reloaded (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  18. "The Matrix Reloaded (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  19. "The Matrix Reloaded Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  20. "Find CinemaScore" (Type "Matrix" in the search box). CinemaScore. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  21. McCarthy, Todd (May 7, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded". Variety. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  22. Arnold, William (May 14, 2003). "'Matrix' fans can't afford to miss 'Reloaded'". Seattlepi.com. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  23. Toscano, Tony (May 20, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded (2003) movie review". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  24. Schickel, Richard (May 11, 2003). "The Matrix Reboots". TIME. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  25. Rodriguez, Rene (May 14, 2003). "Sequelitis infects 'Matrix Reloaded' with talk - lots of it". Miamiherald.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2003. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  26. Sterritt, David (May 16, 2003). "Ready for a Neo world order?". csmonitor.com. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  27. Rabin, Nathan (May 13, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded review". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  28. Miller, Skyler. "The Matrix Reloaded review". AllMovie. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  29. Savlov, Marc (May 16, 2003). "The Matrix Reloaded review". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  30. Caro, Mark (June 11, 2003). "Movie review: 'The Matrix Reloaded'". Metromix. Archived from the original on December 30, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  31. Sailer, Steve (May 15, 2003). "Film of the Week: 'Matrix Reloaded'". UPI. Retrieved October 6, 2015. It has only two speeds: you either get leaden philosophizing about free will or super-colossal action set pieces. It's like "My Dinner with Andre on the Hindenburg."
  32. Nashawaty, Chris (December 22, 2007). "The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  33. "Egypt bans 'too religious' Matrix". BBC News. June 11, 2003. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  34. "The Matrix Reloaded DVD Release Date October 14, 2003". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  35. "The Matrix Trilogy - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review | High Def Digest". ultrahd.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
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