Title: The Kingdom of Hell.
Author: TheRedPony
Rating: R, consensual sex and language.
Feedback: Please and thank you.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Matrix nor any thing else related the films. It is not my world, just my playground.
Story Notes: This chapter is "Major Boring Shit"(-Tank) But trust me this is important though so don't skip it!.
Money sex & thought control
Big brother is watchin' you
Unplug your brain
And save your soul
-Real McCoy
***
CHAPTER 3D! Not a real chapter just some nifty Matrix Facts
Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) played Liz Teel in the TV series "Matrix" (1993).
In the first minutes of the film during the scene in which Trinity is chased by one of the agents and she leaps from one house to the next, an advertisement saying "GUNS" can be seen on the second building. The gun pictured in the ad is exactly of the same make and model [Israeli Military Industries' Desert Eagle] as the guns used by all agents during the film.
In the movie Higher Learning (1995), Laurence Fishburne's first sentence was: "Welcome to the real world."
Cypher is a play on the name Lucifer - the devil. It is also a modified version of 'cipher,' a term used in computer cryptography.
As Neo runs through the old lady's apartment near the end of the film, we see an image on the TV of a menacing man in a black suit coat. The image is that of one of the Number 2's from the 1967 TV show `The Prisoner.'
When Neo is calling to get extracted from the Matrix, he says, "Mr. Wizard get me out of here," a reference to the 1960's cartoon Tooter Turtle. Each episode, Tooter would yearn to be something he wasn't and have his friend Mr. Wizard (a lizard) wave his magic wand and make him an astronaut or a scientist or whatever. Inevitably, Tooter would quickly get himself into trouble and call out "Help Mr.Wizard," and the lizard would intone "Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome, time for this one to come home." Tooter would be transported back to his old self and be chided by Mr. Wizard to "be happy with what you are."
The glyphs on the computer screens, with the exception of the call traces, consists of reversed letters, numbers, and Japanese katakana characters.
All of the references to street corners (e.g. Wells and Lake) are real intersections in Chicago, USA, the Wachowski brothers' hometown. The subway train has signs for "Loop," another Chicago reference. The film however is quite obviously not set in Chicago or any other real city (though it was filmed in Sydney).
Neo produces a computer disk from a book titled "Simulacra and Simulation," an actual work of critical theory that deals with issues of what is "real" and what is "simulation or simulacra." When Neo opens the book, he opens to the chapter, "On Nihilism." Nihilism is the term used to describe the philosophical approach that postulates that nothing can exist.
Inside the Nebuchadnezzar there is a brief shot of a plaque with the ship's name, above which it says "Mark 3 no. 11." The Biblical verse Mark 3:11 is, "And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out saying, `You are the Son of God.'"
Check out the room numbers for Trinity and Neo. When the cops bust in on Trinity in the opening scene the number is 303 ("trinity," 3) and since Neo is The One the number of his apartment is 101.
Almost every line spoken by Neo's "customer" in the beginning of the film ("You're my savior," "You don't exist," etc.) is foreshadowing.
When Neo is meeting with the Oracle, the music playing in the background in her apartment is Duke Ellington's "I'm Beginning to See the Light," a reference to Neo's continued awakening.
When the traitor meets with agent "Smith," we learn that his name is Reagan. He says he wants to be someone important, maybe an actor, and that he wants to "remember nothing"! Sound familiar?
In the Oracle's waiting room, the television is showing giant white rabbits (which, at the beginning of the film, Neo was instructed to follow) from Night of the Lepus (1972).
Names of people and objects have historical significance, all related to dreams and illusions. For example, Morpheus was the Greek god of sleep and dreams; and Nebuchadnezzar was a biblical king who was visited by troubling dreams.
Neo is an anagram for One.
The name 'Anderson means 'Son of Man'. The name Thomas means "twin", but the apostle Thomas also had the epithet "the Doubter." Thus "Thomas Anderson" could be interpreted as "the doubting Son of Man." Or possibly "twin of the Son of Man," whichever seems more interesting.
Coincidentally (or not), Matrix, Trinity, Morpheus, 303 and 101 are all models of music synthesizer (from various manufacturers).
The license plate number of the Agents' car is 70858. Coincidentally (or not?), Kevin Bacon's birthday is 7/08/58.
Nebuchadnezzar was a biblical Babylonian king who was instructed by God in dreams to destroy the inhabitants of Jerusalem because they worshipped false prophets.
When Neo is fleeing from the agents through a marketplace, one of the agents fires at him and misses, exploding a pile of watermelons nearby. This may be an homage to an identical scene in Ghost in the Shell.
Before filming, the principal actors spent four months with martial arts experts, learning very complicated fight moves.
The number of the phone Trinity was using at the beginning of the movie is 555-0690.
In 1995 TV movie The Tuskegee Airmen, Laurence Fishburne also had a crew member named Tank.
Some personal information can be seen on Thomas Anderson's "criminal record" that Agent Smith glances at when he interrogates Neo:
The last update to the file was July 22, 1998
Neo's date of birth is "March 11, 1962"
Neo's place of birth is "Lower Downtown, Capitol City"
Neo's mother's maiden name is "Michelle McGahey" [Michelle McGahey is one of the art directors for the movie]
Neo's father's name is "John Anderson"
Neo attended "Central West Junior High" and "Owen Paterson High" [Owen Paterson was the production designer]
The motorcycle Trinity rides is a jet black Triumph Speed Triple. `Triumph' means to win; Triple again refers to the number 3.
When Neo fights Morpheus in the construct, the three pieces of music that play on the score are termed the "Bow Whisk Orchestra" by composer Don Davis. It consists of a semi-improvisational piece with Asian instruments by Davis, the song "Leave You Far Behind" by Lunatic Asylum, and another piece by Davis called "Switch or Break Show." Both "Bow Whisk Orchestra" & "Switch Or Break Show" are anagrams of "Wachowski Brothers." Also, when Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity return to the building after visiting the Oracle, the piece of music that plays is called "Threat Mix." Later, when in the same building Morpheus fights Agent Smith, the musical piece is called "Exit Mr. Hat." Both "Threat Mix" & "Exit Mr. Hat" are anagrams of "The Matrix."
Inside the Matrix, everything has a greenish hue both indoors and out, and the color blue is hard to find.
Sets from the 1998 film Dark City, including rooftops, buildings and others exterior sets, were used in this film. The rooftops that Trinity runs across at the beginning of the film are the same ones that John Murdoch runs across in Dark City.
After Neo is "reborn" into the real world and he falls into the sewer, his head goes under the water three times. The traditional baptism requires the head to be cleansed three times for the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
While interrogating Morpheus, Agent Smith describes the original paradise the machines designed for humanity, and humanity's rebellion against it -- an obvious parallel to the Eden myth.
The scene in which Neo meets the gifted children in the Oracle's apartment is an homage to the similar scene at the end of Akira (1988). The Wachowski brothers acknowledged the influence of anime films in a brief USA Today interview a few days after the film's release.
Neo is supposed to work for some major computer software company in what is supposed to be 1999.
When he's sitting in his cubicle after the chewing out by Rhineheart, they show an overhead view of his workstation. His keyboard is an old 101 key keyboard.
Room 101 also crops up in George Orwell's novel 1984. It's the room that contains the thing you fear most in the world. To the beings that control the Matrix, this is what Neo becomes. A lot of the moves in the Matrix can also be done on Mortal Kombat: such as when the Agent gets hit by the train or when Neo is pounded into the wall.
In the restaurant 'deal' scene, when the camera angle changes, it shows a lady playing the harp. If you watch her left hand she's flipping everyone the bird.
Tank's `Hey Mikey, I think he likes it!' after Neo learns Jiu-Jitsu is from a 50's-60's commercial for Life cereal
Carrie-Anne's inspiration for her Trinity role were Dirty Harry movies starring Clint Eastwood.
Joe Pantoliano had liposuction done for his role in The Matrix, and WarnerBros told him that they would only pay for it if he had the fat put back in after filming.
The two guns Neo is seen with in the Lobby gunfight are Skorpion VZ61s. The shotgun he is seen with on the roof is a SPAS 12.