The Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis.[lower-alpha 1] It was the third installment of The Matrix film franchise, released six months following The Matrix Reloaded. The film was released simultaneously in 60 countries on November 5, 2003. While being the final entry in the original trilogy of the series, the Matrix storyline is continued in The Matrix Online. It was the first live-action feature film to be released in both regular and IMAX theaters at the same time. Despite having a mixed reception from critics, the film grossed $427.3 million worldwide. A fourth Matrix film began production in February 2020.

The Matrix Revolutions
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
  • Village Roadshow Pictures
  • NPV Entertainment
  • Silver Pictures
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • November 5, 2003 (2003-11-05)
Running time
129 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States[2][3]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$110–150 million[4][5]
Box office$427.3 million[5]

Plot

Neo and Bane lie unconscious in the medical bay of the ship Hammer. Inside the Matrix, Neo is trapped in a subway station named Mobil Ave (an anagram for limbo), a transition zone between the Matrix and the Machine City. He meets a "family" of programs, including a girl named Sati. The "father" tells Neo the subway is controlled by the Trainman, a program loyal to the Merovingian. When Neo tries to board a train with the family, the Trainman refuses and overpowers him.

Seraph contacts Morpheus and Trinity on behalf of the Oracle, who informs them of Neo's confinement. Seraph, Morpheus and Trinity enter Club Hel, where they confront the Merovingian and force him to release Neo. Troubled by visions of the Machine City, Neo visits the Oracle, who reveals that Smith intends to destroy both the Matrix and the real world. She states that "everything that has a beginning has an end," and that the war will conclude. After Neo leaves, a large group of Smiths assimilates Sati and Seraph. One assimilates the Oracle and gains her powers of precognition.

In the real world, the crews of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Hammer find and reactivate Niobe's ship, the Logos. They interrogate Bane, who says that he has no recollection of the earlier massacre. As the captains plan their defense of Zion, Neo requests a ship to travel to the Machine City. Motivated by her encounter with the Oracle, Niobe offers him the Logos. Neo departs, accompanied by Trinity. Bane, who has stowed away on the Logos, takes Trinity hostage. Neo realizes that Bane has been assimilated by Smith and a fight ensues. Bane burns Neo's eyes with a power cable, permanently blinding him. Neo, discovering an ability to perceive anything part of the machine source code in the real world as wreathed in golden light, sees and kills Bane. Trinity pilots them to the Machine City.

Niobe and Morpheus rush toward Zion in the Hammer to aid the human defenses. Zion's shipyard is overwhelmed by a horde of Sentinels, and the fatally wounded Captain Mifune instructs Kid to open the gate for the Hammer. When it arrives, it discharges its EMP, disabling all the Sentinels present but also Zion's remaining defenses. The humans are forced to retreat and wait for the next attack, thinking it will be their last stand.

Near the Machine City, the Logos is bombarded by thousands of missiles, causing it to crash, fatally wounding Trinity. Neo enters the Machine City and encounters "Deus Ex Machina," the machine leader. Neo warns that Smith plans to conquer both the Matrix and the real world and offers to stop Smith in exchange for peace with Zion. The machine leader agrees, and the Sentinels stop attacking Zion.

The Machines provide a connection for Neo to enter the Matrix. Inside, the Smith with the Oracle's powers steps forth, saying that he has foreseen his victory against Neo. After a protracted battle, Neo realizes there is no other way to win and allows himself to be assimilated. The machine leader sends a surge of energy into Neo's body in the real world. Because Neo is connected to the Source, the energy surge causes the Neo-Smith clone and all other Smith clones in the Matrix to be destroyed, deleting Smith once and for all. The Sentinels withdraw from Zion, Morpheus and Niobe embrace, and Neo sees a final vision of the machine city while seemingly succumbing to his injuries, as his body is carried away by the machines.

The Matrix is rebooted, and the Architect encounters the Oracle in a park. They agree that the peace will last "as long as it can" and that all humans will be offered the opportunity to leave the Matrix. When questioned about Neo's fate, the Oracle tells Sati that she thinks they will see Neo again as Sati reveals she created a beautiful sunrise over the horizon in Neo's honor. Seraph asks the Oracle if she knew this would happen. She replies that she did not know, but she believed.

Cast
  • Keanu Reeves as Neo
  • Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
  • Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
  • Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
    • Ian Bliss as Bane
  • Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe
  • Mary Alice as The Oracle
  • Harold Perrineau as Link
  • Monica Bellucci as Persephone
  • Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock
  • Lambert Wilson as Merovingian
  • Nona Gaye as Zee
  • Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann
  • Nathaniel Lees as Captain Mifune
  • Collin Chou as Seraph
  • Helmut Bakaitis as The Architect
  • Tanveer K. Atwal as Sati
  • Bruce Spence as The Trainman
  • Gina Torres as Cas
  • Clayton Watson as Kid
  • Cornel West as Councillor West
  • Bernard White as Ramachandra
  • David Roberts as Captain Roland
  • Anthony Wong as Ghost
  • Henry Blasingame as Deus Ex Machina (motion capture)
  • Kevin Michael Richardson as Deus Ex Machina (voice)
  • Tharini Mudaliar as Kamala
  • Maurice J. Morgan as a tower soldier

Actress Gloria Foster, who played the Oracle in the first and second films, died before the completion of her filming for the third.[6] She was replaced by actress Mary Alice. Her changed appearance is addressed in the film's plot.[7]

Production
Warner Bros Studios, Statues from the Matrix

Filming occurred concurrently with its predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded, and live-action sequences for the video game Enter the Matrix. This took place primarily at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. Most notably, the subway scenes were filmed at the disused tunnels of St James railway station, and the end sequence with the Oracle and the Architect was filmed in the Royal Botanic Garden.[8][9] Carrie-Anne Moss broke her leg during the shooting in Australia.[10]

Sound design

Sound editing on The Matrix trilogy was completed by Danetracks in West Hollywood, California.

Soundtrack

In contrast to its predecessors, very few "source" tracks are used in the film. Aside from Don Davis' score, again collaborating with Juno Reactor, only one external track (by Pale 3) is used. Although Davis rarely focuses on strong melodies, familiar leitmotifs from earlier in the series reappear. For example, Neo and Trinity's love theme—which briefly surfaces in the two preceding films—is finally fully expanded into "Trinity Definitely"; the theme from the Zion docks in Reloaded returns as "Men in Metal", and the energetic drumming from the Reloaded tea house fight between Neo and Seraph opens "Tetsujin", as Seraph, Trinity and Morpheus fight off Club Hel's three doormen. The climactic battle theme, named "Neodämmerung" (in reference to Wagner's Götterdämmerung), features a choir singing extracts (shlokas) from the Pavamana Mantra, introduced in the Upanishads. The chorus can be roughly translated from Sanskrit as follows: "lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light, lead us from death to immortality, peace peace peace". The extracts were brought to Davis by the Wachowskis when he informed them that it would be wasteful for such a large choir to be singing simple "ooh"s and "aah"s (according to the DVD commentary, Davis felt that the dramatic impact of the piece would be lost if the choir was to sing 'This is the one, see what he can do' in plain English). These extracts return in the film's denouement, and in Navras, the track that plays over the closing credits (which may be considered a loose remix of "Neodämmerung").

Reception

Box office

The film's budget was estimated between US$110 million[4] and $150 million.[5] It grossed over $139 million in North America and approximately $427 million worldwide,[5] roughly half of The Matrix Reloaded box-office total. In its first five days of release, it grossed $83.8 million,[11] but dropped 66% during the second week.[11]

Home media

The Matrix Revolutions was released on DVD and VHS on April 6, 2004. The film grossed $116 million in DVD sales. Additionally, it was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on October 30, 2018.[12]

Critical reception

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 35% based on 214 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A disappointing conclusion to the Matrix trilogy as characters and ideas take a back seat to the special effects."[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B.[15]

Some critics criticized the film for being anticlimactic.[16][17] Additionally, some critics regard the film as less philosophically ambiguous than its predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded.[18][19] Critics had difficulty finding closure pertaining to events from The Matrix Reloaded, and were generally dissatisfied.[20][21]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, despite offering criticisms of his own, on the grounds that it at least provided closure to the story well enough so that fans following the series would prefer seeing it as to not.[22]

Sequel

While making the Matrix films, the Wachowskis told their close collaborators that at that time they had no intention of making another installment after The Matrix Revolutions.[23][24][25][26] Instead, they gave their blessing to the notion of gamers "inherit[ing] the storyline", and The Matrix Online video game was billed as the official continuation.[27] In February 2015, in interviews promoting Jupiter Ascending, Lilly Wachowski called a return to The Matrix a "particularly repelling idea in these times", noting the studios' tendency to green-light sequels, reboots, and adaptations over original material,[28] while Lana Wachowski, addressing rumors about a potential reboot, said that they had not heard anything, but she believed that the studio might be looking to replace them.[29] At various times, Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving have stated that they would be willing to reprise their roles in potential Matrix films, but only if the Wachowskis were involved.[30][31]

In March 2017, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Warner Bros. was in early stages of developing a relaunch of the franchise, with Zak Penn in talks to write a treatment, and interest in getting Michael B. Jordan attached to star. According to the article neither the Wachowskis nor Joel Silver were involved at that stage, although the studio would like to get at minimum the blessing of the Wachowskis.[32]

Warner Bros. officially announced the development on a fourth film in August 2019, with Lana Wachowski serving as director and producer on it. Lana will write the screenplay with David Mitchell and Aleksander Hemon. Grant Hill will act as producer alongside Lana. The production will be a joint-venture between Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, similar to the original films. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will reprise their roles from the previous films. Production began in February 2020 in San Francisco,[33][34] and will also take place in Studio Babelsberg and Chicago.

Notes
  1. Credited as The Wachowski Brothers.

See also
  • List of films featuring powered exoskeletons

References
  1. "The Matrix Revolutions". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  2. "The Matrix Revolutions (2003)". Lumiere. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
  3. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/452404/Matrix-Revolutions-The/
  4. "The Matrix Revolutions (2003) – Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related – AllMovie". AllMovie. Archived from the original on April 25, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  5. "The Matrix Revolutions (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
  6. McKinley, Jesse (October 5, 2001). "Gloria Foster, Stage Actress, Is Dead at 64". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  7. Hoberman, J. (November 4, 2003). "Holy Trinity". The Village Voice. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  8. Sams, Christine (May 11, 2003). "Sydney sci-fi fans rush to re-enter the Matrix". The Sun-Herald. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  9. Buchanan, Levi (February 12, 2003). "'Enter the Matrix' aims to open a new game era". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  10. Lee, Alana (November 3, 2003). "Carrie Anne Moss: The Matrix Revolutions interview". BBC. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
  11. "The Matrix Revolutions (2003) – Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  12. "The Matrix Trilogy - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review | High Def Digest". ultrahd.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  13. "The Matrix Revolutions (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  14. "The Matrix Revolutions Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. David Edelstein (July 27, 2010). "Time to pull the plug on The Matrix". Slate Magazine. Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on July 11, 2010. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  17. Clark, Mike (November 4, 2003). "– 'The Matrix Revolutions': This big finish isn't The One". Usatoday.com. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  18. Scott Foundas (November 6, 2003). "LA Weekly – Film+TV – The More the Murkier – Scott Foundas – The Essential Online Resource for Los Angeles". Laweekly.com. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  19. "Baltimore Sun: 'The Matrix Revolutions' makes it a little easier to believe". Web.archive.org. May 6, 2004. Archived from the original on May 6, 2004. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  20. 'Matrix:' Neo-nonsense
  21. Movie Review|'The Matrix Revolutions': The Game Concludes With Light and Noise, archived at Archived November 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  22. Roger Ebert (November 5, 2003). "The Matrix Revolutions Review". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  23. "Don Davis - Interview". soundtrack.net. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  24. "Love bug bites the new Matrix - smh.com.au". smh.com.au. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  25. "Next Neo Thing". ew.com. November 14, 2003. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  26. "New Matrix Games On The Way". October 28, 2003.
  27. Chadwick, Paul (April 11, 2005). "The Matrix Online". Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  28. Lang, Derrik J. "Wachowskis unfazed by negativity ahead of 'Jupiter Ascending' launch". timescolonist.com. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  29. "The Wachowskis Talk JUPITER ASCENDING, Creating the Chicago Sequence, SENSE8, and More". collider.com. February 4, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  30. "Keanu Reeves is up for The Matrix 4 (exclusive)". yahoo.com. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  31. Buckmaster, Luke (April 17, 2017). "Hugo Weaving on revisiting The Matrix: 'They would start again with different actors'". The Guardian. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  32. "'The Matrix' Reboot in the Works at Warner Bros. (Exclusive)". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  33. Kroll, Justin (August 20, 2019). "'Matrix 4' Officially a Go With Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski". Variety. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  34. Kit, Borys (August 20, 2019). "'Matrix 4' in the Works With Keanu Reeves and Lana Wachowski". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
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