On this day in 1999, THE MATRIX was released. It defined an entire cultural era and would chart a path of what blockbuster cinema, sci-fi & action would look like in the millennium. Film critic @willow_catelyn is here to talk about the legacy of the Wachowskis’ masterpiece. Woah. 
When TV spots began running for THE MATRIX ahead of its release that spring, there was a buzz and a mystery surrounding the film. These thirty second ads suggested a unique cinematic world built upon grunge-y cyberpunk aesthetics. It was the perfect film for a pre-Y2K America.
In the 1990s the looming presence of the internet and how it was going to affect our daily lives was a topic of consideration in art. There were many films made about hackers, but THE MATRIX offered something altogether different: the internet as a living, breathing, organism.
Much of the visual language that can be seen in THE MATRIX is built upon the back of cyberpunk aesthetics, but 1990s anime also proved to be an influence, particularly the work of Mamoru Oshii’s GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995).
Take the opening chase involving Carrie-Anne Moss and how it mirrors the opening scene of Oshii’s anime classic. Curiously enough, because THE MATRIX owes so much to the work of Mamoru Oshii in my opinion, it’s a better GHOST IN THE SHELL adaptation than the 2017 version.
THE MATRIX is set in the 22nd Century and computers now rule the world. Keanu Reeves plays a computer-hacker who may be destined to save the human race and take the planet back, but before that can happen he has to decide between a red or blue pill.
If Neo listens to Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne) and takes the red pill, everything he understood about the world will change. His simulated reality will disintegrate and he will see the true world. The blue pill is complacency. Neo takes the red pill.
Watching THE MATRIX now with the context of the Wachowskis’ identities as transgender women, some of the cultural touchstones of THE MATRIX become very fascinating when viewed through that lens, such as Neo adopting a new name and refusing an older one.
But THE MATRIX is more than just an outlet for queer metaphors and internet science fiction aesthetics. Much of the legacy of THE MATRIX lies in its action sequences, and their influence is still being felt in mainstream cinema to this day.
After THE MATRIX was released, “bullet-time” was all the rage. “Bullet-time” was the next logical step from the way John Woo filmed shootouts in his movies about gangsters, and audiences loved the slow-motion photography and the ways characters moved around projectiles.
The Hong Kong scene of the 1980s had found its way to Hollywood by the mid-90s with directors like Tsui Hark and John Woo making films in the west. The Wachowskis were influenced by Woo in particular, whose slow-motion, balletic action laid the groundwork for THE MATRIX.
The Wachowski sisters even hired legendary fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping to help stage some of the action. Yuen would later go on to work with Quentin Tarantino on his KILL BILL films and help stage the action in the massively successful CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
All of these films help paint a portrait of what action looked like in early 21st century cinema. Techniques like wire-fu were being meshed with traditional martial arts and computer generated effects to create a type of action that seemed to float. Anything was possible.
The legacy of THE MATRIX in action cinema is still present in modern filmmaking. JOHN WICK director Chad Stahelski cut his teeth working as Keanu Reeves’ stunt-double on THE MATRIX, and he would eventually go on to work as a head stunt coordinator for the Wachowskis.
Stahelski and Reeves are now at the forefront of the latest trend in action cinema called “gun fu,” which mixes traditional martial arts techniques like judo and aikido with clean, precise shootouts. Without THE MATRIX, there would be no JOHN WICK.
THE MATRIX, which turns 21 today, will be on Netflix in select territories at midnight tonight (4/1) — along with THE MATRIX RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS.
