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Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) played Liz Teel in the TV series "Matrix"
(1993).
When the martial arts programming menu flashes across the computer screen,
"drunken boxing" is one of the skills listed.
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 (i.e. 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.
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 TV show "The Prisoner" (1967).
When Neo is calling to get extracted from the Matrix, he says, "Mr. Wizard
get me the hell 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."
Neo hides his money in 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."
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. Also, the room with
Trinity and the cops in the beginning of the movie, is also the same room,
in the same hotel, where Neo confronts Agent Smith at the end of the
movie.
Coincidentally (or not), Matrix, Trinity, Morpheus, 303 and 101 are all makes and/or models of music
synthesizer.
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.
In the Oracle's waiting room, the television is showing Night of the Lepus
(1972).
Names of people and objects have historical significance, all related to
dreams and illusions. For example, "Morpheus" (film character) was named
for the Greek god of sleep and dreams; and "Nebuchadnezzar" (hovercraft in
film) was a biblical king who was visited by troubling dreams.
Neo is an anagram for One.
Anderson means "Son of Man," as Jesus is often called.
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.
In the Oracle's waiting room, the television
is showing white rabbits (which, at the beginning of the film, Neo was
instructed to follow) from Night Of The Lepus.
Biblical interpretations continue: 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. What earned the apostle this particular epithet was that he
allegedly wouldn't believe the resurrection of Christ until he had put his
hand into the wound in Christ's side. In the end of the movie, Neo dives
hands-first into the side of Smith, who then (violently) sort of turns
into Neo. So he put his hand into the side of himself, the Son of Man.
The song that Neo wakes up to at the start of
the film is "Dissolving Child" by Massive Attack.
The mobile phone used most of the time during
the movie is the Nokia 8110i. The
number of the phone Trinity was using at the beginning of the movie is
555-0690. Some of the fighting
programs Neo learns are listed as Savate, Jujitsu, Kempo, Drunken Boxing,
and Kung Fu. Neo sits through ten hours of training to learn the
aforementioned and more. Tank loads the programs using "Drive D".
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).
The brothers who helped the crew while they
were in the Matrix, were named Dozer and Tank. Could this be a reference
to "Fraggle Rock" (1983), in which characters called Dozers (who built
things for the Fraggles) drove small tanks?
The film begins with:
Call trans opt: received 2-19-98 13:24:18 REC:Log>
Trace program running
(312) 555 0690 
The film ends with:
Call trans opt: received 9-18-99 14:32:21 REC:Log>
WARNING: carrier anomaly
Trace program: running
System Failure Neo's
file:
The file is marked on the left "3809940TAA" then on the main section:
Database Record
Security Clearance
Factor 7
Date of last amendment or addition: 22 July 1998
The placard on the Nebuchadnezzar notes:
Mark III No. 11 NEBUCHADNEZZAR Made in the USA/Year 2069
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.'"
Official Site Secrets -
http://www.whatisthematrix.com
NEO BULLET TIME
LOBBY
SENTINEL
GEOF
MIRRORMIRROR
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
SKROCE
DARROW
WRONG NUMBER
GUNS
MORPHEUS
TRINITY
DEJA VU
SENTINELLARGE800x600
STEAK
CRASH
SITE CREDITS
AGENTBULLETTIME
CARRIE
LAURENCE
KEANU
TOKYO
OWEN
CHRYSALIS
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