A Filmmaker's Guide to 80 Things You Should Know About "The Matrix" (1999)

"The Matrix" (1999) is known for its revolutionary film techniques, its visionary composition, its amazing visuals and its intense score which only made the tense scenes a lot more tense. The vision was first established by the wonderful Wachowski Sisters. I personally really enjoyed the first film, but I didn't enjoy the other two that much. The first one was very enjoyable and felt like a real experience, whereas I think maybe the novelty wears off after this. I think that the cultural impact of "The Matrix" (1999) reaches to far more than just fancy visuals and media experiences of different kinds because if that were the case then why do people still watch the film today with all the newer and more novelty film mediums being released?

Well, the real answer to why the film has endured so many other films coming out which use greater, better and more 'edgy' mediums than this. It is actually because of the concept itself. It is the idea of the movie that is so great which means it has endured many releases of many other films. So, let's first of all have a look at some really cool facts about "The Matrix" (1999).

80 Things You Should Know About "The Matrix" (1999)

1. Brad Pitt turned down the role of Neo because he didn't feel he'd fit into it

2. The 'red and blue pills' are a continuation of the red and blue logo of the Fed-Ex sign which is seen in the film when Neo receives the envelope which is a bit of foreshadowing...

3. The body count is 39

4. The helicopter rescue of Morpheus took six months to plan

5. This is the only film where Neo uses guns and other arms

6. Before the character's final speech in the film, Neo never had more than five sentences of speech at a time

7. The subplot of this film was supposed to be that there were five other versions of "The One" - this was only mentioned and hinted on in the second film

8. The events of the film take place over the course of nineteen months

9. The production designer scanned his wife's Sushi recipes from her cookbook and made the green code in "The Matrix" (1999)

10. The phone number for City Boarding is 555-0156

11. Nicolas Cage was offered the role of Neo

12. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishbourne are both left handed

13. It's possible that the boss at Metacortex is an agent

14. When Neo is asleep at his computer, one of the images that flicks on the screen is an Arabic Newspaper

15. Mark Wahlberg was considered for Neo

16. The mercury switches in the bomb that's in the elevator is also referred to and used in the Lethal Weapon films

17. Neo's combat training was 10 hours

18. A strange coincidence means that Neo's passport expires on September 11 2001.

19. David Schwimmer was offered the role of Neo

20. The Guns and Ammo Number is 555-0161

21. Michelle Yeoh was considered for Trinity

22. Morgan Freeman was considered for Morpheus

23. Christopher Meloni auditioned for Agent Smith

24. Angelina Jolie was considered for Trinity

25. When Neo meets the Potentials, the film "Night of the Lepus" is playing in the background

26. Joe Pantoliano and Carrie Anne-Moss work together again in Nolan's "Memento"

27. Malcolm McDowell was considered for Morpheus

28. Janet Jackson was considered for the role of Trinity

29. It takes place 6 months before the second movie

30. Agent Brown and Agent Jones never take off their sunglasses

31. The film takes place in the year 2199 (or thereabouts)

32. This was Keanu Reeves' 2nd cyberpunk performance (his first was Johnny Mnemonic (1995))

33. Leo DiCaprio turned down the part of Neo

34. The agents wear a suit based on the undercover agents who once surrounded President Kennedy

35. Will Smith was offered Neo as a part but turned it down

36. The film was the first film to be shot at the Fox Studios branch in Sydney

37. Neo's character wakes up 7 times during the movie as Thomas Anderson

38. David Duchovny had a choice between playing Neo in "The Matrix" (1999) or starring in the "X-Files"

39. There's a ton of Christian imagery in the film

40. John Cusack lobbied really hard in order to get the role of Neo.

41. The song "Dissolved Girl" by Massive Attack never made it on to the soundtrack even though it appeared in the movie as a song Neo was listening to

42. Russell Crowe was offered the role of Morpheus and began reading the script, but turned it down because he found the film boring

43. Ewan McGregor turned down the role of Neo to work on Star Wars 1 - The Phantom Menace

44. Michael Hutchence was cast in a major role but committed suicide three days later

45. A 1965 Lincoln Continental is the car used inside the Matrix

46. Neuromancer by William Gibson was a huge influence on the movie

47. Many Hollywood execs saw the movie as a possible failure and passed on the opportunity to make it

48. Gillian Anderson turned down the role of Trinity to work on the "X-Files" instead

49. The Wachowski Sisters approached Hugo Weaving in person and implored him to play Agent Smith after seeing his performance in "Proof"

50. There is a homage paid to "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" when Neo's mouth is melted shut

51. 20% of the film is visual effects

52. Kym Barrett inspired and designed the character of Trinity though, the Wachowski Sisters simply described her as a woman in black leather

53. Morpheus is based on the character of the same name from the Neil Gaiman Sandman Comic

54. Trinity crashes a helicopter into a window in the film and that window is the window of the screen room of Columbia Pictures, Australia

55. A cookie being a piece of data, the Oracle simply hands Neo a cookie both literally and figuratively

56. Gary Oldman and Samuel L Jackson were both passed upon for the role of Morpheus

57. The film also claims to be based on "Alice in Wonderland"

58. According to Don Davis, the Wachowski Sisters' first choice for Neo was apparently Johnny Depp but Warner Brothers Studios wanted Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer

59. The phone in the envelope is the famed Banana Phone

60. The movie claims to be a modern adaptation of Plato's Cave

61. In Australia, the film cost $60M whereas in the USA it would've costed over $180M

62. On set, Keanu Reeves suffered a spinal injury and a neck injury and Hugo Weaving suffered a hip injury in which he needed surgery

63. Laurence Fishbourne compared his character to Obi-Wan or Darth Vader. He also said that the character's concept scared the shit out of him

64. The subway fight scene was shot ten days over schedule

65. The Wachowski Sisters worked through 14 different drafts of the screenplay

66. According to the Wachowski Sisters all the animals in the Matrix are CGI

67. The colour blue was sucked out of the world of the Matrix in order to show how depressing it was

68. When Carrie-Anne Moss saw the first cut, it was the first time she had ever seen herself in a movie

69. Many of the sets had to be created from scratch

70. Hugo Weaving based the voice of Agent Smith on Walter Cronkite

71. Lots of identical twins were cast as extras

72. In his opening attack, Neo rubs his nose with his finger and thumb - something he took from the style of Bruce Lee

73. Just over half of Neo's dialogue is spoken in the first 45 minutes of the film

74. In 2012, the film entered the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being culturally significant to film

75. Keanu Reeves lost 15 pounds for the role

76. There was a lot of explanatory dialogue because the studio feared nobody would understand the movie

77. Laurence Fishbourne thought the movie would never be made because it was too smart

78. The opening action scene took 4 days to shoot even though it took 6 months to prepare for

79. By 2002, the Bullet Time sequence was spoofed in over 20 different movies

80. Ironically, in Greek Mythology - Morpheus is the God of Dreams. In the Matrix, his job is to wake them up from their dreams

"...I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible..." - Neo